Saturday, May 31, 2008

Clankity-Clankity-CLANK!

Well productivity in Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Land has slowed significantly. I’ve been pretty busy with… well… other stuff.

I did manage to trade away the Great War stuff and did a bit of work on the 28mm WW2 Russians. The last of them are very nearly finished – hopefully polish them off next week. I did finish the KV-1:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


This is an Army Group North Miniautres KV-1. Nice model. I think I’d like to pick up some more of their stuff at some point! At some point I may paint some numbers on the side of the turrets, and/or some slogan in cyrillic....

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Grey Wolves

I’ve been doing a lot of sculpting lately – more on that later, in another post – but last night I banged out a couple new WW2 Germans…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are the “Grey Wolves” from Artizan Designs. As with all Artizan figures they were lovely to paint. I was inspired to paint them up as I had started watching Das Boot earlier in the week. I have three more crewmen – but I’m not sure exactly how to paint them as they don’t match ANY of the German naval uniforms in the sole reference I have on naval uniforms of World War Two…. I’m not saying they aren’t correct – I’d hardly call the book exhaustive (It’s a small book and it covers the uniforms and insignia of 15 different nations!). So perhaps I’ll have to get back to watching Das Boot for some inspiration!

Then I'm going to have to build them a U-Boat!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Sculpting Update

A little more work on the New Masters

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


My 20mm Canadian Infantrymen circa 1986. The advancing chap on the left is more or less complete. I had started a standing/firing figure a while back at the same time but have neglected him for a bit. I still have to do some work on his helmet and add all his webbing kit… but that went pretty quickly on the first one so he should be good to go pretty soon…

I guess I better order myself some new rubber…


Same guys from the back.


The British SYW fusilier. Added a sword and started on some belt and coat details. I’m not sure about the positioning of the sword… but I don’t think I really have much choice. This doll was originally slated to be the British officer – but I’ve messed up my original fusilier good so I decided to bring this guy up as the fusilier and I’ll do some carving off of the old fusilier and make him into the officer… does this make any sense to anyone but me…? I'm sorry, it's late I really should be sleeping....


The French Militiaman. I have twice lengthened his capot and am now satisfied with it. Threw some details on the doll that will likely be covered and lost by the time I’m finished the arms and musket… ah well.. I’ll know they were there.


Other side of the militiaman – needs some work on those cuffs… otherwise I’m quite happy with this one.


Another doll that was slated for something else… this was to be a British light infantryman – I anguished so long about the arrangement of the kit I would put on him and WHICH HAT I would use… that I abandoned the whole thing for the moment and started to turn him into a highlander! (Again I lay part of the blame on Fitz-Badger and his highlanders…).


Back side of a French soldier form the Companies Franches de la Marine. I was working on the sword and bayonet sheath today. Sword still need some work. Again I’m not so hot on the positioning of this sword either… we shall see…


Front side of French soldier.


… and the 1850’s 40mm Highlander got his kilt finally… not looking forward to trying a feather bonnet…

Friday, May 16, 2008

Back to Sculpting

After a brief (or… not so brief…) hiatus I finally got back to work on my New Masters.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The two on the left of the picture are French Troupes de la Marine and a Canadien habitant militia. I did a bit of caving on the English figures, and added belts to a couple – nothing significant enough to include in the picture. It’s too bad it’s not a better picture – I’m really happy with some of the details I put on the Militiaman.

The little guy is a 20mm 1980’s Canadian infantryman – and he’s more or less DONE! (Guess I better order some new rubber!) I’ll probably add a rifle sling yet. I can’t decide if I should do a second riflemen… and SMG… and GPMG… On one had this guy wasn’t all that hard, on the other… I am a lazy bastard….

