Painting and gaming

Yet again it's been a while since I posted, so here is a general update. I have done a bit of painting, I have done a bit of gaming. I have had good days and bad weeks, but I'm still alive so it's mostly good. 😉

 Painting first. Just lately I have been playing Dux Bellorum as we decided to play it as a group game on our lads weekend to Wargames Foundry and Partizan. The rules give a decent game and it's allover fairly quickly, which is good for an evening or afternoons game.

So some Dark Ages troops have come out of storage and had paint liberally splashed all over them. First up we have 6 standard bearers and 16 assorted foot, all Gripping Beast figures with LBMS shield and banner transfers.

Then we have 26 assorted foot types, a mix of plastic and metal GB with LBMS shields again. A nice addition to my previous Dux Britanniarum forces.


After Partizan I painted up another 5 standard bearers and 13 more assorted foot. All told I have about 150 foot figures done now, with about the same number still to go.





I have also painted some cavalry as a change and to give some options for my force. Firstly though I rebased the 8 I had already painted so they could all be used on the sabot bases I got from Warbases. Four each of heavy and light cavalry, a nice start for my cavalry force.

Then I painted the new additions. Somehow I had 4 mixed metal figures floating about, so they were painted along with the box of plastic Dark Ages Cavalry I had picked up. 24 should be enough for any force right?

So why do I now have 8 Footsore Romano-British Heavy Cavalry waiting to be painted? Why indeed! They are lovely figures though, really pretty.



Gaming has been a bit mixed, with several games of Dux Bellorum as mentioned previously interspersed with some games of Mythic Battles:Pantheon. Apart from that there has been not much done.



Here are a couple of pictures of our multi-player test game of Dux Bellorum. Six players, three each side with a mix of Romano-British, Welsh, Saxon and Raider forces. I won! At least that's how I remember it anyway. 😀

 Finally I managed to injure myself by falling over a box in a savage shark attack! No boxes were injured in ripping the crap out of my leg, but a fair bit of skin and blood was misplaced. Stupid box.

A Partizan and Foundry post will arrive tomorrow.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly! (Please note, some profanity)

So, things move on and so here I am again.  It's been an up and down few weeks.

First up the good. 

Congo, it's a cracking game and gives a good evenings entertainment.  So far we have played 3 games, with no one force dominating and plenty of mad moments.  We have had white explorers defeating African natives, Forest tribes ambushing white explorers and Zanzibari slavers picking up all the pieces.  Highlights included monkeys throwing coconuts at British soldiers, Lions eating some Zanzibari slavers in a thicket and a mass of giant ants upsetting everyones day.  I thoroughly recommend it and plan to play it again soon. 

Then there was Llardiff, a Too Fat Lardies day held at Firestorm Games on Saturday.  A gathering of like minded folk saw several games put on to introduce new players to the games.  Sharp Practice, Chain of Command, I 'Aint Been Shot Mum and Dux Britanniarum were all put on and several purchases were made after games were played.    The venue is cracking, with about 50 tables, a bar, cafe, lounge area and shop all in one place.  On the day itself there was also a bring and buy event, where I picked up a bargain of some 15mm Cold War era Russians for a bargain £50.  12 assorted tanks, 13 BMPs and 3 BTR-80s plus some infantry made it a deal I couldn't turn down.

Now the bad. 

On Friday I received a letter from my consultant, who informed me that my operation had been refused and the only remaining option is a PEG tube through my stomach, replacing the nasal tube I have currently.  So instead of a device that has a 75% chance of curing my constant nausea and stomach pain, frequent bouts of vomiting and diarrhea, being unable to sleep for more than 3 hours and generally feeling so shit that I have also been diagnosed with chronic depression, I will now have a tube that does the same thing as the one I have already.

Well fuck you very much to the medical panel that made this decision.  Despite the fact that I am basically now a burden to my family and the state, the operation can't go ahead as my condition "Is not severe enough".  Despite the leading gastroparesis consultant in the country saying that I am a prime candidate for the operation with a very good chance of it improving my quality of life, the operation can't go ahead. So that's it now, I am stuck like this.  FML as they say and I hope the esteemed members of the panel are stricken with piles and get infested with the fleas from a thousand camels.. 

