Author: World2Dave

A Small Big Bridge

Although I made my riverbank terrain sections some time ago, and have bridges for 15mm and 28mmm, I have only just gotten around to making a bridge to get across it for 6mm games. I do have a couple of pontoon bridges, but nothing fixed and proper, as many a good scenario demands.

So, yesterday I did a quick bit of measuring and quickly started marking out and cutting some card. I was after a useful generic stone bridge that would serve for all my 6mm gaming from the mid-17th century up to the present day (should I ever dabble again with Moderns, or even WW2). I would normally have gone for something a bit narrower, but my recent SYW efforts in this scale have generated figure bases 24mm wide, so I decided the new bridge would have to be wide enough for these.

With about 90-100mm of river to span, I decided on a flat roadbed rather than anything fancy, largely due to my modelling limitations. A few arches would add some visual appeal and, although curves are never easy with a knife and card, it went OK. I could also mask the dodgy cutting with some arch stones made from thick paper.

I made the structure first and then added the road layer (a thin piece of card) after.

 

Everything was black undercoated first and the stone got a couple of shades of grey, plus some light weathering with a pale buff shade. I textured the road with sand and painted it to match my terrain.

The finished bridge:

I may return to this model later to add a removable customs house/arch at one end, which I think would be a nice touch.

Here it is being made use of, by Austria’s finest (not my usual river board but it’ll serve):

 

Now, back to those Heroics & Ros!

Getting a Few Bits Done

A shortage of posts doesn’t mean I’ve been totally idle – I just haven’t finished much recently so have held off taking pics.

I have made short work of a recent order to Fantasy Arte in Germany though. They sent me some very nice pieces I can use in my 15mm dungeon game, and being intended for 28mm they’re nicely oversized and look impressive in my setting.

So, a portal arch, a couple of skull-clad pillars, some braziers/fire bowls (I’ve only painted 2 of one type so far, and they’ll be placed on stone plinths soon) and a free sample figure base that fits in perfectly and will be used in the game as a certain type of marker.

It’s all very high quality stuff (resin except for the plastic braziers) and a pleasure to paint.

I’ve also ordered a few Reaper Bones figures which will serve as (very) big monsters in my game. More on those when I get a couple painted.

Also, taking just a few minutes from start to finish, I assembled and painted the Warbases water cart, which is a very nice model and will get used in Sharp Practice and other 28mm games. I’ve got a couple more of their MDF carts to do and will get onto them soon.

Apart from these few bits, I’ve painted most of a new force/faction for Dragon Rampant and made more progress on the 6mm SYW Austrians that had been stalled for a while. As soon as the bases are painted I’ll get all of this lot posted here too.

AMG16 – A Wargaming Weekend

Two weekends ago saw about 20 members of the A Military Gentleman forum get together at a very nice spa hotel in Warwickshire for 2 days of gaming (and the inevitable 2 nights of drinking). What a superb way to spend a weekend. Lots of friendly banter, superb games generously put on and run by some of those attending, and a great time all-round.

I’d met quite a few of the forum members at last year’s Partizan show where we put on a couple of display games. This year we went ‘private’ and Graham Cummings demonstrated his flair for organising by putting together an excellent conference-like event where the facilities and arrangements were excellent and very smooth-running. Everyone got along very well and it was a pleasure to see familiar faces as well as meet new people. There had been some serious journeys to get there on the Friday (people coming from as far apart as Plymouth and Scotland), and the horrendous weather and traffic problems didn’t help anyone much. Still, the bar was there to help people de-stress!

So, all good, but what about the games? Well, these were a treat for anyone with an interest in 18th and 19th century wargaming.

There were four games going on simultaneously in the same room, and the effort that their organisers had gone into in getting everything there and set up, let alone the demands of running them at least twice over the weekend, cannot be overstated.

The Cold North

On the Saturday I played on the Swedish side in Paul’s lovely GNW game. It was a challenging scenario with both sides starting with only advanced guards on the table and receiving significant reinforcements shortly after. This created an excellent battle in which, somehow, Will and I achieved a close victory over Paul and Angus’ stoic Russians. The figures and terrain were excellent and the Grimsby Club rules provided a fast moving game, were easy to pick up and gave plenty of GNW feel. Paul’s knowledge of the period runs deep and made for a informative, educational and fun experience.