The big shiny guy is a doll my friend John made for some mid-late 19th century 40mm toy soldier-ish figures. He gave me a couple and asked me to do the British. I’ve carvd some of the unnecessary bits off and have applied the hose tops for a HIGHLANDER!! I’ve been feeling the itch to model some kilts again since I started following Fitz-Badger’s work on his own lovely jocks on The Soweiter League Blog

As you can see I’ve been experimenting with “brown stuff”. I think I like it a bit better than the “green stuff”. I think I might try and order in some ProCreate to give that a try. Conveniently it is carried by Military Miniatures USA - one of the distributors my Friendly Local Game Store deals with!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Last of the Blood Bowl/Mordheim Gobbos

These are the last of a team of Goblins and Orcs a friend of mine gave to me to convert into a Mordheim warband and paint for him. The story idea was that they were a Blood Bowl team doing some treasure hunting in the off-season – rather clever of him, I thought. It’s been a LOT of fun. One of these days I’ll have to bust out the crew of the Red Snapper and beat them down…

It’s been a long time in the making. I had enough done for him to field them in the Hero’s Gambit 2004 Tournament. Finished off a few more for 2005 – but he forgot the rest of the team at home in Calgary…. These have since been sitting at the flanks of my painting table gathering dust. It feels good now to finally get these off the painting table. Though I seem to recall there was a limit to the number of goblins you can have in a warband (2 per Orc?) and he may now be over… have to keep my eyes open for some more Blood Bowl Orcies.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The goblins are all actual Games Workshop Blood Bowl figures, but the orc is from some other company for some other game… I can’t remember… (Mage Knight…?) I found it in a bargain bin for $1 and thought it would be a perfect coach or trainer for the team.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

YARRRRRRR!!!

Well I still haven’t got much cycling in since the family got back, but I have been adjusting my sleep pattern. I’ve been going to bed at ten or eleven instead of midnight… or one… or two! My hope is that once I get caught up on some sleep and start getting to bed at nine or ten I’ll be able to get up at five and go for an hour or so ride out valley road before Amanda and the kiddies wake up…

So things have slowed down a bit here. But I am at least a bit more well rested… and happier… and I did finish up a few pirates last night:

(Remember: click on the picture for a bigger version)


These are Old Glory pirates I think one is from the Pirate Captains pack, the rest are from the Pirates with knives pack… Hopefully the players in my Savage Worlds: Pirates of the Spanish Main game will be hiring these lads on Saturday (the players have just acquired their own ship! – I guess I’ll be needing to make them a new ship too!)

Sunday, May 11, 2008

15mm Great War figures for Trade

Next up on the trading block: some 15mm Great War figures …

I’ve had some success getting rid of most of my 15mm stuff so my friend John has asked me to help trade away some of his 15mm Great War figures. I’m throwing in a few of my own because I’m never going to use them….

If these are of interest to you see below for what John or I might be interested in for trade. We are interested in trading these, not selling them. Every wargamer out there has a box of shame - full of unpainted lead, rashly bought on a whim because it seemed like a good idea at the time – so go find those unwanted never-going-to-be-painted figures and see if there’s something you might want to trade for these…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


This is John’s Stuff:
126x Minifigs Early War Germans in Pickelhaube advancing
58x Minifigs Early War French in Kepi advancing
7x Minifigs Late War French in helmet advancing
1x Minifigs French 75mm Field Gun and crew
10x Minifigs French Command
10x Peter Pig French Command
124x Minifigs Russians advancing
149x Minifigs Austrians advancing


These are mine:
16x Minifigs Late War Highlanders Advancing
5x Minifigs Late War Highlander Command
8x Peter Pig Highlanders in Glengarry
2x Minifigs Early War Highlanders in Glengarry
3x Minifigs Early War Highland Command in Glengarry


Here are a few of the Highlanders and Germans I’ve painted. I’ve mostly included this to show how nicely they paint up – I’m not actually all that keen to include them in the trade as I rather like how these turned out. I’d throw them in if anyone really wanted them though, to “sweeten the pot” – because it’s not like I’m ever going to have a use for them…

As I said most of this belongs to my friend John, with the noted exceptions above. He’s a little more selective about what he’d be willing to trade for. Generally anything 25mm or larger would be considered. More specifically he’s got 25mm Tricorne stuff (War of the Spanish Succession), 25mm Great War, and 30mm Scruby Napoleonics. Every so often he makes noises about getting into ACW or ancients (Romans of Greeks) – so if you had any of those in 25mm he might be interested.