And finally the ugly.  

I have managed a bit of painting, so here they are in their "glory".

 First up are some carts for my Dux Brit games.  One of the scenarios requires 3 carts as objectives for the Saxons and I bought the carts from Warbases a long time ago.  More recently I got the loads to go in them and the animals to pull them from Colonel Bill and Warbases, plus a few civilians to lead them from the lead mountain.  Here they are, two one horse carts and a two oxen cart loaded with sacks and supplies.  I'm pretty happy with how they came out and they did the job on Saturday in Cardiff.

Also for the Dux games are these command stands.  The basic forces for each side a led by 3 nobles, a level 3 Lord and two level 2 subordinates.  To make it simple to keep track of the nobles level I decided to make them small bases of 2 or 3 figures.  If they are wounded and lose a level of command then one figure can be removed.

The Romano-British ones first, with a standard bearer and champion on the Lords base while a horn blower and a bishop make up the extras on the nobles.  The idea worked well on Saturday, so I'm sticking with it.  The standard is a Little Big Men banner and looks rather splendid.

Then the Saxons, the Lord again gets a champion and standard bearer, while the nobles get an extra warrior and a mastiff respectively. 





So, there you go.  That's the lot for now.  Its 1am and I really should go to bed.  It's been an eventful weekend.  Catch you all next time.

I went to Partizan.......

And a cracking show it was too.  The new venue might lack a bit of the soul of Kelham Hall but it is much more convenient and user friendly.  The show seemed much busier and was certainly easier to get around.  A good number of traders covering everything you could want and some excellent games made it a good day.  It was topped off for me with the chance to catch up with a lot of friends, many of whom I hadn't seen for a long time.

Nap time.  Poor old fella

We travelled up on the Saturday morning, myself, Andy, Sleepy Paul(aka Pingu) and Nathan, and visited Wargames Foundry before heading to the Premier Inn in Lincoln.  I spent more than I planned too at Foundry, but could have spent a lot more than I did.  Pingu found it a bit tiring in the back doing nothing so he had a nap.  After visiting Foundry and getting to the hotel we went to the adjacent Mill Lodge for dinner.  I would love to recommend it, but can't.  The "manager" had an attitude that could have curdled milk and made small children cry.  He acted like he didn't want us there.  My stew was tasty enough but the dumpling looked like it had been runover and had the texture of a stale rock cake.  Still, mine was better than Nathans, whose sirloin steak looked, and according to him tasted, more like a cheap ass rump that was 20% gristle.  The hotel itself was good though and the staff were excellent, very friendly and incredibly helpful.

After a pretty good night, I even got to sleep before 3am, we went over to have breakfast at Mill Lodge.  Expectations were not high, but we were pleasantly surprised.  The staff were pleasant and the food was good.  If you can manage a large breakfast, which I can't, then it is well worth it.  So at 9.15am we went off to Newark showground, glad to see the last of Licoln for the day...........Which was a bit premature as it turned out.

The show had some cracking games and, like the idiot I am, I didn't take photos of any of them.  So I have nicked a couple off of various other sites, so thanks to all those who did take some pictures.

A very nice Winter of '79 game was put on, with nice atmospheric bits added.  My favourite was Del-Boy and Rodney of "Trotters Independant Traders" leaving the scene at low speed as the forces of law and order moved in to quiet the rioters.

Steve Jones AWI game was a beauty, as usual from him.  He's a cracking painter and does a decent bit of scenery too.  I hates him I does. ;)




There were other very nice games, but those two caught my eye, so that's why they have appeared here.


