Zulus! Farsands of 'em.........

Well, 18 to be exact.  Nathan asked me to paint up some for him so here they are.  My first "native" figures and they were actually more fun to paint than I expected.  They will be off to him for basing soon, so they will match in with all the others he has already. There are 8 experienced warriors, with headdresses and leopard skin tabards.  Then 4 younger warriors with not much decoration.  They are supported by 5 foot and 1 mounted figures with rifles or muskets.  

The only other things I have got painted have been 10 Gripping Beast horse archers, but they were put to use before I could photograph them and are still on the table at Zobs.


The Devon Wargames meet was a few weeks ago now, but here are some random, blurry photos from it.

First up is Steve's game of Saga, put on at the last minute to cater for the large number of people.  Over 20 players were there, including several new faces.  The 2 on the right are my sons, its nice to see them getting on!  They played several games, not sure who won but they all seemed to enjoy it.

Steve also put on this game, with one of the the other Steve's.  Steve's Romans were fighting Steve's Germans............using Hail Caesar.  The Romans scrapped a marginal victory, despite taking heavy losses.  The Germans were hindered by the inability of the left flank force to move.  It took them forever to get in on the flank of the Romans and, by the time they did, the center tribes had been slapped about and were falling back.  Oh well, we enjoyed it.  I am not sold on Hail Caesar, I still prefer Crusader Ancients rules, but would play these again.  I still have to try War & Conquest at some point as well.  Thanks to Roman Steve for running it and German/SAGA Steve for providing his troops to be butchered.

The third game was Nathan's Colonial game.  Anglo-Egyptians advancing in the face of hostile native Sudanese and Fuzzies.  From the look of things it was a black day for the Empire, with squares breaking and units being butchered all over the place. 

In other news, our Salute tickets have arrived so we are definitely going now.   I have several tons of painted Napoleonics to deliver, plus a few things to pick up for myself.  I also folded under the pressure and ordered some of the Battlefront Vietnam stuff while they have a sale on.  I have liked their ANZAC figures for a while, so have a platoon of them, plus some M113s and conversion bits to make the fire support version with the Saladin turret.  The plan is to do a what-if setup based on ANZAC support going to Africa, utilising the under used AK-47 figures I have in drawers here.  I am still toying with the idea of getting a few more bits, like Centurions and maybe some more M113s.

Anyway, that's it.  I am off now to contemplate painting some British Colonial infantry types.  Keep rolling those dice.

March on.....

This year is flying by, it's hard to believe that it's already March.  February has gone, thankfully, so hopefully March will be better.  I didn't get much painted as I have felt pretty crap for most of the month.  The doc has changed some of my meds and the period between finishing one lot and starting the new ones has been less than pleasant.  I have not slept well since this all started, but now I seem to have insomnia to add to it all.  Ah well, life goes on as they say.  Keep smiling and don't let the buggers get you down.

I have painted a few things, some ACW Union infantry and some Crusader Miniatures Republican Romans.  I also rebased my old ACW Union figures to match the new Union troops.

Peter Pig ACW Union Infantry and Artillery

Rebased Peter Pig ACW Yankees

Crusader Miniatures Hastati

Crusader Miniatures Velites

 Gaming has suffered a bit, but I have managed to get along on Monday nights.  It does mean Tuesday and Wednesday are bad days, but it's worth it to get some gaming in.  We have played a nice Sudan game for the last couple of weeks, set up by Nathan and using the Too Fat Lardies "They Don't Like It Up 'Em" rules.  Despite the best efforts of the righteous Sudanese tribes, the Imperialist dogs won the day.  Their losses were heavy though, with Colonel P.F Bunny getting a spear through his chest as he stood with the last few Guards.  A massed charge broke the Egyptian square and the Sudanese carried off the Egyptian cannons.  All in all it was a pretty good game and was a precursor to the game Nathan put on at the Devon Wargames meet last Saturday, more of which in my next post.

