Gifts

Here are the two figures from Crooked Dice that I have painted for Relfie and Kev I mentioned 2 days ago. I have really struggled to get a decent picture of them, and this was the best I could do. It's not that bad, but you can hardly make out the skin colour changes on the fembot. I decided on a "Black" fembot just for variety and because the blue really pops next to the brown. Not getting into colour theory but as they are opposites on the colour wheel I always new it would.  You can just make out the lipstick and the white stripe on the boots which I think gives it a very 60's gogo dancer feel. I had to shoot it against the yellow background as the scientists coat bled into a white background. I gave the scientist grey shoes, and brown trousers as it reminded my of the Open University programmes you used to get on in the telly in the middle of the night. The shirt and tie was obviously something he saw a younger college wearing and thought "Wow that's style".  Still as figures they don't look to bad, and I am sure the two guys will appreciate them. I have a secret (no longer) fembot that I am working on for myself, same pose. I'll try to get a shot of them both together before I pass this one on to Kev. Not sure what colour to paint her clothing, but will try lilac and see where that takes me.

BROADSIDE NEWS: My work at Cavalier has already paid off as another club sent their form back yesterday. Southend wargamers will be putting on a SAGA game for us. The Rejects also handed their form in at the show as well, straight to Alan the main organiser so no idea what they'll be doing but I know they are booked in now. A couple of extra traders also got back to us with forms as well.

Additionally the DBA tournament  will be taking place there (I have nothing to do with that this year) but am lead to believe it's filling up with players and all going smoothly.

Lastly for BROADSIDE 2012, We have the first booking for the flea market. Being a small club there is just not enough of us to man a bring and buy. Also I am aware that there was a number of thefts from the bring and buy at Cavalier this year, not on the scale of the London Riots of course. I am told quite a lot of osprey books were purloined among other things. Theft of any type is of course disgraceful but I am pleased to say seems to be minimal among our hobby, and this appears to be the exception and not the rule.

Anyway back to the flea market. At BROADSIDE we plan to have a flea market where the seller who mans the stall will sell their own items and thus be responsible for any loss or damage. As a new show we don't know how well this will work, if at all. To me this is best suited to clubs as opposed to individuals if only because they should have more "stock".

Back to the paint table: My plan is to finish a few things off  today and Saturday ready for painting the MJ figures (Taliban) I purchased at Cavalier. As these will be for my Club game at BROADSIDE I really need to get a wriggle on as we are 3 months away. using Force on Force and being 20mm scale I don't think I'll need masses to cover everything I want to do. 20mm don't take too long to paint so the main focus need to be the scenery. To-wit I have settled on 2 foot square boards, 4 in number. I plan to make them modular so club games can get a variety of uses out of them, although there will be one setup for the show. We don't want to be changing things half way through the day. I plan for the boards to be a mixture of village and fields in some isolated area. The obvious advantage of taking an isolated village is that the architecture should not have greatly changes for hundreds of years so the boards could be used for other settings, still time will tell and talking is not doing so I shall leave that there for now. I have checked in the shed and have enough raw materials for this so nail hits Wood tomorrow.

Bit longer post than I thought it would be. I'll post again Sunday. Cheers Guys!

Post Script: Thank Goodness for spell checker!

Zombie Tank

Only managed to "Finish" 1 figure off since Cavalier. However I am not totally unhappy with it. I have placed it next to a couple of wargames factory zombies to show the difference in size. I included the biker girl so you'd not forget that I paint all my zombies in monotone. The figure is from Ironclad miniatures www.ironcladminiatures.co.uk Victorian science fiction range, "Mr Hyde" and currently retails for £3. The Molding and casting was quite clean and I would be interested in getting some more from the range. They don't seem to make anything else I could use as a "Tank Zombie" but the armed British police and Thugs could work for a few games. Although I can't see I will need too many "Tanks" for Zombie games I wish they did another version of Mr Hyde as well, just for variety. The fact that he is sculpted in torn clothing was is an obvious advantage. Overall I think he'll fit very nicely and help to round out the "Left 4 Dead" special character types. Thinking back mongoose do a Fattie with a belly wheel in their Judge Dredd ranges whom might become a "Bloater" in later months.

