More Lancieri! (finally)

Well, it took me way too long, but I finally got around to knocking out two more WWI lancieri :

As with the previous two, the heads are provided by Dulcop grenade lobbing arditi. The bodies and horses provided by Armies in Plastic - I believe a set of Egyptian lancers in this case, maybe? 

With these two, I can now field two squadrons for my reduced-base-size One Hour Wargames army:

And this is plenty for the standard OHW force builder (a max of two cavalry).

I am aiming to do some OHW Battle of Pozzuolo del Friuli scenarios (the cavalry played a role in the rearguard as the Italian 3rd Army retreated from the rapidly advancing Germans and Austro-Hungarian forces in 1917) and 1918, Vittorio Veneto (the cavalry pursued the retreating Austrians in the last battle of the Southern Front). 

However, not to be unduly limited by the ruleset, I want to allow for the possibility of fielding a full regiment of 5 squadrons and an MG section.  As it happens, I have the figures on hand, I just need to keep at them. This has the benefit of giving me something to paint without spending anything further.

Those will have to wait for my Blessed Sisters to at least field a "legal" 300pt Grimdark Future: Firefight force (5 models - canoness, sgt, banner, storm rifle, and HMG).

I hope to have all of the above figures (11 models total) finished well before the end of the year.

But that requires deciding on a paint scheme!

Weekend Report

For reasons I cannot discern for the life of me, I had time to play a lot of games this weekend: five, to be precise, and that's not including the multiple multi-hour sessions of D&D played with my son.

This embarrassment of riches raises an interesting question: "How many should I include in one post?"

I think we can all agree this is a first world problem, as the kids used to say.

After much thought (about 11 seconds), I realized that I don't know when I'm playing next, so I'm going to milk these games for all they are worth!

Rather than chronological order, I'm going to start with the game that accomplished something beyond game itself. It was the last game of the weekend.

 The first "game changer" (pardon me while I laugh hysterically at my own joke) is that I painted the grid you see below. I have long coveted the cream and green chess board featured in some of Bob Cordery's early grid game reports. This is my homage and budget solution - craft paints and kraft paper.

The squares are 4" and the whole thing is 24" square (which is a 6x6 grid. I only mention that for those ,who like me, majored in liberal arts and only took math because they had to). I have used a 6x6 grid with 6" spaces many many times, and while I wouldn't mind a slightly wider battlefield so flanks could mean something, I like that this 24" "board" fits on the table next to my laptop. 

As for flanks, I may borrow a page from the 3x3 Portable Wargame rules and have flanks take place off-grid.

The scenario is Take the High Ground from One Hour Wargames.The rules used were The Portable Wargame, using the two-hits option, and filtered through my memory as I couldn't be bothered to re-read them.

In my defense, I was too excited about my new painted grid.

For reasons I don't comprehend, I see the infantry as two-figure companies. The cavalry as squadrons and the gun as a battery.

 

The other notable impact of this game was that it confirmed my opinions that 1) an ahistorical 19th Century France vs England game is fun and colorful (or is that colourful?) and 2) Two large figures in a smallish grid-space gives exactly the kind of aesthetic I want in a grid game. 

I should add, as it is relevant, that I am a minimalist at heart. Or at least, I don't like having a lot of stuff. I dislike clutter (at least when it comes to storage and wargames tables. I believe when you're creating something, like painting miniatures or writing as song, take up all the space you need with all of the things). 

There's this notion of "the silent to-do list" that I find an apt metaphor. Things that I'm not using weigh on me.

Because I want to free up some storage space and Russia is slated for the chopping block for various reasons, I wanted to make sure I could still have a 19th Century European battle when desired - particularly as part of my Antarctica Lost World (if you missed those posts, it replaces Venus).

Huzzah! No need to keep the Russians or even the unit of khaki British infantry (I'm reducing the Europeans to three units plus a leader, supplemented by heroic civilian characters, often the heart of VSF gaming write-ups).

As for the aesthetics, that's a personal matter (at least in popular parlance. when i was a senior philosophy major and a grad student in philosophy, i would have been happy to argue otherwise), but as I mentioned, it's exactly the look I was going for. 

I'm tempted to try it with WWII figures, but a I tend to equate two figures with a squad. It's a me thing.

The French arrive. The battle is joined. I honestly don't recall who won.