Tonight I shall mostly be playing Chain of Command against Colin while the other reprobates go upstairs and play Zombicide.  I am off now to try and find my painting Mojo again, it seems to have left with my ability to sleep for anything over 4 hours.  Keep rolling those dice.

Devon Wargames February meeting

 Saturday was the February meeting of the Devon Wargames Group, with Chas putting on a Crusader game and JJ setting up a AWI game.  I joined Chas' game, which was using Deus Vult, and became a vassal lord to King Stumpy the Last. My command was allocated to a flank march on the left, so I didn't come on until turn 2, but that gave me a chance to see how the rules work.

things look interesting between Steve M and Chas.

The game involved 8 players, 4 per side, with Crusaders facing off against Turks. Each player had 4 or 5 units, usually a mix of infantry and cavalry.  Nathan commanded the Crusaders, with Steve M, Vince and me as his vassals. Andy lead the Turkish horde with Chas, Steve H and Michael.  The Turks reinforced their left, which left Chas' command outflanked by my flank march.  Thinks went badly for the Turks from then on, despite their best efforts and some good attacks.  It did help that both Chas and Andy managed to roll double 1's on morale rolls and rout their troops. 

Turks on the right, with Crusaders on their far flank.

My gallant command, appearing on the left flank

Turkish infantry types, lots of arrows but not real fighting men

The left flank sweeps forward

Knights gather for a charge!

Close up of one of the Crusader units, Turkopole lancers possibly?

Thanks to Chas and the rest for a good days gaming.  Deus Valt is different to other sets out there and I enjoyed the game.  It makes a change to only fight in your turn, so it is possible to be charged and butchered without getting to hit back.  This makes positioning and timing of charges crucial, more so than other rulesets do.  The only thing I didn't like was being able to fire into a melee if you could hit the unengaged flank or rear of the enemy unit, but that's just a little bug and didn't change my general enjoyment of the game and rules.  I AM NOT GETTING ANY CRUSADERS THOUGH!!!!

Well, maybe not anyway. 

The other game was a 15mm AWI game by JJ, so please check out his blog to get a decent view of the game and scenario.  As usual, his games always look great and play well.  You can go right off some people you know. 

A motley crew for sure.

The future of wargames?  Nobody anywhere near the table.

British and Germans upsetting the rebellious colonials

Take care and keep rolling those dice.

In other news........

Today is the calm before the storm apparently.  It's lovely outside, sun shining and a gentle breeze.  The forecast is less pleasant, with 80mph winds and more rain forecast for tonight. Oh well, I'll have to stay in and do something wargames related. Oh the hardship!  ;-)

I have been gaming a bit more this year, despite feeling pretty rough occasionally.  Monday night has been largely boardgaming lately.  we played another round of Zob's gangster game, with me running the games creator a close 2nd at the end.  The week after we played Firefly, bought by Nathan at Crusade in Welsh Wales.  I really like the game and am looking forward to playing it again, it really catches the flavour of the series and I can't wait to be misbehaving again.

Last week I put on a game of Longstreet fro Panjo and Andy.  As their first game they each had identical forces, 3 units of infantry, one of cavalry and a battery of 3 guns.  Andy, commanding the Union force, chose to attack and went at it hell for leather.  If he could charge, he did charge with everything that could charge.

Union infantry advances

Reb cavalry on the flank

Reb centre collapses, but the flanks are secure.

The Union force lost the fight but, due to his aggressive leadership, Andy came out of it covered in glory and gained lots more troops to continue the fight.  Panjo's Rebs won the fight, but he did so by being all defensive.  He managed to gain a rank, but his reinforcements were far fewer in number than Andys. Andy now has 5 units of foot, 1 small cavalry unit and 3 batteries of artillery (33 foot, 4 cavalry and 7 guns).  Panjo has 3 units of foot, 2 of cavalry and 2 batteries (21 foot, 13 cavalry and 6 guns).  Should make for an interesting game on Monday night.

