Huzzah!

Ten Years of Dabbling in Warhammer

2010-06-30T18:45:00.002-05:00

This summer will see the release of a new edition of Games Workshop’s fantasy battle miniature rules: Warhammer. For those keeping count, this will be the 8th edition. For my personal count it is my third edition in ten years.

I started wargaming with boardgames and Dungeons & Dragons back in the 1970s. In 1982 or 83 I played my first miniature wargame using historical miniatures. It was a hypothetical 1815 battle using 25mm figures and George Nafziger’s rule set, Pas de Charge. I have been hooked on miniatures ever since. But this article is not about Napoleonics or even historical miniatures in general. Rather I want to talk about my dabbling in Warhammer, also known as Warhammer Fantasy Battles or WHFB to discern it from its Warhammer 40,000 or 40K science fiction cousin.

Despite my D&D gaming, I was not involved with GW games in general or Warhammer in particular. I was aware of the Citadel Miniatures line but not about Warhammer. Around 1999 as I was preparing to move from San Antonio, Texas to Delaware, I discovered a new game store in the neighborhood I was about to leave. I stopped by to see if they had anything interesting and was surprised to find a shop complete with a couple gaming tables, some terrain for the tables, and lots of GW product.

And that’s where I did NOT get involved with Warhammer. Quite honestly, the figures and terrain put me off. This was during the editions of Warhammer (up through and including 5th edition) that involved garish, almost cartoon-like paint jobs on greatly exaggerated figures with impossibly large weapons. I would like to think I wasn’t snobbish about it; if someone wanted to play with that stuff, it was their choice. I just wasn’t interested myself. To give you an idea of what did interest me I will point out that I was collecting 15mm armies for De Bellis Antiquitatis (DBA) for the 2nd Punic War, 15mm armies for our club’s Seven Years War rules and 15mm Napoleonic armies for several different sets. I was just beginning to get into 28mm figures for the Seven Years War but had not yet done so for Napoleonics.

As I said, I was just about to move to the East Coast. Once there, I was sent to Montgomery, Alabama for a training course. Before going, I used the Internet to find a DBA player and arranged to meet him at a Montgomery game store. We got together, played several games, and browsed the store. One thing I always try to do while traveling is to find the Friendly Local Game Store and buy something. If I find a “something” which is substantial and connected to one of my current projects that’s a bonus. But if I can’t find anything for my personal mainstream, I will pick up something that looks interesting. This way I both broaden my gaming horizons while giving the shop some business.

This particular trip, I really could not find anything of real interest to me. However, the player I had met (sorry, but I have forgotten his name) pointed out to me a brand new GW game which supposedly was very much like DBA: Warmaster. I think the store had sold out of the Warmaster rules, but they did have a copy of the GW magazine White Dwarf which covered the release of the new game. So I bought US White Dwarf #243 for April, 2000 and took it back to my hotel room. Oh the little $4.99 plus tax pebble which would start an avalanche of thousands of dollars!

That issue of White Dwarf really surprised me. Somewhere between what I had seen at the store in Texas and the publishing of Warmaster, GW had transitioned away from the cartoony and garish to the dark and grim. In addition to articles describing Warmaster, some of its armies, and a large battle report, issue #243 included an interesting piece of 40K fiction called “Siren Song,” a spread on “Vengeance of the Vampire,” a large and gruesome display table from UK Games Day, and other articles. I distinctly remember reading all of the Warmaster content first, but then getting sucked into the other game systems as well.

I purchased the Warmaster rules and an Empire army soon after returning home to Delaware. I never found any local players, however, and I eventually sold off the game before moving back to Texas. As a side note, once I did move back to Texas I found that the local group there was engaged in a Warmaster campaign and I bought back into the system, but with Undead and later Lizardmen. But although interesting and very much a result of that first White Dwarf, I’m diverging from Warhammer itself.

As most gamers do, once I bought Warmaster I wanted to get more information about its universe. The book itself did not have a lot of “fluff” as some call it. I kept an eye on the next few issues of White Dwarf, and was rewarded when the October, 2000 issue (#249 in the US) introduced a new edition of Warhammer—and included a 26-page “Rough Guide to the Warhammer World.” I bought the magazine for the background, but soon found myself drawn to the description of the new edition of Warhammer. This did not sound anything like the game I remembered back in San Antonio! This sounded grim, sinister, yet fun and still with a wry sense of humor. I mean, really: orcs with Cockney accents?

Between October and that Christmas, I spent a lot of time on the internet or in the Dover, Delaware game store looking at and reading about Warhammer. Shortly after Christmas, I took the opportunity of a visit from my sister as an excuse to go shopping at the Franklin Mills mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the time, there was a GW store in the mall. After one last look at the demonstration game they had set up, I bought the big boxed set and took it to my wife and asked her how she knew to give me just what I wanted for Christmas!

I devoured that box. I soon had all of the new Army Books for what I now learned was the 6th edition of Warhammer. I have always rather thought of it as my first edition. The Empire was what I collected; lots and lots of it. At some point I finally subscribed to White Dwarf and began to read the novels as well. I particularly enjoy the Gotrek and Felix series.

Along with my subscription to White Dwarf I slowly collected the Army Books, generally as they were released. I picked them up for various reasons: fluff, interest in potential adversaries and in the case of the Lizardmen book released in 2003, a decision to actually build a new army.

I originally bought the Lizardmen book for inspiration to paint a Warmaster army. The club Warmaster campaign was still running and interest in the game in general was quite high. We had many games, some of them huge, and I was looking for something different than my Undead army.

