Wargames and all that

Wars of the Roses (2)

2012-01-12T13:30:00.000-08:00

So although have a new job, which means I have less painting time, I have still been working on my WOTR project. I have come to the conclusion, that I will base my forces on the 1469-1471 Campaigns ie Barnet and Tewkesbury and other what ifs. With that in mind I have orders the relavant osprey.

Anyway freshly painted are all my men at arms, and some tudor/welsh bow and bills.

First are the Bills in Green and white

Next are the archers also in green and white, I have yet to decide whether the bow and bills will be deployed in mixed units or seperately.

And Finally two units of 10 men at arms.

Next up mercanary crossbowmen...

War of the Roses

2011-12-18T09:17:00.000-08:00

Well, I sorta bought a box of the "perry miniatures Wars of the Roses Infantry" and a box of the "Mercenaries" as well. Mainly to be generic fantasy Humans to fight my Mantic Undead, but also for a bit of Wars of the Roses as well. I have since bought another box of infantry.

This is what I have painted so far.

You can see a group of billmen in Blue and Murry, and a group of men at arms, and some odd bowmen at the back. My Plan is to do two sides with what I have both with a unit of Bill, a unit of bow and a unit of men at arms. One side will have blue and murry livery (Edward IV/Richard III) , the other green and white (Welsh/Tudors).
That should use up about 60 of the troops leaving another 60, of which some will be crossbow men, but that's as far as I have planned.

Some Yorkist archers

The first of the Tudors

With some creative part swapping I managed to get 20 men at arms out of three boxes. These are just the first 8 painted.

All of this means My ratio of archers to men at arms is none of the bold claims of 4:1 or even 2:1 but in fact 1:2, or more truthfully Archers to Bill to MAA 1:1:1, based on an article of Miniature Wargames and the Basic impetus lists.

Yorkist Bills

Tomorrow's War

2011-10-27T05:24:00.000-07:00

Well after reading the buzz on The miniatures page. I went on amazon and got tomorrow's war. I'm not gonna review it or anything or even talk about it much, that's been covered out there on the web, on a hundred other blogs, basically it's Force on Force in space.

Anyway this gives a use for my Shock Troops. I had painted 11, so I've painted up a few more. Here are some or the more interesting types; a Team Leader wearing a field service cap, 3 gunners with various types of laser guns and a specialist with a scanner.

Here is my platoon. I haven't painted a third squad, it won't be needed in most games.

In Tomorrow's war they are as follows:

Shock Troops
Quality: D8
Moral: D10
Confident
Normal Supply
Tech Level 2
Amour: Light (1D)

Platoon
1 HQ squad
3 Shock troop squads (I only have 2 squads painted)
1 Fire support team

HQ
Platoon Leader
Radio Operator
Shock troop squad
2 x fire teams

Fire Team
Team Leader
Grenadier or Laser gunner (AP:1 AT:1)
2 x Troopers

Fire support Team
2 x Gunners with GPMG's (AP:2)
2 x assistant gunners

But who will they fight for control on the universe?

My old Imperial Guard the 29th Witchinuka!!! (They may or may not remain the Witchinuka depends if I think of a better name. It's supposed to sound like one of those towns in the US midwest. They will remain the 29th 'cus they have XXIX painted on that flag).

Laters...

Black powder battle

2011-08-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

Some time back I had a little battle in the loft, using the Blackpowder rules. Anyway here are some pictures I took.
The basic set up was, a US regular Brigade and Militia Brigade, supported by two guns had to hold off the attacking British. The British had 2 veteran Brigades with plenty of light infantry (the majority of who cleared the woods at the top of the picture).

The Americans started out holding the wall with two militia battalions and both guns. The British stormed the wall and drove off the Americans. The Regular US infantry then counter attacked with some success.

However, as the counter attack started to push the British back, the British Light Infantry took the wood, and so gave enfilading fire on to nearby US counter attack.

On the other flank, the British committed the single battalion which had been held in reserve. They arrived just as the British battalion in front broke. The already weakened US infantry couldn't hold against fresh troops, and the British made sort work of them. And with that, all the US troops where either dead or falling back. The Britsh carried the field.