 I bought a few bits and pieces, some wagons and an armoured car from Warbases and a couple of scenic bases from somebody else.  Not a vast amount, but the day was more about seeing friends.  It was good to catch up with Ade "Big Nose" Deacon, Gary "Manc Gaz" Amos, Lau and Tricks the Partizan organisers, Big Rich Clarke and various others.  I was surprised to bump into Steve from the Devon Wargames Group there, seems he arranged a Family visit" to cover his trip to the show.  As the day moved along I was suddenly confronted by an agitated Pingu who had lost his wedding ring somewhere.  Despite the condolence and support he received from us, with comments along the lines of "You twat" and "Where did you last have it you numpty?", he couldn't recall when he had last noticed it.  So, a quick call to Premier Inn and a very helpful receptionist told him that they had found it..........back in Lincoln...........which was 15 miles the wrong way.  Then he realised that he had also lost his new, bright green trainers.  No, the hotel didn't have them which worried Pingu.  To make him feel better he rang his long suffering wife to tell her about losing his trainers.  She was quite surprised that he had lost them, as they were in the hallway at home! Anyway, we left Partizan and heading back to Lincoln, full of thankful comments about how lucky Pingu was to have found his ring.  Comments like "I have this feeling of deja vu" and "Oh look, there's that shop again".  Finally we got to the Premier Inn and Pingu went in to collect the one ring. 

My Precious

As GollumPingu left the reception area I took this picture of him.

Nap time again

So, off we heading to sunny Devon.  Along the way several comments were made about the trip, such as "We would have been at Bristol by now, if we hadn't had to go back to Lincoln".  The excitement proved to be too much for Pingu, so he had another nap.  We stopped at the services for a "comfort" break and bumped into Steve Childs, an old friend from Teignmouth.  It's amazing who you bump into when your 200 miles away from home, he lives about 6 miles away from me!



In the end we all got home safely, despite the best efforts of some of the retards on the motorway.  Thanks to the lads for a cracking weekend and thanks to everybody, organisers, crew, traders and gamers, who made Partizan such a success.  We will be back again and I recommend it to anyone who can make the trip.

It has done the trick of raising my spirits, so it was worth it all.  Take care folks, catch you next time

Not much to see here

Hello again, it's time for another rambling post of no interest whatsoever.

I have done very little gaming over the last month, but still managed to do a little here and there. Chain of Command is still the favourite game here, so this post by Trailape is worth checking out if you are undecided about which way to go for a WW2 small action set of rules.  I have tried out both sets of rules and my preference is also for CoC.  That's not saying Bolt Action is bad, it's just a bit too much like Warhamster 40k for me.  Trailapes post also brought about a special offer from TFL, so if you are considering getting CoC, now is the time.

Purchases of lead and/or plastic have been limited by a serious lack of funds, being sick for so long has really hit the finances and belts have been tightened.  So I have bought nothing lately, but the lead mountain has grown somewhat significantly due the the amazing generosity of Gaz Amos (top bloke even if he still has a pornstar moustache).  After my previous post about Fighting Season he was kind enough to offer me some Mongrel Miniatures Arab and Syrian figures.  Assuming it was a pack or two I gratefully accepted.  A box duly arrived from deepest darkest Salford, but it was much bigger and heavier than I expected.  Opening it was like Christmas as a kid, I knew what I was expecting but what else was there.  Arab and Syrians but more of them than I expected, plus some Israelis and Congo figures from Mongrel, some US infantry from TAG and some Cold War Russians and Yanks to top it all off.  Thanks Gaz, you have restored my mojo a bit and paint has been slapped on lead for a change.

Painting has been a mixed bag, with several long delayed projects finally getting some work done to them.

 I ordered a 15mm factory from Sarissa Precision as all my buildings are residential so I wanted a change.  It came in a big bag and was a pleasure to build.  Unlike 4Ground it comes unpainted, so is a blank canvas and open to a wide range of paint schemes.  I sort of followed one that I saw on their website, except I added windows of plastic and printed off some roof tiles.  Paint was mostly from B&Q in tester pots with a few craft paints added.  All in all I think it came out pretty well and I am looking forward to seeing it dominate the table as it is 180mm square.

 The roof is removable and there is a walkway that the outside stairs lead up too.  I have some fencing arrived now so will be making up a yard for it, just to tie in with the other buildings I have based.

