The end of 2014!

This concludes my first year writing a blog.  It has been an interesting year for me, both in terms of gaming and in the real World.  There have been a few changes and the usual ‘roller-coaster’ ride of triumphs, interspersed with, alas failures.

As always, this hobby has afforded me the opportunity to meet new gamers and to continue my acquaintanceship with other like minded people, whom I have known, in some cases, for over twenty years.  It’s this fellowship that keeps me coming back to events like Cancon and MOAB and promote innovative concepts the Good, Bad and Ugly tournament.

Overall, I am glad I commenced this blog and will continue it during the coming year.  It has not attracted a lot of views, but for me, that its the point.  I started to enable me to focus on my hobby and to assist me to reduce my lead mountain of unpainted miniatures.  Perhaps, on occasion it’s afforded me a medium to share the occasional insight with my reader, commend a trader who have provided excellent service, like Nic at Eureka Miniatures, John at War and Peaces Games, or Shayne at Campaign Books and Games Logistics. 

In terms of this blog, I was disappointed with my efforts: there was a hiatus of six months without a posting, many projects, heralded here, were commenced yet remain incomplete, while other more recent projects received attention in preference.  I clearly suffered from the classic gamer's ‘bright shiny object’ syndrome.  I will need to address this next year.

Again on the positive side, I am pleased I’m back painting after a far to long a break (ie over seven years).  Two factors have brought about this change:

(a)       I now know I cannot operate with lots of projects on the go.  I fare better if I have one or two projects actually on the painting desk at any one time.  The remaining projects need to be placed away, and 

(b)      Having a dedicated painting desk, for the first time in my Life does assist me to get some time in when I can, as there isn’t the need to set up and pack away each time I want to do something.

Finally, I feel more competitive playing DBA/HOTT than over the preceding two years.  I now afford my opponents a hard fought game, before they beat me, rather than just disappearing in a red mist before their armies.

I wish all, who may fall upon this blog, a safe and productive New Year.  One that they would wish for themselves!

I'm not Irish, but it seems the Irish have the best toasts, the sentiment expressed, quite simply conveys how I feel:

            My Friends are the best friends

            Loyal, willing and able

            Now let’s get to drinking!

            All glasses off the table!

            “Slante go saol agat!”

            Health for life to you!

Merry Christmas!

Just a brief post to wish my reader the very best of Christmas!  Here's hoping whoever has given you exactly what you wanted!

I'll be posting, before the New Year, a review of the year passed in wargaming, my first year writing a blog.

Its been six months since my last post

It is almost a confession to my reader who might like to be brought up to date as to what has been occurring for me in wargaming.

I attended Little Wars in Adelaide as planned and experienced a great weekend.  I really enjoyed catching up with old friends like Nic Robson from Eureka Miniatures and making new ones.  The hospitality provided to me by Marcus Tregenza and his fellow members of Group North, was first class!

Over July to September, the real World intervened resulting in me becoming a nationally accredited mediator.

During this period, I also had to prepare for my participation at MOAB in Sydney over the October long weekend.  This required the basing of three 15mm and two 28mm armies – fives armies, madness! 

To accommodate the transportation of these armies, I decided to drive to the event, especially as I had just spent over $2,000 to have the clutch in my car replaced!  I faced the drive with some trepidation, but the car performed really well and though tiring – 13 hours driving to get to the motel at Miranda late on Friday evening and then 12 hours return drive on the following Tuesday, the long weekend was enjoyable.

I elected to play in the two day DBA competition professionally organized by Stephen Webb.  The first day, the games are based around a map campaign, its theme changes each year.  This year was a Successor Campaign, set between 320 and 315BC. 

I fielded the army, commanded by Antigonos (DBA Bk II/16(a)).  I experienced my usual poor dice rolling, particularly in critical rounds of combat.  It is difficult not to become disheartened when rounding two six to ones in the same round of combat!

At the conclusion of the campaign, I had managed to loss six games out six.  My country had been invaded and conquered several times over.  The winner of the campaign was Adrian Williams.

My spirits rallied that evening, when I gathered with Greg, Mark, Phil and David to consume a carnivore’s delight, washed down with a very nice red at the Gymea Tradies’, great venue, excellent company couldn’t ask for better.

