Wargaming highlights of 2017

My first ACW unit

Usually I start these posts with the words "it is time for my wargames review of the year", except this year it is three months past the time for my wargames review of the year but that isn't going to stop me.  It was a poor year, in many ways, which started well then got bad and saw a late rallying right at the end (rather like Napoleon at the battle of Marengo, in fact).


Figures Painted

2016 had been a dismal year, with just 10 figures painted. 2017, however, got off to a much better start, prompted by Eric the Shed's planned anniversary Zulu War games.  As my meagre contribution I painted 32 Zulus in January to add to the 40 I had already done. I followed this up in February with 12 Perry plastic American Civil War cavalry.  March dropped to six North West Frontier British but I finished another 17 in April. In May I got another nine ACW figures, three NW Frontier British done and June saw six more NW frontier.  Then I painted nothing until November when I completed my Sikh mountain gun, which finished off my initial force for The Men Who Would Be Kings rules.  So 2017 saw a much better 78 figures completed and an unusual amount of focus with just three conflicts represented.

32 Zulu Wars
21 American Civil War
31 North West Frontier

So why the big fall off after June?  Quite simply my eyesight deteriorated so that I could no longer see properly to paint. In particular, my left eye deteriorated to the extent that I could no longer judge distance in close up work, so I could not aim the tip of my paintbrush.  I have been having laser eye surgery for some time but in November I started a four month treatment of very expensive injections into my retina and this has transformed my vision.  Then, for Christmas, my sister gave me an optivisor type thing and, having sneered at these for years, I suddenly could paint again.  I had actually reached the stage where I was about to call time on painting soldiers which would. for me, have been like giving up women or wine.  Something so incomprehensible as to make life utterly worthless.  It was so bad I was actually considering starting on model railways instead.  Best just to go to Switzerland and have an injection, I thought. Although, that said, I have spent a lot of time in Switzerland and I remember it being full of model railway shops so I would have probably abandoned the lethal injection idea and come back with a load of trains, track and little tiny naked people playing volleyball, instead.


Wargames played 

Isandlwana at the Shed (actually in Eric's kitchen, not the Shed)

A cracking start (actually I hate people who say 'a cracking start'- I am becoming offended by my own use of sixties style cliches) to the wargames year was provided by the peerless Eric the Shed and his epic all day Saturday anniversary Zulu Wars games; Isandlwana in the morning and Rorke's Drift in the afternoon, on the 22nd January, the anniversary of both battles.. After that, though, there was nothing.  I did not get down to the Shed again.   Partly this was caused by the fact that my eyesight problems have damaged my night vision and driving at night is now difficult. I hope to risk it when the evenings get a bit lighter.


Scenics

Unlike Eric the Shed, I am useless at scenic items and I made no further progress on the plastic ACW buildings I started last year.  I did build and start painting the Renedra mud brick house (a truly horrible model to put together which needed trowel fulls of plastic filler). Unfortunately, I have now forgotten which colour I started to use on it, so work came to an abrupt stop.  To build an Afghan/Egyptian/Sudanese village I also picked up a number of other ready made and kit models at various shows.  I have just ordered a couple of vacuform models of houses, too, which will take me back to my Bellona days in the seventies.

I bought the very last model of Grand Manner's fortified house, which I may deploy for some medieval Hundred Years War Lion Rampant games. It is really a Scottish or Borders fort but the conical turrets will make it look more French, as will the pale ochre paint I am planning to use.  The Old Bat called it my Polly Pocket castle and said it would look better pink.  The less said about pink walls from her the better, at present.  Grand Manner, my favourite resin scenery manufacturer, are only going to be selling painted models from now on, which is disappointing.  It will be interesting to see if this gamble pays off for them.  Higher margins but less sales?

Rocks under way

More successfully, I bought a number of aquarium type rocks and started to repaint them for Lost World or Savage Core Adventures.  With more on the way I hope to have enough soon for some attempt at a scenic board for pulp games.  Next I need to stick on some 'follidge', as the annoying Terrain Tutor calls it.

To do this I bravely invested in a hot glue gun and made exactly one piece of scenery by sticking an aquarium plant on a large washer.  I haven't touched it since, though.  The Terrain Tutor did have a good tip in suggesting coating plastic plants with Games Workshop wash which  removed the shiny plastic look very well.  I now have a huge plastic crate full of plastic follidge, which I aim to start working on now it is the spring, appropriately. probably while the Old Bat watches Gardeners' World; the TV programme I detest the most.  Get a proper hobby - not grow your own dump fill!


