Blood & Plunder - First Time Playing

My buddy invited me over his place for a game of Blood and Plunder. I've never played the rules before, but the GM has hosted the game many times over the years at our various gaming days and also at Enfilade. I'm usually hosting my own games during these events, so never had a chance to play it until today. Additionally, the GM, Adam Horton, is the local rep for the game - which is based out of Florida.

It was a four player game, I was on the side of pirates and native troops versus British regulars and their allied native troops. The objective was for the pirates to find and rescue hostages held in one of the buildings in enemy territory.

The mechanics are pretty smooth and farily easy to pick up. It is card driven to determine order of play, and also how many actions can be taken. Actual actions use D10's to resolve shooting, melee, and wounds, etc.

Pirates in the foreground advancing forward.

All the units started with 6 figures. I had two units of pirates and a unit of African tribal warriors. My first move was to have the African use their bows as they do not incur a reload.

My two pirate units were able to assault into and occupy two buildings early on. However, the hostages were not located in those. Of course, by the process of elimination, we figured out which of the remaining buildings had the hostages.

A unit of British horse coming on the table after successfully activating them on. My unit of tribal warriors in cover. They took some casualties from pistol fire, but actually ended up surviving the game.

The building on the left held the hostages, and the British and their allies occupied the area.

Since we knew the game would be 6 turns, the other pirate player and I assaulted the building with hostages. We ended up securing the two hostages (the two in dressers), and killing off one of the British units guarding them. The rules are quite enjoyable, and I would have no hesitation playing them again.

I managed to paint the metal parts and muskets for the ECW foots prior to heading out the game today. Thanks for stopping by, and best wishes to you all!

ECW Revisted & Other Projects

After selling off my rather large collection of ECW figures to a buddy a couple of years ago, I never expected to return to the period. However, I soon thereafter picked up a Warlord Games Battalia Starter Army for a fraction of the price (less than a single unit box). The box has been sitting in the garage for sometime, and I figured it was time to work on it. Here's the pike and shotte, as well as command figures, along with some inspirational reading material. They're based as singles for skirmish games like The Pikeman's Lament. Plan to paint one force as Prince Rupert's Bleu Coates and the other in red like the New Model Army.

Still need to work on the 24 cavalry and 10 firelocks. Besides this project, I also worked on some 1/1200th Imjin War ships for At The Height Of Battle. I was blessed to have inherited the ships that were in David Sullivan's collection. As you may recall, David's blog is "I Live With Cats", and he passed away last year after a sudden illness. He and I had collaborated a bit with these rules.

In fact, he first saw the ships was when I hosted a game a couple of years ago. He went all in and actually ended up getting more ships than me! He used the same basing dimensions I used - so they are a perfect match. Here they are all together.

IIt's barely noticeable, but his ships are a little lighter in color, and none of his masts have flags - I think he clipped them off for some reason. I touched up his ships to better match the ones I have. Basically highlighted the sails, and also painted the forecastles on the larger ships.

I plan to run game with these in the near future. Haven't played them in a long time, so will need to refresh myself with the rules. Anyway, just a quick update to show what I've been working on. Thanks for checking the blog, and wishing you all the best.

Hawaiian Tribal Warlords and Heroes on 3D-DZYN Bases with Casualty Dice

Just got these in the mail today from a local vendor, 3D-DZYN down in Oregon. Ron Palma is the owner proprietor of the business. He makes laser cut bases and terrain to order as well as what he has on his website. I contacted him last weekend and he made these up for me via multiple email specifications. I wanted bases to hold my already based figures on 25mm washers, and also to have integral boxes for casaulty dice.

Below is what I got from Ron - 32mm bases with 5mm holes for magnets, outer rings to attach to the bases to hold the 25mm washer-based figures, and the dice box. After he saw what I ended up putting together, he told me he could've made the bases with the dice cups already on the bases if he had known what I actually wanted. I may order those from him in the future, depending on how well these work on the gaming table.

Here are the pieces individually packaged. On added benefit was the inclusion of the 25mm wooden inserts to the outer rings. Also, although the washers have small holes in the middle, the magnets hold the figures in place well enough.

Well, so much for mini project. Time to re-read the Tribal rules for an upcoming game. Until then, wishing you all the best.

Warlord Games Onager With Victrix EIR Crew

My buddy gave me the Onager set a couple of years ago, and finally got around to building it with my recent EIR projects. I replaced the original metal crew with spare Victrix Legionaire figures since the Warlord guys are way too small to match the rest of the army.

The Victrix poses are a little static compared to the original crew, but they'll do. I used plastic broom bristles for the adjusting poles (or whatever they're called).

Added the standard bearer to the base mainly to balance the look.

Here's how the Warlord Games figures look compared to the Victrix - quite a difference.

This was another small project to use up stuff I already had on hand. I'm waiting on some bases and small dice boxes to build for my Hawaiian Tribal project. It should've been here yesterday by the USPS tracker, but it got misrouted back to Seattle - hopefully they'll get here tomorrow. Until next time, thanks for stopping by and best wishes to you all.

EIR Command Stands - Victrix Figures

Finished up a couple more EIR command stands. The below shows the two completely new ones on the right, and the one on the left with a new standard bearer - the mounted figure was already painted before. 

Below are all five of the EIR command stands. I now see under magnification that I missed the sword strap on mounted guy on the second stand from the left - didn't notice it when I was painting it. Will have to add that.

Note the guy on foot on the far right stand probably should have a cloak, but I couldn't find one in the parts bin. Anyway, these should be enough for four divisions with an army general.

Just a little project to complete the EIR army to date. Thanks again for stopping in, and wishing you all the best.