I’m slightly less selective. If you had something I might be interested in maybe I could make the trade and then just paint some stuff for John in trade for his stuff…Here’s what I’d mostly be interested in:

20mm

WW2 – I mostly need equipment for British/Canadians and Germans, maybe Italians or Russians. I could probably be talked into other things that I don’t have any of if you had enough of it for an entire force (or a good start to one)

Vietnam – I’ve got piles of American infantry, but I could always use some Australians, boats, tanks, mortars, guns and other equipment…

Modern – My focus is sort of mid to late 80’s British, Russian, Canadians, French and Americans – I also have Afghans, forces for Lebanon in the 1980’s, Africans, and Argentines. If there was something else you had that was cool I could maybe be talked into it.

28mm

Early-mid 18th Century - Seven Years War, Pirates, etc. – This is my main focus right now. I’m mostly interested in the British and French in North America – but could easily be persuaded into taking pretty much anything with a tricorne hat (or a mitre cap for that matter!)!! I’d also be down with some more pirates…

Dark Ages – Vikings, Saxons, Normans, etc, etc.

Other Ancients… maybe…

ECW – I got a PILE of this in trade fro my DBA armies so it’s not high on my priority list (unless they were Scotts/Irish – Royalist or Covenanters!).

Victoriana – colonials, VSF, Victorian horror….

WW1/RCW – Anything really…

WW2 – (see what I mean about multiple scales…?) I have some British Commandos and Paras, a handful of Russians, and some Germans and some North African stuff (DAK, more commandos/LRDG-types, French Foreign Legion)… so, whatever… Anything for Europe/North Africa I’d be interested in…. Not so much the Far East… (then again I’ve always wanted to do something around the Canadians in Hong Kong….).

Vietnam – I have lots… whatever…

Modern….

Fantasy… Sci-fi… Zombie/horror… (you can never have too many zombies…. well okay maybe you can…).

Board Games?!

Take a look at the Wishlist….

If you’re at all interested and got something good to trade post a comment with your email address – I won’t actually PUBLISH the comment…. It’s just a way of letting me know how to get in touch with you without having to publish my email address on this blog….

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Another Stab at "Great War Commander"

…or perhaps I should call it Russian Civil War Commander…

I wanted to try a couple of tweaks to Blitzkreig Commander/Cold War Commander I had been thinking about to make the game work for the Great War era.

We for the most part used CWC with the following principal changes:

Fixed Formations
We will use the fixed formation rules from CWC

Objectives
Each attacking formation should be given a specific objective before the start of the game. When all units in the formation are being issued orders to move directly towards the objective the HQ or CO issuing the order gains a +1 CV bonus. (This is similar to the rigid tactical doctrine bonus in CWC…)

Command Post
A Command unit that is in a Command Post receives a +1 CV bonus. When in a command post a command unit may also ignore any distance penalties to on-table indirect fire units that are entrenched or to any entrenched subordinate units (though they won’t be used in this scenario)

Formation Orders
To issue an order to a group of units all units must be within 5cm of another unit in the formation being issued the order and no two units in the formation may be further than 20cm apart.

Artillery and Aircraft
All off-table artillery and aircraft will be scheduled – there will be no FAOs or FACs!
Aircraft should roll for scatter…? I’ll worry about that when I actually have a scenario using aircraft…

As I was using 28mm figures I increased all the distances by 1.5 – seemed to work okay. Though we should have been playing the length of my gaming table for the scenario and as there was a pile of stuff I couldn’t get cleaned off in time we played across… which made for a quick game and a particularly small deployment zone.

Southern Russian, 1919

SITUATION

A breakthrough has put the reds on the run! The White forces in the area must not let them get away and regroup!

SCENARIO

The scenario we used was the Pursuit Scenario (#7) right out of the Cold War Commander book. As the table was proportionally shortened compared to the suggested table size by my scaling up all distances I reduced the turn limit to 7 turns.