The next day saw another six games of DBA contested, this time it was to be historical matched pairs.  I fielded Feudal French (DBA Bk IV/4(b)) and Early Muslim North Africa and Sicily (DBA Bk III/33).  Unfortunately, after six games, I ended with one draw, one win and four losses.  So, it was another trip to the Tradies to drown my sorrows with Greg and Mark.  We also watched the NRL Grand Final, though I still can’t work out why people like the game, its not like its rugby!

On Monday, I competed in the HOTT event organized by Victor Jamusz.  It was to be my first games of HOTT.  I had previously liaised with Victor and Terry Webb, in the US, for this event to be also the first leg of the internationally contested Good, Bad and Ugly tournament (‘GBnU’).  Thanks again Victor, for allowing this to occur!

Though there was a smaller than expected turn out, I enjoyed the experience greatly.  I particularly liked finally meeting Alan Saunders in person.  I have enjoyed his blog for quite some time.

As for my gaming, suffice to say, it was a marginally better day with the dice.

The GBnU requires some explanation.  It is an annual event, run over a number of legs, where competitors play in local competitions, but the final results are combined, with the outcomes of other legs, to produce an overall winner, and other place getters.  So, this year, the first leg was played in Australia, followed in no particular order by other legs played in Glasgow, Coventry in the UK and several US sites such as Nashville and Austin.  Terry did an excellently job in developing this concept, well done that man!

The theme for GBnU this year was Childrens’ books and movies.

The following are some photos of the event.  I must state that these are perhaps the worse photographs I have taken with my camera.  I can only blame operator error!

 

The competitors: Rear rank: Greg Kelleher and myself, Front rank: Victor Jamusz, Alan Suanders, Michael Chellew and Martin Stewart

The first round, I went up against Greg’s Saxon armies, so a battle of shield walls was contested.  Greg’s armies were based upon the books written by Bernard Cornwall.  I quickly lost my warlord and it went down hill from there.

Whilst this game was in progress, on the next table Alan and Victor were battling it out on Mars, using Alan’s imaginative armies, based upon the John Carter/ Baroom novels written by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

I must say I liked Alan’s creative terrain and seventies style tie dye terrain surface!

On the third table, Martin’s Napoleonic French and English, which he painted when he was eleven, were fighting it out!

I’m continually amazed at the imagination and creativeness that gamers bring to HOTT!

Round 2 and I went up against Victor, using my Clan War based fantasy samurai, the Mantis Clan under Yamamoto against the Ratlings or Nezumi under Tchickchuk of the Tattered Ear pack.  A close loss with me losing Tchickchuk.

The sharp of eye will note that the basing task I set myself was not meet, but at least they are fully painted figures.

Whilst this was going on, Michael fielded his Daliks against Greg, who used Michael’s Teddy Bear Pirates!  The pirates are manufactured by Eureka Miniatures.

Round 3 and I was up against Martin and pulled out a rare win in the virtual last throw of the dice, Wellington had fallen!

Round 4 and I was up against a very experienced player in Alan.  An interesting game that though I lost I felt like I had learnt a lot about HOTT!

During this game, on another table Victor fielded his Orcs.

All in all, an entertaining day of pushing lead!

Since MOAB, I have been again busy with real world activities, but I have managed to get myself some great gaming mats manufactured by the US based Cigar Box games, through its excellent Australian supplier, Campaign Books and Games Logistics.  Shayne is a great person to do business with, I can't commend his service any higher!

In other posts, I’ll be setting out my purchases for the year and the status of the projects I have engaged in over the last twelve months.  I have achieved mixed results, but after my first year of this blog, I’m still gaming, and I’m back painting again and enjoying it!       

The week that was!

I’m amazed at how much thinking and reading I managed to achieve whilst immobilized for three days!

The cause of my immobility was the re-occurrence of a work related back injury, sustained over thirty years ago.

The following is what has occurred in the intervening time within my wargaming World:

DBA with a Twist ‘In depth’

Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to Canberra two weekends ago as planned, due to my back injury.  I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to travel down to catch up with friends and push some lead!

Equally, I was disappointed with the low number of players who attended.  Despite great organisation by David Lawrence, a Canberra stalwart, there were only six players competing this year, about half the number who attended the event last year!

