On Display - A Toy Soldier Collection

After the recent big Pacific NW convention, Enfilade, last weekend I came home to contemplate my next gaming project. As I never really bothered to look for any new figures at the Bring and Buy, it made me wonder if I was losing interest in gaming and/or painting. The only purchase I made was an Osprey book on Troy, which I couldn't pass up for $5.00. In fact, I sold off my Warlord EIR army as well as a few Old Glory Normans and Turcopoles. Downsizing, I suppose. It also made me take stock of what figures I already had, and if they hadn't received their fare share of gaming table time. I ended up taking the images below for the record. Missing are most of the WW1 and WW2 stuff, which are in plastic bins.

Without further ado, here is my toy soldier collection, so to speak. Most of the 28mm figures have been on the gaming table. The French & Indian War stuff have yet to see their first Muskets and Tomahawks game. Possibly this will be the next gaming project.

Top shelf: F&IW - Foundry and Redoubt, HYW - mostly BTD (English) and Perry (French), Normans & Saxons - mostly Crusader, and a couple of 120mm figures as well as a few 54mm stuff. Second shelf: Trojan War stuff - mostly Redoubt, some Foundry and others; Third shelf: Napoleonic French and various others - mostly Victrix, Perry, OG and Foundry.

Top shelf: Napoleonic British - mostly Victrix, Perry, OG; Second shelf: Imjin War Joeson Koreans - mostly Perry, and some Japanese - OG, as well as RJW Japanese - OG.

Top shelf: Gauls, Thracians, Hoplites, Oscans and other such Ancients - OG, Foundry, Crusader and Redoubt; Bottom shelf: Mycenaean ship - Redoubt, OG Viking Longship, and 1/8th scale Aurora/Monogram 15th C. Knight (aka Gold Knight of Nice).

The next cabinet has more of an eclectic mix.

Top shelf: GW Empire stuff; Second shelf: Medieval stuff - Mirliton, OG, FireForge, and some 120mm resin figures which were painted long before getting into 28mm gaming figures.

Top shelf: Early and Late-Samurai, as well as a more recently completed 120mm resin Ii Naomasa figure. The Early-Samurai are mostly T.A.G. and the Late-Samurai mostly Perry and OG; Second shelf: Seleucids - most of the foot are Foundry, the elies are Aventine, the scythed chariot and armored cav from 1st Corps, and some command figures from Relic (Antiochus and Pyrrhus).

Top shelf: 40K Space Marine stuff on the left, and Empire stuff on the right Bottom shelf: WotR stuff - mostly OG and Perry plastics.

The next cabinet are display figures in 120mm and larger - again, mostly painted long before getting into gaming.

These are all 120mm resin figures - mostly Verlinden.

Top shelf: A couple of Verlinden figures flank an Airfix 1/12th scale Black Prince; in the rear 1/16th scale plastic knights by Imex. Second shelf: 200mm resins by Verlinden - Henry V, Earl of Oxford and Lord Bardolph. Two 1/8th Aurora plastic knights in the rear - "Red Knight of Vienna" and "Black Knight of Nurnberg."

Various other 120mm-200mm stuff. Also 1/12th plastic Airfix Richard I and Joan of Arc models.

And in a bookcase display hidden away.

Various other stuff, including the only 15mm figures I have - a DBA Pre-Samurai army which was only gamed once about a year ago

Here's what the larger two cabinets look like in a corner of the living room.

A couple of helmets picked up off of ebay on top the one on the right.

The one thing I don't have is a dedicated gaming room, but since I only occasionally play, the use of folding tables in the dining room suffices. Anyway, hope you enjoyed viewing the collection on this fine Saturday. I'm actually trying to get over a bug I may have picked up at the con.

Enfilade! Saturday Games

Images of only a smidgen of the games hosted on Saturday at Enfildae! here in Olympia, WA. I ran my Actium game again in the morning period - didn't take any photos as it was covered last night. The six players said they enjoyed the game - which ended in a slight victory of Antony and Cleopatra over Octavian. My third game was hosted during the evening - Arena Games' Gladiatorial Game. I had 9 players who seemed to really get the hang of the rules after the 3rd or 4th turn - I actually strolled away a bit of the time to take pictures of some of the other games.

