Drumbeat 2024 Gameday

Attended my first Drumbeat gameday in many years. It used to be held up in Seattle at a couple of different places, the last place was being torn down. This year is the first time it was held down in Tacoma (15 minutes away for me), at a nice gaming store called Silver King Games and Hobby. I've been to this location of few times last year for Saga game days, but hadn't been back in a while there too. I hosted my RJW skirmish game in the morning period with 5 players - 3 for the Japanese and 2 for the Russians. In the afternoon period I played in my buddy David's Height of Battle Imjin War naval game. David will likely have his own report of today's gaming on his own "I Live With Cats" blog. There were about 35 folks in attendance - most of whom I've know over the years. In fact, I was honored to have Bruce Meyer of Company B Miniatures in my RJW game in the morning. Without further ado, here are pictures from today.

My RJW game using TMWWBK for rules. The players all said they enjoyed the game - only one player had prior experience playing, but another had the rules and had read through it. The table was a foot short width-wise so the opposing sides started closer and got engagements in sooner. We played for 6 turns with the Japanese winning by making into the first line of trench works. They had taken out one of the Maxim gun teams early in the game with helped their advance.

The usual suspects catching up with each other prior to the first session. The gaming area is the upstairs of a former bank - very plush accomodations.

Kevin Smyth's "Hand of Captain Danjou" game in the first session. I'm sure he'll also have a report on his own blog - "A Gamer's Tale".

A Chain of Command WW2 game, also in the first period.

French and Indian War skirmish game using homebrew rules.

My RJW game nearing the end of Turn 6 with Japanese forces inside the Russian first line of defense.

Wings of War game.

The "Height of Battle" Imjin War naval game in the second period. I ran a squadron of Korean ships and took over another squadron after one of the players had to leave. We called the game after a few turns calling it a close Japanese victory as they had captured a few more ships than the Koreans had. If we continued to play, it could've went either way. I haven't played the rules since running game a couple of years ago at another game day. In fact, David was a player in that game and ended up ordering up the rules and a couple of fleets of ships.

A Battle Tech game run by the son of my buddy James. He's trying to get more experience GMing as he'll be running this game at Enfilade in May.

It was another nice gathering of old friends, and meeting new ones, all the while playing great games. Until next time, wishing you all the best.

Perry Joseon Korean Armored Infantry - WIP

Finished the armored coats of these armored foot - swordsmen, halberdiers, archers, and handgunners.

Very nicely detailed figures - as expected from Perry. Just a quick update to show the progress on these figures. Thanks for checking out the blog, and hoping you're doing well.

Perry Choson Korean Archers - WIP

These have been block painted and awaiting staining. A can of Minwax Tudor Satin stain is supposed to be arriving next week from Amazon from an order placed a couple of weeks ago. All the local Ace Hardware stores are still out of this particular stain.

These Korean archers are part of a larger order recently made from Perry, along with armored Korean infantry and foot samurai. The figures are part of a revisit to my Imjin War/Sengoku Era project. Incidentally, I sold off my entire ECW collection, save for the Rupert and Boye command stand, to a good buddy. He plans to use them for a TYW project. I think the revisit to the Imjin War/Sengoku Era project was a way to soften the loss. For some reason, every time I come back from visiting family and friends in Hawaii, I feel the need to downsize my collection - possibly due to a long-range hope of returning someday. Anyway, adding these few Perry metal figs won't be a problem as I do plan on keeping them wherever I end up in the future. Thanks for stopping by and hope you don't mind my ramblings. Best wishes to you all. Oh, and I'm scheduled to host my RJW game this weekend at a game day - plan to post a report upon my return.

Old Glory Ashigaru Bows - WIP

Finished these up to go in line while awaiting the arrival of a can of Minwax Tudor Satin stain. Just called the four local Ace Hardware stores, and all of them are out of this particular shade. As Ace is the only store that ever stocked this shade; hope it hasn't been discontinued. An order with Amazon shows it's also not in stock with them either. May end up finally giving GW Agrax or Army Painter stain a try.

Anyway, just a quick update to show that the painting table has been re-activated. Thanks for visiting, and best wishes to you all.