The other game I played was Chain of Command at PAW 2014.  This was played for Gav of Baker Company to show off his new Winter War range of figures and vehicles.  He provided the terrain and troops, Nathan and I just had to roll dice and have fun. Here are some pictures of the troops and tanks.

A platoon of Finns, supported by an MG and a sniper

A platoon and a half of Russians, with 4 assorted T-26s as support

The game was played twice, first time with green Russians(Nathan) vs veteran Finns(Me).  It did not go well for the Russians.  They lacked sufficient command dice to make use of their support and were whittled down by the accurate fire of the Finns.

Russians advance and get shot to pieces

For game 2 we swapped sides and upgraded the Russians to regular.  A more concentrated advance was the plan, staying far away from the HMG bunker on the left flank.  The massed ranks of Russians allowed them to get into hand-to-hand were, despite the Finns superior ability the weight of numbers told and the Finnish sections were wiped out.  The extra command dice also allowed the flamethrower tank to get within 12" and start fricasseeing some of the other Finns.  When we called it a day, the Finns were down to 1 force morale point, but the Russians were nearly out of men. 

Massed charge on the right flank. URAAAAAAA!!!!

Hand to hand was decisive but costly for both sides.

Nathan also played on the Sunday with Panjo, there are a couple of nice reports on his blog.

All in all it was a good day out and, despite suffering on the Sunday, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  So much so that I am considering getting some early Russians and Finns in 15mm.  I also got a couple of bargains at the show.  Another copy of X-Wing for the princely sum of £10, giving me 7 TIE fighters and 4 X-Wings now.  Then, as the day came to a finish I picked up Officers and Soldiers of the French Imperial Guards Books 1 and 2 by Histoire & Collections.  Cracking little uniform books and only £3 each. 

So, there it is.  All in all not a bad few games.  Tomorrow is the Devon Wargames meeting again, so expect more pictures on Monday or Tuesday.  Have fun and keep rolling those dice.

February is here, so is the rain!

Hello again.  It's been a while since I last posted and I can only apologise.  This post is mainly about the feeble amount of painting that I have done in the last 3 weeks. My painting has been seriously affected by the size of Gus' wargames collection.  He had downsized prior to his planned move to Cyprus, but still had a large and varied collection.  He also liked doing multiple periods in multiple scales.  Napoleonics in 6mm, 15mm and 25mm for example.  I am gradually selling it off for his widow though, while I am at it I would like to thank all those who have bought some of it.  It's much appreciated folks.

Anyway, back to painting.  I didn't get much done.  First up were another 8 zombies from the never ending Zombicide horde.  A nice mix this time, including an abomination, a fatty, a couple of runners and 4 walkers.  Only a few more hundred to go!  The orange ones are berserkers, which can't be shot as they are armour plated. 

I have also managed to get a bit more 15mm WW2 done for Chain of Command.  Some early war German vehicles this time, to go with the platoon that I have yet to paint.  Some nice, cheap and cheerful Zvezda models provide the armour.  The Stug appears a little big, but it will do.  The other two, a Pz38t and a PzII are cracking models and all mine for less than £3 each.  They are backed up by a pair of Battlefront Kfz15 cars, transport for the infantry that is still in a box.

Just to make a change, I rebased some of my old, original Peter Pig ACW figures.  These were the first figures I ever bought at a wargames show, way back when Peter Pig first released their ACW range and I went to the Portsmouth show for the first time.  Still lovely figures, but my painting has certainly changed since then. 

A new unit has also joined the ACW, again from Peter Pig but their current new range this time.  Much brighter painting and a nice addition to the force.  I now have the bulk of a starting Union force for Longstreet, I just need to get some cavalry done to complete it.  Then its on to the Confederates.