But having that Army Book was just too tempting. A few days later while browsing one of the local stores, I saw something green, scaly, and dusty on the bottom shelf: fifth edition Saurus plastics for only $12.50 for the whole box. And Skinks too! I had only enough cash to buy one or the other, but soon travelled back to another store with additional funds. The second store, by the way, was the same store that I found in 1999. New management made Central Command into “the” place for GW in San Antonio for several years, although sadly the store is no longer in business.

Of course other scaly purchases followed that first box of Saurus, and I continued to add White Dwarfs, supplements, and Army Books to my collection.

Looking back now, I consider the time frame of 2000 to 2005 to have been a high point for my enjoyment of Games Workshop. White Dwarf magazine was full of interesting articles, the company ran huge virtual campaigns, and innovative products like Warhammer Skirmish and The Generals Compendium kept the energy level high.

When the next (7th) edition of Warhammer was announced and released in September of 2006 it did not come in the same “big box” that had been used previously. The full sized rule book was released separately (which I bought) and the starter set included a reduced-size (both physically and content) version of the rules. I particularly enjoyed The Battle for Skull Pass set: it was a good value and very useful.

But GW and Warhammer changed at that time. Although I bought 7th Edition, Skull Pass, and a couple Army Books, my interest waned. The new Empire figures released for the 7th Edition harked back to the ones that didn’t impress me in 1999 and I don’t think I bought any of them. White Dwarf articles became less interesting, and generally GW output seemed less inspired. I continued to subscribe to the magazine, but stopped purchasing Warhammer material. An exception came in early 2009 when the revised Lizardmen Army Book and some cool new models were released.

So here it is the summer of 2010. The latest, 8th Edition of Warhammer is coming over the horizon—how will it do? More personally, how will it do for me? That question is what led to this article.

Yesterday I stopped into a local store and looked over their preview copy of the huge new 528 full-color pages of the new Warhammer. It is an impressive book. Sadly, I did not feel any surge of interest. In an ironic coincidence, the July issue of White Dwarf is completely devoted to a preview and celebration of 8th Edition—but I finally let my subscription lapse with the June issue. I went ahead and picked up a store copy of the new issue, but as of this moment I do not intend to resubscribe. Overall, though, the issue did what was intended: it has piqued my interest in Warhammer.

I am very interested in learning about the new introductory set to replace Skull Pass. The new set, Island of Blood, will probably have another mini-rulebook but is said to contain High Elves and Skaven—neither of which have interested me in the past.

Will I continue to be interested in Warhammer? I don’t know yet. I have only browsed the July issue of White Dwarf and I know I will be buying the new Ulrika and Gotrek & Felix books. Island of Blood is a definite possibility. What else is coming out? Anything new and exciting? I am waiting but I am not sure if Warhammer will interest me for another ten years. To be honest, I hope it does; those first five were a real blast!

Ed's Update--1st Regiment of Perrys

2009-08-08T09:58:00.003-05:00

Although this is a team project, I'll leave Ray to do the step-by-step descriptions. I'm happy just to get the figures assembled and painted!

That said, here is my first box of Perry infantry, tentatively identified as the 6th Connecticut, assembled and preparing to wade through the Primer River.

The Project Begins

2009-08-03T21:36:00.001-05:00

The box from Brookhurst was waitng for me in the carport when I got home from work. I have two boxes of cavalry and six boxes of infantry and I’m ready to start. The other projects have been cleared off the Citadel Workstation to make way for this one. The LotR figures are back in their boxes, the Perry plastic French battion has retired in a plastic box, and the Space Marines are on furlough. Piles of Plastic ACW frames have taken their place. Note that I have to work areas in my house. One is a permanent workbench I use for painting. It has the lights and space to spread out and leave things out and out of the way. The other is a Citadel Workstation that I use for figure prep. This I put on the kitchen table it has a lamp and the overhead light from the lighting fixture. Light here isn’t critical, but being able to move the whole thing out of the way if I need the table makes the Citadel Workstation very useful. Having a painting area and a prep area means that I can switch from one to the other when I get bored or fatigued.

I decided to do the cavalry first. Cavalry, to me, is always the “hump” in any project. Perhaps it’s the horses and trappings that make them seem so much work. Somehow I always felt like one cavalry model equaled about four times the work of an infantry model. So, I decide to attack what I thought would be the most difficult part of the project first.

As always, with plastic models of any sort, I took my time and studied the parts on the frames. It became obvious that, not only are the hats interchangeable, but the sides of the horses are as well.

I separated the horse halves from the sprue (frame) using plastic nippers. If you don’t have a pair of these, you must get some. They are basically flush cutters (one side of the jaw is beveled and the other straight so that the cut is flush)

In the picture you can see that I’ve laid out the left side of the horses (the side with the head attached) from the three identical frames in the same order. I then laid the right sides of the horses on top ensuring that the same right half from each sprue had a different left half. This makes each and every horse within a box unique. Even the horse halves which appear standing look good mated with a running opposite side; they simply appear to be pawing the ground. The way these horses go together is brilliant. Once mated, the sides were cleaned up and glued together using Testors Model cement. I really like this glue and the applicator in which it comes. It’s a fine steel tube and it comes with a couple of wires to clean it out if it should become clogged. So far, I’ve avoided a clog by clearing the tube (squeezing the bottle when upright and releasing, thus pushing out any glue in the tube then sucking air in to make sure) before screwing on the cap. It also helps to line up all of your parts before starting to use the glue so the cap is off the minimum amount of time possible.

