Nappy Eye-Candy

Here are some pics of the old Foundry Napoleon & Staff set. I picked it up at last year's Enfilade for $10 (another went for $8 later in the day). Not sure how they will be used for wargaming - maybe something for the enemy to capture. The Napoleon figure is from a famous painting of him at Borodino.

Great War - WIP

More non WAB-proper news; sorry, but I'm bitten by the "Side-Projects Bug." At least the ruleset for this is WHH's Great War rule book. I'm not in the habit of taking, much less posting, pics of unpainted lead, but I feel obligated to keep this blog alive.

So, without further ado, here are some pics of the what will be some core-units for Great War games.

First up, a platoon each of assault troops for the French & Germans; these are Old Glory "Trench Fighters" packs. In the back is an A7V (or as we like to say when we've had too much schnapps, Allgemeines Kriegsdepartement, 7. Abteilung, Verkehrswesen) German tank, also from Old Glory - I moved the exhaust pipes to where they're located in most pictures I've seen - Green Stuff'd the originally molded slots for the pipes. I also cut the track skirts a bit; they were rounded at the bottom - again, to conform to the pictures of the "real thing."Next, the "Hairy Ones" - Old Glory Poilus. The poses are quite animated; which suits the rules just fine IMO. Old Glory doesn't make WWI French in the early uniform (the one with kepis & red trousers). Which is okay, since I like the Horizon Blue uniform too. This a about a company's worth, including 37mm support guns and Chauchat (pronounced 'show-shah') LMGs.
Finally, some Old Glory German "Reservists." I know the Stahlhelm replaced the Pickelhaube in 1916, but I really like the look of the older uniform. This is about two platoon's worth of infantry. The officer & NCO fig are particularly nice. I plan to add some Jaegers from Great War Miniatures.
I'll post an update when these guys get some paint slapped on.

Victrix British Centre Coy

Heh, heh, yeah I spelt it in English. Anyway, here are some pics of my recently painted Victrix British. Ready for some Sharp Practice. Actually waiting for the release of the Victrix French as OPFOR. I know, I know, you're thinking what does this have to do with WAB. Well, it's basically kept me away from WAB a bit. However, I do have some Crusader Thracians ordered to flesh out my Macedonian light infantry/skirmish troops; as well as some more Old Glory WWI French & Germans for WHH Great War. So I have not given up on WAB by any means.

Back to these Victrix chaps. Very happy with the end result. I ended up basing them on metal washers. I was hemming and hawing over basing them in groups of four or singly. I pretty much have all my foot figures based singly for WAB, so this probably carried over into these Napoleonics. I just like the option that they can be moved around in tighter areas singly.

They are supposed to be the 3rd Foot Regiment, aka "The Buffs." I may have used too much yellow for the facing colors though. This unit earned much honors in the Peninsula. Although they were decimated at the battle of Albuhera when overrun by several French cavalry units, they never lost their colours, but at great cost to one indomitable Lieutenant Latham. They even went on to take part in the invasion of New York in 1814.

Speaking of the colours; beautiful as they are, I found them a bit tricky to fit on. I notched them a little where they attach to the poles. They could probably have been a millimeter or two smaller for an easier fit. Just a suggestion and not a complaint; as it is very cool that they are included in the set to begin with. There is actually another set for the 59th Foot; but I didn't want to paint white facings.

Napoleonic Skirmish Side-Project

Okay, this isn't WAB-per say, but I read that Rob Broom played a Napoleonic game using a variant of Warmaster. Who knows, I have the WHH Great War rule book & wouldn't Napoleonics only be about a hundred years earlier? WAB spans millenia. Anyway, this is my first small-scale painting of Napoleonic uniforms since my Airfix days many years ago. It is tedious work! All the cross-belts, straps, and whatnots! I don't think they're any harder than Ancients, but the uniformity (heh heh heh) really is tiring. Here's a WIP picture of my first box of Victrix - British Peninsular War Center Company guys. Still need to finish the bases (metal washers - approx. 21mm) of the "rankers." Next up: drummers, sergeants & officers.

