WW1/RJW Cossacks - Battle Honors

These Battle Honor Cossacks are the final figures to be painted for 2023. They were part of the order from Noble Knight Games along with the Old Glory stuff. They were on sale, and three packs of 4 figures each were cheaper than a bag of Old Glory Cossacks with only 10 figures.

They're from the old Battle Honors WW1 range, but should work for Russo-Japanese War too. Painted them up as Siberian Cossacks with green coats and red shoulder straps and trouser stripes.

Nice figures - both the riders and horses. The firing poses come with arms and rifles as a separate piece, and go together without a problem.

The picture below shows how well they match up with Old Glory - which makes sense as these figures are listed as 25mm. Left to right: BH, OG, BH, OG.

The RJW Russian army arrayed. Less figures than the Japanese, but plan to have a scenario where the Russians will be in a fortified position with the Japanese having to assault them.

This will also likely be my last post for the year, so thank you all for checking out the blog throughout the year and leaving such nice comments. Wishing you all a great 2024!

Old Glory Meiji IJA Infantry - And Merry Christmas!

 Finished up the two bags of Old Glory Meiji IJA infantry - along with two Crusader commands.

The flag poles are topped  with "chrysanthemum" disks made out of Green Stuff.

They're grouped in units of 12-figures which can be used for The Men Who Would Be Kings, or other skirmish rules, Bolt Action included.

They were painted to match the infantry painted over 10 years ago. The older figures are the ones on the far right in the picture below. Also, the rest of the IJA force mustered behind them. These should be enough for an assault on Russian strongholds in and around the Yalu.

In other news, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Old Glory "Mexican Guns" For RJW Russians

Sort of a confusing title, but these are the two Old Glory guns which are only listed as "Mexican Guns" in their Pershing in Mexico range. They looked similar to the Tsuba Putilov guns, so figured I'd give them a shot.

The image below shows how much larger they are from the Tsuba Putilov guns.

A couple of my local gaming buddies suggested the Old Glory guns might be French 75mm QF field guns. They'll be part of the Russian batteries nonetheless.

Also started on some Old Glory Meiji IJA infantry (from the Boxer Rebellion range). Also added a few command figures from Crusader Miniatures.

The Crusader guys a larger being 28mm, and the Old Glory on the larger side of 25mm. Pictured below, left to right: OG, Crusader, OG, Crusader, OG, Crusader, and Crusader.

Also worked on some flags downloaded from the "1866 And All That" blog. Made a feeble attempt at adding Kanji characters to them.

Oh, and I cancelled out of the Saga game for tomorrow as we have some last minute stuff to do prior to the Christmas weekend. Until next time, wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

Old Glory Meiji IJA Creusot Gun And Crews

Here are a few more Old Glory Meiji figures for the RJA project. These were given to me as a Christmas gift from my buddy who had sold me the Russian figures a while ago. He also included a few infantry figures too - and those will be painted up along with the two bags of Old Glory figures that should be arriving today in the mail.

The crews are painted up as Imprial Guard troops - with their red uniform distinctions, along with the yellow shoulder straps for artillery troops. The two figures on separate bases will be used to beef up the Tsuba Hotchkiss machine gun teams. The Tsuba kits come with 3 figures, and both The Men Who Would Be Kings and Rebels and Patriots usually have 4 figures to support crewed weapons.

I tried to match the color of the earlier Creusot guns painted over 10 years ago - https://wabcorner.blogspot.com/2010/03/old-glory-boxer-rising-japanese.html Used a mixture of blue, black, and white, and the result looks pretty close.

The Meiji IJA now have 4 Creusot guns - 2 each Imperial Guard and Line; as well as a pair of Gatling guns. Although Gatlin guns weren't used in the RJW, they were used against Captain Nathan Algren in Dances With Samurai - https://wabcorner.blogspot.com/2015/04/dances-with-samurai-meiji-era-warfare.html

The Old Glory figures size up pretty nicely with the Tsuba figures. Not sure how the standing figures look as I only have these seated/kneeling Tsuba figures. Actually, the Old Glory figures look a little chunckier.

Plan to start on the additional Old Glory IJA infantry as soon as they arrive, but also plan to be at the monthly Saga game day this week. I haven't done Saga in so long, it'll be like learning the rules again. Thanks again for stopping by, and wishing you all a Merry Christmas! Yes, it's almost that time of year again!

Christmas Dragon Rampant

Just got back from another Christmas Dragon Rampant game held at Bruce Meyer's place in Gig Harbor. Bruce is the owner/proprietor of Company B. The game was put together and GM'd once again by another Bruce - Bruce Smith. There were about 16 or so players, with 12 point warbands. As usual, the game devolved into two separate games on the long edges of the table. This due to folks losing track of which side's turn it was. It really didn't matter as long as the warbands stayed on that side of the battlefield. Only one player had his warband troops on both sides - he had to pay more attention to the turns. Lol!