Well, that's it for my painting.  I told you it was a slow month.  This month I aim to do better.  I am just waiting for the bloody rain to stop so I can undercoat some figures.  Its surprisingly warm for February, but its a lot wetter than usual, as can be seen from the floods all over the south-west.  :-(

More painting, more gaming...........

Well its been another week and things are ticking along fairly well.  I have done a fair bit of painting and a bit of gaming too.  Painting has been a varied mix, with a couple of units of 15mm Napoleonic British getting done, as well as a 1944 British platoon with a pair of Cromwells as support, a T-35 and a pair of Katyushas.

Light Battalion

Not light Battalion

The two British battalions are for "Cornish" Keith, part of his ongoing plan to have every British unit at Waterloo apparently.

Peter Pig British Platoon

FoW Cromwells

The WW2 British are joining the ever expanding line of CoC platoons that I have.  I did plan to do the French 1940 platoon, but these figures were inherited from Gus and came already undercoated in black and stuck to pennies, so I thought I should do them first.  The two Cromwells have been in a "glued together but unpainted" state for over a year.  I felt a bit guilty as the other two were done long long ago.

Zvezda Katyushas and Peter Pig crew

Zvezda T-35 (because I could)

Why I have bought and painted the T-35 and Katyushas is beyond me, other than I wanted too.  I have no Russians and I had no plans to get any either, as Nathan has hundreds of them already.  However, a single platoon only costs about £30 including support, so it may well be that you see some Eastern front types appearing on the painting line soon.  The Katyushas will probably end up on ebay, they don't really fit into a CoC game.  I have modeled them as one loading with Peter Pig loading figures and the other firing, making use of some pipe cleaners that I have here.  It looks quite good with a ball of cotton wool behind it.

Gaming has been mostly Chain of Command.  I had a visit from an old friend who played a game against my son Michael last week.  He isn't really into WW2, being more of a horse and musket man but he had a good game and seemed to enjoy it.  I then put on a game at the Devon Wargames meet, with Michael (again) and Everett ganging up on, and managing to defeat, Andy.  Again, they all seemed to enjoy it.  Last Monday was gangster night, playing a homegrown game put together by Zob.  Don Taffleoni was doing alright when we finished, but the "Pink Fluffy" Don (aka Andy Noel) won.  Seems to work pretty well and most of us had a good time.

Off now to start painting something else.  Maybe some 25mm zombies, maybe some 15mm WW2 French, probably some more Napoleonic British.  Have fun and keep rolling those dice.

Quick update after late night painting.

Tomorrow is the January meet of the Devon Wargames Group in Exeter.  I am going, no matter how sick I feel, in fact Nathan and I are going to introduce several of the members to Chain of Command.  I am putting on a later war game of US infantry against Germans and had to paint up some shock bases (dead man with square for small dice) for the Americans.  So here they are, nothing fancy but they do the job.

Then, in a moment of late night madness, I suddenly decided to make some "Jump Off" point markers for the Germans.  No idea why as I don't have any for the Americans either, but the Germans have now become the proud owners of 3 little dioramas which will see their first use tomorrow.

Lost Again!

This one I am calling "Lost again", as a German squad in a Krupp Kfz.70 "Protze" truck wait while the officer tries to figure out where they are on his map.  The vehicle, driver, officer and NCO are from Battlefront, while the seated figures and signpost are by Peter Pig.

Supply dump

The next one is a supply dump, with an officer, radioman and spotter nearby.  I think the base is Kerr and King, while the figures are Battlefront and Peter Pig again.

Achtung!

The final one I am calling "Achtung", as one of the figures is shouting while his officer looks on with disinterest.  The truck is from Battlefronts "Ernst Barkman" box, while the officer is also Battlefront.  I don't know who makes the shouting figure, it was just in my bits box and got used.

So there they are.  Something a bit different from Napoleonics or normal WW2 troops.  I now need to figure out what I am going to do for the Americans.  Any ideas?

Keep rolling those dice, I will be tomorrow!