Following on from my German platoon for the Barbarossa period, I picked up a box of Battlefronts new plastic Russian infantry when we visited Battlegroup Souths show at Bovington tank museum.  They are nice figures and the box includes Maxim mg teams too, so plenty of firepower to support the Russian horde.  I did get the metal command pack as well to provide the 50mm mortar and flag bearer.   A quick check of the list for the Russian force in 1941 and the platoon was painted up.  CO(with a flag), 2IC, Commissar, 50mm mortar team and four squads of 13 men makes it a large platoon, but quite tactically rigid as the squads are not broken up into teams.  They will make a change from the Germans though, more a blunt instrument than a scalpel I think 

 I also picked up some support for the Russians, with some Zvezda T-26s and Plastic Soldier Company artillery.  The Maxims are from the infantry box, so the platoon is almost 100% plastic (7 metal figures out of 98).  The five T-26s are more than I will ever need for CoC, but a nice force for Battlegroup games.  Two Maxims, two 45mm AT guns and two 76mm infantry guns also gives a reasonable spread of support too.

Finally I purchased a Warbases Mark I tank (just because I could) a while ago and have finally got it put together and painted up.  It will be used for my VBCW force, based on the fact that many were sent out to towns as displays after WW1 and Newton Abbot was a major train depot so had plenty of engineer types to get it up and running again.  I have tarted it up a bit from the original.  I didn't really like the square gun barrels or exhaust pipe so I replaced them with some brass tube and I also added some Lewis guns to the sponsons and in the bow, courtesy of Colonel Bills supply store.  I am happy with how it has turned out and it is a much cheaper alternative than the others out there while still making a decent replica of the original. 

A final note about hospitals and such.  I am still p****d off with UCLH for the way they cancelled at the last minute, leaving us over £100 out of pocket in hotel costs.  I have now been referred to Mid Essex hospital in Chelmsford(getting further away every time) and should be there early next month to see a top man in the gastroparesis field apparently.  Fingers crossed and all that.

Catch you all later, I am off to do something less constructive for a bit.

Project Cold-War Chain of Command

Hello again.  Yes, I'm back after surviving the madness that was Salute.  No pictures, as so many others already do it and I can't be bothered with doing it as well.  I bought very little, a box of Victrix new plastic peltasts, half for my eldest son and half for me, a nice mdf gate from Warbases, a copy of Charlie Don't Surf from the Lardies and, erm, that was it.  I know, a poor effort all round, but I was there more to deliver some of Gus' collection than to get things for myself.  That's not to say that I couldn't have spent a lot, there was so much there that I could have quite happily bought, but I restrained myself.  I doesn't help that I had dropped a big chunk of change on Battlefront Anzacs in their 40% off sale(more on that in a bit).

Anyway, back to the point of this post.  Chain of Command, I really like these rules and they have quickly become one of the first games of choice amongst my local gaming buddies.  I got to thinking about the old, loved but underused figures I have here, sat idling their time away in drawers and boxes.  Now I can be quite mercenary with figures, usually thinking that if I haven't played with them for more than a couple of years I may as well get rid of them.  So why do I still have my Cold War 28mm collection then?  Because I love 'em, that's why.  Some lovely figures from Mongrel Miniatures and Mo-Fo Miniatures, supported by some awesome vehicles from Sloppy Jalopy and the now sadly defunct Chieftain Models. 


I have enough to do a platoon of British in either Spartans(RAF Regiment) or Fv432s(Infantry), supported by Scorpions, a Sultan, a Samson, a Ferret and a Chieftain!  Almost all are painted, except the Fv432's, whose dastardly tracks were just too annoying to finish off and the Ferret.

 They have a Milan, a tripod GPMG and some Carl Gustavs as well










Against them I have enough Russians for a full platoon, with RPGs and the like.  They also have vehicular support in the shape of 3 BMPs and 2 recently acquired "toy" T-55s, from the James Bond Collection.

I also have a small force of US Marines, but not enough for a platoon.

So, my plan is to do an easy variation of Chain of Command to allow me to use this collection.  Most of the rules don't need changing as the small unit tactics don't seem to have changed all that much.  Weapons seem to fire a bit faster and there are better communications now, but the squad/platoon still appears to work in much the same way.


Now, I must admit that I have been a bit cheeky here and stolen, ahem, borrowed some of the following information from another blog, Sapper Joes Wargaming & Toys.  He has worked out most of the weapon clarifications already and his thoughts match mine pretty well, so thank you Sapper Joe.

