Earning Their Banners

 The new infantry regiments that were blooded a couple weekends ago in that Napoleonics game received their banners the following day. Apologies for the poorest quality photo, but this was more of me making good on my promises to get those boys their standards.

All prettied up and now ready for the next battle!

Currently I have some Blood and Plunder Spanish in the works. Found a box on Noble Knight for a good price.

I've finished half of them - the Lanceros and Christianized natives. I blasted them with some clear coat earlier and they're out in the garage drying. When these are done, I'm going about 6 years into the past to bring out a long-stale project. I bought some new shinies and have plans. More on that soon enough.

God bless the families of those those were senselessly killed in Texas, New York, California, you name it by the most recent asshole with a gun.

Naps Back to the Table

 The 20mm Napoleonics made an appearance on the game table over the weekend, as I mentioned in the previous post. I reached out to Mark for a game and he suggested them since I'd done so much work on them recently. It was a pretty simple matter of "throw it all on the table and bash it out." Of course my French and Prussian armies aren't exactly paired perfectly so the French had one extra unit, but to compensate, the Prussians upgraded two infantry regiments to Veteran status. Seemed fair, right?

Rather than just traffic-jamming things up, we each deployed four units then everything else would join as reserves in turns 3,4 and 5 at pre-determined locations (right, left and center). 

I started with a basic three infantry regiments and a four-gun battery way off to the left on the hill. Mark mixed it up with Jagers, Veteran infantry and a 4-stand cavalry unit, as well as his guns in two two-gun batteries.

My line trundles forward. The Prussian cav hangs back, timidly.

The view from my "this is as Grand as it gets" battery.

Turn three. My first reinforcement arrives, more infantry, streaming forward in column. The Prussians are still hanging back.

But on turn 4 things heat up! Infantry on the left engage and more reinforcements arrive. For me, it's MORE INFANTRY! Queen of battle and all, I know where my bread gets buttered.

A better shot of the center. Not much for casualties yet. You can see I have my center arrayed in a "Eff-You" arrangement against the small cavalry unit.

Fighting is fierce on the left as my troops gain a slight lead on their foes, but neither side willing to budge.

A few minutes later and the battle is met along the center! The cavalry hit and there's an almighty scrum in the middle of the field. More reinforcements arrive; the French now have cavalry for Mark to worry about.

A little closer to the tabletop for "bonus eye-candy."

Tragedy as the French infantry on the left are run off! Looks like the reserve unit behind them will soon become battle-hardened vets.

It's a real shame that my big cavalry block was centered... they'd have enjoyed plowing into a weakened infantry regiment. I might have also been playing keep-away from the Prussian Uhlans. I didn't really want to piss my horses away in an even dice-rolling match.

But on the other side, the Prussian Life Guard succumb to stout French resistance. Glory!

Meanwhile, my own small cavalry unit, Dragoons, have snuck around the right flank and now threaten the Prussian guns and left side in general!

But as the battle ground on, Prussian units were overrun (red/pink stars). The Jagers did an admirable job holding up my Dragoons (upper right).

Although the battle had been decided, we smashed our remaining units into one another, giving the big cavalry units an opportunity to lace into eachother. My Dragoons also got to exact brutal punishment on the cannons on the hill. :)

A delightful three hours of pushing lead! We both had a good time and really, what's not to like? I was happy that the plan I concocted for my reserves worked out nicely. Cover the field with infantry then bring in the cavalry at the end to quickly exploit whatever they could. Their presence really created a dilemma for Mark who had to account for them. 

Ziggy's due back from Europe, defending Western civilization against the eastern hordes, this week. I'm sure I'll see him over the weekend. They deployed just before Putin invaded Ukraine so he's been kicking it in Germany for close to three months.

Thar Be Dragoons!

My final batch of Napoleonics for the near future! I've been on quite a tear for the last five weeks or so, knocking out three infantry regiments and two undersized cavalry regiments. That's unheard of brush-speed for me. That was 64 infantry and 16 horses and riders, and they're not complete crap quality!

This lot is a group of French Dragoons. I was delighted by the uniforms - they add a nice break from the "mer bleue" that is the French. 

Models are Newline Designs 20mm. My early 18th century North Americans arrived last week, so the next project on the agenda has already been selected and primed.