Honours went to Doug Melville, who won the event with his Alexandrian Macedonians, (DBA Bk II/12) sourced from Tin Soldier.  Doug is an excellent player!

Mark Baker took out the Handicap or Magister Militum prize with his bow heavy force from Hatra (DBA Bk II/22 c) and Greg Kelleher achieved the Executor Award, taking five kills in a single battle, using his Asiatic Early Successor army, under Eumenes (DBA Bk II/16d).

Well done!

I note will be good practice for Greg, as no doubt he will be running this army in the campaign to be held at MOAB, later this year.

Little Wars Adelaide

Armed with a newly acquired Qantas voucher due to my cancelled Canberra trip, I have decided to trek to Adelaide, to compete in the DBA campaign, ‘Carthage must be Destroyed’, organized by Marcus Tregenza, as part of the Little Wars convention to be held there on 12 July 2014.

This will represent a number of firsts for me.  I have not previously played in Adelaide, I have not competed in a competition using the DBA 2.2+ variant of the rules, nor have I used a 28mm army in DBA.

At Marcus’s invitation, I have registered my interest to command a Polybian Roman legion (DBA Bk 11/33) from the pool of available loaner armies.  My selection is perhaps unsurprising, govern my election to use the tag ‘Scipio’ on the Fanaticus website.  Yes, delusions of grandeur!

I have downloaded all the material for DBA 2.2+ from the Washington Area De Bellis Antiquitis Gamers (WADBAG) website.  It’s a great resource for DBA gamers.  Marcus has also generously supplied me with a copy of his Quick Reference Sheet for DBA 2.2+.  So I have all that I need for a great weekend!

I’m looking forward to competing and attending at a different gaming venue and having an enjoyable weekend with friends, some of whom, I am yet to meet!

Projects

I started this blog in December 2013, with a mission statement, essentially to motivate myself to reduce my pile of unpainted lead which I have accumulated over thirty years. 

Four months into the challenge and I have not managed to paint as many figures as I had hoped, however I have been able to organize several projects, which for various reasons, I had allowed to stagnate.  Four projects are now on track, but in each case, more has to be done.

It is clear I have to many wargaming interests, which in turn, have generated projects that are incomplete. 

I have no intention of culling my interests/projects.  In fact, to the contrary, I will be expanding into several new areas, primarily 28mm skirmish, using rule sets such as SAGA and Chain of Command.

I already have two SAGA warbands, Anglo Saxon and Normans to be painted, the former, I acquired whilst in the UK in 2012.  Those figures have quite an accumulation of frequent flyer points! 

I also have figures to be painted as several factions in a Very British Civil War environment.  For several years, I have enjoyed reading blogs and forums detailing the ventures of other gamers in this era and am looking forward to getting into it.  I am also thinking of morphing this collection into a Spanish Civil War environment, but this remains in the planning stage.       

Essentially, I need to develop self-discipline to focus upon one project at a time, and keep at it until it is either complete (ie I have two armies or opposing forces painted and based ready for gaming) or I have eliminated all of the unpainted lead I have on hand for that particular project.

The first project to be subject to this new regime will be 15mm Colonials.  

To date, I have based all of the available painted Pathans in my possession.  I have none that are unpainted.  This represents the equivalent, in terms of ‘the Sword and the Flame’ rules, five clans of warriors (ie about 100 figures), led by a Mullah. 

To oppose this warrior horde, I have based the equivalent of a company of two platoons of British Sudanese, manufactured by Essex Miniatures and painted in the 1980s.  These figures are intended for use in the Sudan, but can initially be deployed as proxies for the correctly uniformed British forces which saw action in the North West Frontier.  The proper figures will be purchased at some later time.

The important factor is that once all of the bases have been properly flocked I can start to game with these figures in a campaign.  I can follow the likes of wargaming greats, Featherstone and Gilder, by naming the leaders of the opposing forces and develop a background for the units and give the various encounters I will game solo a context.

I also have painted: 78 Beja and 144 Dervish warriors, of whom 40 are armed with rifles.  Again these figures were sourced from Essex Miniatures and painted in the 1980s.  I have an additional 86 unpainted warriors to be added to this force, together with 21 Dervish warriors mounted on camels and 17 Dervish cavalry.

In terms of the rules, the infantry will initially be organized in three units of Beja warriors, five units of Dervish and four units of Dervish with rifles.  Re-enforcements will provide an additional unit of Beja warriors, and three more Dervish warriors.