Shows

Salute!

I did attend Salute, as usual, which I didn't really enjoy for the first time, although I did enjoy the Wargames Bloggers Meet (above- I am on the far left - picture from Wargaming Girl's blog).  I've just got my ticket for this year, though!  Eric the Shed kindly gave me a lift to Colours, which I hadn't attended for a few years and I bought some scenics (the advantage of going by car not public transport).  I didn't attend the other of the three shows I usually do, Warfare in Reading, as I was on my way back from El Salvador


Lead pile and Kickstarters

Lead pile reduction didn't go so well this year and I bought over 150 figures but given I painted 78 figures the net increase could have been worse.  Some figure arrivals came through Kickstarters etc, such as the Peninsular Wars figures with the Forager rules, some more of Dark Fables Egyptian ladies and the early twentieth century Germans from Unfeasibly Miniatures.  I also got some Foundry and North Star Darkest Africa, Artizan and Perry Northwest Frontier, Perry ACW, Victrix EIR, Lucid Eye Savage Core, North Star Muskets and Tomahawks highlanders, Manufaktura slave girls and Crooked Dice female cultists, Biggest figure was Antediluvian's Retrosaurus which is also my favourite of 2017. Apart from the NW Frontier figures I didn't paint any of these because of my eye problems but hope to move some along this year.  I did sign up to the Drowned Earth Kickstater but cancelled it when I found out it really wasn't suitable for solo play.


Wargames Rules

As I said I might in my previous review, I did buy Chosen Men and The Pikeman's Lament.  Pikeman's Lament looks good (although I am still not entirely convinced about small bodies of pikemen in skirmishes) but Chosen Men was just terrible, as it couldn't work out whether it was a one to one game or not.  I sold it on, which is why it isn't in this picture.  As a result of stating my unhappiness with the latter, I was steered towards the Forager Kickstarter.  Death in the Dark Continent was a new glossier edition of some rules I had already played and, indeed, owned but I like to get rid of my old ring bound rules, as they look ugly on my bookshelves!  Battle Companies was also a glossy hardback of rules which first appeared in White Dwarf years ago.  The children and I had some great games using this in the past, so I was happy to get it all in one volume with added companies from The Hobbit.  I picked up the new supplement for Congo, even though I haven't played the rules yet but I enjoy Muskets and Tomahawks, which is by the same people.  The most interesting looking rules are Savage Core, which is very Lost Worldy and I have at least one solo scenario for.


Wargames Blogs and Facebook

My Punic Wars blog; the latest to get the widescreen treatment

I only posted 39 times on my main blog (this one) in 2017, which is the least since 2011.  Mainly, of course, because I wasn't painting very much.  I only posted on five of my other blogs too.  The number of visits is around the same as last year, averaging about 10,000 a month.  The most popular post, with 1082 views, was one of my paint table Saturday ones which also looked at the Spirit of Ecstasy sculpture, not coincidentally, I suspect.

I am still posting on Facebook, although not much about wargaming, admittedly, and now have 151 'friends', up from last year's 107.  I have only had to delete a few because of political content. Why do people assume that their politics is shared by everyone else and write as such? I have joined several more of the very useful Facebook groups; including the one for the interesting looking Rebels and Patriots rules.  I did see a post that seemed to indicate that more people were joining these than using blogs these days and certainly I now only tend to look at other people's blogs if they link to them from Facebook page.

Plans for the this year

I want to finish my Carthaginian war elephant crew and then, I think, concentrate on my Afghan Tribesmen so that I have both forces for the North West Frontier.  More ACW plastics, some Darkest Africa and maybe finish some units which are well on the way (like some of my Indian Mutiny troops).  Also Savage Core, both figures and scenery, will be a priority.

Musical Accompaniment

While writing this post I listened to the extended version of John Williams' The Lost World: Jurassic Park which has made me want to get my Retrosaurus on the go!

Donnybrook

I read about this new set of rules out of The League of Augsburg in this month's Wargames Illustrated, so I ordered a set which arrived today.  It sounds ideal for me as it is for skirmish gaming for the period from 1660 until 1760.  I am attracted to many of the armies from this period but the sheer number of figures need for, say, the Marlburian period has put me off.  These rules contemplate forces of around 20-30 figures (and no more than 48) per side.

The rules look at a number of different conflicts during the period covered.

The English Possession of Tangier 1661-1684

I have seen a wargame set in this period at one of the shows shortly after Mark Coppletsone's Glory of the Sun figures came out.  The big issue on this one would be finding Berbers with appropriate weaponry.  Too hard.