Other painting : I have nearly finished the Crooked dice Fembot for Kev. I have got to say I really like it it was a joy to paint and I only have the base to finish so I can show that next time. I have started the scientist for Relfie, but only in very base colour at the moment. I know these two figures will at some point be used against me and I imagine some reluctance in targeting them on the table top but I'm not too soft to care about it enough to pick a less appropriate target.

I have 4 more stands of 15mm US WW2 Infantry for the PBI game on the way as well. So these figures will be the next out of the paint cue.

Game Projects: I have had a setback with the Cutlass scenery to the extent where I can't see it being finished to the standard I want in the time I want. It is therefore going on the back burner for the time being. I have bought no figures for it yet so the outlay has not been too big and I think it's best to quit at this stage and move on to other game ideas for the Broadside show game for Rainham club.

I did contact Ambush Alley Games about getting one of their "Pointmen" to put on a game for the show. Got a great reply from Ambush Alley Games, but nothing from their contacts this side of the water. Therefore, and knowing some of the club have gotten rules already and to some extent have read and played them, I see this as being the new way forward for the show game. I know I may sound fickle, but I can't see the point of fighting against the scenery problems for a Cutlass game, it was just becoming hard work. Force on Force in 15mm can be played on a  foot square area. Therefore a well made and painted 4 foot square area should be the way to go for a 20mm scale game. I'll start to work on this BEFORE the weekend. At the moment trying to decide if I should make it on 4 boards or just 2.

Anyway talk soon, cheers Clint

Cavalier 2012

I did manage to get to the Tonnbridge show Cavalier yesterday (Sunday 26th Febuary). Sorry no pics of the actual show as I had a camera issue on the day. The issue being I left it at home opps! Since Broadside last year I have a very different attitude to shows. They used to be supermarket sweep type affairs and I would look round all wide eyed and mouth open taking in every detail like a junkie searching for a fix. However now it's somewhat different in my mind at least. I have a purpose and not just to get as much lead in as short a possible time as I was capable of. For this show my task was to talk to the various clubs there and encourage them to come to Broadside either as members of the paying public OR to host a game either demonstration or participation. Firstly let me say I did manage to speak to all the clubs putting on games with the exception of two. By talk to I don't just mean an aimless chat with a random member, although there's nothing wrong with that, but a serious and focused chat aboutr the game possibilities with either thier chairman or their club secretary or whom-so-ever I need to twist the arms of. (Pleasently for all no arm twisting resulted from the day). Genuinly got some positive feedback and suspect we should have another four clubs putting on games for us.

Clubs putting on games serves 2 functions at a show, firstly they supply eye candy and such but they also being wargamers themselves inevitably end up being at the show all day end up putting thier hand in thier pocket with one or more traders. This may sound a little mercanry but it is a symbiotic relationship, as the chances are they or some of thier club would be comming to the show anyway and this way they at least get in free and get a day doing what they want.

Other than the entrance fee I was about £45 down before I actually bought anything as one of my friends failed to turn up with enough cash. SO Bank of Clint lent him some and I got a cheque in return, which he promptly spent at the Crooked dice stall. Although I had not bought anything at this stage Tim from Frontline did give me a bag of goodies. (Top centre of the pic) He has made some quite nice resin modern dead figures, the laying down on the ground type and not the walking about type.) I'll start to paint a few later this week so you should get a better idea then. I am not sure if they are on his web site yet or even his FB page.  (http://www.frontlinewargaming.co.uk/)
I also bought from him some market stalls for the planned 3 musketeer game. Again I shall sling paint at those as well in the next week or two. So that ticks the scenery bought box.

The book the revenge of the 47 Ronin is indeed an osprey publication and although I knew I wanted a book it was an impulse buy. Another tick from Saturdays list. Also another tick is the single pack of peter pig BAR US infantry. Unfortunatly he does not carry Wild west range to shows unless asked to in advance. However the nice bloke serving has taken my contact details and has promised to send a couple of samples which I thought was fantastic and I am really looking forward to them now. I did get a KR figure case (not shown) and speaking to the guy he has a good source for printed carrier bags which may work for our June show, time will tell where we are with costs and practicality closer to the time. So that's another tick. I did get a CROSS from Wargames Emporium, when I wanted to see some Hydra miniatures though as they had sold pretty much everything the shop had the day before the show. They did have the rules which I had a quick flick through but am not sure about yet. I would need to sit down and read them before I commited myself. The guy were really nice to talk to and have prommised to bring Hydra figures to our show when they come and offered me a discout as show host should I pre-order them, again which is all good as far as I am concerned.