Painting Update

We interrupt this WWII skirmish campaign to bring you this update. As I had mentioned previously, I had turned to painting to deal with the grief of Peppermint's passing. The result has been a bit of unanticipated output which seems to be sustaining for now.

Up first: Tanitia's forces are on the move!

With the last two of my black-orange-lined figures finished, I have completed my original planned force for the Tanitians, 

We have an overall military leader (standard bearer), a military hero (the one with the raised shield), a unit of orange-with-black-line bearing Mythos symbol shields, a warrior priestess (the real leaders of this society), the abyssal beast (actually, they're the ones most in charge I suspect), and a unit of black-with-orange-line (who are my favorite now).

Using two or three figures for a Portable Wargame Ancient's unit gives me some decent sized "armies" for bigger battles, if I so choose.

Here is the black-with-orange-line unit - don't ask me to ID which ones were the most recently finished!

I have a few more of the SCS Direct mermaid figures I can convert into warrior priestesses. The SCS box also came with a number of, what I can only guess are, female elf types. I have enough for a ten-figure unit so they could serve as adepts perhaps. 

That is, when I feel like dealing with this paint scheme again!

The Roman force, and Tanitia's primary opponent, which I'm calling Res Publica, is on the paint table now - just three figures to start, but as they say, Rome wasn't built in a day. They will be painted in a more traditional fashion, albeit with a very unnatural yellow for their skin.

Perhaps less exciting, I finished eight more Austro-Hungarians. I've also rebased my WWI collection to four-figure 3" squares. I really wanted at least one collection to reflect my love for Morschauser.

Two 3" squares can serve as an 8-figure unit (say, for One Hour Wargames) or each square can be its own thing. All of this is anticipation of a campaign I wish to play through later in the year or early next (depends on how long it takes me to paint up more Italians, to bring both sides' assault units up to snuff, the Italian cavalry, and to finish the planes for each side). Because the details aren't nailed down, my conception of what the units represent isn't set yet either.

There's a good chance I'll add one more 8-figure infantry unit, for a total of four. I have plenty of Italians, but I will need more Armies in Plastic figures for the Austro-Hungarians. But not all of them, which means I'll have the start of a small contingent of Germans.

It's funny how things work out like that!

More for Venus

Painting as means of dealing with grief has continued and the result is six figures added to my Venus collection.

Tanitians.

Had to overexpose these a bit in order to see any detail.

This completes the French force (10-figure unit, 1 leader, 5 figure gun crew), although I have more figures if I choose to paint them. 

The Tanitians have two more figures primed and waiting - that will complete their ranks (and I have no more figures). However, they will eventually get some Parrot People allies, who will function as Harpies when I am playing Age of Fantasy and treating the Tanitians as Dark Elves.

I have been sketching maps and brainstorming background for Venus - world-building is something I enjoy immensely, and I find it helps quiet the mind as well.

Next up on the paint table are some WWI Austrians to bring that force up to snuff.

Lancieri e Cavalleria Ride to the Sound of the Guns!

With great satisfaction, I am pleased to announce my first unit of Italian cavalry is complete. They can serve to represent "Lancieri di Novara" and/or "Genova Cavalleria" at the battle of Pozzuolo del Friuli, or, of course, generic units otherwise.

I really need to finish those base edges!

The figures, again, are Armies in Plastic horses and Egyptian Lancer bodies, with heads supplied from the Dulcop Italian infantry/arditi grenade throwing figure. The AiP WW1 British lancer body, with the cartridge belt across the chest is more accurate perhaps, but then I'd have to do something about the puttees. I guess I could mix the three figures together, but this is close enough for my purposes.

To my astonishment, I quite enjoyed painting the horses - maybe more than the figures themselves. I think the change in tune was due in large part to the toy-soldier look and not worrying about shading their coats as I had tried in 1/72. 

I have always loved horses (my maternal grandfather owned a stable of harness racers) but this was the first time I ever looked into their markings. I do love that one facet of our wonderful hobby is the rabbit hole you can fall into when looking for info when painting figures.

I have another unit of cavalry to assemble for the Italians (Austro-Hungarians won't have any), but first there are three lizard warriors primed and ready as well as machine guns with crews for the Italians and Austro-Hungarians (yet to be assembled) in line ahead of them.

Red Red Pants

The first recruits of the second unit of French Foreign Legion have answered the call. 

Clad in stylish and distinctive red trousers, they'll initially operate as the Gatling gun crew. Once their numbers are sufficient, I'll have to consider just which figures should act as crew for them.