The Dutch Wars 1665-78

This is very interesting because of the Copplestone figures.  The only problem being with them that they are in uniform poses which are not so good for skirmishing.  Still, this is one I will investigate.

Bacon's Rebellion in America 1676

Never heard of this one and not really interested.

Dragonades persecution of the Huguenots 1681-85, Camisard Revoltr 1702-15

Like many of the conflicts in the book they involve too many civilians, figures which are often difficult to source

Covenanter Rebellions 1666 and 1679, Argyll Rebellion 1685, The Jacobite Wars 1689-92

Again not interested in these.  Too much plaid!

The Monmouth Rebellion 1685

On my regular visit to a girlfriend who lived in Somerset in the early eighties I used to cross the battlefield of Sedgemoor which was also featured in Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood.  There was a big game of Sedgemoor doing the rounds at the shows a few years ago  and I know that at least one manufacturer has a dedicated range for the rebellion.  The problem is I can't remember which!  If anyone knows...  Interested in this one.

The Glorious Revolution 1688

I don't know much about this but I have a feeling that there wasn't much actual fighting.

The War of the Grand Alliance 1688-97

Interested in this, given the Copplestone figures, although it's at the back end of what they work for.

King William's War 1688-97

Too many civilian clothes again.

The Darien Adventure 1689-99

The Scots try to colonise Panama.  This is largely a what if sort of scenario, which I am not very keen on (I can't see the appeal of the new Perry British for the ACW, for example) but there were a few skirmishes so it might be worth a bit more research.  It would be fun to play a game set in Panama, given I went there last year.

Witch trials and persecutions

Really not interested in this.

The War of the Spanish Succession 1701-1715

I hate to admit it but I know absolutely nothing about this period except that they had really nice uniforms.

Other conflicts not mentioned in the book, but which might be interesting for me for this set of rules include the Great Northern War and the French Indian War.  It could also work for pirates against local government troops too (if anyone ever bothered to make the latter!).  If the rules take off, which I have a feeling they will, the authors have many ideas for extensions and even a range of figures.

The rules are beautifully produced with lots of excellent colour photographs.  Some of the pages tell a story almost in the manner of Look & Learn magazine.  There is flexibility as to how you organise your units, given what figures you have.  So if your allowance includes 12 figures of one type you can put them in one unit of twelve, two of six, three of four etc.  The actions are card driven but you need some exotic dice to resolve combat.  Given I can't read a set of rules and for the life of me work out what is supposed to happen any further look at these will have to be done by someone a lot cleverer than me.

So, I'll try to give it a read later and see if my vague ideas coalesce into something more solid.

The only slightly dubious thing about Donnybrook is the lifting of a girl from a Frank Frazetta painting on the cover.  Frazetta's estate is notoriously litigious but mainly they are suing each other at present and so maybe the image is just different enough to not attract attention.  I wouldn't have risked it though!  The authors say that the figure was deliberately done in the "character of a Frazetta heroine".  Hmm, as a published artist myself there is a big difference between doing something in the style of an artist and copying a pose exactly.

This post was written to the soundtrack of Cuthroat Island (1995) by John Debney.  An example of the soundtrack being much better than the original film.

Warlord Games Caesar's Legions and other shopping

I headed down to Orc's Nest this morning, after my morning meeting near Euston, only to find it didn't open until 11.00am.  Given it was 10.30 and absolutely freezing again I went around the corner to Foyles bookshop, which was a mistake.  Three rapid purchases followed in their very good military history section.  

The first, at least, I had intended to buy, which was the Bolt Action British supplement.  Some useful lists although an almost total lack of mention of either Norway or Crete in their focus on the different theatres the British Army saw action in.  Warlord have re-issued the old Mike Owen sculpted BEF early war British with interchangeable heads so I might have to get some more of these.  Much of the book focuses on stats for various vehicles and some theatre specific army lists.  I would really like a 1/56 Matilda!   I need the German one, which they also had in stock, but feel a bit odd buying WW2 German military books.  People might think I was one of those ghastly Nazi apologists they had at Salute a few years back.   Best to order anonymously off the web for delivery in a plain paper cover.

I also picked up a book of American Civil War paintings by Keith Rocco.  I hadn't heard of him before but there are some very nice illustrations in this and they will get me to finish my ACW unit I hope!

Finally, I bought another Peter Hopkirk Back of Beyond book Foreign Devils on the Silk Road which is so fascinatingly readable that I am already well into it.  Some definite scenarios spring to mind around competing treasure hunters from different countries.  I would then have an excuse to buy some Copplestone Castings pack camels!