This is the side of the table my warband was on - that's them on the far left - Samurai/Ashigaru bowmen as Light Missiles upgraded to Sharpshoter, along with an Oni as a Lesser Warbeast with Spore Attack. They actually did well once they got targets in range. The Oni was killed off after multiple attacks from several enemy units. The Light Missile bowmen lasted until the very end, and this only after making suicidal attacks against a Lesser Warbeast with not only Invisibility but also Sharper Blades! spell. The first allowed him not to be targeted by ranged weapons, and the second allowed re-rolling of ALL failed Attack and Defense dice! I figured just get the game over with,  and kept moving my Light Missiles towards their inevitable fate.

My warband at the start of the game. Most of the bowmen are TAG, with some Curteys, and the Oni is a Reaper Bones figure.

The picture above is the other side of the table. Not really sure how it went, but they were going at too.

Action in the center - a unit of Lesser Warbeast in combat with a Greater Warbeast.

More action in the center of the table.

The warband next to mine - hey did well in destroying an enemy warband - at the cost of only having one shattered unit left. They also blocked my warband from seeing targets for most of the early part of the game. 

Winged Hussars versus a Wendigo.

My warband on top of an ice mountain. They tried to target the enemy below, but the houses blocked LOS a lot. They actually came back down and move around the sides of the mountain and did well shooting at several enemy units.

All of these figures were killed off and the two opposing warbands destroyed.

A nice gathering during the holidays with all involved having a good time. 

As an added bonus I was given a few more Old Glory Meiji Japanese figures as a Christmas gift. Along with the order soon arriving from Nobel Knight should make the Japanese army quite sizeable for skirmish games. Until next time, wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

Tsuba Miniatures RJW 76mm Putilov Guns And Maxim And Hotchkiss Machine Guns

Very impressed with my first order of Tsuba Minatures figures. They are very well sculpted and detailed. They size up well with the Old Glory figures that are the majority of this project. They were ordered from the US distributor of Empress Miniatures, and arrived within a week.

Old Glory crews were used for the Putilov guns since I already had a bunch of them. Tsuba sells the guns with or without crew (one set moving the gun and the other firing). Only problem with the Old Glory set is none of them are posed to sit on the seats of the gun carriage. There is a kneeling guy and since the guns are in the process of being moved, he might've been to told to get his lazy butt off.

Should've ordered two more of the Tsuba guns, as there are enough Old Glory figures for them. Ended up ordering two similar Old Glory guns from their Pershing in Mexico range. The order is from Noble Knight Games and they were on sale, along with Japanese infantry from their Boxer Rising range - ordered two more bags of those to storm Russian strongholds.

The gun and four crew are a bit cramped on the 50x50mm stands, but didn't want them to take up too much space on the table.

The Maxim MG are crewed with the figures that came with the set. The gunner is cast separately as is the machine gun itself. The machine gun's handgrips fit perfectly into the gunner's hands.

The IJA Hotchkiss crew are painted in a combination of the older dark blue uniform and the khaki summer uniform issued mid-war. Added a little bit of Green Stuff for the shoulder straps as the Tsuba figures are in the later uniform which didn't have them. Otherwise, the overall cut of the uniforms were similar. The older blue uniforms had yellow distinctions for the regular line units, and red distinctions for the Imperial Guard units. The later khaki uniforms had red cap and cuff bands for all infantry units, both line and Guard.

Interestingly, and unlike the Maxim team, the IJA gunner and Hotchkiss are molded as one piece - the tripod being separate.

The Noble Knight order should be arriving in a few days, and once the figures for this project are painted up, it will be time for a playtest using The Men Who Would Be Kings. Plan on attending our annual Christmas Dragon Rampant game day this Saturday. Should be a nice gathering with about 20 players - the game usually devolves into several smaller bashes going on around the table. An after action report with pictures will follow. Until then, thanks for stopping by and Season's Greetings!

Old Glory RJW Cossacks and Artillery Crew

These are also from Old Glory's Boxer Rising/Rebellion range. A bag each of cossacks (sadly without fur caps), and artillery crew. I ordered a couple of Tsuba Miniatures cannon for the crew to man. Plan to base some of the figures with the gun, and a few as singles. Should've ordered another cannon as there are 19 figures, and only plan to use 4 or 5 per cannon. Also ordered a pair each of Tsuba Hotchkiss and Maxim machine guns with crew.

The cossacks are painted up as Trans-Baikal troops with yellow uniform distinctions. They all carry what appear to be whips in their right hand. If their right hands were posed differently, I might've added lances.

The figures are all pretty nicely sculpted, again not overly detailed and making them easy to paint. The horses themselves are very nicely posed and proportioned, IMO.