L1A1 self loading rifles / Semi automatic rifle

L42A1 or SVD rifle / Sniper rifle

AK47 and M16A1 rifle / Assault rifle

L2A3 Sterling / SMG

L4 Bren or RPK/D  / Magazine feed LMG

L7A2 or PKM GPMG / Belt feed LMG

L7A2 GPMG (in Sustained Fire mode) / Tripod mounted MMG

M79 grenade launder / Rifle grenade with a minimum range of 10” (30m)

M16A1 & M203 grenade launcher / Assault rifle with rifle grenade (Min. range 10”)

L9A1 51mm mortar / Light mortar

L16A1 81mm mortar / Medium mortar

I need to work out stats for vehicles, armour, gun effect etc.  Also details for AT weapons, as the infantry have RPGs, LAWs and Carl Gustav rockets.  Then there are the ATGWs, as the Britis have a Milan team and the Russians have AT-3 Saggers and AT-5 Spandrel missiles on the BMPs.

The other part of the plan is to also do a "What If" using my new 15mm Anzacs and my old AK-47 figures.  I like the Anzacs, with the Centurions and M113 Beast with the Saladin turret, so I got some and plan to do an Australian Intervention force in Africa.  Don't know why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time, so I now have 3 platoons of Anzac infantry, 6 M113s with MG turrets, 2 M113 Beasts and 2 Centurions.

More to follow as hopefully I may get a small playtest game in tomorrow with Nathan.....hopefully.  Keep rolling those dice.

Dux (again), painting and random thoughts

Monday night was Dux night as the peaceful land of the Britons was, yet again, raided by the Saxons.  Zob brought his Saxons to my land and thought to raid a village.  My Britons arrived and fought him off with very few losses on my part.  The game was rife with bad dice rolls, in combat for Zob and movement for me.  This meant that he initiated all the fights as I could never catch him, but I won all the fights as he couldn't hit.  The end result saw the Saxons morale break and they all legged it, leaving behind 16 dead Saxons and all the loot.  The Britons lost a total of 4 men and I won by 12!  The table only goes up to a win by 7, so I have gained a unit of javelinmen and am ready to fight again next month.  Zob will take 2 months to get his men back, so he isn't raiding next month.  Colin and Nathan had free raids as Andy and Panjo were mustering troops after heavy losses in their first battles. So far the campaign is going well, with Colin raiding Andy and Nathan raiding me next month.

Painting is still going on, with Napoleonic Prussians and AWI Indians finished, but more Napoleonics going on tomorrow.  Not bad though, over 100 15mm figures done so far, along with some 25mm figures and buildings.  I have just placed another order with those nice people at Warbases, this time for some round trays with 1p holes in them, some 30x30mm bases for Maurice and some 25mm Palisades from their AWI range.  These will be used as the wall around my Dark Ages village in case the Saxons come raiding.

Wargames show season is nearly here again, with Crusade in Penarth opening its doors on the 26th.  Four of the Monday night gang are going up, with pennies in their hot little hands to pass to assorted traders.  I will be after some 15mm fences, possibly some more AWI figures and maybe a cart or two for Dux.  Apart from that, anything shiny and new will probably end up in my bag.  I am hoping to see a few friends at the show, so if you are going say hello.  I'm the ugly, over-weight, bearded bloke.  Yes, that doesn't narrow it down much does it.  :)

Well, back to the grind.  Keep rolling those dice folks.

Warbases Buildings for Dux

 Despite feeling like s***e all week I have managed to do a bit of wargame related stuff.  I am in the middle of painting some 15mm US Engineers for a chap up country and I have painted and roofed 4 Warbases buildings for the Dark Ages games we are playing.  The buildings are cheap, but they do come up nice with a little bit of work.  I do mean a little bit too, these were painted with Crown matchpot paints (yes, the stuff you paint your walls with at home) and roofed with bits of a towel (courtesy of Mrs Welsh Wargamer). 

Tall Hut

 The large tall hut is fairly big (4.5"long x3,5"wide x3"high) with a single door. 