I also got some CROOKED DICE stuff, the summer special and a couple of figures. So that counts as the rules purchase. So I did very well fulfilling the majority of the wish list. Which has made me very happy. Now on to the IMPULSE buys.

I always have impulse buys at shows, but this time I mostly got useful stuff. I picked up two packs of Ironclad miniatures. I Bought the MR HYDE figure for the sole purpose of painting up as a Zombie character, being larger than your average zombie and quite muscly I hope he'll make a decent repersentation of a TANK. I also on a whim bought two figures who reminded me of sand people from star wars. These are the only 2 things I can't see myself using in the near future.

The real isnpirational purchase for me was the packs of Taliban (20mm) from MJ figures. They are well animated well proportioned and well cast I shall enjoy painting them. I nearly bought som of his other ranges as well, but was determined not to have the lead mountain grow too much more.

Overall it was a good day out, I did feel that numbers were down on last year as it did not seem too crowded. The games were nice the traders varied and I would look forward to going next year.

I'll post again Wednesday, talk soon cheers Clint.

Well I did say I should have something to show today. Got up early and bashed some figures out. This is my machine gun platoon for PBI. It consists of 4 .30 cal MG bases and an SMG command base. There's still some tinnie tiny finishing off to do, but should get them varnished this afternoon, especially if England are doing Badly at the Rugger. I have tried to put some foliage in front of the crews as I can't really see them wanting to be out in the open. They know that a little bush is not bullet proof, but with luck might give them some concealment until they open up. I should get another standard platoon done next so that I have enough regular bases to actually play the game, but as this was only 5 stands of 2 figures I rightly thought I should be able to finish them quite quickly and as I have a month to go before the planned game it seemed like a worthwhile thing to achieve in a limited time. The brown tracks are not meant to join up despite looking like they might, they are only their to give a bit of visual variety. Obviously in 20th century wargames there's usually no need to link bases so they will be spaced out more on the table top, it's just a style I use on my bases which I happen to think looks quite good.

Tomorrow I am of to Cavalier in Tonnbridge Kent. First show of the year for me and I am looking forward to it. Usually there's a list of things I want to get, but this year I am pretty much open to impulse buys. For me Impulse buys at wargames shows can be dangerous, as It can easily mean getting side-tracked onto new projects, or resurrecting old , sometimes very old projects that have stalled. I think if there is one thing I should buy its storage solutions. But the chances are I'll get more lead.

Off the top of my head here are a quick list of what I am currently thinking, so we can all see how much it will change when I post again on Monday.

•  1 pack peter pig BAR US WW2 Infantry.
• Some figure case or other.
• Crooked dice Fembots.
• Look at Hydra miniatures (stocked by Wargames emporium)
• 15mm Pony wars figures for that colonial idea.
• A book (probably Osprey)
• Possibly more rules or a supplement. (But which ones no idea)
• Some terrain bits and bobs. Could be any scale or period.
• Anything else that inspired me on the day.

. The main reason for going these days is to talk to some traders and clubs and make sure we can get them for Broadside in June. We picked up a few traders and clubs last year by doing this so I know it can work. Whether it will this year of course I'll just have to wait and see.

All the best and speak Monday. Good weekend all. Cheers Clint

•  

Old Friends

Working extra shifts at the moment so very little time for much hobby stuff should have something by Saturday though. Bear with me. I have just had a phone call from "Young Gary" asking If I could paint some flags for him for his Great Northern War armies in 15mm. I would be happy to give it a go, but I think his best bet is to reduce them on a colour photo copy as he has found a 28mm supplier. I think it would be the quickest easiest thing to do.

I'll probably get a chat with Gary over the weekend at cavalier. Gary was a Member of the Rainham club, vice president I think who has since left and I had not spoken too for at least 6 months, or more likely a year. Not that we fell out or anything just drifted apart. He did say he'd pop back to the club soon, and was talking about a big Napoleonic battle in Russia he'll put on with Tim. Personally I am not into Napoleonic or ECW which along with ancients are Gary's thing. I may be doing him a disservice, but he's not a Zombie kind of guy. Having said that he is a good bloke and a pleasure to play against or ally with on a table. But he's definitely a big battle player and wants things in battalions and regiments. The more figures the better.

