Warlord Games Scots Lancers - WIP

Tried using a can of Army Painter Quickshade Dark Tone my buddy gave me yesterday at the Fort Steilacoom Fix Bayonets game day. This is the first time I've tried it, and it gives a more brownish shade versus a darker shade of Minwax Tudor Satin stain. I ended up using my trusty old can of Minwax instead of the Quickshade.

Here's a comparison picture of the two stains - Army Painter was used on the figure on the far left, the other two Minwax. It's hard to make out the difference in the photo, but the Army Painter has a brownish tone versus the darker tone of Minwax. I suppose, I might just be more used to the darker shading.

Here's a comparison shot of the contents in the cans - Army Painter Quickshade Dark Tone on the left, and my aged can of Minwax Tudor Satin Stain.

The figures before staining.

Next, a couple of pictures of my Imjin War naval game using "At The Height Of Battle" by David Manley, and MT Miniatures 1/1200th ships. Most of the ships used were formerly in David "I Live With Cats" Sullivan's collection (We all really miss David). The players all said they enjoyed the game, but we all agreed that a modification to crew casualties would benefit future games. Specifically, unless you triple the die roll results in combat or shooting, no additional casualties matter after the first one. As written, unless the die roll results as mentioned previously, casualties only affect boarding combat by reducing dice by half. We thought having combat dice reduced by one per each loss in combat or shooting might make it better for both sides.

I had to leave after running my game in the morning period, as my back was hurting - I pulled some back muscles a few days before. Nothing serious, just old man stuff - heck I sometimes pull my back out just stretching. Anyway, more to follow with this ECW project, but will soon be playtesting a long-awaited (by me and others), Hawaiian Tribal Game. Until then, thanks again for visiting and wishing you all the best!

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!

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!

Charlie Company - Vietnam Game

Got to play in an 11 player Vietnam game using Charlie Company for rules. I played a US platoon, and part of an overall mission to rescue a captured high-ranking US officer. I managed to get a lot of suppression early on by double-timing into the woods. I had to leave after turn 4 to pick up our vehicle at the shop - discovered yesterday that it need its struts replaced. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the game.

I played in this game with a varied scenario about 13 years ago, which was run by Mark Waddington. He's added a few things since then with his 3D printer. Most of the pictures only show US forces, as most of the Vietnamese hadn't been spotted yet.

The last time I played this game was at the now closed Game Matrix store. This is a new venue, Blue Sky Hobbies, and actually only about 10 minutes from my place. I really need to join in the weekly Wednesday crew for various gaming. I might host my Hawaiian Tribal game there soon.

By the time I left, the US forces still hadn't located the captured officer. We had used off board artillery to neglible effect. The Vietnames, on the other hand, used their mortars to inflict quite some damage on the US troops. Anyway, the few hours that I did play were very enjoyable, and the rules aren't too bad to pick up after a few turns.

Speaking of games, my buddy James invited me over to his place for an Hail Caesar Pyrrhic Wars playtest. This is with his weekly Tuesday evening crew. I'm actually invited to particpate in both groups, but tend to flake out attending. Pictured below are the figures I'm taking next Tuesday - minus Hypaspists and Galation cav units I forgot to pull out of the cabinet.

Looks like I'm back into the gaming swing of things - Enfilade must've been a sort of shot in the arm. Thanks for stopping in, and wishing you all the best!

Enfilade 2026 - Final Post

I failed to take any pictures from Saturday night's games as I was too tired to attend the period. I ended up falling asleep in my room and got up, and went down when most of the games were already closed down. I did make it for our annual Northwest Historical Miniature Gaming Society (NHMGS) meeting on Sunday morning. Having preregistered for it, I also played in Kevin Smyth's (A Gamer's Tale blog) Cuban Rebelliion game using The Men Who Would Be Kings. He also modified the rules for the Spanish to have torches and attempt to burn down sugar cane fields and huts. I ran four units of Cuban irregular cavalry. I spread them out along two edges of the table, and was moving around activating them during our turn. The Spanish ended up burning down enough of the cane fields to make a successful retreat off the table. Altough, at the end of the 8 turn game, I still had a half unit of my cavalry blocking the table edge of the retreat road. The Spanish would've easily finished me off in the next turn, as they were pretty much still at full strength. Not to mention we had older firearms with limited ammunition against their modern rifles with longer ranges and unlimited ammunition.

Cubans are in white clothing, while the Spanish are in light blue.

Although there were many great deals at the Bring and Buy, as well as with the many vendors, including a Warlord Games rep with tons of stuff, I ended up only buying a sample box of Paymaster Ancient Hawaiians.

Others had warn me about the multi-part metal figures, but wanted to give them a try anyway. Besides the one Noble who has its own base, the rest are sculpted for slotted bases. Marc Mann, the own and designer for the figures, said they're supposed to match up with Eureka Hawaiians. I'll post comparisons once they're put together and painted.

Pictured above is a portion of the Warlord Games vendor area. Outside of the photo on the left were many Bolt Action sets, and out of the picture on the right were Pike & Shotte, Black Powder, Hail Caeser and other game sets. I think they came up from the San Francisco area. This was the first time they attended Enfilade, and think they'll be back next year. I should also mention there was a Bolt Action tournament going on in another area upstairs from the main room. I failed to take pictures there too.

Next are photos from various other games in the the last period on Sunday.

So ended another nice Enfilade convention. All in all, it was great to see old friends, meet new ones, and also a bit sad to hear the passing of a few friends and acquintances since last year. I guess I'm one of the regulars now, having attended my first Enfilade in 2006 - 20 years except for the year we were shut in. I think Enfilade first started in the 1990's, and a lot of folks have come and gone since them. Anyway, looking forward to next year and plan to start on those Paymaster figures. Thanks for stopping in, and wishing you all the best!