So, eventually, back to Orc's Nest, and, sadly, no sign of the new Black Powder Hundred Days supplement yet but I did pick up the Rome's Dacian Wars supplement for Hail Caesar.  Since my trip to Romania last year I have had a hankering to do some Dacians and this may well tip me over the edge.  Apart from the usual army lists there are a few tweaks to the rules (allowing Roman archers to shoot over the heads of an infantry unit in front of them, for example) plus new (basic) rules for ship movement and rather more in depth rules for sieges.  There are new skirmish rules included but these are really very small scale as they envisage just six figures a side.  Excellent news for me!  Essentially for one unit in the main rules read one figure.  I might have to try these out.  There are five short skirmish scenarios (lost patrol, the scouts, working party, the lost eagle, the prisoners) all designed for a 2' x 2' board.  Most of the book is made up of nine scenarios for big battles (siege, river crossing, hold the pass etc).  They are big too, with the first one requiring over twenty units of Romans and the same for the Dacians/Samaratians.  They would all equally work as well for any barbarian opponent and I will be using some for my Marcomannic Wars forces (eventually).  Altogether a worthwhile purchase and full of pretty pictures, as ever.

Most satisfying buy of the day was, rather to my surprise, the new Warlord Games Caesarian Romans.  I saw the three-ups of these at last year's Salute.  I have got quite a lot of the Foundry Copplestone sculpted ones which was making me hesitate about buying these but, blow me down, they work perfectly together.  You could put them in the same unit with no problem at all.  

Warlord (L) and Foundry (R)

I wasn't convinced by them in photographs as I thought that the chainmail rings were too large and crude but they look fine in reality and are the same size as those on the Foundry figures.  In fact, I think they are actually nicer than the Copplestone figures but it means I can use all the Foundry character and command figures with the Warlord plastics.  The Warlord figure looks bigger but it has a much thicker base.  If I mix in metal Foundry command (although Warlord have released a nice metal command set today) I might put something under the base of the Foundry figures. Unlike some Warlord Romans they don't come with shield transfers but you can get them separately.  The only bad thing is that now I am going to be building Roman units from three separate periods at the same time.  I'm turning into Big Red Bat!  They should be quick to paint too!  The most exciting plastics since Pamela Anderson in the opening of Barb Wire!  Simple but effective (just like Pammy!).  

Anyway I know exactly what to drink while putting them together (separate heads and right arms) as last year I bought a few bottles of a delicious Spanish wine called Legio from the Bierzo region which actually has a Roman shield (albeit a standard bearer's, by the look of it) on the label.  I Have a bottle already to go!

I also managed to pick up last month's Playboy which, again, demonstrates a marked improvement in cover design over the frantically busy and uninspiring covers of the last few years.  There have been just over 700 issues and I have about 580 of them.  They take up a lot more room than model soldiers though, bearing in mind that, as an example, for the seventies (for which I have all 120 copies) they take up 20 box files ( I only have 56 box files full of soldiers).  I only need six more from the sixties to complete that decade too. I need a bigger study!  I must stop putting half dressed women in my posts or someone will label it an objectionable blog. 

Speaking of which, following all this retail activity (I did work pretty much all day Easter Monday) I then had a long lunch at the National Gallery with the lovely D who, disappointingly was not wearing one of her usual low cut tops.  Curse this weather!  D is, rather dubiously, the friend of one of an ex colleague's daughter so is less than half my age.  Never mind, she keeps me young and we had a lively debate about tablets (not the sort I need to take, as she cruelly pointed out), social media and the Cloud.  "We should be in the Natural History Museum, you'd be much more at home there!" she said in exasperation at one point.  How rude!

Well I have just put together a short Roman playlist on iTunes (Respighi's I pini della Via Appia, the Triumphal March from Quo Vadis and quite a lot of bits of Ben Hur) so I need to start clipping Romans off the sprue (although I gather that the sprue is only the thickest parts off the whole thing).  

Some thoughts on Dux Britanniarum

A few thoughts on the new Too Fat Lardies Arthurian rules, which I picked up in Orc's Nest today, can be found on my Dark Ages blog.

Shopping, shopping, shopping!

Oh dear, the lead (and plastic pile) has had some substantial additions over the last couple of weeks.  I've been very good about not buying much lately but the fact that I have actually completed a few figures has engendered a mad rush of purchases.