FORCES

White Russians

CO (CV 9) MV: 60, AT: -, HT: 6, SV: 6, Notes:

2x Infantry Regiments, each:
-1x HQ (CV 8) MV: 40, AT: -, HT: 4, SV: 6, Notes:
-12x Infantry Units MV: 10, AT: 3/30*, HT: 6, SV: -, Notes:
-1x MG Units MV: 10, AT: 3/50*, HT: 5, SV: -, Notes:

Cavalry Regiment
-HQ (CV 8) MV: 40, AT: -, HT: 4, SV: 6, Notes:
-8x Cossack Cavalry Units MV: 30, AT: 2/20*, HT: 5, SV: -, Notes: No command penalty for assaulting enemy and +1 attack in close assault

3x Off-table Field Artillery Units with 3 Assets each. Attacks: 2


Bolsheviks

CO (CV9)

2x Infantry Regiments, each:
-1x HQ (CV 8) MV: 40, AT: -, HT: 4, SV: 6, Notes:
-12x Infantry Units MV: 10, AT: 3/30*, HT: 6, SV: -, Notes:
-1x MG Units MV: 10, AT: 3/50*, HT: 5, SV: -, Notes:


THE GAME

Gary and the Other Tim came over this evening to help me out with the play-testing

SET UP

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The table with deployment zones marked out. The hills, though they look like small dunes next to the figures, we counted as LOS blocking hills.

Mr. Miller (Colonel Millerov) played the Tsarist forces and Gary (Comerade Chappellski) played the Bolsheviks. This is an odd scenario as scheduled artillery has to be planned before figures are set on the table… but it isn’t until after the defender deploys that the attacker even decides which table edge he’s coming from…? So we had General Millerov plan out his artillery bombardments before Comrade Chappellski set out his forces – he simple referenced the artillery to his table edge whichever that happened to be – wasn’t really a problem as the terrain was all pretty open… could be a problem if the terrain was more varied…


Comerade Chappellski and his dashing budenovka.


Comerade Chappelski set up his forces dead center. General Millerov decided to come on the table edge facing them so Gary wouldn’t have to turn all his toys around (wasn’t that gentlemanly of him).

TURN ONE

Whites

Scheduled artillery bombarded the center of the deployment zone catching the entire force less two stands of infantry. As they were all in the open I had visions of the entire force being suppressed. As it was, out of the 24 stands, 15 were hit, but only 6 suppressed. The CO and an HQ were also hit, but not suppressed.

The first and second infantry regiments failed to arrive on the first turn – could have been disastrous, in such a scenario where you have to catch up to a force that could potentially be moving the same speed as you…

Luckily the Cavalry charged on to the table and with their second move found themselves in a frontal assault on the Bolsheviks 1st Regiment! We quickly learned that this is not a successful tactic for cavalry. The Cossacks lost three stands to one Bolshevik infantry and one MG.


The situation after the dust settled after the cavalry’s first charge!

Reds

All three command elements failed to issue any orders. Everyone stood still. We always seem to neglect the initiative phase… Gary had a few unsuppressed infantry stands that could have shot up (or retired away from) the Cossacks… ah well…

TURN TWO

Whites


As the frontal assault didn’t work out so good General Millerov had his Cossacks gallop around the flank – with considerably better results (though we seemed to have been ignoring opportunity fire as well… it’s been too long since we played CWC…). Three Bolshevik stands K.O.ed to a couple hits on the Cossacks.


Both of the Russian infantry regiments finally made it on to the table, though it took direct urging from the CO to get the 2nd regiment on. Both made two moves this turn.


Here they come!

Reds

Both Bolshevik regiments made one move.

TURN THREE

Whites

Scheduled artillery caused a few hits and two suppressions.


The Cossacks rolled up the Bolsheviks flank – nearly wiping out the 1st battalion this turn!


Well, that’s what cavalry is meant to do! Right?


They just kept going…


…and going… 6 Bolshevik units wiped out!

Both infantry regiments made a single move. The second regiment rolled a command blunder on it’s second order attempt – CEASE FIRING! The HQ was suppressed and would suffer -1CV for it’s next turn


The general situation at the end of the Tsarists third turn.

Reds

The sole remaining unsuppressed unit in the 1st regiment made THREE moves! (yeah, I’d be running too!)

The 2nd Regiment made one move then rolled a command blunder. Another CEASE FIRING! Thought the HQ was hit, it wasn’t suppressed.


The general situation at the end of the Bolsheviks third turn

TURN FOUR

Whites

The infantry plodded forward while the Cossacks continued to roll up the Bolshevik line!


The Cossacks K.O.ed two and suppressed four at a loss of one of their own.


General situation at the end of the Tsarists fourth turn.