It was a fun few hours, but I really need some generals. I only have two mounted officers one US and one British. The lack of commanders is so dire that one British was led by a rifle Sergeant! So general officers are next thing on the buy list.

Laters..

10mm medieval basic Impetus

2011-06-20T02:38:00.000-07:00

Well a new project. oh dear. But it does have "smart" targets.

Specific:
Buy and paint 4 10mm armies for basic impetus. Medieval English, French, Scots and Welsh

Measurable:
Well when the four armies are painted and based, its finished. First I will do English and French Hundred years war. With a few changes in and out, they will be able to represent Feudal English and French as well. Next I will do the Scots and Welsh.

Attainable:
In terms of expense, this being a 10mm project for impetus, it shouldn't be too much. I have already bought HYW English and French, costing £25. So I reckon the whole project shouldn't be much more than £60 or so. Easily affordable when spread over a few months.
The other thing in painting time. I am a very quick painter, however I only paint when on holiday, but I am having a long weekend in a couple of weeks, and I'll try and do the English and French in that time, before buying the Welsh and Scots.

Relevant :
This will satisfy a long time ambition to have medieval armies, as I have a big interest in English medieval military history, also it'll be a change from the 'skirmish' wargames I do most of the time. I haven't ever done 'grand' scale armies before.

Timely:
Like I just said when I have a weekend off in a couple of weeks I'll do the French and English.
After that I'll buy the rest of the miniatures needed, paint them over my summer holidays.
The whole project should be wrapped up by September.

Basic impetus Rules and army list from thier website
I'm using Vol 19 and Vol 25.

Laters...

Manitic Zombies

2011-06-07T14:59:00.000-07:00

Well these are the infamous mantic zombies. Good ain't they. These actually have a few bits from the ghouls set mixed in; some legs and heads. There is the small issue of only being three torsos with fixed left arms (one has both arms fixed), although this can be overcome, to a degree, by vairing the position you glue the torso to the legs.

But, even with this and cutting and repositioning a few of the fixed arms, you can still still see the amount of similar poses. I think this unit of 20 just about gets away with it. But a 'horde' of 30-40 or more it would look a bit silly.

I really enjoyed painting these, the detail is astounding, they are top notch sculpts for the low price. Bellow are the obligatory 'zombies-busting-from-the-ground' which will look even better when the have been based. All in all, I love these miniatures and they deserve the hype they get on the internet. They just look so bloody good (even after my average quality painting).

Laters...

ebay!

2011-05-31T07:09:00.000-07:00

Well, over the bank holiday weekend I became slightly obsessed with ebay. I was sure there was a warhammer bargin on there somewhere. I lost several autions, which at the time almost made me cry, but on refection they weren't even good deals at the end. Most stuff seems to sell around the RRP anyway, which makes sence I guess; people stop bidding when the box that would cost you £15 in the shop get to £15 on ebay, I know I do.

In the end I found this lot on the 'buy it now' section, £15 for 19 spearmen. Not bad, considering that it would cost £30 if you where to buy 20 empire state troops from GW nowdays. Also there the classic 6th edition, and so go with my existing empire troops. I plan to partioally repaint them; the black parts of the uniform will get a blue coat so they match the Nordland blue and yellow of my army.

Laters....

Mantic Skeletons

2011-05-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

So here is the first unit of 20 mantic skeletons. I went for a red 'uniform' as it contrasts with the colour schemes of my other fantasy armies.
40 Skeletons come in the army set, I have built them so that one regiment is spear armed and the one here is equipped with hand weapons.The shields are hand painted in a variety of generic heraldry patterns, just 'cus I fancied it really andI didn't want them to look too uniform. Also talthough they are predomantly red most of the figures actully dressed in a fair bit of brown cloth.

US artillery (I think).

2011-04-26T05:16:00.000-07:00

This is a unit of US artillery, at least I think it. I painted the crew a while ago and can't remember if I painted them as US or British. I think they are US because although similar I think the British had darker blue coats, and more in the way of epaulets.
Anyhoo....

