Memorial Day at Lttle Wars

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!

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

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

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!

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

What's Left for the French

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

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.