Natholeon
eldannardoTime is short and I have a couple of Panzer IIIs to paint before tomorrow night’s game, so a quick post of my first Perry Napoleonic figure. His name is Pierre, and he is the first member of the 8eme regiment de ligne. I hope to do a decent review of the figs and the sprue, but so many others have already done this and time is so tight, don’t hold your breath! But Pierre can’t help but want to show off his new coat of paint, so without further ado…
Filed under: Wargaming
I missed it! The blog’s first birthday was 23rd October. I think it has done well in keeping me on track – since I started I’ve painted an army for Warhammer Ancient Battles, Warhammer The Great War and Flames of War. I’ve also painted a lot of other stuff which would probably easily add up to an army but is from all over the show. So maybe a 75% pass mark? Let’s see if the Napoleonics and English Civil War projects go ahead smoothly in the coming year.
Nate
Filed under: DBA and variants, Legends of the High Seas and the Old West, Wargaming, World War One
It was just Labour weekend here, and Dan came down to stay. It was a busy threee and a half days with a decent amount of gaming and some model making.
We started Saturday morning with a game of Legends of the Old West. We hacven’t played this in a year or so, and I was very surprised how easily the rules came to us. When I say that, it was in light of the fact that Dan had left the rulebook in Auckland, so we were playing with memory and my old roster sheet. We only had to look up one thing, which I did in the Legends of the High Seas book. Because the systems are so similar, it transferred perfectly. So anothe shootout in Armpit with 2 identical gang rosters. The result was bloody, and by turn three things were looking bad for my gang. but the comeback was on, and with no campaign nobody voluntarily retired. It came down to 2 deputies facing off. They survived their showdown and both headed for the hills on the last turn. A fun game.
The set-up for the game in the town of Armpit, Arizona.
A struggle around the Corral.
Bloodbath at the crossroads.
The next game was Warhammer Historical’s The Great War. We wanted to get our freshly painted British and German armies on the table. We decided on a blitz scenario with the Brits having 1500 points versus German 750. I kind of expected that as the German player I would be sitting back and shooting. What I didn’t expect was that my forces would take a hammering in the preliminary bombardment, that they would frequently find themselves unable to shoot due to pinning and that my turn would take five minutes while the British took about 40 minutes. All up, not a particularly enjoyable game to play. Probably quite accurate in a historical sense but that would be for solo games I’m sure. When two people want an enjoyable game it doesn’t really cut it. We also found the Great War rulebook quite frustrating to navigate at times. We relied on our familiarity with Warhammer 40,000 to get us through the basics, and this similarity was one of the main reasons we had looked forward to this ruleset. We’ll give it another go with 1000 point forces on each side, and hopefully they will give a more enjoyable game. The other option is looking into Iron Ivan Games’ Price of Glory, which I’ve got and looks very good.
The British Army.
On Sunday we played a game of DBA to warm up. And we enjoyed it, so we played another. And another. And another. We played DBA until 1.00 in the morning. We both hadn’t realised just how entertaining and addictive this little game is! We ordered another couple of armies (Ancient Spanish and another Polybian Roman) with an eye to playing Big Battle DBA for the Punic Wars. Now we just have to paint the figures – that’s why there are no photos of these games.
On Monday we built some terrain and got stuck into some Warhammer 40,000 figures. I converted a Chaos rhino into a Space Marine Razorback and built a Veteran Vanguard Assault squad to travel in it. Dan played around with the Chaos Dreadnought and gave it a pretty daemonic arm. Pics will follow. My Space Marines are to be known as the Solar Companions, but their nickname will be the Smiley faces of the Emperor. More on that in the future.
Today 3 boxes of plastic Perry Napoleonic goodness showed up, so more on that in the next blog.
Nate
The original stated intention of this blog was to try to keep my painting on track. It has worked quite successfully for my Arthurian WAB army, but I have returned to my butterfly like ways since. Slowly the World War One figs have been painted, and are finally near completion. All the base coats are down on the last 17 British infantry. And the Flames of War repaints are due to be finished this week. But there has been no real project management as such. So I’ve got a plan!
By January 2010 I intend to have fully painted armies for:
1. Warhammer Ancient Battles Arthurian British and Saxons
2. Warhammer Great War 1916-18 Germans and British
3. Flames of War mid-late war Germans (Dan’s British are finished)
4. English Civil War Parliamentarians and Royalists (dan’s getting these) for the 1644 rules
5. Napoleonic French for General de Brigade
6. Warhammer Ancient Battles Romans and Ancient British
7. Warhammer 40,000 Chaos
Some of these are done or nearly done, and I think 16 months is a realistic expectation for the rest. I just have to make myself stay on task. The aim is 1 battalions of Napoleonics and a regiment of ECW a month, and if I have time left over, some Romans.
Now back to the Brits.