I mostly like skirmish games, but will play big battle games on occasion. And that's another good thing about the diversity of a club. Everyone is different and brings different skills, likes and armies to the table.

I'll try to get something finished for next post. Cheers Clint

Colours

I had a spare five minutes and splashed some paint about. I was not sure which colour to use for the "tanks" so thought I'd try it on a couple of the smallest ones just to give me an idea. and here are the results. I hasten to add they are not finished, just done to get an idea. I did think about doing some browns but I think the lighter of these two  does the job for me. The other one (the orange one) just does not look right, to me it looks like a sweetie. I like sweets but I don't want a jelly baby army. Overall I'm quite happy and when I get to do them properly am convinced they will look ok, despite an elderly aunts comments about them looking like parts of a male anatomy. For Paint I used "Elf flesh" on the lighter one and "Bronzed flesh" on the darker one. Both were then given a wash of "Scab Red" I left them to dry overnight and this is the result. I need to think if they need more detail or if such a simple scheme will work. Maybe add some spots or splodges I'll wait and see.

Elsewhere I am now painting a machine gun Platoon for PBI. I have run out of one of the colours though but hope to pick a pot of that up at Cavalier on Sunday. I'll press on though as I don't want to get behind on another project.

Meanwhile up the shed I am waiting for paint to dry, as normal. I should start the last two moon boards eirther tomorrow or Friday. I have ground to a halt on the Cutlass cliff/beach scenery as I can't find anywhere selling plaster of Paris. In times gone by chemists stocked it. I have looked on line but the shipping cost doubles it's cost. The Local hobby craft £6 on the train to get there stocks it, but only at ridiculously inflated prices. I am not knocking Hobby Craft, just decrying the lack of local craft shops and the decline of civilisation. I have no doubt if you could fit it to a mobile phone in some way I would be tripping over places to buy it. I might try artex or plaster from B&Q.

That's it for now.

Well half term is just about over so my "babysitting" duties should b at an end now, or at least we can hope they are for a while. I don't really mind as these times I spend with him will be fewer and fewer as he enters his teenage years. I don't in any way begrudge spending time with him, I do however wish I could get on with things when he's here and not have to "Entertain" him quite so much. He is getting less demanding though and I am sure I'll look back on these times and wish there had been more of them.
As you can see I have not totally been ideal on the wargames front, I have managed to paint and base one platoon for my upcoming PBI game with graham, in 5 weeks time. I know it's hard to make out but the figures are clearer in 3 dimensions, while in the pic it's all green on green with some brown splodges. All figures are 15mm Battlefront miniatures on 30mm square bases with either 2 or 3 figures on a base depending on what the base represents.

As my first platoon it consists of 1 stand of Platoon commanders (Carbine). 1 Bazooka Stand, 3 Bar stands and 4 rifle (Garand) stands. BARs have a slightly lower rate of fire than most light machine guns-owing to the magazine capacity and not being belt fed. However Garands have a higher rate of fire being clip fed and not bolt action. The rules take this into account both in points and in the number of dice you throw. I have only played PBI twice so I'm basing the platoons on the one in the Peter Pig PBI rules, and will have to see how it plays before I come up with what I think would be the best ratio of stand types, but I am already thinking of dropping a BAR stand and replacing it with a .30LMG stand instead. But I'll have to wait and see how badly I loose before I commit myself to this plan.

Other than these figures nothing has moved either on the painting table or up the shed, apart from being bashed about by an 11 year old (he was gentle), but several items were not replaced exactly where they came from so I'm now missing the stands for the Kallistra Dwarfs... and if that's the biggest thing I have to worry about I can't really complain. He's getting better.

Other wargames news. Well the Broadside show is slowly coming together we have less than 4 months now and as I shall be at Cavalier next weekend I expect to talk to a few clubs who have yet to return their game detail forms and a few traders who as yet have not confirmed. The Club game forms are required as soon as possible as we have to hire the tables in from an outside source unless they want to play on the floor. Also we need to Know how many bacon or sausage Sarnies the caterers need to save for us hard working types. I still can't believe I missed out last year because they ran out.