Figures are Armies in Plastic. The red is from a pot of P3 Khador Red Base that I've had now for 15 years. It is just as good as the day I bought it. None of the Citadel / GW paints acquired around the same time lasted even half as long before drying out. I suspect it has to do with the paint pot itself.

In any case, I digress.

It occurred to me that until my forces are closer to completed, I can field some grid-based games using my Venusian forces and 3-figure units. I don't know *when* this will happen, but hopefully before the end of June. 

In the meantime, painting has begun on my WWI Italian cavalry and I have three lizard warriors primed and waiting.

WWI Project Updates

I love the look of gas masks, although wearing them maybe not so much (a band I was in once did live music for a theatrical production and were required to wear surplus gas masks while performing - it was hard to breath and seeing the guitar neck through the lenses was something else). I also happen to really like the French WWI horizon blue uniform and the gas mask they used for the majority of the war. 

It was probably inevitable, then, that in a moment of feeling sorry for myself for missing my friend's wedding due to Covid, I would order the ICM WW1 French in Gas Masks. 

They are 1:35 and ICM is small 1/35 in my opinion - based on comparing their Austrian and British machine gun teams with my 1/35 Soviet machine gun crew.  Clearly, they won't fit with the Armies and Plastic, Waterloo 1815, or Dulcop figures. 

That's OK. I have a plan.

I've really been enjoying the army building and background creating for my Venusian forces, I realized I wanted to do more fantasy-based themes. Fantasy role-playing games and world-building loom large in my personal gaming history. I also happen to be a fan of weird fiction (Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Algernon Blackwood, etc.) and the general ideas behind the various Mythos related role-playing games. It struck me that it would be fun to do something themed around that.

Weird World War II might be an obvious choice given my existing collection plus the Nazi occult themes, zombies or werewolves and sometimes mechs. However, I am really more interested in WWI generally speaking and I started this post talking about the ICM figures, so you have to know I'm leading up to their use!

Why not Weird World War I? 

I picture a handful of gas mask wearing infantry (the ICM figures!) heading into no-man's land, exploring mysteriously empty trenches, underground constructions of non-human origin, villages filled with low-hanging fog and no signs of life? Perhaps some slumbering Eldritch horrors have awakened due to the death and destruction sown upon the land? 

So, that's a new project that came out of nowhere - an RPG-light skirmish wargame.

I already have some horrors in mind - the lovely Hook Horror figures from CP Models. The proprietor, Mark, was kind enough to measure the figures for me. They come in around 50mm which is just about perfect.

FYI, the ICM figures come with two heads per figure, one with a gas mask and one without. Theoretically, you could buy two boxes of the gas mask figures to get an extra set of gas mask heads, then by a box of their French infantry without gas masks and gain a few more poses. 

I suspect I'll pick up some ICM British in gas masks as well, Germans too. Why should the French have all the "fun"?

In other WWI gaming news, I finished up my (for now) final base of Austro-Hungarian infantry and Italian infantry as well. They both now have six bases of regular infantry. The Austro-Hungarian force is done, save for a machine gun base that I need to purchase. The Italians need two bases of arditi (6 figures total) and a four cavalry figures painted up and another machine gun base as well.

Speaking of cavalry, here is the first head-swap to make Italian cavalry:

The body is an Armies in Plastic Egyptian lancer and the head is from a Dulcop arditi (the grenade throwing pose - the dagger pose has much too small a head). The head isn't a perfect fit but it's close enough. and is the best I had to work with. As much as it pained me to cut up a Dulcop figure, as was mentioned in the comments on the cavalry post, the AiP French heads are *way* too big to use for this purpose.

I'd be lying if I didn't note that I am already planning to acquire a box/bag each of Armies in Plastic WWI Germans for Caporetto, and the British for Asiago and Vittorio Venetto.

Crossing the Streams : A Scruby Question

Some of you know that I am the website manager/administrator (not really sure what my "title" is now that I think about it) for the the Lone Warrior site. I don't generally like to cross-post between blogs, but we had a question come in from a reader that I am certain someone out there in wargaming-land can answer, but so far it has been crickets.

You can see the actual question over on Lone Warrior.

However, tl;dr: they are trying to find two particular Jack Scruby figures:

• Item #9731-02 “Rebel (firing, kepi hat)” from the Civil War Assortment and
• item #9732-13 “British Grenadier (at attention)” from the American Revolution Assortment

They are, if I understood their post correctly, 54mm figures, and I have pointed them to the Little Wars Revisited forum and to HistoriFigs (who still produce Scruby figures).