Lower Hut

The lower hut is a bit narrower and lower but still pretty big (4.5"x2.5"x2.5") and also has a single door.

Small Hut

The small hut has nice wood trim which the others lack and is smaller (3.75"x2.25"x2.5").  The roof overhang is much larger on this one though, increasing the width to 3.5".  Again, it also has a single door.




Last but not least is a watchtower.  A small, 2 storey tower this comes with 2 doors and a raised walkway all around the tower, giving a better view of the dastardly Saxon raiders.  A lovely model, the only quibble I had was the lack of detail on the walkway.  Some sort of planking pattern would have been nice.  Luckily my mate Panjo has a Wood Burning Iron set, which is basically a soldering iron with various ends to burn wood and leather.  A quick practice on a scrap bit of wood and voila, some planking.  Its not brilliant, but it does the job.

All the roofs come off, so you can put figures inside while gaming.

The roofing is made out of towel, cut from an old hand towel.  Each roof is made up of 3 pieces, 2 sides and a central section.  The sides were cut larger than the roof their covered, then soaked in a watered down pva and black paint mix.  Again, cheap emulsion from B&Q was used.  Ring it out as much as you can and then place it on the roof.  I coated the roof in pva first to ensure the fit.  Do both sides so the top is level with the roof, but the sides and bottom overhang.  I squashed and squidged it about with my fingers, but I have read of people combing it.  One thing is to ensure the "grain" of the towel is going down the slope.  I also curved it round under the edge of the roof a bit.  Do the same with the center strip, which covers up the top edges nicely.  Again, I squashed it down so it blended in with the sides. Then leave it for at least 12 hours, preferably 24.

After it has dried, trim with scissors.  I leave a little bit over the edge of the roof, where it curls around and covers the mdf edge.  Then dry brush it with various shades of brown until you are happy with it.  I also gave it a bit of brown ink in patches coming down from the center ridge. 

So there you are.  4 buildings which cost £18 to buy and I spent about £4 on paint.  The towel and pva I had already.  I like them and they will see the heavy tread of Saxon raiders soon.

I am off now as I feel like crap again today.  Keep smiling folks, its not all bad.  Keep rolling those dice.

End of a year and time to start a new one

It's nearly time to say goodbye to 2012 ans I, for one, won't miss it.  Many more lows than highs and here's hoping that 2013 is better.  2012 was marred by illnesses, accidents and problems, so 2013 needs to improve on that, which shouldn't be difficult.  One high is the rapidly approaching birth of another granddaughter, due on January 8th, so that will be a good start.

Wargames wise, 2012 wasn't all bad.  I found 2 sets of rules that I really like in Maurice and Dux Britannarium.  I bought figures for both and my first purchase of 2013 will be an order for the rest of my AWI British from Peter Pig.  I also played more than a few fun games with lots of good people.  Periods played and rulesets used were too varied to list here, but I enjoyed most of them, which was nice.

Commie tanks on the hill with their infantry in the village

Tanks and APCs skirt a religious stronghold

 The last meet of the Monday night group was an almost all day game of AK-47.  Almost all day is because one member had to leave at 4.30 to get ready to go out at 7!  I take 15-30 minutes to get ready to go out, leaving the 1+ hour time frame to my wife/daughter, but each to his own.  The game itself was a laugh, as AK47 games usually are.  You cannot expect anything to go as hoped and levy troops are usually more durable than they have any right to be.  This game was no exception, with Zob's levy holding until the last turn and my professional tanks blowing up very quickly.  Andy's dictatorship and my colonial settlers lost a tight game to Colin's communists and Zob's religious loons. 

Oops, burning professional tanks is never a good plan

The attack on the village, which went on and on and on

High points were my first shot of the game (double 6), while after that my aim was off.  Andy's was even worse, with one of his units rolling double 1 every turn, which hindered his shooting for the whole game.  After the game finished Colin and Andy left and were replaced by Nathan, who brought along a new boardgame called Pandemic.  A quick game, it does make you work as a team and try to save the world.  We lost, twice, but were really close to winning the second time and the three of us enjoyed it, so that's a good thing.