I did have a great email last night in reply to my Point man enquiry from Ambush Alley Games. I was asking if they had a UK Point man-Point man is their term for demonstration team- they do have one and it is hopeful that they can get them organised enough to supply another game for Broadside. It works from every ones point of view, they get their products showcased and we get another game for people to either watch or take part in. Time will tell if they can organise it from across the Atlantic. I am not holding my breath but I am optimistic.

That's it folks back to posting normally next week.

Cheers Clint

Fantastic Voyage 2 (More "tank" pics)

As not all the pics came out on the last post here are the rest. Mostly I have 3 of each type, but only one flier and 4 of this one. Last pic shows all the types together for a comparison of size. Colour wise I have three projects for these bug vehicles. Moon boards, Tim's desert boards in 15mm, and the fantastic voyage game.  Colours should suit all three terrains if possible, but undecided just yet, either beetle like or worm like is my current thoughts. But any suggestions welcome. Always happy to have constructive feedback.

We can play on the moon boards as soon as there's a spare slot at the club. which should be 6 weeks time if Kev, Tim and Relfie desire (or anyone else). Up to you guys I know you'll let me know.

Fantastic Voyage idea

All these pics are of my latest eBay win. They were painted by the previous owner, but I WILL be repainting them. (but not straight away).  Down the club on Sunday Tim was talking about a few projects he plans this year. I won't give anything away about the direction we wants to take FRONTLINE WARGAMING in, but one of the game plans was to start some 15mm science fiction games using "Tomorrows War" by Ambush alley games. He's sent for the rules (I think it was his son's pester power if I'm honest), the same rules I got for Crimbo but have yet to read as it happens. So I did a quick eBay search and some of these were for sale. 22 in all, although I don't like 2 of the figures so will not be using them. I know I'm fussy, yeah live with it. These are by Brigade Games, another local firm and they are intended for 15mm Science fiction wargames. The figure however is a GZG 28mm. The joy of using things which are obviously alien is that they don't have a scale. Which means these can be any size. I have toyed with the idea of doing a "Fantastic Voyage" game before and am currently discussing the idea on the Crooked Dice Forum. Not many people have posted any feedback about it yet, I think they are waiting to see how it goes and what I do with it. Which is pretty wise really as I might fall flat on my face.

I am confident the guys down the club will go for the idea, as it's something completely different. I have never seen it done at a show either so if it all goes well it might be quite eye catching. Time will tell. All the pictures are is to show the range of "vehicles" that I managed to secure at an absolute bargain price. In one way I feel sorry that I was the only bidder and yet I am very happy to have gotten them at the opening bid. His loss (sorry mate) and my gain.  Anyway back to the game idea. If you have not seen "Fantastic Voyage"the basic idea is that a very delicate operation has to be carried out INSIDE the living body of a man. The Film stars and a submarine are shrunk and injected into his body where they have to move along the arteries and capillaries to reach the location that they have to perform the operation. I see the game being focused on two teams (players) one team must carry out the operation, the other team must stop the operation from being a success. And all these "tanks" being the bodies natural defences, antibodies if you will. Which will endeavour to winder both teams as they "protect" their host body from coming to harm. Well that's the basic idea. More on this project should it get carried further.

Up the shed the moon board is drying nicely and should go to paint over the weekend. The coast board is also coming along well. I have added the 3 inches to bring it to full height and if dry tomorrow I'll do the basic carving on the cliffs. And then that's the boring bit done with The exciting bit is next where I swear a lot make a mess and panic.

Due to babysitting duties I have painted nothing more than last time.

Anyway that's it for today,

Early again

Again posting early because I think I'll have my nephew again tomorrow and therefore will not get a chance to write anything then.

Having had such a good game at the club on Sunday my thoughts have naturally drifted onto all things colonial. I mentioned the diversity of club members a few days ago, but when you enjoy a game you want to play and collect it. Tim has enough 15mm Sudan stuff, or will have when he gets some more Ansar for the Mahdi's forces as I felt he was a little shy in the last game. Graham is also thinking of getting some stuff for this period, he mentioned Egyptian forces. Egyptians would be a nice compliment as they can be used to both fight against or alley with the British depending upon the dateline. (Although they would not alley with the Mahdi!) So IF I decide to join in I might be best selecting another part of the world for the colonial period. The obvious one is Zulus, but the thought of painting a horde of 15mm Zulus quite frankly leaves me COLD! Afghan tribesmen or Maoris also fails to inspire me. Which could leave the Boxers if I wanted a colourful army and I like the idea but then I think of all the terrain and the painting and cost and I quickly go off the idea. There is a colonial project I started about 20 years ago however which I could rejuvenate. I have a start for it and it would or at least could be a good fun game to play.... 7th Cavalry and Indians, (Sioux or Apache). It's not the obvious choice for colonials as we tend to pigeon hole colonial mostly to British or at least European Expansionism. Our Friends across the pond did not need to set sail and invade another country they only "needed" to invade their own! (No offence meant to any American readers).