Recent Work

 I slowed down a little bit but not much with the painting in the last week and a half. I scrounged lead mountain and dug up another regiment's worth of French infantry. They were cycled through the paint machine quickly enough. It helped that eight of the twenty-four were already painted.

The Naps collection is really shaping up.

So the current queue looks like this.

French Dragoons. Woohoo! I just hit them with their first colors this morning.

During the week I also finished up a GHQ 6mm Panavia Tornado. I haven't painted any Cold War micro armor in a while and watching the events unfolding in Europe gave me the urge. Perhaps that's morbid, but it's the truth. 

Freehanded the markings. Yes, they're sloppy but get the point across. Jets aren't on the table for very long anyway. :) 

I did place a good sized order for 28mm early colonial North Americans this week from Sash & Saber. British and Abenaki natives. These will join these others here and here soon enough for some back woods Blood and Plunder! If you're a regular reader, you'll see that I'm actually making good on some of my New Year's resolutions to expand both my Naps collection and the 18th Century wilderness gang.

The Landwehr Blues Began

Trying to come up with something fun to do with the word Landwehr... obviously.  

I knocked out a block of Prussian Infantry during the week. They look nice I think. The uniforms are a nice change from those of their colleagues.

I scrounged eight completely painted French ground-pounders over the weekend and enough unpainteds to fill in another six-stand regiment for those guys, so they're next in the queue. After that will either be a 6mm Panavia Tornado or French Dragoons.

Next weekend I'll be hosting Rubber and Lead for some of my co-workers. Team building. Yeah. 

More Horemen

The Naps continue, this time I've got some Prussian cavalry on this, the 75th anniversary of Prussia's dissolution. Uniforms inspired by the 2nd Life Hussars. Minis are again 20mm Newline Designs.

I surprised myself at how quickly I finished them. I guess eight instead of the more typical twelve helped, but either way. Next up are going to be Prussian foot or French horse. Haven't decided.

Haven't seen much of it on the blogosphere, but it's a damn shame what Russia's doing in Ukraine. screw them. My old high school JROTC instructor would crack us up with his stories about untrustworthy doubletalking Ruskies but Sergeant Major Reichert was right.

Gauche, Gauche, Gauche Droite Gauche

 The next / most recent addition to my Napoleonic French army made it out of the chute yesterday. They're 20mm Newline Designs Grenadiers.

Nothing award-winning but more than sufficient for action at the front! They'll get their standard once I've completed the other units I'm working on. The Prussian Hussars made it out of their baggies and got primed and some first colors yesterday as well. 

I've always struggled with cavalry but working on the riders and horses independently has helped a lot and I no longer hate it.

Next weekend I'm off the the inaugural Bold City Con in Jacksonville. It's more of a pop-culture/comic/cosplay affair than the stuff I'd normally attend, but they 14 year-old will enjoy it and I'll put a stripped down X-Wing, suitable for novices on the table. If nothing else, it's in-context with the show. In other X-Wing related news, apparently the new company Asmodee spun it off to (Atomic Mass) has been screwing around with the rules, making significant changes to how it's worked since it was first published in 2012. It doesn't feel like 10 years, but there you go. David was giving me the skinny last weekend. I'm not interested in purchasing new rules and information cards for something I'm already completely happy with. I don't know how much longer David's going to have me as a tournament practice opponent.

Goings On

 Haven't posted in some time so I thought it might be good to slap together an update.

1. I'm teaching Blood Bowl to David today. It's right up his alley, being a thoughtful Starfleet Battles player. Perhaps it looks like silly football on the surface, but at it's heart it's a thinkin' man's game. Looking forward to it. That of course lit a fire under by butt to paint at least one of my teams! I finished up my Elf team. Here are some bad photos of them. Maybe some action shots later during the game.

They have a definite Anime vibe. I'm really looking forward to playing later. 

2. Zig and I played Command and Colors: Jacobite Rising last evening. Very good. Very very good. I'm constantly impressed with the creator's ability to summon period flavor out of simple wooden blocks. Now that I own Ancients, Samurai Battles and Jacobite Rising and can really compare different versions it's much more impressive.

We played the first two battles - Killiecrankie and Dunkeld. I was given command of the rebels for both battles, winning Killiecrankie handily and then getting thrashed at Dunkeld.

I was dealt a phenomenal opening hand and this became my plan.

It worked out.