US Militia 1812

2011-04-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

So continuing building my War of 1812 armies, I have painted up unit of US militia. They are old glory miniatures. As you can see they are a townish looking lot still in there civilian clothes.

Here you can see their officer in a united states army uniform. The militia where supposed to wear blue coats, but like this lot many didn't have uniforms. This officer has got himself one tailored, no doubt to impress the ladies.

I have another unit of militia still to paint for the americans. And thats is that army basically finised apart from a cannon or two and some dragoons.

Marching to battle...

89th Regiment of Foot

2011-04-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

These where actually painted a little while ago, but here are the pictures anyway. As you can see they still need basing, but that won't take long. The 89th were present in the Niagara campaign 1814. My war of 1812 armies are roughly based on the real armies in that campaign.

I have done these as grenadiers, in case I ever want to field some, but generally they'll just be another line battalion in games. There is a slight conversion, (although I don't think its worthy being called so), the officer has a head swap from the Victrix British artillery box. Speaking of which...

This crew just need their bases painting, but the cannon is still bare plastic. The other two cannons and crews are still on the sprue. At least one of them is going to become Americans.

Easter is soon, and so the holiday should provide some painting time. However, I think this will be devoted to the Mantic undead army, which I am going to try and paint in only two weeks. It should be a good challenge, 114 minatures in 14 days. So probably no time for the war of 1812.
Over the summer holiday I plan to finish everything I have for 1812, so till then Canada is safe.
Anyway, laters....

Mantic Undead army

2011-03-22T12:44:00.000-07:00

I have done a bad thing, and not stuck to my 2011 plan. I don't know how I could have been this weak. I have ordered the undead army set and a death king's cabal. costing a total of £54. I have been looking at mantics stuff for a while, but this is the first time I have bought any of their stuff.

They had a 'one day only' offer or scam as I would call it, if it were on sofas or something. Anyway I bought the stuff and got free shipping and 15% off.

So I can spend Easter, building the undead horde. The army set come with an amazing 110 models, compared to the 50 the GW undead box of the same price comes with. I got the 4 characters as well to lead them on. These can take on my warhammer empire army, using either the warhammer rules or the kings of war rules.

I went for undead, as I've never been a fan of elves, and I already have some GW Dwarfs (from scull pass). The mantic Dwarfs don't look like they would fit in next to the GW ones, so it's either start from scratch with the dwarfs or stick with GW.

This all means I now have Human, Orc/Goblin and now undead fantasy armies.

Looking at what I have to build and paint, its a flipping long list. But, funny things happen during holidays and I paint at a rate of knots. I think I'll probably set myself a challenging time limit to get the undead army ready for the battle field. After that there is still the empire knights, battalions and battalions of War of 1812 stuff, and god know what else.

Speaking of 1812, I got a load of Militia models for christmas from old glory and another company who I can't remeber the name of. I now have about 3 battalions worth.

Anyway, till next time...

15mm Travel Wargame Set.

2011-01-24T16:16:00.000-08:00

WTF 15mm scale?!? Now normally I only buy 28mm tall toy soldiers, because I enjoy painting them in that size, (I have a sneaking suspicion I would really enjoy painting even bigger figures). I have dabbled in the dreaded 1:72 plastic figures, which I don't enjoy painting 'cus it just comes off when the rifle or ankles bend during the course of normal use, there are also several reasons I have gone off them, another reason I only normally do 28mm is because they have a visual appeal when painted. But all this what scale is best argument is not something I'll bore you with now, (maybe another time, eh?). My general opinion is just collect what you like the most, it's your hobby, but more importantly your money.

Anyway, so how did a 28mm fan, end up with a 15mm collection. Well it all started out when I had an idea, to have a 'travel' wargames set. This is because I live in two places, part of the time in England and part of my time in Wales, every few months I need to travel between these two places. And I like to take some miniatures to game with between them.

So what I needed was a travel game set, like you see for monopoly or Scrabble, the travel version of the game. Not to play on the train or back seat of the car, but to play on a bed side table, or a coffee table any small corner of flat space.