While the horses cured overnight, I began on the cavalrymen figures. I clipped out all the men and cleaned the seams. The only truly visible seams are on the upper left arm and the right boot (for those that have a visible boot). Cleaning was a breeze with a round and a triangular jeweler’s file. If you choose to use files on plastic, be gentle! It’s much easier to make a several gentle swipes than it is to repair a gouge. The only flash is on a couple of the cavalry men between the boot and end of the saber’s scabbard. I use a small stiff brush to clean up the bits of plastic for filing as they tend build up a lot of static electricity and you don’t want them trapped under the primer. The cavalrymen then get a hole drilled underneath just slightly smaller than the diameter of a toothpick. The tip of a toothpick is cut off about halfway down the taper. The toothpick is shoved into the hole making a pretty tight friction fit. Now, each figure can be handled by the toothpick. Each one can be mounted on a piece of corrugated cardboard simply by inserting the toothpick into the cardboard edge on for priming and drying.

Once the horses are cured, they get mounted to jumbo craft sticks with rubber cement. I use rubber cement because it’s easy to remove once the painting and over coating is done. Yet, the bond is generally strong enough to withstand normal priming and painting. Occasionally I’ll bumps a figure and knock it loose but then I just rubber cement it right back on the stick (working on another stick until the cement dries).

Unfortunately that’s as far as I got before I had to catch a flight for a business trip. When I return, next week, I’ll pick up this journal where I left off and finish the assembly and priming of the cavalry models. Look for the update to the assembly and painting of the cavalry in a couple of weeks.

Perry Hard Plastic ACW

2009-07-25T22:45:00.001-05:00

I recently paid a visit to Brookhurst Hobbies in Garden Grove, CA. Ed an I had been playing Memoir ‘44 the previous week and he had shown me his copy of Battle Cry. Which, naturally, had gotten me thinking about ACW.

Now I’ve always been biased against ACW games. I have no idea why. Just one of those things, I guess. We all have our likes and dislikes and sometimes they just defy explanation.

Anyhow, there I was in Brookhurst wandering the aisles daydreaming about making my own version of Battle Cry using painted miniatures when I espied the boxes of plastic Perry ACW cavalry and infantry.

I bought one box of each just to check them out with Battle Cry in mind. The cavalry box build up into a unit of 12 and the infantry box builds up into 2 units of 18. One thought led to another and before you know it, I was thinking that those unit sizes were very close to The Sword and the Flame units.

A few quick calls to Ed and a couple of emails later and we have hatched a plan to host an ACW even-up fight at a 2010 Millennium convention in Round Rock (Austin) Tx.

Here are some pictures of the Perry ACW plastics that have motivated us to start another convention project:

How could I resist a box with cover art like this?

The back of the box provides a rudimentary painting guide.

The front of one of the three identical frames

And the back of the same frame

A close up of one of the cavalrymen

A shot showing some of the detailed parts

One of the well sculpted horses

And here’s another

Brookhurst price tag on the box says $24.99—a good price.

Like the cavalry, the infantry box provides a painting guide

The front of one of the four identical frames

And, of course, the back view

A good macro lens lets me show you the detailed sculpting

The drum is two parts and clips over the knapsack

Here you can see the front of the figure above

And here you see the arms for the right figure above

I hope that these pictures have helped some of you decide whether you want these figures of not. I can only say that I’m so impressed with the quality, flexibility and low cost, that they have motivated me to move into an era that I otherwise would have left alone.

In the coming months, I will keep a running commentary on my progress on this project.

The Blue, the Gray, and the Ugly

2009-07-25T11:27:00.002-05:00

Introduction

There you are: two “seasoned” wargamers who cannot agree on a new project that can interest both. One is all for tricornes and big battalions, the other for Fuzzy-Wuzzies and pith helmets. What to do?

Of course there is an obvious solution: find a third period which neither player loathes, but offers the opportunity for research, painting good figures, and a fun game. In this case, the American Civil War.

It may have started during our Memoir ’44 binge. We pulled out the first published version of the “Command & Colours” system (on which Memoir ’44 is based), Battle Cry. Although we didn’t end up playing it, we did discuss modifying the rules for use with our current collections, or possibly using new figures to do so. In particular, the plastic figures from Perry Miniatures seemed to be a good idea.

Ray took the initiative on his next business trip to California, stopping by Brookhurst Hobbies and picking up one each of Perry plastic infantry and cavalry boxes for evaluation. Ray’s enthusiasm for the figures quickly infected Ed and the rest, to paraphrase an old saying, is “historical gaming.”

Where We Are Now

We have decided we want to put together a project which:

1. could be done in about a year,
2. is easily adaptable, or played as-is, in a convention setting,
3. involves enough figures to be interesting, but not overwhelming,
4. isn’t based on any particular historical event, but just an in-period bash, and
5. motivates us to paint nice figures and terrain.

The first thing we did was to buy several more sets of Perry plastics. Ray now has six boxes of infantry and two of cavalry, while Ed has two of each. For the moment, we are using each box of infantry as two units of eighteen figures, and each box of cavalry as one unit of twelve. Preliminary plans are for each of us to build 12 infantry regiments and 2 cavalry regiments evenly distributed between Union and Confederates. That way we can play a small game at either of our houses without the other having to lug their troops around and yet if we want to play a bigger, multi-player game we can use all our troops. It also prevents one of us from having to paint all blue or all gray and butternut.

We have not yet decided on the rules. We are tending toward a game where each unit represents a regiment on the table. Ray has ordered a copy of Larry Brom’s A Glint of Bayonets (a variant of The Sword and the Flame) while Ed has ordered a set of Guns at Gettysburg. Once we decide on rules, we will decide on artillery units and leader figures we need to add.

Paul's After Action Report

2007-11-12T12:28:00.000-05:00

I second Ray’s comments above. Spectacular doesn’t do justice to describe what took place.

I too was particularly pleased the number of youngsters that took an active part in the game. It gives hope that historical miniatures will continue to have interest. And needless to say, we had some more ‘senior’ players alongside the young, forgetting the age difference and focused on beating the guys on the other side.