I also just received a copy of The Men Who Would Be Kings. Very similar to the "Rampant" line of rules, but geared more for 19th Century Colonial (Imperialist?) armies versus tribal hordes. I was thinking of using it for RJW skirmish, but may mod it with stuff from Rebels and Patriots. On the gaming front, plan to be at our annual Dragon Rampant Christmas game day next weekend at Bruce Meyer's place in Gig Harbor. Bruce is the owner/proprietor of Brigade Games, and graciously opens up his place every year for this - we did skip one year due to the lockdown though. And in heavier news, the hotel that was used for our annual big convention in May, Enfilade, has been sold and the contract with our club voided. The powers to be are searching for a new location to host the convention. It had been held at the hotel in Olympia for about 20 years or so. I was fortunate to attend the last 17 there (missing the lockdown year). The place holds fond memories for me - being the place where I was first exposed to gaming, and making long-lasting friendships there over the years, including a great horde from Canada. Until next time, thanks for stopping by and wishing you all the best this holiday season.

Old Glory RJW Russian Infantry

These are actually from their Boxer Rising/Rebellion range, but the uniforms are pretty much the same. In fact, the main reaason I wanted these Old Glory figures was to match the Meiji IJA figures also from the same range.

These are from two bags of infanry with 30 figures each (although I think there are a couple of extras). Half have their tunics painted in Vallejo Bone White (the two units on the left), and the other half have tunics painted with Vallejo Off White (the two units on the right). The lighter shade of Off White looks a bit more striking, but the tunics were supposedly dyed earthy/khaki colors on campaign.

The flags were downloaded and printed from fellow gamer Mark Strachan's "1866 And All That" blog:  https://stracmark.blogspot.com/2015/07/free-russo-japanese-war-flag-sets.html 

Awaiting a copy of "The Men Who Would Be Kings" to see how these troops will be classed.

Next up are a bag each of Old Glory Russian Cossacks (although not wearing fur caps) and Artillery (still needing guns). Thanks for stopping by and wishing you the best this holiday seasons.

Siege of Louisbourg, 1758 - Rebels and Patriots Game

Hosted a nice playtest for a game I plan to run at next year's Enfilade convention. The scenario is based upon the intial landings by the British led by General Wolfe.  The game went for eight turns with the battle being a seesaw affair and ending up with both sides at the center of the battlefield. The British left did manage to destroy or push back most of their opposite side due to superior fire power. The British left consisted of several small units of Rangers and Light Infantry. The British right was slowed by movement in difficult terrain (rocky beach), and also a failed Activation of one unit rolling double 1's. A subsequent roll ended up having that unit fired upon a nearby boat of fellow British and killing three of them before even hitting the beach. The French had picquets in the center manned by small units of Marines. They decided to abandon the picquets leaving them open to the British. However, the French received reinforcements in turn 3, where they decided to return to the picquets - still not reach by the British. A large group of allied natives joined the French but failed to make it out of the woodline after being shot at by the British. The British grenadiers made slow advance in the center - even having to retreat back to the shore after failing Activations with rolls of double 1's. After seeing the battle reach a stalement, we called the game a draw. With movement being only 6 or 8 inches per turn, it was decided that one of the original victory conditions for the British to reach the opposite end of the table was very unlikely. A change to the victory condition would be to overrun or take over the picquets mid-table. Also, destroy more of the enemy units would be an alternate condition. Otherwise the scenario seemed to play out well. Here are a few pictures from the game.

Set up prior to the game. French side with reinforcements to arrive later in the game waiting in the tray. The French had two small naval cannon to move where they wanted to, up to 30" from the British shoreline.

British Rangers and Light Infantry already on the table at the start of the game. The rest of the British in landing boats needing a successful movement Activation roll to hit the shore. Another thing we found out was the rocky shoreline being difficult terrain slowed down movement too much. This will be removed from future games, and allowed the British troops to land and make a half movement once hitting shore.

British went first in turn 1 - landing most of their troops on the rocky shoreline. However, one boat failed with a double 1 Activation roll. A further roll had them shooting into the friendly troops next to them taking out 3 figures before they in turn successfully landed.

British left with small units of Rangers and Light Infantry wreaking havoc on the small units of French Marines manning their picquets. This really demoralized the French and had them retreating in the next turn. They were also allowed reinforcements to arrive to bolster their courage.

British Rangers and Light Infantry advancing - 78th Highland Grenadiers behind them.

French picquet in the center deciding to stand or fall back. Their reinforcements in the distance behind them.

French troops advancing to meet the British.

French reinforcements manning picquets earlier vacated by Marines.

British Rangers taking over an abandoned picquet.

One of the French naval guns destroyed an entire British unit with several turns of firing.

Native warband joining their French allies. They never made contact with the British.

British Grenadiers advancing in the center of the battlefield. This was about the end of turn 8 where the game was called a draw.

Another enjoyable Rebels and Patriots game which is my current favorite for skirmish gaming the musket era. Speaking of rules, just ordered a copy of The Men Who Would Be King. Planning to try it out for Russo-Japanese War. I've had some Meiji Imperial Japanese Army figures a for many years, but finally picked up some Russians to face them. Here they are after a stain of Minwax last night. Also, posed them with a 120mm resin "used" figure recently picked up off of ebay and repaired and re-painted.

Thanks for checking out the blog and wishing you all a happy holiday season.