Old Glory Ashigaru Yari - WIP

Finished the block/base painting. However, I have to finally get another can of Minwax as the one I got from a buddy a few years ago has finally "died." I had tried to keep it on life-support by adding paint thinner to it, but as you can see it's gelled and cannot be revived. Hopefully, when I go to the neighborhood Ace Hardware, they'll have a can. BTW, I just checked Amazon and they are "temporarily out of stock" of this stain.

Minwax past it's normal life-expectancy.

I should add that these ashigaru will join the ones previously painted to boslter the Japanese forces for a revist of the Imjin War. A couple of my buddies said they will be sending me some spare sashimono from the old Wargames Factory (now Warlord Games) sprues, to add to the back of these figures. Still looking for a few more of them, though.

The yari are plastic broom bristles. Used a hand drill to make holes in their hands for the yari.

Thanks for stopping by again, and wishing you all the best.

Battle of Motien Pass - RJW - TMWWBK Playtest

Just finished up a very nice and successful playtest of an RJW skirmish game using The Men Who Would Be Kings. The rules seemed to work out very well for the scenario - which was based loosely on the the Battle of Motien Pass. A small engagement during the early part of the Russo-Japanese War - a few months after the larger Battle of the Yalu River. The Japanese objective was to storm the  Russians who were in hastily built entrenchments. The Russians were to survive 6 turns with half of their army fir a victory. The Japanese had 15 units at the start of the game and the Russians,  12. At the end of turn 6, the Russians still had 8 of their units, but the Japanese had taken over the first line of trenches. The game was called a close tie. However, if more turns were to have been played, the Japanese would've likely destroyed the remaining Russian units.

The table was set up with two lines of trenches in an oblique facing on the table. The Japanese were allowed to have up to three units occupy the small hamlet with native huts along a stream in the foreground. The Russians were allowed to arrange their units within their defenses prior to the start of the game. All cover and obstacles, including the hastily dug trenches were rated as light cover - increasing hits for casualties by only one more needed. All unit leaders were rated at 6. The Japanese infantry and Russian Cossacks cavalry were given a Discipline of +2, Japanese cavalry +1, and Russian infantry and all crewed weapons having no increase.

It was pointed out after the game that the Japanese should have some of their artillery moved up by around 12" from the table edge at the start of the game. This would allow for their more effective use as crewed weapons only have a movement of 4". As the set up has the Russians in an oblique line, only half of the Japanese guns would need to be moved up.

I ran half of the Japanese force and charged their sole cavalry unit into a Russian infantry unit in light cover. This was more to do with fleshing out the HTH rules more than common sense. They ended up being killed off in a later turn.

Japanese were unlucky in failing to activate a lot of their units in a couple of turns. However, the Russians had decided to vacate the first line of trenches early in the game, so balanced their lack of movement a bit.

One of the Russian players distracted by an enemy Poodle agent.

One of two Cossack mounted units - late in the game the Cossack units used their Skirmish rule and got some shots off at the enemy.

All in all a very successful playtest with only the more forward placement of some Japaneses artillery at the start of the game was felt needed to balance the game better. I really like how the rules played out - especially the way shooting and combat uses a D6 per figure - unlike the usual 6 or 12 for half or full strenght units in the Rampant family of rules. The tests for Pinning and Rallying also seemed to flow smoothly too.  Thanks again for checking out the blog and wishing you the best.

RJW Skirmish Game Set-Up

It's been awhile since posing an actual gaming post - and this one is just the set-up for a game this Friday. The scenario is loosely based on the Battle of Motein Pass in the early part of the Russo-Japanese War. Plan to try out (for the first time) The Men Who Would Be Kings for rules. In the past I had planned to use Bolt Action for RJW skirmish, but figured more of the local gamers might be more interested since a lot of them dislike Bolt Action.

That's an actual IJA cap from the period - it was graciously given to me by a local gamer many years ago. He has a large collection of authentic military gear. The cap is very old (over a 100 years) and fragile, and normally kept in a bin with packs of silica gell to help preserve it.

Edit: Reconfigured the table to give the Russians two rows of trenches - one elevated. They are slightly outnumbered in infantry, but have two mounted Cossack units to only one mounted unit for the IJA.