Nate
Filed under: Uncategorized
For me, anyway. My birthday order of RSM95 figs turned up today, along with two extra guns and two generals from Richard by way of an apology for the delay in getting them to me. I’ve said it before, but I really appreciate manufacturers who make an effort, and try to be as loyal to them as possible. I’ve still got 17 WWI Brits to finish, but I couldn’t resist undercoating a French Battalion and painting a test figure, so here he is:
The figures are quite slim and realistically proportioned. Detail is minimal, but enough to clearly see where to paint. Flash was practically non-existant aside from having to file down the bottoms of the bases a little. This was a happy surprise after the Great War miniatures and the amount of time it took to clear up the flash on those!
Another angle:
And another for luck:
These are the start of my battalions for the Die Kriegskunst wargames rules. 16 figures to a battalion for French and British (British can be up to 20). I have 3 battalions of line infantry for the French, although I still need to get a command for one of them. The British have a 20 man battalion, a 16 man battalion, and, when I get a couple more figures, a 12 man grenadier battalion. The intermediate goal is to have 6 battalions, 3 guns and 2 cavalry regiments per side, so I’m well underway. The plan is not to order anything new until I have painted the units that I have got, but I don’t know if that will work… I will aim to get 2 battalions painted a month, though.
Nate
Vic Frank has assembled some thoroughly capable chaps to help in his fight against Nazi nastiness! Here are three key members of his team:
From left to right: Sgt Michael ‘Mike’ Sten, Hemi Heke (Tohunga at large), and Captain Stirling Swift.
Stirling was the top RAF pilot in the FFP (Foo fighters pursuit) squadron. But after one incident where he forced a foo to crash land into the North Sea, he went missing for a couple of months. Upon reappearing he had a rather maniacal look in his eyes, but was unable to explain his absence. After being charged he once more went out on a pursuit, but this time flew with inexplicable rage, mumbling something about probes, decency and revenge. He opened up with his cannon and screamed with glee as the strange light dipped out of the sky, only to turn and head for the stars again.
OISH heard about Stirling’s behaviour and recruited him into their unit. He is an extraordinary pilot, but a very strange and intense man with a decided grudge against foos and their contents.
Hemi Heke grew up just down the road from Vic in the Hawke’s Bay. He was always a little odd, having an aura about him that made people decidedly uneasy. He was from a family of Tohunga, or priest, and was taught to be well versed in the Occult knowledge of the Maori. Hemi was a particularly adept student, and as a teengaer Vic happened to be with him on an occasion where a magickal battle took place. This was at least one of the incidents that pushed Vic into his studies of Occultism.
During the Great War, Hemi served in the Maori pioneer battalion as a chaplain. Vic made sure that he was transferred into OISH to help him out. Not long after the war ended, Hemi returned to New Zealand, but Vic called on him occasionally for help. But now, in the 1930s, Hemi has sensed the growing evil that Nazism represents, and has eagerly rejoined Vic in his battles. Although he doesn’t carry a gun, he does not need to. Most people who look into his eyes are quite willing to run in the other direction…
Finally, Sergeant Mike Sten. A true grass roots working class Brit, Sten had already fought on the North West Frontier before being asked to join OISH (no-one ever applies for OISH – they contact you!). He had been a private soldier involved in a nasty fight with a Pathan tribe who were fostering a new Mahdi. It turned out that this Mahdi was actually a sorceror, well versed in the Dark Arts. It was Sten that turned the day in the final fight, producing a magic ring that he had nicked which trapped the soul of the evil Magician, but only after his whole company had been wiped out. Few people believed Sten’s story of survival, thinking that he had gone mad with grief, but OISH knew better. They recruited the obviously resourceful Sergeant, and found that his special talent – the ability to ‘acquire’ things – came in handy.
Above: a picture of Sgt Mike Sten. He carries a prototype sub machine gun stolen during a mission in Germany, and wears a prototype camouflage smock, found lying around in the office of some guy called Denison. Note he also wears the purple beret of OISH, and on his left shoulder you can just see the flash for OISH – a purple triangle on a white background.
Little Known Fact 1: The prototype SMG carried by Sgt Sten was used by Enfield to help design their own budget SMG, later called the ‘Sten’. Publicly this was not known, as OISH are a highly secretive organisation, and it was sheer luck that the designers’ names started with ‘S’ and ‘T’ and that the ‘EN’ from Enfield could be used to create the name Sten as a cover story.
Little Known Fact 2: The Nazi’s gave homosexuals the symbol of a pink triangle in mockery of the OISH flash. They thought it would be the ultimate insult. However, as the Colonel bats for the other team, it had no effect at all really…
So there we have it, the Alcoholic and Commie are joined by an alien abuse victim, a witch doctor and a kleptomaniac and you now know something about the colonel’s sexual orientation that you really didn’t need to!
Tune in for more background in the near future!
Nate