Brits and Spaniards, with a mix of a few foreign regiments, struggled to hold a ridge against a French/Allied (included Germans and Italians) army. At first things looked tenuous on the British right flank, see/sawing back and forth between cavalry, the French finally emerging victorious and over-running British guns. Fortunately, the French cavalry were too well spent to followup and roll up the British from that flank.
On the left flank, Spanish cavalry, with supporting artillery, defied history and scattered 3 French/Italian heavy cavalry regiments, leaving the 13th Cuirassiers staring across the table at Spanish dragoons and a Division of infantry.

Masses of French and German battalions struggled up a long ridge in the center. The focus of hours of excitement, the Brits and French broke, reformed, fired, melee’d and did it all over again and again. In left center, Spanish infantry were locked in musketry with Italians, neither side budging as ranks depleted.

The Spanish village at the British right/center was quickly occupied the French, but they saw no advantage to spreading the attack across the ridge line, bringing in all available infantry to smash the center. The Brits were quick to manoeuvre infantry to plug the holes.

After almost 8 hours of play and spectators continuing to join in to pick up where others left off, the continuity of the game continued to flow. Seemed that new players stepped right into the tactics.

Towards the end of the day, French and Brits were still locked in combat in the center, units on the British right flank in square to ward of any remaining pesky French/German light cavalry.

Some Hessians reinforced the Italians against the Spanish, with the 13th Cuirassiers finally deciding to wake up. At the end of the evening, it was obvious the Spanish were too weak and outmaneuvered, the Cuirassiers poised to punch a great hole on the side. In the center, neither the French nor the Brits were ready to concede.

A particular attractive anomaly to Wellington’s Rules is the concept of stragglers. The players that joined in seemed to favor the rule, with the opportunity to recover stragglers in later turns and return them to the ranks.

The 8 hours of play went quick. The only way to be bored was to be comatose. The spectacle alone of beautifully finished figures with flags/banners/eagles waving across the 24x6’ table couldn’t help but to impress.

My thanks to my two friends Ed and Ray for inviting me to help GM the event.

In the end, I carried my figures back home to Houston, unpacking and resetting my own personal table in my game room. The gratification of Millennium X and the common interest of gamers from across the country reinforced why I chose to devote 30 years to this hobby. Looking forward to Millennium XI

Ray's Report...with pictures!

2007-11-12T08:56:00.001-05:00

Well the game has come and gone. I have to say that I was quite pleased with the way it came off. Wellington Rules! are simple enough for the large covention and neophytes, yet meaty enough to satisfy the experienced Napoleonics players. There was a lot of praise for the straggler rules and the orders systems.

As to the game itself, I have to thank Chip and rest of the covention staff for locating the game way up in front were everyone coming in or leaving had to to walk past. The number of comments to effect of "Oh ^%&%, look at that!" as people turned the corner and say the huge table with almost 2000 miniatures was very satisfying to both Ed, Paul and myself.

This game was so big that it's impossible to give an After Action Report other than to say that everyone seemed to have a good time, the rules worked well and the convention venue was perfect for our game. Now here's some pictures to give you an idea what went on.

Quick post--my few pics of the big game

2007-11-11T13:20:00.001-05:00

Just got back from Millennium Con X. Our game was a great success, with 20 some players over the course of the day, and lots of kind words on the look. See for yourself (click on pictures for larger versions):

Overview before the game started:

French Light Cavalry:

The Spanish village:

The European village:

French infantry approaching the ridge:

Presentation of eagles

2007-11-04T14:57:00.000-05:00

GMB flags, Old Glory figures from DJD, Fernando, and PhilGreg painting services. Bases by Litko.

All I did was base the figures, cut off the Old Glory staffs, and replace them with wire.

We've been working hard...

2007-10-27T19:46:00.001-05:00

We've not posted in a while because we've been working so hard. There's tons of stuff to do! However, my main task is done! Yessir! I've completed the painting of my share of the British troops. And here they are:

What you see above is:

CinC (Wellington), 1 figure
9lb Royal Foot Artillery, 3 models and 9 figures

Brigadier (Hill), 1 figure
95th Rifles (1 coy), 2 figures
14th Foot (Buckinghamshire), 20 figures
30th Foot (Cambridgeshire), 20 figures
39th Foot (Dorsetshire), 20 figures

Brigadier (Piction), 1 figure
95th Rifles (1 coy), 2 figures
2nd Royal Guards (Coldstream), 24 figures
42nd Highland (Black Watch), 24 figures
92nd Highland (Gordon), 24 figures

Brigadier (Steerwitz), 1 figure
95th Rifles (1 coy), 2 figures
23rd Foot (Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 20 figures
40th Foot (2nd Somersetshire), 20 figures
69th Foot (South Lincolnshire), 20 figures

Brigadier (Uxbridge), 1 figure
12th Light Cavalry (Prince of Wales Own), 16 figures
1st King’s Dragoon Guards, 8 figures
2nd North British Dragoons (Scots Greys), 8 figures
6lb Royal Horse Artillery, 3 models and 9 figures

This is 252 men, 36 horses and 6 guns painted for Millennium. This, of course is only a small part of the entire game in which up to 20 players (each commanding one Brigade). We are figuring on brigades being about 3 battalions. Of course, if there are fewer players we can form larger brigades. Paul Bishop and Ed Youngstrom will contribute the rest of the figures.

Go to the Millennium X website and pre-register and sign up for your place at the table!