Fireforce: Rhodesia '76 by Damond Crump, Bruce Smith and Lawrence Bateman, Force on Force (modified); Rhodesian Light Infantry and African Rifles make an early morning raid against a ZANLA camp on the Mozambique border. My fellow Hawaiian-expat Kimo and I got in on this game. It ended up being Best of Period as well as the theme award - Raids.

Battle of Yamazaki - Samurai Warfare in 10mm by Robert Knestrick, Historical Home Brew, 4 hrs, 10 players; Outnumbered Akechi makes his stand behind the Enmyoji River near the town of Yamazaki. Homebrew rules set up to be fun, fast but still historically challenging. 10mm grand scale with around 1,000 beautifully painted figures and nice terrain.

Rescue at the Pyramids by Scott Murphy, Sowrd and the Flame modified. The Germans have seized the ruined city in the highlands of Venus and have left a small party of soldiers and archaeologists, however the locals have other ideas. The Germans are sending a relief force to help hold the site but the British are also going to try and "rescue" the Germans.

Salems Church by Robert Sternberg, Black Powder 28mm, May 3, 1863. General Hooker with the Union VI Corps is driving the Confederates back towards Chancellorsville. At Salems Church the Confederates under Wilcox have been fighting a rearguard action. The Confederates have been reinforced and the fight is on.

Sioux Raids Along the Black Hills by Robert Sternberg, War Bonnet, The Sioux are raiding along the black hills defending their sacred land. With their sights set on a wagon train, homesteads and a miner’s camp. Can the 7th Cavalry under Lt Col Custer halt the loss of life or will the Sioux drive the trespassers from their lands?

Smoked Boulogne by Kevin Smyth, Lion Rampant, In 1340, England mounted a raid against the French port city of Boulogne. It was a nest of Pirates and Raiders who operated against the English coast. The successful attack burned ships and stores that made the Battle of Sluys a French disaster. The English players must raid the dockyards in the morning mist while overwhelming sailors and fighting off French relief.

Circus Maximus by Ken Cassady, Home Brew, Ride again in the greatest sport of all, chariot racing. Cheer your team on to victory and smash your foes to bits. Work together if you wish with other teams with secret deals to share in the winner’s takings. Those with extra cash can sabotage your opponent's team for an extra advantage. I am going to make the horse damage table a little more dangerous this season.

Battle for Aachen by Greg Moore, home-brewed, US infantry supported by tanks assault a section of the ruined city of Aachen in Germany in October of 1944. Battle fought in 1/72 scale using easy to learn home-made rules. Battlefield consists of a table full of hand-made ruined buildings. Germans must defend the rubble and prevent the Americans from capturing a key square in the city.

He-Man Masters of the Universe "Battle of Grayskull Temple" by Bruce Smith, Super Modified TSATF ,He-Man and Ram Man together with the Army of Good vs Skeletor, Beast Man, & Mer-Man along with the Army of Evil as they battle for control of the Temple of Grayskull.

Terror in the Depths by John McEwan, Terror in the Depths rules By John McEwan. What mysteries lie below the waves of the Haunted Sea? Will you join the fight on the muddy, dark ocean bottom? Search for lost treasure – sunken cities – ship wrecks, and perhaps find long forgotten races of sub-humans?

Battle at the Galaxy Star Casino by James McEwan, Starguard, Come and relive this exciting battle for the Galaxy Star Casino taken from James McEwan’s new book, Dimension Shift. Play as the Starguard Marines and see if you can defeat the Robot defenders and take control of the Casino. Or Play as the Robot defenders and see if you kick the Marines to the curb.

Forcing the Columbia by Sven Lugar, All Quiet on the Martian Front,  HG Wells War of the Worlds played out as Martians attempt to force their way across the Columbia from Portland to Government Island & into Vancouver. Defend our Native Soil or be a cold-blooded Martian. Riverboats help support the defense as reinforcements shuffle their way across the river to the forward base on Government Island to stop the Martians coming from the ruins of Portland.