Some pics from the game:

 

 

 

Under pressure from the assaulting Russians:

The Swedes go all Ga Pa:

Final positions – the Swedes hold the key ground:





Into the Desert Heat

On Saturday afternoon I migrated a good distance south, and forward by about 180 years, to join the second running of Dave’s superb Sudan game. Dave has the full-on collection and terrain to play big games of the recently published Sands of the Sudan rules, and he’d prepared a fun scenario for AMG16. I took command of the beleaguered Sudanese garrison, charged with protecting the General’s daughter, while under siege and running low on ammo. Will, Angus, Chris and John were the plucky Brits, leading the relief column – or rather columns, as there was little in the way of co-ordination or co-operation going on!

With Dave running the devious Dervishes who turned up left, right and centre, we were under the cosh but steady fire kept most of the enemy at bay. At the garrison end of the table, though, it was happening too slowly and in the end I had to break out and send the damsel racing towards her rescuers, who happened to be John’s Black Watch who had snuck through the mayhem, avoiding the general nastiness, to arrive in the right place at the right time.

Great game, full of entertaining events and banter. Thanks Dave!

 

My view at the start:

The action hotting up, with the various British contingents dashing about and taking pot shots at anything that moved:

Frederick has an off-day

On Sunday I played in Steve and Mark’s very impressive Chotusitz game, using hundreds of hand-cast Prince August 40mm figures and a period-specific version of the Piquet rules. The rules were totally new to me, but I think I got the gist of the core concepts and appreciated most the subtleties by the end of the day. Very clever stuff that provided a real generalship challenge (unfortunately for me!)

I took command of the Prussian right flank cavalry, with Chris manning the centre and left. Graham, Angus and Leigh took the initiative and came on in style, pretty much wiping the floor with us from the start. My cavalry crumbled very early on, and only Chris’ tenacious defence of the village gave us a chance to turn things around.

When Frederick arrived with the (supposedly) excellent Prussian infantry, we managed to stop some of the Austrians in their tracks but it wasn’t enough. A lot of bad rolls, coupled with the effect of Angus’ piling in with the victorious cavalry on the flank, and it was over. Freddie fled the field in the traditional way and we shook hands and revelled in an excellent and enjoyable game. Mark and Steve really knew their stuff and made it a memorable experience all-round.

I only managed to take one picture but there are plenty of others online that do much better justice to this stunning game. Here’s Steve on the left, with the enemy commanders plotting another devastating round of combat..

The one game I didn’t get a chance to take part in was the Battle of Soor game presented by Robbie and Colin. I did wander over whenever I could and marvelled at the superb collection that was in action. The guys clearly presented an excellent experience for the players, and were using the Honours of War rules which seemed to give a very good game. Shame I missed this one!

The weekend was so good it even took the edge off the end of the England v Russia match, and I think I’ve sobered up now, which is a bonus.

Dungeon Gaming in 15mm

Over the last few weeks I’ve been working on something that I’ve fancied doing for a number of years – creating a dungeon exploring game for 15mm fantasy miniatures.

I made some initial notes over Easter and got stuck in during April and May, although the Ayton painting deadline did have to take priority. Lots of discussions with a friend, who shares the same nostalgia for D&D and likes games like this, led to some early rules playtesting and the making of trial floortiles. Last weekend it all came together and we managed some 3 player games for the first time, and actually had a good time!

Which door next?

After trying card and high density blue styrofoam, in the end I took advice and went for 4mm cork tiles for the rooms and corridors. It takes paint well, doesn’t warp (if you paint the other side too), cuts easily, has a nice texture for representing stone, and is very cheap. The whole set I made (2 dozen rooms and a dozen pieces of corridor), using about 8 square feet of the stuff, cost less than £10.

Doors are deliberately oversized (bigger monsters don’t want to get stuck do they?); 28mm scale from Warbases. Pillars are cotton reels donated by Goat Major, other dungeon scenery is mostly scratchbuilt. The game is still developing, but the core is there already. I want to add things like sewers, fire pits and other stuff, and these will all be made to fit in with the basic kit.

Going to see the Boss:

Figures are from a mix of ranges, with Demonworld furnishing the majority. Characters get nice floortile-matching bases, while the monsters and other enemies are largely borrowed from other parts of the collection and are based for the outdoors – which actually helps to spot who’s who!