However, if you can help, please feel free to head to the Lone Warrior post linked above and leave a comment - you don't need to be a member (although if you aren't, might I suggest you consider membership? You don't even need to be a solo gamer - take a look at the sample articles, free rules, and book reviews for example.) If you prefer, though, feel free to leave a comment here and I'll relay it.

 And, because every post should have a picture, even one unrelated to the content:

The ambush. (not from a game, just trying out my jungle scenery)

 

Mon dieu!

Somehow, I seem to have gotten back into a rhythm of painting regularly - although I probably just jinxed myself. In any case, over the past week I knocked out three Armies in Plastic French Foreign Legion figures.

I believe I have mentioned before how the first "period" that I fielded any sizeable quantity of figures for was Victorian Science Fiction. That collection (in 15mm) began with Foreign Legion and lizard warrior figures - much like my current VSF collection in 54mm. 

I chose the Legion in large part due to the description of Camerone over on The Junior General site. A mention on some site or other about the French Foreign Legion fighting lizardmen on Venus and I was in. Always a fan of the Lizard from Spiderman (the Mego figure was one of my favorite toys as a kid) and later, D&D lizardmen (the drawing in the 1e Monster Manual is perfect), it was an easy concept to buy into.

As they say, everything old is new again - only now I'm doing it in the scale I wanted to do it in back then but thought it wasn't "proper" wargaming based on blogs and TMP. I didn't start wargaming until my 30s and even so, prevailing ideas about gaming with 54mm figures steered me to the smaller scales (I don't dislike those scales, but, with the exception of 6mm and smaller, I am not enamored with them either, unlike 54mm). 

Rambling aside, below is completed 10-figure unit:

For expediency's sake, I plan to paint up another batch of three to serve as a gun crew while borrowing the Gatling gun from my British force for now. I had intended for that to be the entirety of the force, save for an overall leader/hero type, however, it occurred to me that I could paint the crew with red trousers, and when ten total figures are done that way, I'll have a second and visually distinct unit. So that is the overarching plan at that is point.

On the paint table now are four 28mm Reaper lizard archers and a drummer. This will be the howdah crew for a triceratops. Some WWI figures might jump ahead in line - they paint quickly but prepping them takes a bit.

More in the Queue

My current painting progress is nil, but my plan is to intentionally build a backlog of prepped and primed figures so when I start painting, I can just ride the wave.

Among the figures I'm adding to the queue are three chibi Space Nuns acquired on eBay.

They are 54mm resin prints. My first such figures.

The one on the left lost her little hair thingy (like the one on the right has) to my general clumsiness. I may make a new one for her if I can find some of this mysterious "thick plastic card" that I read mention of so often, or I may file down the remnant nub. I figure they'll probably end up on a planet with lizard folk and dinosaurs at some point.

Below is a simple head swap with an Armies in Plastic officer figure. None of the officers with the stahlhelm sets come with a helmet themselves and that just won't do.

 

The swap was simple enough - if not a perfect fit it's close enough. I don't do customizations very often so I'm pretty pleased with myself.

I hope to get some primer on these (after a little more clean up) in the next few days. I should have enough figures on hand to get started painting. As I have noted before, working on three figures at a time  makes painting a lot more palatable for me. 

 (Pun intended. I'll show myself out :D )

Games (how's that for a generic title?)

Gaming for the new year has kicked off with a revisit of a game from Minden Games, Battle Over Britain.

As you can probably surmise, it's a representation of WWII aerial combat. Less obvious perhaps is that it's 1 on 1, is abstract, and plays quite quickly. There is a solitaire module which I own (it adds little to the existing solitaire rules but does give you more planes to choose from) and other air battles as well.

d12 are hit points, white d6 are ammo remaining.

It's an interesting little game that feels right even if it looks completely wrong. The rules are straightforward but there are enough special rules and optional rules to add flavor and variety.

The average game is probably less than 10 minutes, so it's a prefect space filler or you can play a longer campaign of connected battles, if desired, including one where you play a particular pilot through multiple (hopefully) encounters.

In the picture, I'm using my laptop as the playing space - I have been playing Verdun a lot on Steam and decided I need to shut the laptop down and enjoy some screen-free time (my son isn't the only one who needs to step away from the computer sometimes!).