My Gladiator game using Arena Games' Gladiatorial Combat. The nine players, including a youngster (about 10) and a lady-gamer, all had a wonderful time. It went on for 11 turns until a last man, er..Murmillo standing.

Ganging up on opponents is encouraged! As killed gladiators remain on the table - it was suggested I make some casualty figures. Well I did make some nets and spears to represent them thrown and not recovered. One thing which became evident was to attack heavy armored opponents to their rear or flank to decrease their chances at Save attempts.

Again, only a fraction of the total games being played on Saturday - Hopefully you like them.

Enfilade! 2nd Period

Just a few images of the many games going on during the second period - evening of Friday. I didn't sign up for any, as I'm just relaxing and socializing with folks I haven't seen since last year's con.

Battle of Ligny using Shako 2 rules - hosted by the White Rock Gamers and North Shore Gamers from British Columbia. There are over 4,000 28mm figures - all wonderfully painted.

Ligny - all the buildings are scratch-built. A lot of the White Rock guys are retired B.C. cops and great guys who know how to have a good time.

Ligny from the opposite side of the table. My buddy, Kimo, used to live up in B.C. and is still a member of the White Rock Gamers.

Wars Between the Huron and Iroquois Peoples. Hosted by convention guest Howard Whitehouse (aka Mexican Jack Squint on TMP). Rules are called Flint and Feather. A lot of the terrain is provided by local gamers, including NHMGS president Sven Lugar.

Kevin Smyth's Sack of Agen game using Lion Rampant. I was honored to play test this game several months ago. The Hundred Years War is a favorite period for Kevin as you can see.

Over the Top by Greg Moore using home-brewed rules. A very impressive trench table.

Bruce Meyer's Retreat from Moscow game using home-brewed rules. Another game I was privileged to play test a while back. Besides Bruce's figures, some are painted by Mike Garcia, another very talented painter.

Heroes of the Colosseum by Ed Teixeira - rules of the same name. Figures are 54mm, I believe.

Headshot Z by James McEwan

 Again, this is only a small sampling of all of the games going on during Friday evening.

Enfilade! - End of First Period

Well, here I am in Olympia, Washington attending yet another annual NHMGS Enfilade! convention. I ran the Actium game with 7 players (one guy sneaked in ;) ) - no problem though. Only one player had played Black Powder or Hail Caesar before - which the command activation for the Actium game is based upon. However, everyone seemed to pick up on the rules by the third turn or so. I lost track of how many turns we actually played, but we continued even after both Antony, and later Octavian were killed. Cleopatra survived till the end, but never made it off the board - a Victory Condition. No matter, all the players gave the game a thumbs up and had smiles the whole time. I will be incorporating a few mods to the game tomorrow morning when I run it again. One will be to allow Cleopatra's squadron to get a free move even after a failed command role - which happened quite a few times in this game. Another will be to the Grappling rules - it will take one additional ship to attempt to grapple a ship each class larger than itself. The players themselves gave these opines during the AAR. Here's a quick shot of the game during mid-play.

Note the convention-safe plastic sheet over the Hotz mat. Go ahead, spill your drinks :)!

Here are a few games I was able to take pictures of prior to the start of my game. I still need to go back and get a shot of the huge Ligny game run by the White Rock Gamers from British Columbia.

Lloyd Bowler's Viking Run - a perennial favorite

Chris Craft's Agincourt game using Hail Caesar. Chris' game appropriately won Best of Period.

Gene Anderson's Martian Airship Raid game - and to think this is an Historical Gamers convention. Shame on you Gene :)

Doug Hamm's Waterloo - The Better Plan using General de Corps.

There are well over 100 games scheduled throughout the weekend. I know I won't be able to get pictures of all of them, but hope to post some quality shots. Oh, and GM's who host two or more games got this cool looking coffee cup below.