As with all things like this, the game started out pretty simple, but has grown in detail – though hopefully not in complexity. The core things the group and I wanted were; levelling-up between games, finding treasure/magic items, end-game Boss encounters, and generally not having it too easy. I.e. a challenging game with rewards. Level 1 characters are weak, as they should be, and completing the first game is a mission in survival more than anything. From there, capabilities increase and more skills, spells and abilities can be obtained to give the party (made up of 4 characters, which come from the usual stereotypes) scope to tackle increasingly tougher dungeons.

“No, don’t open two doors at once!… Oh dammit!”

Every game starts with the descent to a new dungeon level, with things kicking off when the first door is opened. Sensible precautions – Fighter at the front, Magic User in the middle:

Our first session was fun, but we took our time getting through 2 complete games due to some bad dice-induced protracted combats and lots of wandering monsters. Next time, though, we’ll be 3rd level and those Orcs and Gobins better watch out!

Frostgrave in the Sand

Very late in posting this one, but a few weeks ago I had my first game (one and a half actually) of Frostgrave, courtesy of Goat Major’s hospitality and excellent Oriental-style table set-up. As you can see from the pics below (and here: http://goatmajor.org.uk/ on GM’s own blog), the game scenery for the fictional sand-bound ruins of Sarapur was top-notch!

We each selected a starter warband, with GM going for an Illusionist and me a Necromancer. This allowed me to have a very useful spread of spells, including the handy Bone Dart missile attack, and the very entertaining Raise Zombie option. My tame zombie ‘Alan’ was a slow-moving plotline all of his own, and managed to make a bit of a nuisance of himself, albeit having to be resurrected a couple of times.

Alan gamely attacks the enemy wizard:

 

We played an initial game with a half-warband force each as a learning exercise, which was very effective as a way to get to grips with the rules without being bogged down with too many figures and capabilities. I managed to kill the Illusionist with a bone dart towards the end, but of course we weren’t counting the results of this test game towards the campaign 🙁

Then we got into the main event – a full-sized game using the Mausoleum scenario, which sees skeletons issuing forth from the central building and causing plenty of mirth and mayhem while we tried to acquire treasure and fight each other.

The rules provide an interesting, fun and unpredictable game, and the wide variety of spells offer lots of tactical options for aiding your own side, hindering your opponent and securing treasure, etc. GM used Push effectively – on his own guys (to speed them on their way once they’d picked up some treasure), mine (off a roof) and on wandering monsters to deposit them in combat with my force. I used wall of fog to provide cover from archery, telekinesis to pick up treasure, etc. It’s an exercise in cunning and sneakiness and very enjoyable all-round. My apprentice was a liability, failing enough casting attempts to inflict a lot of damage on himself!

 

The game ended with most of the hired help out of action and our wizards both decided that to stay any longer was to court potential disaster. We both had treasure and called it a day at that point. We rolled up our loot, and will give some thought to new spells, etc, between games.

The d20 system for combat threw up a handful of big results (eg. my Templar going down in his first round of combat to a thug..), but we felt this was in the spirit of a fun, wizard/magic-centric game and not a problem. Overall, the Frostgrave experience is a very good one in my opinion, and we will be returning to Sarapur to continue our campaign soon I hope.

Mustering A New Regiment

With the big game weekend at Ayton now looming (in a good way) at the end of the month, it’s time to return to my 28mm 18th century forces and get everything ready for this year’s adventure.

I am making some modest additions to my Medetian and Fleurian armies (which inexplicably put their centuries-old differences aside and unite to fight foreigners in Henry Hyde’s on-going campaign!)

The first of these is on the workbench at the moment – the Savoy Regiment of the Savoy/Piedmont army of the mid-18th century, which I am increasingly using as the inspiration for my Fleurian forces. These are figures from Crann Tara, with a couple of Minden battalion gunners waiting for their gun. They’ve been blessed by the talented brush of Dave Jarvis, who previously painted for me the La Marine regiment who are lined up behind them. When the flags arrive from Mark Allen, and I’ve added the gun and finished the basing, these units will combine to make a rather stunning brigade for action in Grenouisse at the end of April.

I’d better get cracking then!