Well the snow has gone so I have managed to do some work up the shed, now it needs to dry again. The Moon board has had another coat of "Muck" and now has to dry. This should be it's last coat of muck and then two coats of paint and glue to bring it to the same stage as the others.

The coastline board has dried (mostly) so I have added a few more layers which brings it 3 inches short of planned height. I have carved the cliffs a little so there are no massive overl-hangs. I am a little behind on these two projects now, but not disastrously behind just yet.

Little has been finished due to babysitting duties. Currently on the paint table is a unit of 10mm dwarfs, A matchbox converted car,  and a platoon of 15mm US infantry for PBI. Yes I know it's a random mixture but these are all ongoing projects. I am looking forward to sharing them with you as I get them done. AT present I am doing a bit on all of them when time allows.

Sudan Club Game. Battle Report

I am blogging early today, because I will be looking after my nephew a few times this week including tomorrow so I might not get time then. I hope to post again on Wednesday.
So it was club day today at the club, I was going to play Warmaster with Kev and Relfie but as Relfie did not think he could get the day of work I arranged a game with Tim. Playing a game with Tim is always good all his figures are well painted and based. He provides all the scenery and makes no fuss about all the work he has done.  The basic scenario was to relive a small detachment of Scots troops on the outskirts of a town. Tim Made and cast the town and is available from FRONTLINE WARGAMING so have a look. Thorn bushes had been cut down to create a defence position which we had to reach all the way across 6 foot of 15mm desert.
The Relief column is in the second picture and Graham and myself shared the responsibility of command. We used the rules "A Good Dusting" mostly as a playtest for the club as not one of us had used them before. My forces and a cavalry troop are to the bottom of the picture while Graham had two additional units not seen in the pic. The Ansar were to appear in "Random" locations at "random" times so all we had to do was advance to the objective at the pace of ox carts on the open desert, which is to say walking pace. So off we set with flank and rear guard units set out in place in a very organised manner.
The Mardi did not want to play straight of the bat and only sent a small probing unit of spears and sword into a rocky outcrop on the far right flank. Obviously I was not going to let that go unchallenged so I countered with a unit of infantry in open order to flush them out while supporting with my cavalry.
The column slowly advanced.
The following turn a unit of Camalry arrived on the British left and two units of Ansar with rifles decided to test the defending Scots in their defence position. Graham sent his cavalry against the camels and melee was entered. The melee was indecisive and a group of "Fuzzy Wuzzies"turned up in a box canyon previously unobserved by our Colonial powers. By now my fire power had halved the spear on the rough hill so I let loose the cavalry in an impetuous charge up hill on a rocky slope. They consequently bounced, but did not rout.
Johnny Foreigner then bought a smooth bore cannon up behind me. Just not cricket old boy not cricket at all. The shooting Madi at the Scotch defence forced the lowlanders back and made them regroup.
The Cavalry/camalry melee was still pretty much at a stand still each taking  equal casualties and thus a swirly mass of mounted troops hacking at each other. The Fuzzies tried to join the melee but the khaki line of foot poured a withering fire into them. It was decisive enough to give them a pluck test which made the halt before contact.
On my flank (the right) I pulled the cavalry out of the charge and turned them on the smooth bore. They would stop short and have to suffer cannon shot but if they survived they would fall on the gun and sweep it from the board. And If they did not survive It would buy me enough time to bring some infantry into place to bring Martini Henry's revenge on the cannon crew. Harsh but If I was going to loose any unit the cavalry were my choice. As luck (in the form of bad dice rolls) would have it they took very minimal casualties and ploughed into the Gun. I felt good. I finally got rid of those pesky spearmen with my rifle line my cavalry had survived assured destruction and the column was creeping up the board. More Ansar arrived, foot units on the left and a native horse unit near the smooth bore threatening to scupper my cavalry. Graham was not getting it all his own way. His cavalry finally broke leaving a gap for the Camalry to dash through and reach the baggage train. However Graham had anticipated and swung his rear guard unit into position to "muller" the Native Cavalry and his baggage train guard unit to a position to counter the Camalry IF they did close with the baggage train.
My Infantry by this stage had moved far enough up the table to take a couple of rocky hills (uncontested) and bring supporting fire for the Sottish contingent who were slowly getting whittled down. Platoon fire from these heights drove the locals back into the town and away from the Scottish defenders.
At this stage it was clear that we would make it through with sufficient force to relieve the defenders. My Cavalry scattered the gun crew. and Grahams infantry had overlapping fields of fire and could enfilade any attacking force that came close.