Huzzah!

http://www.millenniumcon.com/

"Take command of a brigade of Napoleonic infantry or cavalry in this corps vs corps engagement loosely based on several of battles in Spain. All figures will be provided, but if you have 25mm troops based 24-figures (or so) to the battalion and 4 troopers to the squadron, bring 'em along!! Rules are 30:1, and each side will have a reinforced corps...so we expect almost 2,000 figures on the table."

This is game number: MN21 and it begins on Saturday afternoon.

The ground we fight on...

2007-10-27T16:20:00.000-05:00

This is the table cover for MillenniumCon 2007. Since this is a corps-size Napoleonic game, with 24-figure battalions, we figured we need LOTS of manuever room.

There will a styrofoam ridgeline in the center where the big monochrome light green splotch is, and of course it will be decorated with trees, lichen, buildings, and a thousand or two figures!

A ground cloth may not be the most beautiful thing, but it beats plain felt in looks and is a lot more portable than terrain boards when you drive a Honda...

Memorial Day at Lttle Wars

2007-06-01T22:23:00.000-05:00

Chris Pettet of Little Wars in Houston

www.littlewars.net

Paul

Ed (left) and Bob

I flew to San Antonio to visit Ed and family for the Memorial Day weekend. Ed had met Paul Bishop on-line and they had arranged a Wellington Rules game at the Little Wars game store in Houston. So we drove down on Saturday morning, arriving somewhat late due to weather, and we were greeted by Paul, Bob and masses of Pauls troops already arrayed on the table.

Paul had played the rules solo before and Bob was a complete neophyte. Ed and I had but played a couple of times and only one real game. We were all starting off on practically the same foot.

We played most of the day. I won't bore you with details. Suffice it to say that the game went much smoother that the others we played. There was much more confidence in what we were doing. After all, we had discovered the areas that we really had questions about and discussed them with Buck Surdu, the author, prior to this game.

Ed and I were very impressed with Paul's troops and the way in which Paul played and interacted with us. So much so that we've invited him to help us in November. I really hope he can make it as the game will be huge with a lot of players to try to assist.

As for the game itself, well you can see the by the pictures that it was a pretty good size. However with four players it turns were quick.

...and the result...well let's just say that Ed and Bob's French weren't having a really good day.

Matt

Armand & Andre

As an aside we met Matt Gerard and his two boys Armand (left) and Andre. Matt has interested his boys in historical gaming with DBA. Good job dad!

Marshal Suchet wants YOU!

2007-04-18T20:56:00.000-05:00

This lovely figure is from Front Rank, painted by Dragon Painting Service, and showed up on my doorstep this afternoon.

The Travails of Painting Services

2007-04-08T19:37:00.000-05:00

Overall I am quite pleased with the results from my assorted painting services. There is absolutely no way I could have done this myself this fast. However, there have been a few rough spots, so here are some tips.

1. Don't assume the painter knows anything. Try to provide a picture backed up by specific text. The painter may indeed be quite knowledgeable, but they're thinking the 1809 Uniform A when you really mean the 1812 Uniform B. This is especially true if your unit includes figures that vary slightly, such as elites in different headgear.

2. Be precise. Don’t say “yellow” if you mean “that chamois/yellow-green you see in this picture.”

3. If possible, sort and package your figures yourself, with the painting instructions attached to each group of figures. I have two regiments that were somehow reversed in the painting process (Regiment X figures were painted as Regiment Y, and vice versa). Not a huge problem and it's getting fixed, but if I had actually attached the painting instructions to the figures, it might have been avoided.

4. Pack your figures yourself. Be especially careful with bayonets, swords, and plumes. The painters probably can’t fix it if the figures arrive broken.

5. If possible, send a small unit or buy a sample. Pictures on a website help, but there’s nothing like having a figure in your hand or standing on your table for inspection.

That said, I have two painting services that I would like to recommend. There are others out there, and when I start posting all of the units I will show which service painted which unit.

First is Dragon Painting Service in Hong Kong. They sell pre-painted units on Ebay in a number of scales and eras. They are relatively expensive, in the the $7 US to $8 for a foot figure, including the figure. See the cuirassiers below. Turn around for special orders has averaged about two months.

The other recommendation is Fernando Enterprises of Sri Lanka. I think the figures on their website don't look nearly as good as the figures they have sent me. Price is in the US $1.50 to 3.50 range, NOT including the figure.

The good, the bad, and the Neapolitans

2007-03-31T09:58:00.000-05:00

If you have made it this far into our blog, you know that I’m not much of a painter. But I am painting a portion of this army. I wanted units that were relatively interesting, but that no one cared how they look, or how they perform. That way, if they fail, no one is surprised!

So I’m painting my Neapolitan contingent. For the game, the player commanding the Neapolitan units will be given a choice: field the unit at full strength, but subject to the rules on “Untested Units” which tend to result in poor performance, or to use them at greatly reduced strength but known and (slightly) improved quality. The latter choice represents the units’ state in the later campaigns, when they had shed most of the questionable elements and consisted of the remaining, battle-hardened veterans. See Charles Oman’s History of the Peninsular War, Volume 5 for more information on them. The actual page is available as part of the Amazon preview!

Here come the cuirassiers!

2007-03-31T05:55:00.000-05:00

Front Rank Figurines painted by Dragon Painting Service, Hong Kong.

What's Left for the French

2007-03-29T18:24:00.000-05:00

My French army is nearing completion. Here are the statistics:

Infantry has 20 of 25 battalions

2 have not been ordered yet
3 are primed but not yet painted by me

Cavalry has 22 of 30 squadrons

4 are on order (woo hoo! Front Rank 13th Cuirassiers…Big figures!)
4 are on hand but not primed for painting by me

Artillery has 4 of 5 batteries

1 is not yet ordered

However, I do have some other resources. I have 2 Baden battalions, a Baden battery, and a French dragoon regiment that were not part of the original plan, so I can now put the right number of units on the board, just not the ones planned!