The game will be a playtest for hosting it at a game day later this month. Only using a 6X5' table area as the venue for the game day will have similar sized tables.

IJA center with the sole cavalry unit. Artillery and machine guns are interspesed between infantry units. Players will be able to rearrange their units at the start of the game.

IJA right with Imperial Guard units.

IJA left with line units.

Russian center with two Cossack cavalry units. Again, players will be able rearrange placement of their units before the start of the game.

Russians behind their trenches.

Well, so much for now. Hopefully the rules work okay. A few folks who've played the rules say they work best for European/Colonial troops against natives best. A full report will follow, in any case. Thanks for stopping by and apologies for not visiting your blogs for the last week or so. I was entertaining an old Army buddy who I hadn't seen in 40 years. He and I were both at Fort Ord in the early 1980's, then we both went to Jump School and ended up at Fort Bragg. I left for Korea and he went into Special Forces. He was an SF Medic and spent most of his time in Central and South America in the 1980's and 90's. He had a lot of very interesting stories. He got out an became an orthopedic surgeon - so very proud of him.

Checking Back In - Returned From Hawaii

Just got back from a visit to see family back in Hawaii. Besides eating a lot of great chow, drove around the island to see what had changed since my last visit 10 years ago. A lot more people and cars, but the weather and nature are still beautiful as ever. Here are a few shots at some sites of interest related to military history.

The old Type 95 Ha-Go outside the Fort DeRussy Army Museum - behind it is an M24 Chaffee. Both faded unsurpsingly being exposed to the sunshine. The museum itself is built in and around the old Battery Randolph structure. Admission to the museum is free, but I didn't go in this time. I've been to it a few times before though. It's right in Waikiki and next to the Hale Koa military hotel.

Up at the Pali Lookout (pali means cliff in Hawaiian). This is a very soulful place where hundreds of Oahu defenders were either forced off the cliff by Kamehameha's invading army or jumped off during the battle there in 1795. Hundreds of skulls and skeletons of these warriors were found during construction of the old Pali road in the late 1800's. That's Kaneohe in the background in the picture above, and home to the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, and Marine Aircraft Group 24, among other units.

After visiting the Pali, had to stop by and take a picture of the statue of King Kamehameha - unifier/conqueror of the Hawaiian islands. The statue stands in front of Iolani Palace - which was the home of Hawaiian royalty, all the way until it was used to imprison the last Hawaiian monarch, Queen Liliʻuokalani in the late 1800's, after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by American businessmen and a few sailors. Incidentally, my first-cousin, a half-Hawaiian, Charles Ka'ai'ai, Jr., led a reenactment of this overthrow back in the 1990's. His dad was a 100% Hawaiian, served in WW2 as a Mechant Marine, and is buried in Punchbowl. My cousin himself was drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War, volunteered for Vietnam as an infantryman, but ended up as a guard at Spandau - he said he saw Hess a lot there - and said he was a "weird and bad tempered" when I asked what he was like.

Speaking of Punchbowl - went up to tidy up the grave site of my dad - he didn't go overseas during the war, as it ended while he was still Stateside. Besides him and my uncle Charley, there are a couple more of my uncles there.

I also rummaged through a lot of our old stuff - sadly a lot of the cool stuff are long gone; like my maternal grandfather's family samurai swords. He had donated them to a temple back in the 1970's when he was getting up in age and thought that would bless him in the next life - or something like that. Some of the stuff we still had in the toolshed were a couple of old artillery shell casings. This one is a 3 inch 50 cal. shell for a naval gun. It has an etching of two soldiers carrying rifles - I think they're supposed to be Japanese soldiers as their helmets look like they have the Imperial star on them.

Here's a picture of the front of the deterioting Natatorium. It was built in the 1920's to honor the 10,000 men from Hawaii who served in WW1. There used to be two huge naval guns on the lawn in front. My dad used to hoist me up on the barrell when I was little, so I could straddle it and play around on top of it. The guns have long since been removed, and may have been relocated somewhere else.

Finally, I brought back an old book and a pair of binoculars, both belonging to my maternal grandfather. The bino's have to be from the 1950's or earlier, as it was around when I was a kid. The velvet lined leather case and strap are originals. The book is from the 1950's and covers the Meiji era. It has some very cool pictures of that period - including a lot about the First Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars.