Modest Painting Project - Victrix Legionaries

Picked up another set of Victrix Legionaries to finally complete a Praetorian unit. I needed a few figures to bring the unit up to 24 figures like the earlier two units. Besides these figures, the three others not on washers will be paired with mounted command figures.

I still had enough left over Battle Flag shield transfers from a few years ago. They seem to have become aged with time, as some of them started to lose their colors when applying them. I touched up the damaged areas up, but it was a little nerve-wracking when I saw the colors coming off.

With the earlier completed figures.

There are now 3 cohorts of legionaries from Legio VI Victrix, Legio II Augusta, and the Praetorian unit.

Next up a couple of mounted Roman officers for command stands. Thanks for stopping in, and wishing you all the best.

Hail Caesar Pyrrhic Wars Game

Co-hosted a Hail Caesar Pyrrhic Wars game last evening at my buddies place (only 10 minutes away). It was a fictional scenario pitting his Antigonid forces against my Epirote army. We didn't use all our forces as a few of the players had to cancel out at the last minute. We ended up having 3 players per side - one of which ran 2 divisions. We have 3 elephants, and 5 pike units per side, with various support units and cavalry.

Above, on the left are my buddies Antigonid army with a unit of my merc hoplites on loan. We plan to re-fight this game at my place on a bigger table with more troops next time. My Epirote force on the right, with Galatian warbands and Samnite light infantry on the left flank division.

Epirote right flank division which I ran, consisting of Greek light cavalry, Galatian medium cavalry, and a unit of Agema with kontos. We reduced the Agema cav units to 8-figures each, mainly because my buddy had his 3 Agema units sized that way already. They still fought as standard sized units.

Below is the Epirote center of phalanxes and elephants. The two pikes units on the far left are Foundry figures from the center player.  All of the elephants had javelins and bows.

The Antigonid center divisions of pike units and elephants, as well as skirmishers. These are my buddy's figures - mostly Warlord games, with the one far left pike unit being Victrix - still awaiting shields, Lol!

Pictured below is part of the Epirote center and the left flank division consisting of a unit of Samnite light infantry with javelins, and two units of Galatian warbands.

Below, the Antigonid left flank division with horse archer skirmishers, and 3 units of Agema cavalry with long spears. I made the first activation roll of the game, intending to charge my light cavalry into the opposing cavalry. However, the this first roll ended up with a Blunder roll! The blundering unit ended up in front of my Agema cavalry. 

Pictured above is the Antigonid Agema and Scythed chariot (which made their mandatory proximity charge) into my Greek light cavalry unit. As you may suspect, the light cavalry was soon destroyed by overwhelming numbers. The one positive thing from this engagement was the Scythed chariot is a one-hit-wonder, and removed after this charge, and sparing my remaining units its attack.

My Agema cavalry having defeated the enemy with my kontos counter charge after their follow up from destroying my light cavalry. I chose to remain in place to make a charge in our next turn.

The center division consisting of the pike and elephants - Epirotes on the left, and Antigonids on the right. They had many back and forth clashes throughout the game.

Initial engagement of the pikes and elephants. The Antigonid Rhodian slingers successfully attacked the Epirote elephant, making it retreat soon after.

The other division of pikes and elephants in the distance.

Epirote pike and elephant right center division in combat.

Above, the Epirote left center pike and elephant division with a unit of merc hoplites on their left next to the elephant. A unit of Samnite light infantry from the Epirote left division makes it way around cover on the far left.

Epirote Galatian warbands finally able to charge into Antigonid merc hoplites at the end of the game. Both the Epirote left division and Antigonid right division continually failed to successfully activate units. The Antigonid merc hoplites being drilled were allowed to make free moves after each failure.

Being the last turn of the game, and both players engaged for the first time, we allowed the Galatians to both attack the one unit of merc hoplites. This was later determined to be incorrect, as only one of the Galatian units should've attacked, and the other used as support. Of course, the hoplites were destroyed as Galatian warbands get 9 dice each in the first round of combat, and get to re-roll one missed attack dice in the round being Wild Fighters. Oh well, at least the Galatian player (who normally doesn't like Hail Caesar or Black Powder), left happy.

All in all a nice refresher game for me as I haven't played Hail Caesar in a very long time. Waiting for a date from him to confirm with the players for the re-fight, but I'll be sure to make a blog post when it happens. Until next time, hope you liked this post, and best wishes to all!

Paymaster Ancient Hawaiian Ali'i

This is the last figure from the sample box I bought at Enfilade. 

Pictured below, flanked by Eureka figures. As you can, he sizes up much more closely with Eureka than the other Paymaster figures

Here he towers over his Paymaster brethren - especially the Noble/Hero figure on the right.

Pretty much done with Hawaiian figures for now. I'm still looking for a couple of outrigger canoes - mainly for a scenario where they can used for a beach assault or an escape to sea. Until next time, thanks for stopping in to check out the blog, and wishing you all the best!

Paymaster Ancient Hawaiian Warriors

Finished these guys today. They have some nice shark teeth lined weapons. 

As you can see they're a lot smaller overall than the Eureka Hawaiians. I suppose on the gaming table, they'll okay, but I would highly recommend Eureka over Paymaster. The only figure that matches up well size-wise with Eureka is the King figure, which I'll be painting up next.

The earlier painted Noble doesn't look too out of scale with these warriors. They would be fine on the table in their own warband, I think. In fact, I'm gifting all of these to my buddy in a rehab facility. Praying for his full recovery, and hopefully these figures might help him along as he's an avid fan of all things Hawaiian. In fact, he has a home on the Big Island where he usually spends the winter.

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