There is one drawback, though. The sudden surge of reinforcements outstripped the basing service--which is me! I decided that basing all the figures myself would help them tie them together visually. I have used up all of my first purchases of Litko bases, and am awaiting delivery on the rest. Then I have to actually terrain and flock the bases.

Flags are another matter. I am using GMB Flags. I have most of those required on hand, but still need to put then on the figures. In some cases I have good flagpoles, but I don't have enough. Any recommendations?

Sadly, I am having camera and photography skill meltdown, so no pictures tonight!

French and Allied reinforcements

2007-03-28T17:23:00.000-05:00

As mentioned before, I am raising the French forces for our convention game. "Raising" in this context is a particularly apt description, since I'm buying them, not painting them myself with one minor exception.

My method was to purchase a bunch of lead and farm it out to several painting services. I did this for two reasons:

1. I did not think one service could handle it all in a timely manner; and

2. I wanted to try some different services, with an eye to sending more figures to those I liked.

Reason number one has succeeded marvelously. In the last two months I have received:

9 French, 8 German, and 2 Italian battalions

2 French, 2 German, and 1 Italian cavalry regiments

3 French and 3 German artillery batteries.

That's about 550 figures! Together with the small forces that arrived before Christmas, I have therefore accumulated the bulk of my army. Over the next few days I will post a few pictures and describe what remains to be done.

Latest Wellington Rules test

2007-03-27T20:48:00.000-05:00

Has it really been over two months since we updated? That "real life" I keep hearing about must have got in the way...

Ray was out over the President's Day weekend. We played another test game, this time using newly arrived French reinforcements to give them a 2:1 advantage over the British brigade. But we put the British on a ridge to give them an advantage.

We set up fairly close, with three British battalions in line on the ridge, with their skirmish companies out and a screen of Rifles, too. The Light Dragoons had the right flank, and a battery was in the center.

The French had 3 battalions on the left, a foot battery in the left center, 3 more battalions in the right center, and a brigade of two light cavalry regiments and a horse battery on the right. So the opposing cavalry were at opposite ends of the board. The infantry had orders to “Take the ridge” and the cavalry “Attack the British left flank unit.”

As the game started, the Light Dragoons charged a French column which failed to form square.

On the other side, the French cavalry had a poor order roll, and the Hussar regiment rolled “like peer unit” so both regiments charged a British battalion, which successfully formed square, bounced the cavalry, and made the French spend three turns rallying and bringing them back.

Meanwhile in the center, several French battalions charged through the British skirmishers to try to reach the French line.

During the ensuing melee in the center, one French battalion was broken, and the brigadier killed. So, this broken unit (and it's whole brigade) had to get a Random Order the next turn.

In this case, it got “same as peer unit” but the nearest peer unit was charging. We ruled the Broken Unit got no order. But remember those British Light Dragoons? By now they had finally destroyed the French battalion they had charged, and the Light Dragoons moved into the rear of the French center. There, they met this broken French battalion running away from the British line and destroyed it as well. That's two for the Light Dragoons!

Another French battalion charged the British battery, and the artillerists took the Fire and Retire option. The next turn, the French battalion was occupying the guns, and the just-returned light cavalry brigade had finished destroying the British flank battalion, which had been blasted by the horse battery and failed to form square.

We finally called the game at this point, after 6 turns. The British definitely prevailed on their right, but the French were successful on the other end. Things were looking grim for a couple damaged French battalions in the center that had Light Dragoons behind them, but the French right flank was turning toward the center and had two intact cavalry regiments, both batteries, and two fresh battalions left.

The visuals of the game were good, even though we used whatever terrain the local store had on hand, and most of the castings were on unfinished bases. It definitely gave us some more motivation for painting more troops and playing more games, leading up to our planned game at MillenniumCon this fall.

Sadly, we forgot to bring a camera.

Tomorrow I'll go into the hordes of French reinforcements...and maybe have a picture!!

2007-01-23T09:43:00.000-05:00

Well, in their usual excellent fashion, TheWarStore.com got me the miniatures I ordered in short order. The acquisition of the miniatures that I need has been divided into three phases. Phase 1 is the British foot, Phase 2 is the British cavalry, and Phase 3 is the Brunswickers.

I've received the Phase 1 miniatures Saturday afternoon--only about a week for the time that I ordered them! Needless to say, I was excited to see them sitting on my porch when I returned home from getting some lunch. A quick check of the weather report showed that I had until about 3pm on Sunday before the rain was due. Since I like to primer with Floquil applied with a soft brush, time was critical if I wanted to paint this week.

The photos were taken at about 2am Sunday when I finally got all the figures cleaned and glued (with rubber cement) to the bottle caps. Sunday morning I got up early and got the two Highland battalions (48 figures), the figures needed to fill out the Guards battalion (17 figures), the artillerists (8 figures) and whatever Brunswickers I had laying around (12 figures) before the clouds thickened and rain was obviously imminent. That leaves 4 battalions (80 figures) left to prime when the weather clears later this week.

I've pulled the base colors from the paint box and probably begin this evening with doing the flesh tones. The next installment will be an account of how I painted the troops that are already done including a list of the paints used.

And so it begins...

2007-01-14T23:38:00.000-05:00

The first order is in! I've ordered all the British foot need for my part of the game. It's a big order that will complete 6 line, 2 highlander, and 1 Guards battalions. In addition, the guns and a foot artillerists are in the order.

I have begun the rebasing of the LPE troops I painted for Millennium 9 (the British foot and all the cavalry is what you see in the picture of my workbench). The Brunswickers are off the 3" stands and have been cleaned up. I ran out of Litko bases, but I have a ton of them on order.