First off is Gripping Beast's "limited edition" Skraelings for Saga.  I saw these at Salute but they had run out of them so when I saw some on eBay I had to get them on the basis that they may disappear before I got them (which I am sure was Gripping Beast's cunning plan anyway).  I've always wanted to do Vikings v American Indians but could never find any suitable figures.  I'm not sure how historically accurate these are as they appear to be standard woodland Indians but with stone axes and spears.  I'm not sure they would have had buckskin leggings a thousand years ago but they are very nice figures at the bigger end of 28mm.  The only slightly disappointing thing about them is the comparatively limited number of poses which means quite a lot of duplication: not very good for skirmish figures. Still, I've based some and will try to get one painted in the next week or so.

Next up I went into Orc's Nest and they had a set of the new Victrix plastic Hoplites in there so I had to buy a box of those.  I haven't made any yet but they seem to be somewhere in size between the old Immortal (now Warlord) ones and the large Artizan (now Gorgon) Spartans.  I suspect that once painted they might all actually go with each other quite well.

Unfortunately I seem to be having meetings in and around Pall Mall quite a lot lately so Orc's Nest is never far away.  My latest trip into its gloomy depths saw me emerge with a box of Warlord's British Crimean infantry.  I had bought a set of eight of these some time ago and started to paint them but stopped when, annoyingly, I broke off one of the figures bayonets.  They are very delicate and I will have to watch this in future.  I had held off buying any more of these as it looked like they had abandoned the period but latterly we have had some wonderful cavalry figures appearing and the promise of plastic Russians.

Other than these boxes I took advantage of the newly reduced Foundry postage rates to get some African askaris for my Zambezi project, some AWI minutemen and a pack of naked Amazon hoplites for my Argonauts project.  In addition I bought the latest Hail Caesar supplement which covers the Dark Ages.

Jill St John demonstrates that the best figures are not necessarily made of metal or plastic

I was making my way back from Orc's Nest towards the National Gallery (I often arrange meetings in the excellent cafe there) when I took a short cut around the back and found a cinema book and DVD shop I hadn't seen before called, with great originality, The Cinema Store.  It had an excellent collection of film books and I picked up a series on Bond girls which had a lot of stills in it which were new to me.  It also sells Playboy (I have 546 issues in my collection), which is getting increasingly difficult to buy in the UK since W H Smiths stopped stocking it.

Orc's Nest is close to Foyles which has the best military history section of any bookshop I have been to.  Last week I picked up this book on uniforms of the America War of Independence.  I don't know how accurate it is but it is quite inspirational and has some excellent illustrations both modern and historical

Foyles used to stock pretty much all of the Osprey's but their selection, especially of the Men-at-Arms series, is much depleted these days so it's off to eBay mostly.  I picked up the Campaign Boston 1775 book, which is going to be the subject of my initial AWI units, for a good price.  I bought it for the battle of Bunker Hill (or Breed's Hill as it rightly entitles it) but notice that it also has a good account of the North Bridge action, featured as a Black Powder game in Miniature Wargames some months ago, which is what got me thinking about AWI skirmishing

I have been going to Oxford quite a bit lately and had another day there last week.  I picked up the new Osprey on the Roman Republican legionary as I am contemplating painting some more of these to go with the two small legions I have already.  Even better I had amassed enough Waterstones points that I didn't have to pay for it!

Go Bradley!

So now all I have to do is find somewhere to put all this stuff!  I did get a bit more done on my Back of Beyond Russians and they may be finished by this weekend, with a bit of luck, although I am spending quite a lot of time watching the Tour de France at present.  I can now paint and watch the Tour, however, as I have discovered I had a big problem with my internet connection.  Guy kept shouting at me as every time I went on the net it would crash his Xbox game.  He did a connection speed check and found we were getting a connection speed of 498K instead of 4-6MB.  It turns out that my useless ISP hadn't changed my line when I switched from dial-up to broadband so all this time I have had terrible connection speed without really knowing it.  It was only when Guy started playing online games that the problem became apparent.  A stiff letter is now being drafted.  But now I can watch live TV online and paint at the same time! 

A little more time...

My second unit of Wangwana freedmen finished today

For various reasons I have had very little time for painting over the last few months but, hopefully, I should be able to do more going forward.  I've spent a lot of time working on winning a new contract which I now have so that will enable me to add to the lead pile for the next year or so!  I've had a bit more time for painting in the last few days because of the Bank Holiday and have managed to finish another unit for my Zambezi Campaign.  Still, I have painted less than fifty figures so far this year so need to up the output again.  There won't be much more this week as I am off to Boston where I really will have to resist the lure of the American War of Independence on my return!