 

 

Trying out To the Strongest

Although I’ve been pretty idle in terms of painting, I have managed to play a few more games recently. There were three goes at Dragon Rampant last weekend with a good friend, which were excellent fun – my first non-solo battles with these rules. We used the various forces I’d been trying out in solo games, pairing them off and fighting it out. Lots of fun, and plenty of beer. Fortunately I don’t have any pictures of that 🙂

That was after a visit to Hammerhead on the Saturday, which was worth popping along to. It’s good to see the enthusiasm of the participation games at this show, the venue is pretty good and there are plenty of traders too. I didn’t buy much but it was nice to wander about and bump into some friends – Purps, GM and Gary, for a catch up. I missed a ‘hi’ to Henry as he was embroiled in hosting his 18th century paintballing game!

Since then I’ve been investigating the To the Strongest rules from BigRedBat, and very interesting they are too. There are plans afoot for a 4 player get-together later this year for some 15mm ancients gaming – specifically the Punic Wars, and we’ve decided on (not without some debate!) using these rules for their benefits of grids for movement, ease of learning, and flexibility in terms of figure basing.

Quick pic here, and I’ll follow with some observations on my initial playtesting in the next post.

 

6mm Camps and Buildings

A tabletop battlefield can sometimes look better with a bit of relevant clutter on it (especially if kept conveniently out of the way of the action). To that end I’ve been working on some 6mm camp bases that I can use in a number of periods, from Renaissance to the 19th century.

I’m mixing some Baccus metal tents, including their nice command tents, with some simple scratchbuilt ones I made a while ago but am just in the process of re-painting.

Here’s the first batch, Baccus in the background, my own in front. Mine are a bit bigger, but I think they look OK together on the table. They’re just intended to give a sense of the big army camps anyway. To be honest, I think a Baccus miniature would have to remove his over-sized headgear, and possibly even his head, to actually fit inside the smaller tents! 😉

 

And here’s everything finished:

 

I have some ideas for how these camps may play a part in certain types of scenario. I’m thinking of things like the night (or even the morning) before some battles in history, like Blenheim for example, where the scouting out of the enemy’s camp formed part of the attacking general’s battle plan.

There may be some scope to have a the defending player set out his camp as a pre-game indication of his army’s dispositions, from which he will have to deploy on the day of battle. Having 2 styles of tent rows, in addition to the command tent bases, will allow for distinction between infantry and cavalry formations. One to try out sometime, perhaps with the SYW project when it hits the table.

I’ve also managed to paint (well, dry-brush really) a couple of Timecast buildings. Here are a rustic railway station and a generic wooden barn (I think it’s from their WW2 Russian range so I tried to cover the drain pipes with foliage to make it less period-specific!)

More Rampant Dragons

.. now there’s an idea. I need to get a dragon on the table for a game – nothing like a dragon to get things looking like a true fantasy scrap!

Anyway, this week I squeezed in a quick game using one of the scenarios in the rulebook – Scenario C – Death Chase. This involves one side running the gauntlet down the length of the table while the other converges from the flanks to stop them. I set it up as a Kislev force on the run and Beastmen doing the ambushing, on a 4′ x 3′ table with plenty of undulations and trees. I also selected Quests for both forces, going with the ones that seemed most plausible for each side.

It was a very interesting game, swinging nicely one way and then the other as activations succeeded or failed. I initially thought the trap was closing quickly enough to catch all the Kislev units before they got too far onto the table, but by the mid-game they’d made surprisingly good progress (albeit by sacrificing their slower moving infantry!)

Overview pic of the early stages, with the Kislev light riders making a run for it while the Beastmen converge:

A flurry of combats, made interesting by plenty of units being subject to the Wild Charge rule, resulted in an exciting finale which saw only one Kislev cavalry unit escape while the rest were destroyed. Things were evened up a little with good Kislev results with their Quests, but overall it was a 9-6 victory for the minions of Chaos. The rules seem to produce fun games where there’s always a twist in the tail. A battered unit, for example, always has the potential to implode right at the end as it tries to rally, potentially affecting the result.

Centigors aiming to get ahead and cut off the enemy horsemen:

Just when you think you’re the toughest fangy, clawy monsters around, someone bigger and nastier turns up:

I’m enjoying Dragon Rampant a lot, and will aim to play a few more games in the next week or two. Got to dig out a dragon though.. 🙂