Reds

Comerade Shappellski manage to keep his force together – passing a Break Test at -2!

The last remaining element of the 1st Regiment made it off the table! HUZZAH!

The six unsuppressed units of the 2nd Regiment also made a dash for the table edge and made it off.


The general situation at the end of the Bolsheviks fourth turn.

TURN FIVE

Whites

The 1st regiment made one move. They weren’t going to be in this one…

The 2nd Regiment’s HQ failed it’s first attempt to issue orders. As General Millerov really wanted to have his infantry share in a bit of the glory he intervened and got the Regiment moving and then had then firing on the Bolsheviks causing five hits and a suppression on one unit. Then he stopped, not failed, stopped – so the cavalry could then go and mop things up.


The Tsarist infantry surges forward!


The action in the corner of the table!


The Cossacks rode down the last of the reds…


General situation at the end of the Tsarists fifth turn – all remaining Bolsheviks were wiped out!

Reds

Well, technically there were still a couple of command elements on the table… and one of the attackers victory conditions was breaking the defenders force so we had Gary make one last Break Test. At -6 he need to roll three or less… and he did…

So those (few) that did retire off the table did so in good order…

CONCLUSIONS

The Butchers Bill

Bolsheviks
19 units knocked out
7 retired off table

Tsarists
4 cavalry units lost

While the Tasrists did manage to cause 25% casualties (they did over 50% actually), they failed to break the Bolsheviks so they only scored a minor objective. The Bolsheviks did actually get 25% of their force off the table so they too scored a minor objective… a draw..?! I think I’d call it for the Tsarists.

A fun game. I thought it totally had the right flavour for the era. This would be a damn tough scenario if you didn’t have something fast moving. Next time I think we’ll try a western front trench assault… or maybe I’ll get John to bust out his Russo-Japanese war figures..!

More Russians, Different Conflict… and a musket

Last night I had a pretty productive evening…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


First I went over to my friend John’s house to pour the first half of my musket mould (I’m all out of RTV…). Of course I took this picture and then forgot to take any of the pouring process… DOH! Ah well, when I actually get around to moulding the figures I’ll take some…


Then I stayed up way too late and finished off some Russians for the Great War/Russian Civil War for my game this evening. The MG team on the left are Bolsheviks from Coppelstone Castings. The field gun and crew on the right are from Battle Honours. I like the Battle Honours stuff – very economical, nice casts, they fit nicely with my own figures – the only complaint I have is that this particular pack came with a WW2 Russian AT crewman…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

AAR for this evening’s game…

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Renegade Legionnaires

Alright… enough with the whining… Here’s some pics of recently finished toys…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are Artizan Designs “Renegade Legionnaires from their “Thrilling Tales” line. I was feeling a little inspired by Jeff’s post about the new Pulp Adventure game he’s playing in and the other WW2 figures I’ve been painting recently. They will be joining the rest of my Legionnaires

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Status Report

There’s going to be a few changes around here in Tim’s Miniature Wargaming world….

Where to start…

First I’ve cancelled my regular, weekly Thursday historical miniatures gaming night – so there won’t be so many AARs for a while. As the days get longer (and warmer!) Gary will off to the cabin, Christian will be off to play war and/or teach or take various courses, and John will be insanely busy building his new house. Britton… well I haven’t actually SEEN him since last September anyway…. Maybe I’ll try and get this going again in October – after ‘cross season…

As for me I’ve got other tings to do as well. Any who know me, or read this blog regularly will know that I’m a pretty dedicated and productive hobbyist! I don’t watch TV or play computer games so I manage to get a LOT of stuff accomplished, especially over the last couple of years. This, however, has come at a bit of a cost. I’m turning into a fat, fat bastard.

Now at just under 100kg (215lbs) many of you will probably won’t think I’m all that damn fat. As my sole modes of transportation are walking of biking I probably am a bit more fit than most gamer-types I know. I am feeling big enough around the mid-section to be uncomfortable on the drops (the lower part of drop handlebars) so something has to be done.