Shieldwall Campaign 1/24/09

Report on a mini-campaign held at the Edgewood Bunker today (1/24/09). This was GM'd by Adrian using rules from Age of Arthur; although the armies played are from Shieldwall lists. Briefly, there were two successive games with armies of 2,000 points each. Within the two armies, there were 1,000 points each of Normans and Welsh. The armies were pretty close in composition thanks to Dan splitting his Welsh evenly in two. The scenario pitted an invading army of Normans with Welsh allies against a defending army of Normans and Welsh allies. The first game started with a Comes from the invading army issuing a challenge of single combat. Both he and the defender's Comes ended up killing each other; but the battle started nevertheless. The invader's objective in the first game was to get three units across in good order and not be locked in combat. This, however, was not achieved and the defenders were declared victors. The second game's scenario had the invaders regouping after licking their wounds, and finding another area of the river to cross. The objective for this game was to have control of the bridge and fordable crossing area of the river. The invader's plan was to concentrate their forces on the fordable area and initially disregarding the bridge entirely. This almost worked, but the defender's Comes audaciously challenged the invader's Comes to single-combat. The defending Comes' audacity paid off; the invading Comes (aka army general) was slain and the greater part of the invading army failed their subsequent panic tests. The invaders wisely accepted the GM's offer to end the game then and there. I should mention that I played the invaders for both games (Adrian played the first game with me and Wes showed up for the second game). Dan and Bruce D. played the defenders both games. If anything, I hope I learned what not to do next time. Some pictures from the game follow:

Drumbeat - 2009

Here's a quick report on WAB games played at this year's Drumbeat up in Seattle. Apologies for not having enough info to report on other games played there - which included DBA/DBM, I believe a Tactica game, Fields of Glory, Patrol (WW2 skirmish), & Wes R.'s Napoleonics with his own ruleset. Drumbeat is a smaller type of gathering run by Dick Larsen - anyone can host or play; the only criteria (besides having a good time) is the game needs to be historical in content. There should be more info of these games on either the Puyallup gamers or the NHMGS Yahoo groups. Anyway, I only took a few pictures of the three games played. In the first (morning) session, Dan's Carthaginians v. Adrian's Republican Romans & Bruce D.'s Teutonic Order v. my French HYW were played. After a quick "calorie-identified" lunch at Wendy's, the afternoon session had James' Hussites v. Bruce's victorious Teutonic Order, as well as another Punic Wars game. I was allowed to play part of the Roman army to take my mind off of the horrendous defeat of my French. I'm not sure of the result of the first Punic Wars game, but besides my French defeat, I believe it was a draw between the Hussites & Teutonic Order; the second Punic Wars game was definitely a Carthaginian victory. This game was played by a newcomer to WAB we met at the convention; I think his name is Paul? Anyway, Dan has his info & we may be playing with him in the future. That's what this was all about anyway - trying to see if more folks want to play WAB. Anyway - here's some pics from the games:

My WAB Armies

Choson Korean - for Imjin War.

Campanian army with Pyrrhic allies.

Late-Samurai with all options.

Seleucid led by Antiochus the Great.

Late-HYW French - led by Joan of Arc.
Mycenaean - My first WAB army. Next time this army is used, it will employ more archers - not just the guys in the spear formation.
Norman. A small detachment of shortbow archers has been added, and should help missle fire on the move.Early Samurai. This army is suitable for individual skirmish type of games - maybe something out of Siege and Conquest.Macedonian/Successor. This is a core army that can swap out/add various options - anything from Imperial Macedonian to late-Successors. Early-Holy Roman Empire Clerical army led by the Archbishop of Cologne.

The Re-Taking of Tilltam

Here's a quick battle report w/captioned photos from a game which is part of a larger, running scenario hosted & GM'd by Wes R. Today's game (12/6/08) was fought between the forces of Marchester & Murchia - fictional entities among several others in their third year of hard campaigning. My Murchians had captured Tilltam from the Marchestrians in the previous campaign year. The Marchester forces decided to retake the village. The first relief force arrived from Sudley & a second force arrived from Marchester itself at turn 4. All the figures & scenery from today's game are from Wes' extensive collection. The game ended when Adrian's Marchestrian foot Milites defeated the Murchian Comes & his mounted Milites in combat - who fled off the table. As it is said, "He who fights & runs away, lives to fight another day!"