The British figures are all Foundry and have been ordered through Neal at the TheWarStore.com. It looks as though it might be two or three weeks before they arrive. That gives me some time to get ahead on the rebasing and painting of the figures "left over" from the LPE project.

In case you're wondering about how easy rebasing can be... The figures were glued onto the bases 3" bases for LPE. The bases were Litko and white glue was used on almost all of the figures (there were a couple that refused to stand up without the aid of super-glue). The figures were pretty easy to snap of the bases. I worked a common steak knife under the edge of the figure's base to loosen it and then just pulled it off. Only a couple of figures suffered any damage and that was limited to a couple of flakes of paint around the ankles. Since the flocking was also glued on with with white glue, I stood all the figures in a glass baking dish ankle deep in water. It only took a few hours to soften the glue. the glue was scraped off with a wooden toothpick (to avoid scratching the paint). The figure's base was then lightly scrubbed with a stiff brush to get any glue and flock out of any crevices.

Well, I've got plenty to paint while I wait for the Foundry order to arrive. Leader figures are high on the list. I need to paint the the remaining figures out of the Foundry Wellington set (I only needed two for the LPE game). There are five on foot and I 'm thinking of a making diorama for them.

And so it begins...

First Game

2007-01-03T00:55:00.000-05:00

Click on the picture to see a larger, more legible version

The highlighted units entered on the turn indicated. The closest British battalion charged up the hill at the French battalion. The British were in line and the French were in column. The French countercharged and the results (for the British) were ugly.

The other British unit tried to advance into range of the building but were chewed up turn after turn by the French artillery on the heights. About halfway there, the British were charged by the French cavalry that you see next to the artillery. The British formed a hasty square and repulsed the cavalry which fled past the town.

On turn 5 the British cavalry entered on the far side and charged the French guns to silence them. The other British foot battalion entered behind the cavalry and started to make their way up the hill.

The French artillery decided to run away from the cavalry in hopes of returning. It didn't work that way. The guns and artillerists were overrun and the British cavalry broke through. The cavalry shot forward and collided with the French cavalry that were in retreat from the square above the town. The French broke quickly but the British horses were blown.

Here is the email we sent to Buck Surdu after the game, with Buck's reply added in red:

Hi Buck,

It’s Ray & Ed here in San Antonio. We hope the holidays were good to you.

We had our first chance to have a go with Wellington rules a couple of days ago. Ed set up a scenario and we played it through. We didn’t do it to play as much as get a grasp of the WR mechanics.

Having had played The Sword and Flame years ago, I had a pretty good idea what I was in for with the variable movement and stragglers. However placing those mechanics in the context of musket ranges and effectiveness was a hurdle I had to cross.

The first melee demonstrated the foolishness of getting caught in line by a battalion in column as my British two line infantry disintegrated when Ed charged with a larger three line French battalion.

However, when my British light dragoons overran his battery and then continued on to smack into his cavalry, there wasn’t much left of either. The British LD’s horses were blown in the process but were still able to do significant damage.

In the end, we had a good time and we think that we understand most of the rules as you have written them. However, there were some points about which we are unclear.

The first is whether firing arcs are measured from the center of each casting or the center of the unit (reference section 9, paragraph 2 compared to paragraph 5 and figure 5). My impression is the fire is conducted by unit, but arcs and ranges are by individual castings. The reference to the arc of a unit in the second paragraph and in the figure is really describing the beaten ground.

Buck's Answer: Firing arcs are measured by figure, so it is possible for some of the figures to be able to fire at a target but not all of them.

This ties into another question. We had an instance wherein only a portion of a firing unit’s casting were eligible to fire on a target. However the remaining castings another target within their range and arc. Can the unit, in this case, split fire? The 5th paragraph in section 9 would seem to indicate not, but that reference might be assuming that there are no other eligible targets available to casting within a firing unit.

Buck's Answer: A unit may only fire at multiple targets if the unit has been issued more than one order during the order phase. This can create a challenge for a player who thinks he is about to be charged by multiple columns. You either have to dilute your fire by breaking the firing unit into multiple firing "platoons" hoping to force all the columns to fail their rolls to close, or really smack one hoping to remove that units weight from the subsequent melee.

The cavalry action described above prompted another question. Can blown horses be recovered at any point during the game? We could find nothing in the rules that tells us explicitly that once blown they stay that way for the duration of the game. In the absence of any instruction on how to rest cavalry, we assumed that they stay that way.

Buck's Answer: Blown horses remain blown for the remainder of the game.

Well, that’s about it for now. I have to say that the rules seem pretty clear and crisp. If you can give us clear guidance on the questions above, we would be most appreciative. If you would like to monitor the progress of our project to get this Wellington Rules mega-game on the table at Millennium 10, visit our blog at http://huzzahm10.blogspot.com/ from time to time.

Thanks,
Ray & Ed

Eye candy for Christmas, and a map!

2006-12-24T22:39:00.000-05:00

Here's just a couple pieces of eye-candy, to give you an idea what we want to accomplish. This image is large, but will give you an idea of the battlefield we are building. The units depicted are to scale, with each block on the map representing one foot. Yes, that means the table is 30 feet long!

Order of Battle

2006-12-20T13:34:00.000-05:00

This is our planned order of battle. For now it's simply a list of units. As time permits, Ed an I will turn the units into links to other pages where the progress toward assembling and painting can be followed. You will also notice some unit designations missing. That's simply because I haven't yet decide which units they be.