While my family was away last week I planned on doing a series of EPIC rides to kind of get “back in the saddle again” and going on rides just to go on rides – not just to get from Point A to Point B around town. I was going to work my way up to 100km rides by the weekend. Then it snowed… and rained… and froze… and then snowed some more… I did manage to set up the much-neglected trainer by the computer and watched a few DVDs while spinning up a storm! I’ve also been trying to lay off on the Root Beer and licorice. Anyway I am going to try and spend a considerably larger chunk of my spare time riding and getting fit again…. Maybe even “race fit” to do some Cyclocross in the fall…

I’m not saying I’m going to be quitting the wargaming altogether. Not by any stretch of the imagination! I’m just not going to be enjoying the same high level of productivity and regular gaming that I have over the past two years or so…

Savage Saturdays

I have a very regular group of guys that come over on Saturday evenings and play Savage Worlds. Right now we’ve got a pretty good Savage Worlds: Pirates of the Spanish Main campaign going on. That will continue!

Out of Town Gaming

I’ve bailed on Mayday this weekend… got some work on the house to finish up that I didn’t get done while the family was away.

A friend in Regina was planning a gaming weekend in June (I think) and I’m still hoping to make it to that…if it happens. I am also still planning on heading out to Calgary for an extended weekend to hook up with the John (et al) for some serious dice-tossing…

Of course if the price of gas (and bus tickets) triples…. I may have to rethink these…

The blog

I’m not going to be posting quite as regularly. I’d like to set aside some specific time each week that I can write draft a post about what I’ve been doing over the last week. I’m thinking either Sunday morning or evening… Hopefully I’ll get posting a little more regularly on the Other Blog.

Wargames Weekend(s) ‘09

There will likely be some changes to the previously announced Wargames Weekend ‘09. Originally this was to be a Wargames Weekend in February and it was going to have a “Quebec 1759” theme to it. Due to the anticipated downshift in productivity this is not likely to be possible. Instead I am thinking I might do a Quebec 1759 weekend later in the year. Perhaps it could be in September, which would be closer to the anniversary anyway…

I would, however, still kind of like to have a Wargames Weekend in February. To gurantee it’s success I’d like to plan something that I already HAVE most of the stuff I’d need already complete. I’d also like to have the weekend be a mini campaign of sorts. Right now I’m considering a couple basic formats with a multitude of possible themes/specific settings for each.

One option would be an “All Quiet” Campaign. The inspiration for this comes from an article in Wargames Illustrated (#101, Feb 1996) by Richard Crawley. Though originally written as a mini-campaign for modern skirmishes in Chechnya it could easily work for any modern (or not so modern…) campaign where there are lines that have been stabilized and the main fighting is going on somewhere else – indeed I have run this campaign with different rules set on the Eastern front in World War Two.

The campaign will involve two opposing platoon sized units doing a turn in the lines for three days. Each day will consist of two campaign turns; one day, one night, for a total of six sessions/scenarios. During each turn the commander of the respective platoons will be given missions to carry out. Successful completion of the missions will gain the platoon victory points – loss of their own men will lose them victory points (and the ability to successfully carry out further missions!) – thus for the platoon commander it will be an exercise in management of resources. Also using personnel for more than one turn in a row will cause the unit to be fatigued, reducing it’s combat effectiveness.

This option would work well if I had two players committed to the entire weekend (they could take on the role of platoon commanders) and just a few others that might show up for one or two sessions – the campaign could not handle more than one or two players on a side for any given session as – by the very nature of the campaign missions will generally be carried out by the minimum number of troops necessary – to keep the others “fresh” and reduce the potential for massive casualties. Indeed there were sessions where neither side made contact!

The games would be played out using Savage Worlds. Though it could take place in any number of settings it would most likely take place during World War Two simply because I have platoons of opposing forces. … Germans vs. Paras in Normandy, Germans Vs. Russians on the Eastfront (maybe even in Stalingrad – if I got a bit more ruined city terrain finished!) Germans vs. French Foreign Legionnaires in North Africa (Gazala?). Other possibilities could include Marines vs. NVA at Khe Sahn, 1968. French vs. English in some siege during the Seven Years War in North America (maybe even Quebec…?).

Another similar option would be a series of programmed scenarios – or a matrix of programmed scenarios (victory in one scenario would determine which scenario is played next) – always involving one particular unit on at least one of the sides so that there is some continuity to the campaign and decisions have to be made whether discretion is the better part of valour and saving the unit is more important that accomplishing certain missions, etc.….