Conclusion: A good game, rules we shall use again, nice scenery and figures. Great people to game with all in all a very worthwhile experience.  It is clear the Tim needs more Mardist forces, they did well but needed more numbers to really challenge the British. Arriving piece meal ment they had no concentration and allowed me and Graham to focus on them when the arrived and we thus tended to outnumber them when it mattered most. (in terms of fire power if not always numbers).

I am very pleased with the post man today. He dropped off a single eBay buy of this Dwarf Flame cannon blista. SO I'll give you a free guess as to what will be coming up on the painting table this week. Having looked at the figures closer than a simple eBay picture will allow I think they will fit quite nicely with the Kallistra ones I already have, which is going to save me a lot of time and effort. No need to muck about getting different crew figures and and all that malarkey! I still have a few packs of Kallistra to paint and base, before I can claim anything like enough to Field an army, But as I got this one cheap I feel I can indulge myself and get it done before next weekend. I have got some dwarf warriors on the table as we speak and I am sure I can get those done by then as well.

I hope to have a bit of a CULL of old figures soon, either at shows or on that famous on line auction site. I have been putting it off both through a reluctance to part with them and a natural level of apathy. However the time has come. I realised the time had come when I wanted to play a game of PBI (Poor Bloody Infantry by Peter Pig). the problem being that I don't have the figures for this project painted just yet. "I Know" I thought "I can use my Flames of war figures!" There in my mind problem solved. So I dragged the Flames box from the top of the cupboard and had a rummage. I went straight to the US Paratroop Company. I looked at the figures and I saw that the troops carrying BARs and .30 cals were for the most part mixed in with other figures and thus could not be told apart as I would need to for PBI. I looked at them, I starred at them, I thought long and Hard and put them back on top of the cupboard and took down the US infantry company which was still in its shrink wrap. The problem was that I could not face re-baseing them. I would rather start afresh than re base figures. Yes I know It is sheer lunacy but it's the way I'm hard-wired. Ahh you are thinking that's ok he can still play Flames now so that's ok nothing wrong with that. But there's a problem, and you knew there would be. You just knew it. The problem is no one else at the Rainham club plays Flames. The two people who did play have left the club for pastures new and I wish them luck with all that, but It means I have stuff I'll never get to use now. I could hang on hoping that a new player will turn up and already have an army that's compatible, but seriously what are the chances? So I think they will be part of a Cull, a spring Clean, an exodus, a slimming down if you will. One of the big problems with the club members and to some extent all wargamers is that we are all individuals. If I say at the Rainham club let's have a WW2 Game it would generally be accepted as a good idea (Unless I said we're playtesting for Phil and then I'd have a rather different response). And that's great happy smiley faces and lots of people saying I have "I have a _____ army " and "I have a ----- Army" but no two armies will be compatible with any other either in scale, theatre or time period. Let alone be based to the same set of rules. So at Rainham for the most part you need to do two armies, which can be a lot of work. Ok Ok that's a slight exaggeration as Pete and Rob can both field North African armies (Pete Axis and Rob British), in the same scale and using the same rules. But as a generalisation everyone has something different.

On the whole though I would not change the clubs attitude I am learning to embrace it. Finally coming to the Point Graham already has 2 PBI armies, (Russian and German). So creating an alternative one of my own seems like a good idea. The Obvious choice would be to build something which could be complement these armies so of course I have chosen Yanks!

Yes I am as bad as everyone else!