The first thing was to write down the criteria for a travel wargame.

only needs small area to play
quickish game, (no more than a couple of hours to finish)
entirely self contained in one small box (all the pieces, dice, terrain, etc.)

So I googled 'travel wargame' and it came up with nothing usful. So I searched 'small wargame' and found this LINK ...

Scott's Brigade

2011-01-17T13:29:00.000-08:00

Here is another unit I painted over the Christmas holidays, It represents one of the Regiments in Winfield Scott's Brigade on the Niagara in 1814. Scott couldn't find enough blue cloth for his Brigade, so they got grey colour coats.

The officer has however got a blue coat this is because the officers bought their own uniform. The drummer has reverse facing colours as was the norm, however as the proper uniform of the unit should be blue coat, red facings, so the drummer has the reverse of that, not the reverse of grey on grey. Which wouldn't work anyway.

Here is a private, I filled off the Shoulder 'puffs' and lace on the cuff off the jacket, for correctness. The US army gave up on fancy uniform details later in the war, when it became obvious they could not uniform the whole army properly.

These go along side another US unit already painted in grey to form my representation of Scott's Brigade. I just need to make Towson's artillery battery to finish the brigade off.

Till next time.....

Colonels War of 1812

2011-01-14T15:10:00.000-08:00

So ages ago (some time last summer), I bought the Victrix British colonels pack, and painted them. They are currently acting as generals for my British and American armies for the War of 1812.

That above is the British colonel, and below is the American one. They are both on 40mm round Games workshop bases. I haven't decided wether to base proper cavalry (these are command stands) on 40mm rounds (AKA lord of the rings style) or on the 25mm x 50mm rectangle bases (warhammer style). This is somthing which I will ponder on.

Also in the pack comes this sapper, I decided to paint him up as British, but have not yet decided what regiment he will join, hence painting on him has stalled.

Till next time...

And so past 2010, and 2011 began....

2011-01-05T14:16:00.000-08:00

2010

Another year come and gone, where does it all the time go?
Looking back at 2010, I bought a lot of little soldiers, and even painted a few of them too. I pushed forward on the Warhammer and 40K fronts, with the battle of skull pass bringing goblin reinforcements, meaning I could have reasonable fights against my Empire army. The dwarfs sit painted but unused gathering dust, I might sell them on ebay if I ever get round to it, focusing on just The Empire and Orcs and Goblins for fantasy battles. For 40k I painted up some scouts of my space marine army.

But there has been a major advancement in the War of 1812 project, with several units painted (pics to follow) and some more awaiting on the painting table. The finish line is now in sight.
On a new battle ground I painted up some15mm figures for ambush alley games, more on this in a later post.

2011
So, on to my plans for 2011 presented here in a list in order of priority.

Finish all War of 1812 miniatures that need painting
Glue together the empire knights and general, and paint them
Glue and paint Wargames factory Shock troops
Do not buy more soldiers until above is done. This is The Prime Directive
Post more blog posts than I did last year (i.e. post more than 14 posts)

Other more general goals include a big tidy up and sorting out of what I've got and maybe even selling some of it on ebay.

Next time; a shed load of picture of all the troops that got painted in the Christmas Holidays...

War of 1812: still to come (Part 2)

2010-12-15T07:06:00.000-08:00

Here is my planned army for my US force for 1812. This list is based on Major General Brown's force at Lundy's Lane 1814.

1st (Scott's) Brigade (all in grey coats)

9th/25th Infantry
11th/22nd Infantry
Artillery

2nd (Ripley's) Brigade (all in blue coats)

21st infantry
1st/23rd infanty

3rd (Militia) Brigade

Militia
Militia

Artillery and Cavalry

Artilery
Artilery
US Light Dragoons

So 2 regular brigades (one in grey, one in blue) a milita brigade, and a few guns and a squadron of dragoons. units in blue I don't yet have.

War of 1812: still to come

2010-12-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about what I want when I finish my 1812 collection. My idea is that it's roughly based on the orbat of Lundy's Lane. My infantry battalions are 12 men strong, cavalry 6, and artillery 1 gun with crew.

