Natholeon
eldannardoIt has been 2 weeks and to be honest little has been achieved on the painting front. I have the last German WWI figs under the brush and the field grey is done, so it is just all of the equipment and flesh that needs to be finished. My aim is to have them done by the end of this weekend.
I went out to see John last weekend. He is one of the Rotorua chaps who is interested in wargaming, particularly in Napoleonics. I’d spoken with him about General de Brigade in 20mm, and he has old painted British and French armies, so I offered to rebase his Brits for him. He also has a pile of 15mm Napoleonics, so he is going to organise them for GdB as well. The ‘mature’ wargamers in the Rotorua area that regularly play historics have not been playing regularly for a while now. I’ve decided that I’m going to try and organise us with a roster. Once a month at alternating people’s houses on a Friday or Saturday night. We’ll see how that goes. The problem with us more ‘mature’ players is that life gets in the way so often, and the standard club meeting in our area on every second Sunday of the month just clashed with too many things. A regular roster that can be changed at the last moment might be a good way to accomodate us all.
My birthday came and went and no RSM95s. Then I got a message from Richard telling me he had been busy and found it hard to get around to finishing off my order. He offered to put in some artillery and accessories to compensate for not being able to post until next week. That is very good customer service as far as I’m concerned. Yes, we expect things to happen instantly in this world, but sometimes life gets in the way. I feel that it is very gentlemanly of him to offer compensation.
Speaking of Gentlemen, I just had to take advantage of Wargames Foundry’s recent sale. It meant some tough negotiations with the budgeteer, but I was able to purchase the Early Parliamentarian English Civil War Army deal http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/BIGBAT1644/2/index.asp as well as purchasing the 1644 rules. I used to have the old 80s version of these rules and really quite liked the look of them, but sold them when Warhammer ECW came out. A bit silly really, as I now think 1644 were far superior. So the updated set is on its way.
I had 2 ECW armies in 28mm for about 2 years languishing about. Dan wasn’t interested and my wargaming buddy Scott, who was keen on the project, moved to Kapiti. So i sold them. A month later I lent Dan a book about the ECW. He came back and said that he loved the whole idea of the period. D’oh!! So ECW is nothing new for me, and I’m looking forward to getting back into it.
In a conversation with Dan today, I tried to establish our next joint projects after WWI. The result was:
1) Flames of War – we have our armies finished, but need to put together some terrain.
2) Warhammer Ancient Battles El Cid – already ahead of him with 1 painted unit of Caballeros.
3) Border Reivers - using a Lord of the Rings conversion from Wargames Journal. A small skirmish game of about 12 figures a side.
4) American Civil War – using the Guns at Gettysburg Rules and copious amounts of Perry plastics.
This should take us to the end of 2009!
At the same time I’ll be slowly building up my armies for ECW and 7 Years War / Austrian Succession. For the latter I’ve decided that I’ll go with the Kriegskunst rules that follow the same system as General de Brigade and Guns at Gettysburg.
Well those are my maniacal plans for the near future, I’m sure they will change, but one clear thing is that using the blog to keep on track helped me finish the Arthurians, so it will definitely contain plenty of updates, starting with my finished German WWI army next week I hope!
Nate
Filed under: El Cid, Wargaming, Wargaming works in progress, Warhammer Ancient Battles
Here are the shots of the first cavalry unit for my Warhammer Ancient Battles El Cid Spanish Christian Reconquista army (phew, that’s a mouthful!).
And here’s a close-up of the Rey (King).
I went with red and yellow as the dominant colours in this unit, mostly because it was the King’s escort and those are the colours of the present Spanish flag.
The figures and horses are Black Tree Designs, and are really nice to paint. The Rey is the Crusader minis El Cid mounted on a Black Tree horse (the Crusader one was too small to match the Black Tree ones). There is a gap between the saddle molded onto the Cid and that molded on the horse. It is actually a lot more visible than I realised from viewing this photo, so a touch up is required.
Lastly, I will be making a flag for the standard bearer, and will try to find some material for this. I love Barry Hilton’s flags http://www.leagueofaugsburg.com/warchest/pdf/54.pdf and aim to try to use his technique.
Nate
Filed under: News
Just a very brief comment on what is in the news at the moment. Russia’s attack on Georgian troops and territory seems to me to be prima facie a legitimate move to stop a Georgian attempt to subdue an enclave that clearly wants nothing to do with the Georgian government. I could be totally wrong on this. There may be considerably more behind-the-scenes Russian politicking then I think to get the province of South Ossetia to want independence. But my gut says not to trust the Georgian President on this one. The South Ossetian autonomy is long standing and Saakashvili has made a big deal of bringing the autonomous regions to heel. My gut instinct says that the Russians are in the right in this one.
I also think that it is entirely hypocritical of the US to denounce the violence in the region considering what it has done in Iraq with A LOT less justification. But then, the US sees Georgia as an ally in the Caucasus, and Russia views Georgia as something of an American stooge. Is the Cold War reheating?
Finally, I must say that regardless of the rights and wrongs, it is always the civilian populace that suffers. This is always broadcast clearly in the international media, but often with the agenda of making one side look like a ‘bad guy’. At the moment the media seem to be favouring Russia as the ‘bad guy’, but given that the Georgians have cosied up to the US and who controls the majority of the Western media, I’ll make up my own mind on this.
Nate
Filed under: Wargaming works in progress
No post for three weeks. No explanation other than lack of time. The moment the holidays slip away the blogs come to a stand still. But even if I haven’t taken the time to blog, I have weaseled in the time to paint. Since the last post I have painted 20 German infantry and 10 Spanish Cavalry. I also have the last 16 German inf under the brush as you read this.
The Spanish cav were WAY more work than I had appreciated. And yet, they don’t look that much different to the Arthurian cav in terms of difficulty. Don’t get it. Maybe there is a big difference between 8 cav and 10 cav? Or maybe because it is a side project it just felt like it took ages? to be fair, I really only spent this week on them. I’ll have a picture up as soon as possible. I like them. Look forward to the whole army being painted.
The Marlburians? Well.., interesting story. I’m, a bit of a fan of the Old School Wargaming group. My first real wargaming was heavily influenced by Charles Grant and Donald Featherstone. And Mike Siggins’ article a while back pointing out the beauty of realistically sculpted figs such as happened in the 60s and 70s from Willie and Spencer Smith struck a bit of a chord. And then there is the fantastic Battlegames magazine. And my love of Maurice de Saxe and the War of Austrian Succession. Finally the blog of the Duchy of Alzheim http://mavisming.blogspot.com/
…
Long story short? I’ve ordered 4 battalions of RSM95 figs, British and French. These aren’t Marlburian, they are Seven Years War. This might seem a radical departure from Marlburian for some, but I aim to game the War of Austrian Succession. The 1740s seems to encapsulate the best of all worlds, and I’ve always viewed Fontenoy as a bit of a classic. At least one of the appeals was the low price – you get 2 RSM figs for every 1 Front rank, although the plummeting NZ dollar is killing that bonus rapidly! I did um and arr. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do imagi-nation armies of my own design or historical French and British, but eventually decided on the latter. Plenty of Warhammer and Warmachine to get the fantasy feel.
I’m planning on using the Kriegkunst rules – the adaptation of General de Brigade for the Seven years War. I’ll kepp everyone posted on this as it develops.
Post with photos soon.
Nate