Fife & Drum's AWI British

That said, I am sorely tempted by the wonderfully elegant 30mm figures by Fife & Drum miniatures showcased in this month's Battlegames, which was given away free with Miniature Wargames. Sculpted by Richard Ansell, in his typically anatomically correct style, the range will, of course, be less comprehensive than the Perry figures for Foundry and Perry Miniatures.  However, they look so nice that maybe a couple of small skirmish forces wouldn't be a bad idea and the fact that they will be a smaller range may be a good thing! The pictures of them make them look more like 40mm figures and show how distorted most 28mm figures are; something which has always offended my artistic sensibilities!

I haven't bought Battlegames for some time but the decision by Atlantic Publishers, its new owners, to give it away free was sensible as I had forgotten what a good magazine it is.  The feature on the Two Fat Lardies (I still hate the name) approach to writing rules was fascinating and I also liked the look of the smuggler's scenario.  I'll have to start buying it again and also pick up some of the back numbers I have missed.

Many other people have commented on the fact that Warhammer Historical have stopped trading and there have been many discussions as to the reasons for this. Arrogance towards the customer seems to be the main one which is obviously (but not to Games Workshop) not a sensible way to retain loyalty from retail customers.  

As to the rules themselves they got me back into wargaming partly because they adopted the visual style of the top magazines.  I remember when wargames rules were just copied typewritten sheets with hand-stapled covers.  I need visual stimulation to get me interested in painting and the Warhammer Historical provided just that.  Their approach has had a major influence on the presentation of wargames rules ever since, although some will say that the resultant high cost of these full colour volumes was been a negative. WAB was a revelation to me when I first saw it.  Indeed, my first wargame against opponents since 1981 was a WAB Saxons and Vikings game at Guildford against Mike Lewis of Black Hat miniatures.

Even though I am not a rules monkey there were still some things I didn't like about WAB and these were mainly to do with the look of the game; principally that units tended to be 4 deep square (or near as) blocks, whatever their historical formation may have been.  This was especially the case for Romans whose units tended to be small.  I wanted more linear looking units and thought that WAB 2 had solved this as it made the maximum rank bonus limited to 3 instead of 4 ranks in total.  Unfortunately, WAB 2 had so many other problems with it that it essentially killed it off as a game.  People started looking for other options, not finding them and so writing them; hence the slew of new ancients rules of late.  I've just found a space on my shelves for War & Conquest which looks set to fill the gap left by WAB.

One set of rules I did like was Warhammer ECW.  We played these at Guildford several times and we thought they worked well and had some period flavour too.  Nevertheless I have just bought the new Pike and Shotte rules from Warlord Games.

Interestingly prices on eBay and other places such as Caliver Books are seeing the more recent Warhammer Historical games, such as Kampfgruppe Normandy, now selling for more than their original selling price.    I'm still trying to obtain a copy of the WW1 Over the Top supplement. Although I will keep playing some of the games it does mean, sadly, that none of the promised future supplements (covering WW1 in Africa, for example) will see the light of day.

Copplestone 18mm fantasy are next

My next figures under way are some more 18mm Copplestone Castings fantasy.  He has released quite a few more packs since I bought the first three but I am being good and won't buy any new ones until I finish the ones I have!

Foundry Baluchi swordsmen

I have also now assembled and based a unit of Warlord's Natal Native Infantry for the Zulu Wars and, also on the Darkest Africa theme, have my next unit for the Zambezi campaign, some Baluchis, ready for undercoating. 

  

Thoughts on black powder skirmishing...

Battle for North Bridge AWI scenario from Wargames Illustrated January 2012

It is fairly obvious to anyone reading these pages that I will never be able to field an army of several hundred figures in any of the "armies" I am working on.  In a previous post I lamented what I saw as a trend to even bigger armies of five hundred figures or so.  Perhaps, however, I am now sensing a backlash against this.  In some of the recent wargames magazines there have been some scenarios for around sixty figures a side.  Partly this is because of the increasing popularity of the new Saga rules, which is good for me as I do actually have enough Dark Ages figures to play a game of this.  Also there are more scenarios for another set of rules I own but haven't played, Sharp Practice.  I noticed two rather good scenarios recently in the magazines featuring Peninsula War and American War of Independence actions.  Interestingly the AWI scenario in January's Wargames Illustrated was played using Black Powder, which I always considered a big units/big battles set, with just 48 figures on each side.  Interesting.