Growing up in Hawaii with a large military presence, I suppose it's not surprising I played "army" a lot as a kid - and later actually played it for a few decades as an adult. For the record, I had relatives on both sides of WW2. My maternal grandmother's oldest son (from a different father than my mom), was a pilot who was shot down over the Battle of Midway. Not sure if he was an actual Kamikaze pilot, but it was verified by his pilot friends to my grandmother that that's how he died. We used to have an old photograph of him next to his plane. My dad's oldest brother was going to a university in Japan when the war broke out and was conscripted into the IJA - he survived the war, and his father had to spend a lot of money on lawyers to get thim back home. He never spoke of the war to anyone - so not sure what he did or where he actually may have served. Several uncles on my mom's side, who were from Washington State, were first interned in Minidoka, Idaho, than volunteered and served in Europe with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. They all survived the war and used to have reunions with the Texas "Lost Battalion" whom they rescued at the Vosges Mountains, France.

Well, this post seems to have turned into a sort of family history - and strayed a bit from the usual hobby post. My next post should be one that is more hobby-related - until next time, thanks for checking out the post, and wishing you all the best!

Pink Foam Trenches Or Ditches

Used some left over pink foam and an inexpensive wire foam cutter to build some trenches or ditches. Wanted to have enough to go the width of a table; about 6 feet or more. There were some nice resin cast ones on ebay, but didn't want to spend too much. Luckily, there was still some pink foam board, purchased almost a decade ago, in the garage.

Close up to show how they size up. Only used a little bit of static grass as the trench or ditch would be mostly dirt from being built. Tried to keep the incline on the outside to a minimum to allow for figures or vehicles to climb up. Also, didn't line the insides with wood panels or corrugated tin so the pieces could be used in earlier periods too.

Total available length if used with only one side - as a barricade - is over 10 feet; so about 5 feet if used in parallel as shown above.

The triangular pieces are to allow the straight pieces to be formed in irregular lines, if needed.

Right after "cutting" with the hot wire foam cutter - an inexpensive one off of ebay. Word of caution - be sure not to use enamel spray paint on the foam unless given an acrylic or latex paint basecoat. The enamel will melt the foam. I used a spray can thinking it was acrylic - but turned out to be enamel and it melted the first set of triangle pieces I had made. Thankfully, the larger staight pieces had been coated with left over latex house paint first.

Well, my previous post said it was likely my last before taking off for a visit to Hawaii, but had a couple days and this was a quick project. Taking off for Hawaii early Sunday morning - hopefully no delays as the weather has dropped to below freezing. Supposed to warm up a little on Sunday - but the flight to Hawaii today was delayed for almost 3 hours - probably due to the temperatures and icing. I may try to post some pictures of interest while in Hawaii - hopefully. Until my return, hope you all are doing well and having a great start to 2024!

Old Glory WW1 French 75mm and German 77mm Field Guns

These are the first projects for the new year. They were added to the Noble Knight Games order along with the Old Glory Japanese infantry. Needed to up the order to the free shipping amount, and also wanted to add some artillery to the French and German WW1 forces.

Although not an expert on artillery, by any means, these guns - as wells as the earlier "Mexican" gun from Old Glory look very nice. Well-detailed and they go together very nicely. 

These two guns each came with 6-figure crews. The figures are also nicely detailed and posed - a couple of duplicates, but with heads turning different directions (as per usual for Old Glory).

The guns and crew are on oval bases picked up several years ago from a craft store - they're about 115x80mm.

Also painted up these terrain pieces which were part of the Noble Knight order. From the website, I thought the QF trench pieces were 28mm, but the look more like 15mm or 20mm. The Warlord Games gabion gun emplacement was listed as 28mm on the website, but it also looks like 15mm or 20mm. I'll probably give them to someone as the only 15mm figures I have are for a "Pre-Samurai" DBA army - and only gamed once a long time ago.

Don't have anything in the paint queue at the moment, and will be visiting family in Hawaii, including my 92 year old mom, in about a week, so probably will await my return before doing any painting or gaming. Otherwise, the holidays passed uneventfully - which is how I like it. Hope you all are doing well in the new year, and thanks for stopping by the blog.