These warriors will be supported by two captured artillery pieces and a unit of camel mounted Dervish.

I’ve ordered 300 20mm MDF bases from Back 2 Base IX in South Australia, so the first stage will be re-basing 222 15mm figures.  Then on to painting and basing the remainder!   

By mid July, I want to have painted the 104 15mm figures including 38 mounted and based 346 figures. 

The next task will be to base and paint any British stragglers I have, roughly a further hundred including a small Egyptian contingent.  This force will comprise artillery, a small party of naval brigade, camel corps and cavalry.

The completion of these forces will mean I will be able to plan and game another campaign, this one much larger to be contested in the Sudan.                      

Muskets and Tomahawks

Whilst mining Mt Neverpaint, another term I use for repacking the plastic tubs in which I store my unpainted toy soldiers, two Mondays ago, I came across a box containing twenty six 15mm painted Native Americans, and seven Rogers’ Rangers, all manufactured by Essex Miniatures, together with a beautifully executed and well researched camp, I purchased off eBay years ago from Barry Scarlett.

Barry is one of the best scratch builders of model terrain in Australia.

As has happened a lot in my wargaming, a foray into the French and Indian Wars stagnated for the want of a reasonable set of rules providing for skirmish play reflective of the various raids the Indian Nations engaged in during this period.  Representatives from the Indian Nations fought for both the British, and the French during this conflict, whilst also settling blood feuds amongst themselves. 

Initially, the figures had been painted and individually based to allow play with ‘Warfare in the Age of Reason’, as allies/enemies for my French Seven Years War figures.  I found the rules unsuitable for the level of action I wanted to recreate on the table.  Additionally, the bases were unstable due to their size (i.e. 10mm square) and I found moving, in excess of thirty individually based figures, representing a large warband of irregulars very tedious, especially when these figures would often fall over during the process.

After some consideration, I thought these figures would work, rebased on 25mm diameter MDF circles, for use with the rule set ‘Muskets and Tomahawks’.  Why did I select this size base?  Simple, I had purchased a large order from Back-2-Base-IX, as part of my SAGA project, so as these were on hand that was the size I used.  On reflection, perhaps 20mm diameter bases might have been preferable.

As I lacked a copy of these rules I placed an order with the great people at War and Peace Games the next day together with a pack of cards necessary to play the game. I also ordered one of all of the 15mm MDF buildings, manufactured by 4ground, which could be used in the French and Indian Wars.  This gives me a blockhouse and a settlers’ hamlet, consisting of three buildings of varying size.

Within in three days of determining the new direction of this project I had my order delivered! 

War and Peace Games charge a flat rate of $A7.50 postage within Australia.  I checked my order and actual postage was twice that amount and the parcel was extremely well packed at no additional cost!  I highly recommend this trader!

After a quick read of the rules, I determined I had sufficient figures to field an Indian Nation force of 200 points.  The force consists of two leaders or Sachems, one unit of bloodthirsty braves armed with muskets, three units of six warriors, two more armed with muskets, while the other are armed with spears and tomahawks.  

I already have some wooden snake type fences, again courtesy of Barry’s talents.   I’ll need to make about the same amount of dry wall fence sections and a palisade to surround the blockhouse, I might used some sections of metal palisade I sourced from Eureka miniatures years ago! 

I’ve re-based the Indian village (the long house can be used as a DBA camp for my Eastern American Indians).  I will need to build a palisade for this camp as well.

The photograph above depicts a long house.  It has been based on a 80mm square base. 

The photograph above deposits two dome huts and a large drum.  All three have been based on 40mm square bases.

The 4ground buildings are now assembled and the blockhouse is on a base of 80mm square.  More work has to be done to the building's roof.    

When based, the three houses depicted below will have various additions such as barrels, woodpiles and livestock added to the bases.  A ploughed field and another with crops will also be added.

The standard of detail in all 4ground buildings are outstanding, though there are some detail which requires subsequent rectification.

 

Above is an example of the three buildings pack.  It is the smallest, depicted rear right in the group photograph.  It covers an area of 100mm by 80mm. 

After a more detailed read through of the rules and some painting of twenty French regulars, I’ll be ready for my first solo game!