Also of note, my copy of The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game arrived:

I purchased this on a whim on Black Friday - the price was something like $9.99 USD. Even if it's a terrible game, it comes with figures (I'll give the game a proper post once we play it).

Finally, some figures have entered the preparation stages:

Two things are probably worth noting about the picture.

On the human figures, the black that follows the mold lines is soot from a candle. It ends up on the needle that I heat up and run along the lines. I've mentioned using the hot needle before - it works well enough to smooth them out without marring the figure too badly, but I care less and less about mold lines (with the exception of the one on the helmet). Life is too short.

The gold figure is a Classic Toy Solders Carthaginian. I had no idea they had Carthaginians of their own until recently. Everyone always focuses on HaT (like the figure to his left). The shield is a little skimpy - accurate or not I don't know- but it'll do for my purposes

The Great Game on Venus : A Non-canonical Battle

Sunday, Cloud Captain and I met up for a learning game of  Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles and a first outing for some of the terrain he is putting together.

As neither of us is ready to field any of the Venusian forces we are working on, another battle between my Russians and British forces seemed a good choice. Cloud Captain ran the Brits and I ran the Russians (into the ground. Oh, spoiler alert!)

Overview of table and Russian deployment

The thin Khaki line.
Photo credit: Cloud Captain

The Greens go marching off into the jungle . . .

Lancers charge! The Russian gunners are ready!
Photo credit: Cloud Captain

 

We both took variations of this same exact picture. Who doesn't love the 17th? It went as well as you'd expect. The Lancers did survive though and would eventually eliminate the gun crew. Only to be eliminated by Cossack cavalry.

The Greens head further into the jungle . . .

The Whites stake out a position and decide to hold it. The British lines span an impressive distance which calls into question the table dimensions.
Photo credit: Cloud Captain

Highlanders on the advance! I do love those figures.
(This is the last photo i took before my phone died. Note: make sure your phone is charged!).

Close combat is brutal for all concerned.
Photo credit: Cloud Captain

The Cossack cavalry joins the fray.  Or tries to. They are soundly beaten.
Photo credit: Cloud Captain

The British close in - a classic pincer! I guess? Maybe? Certainly a classic ruler shot.
(My knuckle tattoos spell "Book Nerd" in case I haven't mentioned that before)
Photo credit: Cloud Captain

But wait! What happened to the Greens? This. This happened.
Total devastation when caught by the Khakis in the open.
Photo credit: Cloud Captain

Having lost their gun, their cavalry, and 80% of the Greens, the Russians conceded.
Photo credit: Cloud Captain

*****

It was great fun and one of only a handful of times I've played a wargame against another person. 

We played the basic rules and still found several points we needed to clarify - not necessarily problems with the rules but perhaps our understanding of them or our ability to locate the relevant passage (there are definitely some bits that I felt should be either more obvious or placed somewhere else).  Although we did find something that seemed like an editing error with respect to the mention of Aimed Fire, but further close review will determine that.

We also thought about some changes we might make,because that's what wargamers do, is it not? 

Hopefully we'll meet to play soon and with some native Venusians on the table too. At the very least we need to try out unit traits, leaders, and commanders.

Toy Soldiers and a Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles

Thursday was Thanksgiving here in the US. And I was thankful I had a lot of opportunity to game, including a chance for a solo run of Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles.

I'll let the pictures tell the story - you will no doubt recognize the scenario:

The Russians received a sound thrashing at the hands of the British 

****** Thoughts on the Rules ****

I played the simplest version of the rules - no leaders, commanders, heroes, or attributes. 

The yellow markers on the table (tiny dice) represent Shock. I really like this concept and the decision making involved in managing it. I don't particularly like the markers. I could have used the pips to indicate how many Shock markers. Next time.

I love card activation systems. Unlike GASLIGHT where the card drawn indicates which unit activates, you get to choose which unit you'll activate on the card. Not knowing when your opponent might get to act with one of their units adds tension to the decision making of the good kind. 

I particularly like the special events built into the activation deck - +1 this, +1 that, get back eliminated members of a unit!  That last one reminds me of the hospital in In Good Company, without the fiddly bit of rolling each turn to see if they make it back You just need the Queen of Hearts or an Ace you can use as the Queen of Hearts. 

Like One Hour Skirmish Wargames, I can never remember the order of the suits!

Looking forward doing a few more games and adding in the more advanced bits.