These made me realise that what I have really been hankering after for some time is the ability to do black powder period skirmishes but I don't, surprisingly, really have even the start of appropriate forces.  This, therefore, gives me the chance to start a new set of small forces for these sorts of scenarios.  My criteria are that both sides have to be similar in make up; so no colonial versus tribesmen type forces.  The forces should both be completely armed with muskets or rifles, so this eliminates any pike and shot period figures.  There should be no artillery and, at least initially, no cavalry (I hate painting cavalry!).

This gives us a time period from about 1715 until about 1870.  So which conflicts would be candidates for this project?  Firstly, we have the War of the Austrian Succession.  Although the uniforms are nice (perhaps too nice) it (to me anyway) is a conflict of big battles so we can eliminate that.  Next up we have the Seven Years War which is similar.  There were lots of skirmishes in North America but these often involved native troops so is not what I am after.  The next big one is the America War of Independence, which has always been a weak spot of mine ever since I first got the Airfix plastics and, even more so, the splendid Accurate British in tricornes.  I actually painted quite a lot of these.  Against this, however, is that I had some of the Foundry figures but never painted than and sold them off (along with all my reference books) so this would be an expensive way to go. 

The next big one is, of course, the Napoleonic Wars, which I know I really should do more about.  I continue to paint, very slowly, a unit of Dutch jaegers for Quatre Bras.  When I was at junior school and just getting the new Airfix Highlanders and Cuirassiers someone else in my class, "Lugs" W, was doing the same. Within a year or two I had been given some Hinchliffe French Imperial Guard by my father who was of the strong opinion that this ought to be the first wargames unit anyone painted.  Lugs begged to differ and he got given some Miniature Figurines (which I looked down on as they were so small) British rifleman.  He ventured that, for Napoleonics, the Peninsula campaign was the obvious choice whereas I said it should obviously be Waterloo.  This rather polarised argument has also meant that I have, as a result, no time or interest in Austrians, Russians, Bavarians, Würtemburgers or any of the other Ruritanian armies that most Napoleonic fans bang on about (we might make an honourable exception for the Prussians but they were at Waterloo).  "Lugs" came from a very religious family and so he wasn't allowed to go and see Waterloo at the cinema, which may have affected his choices, somewhat (toy soldiers obviously weren't a problem).  Anyway, I took no notice of him as he was very short and, as his nickname may suggest, was not an attractive chap.  This didn't stop him pursuing Sandra M, the school's crack recorder player, who somewhere between leaving junior school and fourth year at senior school turned into 5'9" of willowy gorgeousness.  I am sure my fetish for girls in tennis dresses was caused by the sight of Sandra playing tennis at the Bishop Duppas park in Shepperton one weekend.  She really did have extraordinarily long legs. Given I was already 6' tall by then and Lugs was still about 5'1" it wasn't him who got kissed by the lovely Sandra under the mistletoe at our friend's Christmas party.  It pains me to say, therefore, that of course, he was quite right on the Napoleonic front (to be fair, his taste in girls couldn't be faulted, either).   The Peninsula campaign offers everything a Napoleonic player might want, from skirmishes to major battles.  This may well have been true of Sandra as well but I never found out as, sadly, her family moved to Camberley, which might as well have been Ulan Bator when you had no transport.  The added incentive here of course was my discovery of Sharpe through the ITV programmes that first appeared in 1993 (I hadn't read the books at that stage).  But...it's all those blessed straps which drive me mad when painting figures from this period.

So, moving along and flicking through my Blandford Military Uniforms of the World, I pass over the Carlist War (I think some of silly hats put me off here), the Mexican American War (if only Gringo 40s had done this in 28mm!) and, with apologies to Matt, the first Schleswig War, and alight upon the Crimean War.  Although I tend to see this as a big battles war (and not many of them either) skirmishes were common but the figures available from Great War Miniatures and Warlord Games aren't, on the whole, in skirmish poses. Still, its worth thinking about.

Timpo Seventh Cavalry 

So, our final "big one" which has sufficient big, medium and small actions is, of course, the American Civil War.  Like many from the Airfix generation this was the first black powder wargaming I did, inspired by Terence Wise's Introduction to Battle Gaming.  However, not long ago I sold my Perry plastics and all my Ospreys on the basis that all the battle reports I saw had dozens of regiments per side.  I also didn't like the Perry plastic infantry, I'm afraid to say.  This is, however, a conflict which does resonate with me because my father was interested in it and gave me some of the Timpo 7th Cavalry figures (standing in for Union infantry) which I used to mow down with a plastic Gatling gun which used to fire those little silver balls you put on trifles (or at least you did in the seventies).  My sympathies were always for the South.