For the British Brigades (note these are not purley historical)

2nd (Light) Brigade

Glengarry Light Infantry
Canadian militia (good quality)
Light Dragoons
Artillery

1st (and 2nd) Militia Brigade

Canadian militia (poor quality)
Canadian militia (poor quality)

3rd (Morrison's) Brigade

1st/8th/48th foot
89th foot
Artillery (Congreve Rockets)

1st (Scott's) Brigade

8th/104th
103rd foot
Artillery

Now a few explinations; this is only based on the British force at Lundy's Lane, it is not the actualy orbat, it is designed as a gaming force bassed on historica ratios.
This force give 2 regular British brigades, a Light infantry brigade, and a militia brigade, fairly repersentive of Lieutenant General Dummonds army. The two historical militia brigades have been combide into one as both where only about 300 strong. Units in red are ones which I haven't yet got.

Wargames Factor shock Troops

2010-11-09T03:30:00.000-08:00

Well I finally got some of Wargames Factory's Shock Troops/Greatcoat Troopers. They don't seem to have decided on one name, so both appear on the box. Anyway they are good little toy soldiers, nice and future fascist looking. Individually there not the best models in the world but in groups they certainly give the right impression. I painted up 11 the other weekend, as a bit of a test run. The uniform/coat colour is based on the Great War British colours. I would have gone for grey, but my GW Cadians have grey uniforms and I wanted to clearly distinguish them. They have black armour as it looks quite sinister, with the red eyes (and is quick to paint). I gave them brown boots and gloves, to offset the colours a bit, and the white stripes on the shoulders are rank markings. White both sides for troopers, half red on the right shoulder is something like specialist/PFC/Lance-Corporal. Whole red stripe on the right shoulder and white on the left are sergeants, and red both sides shows a soldier is an officer.

My only annoyance with the shock troops is the lack of weapon options available, it is comparable to the basic Cadian/Catachan infantry box, with a flamer and grenade launcher, but obviously the shock troops don't have a whole range behind them like the GW troops do.
Anyway I gave one the grenade launcher, but the flamer is well, really pathetic. I dont see any point in the other rifle options, so I gave all mine the standard issue one.
To fill out the options a bit I did a few conversions, the first simple arm/weapon swaps, one trooper got a Cadian flamer, one a Heavy bolter from the GW scout squad, and one a cadian radio back pack.

Then I made an officer by cutting a space marine scout sword arm off just bellow the shoulder pad and gluing it on the a shock trooper shoulder pad, and then cut off the water-pistol of his other arm and glued a bolt pistol on instead, simple but pretty cool.

I've got one and a half boxes left to build and paint, but I think I need to get a few more cadian weapon arms, to give the shock troops some more special/heavy weapons. Till next time...

Empire Battle Wizard

2010-10-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pics of my Empire wizard, this one uses the law of death on account that it's a quite shooty magic law. I can't deal with all those silly 'extra movement' spells or '-1 amour save' rubbish, I like a nice magic missile, and hence my other wizard uses the law of fire (but I haven't got any photos of him).

My Empire army is a long running... ...er... ...'project', I've got almost 1000pts at the moment. I tend do buy a new unit, maybe, once a year or so. The pair of wizards I got when they first came out in plastic ages ago. Around the same time I painted up 10 spear men.
However things are moving forward, though the post came a knightly order box and a general/battle standard bearer box, which will take the army over the 1000pts hump. But that'll be all in 2010 for Imperial reinforcements.

Plans....

2010-08-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking about starting a new era, and well, this is my thoughts about which one I might choose.

Firstly, the period would need to be something that would not need too many minis, mainly for costs, but also for the amount of time it would take me to get to playable armies. Also, I would have to be interested in the history of the era. Another point would be that the era was quite different from my current ones, (people might shoot me at this point), but the American civil war is quite similar to naps. I mean in both there is a lot of forming lines and fireing volleys of muskets at each other. My top list at the moment is:

A) English Civil War.