British C-in-C
1st Battery, Royal Artillery (6,9pdr)

1st British Division
2nd Battery, Royal Artillery (6,9pdr)

1st British Brigade
2nd Royal Guards (Coldstream)
42nd Highland (Black Watch)
92nd Highland (Gordon)
95th Rifles, 1 coy

2nd British Brigade
30th Foot (Cambridgeshire)
39th Foot (Dorsetshire)
3rd Foot (East Kent)
95th Rifles, 1 coy

3rd British Brigade
Nth Foot (tbd)
Nth Foot (tbd)
Nth Foot (tbd)
95th Rifles, 1 coy

2nd Brunswick Division
1st Brunswick Foot Battery (6,6pdr)

4th Brunswick Brigade
Leib Battalion
1st Light Battalion
2nd Line Battalion
Jager company, AvanteGarde

5th Brunswick Brigade
1st Line Battalion
2nd Line Battalion
3rd Line Battalion
Jager company, AvanteGarde (Light Infantry?)

6th British Brigade
10th Foot (North Lincolnshire)
58th Foot (Rutlandshire)
Roll’s Swiss Regiment
Rifle coy, Roll’s Swiss Regiment

Cavalry Division
1st Royal Horse Artillery Troop (6,6pdr)
1st British Cavalry Brigade
2nd North British Dragoons (Scots Greys) 3 sq
12th Light Dragoons (Prince of Wales) 3 sq

2nd Brunswick Cavalry Brigade
Brunswick Hussars 4 sq
Brunswick Uhlans 1 sq
20th Light Dragoons 4 sq
Troop of Foreign Hussars 1 sq

French C-in-C
1st French Division
20th co, 1st French Foot Artillery Regiment (6,6pdr, 2 5.5” how)

1st French Brigade
116th Ligne 3 bn
117th Ligne 3 bn

2nd French Brigade
5th Legere 3 bn
121st Ligne 3 bn

2nd German Division
Hessen-Darmstadt Foot Battery (4,6pdr)

3rd German Brigade
3rd Confederation of the Rhine Regiment (Frankfurt) 1 bn
Hessen-Darmstadt Regiment Gross- und Erbprinz 2 bn

4th German Brigade
1st battalion, 2nd Dutch Infantry Regiment
1st battalion, 4th Dutch Infantry Regiment
Hanoverian Legion Infantry Battalion

3rd Italian Division
9th Italian Foot Artillery Battery (6,6pdr, 2 5.5” how)

5th Italian Brigade
4th Line Regiment 2 bn
5th Line Regiment 2 bn

6th Neapolitan Brigade
1st Light Regiment 1 bn
1st Line Regiment 1 bn
2nd Line Regiment 1 bn

Light Cavalry Division
3rd Dutch Horse Artillery Battery (8,6pdr)

1st French Cavalry Brigade
4th Hussars 4 sq
29th Chasseurs a Cheval 4 sq

2nd German Cavalry Brigade
3rd Dutch Hussars 4 sq
Hanoverian Legion Chasseurs a Cheval 2 sq

Heavy Cavalry Division
7th co, 5th French Horse Artillery Regiment (4,6pdr, 2 5.5” how)

3rd French Cavalry Brigade
13th Cuirassiers 4 sq
24th Dragoons 4 sq

4th Italian Cavalry Brigade
2nd Italian Dragoons 4 sq
2nd Neapolitan Chasseurs a cheval 4 sq

Introduction

2006-12-18T15:11:00.000-05:00

A couple of years ago Ed and I applied our mutual interest in the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game to GMing a game for Millennium 8 in Austin, Texas. The game was successful and the players had a good time. The success prompted us to start planning for a bigger and better LotR:SBG game at Millennium 9. We plotted the scenario and even started buying figures. Until one day…

…Ed sent me a picture of a painted Perry Brothers’ Brunswick Uhlan. Well, that led me to the Perry web page and soon we were talking more and more about 28mm Napoleonics and less and less about LotR. Before long the plans for the LotR game were pitched overboard and Ed and I were assembling Napoleonic armies. His were French while mine were British and Brunswickers. We chose Le Petit Empereur (LPE), by Chipco, as our rules because the armies don’t require many figures and we both have played many LPE games over the years. While we preparing our armies for Millennium 9, we started talking about other rules that we would like to play.

The game presented at Millennium 9 was a great success as reported by Ed on the Discussion Board at the The Miniatures Pag e. Some additional photos are available here and here.

We both expressed an interest in playing 28mm Napoleonics at a 1:30 figure to men ratio. This makes battalions of somewhere around twenty figures or so. Once we had the scale, we needed rules and so we bandied about ideas. My first impulse was to go back to my war gaming roots and adopt a The Sword and the Flame variant. TSATF is a game I know very well and I really like the mechanics. Ed had a pre-publication copy of Wellington’s Rules and sent it to me for review.

I must admit that I really liked the rules with the first read though. Wellington Rules captures the essence of two of the mechanics that I really like in TSATF. Those being movement allowance is a function of a base amount plus a die roll and the concept of stragglers degrading combat effectiveness. The third game mechanic that makes TSATF uniquely cinematic is the use of a standard deck of cards for initiative and casualty determination. Admittedly, the results of the card mechanics is a very cinematic game and isn’t well suited to the Napoleonic type of game in which we’re interested. Wellington Rules, however, has more deterministic command and control and casualty rules. Additionally, we feel it’s better to use a published set of rules at a convention as players will be able to obtain them if they so desire. Needless to say, it didn’t take us long to order the published version of the rules and pursue or planning in earnest.

So there you have it in a nutshell. That’s how we got from there to here. In upcoming posts, you, my dear reader, will be introduced to the big Napoleonic game Ed and I will be GMing at Millennium 10. We will be posting our progress in planning and assembling the armies. We will post reviews of the rules as we get some experience with them under our belt. So off we go into the fray…

Huzzah!