Arena Games' Gladiatorial Combat - Play-tested At Last

Well, with only a day or so before Enfilade! (the local "big" historical convention), I was finally able to play-test the rules for the gladiator game I'll be hosting on Saturday night. Actually, it's more of a familiarization of the rules, as these are not new rules and by all accounts has worked well at other conventions in it's almost 15 year history. I just needed to get familiar with the play-action. This all thanks to one of the younger guys here at work - an OIF veteran and budding gamer with a love of Roman history, of all things.

There are enough gladiator figures for 12 players, but as this was an initial game for both of us, we just chose one figure each. I played a Murmillo and Joel (the OIF vet) played a Retiarius - figured he's smarter and can figure out the special rules for throwing and entanglement weapons. We both ended up with the same Activation Points with our D6 rolls - although my Murmillo was armored much heavier than his net man. Speaking of D6's - that was the one item I had overlooked to bring to work. I did have a six-sided Direction die and with the trusty label maker printed out numbers for that lone D6. We ended up rolling the one D6 multiple times for the six wounds for each hit.

Note: I wasn't sure which number goes on which side of the die

As always, no matter how simple the rules are, it is great to not only play-test them, but also have someone else's take on it. After a couple of turns, Joel asked, "What about the Stamina Point boxes?" Refer quickly to the rules. "Oh...got it, ah, that's pretty simple and makes sense." I'll also host the Actium game on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. I haven't touched that game since the playtest a few months ago. Oh well, it's pretty simple too. I should be able to posts some stuff once at the convention.

Won't You Let Me Take You On A Sea Cruise

Here we have the Queen of Sparta on a voyage over the wine dark sea with Paris, Prince of Troy.

The Prince's cousin, Aeneas points the way towards Troy.

Fair weather speeds them on.

Will they receive a warm welcome in Troy?

All of the figures and the ship are Redoubt Enterprises which were painted some time ago. The ship was picked up on sale when Doug at Miniature Service Center was clearing out his 28mm inventory. I had noticed the ship was never included in the blog before, so figured it was a good a time as any as it follows the last post's story line. Also, I'll likely not be updating the blog until next weekend while attending the big local convention, Enfilade!

A Visit to Sparta - Prologue to the Trojan War

A prince from Troy pays a "friendly" visit to the King of Sparta.

He seems to be an affable chap - can't see any problem with the king going on a trip himself to see his old friend Idomeneus, King of Crete. In fact, it seems a great idea to leave his wife behind to keep the Trojan guest occupied.

I mean, really, what could possibly go wrong.

Sounds like a plan, then. Good - catch you all in few. More to follow.

Trojan War Project - Infantry Rebase Complete

Finally picked up some Army Painter grass tufts and flowers - really great additions to any basing project, and decently priced too. I didn't use them on the stands with the Old Glory figs - sorry OG. Anyway here they all are based and grouped in units with 80mm frontage. I had forgotten that I had some Newline Sea Peoples and a few Foundry Sherden Guards too - but ran out of Litko stands. I ended up removing the Warlord EIR figures that were based on Litko stands, and used those. The EIR guys were rebased on plastic 40mm bases. Quite a rebasing weekend it was.

There are 35 formed infantry units and four command stands. In addition to these foot troops, there are several skirmish order units of slingers and javelinmen.

Pylians led by Antilochus. They are armed in the old fashioned style favored by Nestor their king. A few archers are interspersed within the ranks to provide missile fire. Enemy attacking their front lose any charge bonuses due to the Long Spears and being in an early form of Phalanx.

Mycenaeans with Agamemnon in charge. These guys are Drilled and can make one free move on a failed order.

Achilles and Patroclus lead the Myrmidons. They are Tough Fighters and Valiant, and can re-roll one missed Combat attack as well as one Break Test.

Cretans with Idomeneus and Meriones providing inspirational leadership.

Locrian light infantry archers under the command of Aias Oileus (aka Ajax the Lesser). They are Marksmen and can Re-roll one missed shot per ranged attack.

The Old Glory guys make up the Trojan contingent - and missed their photo op. The Trojans will likely needs some foot command troops - might be a nice future painting endeavor.