I love it! I'm really interested in it historically and there are warlords plastics as well. But, it is still a bit muskety. And, all those pike don't translate well into skirmish games. So, no.

B) American Civil War.

Like above, cheap plastic models available, I'm interested in the history, there's Nate Starbuck. But again still basically muskets.

C) Zulu War.

Plastics, check. Interesting, check. Nice uniforms, check. Small armies, check, good for skirmishes. And of course the British can be used in other colonial settings. (or in fack I will use my 1812 British, as I'm not that fussed about exact uniforms, A red coat is a read coat.) Not only that, it good for a bit of soloing like with the zombies. But, I just can't face painting loads of Zulus, if ever get over this fear, I think this is way I will go.

But alas, I'm holding back the flood gates, or rather the debit card for now. I might start something new in the future. However, I have lots still to do on my existing projects. First, for the war of 1812, I want some cavalry and Indians for both sides I reckon about £50 should cover this. For 40k I need various bits and bobs for my Imperial Guard and some chimeras, so that's probably at least £50 if not more. Then for the space marines I need at least one rhino, plus other tanks and a couple of squads need filling out. But, top on my list now is WHFB, I want to bulk out my empire with 10 more spearmen, a 30 man unit of swordsmen, as well as a regiment of knights. God know how much that will cost, hundreds of pounds!?! Then I want some mantic dwarfs, to build my dwarf army into at least 1000pts.

But before any of that buying, I have three cannons, and about 36 men from 1812 to paint. It looks like those Zulus are at the bottom of a long, long list....

Upper Canada Militia

2010-08-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

This is my just finished unit of the above in 1813 regulation uniform, according to my osprey book, they had green coats and red facings like so. The Canadian militia was (as far as I gather), uniformed where possible exactly as British regulars, although this was quite often not possible, as red coats could not always be found, particularly towards the start of the war. So many were issued green coats, but others just turned up in their civilian clothing.

I wanted a unit of generic unit of Canadians, and decided on green coats as opposed to red, to make them stand out as Canadian militia and not just another British unit, also it adds a different colour to the gaming table. Depending on the battle, I will use these as poor or average quality troops, whatever really. You will also probly notice they are dressed as light company with wings and green truft on their shakos. This emables them to be used as light infantry when I want. But also as just line militia as quite often militia units where uniformed and even equipt as light infantry, but with no training or expierience using light infantry tactics, they could act like nothing of the sort. So all in all a very useful wargames unit.

The officer you notice has got a red coat, I figure that he, providing his own uniform, would be able to buy red cloth for his own jacket at least.

Next time, I should have my victrix British Colonel painted up. After that I have a box of the victrix artillery waiting for me to glue it together, but that's still some time in the future yet...

Space Marine Scouts

2010-08-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

This here is my space marine scout squad, the newest addition to the army. I've tooled them up for close quarters; half with shotguns and half with bolt pistols and knives. As the rest of my space marine armies is quite shooty. Also I have converted the sergeant, to have a power weapon, for a bit more killy-ness. Tactically the general idea would be to infiltrate and maybe assault some weaker unit, or act as a speed bump.
They are painted in the colours of my (as yet un-named) chapter, with silver amour and red shoulder pads, The cloth then has an urban style camo pattern, of codex grey base with shadow grey 'Y' shapes, and white spots in pairs.

My space marine army grows rather slowly as I only get excited about 40k when I have a game, (not that often) and then I buy a unit. This lot I bought at easter, but didn't finish paiting them till just the other week. Next for my marines will probs be a tank of some sort, although which one I have no idea (heck, I dont even have the codex). But before that I'm currently working on a 12 man unit of Canadian militia for 1812...

Tangents...