This could be with ANYTHING I can currently field either skirmish games using Savage Worlds and 28mm figures or a larger scale (of action) and some appropriate rules (BKG, CWC, WM, etc…).

The other option would be a warband/every-man-for-himself weekend – the most obvious example of this would be Mordhiem. Everyone has a band of his own and plays against other participants in one on one or multiplayer scenarios – casualties are kept track of – some may recover, others are removed from the roster. Between games surviving members gain experience of some sort and potentially improve, new members can be recruited, new equipment purchased, etc.

In some cases some participants may be able to bring their own units – which would greatly expand the possibilities… Some of the setting options could include:

Mordheim: Bands of fantasy adventurers scour the ruined city of Mordheim for wyrdstone. The plus with this one is a number of people I know own their own warbands.

Legends of the Old West: Grab an outlaw gang or sheriff’s posse and shoot up some old west towns… I have a few old west figures of my own. not so much western buildings… but I might be able to throw together something.

Legends of the High Seas: Grab a ship and a crew and ply the high seas for adventure and gold! Ya-HARRRRR! My collection of pirates seems to be rapidly expanding I’m sure I could put together a couple of my own crews by then.

Of course any of these above could be converted to Savage Worlds…. Other Savage Skirmishing possibilities could include:

Pulp Adventure! Grab a group of intrepid adventurers: Archaeologists, Foreign Legionnaires, Nazis, Bolsheviks, Treasure Hunters, Bizarre Cultists, etc and set a course for a globe-trotting, two-fisted high adventure!

Rippers: the Horror Wars: Monsters versus Monster Hunters in the Victorian age!

Near-Future Post-Apocalypse/Zombie Plague Survivors/Scavengers…?

Any of these I could easily run at anytime, so there’s no need to decide right now – just thought I’d throw some options out there in case anyone did want to get together for a weekend in February next year. I guess the earlier we decided the more time anyone wanting to paint their own unit would have to do so (should we go with the bring your own warband option…). I’d also have more time to work on some setting specific terrain.

The other issue with a February Wargames Weekend is when to have it? I had originally said the last weekend in February to keep with the tradition of Tim’s Wargaming Birthday Bash – but two weeks earlier is a long weekend (in Saskatchewan and Alberta, at least) and a couple of people (who live in Alberta) have suggested that I move it make it easier for those who are traveling (mostly from Alberta). Now when thinking about Wargames Weekends in the past I avoided long weekends as usually people have things planned with friends and family…. So, I don’t know… If there’s anyone out there that’s thinking they might come to a gaming weekend in February (whether in town or not) would having it a week or two earlier on the long weekend (Family Day!) make it more or less likely that you would be able to show up…?

Your thoughts…? Post a comment!

Friday, May 2, 2008

The Russians Are Coming!

I may have mentioned I traded away my 15mm Fallshirmjagers. They’ve been shipped off to a friendly fellow in the Netherlands who was kind enough to send me a whole pile of 28mm Russians (and some other cool stuff) in trade. When they arrived earlier in the week I immediately started basing and priming a bunch of them. Here’s some pictures so far…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Here’s a bunch of the stuff that’s yet to be painted. In total there was 28 Russian infantrymen and 10 partisans. These are mostly Bolt Action Miniatures - which I have to say are pretty darn nice figures! – and a few Black Tree Design. There is also a Bolt Action Miniature GAZ67b command car, and a KV-1 and a KV-2 (I think from Army Group North Miniatures). Also, not pictured, were 4 old citadel Halflings (I have a few of the same vintage – almost enough to make a unit now!), a dozen Vikings, a mounted Napoleonic Marshall of some sort and four really cool pirates – There’ll be painted pics of those soon enough…


So far I’ve cranked out a few of the Russians. 9 Regular infantry…


…and four scouts.


Because it’s never enough to do something in ONE scale I also painted up a stand of Platoon 20 Russians Scouts…


And just for something completely different; some modern militia/partisan-types for some future Cold War Commander game. I was really happy with the check pattern on the lumberjack-type jacket on the left – doesn’t look half as nice in the picture. Can anyone guess what jacket the guy on the right is wearing?