Dunkeld features a few government troops in town holding off a horde of uppity Highlanders.

Should be a cake walk...

Well, fate conspired to feed me a disproportionately high number of "left" cards. Combined with one or two stupid decisions, decent shooting by the loyalists and not so great dice, Ziggy whooped me good.

Great fun. C&C is always a good time.

3. Finally, the order arrived from Newline across the pond. 

So exciting!

More French and Prussian 20mm Napoleonics. An Infantry and cavalry unit for each. The French infantry are in progress now.

Recent Goings On

 Haven't posted in a bit. Just doing a bit of a recap of the last couple weeks. Mark, Ziggy and I got together for games of Swordpoint (Italian Wars-flavored armies) and Rank and File Napoleonics on Memorial Day weekend. Both games were a lot of fun - certainly different fare for us given our sci-fi and moderns tendencies.

Armies line up preparing for battle

A couple of turns into the proceedings

An amusing situation developed on my right flank. I had sent light cav around. Mark set up some gunners to block them but expected them to be bowled right over. He had a large group of halberdiers right behind the gunners, set to crush my cav after the gunners fall. Turns out the gunners were more than capable of of handling the light cavalry and my poor dice rolls all by themselves. The Halberdiers ended up being in a terrible position for the rest of the battle and this really hampered Mark's chances.

Swordsmen and spearmen clash in the center. The two units were very well matched and for a smaller engagement on the table, was quite enjoyable to watch play out.

My second unit of cavalry charged into some greatswords while my pikemen and Mark's cavlary duked it out in the center. The pikemen went haywire and absolutely thrashed the cavalry!

In the end, I won with my "Ventian" army, but the "Spanish" performed well and I'm excited to see these two groups get back at it again. I was happy with the Swordpoint rules. Not a bad addition to the collection at all.

Ziggy arrived part-way through the first game. We left the terrain exactly where it was for game 2 since it was also a 20mm affair, this time Naps, Prussians and French. Ziggy commanded the Prussians while Mark and I split the French. Mark was going to have to leave a bit early so it just made sense.

The armies arrayed for battle.

I was hoping to lay waste to the Jagers  on the left flank, but the skirmishers turned heel and fled behind the house!

And there they go. The French cavalry has just smashed into the Prussian line!

And then an almighty scrum develops!

My horses had to back off, leaving the French with just one infantry unit at the line! Not looking good for us.

But the Chasseurs rally and spur their mounts forward one more time! The infantry has held up amazingly well, frustrating their Prussian opponents tremendously. In the foreground you can see that the godforsaken Jagers are about to sack a second cannon. - they'd bagged another earlier.

The battle at the line continues

The, painfully for Ziggy, morale tests start to fail. Units begin falling back and French momentum increases. It's a snow-ball effect and in the blink of an eye, it's over. 

A tremendous game with a huge swing half-way through. Ziggy was running us ragged in the early turns. Mid-way through, Mark left and all of a sudden the luck changed. My dice woke up and Zig's cooled off. R&F always delivers a fun game with simple mechanics. We did make one house-rule change from the last game Mark and I played though. We reduced the morale effect that casualties have upon units. Instead of a -1 modifier for each stand lost, we changed in to -1 for every TWO stands lost. Units stick around longer and there is more fighting and less running away. It was a solid improvement. The skirmishers were a fun addition and the leader models got their first outing. A wonderful day's gaming for sure. Thanks both of you, Zig and Mark!

So, what else has been gong on? Some painting, so starters. I picked up some interesting models to start a Stargrave crew and painted them up last weekend.

The Bat-Guy and reporter are Warlord minis from the Judge Dredd line. The other two are Reaper Bones. Much of the appeal of games like Stargrave/Frostgrave is finding and painting up an interesting selection of figures. I've got a handful more incoming from Gamekastle and will leverage some of the Infinity collection for others.

I also scratch-built a 15mm house just because I felt like it. I have some similar buildings in the collection. 

With a few 15mm minis for scale. Simple, I know, but it scratched the itch.

David and I had a mini games-day for some of his Boy Scout troop yesterday. We played Rink Racers, King of Tokyo and X-Wing. Eight hours of goofing off and rolling rice - not a bad way to spend a Saturday!

We kept X-Wing very simple and focused on the basic basics - moving and shooting. It was a great time.