So, we think that we have to choose between AWI, Peninsula Napoleonic, Crimean and American Civil War.  Next time I will try and persuade myself what it should be (given I don't get much time to paint at present I might as well ramble on like this as at least I can do this on the train!).

Tribes of Legend

Well, after some delay I got hold of my copy of the new Wargames Foundry Tribes of Legend rules by Jake Thornton.  I ordered from Amazon which meant I paid just over £14 rather than £22, which was well worth the slight delay in shipping.

I bought these, of course, for my new Argonauts project but also for some other Greek mythological games inspired by the numerous new, if rather clunky, Foundry figures.  Some of these are quite nice whilst some are truly horrible (like much of Foundry's recent output) but I am hoping that at least some of them will paint up OK.  Looking at some of the faces I wonder if they aren't modeled on some of the Copplestone Caesarian figures.

Anyway, this is a nicely presented set of hardback rules with nice touches such as marbled (appropriately) endpapers. There are 114 pages with colour photographs of their new models on nearly every page.  Indeed, some of the models included haven't actually been released yet (although there was another batch released today).

Essentially, what is contained in the book are three separate sets of rules all dealing with different types of mythological combat.   

Firstly, there are the Tribes of Legend Rules.  These contemplate small armies of figures with several troop types available to the different armies available.  These are City States (hoplites), Hillmen (Thracians), Amazons, Centaurs and Satyrs.  No unit can contain more than 16 figures and some units, like the centaurs, can only have six figures.  For me, this a very good start!  Units can either be formed or loose, with things like shooting ranges always being calculated from the leader figure.  Units are activated in turn and can either: move, move into contact with the enemy and melee, move and shoot once or not move and shoot twice.  This regular back and forth between the players units can be changed by deploying one of three Hands of the Gods cards which you draw at the beginning of the game.  These can, for example, allow you to move two units in one go, get an extra action or stop the other player doing something.  Moving and fighting are all very familiar from Warhammer type games.  In fact these rules only cover four and a quarter pages. They look designed for a short, brutal game.  Any unit (with some exceptions) that goes down to half its number is routed and is removed with no chance of rallying.

Next comes three pages on the major Greek Gods but given that they have no role in the game this section is a little pointless.  

After this, there is the first of a series of painting guides.  In fact no less than 41 pages of the book are painting guides by a number of different painters.  Most of this is very basic stuff but, as ever, Mr Dallimore's section gave a couple of useful hints I hadn't tried before.

The second set of rule is called Ancient Heroes and is for bands of five (no more, no less) figures really designed for four players.   There is only one scenario: based around a hill containing a temple which the bands need to occupy.  Combat is based on a normal pack of playing cards with dice only being used to resolve ties.  Distractions can be vineyards (there is a lot in these rules about alcohol distracting some of the forces) or lurking nymphs, wolves or skeletons.  Again the rules are only about five pages long.

The final set of rules is a solo set, Trials of a Demigod, based on the 12 Labours of Heracles.  Again, the rules are three pages and the scenarios total another twelve.  These rules are less about combat than husbanding and using resources and are dice and card driven.  The models and scenery are almost irrelevant but they could lead to an interesting campaign.  More importantly there are enough scenarios that you could devise others using similar formats.

I quite like some of the new gods and goddesses.  It's just shame they don't have a role in the game.

At the end of the book is an article on making rivers (the second set of rules, Ancient Heroes, requires a stream on the table) but nothing on any other scenery.

Now, I'm not one of those people who can read a set of rules and say "ah this means X".  I would have to play them first.  They look very simple (are they designed for children?)  They would make a much simpler introduction to wargaming than Warhammer, for example.  I would have to play some games to see how they work; especially the card-driven Ancient Heroes which looks to be the most interesting set but I would need another couple of players.

As far as using them to recreate the search for the Golden Fleece, I think that they could work by using a mixture of all three sets of rules.  However, I am a little disappointed in them as I think they have wasted too much space with unnecessary painting guides and not given enough thought to making the rules more complex.  I would have liked to see a bigger role for the individual gods, for example, and more individual stats for named heroes and monsters.  These may either come, I suppose, or you could write them yourself, but if you have to do that you might as well use something like an adapted set of Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings.

All in all, a few basic rules with a lot of padding.  There are lots of big, coloured photographs but actually many are too big for both the standard of sculpting and the standard of painting, which is workmanlike rather than brilliant.  So, I will give them a go but I am glad I only paid £14 not £22 for them!