Natholeon
eldannardoIts been ages since I first painted up some DBA armies. I had a period in 2005-6 when I collected a whole pile of different armies in 15mm, but then sold them all off. I kept just enough for some Marian Romans and Alexander the Great. A week or so ago I decide that I’d try and get some DBA armies painted. These are all in 15mm mind you, not my favourite scale, but I thought I’d give it a go. For the first time, I tried to use blacklining in a consistent way. Ususally I try to shade my 15mm figures, but it doesn’t stand out that well. These are the first results:
I figured I would paint the shield designs on later, or maybe look for some transfers.
Getting into DBA again has convinced me that this might be the way to go in order to cover my other favourite periods that I don’t have time to do in large scale – Italian Wars, ECW, 1670s (Turenne and Montecuccoli), Marlburian and Frederick the Great. I can use DBR condensed for the first three, and adapt DBN for the other 2. All in 10mm, and this is a very cheap way to game these eras. It is true that these DBx rules give very similar feeling games, but to me the game is just a part of a campaign system. It gives generals on the battlefield a chance to fight out a conclusion in a short space of time and then get back to the campaign map. It also means a very short preparation time to field armies and game in a particular era. Finally, it means that the BIG painting projects (like WAB, WWII, WWI and ACW) won’t keep getting relegated too much further off.
Nate
Filed under: Wargaming
I painted my first test models for ACW the other week. I think the Perrys have done a fantastic job with these. And I see they are talking about 28mm plastic Napoleonics next. That might be the end of my return to 1/72. I don’t think I’ll be able to resist…
Nate
It arrived on Wednesday last week – the book I’ve been waiting all this time for – Warhammer Historical’s The Great War. Was it worth the wait? I believe so. The game is very much based upon Warhammer 40,000, which means that much of the rules I don’t need to learn as I’m already familiar with a lot of the concepts behind them. The army lists are good – restrictive enough to give good balanced forces. The eye candy is supurb, and I would probably have been slightly more stunned if I hadn’t already seen many of the figures and much of the terrain in the Wargames magazines. Nevertheless, there is nothing here that would turn you off WWI and everything that would turn you on to it. I have read the Army Lists and rules, but still haven’t quite made it to the scenarios yet. I’ll work my way through them this week. So I am excited and well done to Mike Reardon, Alex Buchel, Rob Broom and all those who produced it!
Looking at my collection I can see that I easily have 1,000 points of Germans and Brits, and about 800 points of French. I’ve got close to 1500 points all up for each of the first two, but it will take some jiggery-pokery to make sure that I can field everything! At the moment I’m looking at using a German Angriffbattalion and a standard British Battalion. The French will be Veterans. There is a Highlander stat line for the Brits that I think the NZers will fit into, so I may try to price up my force that way. Hopefully Dan and I will have a go this weekend.
Nate
Dan has been busy! He’s finished his basic pirate crew for Legends of the High Seas and a section of WWII British Paras. I’ll let his pictures do the talking…
The Pirate command
The Rogues
And the rest of the crew. Very impressive. I love the stripes and the skin tone!
And here are the Paras
I’m sure we’ll have WWII ready to go sometime in the next 2 years!
Nate
Plenty has happened since my last posting, and it might take a while to update it all!
For a start, I have (Shock! Horror!) sold my Marlburians. ‘Why?!’ you scream, ‘you love your Marlburians – Marlborough is even the guy on your header!’. Despite appearances, it was deliberately well thought out. You see, I was agonising on how long it would take for me to get the project fully off the ground – and even then there was something about 10mm that I still wasn’t completely comfortable with. Don’t get me wrong, I love the scale, and rate it head and shoulders over 15mm. It was more about the effectiveness of the scale for Marlburians. After painting those Front Rank figures for the Legends of the High Seas Pirate crew, I just knew I would never be satisfied until I had Front Rank 28mm Marlburian armies.
At the same time, as more info began to appear about the Warhammer Great War rules, I realised that I needed more World War One Brits and Germans. And at the same time Renegade are having their 6 quid a blister sale. The planets aligned and the deed is done. I no longer have the 10mm Marlburians, but I do have a couple of companies of 1918 goodness headed my way.
This fits well with the fact that my primary historical passion always has been and always will be World War One. But what of my other great passion? What of Marlborough and his times? Well, some time towards the end of 2009 I’m going to start buying some Front Rank figs. 18 infantry or 6 cavalry at a time, I’m going to build units for the Spanish Succession, using Barry Hilton’s Under the Lily Banners rules. I’m going to do it right, over an extended period of time, so that when I’m a pot-bellied 40 year old (rather than a pot-bellied 32 year old), I have the armies of my dreams to play with for WWI and Marlburians…
Why the end of 2009? Because I’ve got plans for things up until then. First of all, Dan and I have decided we are not going to let the opportunity for 28mm plastic ACW armies pass us by. The Perries will be receiving a decent chunk of our combined cash. Why ACW? I haven’t even mentioned it before! It kind of strikes a chord with Dan and I. back when we were teens, we purchased Esci figures to battle with. Mostly these were WW2 to begin with – Dan liked Vietnam too. And of course I loved Napoleonics. We gamed WW2 a bit, but it wasn’t really my thing, and we couldn’t be bothered writing rules. I don’t think we ever played a Vietnam game. But Dan’s cousin Marcus was into Napoleonics as well, and when the Revell American Civil War figures were released, he and I began collecting for the American Civil War. Marcus had Rebs, I had Yanks, and Dan really enjoyed those games that we had. So close to Napoleonics, and yet not. Dan was toying with the idea of 15mm when the Perry figs were announced. It took me several months to persuade him that 28mm will just look better, and works out cheaper. Not sure what rules we will use yet. I’ve already purchased some Old Glory Zouaves to go with them.
The other project on the table is my ultimate nostalgic move. With the release of all of the 1/72 plastics by HaT, Italeri and Zvezda, collecting Napoleonic armies is suddenly quite easy, and cost effective. I finally made up my mind to pursue armies for one of my all time favourite periods – Napoleonics. Using the General de Brigade rules, I’ve set myself the goal of raising Fench and Russian armies within the next year (not all painted of course. I’m far too disorganised for that!). I bought 3 packs of the HaT French Line Infantry 1808-12, which gives me 6 battalions of 36 plus spares. The goal short term goal is 8 battalions or so a side, 2 artillery battereies and two cavalry regiments, with generals. This will be 1500 points a side. I’ll consider long term goals once short term is reached! My first test element is below:
But that isn’t all. I recently played a game of Warhammer 40,000 using a Chaos army that Dan bought off trade me, and enjoyed it! It’s been 6 years since I last played 40K, and I felt a wave of nostalgia hitting me as I picked up the rules again and roasted a few Orks. Hopefully this weeked Dan and I will play a game and I’ll post a battle report.
In my first wave of wargaming as a teenager, I collected 1/72 plastic WW2, Napoleonics, ACW and Ancients. In my second phase towards the end of Uni, it was Warhammer 40,000. Then I moved to plastic 1/72 WWI and DBA Ancients. Then it was 28mm WW1, WW2, and Warhammer Ancient Battles. Now, I’m looking at 1/72 plastic Napoleonics again. Things seem to be coming round in a big circle.
Nate