2010-08-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most wargames have this problem; with so many cool mini's and historical periods as well as sci-fi and fantasy, which again have many alternates games and themes etc. It can be hard to resist buying as many as possible. Thus ending up with lots of half finished armies and projects for which you lose interest.
Well this is me all over, I now try to focus on my main interests; The war of 1812, Warhammer and 40K. True to this I haven't bough anything for anything other than these 3, since at least Christmas (8 months!). These 3 fulfill my need to kill evil orcs and undead etc, kill evil aliens and to have a proper historical setting in which to do hard core research into, refight historical battles and play skirmish games.
Saying that, my warhammer collecting breaks down into The Empire (my main army), orcs and goblins and dwarfs, For 40k I'm collecting imperial guard, space marines as well as small side armies of Tau and orks. Thank sigmar, 1812 only has two sides!
Anyway, The Tangent:

STAR TREK!

This here is a prime example, I got these off a man called matakishi, anyway he has a nice website, but I saw these thought ahhh cool, and bought them. They then sat in a box for about a year, till I painted them just the other week, but even now they are painted I don't have a use for them. Still, they look nice on the shelf, and I do enjoy a spot of painting.
They where however a bastard to glue together...

More 1812 painted

2010-07-15T10:11:00.000-07:00

I have now at this moment of writing actually painted all my 1812 miniatures that I own!!! 1 box of perry British infantry and 1 box of victrix British infantry. A break down of what I've painted them as is in the previous post. But, here are some pictures of the 'brigades', well if you assume each 12 man unit is a battalion. I don't know tho, I'm toying with making them 16 or maybe shrinking them down to 10, I dunno. I should work out what rules I want to use, so know how big units should be.

The Americans and the British
(click for bigger pic)

The new units are the sort of militia or line U.S. unit. The green faced British unit with grey trousers, as well as the rifles and British light company in the foreground. You may also notice I have now moved my wargaming up into my loft where I have a 4 foot by 4 foot table.

Back to canada

2010-07-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

I had this idea to try to paint all my unpainted troops over summer, and not to buy any new toys till I have. How long this will last, I don't know. Anyway so the fist thing I have pulled out is my 1812 stuff. I took these pics a week ago so I have actually finished a lot of the unpainted stuff in these photos. I am organising my forces in units of roughly 12 most often including an officer, Sergeant and drummer, maybe even a standard.

Pics 1 &2: All 24 Victrix that I have painted as British line infantry

A day or two of painting and I will have:

12 British Line (with officer, drummer and Sergeant)
12 British line (with officer and Sergeant)
12 British line (with officer, standard and drummer)
6 British light company
7 British Rifles (with Sergeant)

Of course any of these could be used as Canadians, as they where uniformed as the British regulars where possible. I have held off painting a unit specifically as Canadian till I have a larger collection. When I do, I'll do then in green coats faced red and with blue/grey trousers; like the upper Canada militia were uniformed in 1813. This uniform will distinguish them from British regulars, paricually in a game and besides I quite like that look. Also when I get the next box of perry infantry the light company will go up to 12 strong.

As for the americans:

12 Line (grey coats)
12 line (blue coats)
18 Poorly uniformed line or militia

I did 12 with grey coats (scott's brigade) just for a bit of varity. The unit of 18 has some men in full uniform, some in civilian dress and some inbetween, so they can be used as ragged line infantry or a half uniformed militia. my next purchase for the americans will be some perry plastic french dragoons, to convert to US light dragoons.

Pic 3: Rifles and milita

Pic 4: more british on the workbench

Goblins 'Fousands of 'em!

2010-06-02T09:33:00.000-07:00

I've been busy, paining the 60 goblin infantry from BFSP, here's a few poor photos of them. I've gone for a fairly generic night goblin look, with dark robes mostly blacks and browns; with a few blue hoods thrown in. You notice the white moons on the shields, they were going to be yellow, but once I finished the base coat of white I decided I quite liked the white on black look; so have kept with it. When I start the Orcs I will stay with the black, brown and blue colour scheme to make the army look somewhat unified. These goblins aren't fully finished, the flesh still needs shading as do the dwarfs, but at least there now an acceptable gaming standard.

Next up on the painting desk is the spider riders...

Axes of the Dwarves!

2010-05-28T08:38:00.000-07:00

WELL the other week I bought the battle for skull pass set, as I can see it going OOP, with the new edition of warhammer this summer.
The plan being: the goblins will help expand my small orc force (from the previous edition stater set, y'know the one with empire and orcs) to 1000pts.