I am now in the process of painting and roofing the Warbases buildings I got for Christmas from my wife.  After that I have to paint some WW2 figures for a customer, then some 15mm Napoleonics (part of a massive load I have to paint) and then I may, finally, get to paint some of my AWI figures.  That's the plan anyway.  

Well, its time to go and eat some tea so I can feel sick again later.  Last night was really bad, so bad that I ended up at the doctors again today.  Ah well, **** happens.  I hope you all have a good New Year and may the god of wargaming allow your dice to be favourable.  Take care and keep rolling those 6's.

Dux Britannarium and presents

The Monday group have started a new Dux Britannarium campaign.  These rules by the Too Fat Lardies have caught on with all of us and there are plenty of figures being painted up.  With 6 members now, since Gus legged it to live in the sun, we have an even 3 on 3 split.  Colin, Nathan and Zob have picked the smelly, uncouth Saxons while myself, Panjo and Andy control the well mannered, polite and literate Romano-British.

The first battles saw Colin raiding Panjo's village, Zob attempting to steal Andy's wagons and Nathan trying to kidnap one of my leaders.  Colin slaughtered Panjo, winning by 9 points.  He got all his troops back and gained a unit of skirmishers.  Panjo will take 3 months to regain his men, leaving him with few defenders against any further attacks.  Andy scrapped a win by 1 point against Zob, but lost too many men doing it.  He gained a bit of money, but will take 3 months to refill his ranks, while Zob gained nothing but gets his men back in 2 months.  I managed a 1 point win against Nathan, mostly by rolling four 6's in one fight against his elite troops, who then routed.  I should have pursued him off table, but had lost 11 men, one more would have cost me victory!  As it is I gained a bit of cash and will get my men back in 2 months, as does Nathan.  Stupidly, I forgot to take any pictures, but will attempt to show what happened using Battle Chronicler later on.

For Christmas this year I will mostly be getting stuff I have ordered myself.  My family have finally accepted that I like playing with toy soldiers, so got me to order what I wanted and then wrapped it up so I couldn't have it already.  My Mum has got me a load of Peter Pig AWI figures.  I will now be able to finish off the rebellious Americans, plus have the initial units for the British force.  My darling wife has got me several Dark Ages buildings from Warbases.  I have a watch tower and 4 assorted huts waiting my attention so will soon have plenty of objectives for those damned Saxon raiders.  My daughter, who always used to get me a bottle of good scotch, is giving me money to get what I want as I can't drink anymore.  It's going to be a pretty good year in terms of presents for wargaming.  Better than socks anyway.  :)

Anyway, need to finish some bits off.  Catch you later.

Warbases buildings

Warbases modular buildings were a Christmas present from my sister and her husband. Having seen them on Olicanalads blog, I thought I would ask for them as they looked so good. They are excellent, both as value for money and how they look when finished. I received a total of 8 buildings, 2 of each of the types that Warbases make. They are laser-cut mdf, with interlocking walls and some have brickwork etched into them, so it looks like the plaster has crumbled away. They all come with a selection of doors, windows and shutters, so the variety is endless. A bit of filling along the edges, I used decorators caulk, to cover the seams and they were ready for painting. I painted them with a cheap tube acrylic from a local branch of the Range, stippled on with a fairly stiff brush.

The first one I did became a blacksmith type building, with 1 large and 1 small door, plus a small window at each end and an added chimney made from foamcore. The roof is a Wills pantile sheet, which is cunningly exactly the right size!

Then I got a bit more creative and made a small compound. Three buildings put together made a nice house, with another of the small buildings as a shed. All on a plywood base, with walls of foamcore. All told this setup has cost £10 for the buildings, £2 for the plywood and £3 for the roofs. The paint and grass I had already, so all in all its not bad for £15. Technically its a bit less than that as I used 2.5 sheets of pantiles from a pack of 4 sheets. The door into the courtyard is 2 double doors from the buildings back to back. The only thing I am thinking of doing is capping the walls with some form of stone. The buildings are loose, so can be removed to be used elsewhere or to show occupiers.

Well, there they are anyway. Cheap, easy to make and simple to paint up. I will get some balsa wood as I like the additional bits Olincanalad put on his, but that will be another day.