Also, the dwarfes from bfsp will be the nucleus of a 1000pts dwarf army, which hopefully won't be a too expensive project with their 'high' points per dwarf (joke). My idea is to bulk up the warriors and miners to units of about 20, and then add a unit of crossbows and a runesmith and then take stock. I'll post a predicted army list soon.

Anyhoo, here are some pictures of the mostly painted dwarf army, (not the best pics, I know).

Few LOTRs Pics

2010-05-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

I know there haven't been post for ages. It's mainly 'cus at uni, I don't really do much on the wargames front.
Anyway, here is a couple of pics of my mordor army (all painted now) fighting my grey company army both about 500pts i think, and a boat I built in a flight of fancy. You can see it has room to trasport the orcs and room for the cross-bow to shoot at the goodies. Also theres a couple of pics of my brothers Harad army too.

A New Direction

2010-01-17T14:41:00.000-08:00

Ahh, a brand new year! And a change in what my hobby is about. I'm going to try and focus on one thing for this year. My made-up world. I have yet to name it, but i have a map, drawn by yours truly, I then coloured it in photoshop. In terms of back ground all I have worked out so far is that, Primus will be the main focus of my games, and will no doubt over time develop a in depth story.

Cer-Dyn was once a powerful empire years ago, but now it is diminished, perhaps like Roman or British empires, and is the main enemy of Primus. Years ago they fought the 1st and 2nd Empire Wars, which led to Cer-Dyns loss of power, though there has been a uneasy peace for many years. Nither can afford another big war, just yet.

Secundus, is an off shoot of Primus, It was realised after the 2nd Empire War, that Primus was too large to be administrated. So it was split in two, both are essentially independent, but the government of Secundus is very close to Primus and follows it's lead in all foreign policy, and most home-land policy.

The level of technology is a little advanced of present day Earth, by maybe 50-100 years.
The present Day is the year 601 by the Cer-Dyn calender. About 100 years after the fall of the Cer-Dyn empire.

Thats about it, so far.

Americans!

2009-01-04T04:29:00.000-08:00

After several days painting I've finished 12 Americans. Roughly in the 1812 uniform, notice different coloured trousers due to supply shortages. The Sergeant has a head wound, as does a man in the front rank. These are of course the victrix British plastics painted as American infantry for the war of 1812. I've mounted them all on GW 25mm round bases, mainly 'cus i have loads lying around, and i think they work well for skirmishes.
I know its a bad pic. But look you can see my star wars curtains in the background!!

Reinforcements for Mordor.

2008-12-26T09:04:00.000-08:00

Some reinforcements for my Mordor Army; Taskmaster and Drummer, The mouth of Sauron, and the siege bow. With these final orcs (and man) my Barad-Dur army reaches 500 points, and so is now complete. Minus some painting of course. The second shot is of the compleat force.

The mouth of sauron
Taskmaster
Drummer
20 Morannon orcs
13 Orcs
7 Orcs with bow
Mordor siege bow

Tactics wise, Hopefully the orcs will out number most good forces, and have the advantage of speed thanks to the drummer. The mouth will use his magic to transfix good heroes, so they can be mobbed and cut down. The taskmaster will run around calling heroic moves where needed. And the bow-orcs and siege bow will try and counteract good bow fire.TBH, I just wanted the siege bow 'cus its cool.

Laters....

more victrix pics

2008-12-21T13:04:00.000-08:00

Right, some painted men! first are the British line companies. I've done 3 privates, a sergant and an officer.

In the background you can see all the unpainted men, stood on top of my dvd player.

thats all for now...

Victrix British

2008-12-21T12:56:00.000-08:00

Here are some shots of the assembled, and some painted' victrix penisular line companies:

Beginnings...

2008-12-21T12:17:00.000-08:00

Just a few words before I start, i have been thinking of starting a wargames blog for ages, and so anyway well here it is.

this'll be mostly GW stuff, but with some historicals as well (mainly the war of 1812).