Shinnies (Reasons to be Cheerful)

Just a VERY quick blog post. I have received some more shinnies this lunch time. They are for a project I am working quietly on which I hope it will come to fruition during the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

A very meagre order I realise, but one that has made me very happy.  Firstly the main reason for sending for the figures is that I wanted some stuff for the painting Challenge. Yes I do have enough already so I am not looking to take your unpainted on as well. Well I will if the price is right!!!

So what is in the pack and why did I get it? On the left are the 3 Musketeers while on the right are some animals!! One of the bonus rounds is a film/TV/Song/book tie in. And to be honest the Musketeers MAY get used for that IF my other plan falls through. That is not my main plan however. As a club we have played the "EnGarde!" rules a couple of times and I want these for that. No not to represent the actual musketeers, although again they might if my main plan falls apart!

But they will also make some rather splendid "Border Reivers!" And that is the plan. Border Reivers. I have even purchased a book on the subject and am VERY slowly reading it but reading and me are not always best friends. I am dyslexic, for a start but that is only part of the issue.

Anyway the figures are by Warbases ( LINK ) and cost £8.00 for all 4. (plus postage of course).
They are nicely sculpted and cast with very little cleaning up required. At the BOTTOM of the post is a pic of the cast from the TV series and although he faces are a little rounder than I would have hoped. I really do mean a little and nothing a decent paint job will not correct. And I can kinda "guess" the colours now!

The Animals (someone will always ask) are for the Border reivers and are sheep, goats and chickens. All the kinds of livestock one might hope a Border reiver might be able to carry off. Yes I do Have Highland Cattle as well but those were not in the parcel but purchased from Col Bill at a show.  And the Cattle will I hope be painted during the AHPC  as well.

Anyway that is it for today and I shall try to post again soon. Until then take care and have some fun as you deserve it!

Revenge!

My Forces. 3 units of infantry and one of artillery.
Graham had 3 units of infantry and one of cavalry
Bob also had 3 units of infantry and one of cavalry (with lances)

What an ominous post title.  At the club we played The Men Who Would Be Kings rules in a Sudan setting. The British against the Mahdists. Bob Graham and myself playing the British and Tim, Peter and Matt playing the Locals.



Tim's Troops started in the village and were the only
 Mhardist troops on the table at the start of the game.

Our mission was to destroy the village buildings, we had a set number of turns in which to accomplish the destruction. I had the only artillery, but both Bob And Graham both had cavalry. The artillery could destroy the buildings in the village from a distance, but even so it would take me 6 turns to get the village even at extreme range. Or 8 turns of movement if I was to get the every building in range of the gun. Officers all had random traits and leadership values as befitted their race.




Bloody FLASH!
Peters troops arrive at the very first turn.
Mats arrive on the second.

All the british try to advance as swiftly as they are able
but the cannon only moves 4 inches a turn so
I lag behind somewhat.

The cavalry push me from the hill
but not with sufficient force to break me
Worse for peter in hi follow up assault
my infantry actually win and push him back.

Having played the rules before a few amendments were made but even so we knew that if the British were not almost forced to move the game became very one sided as the British would just form square (we had seen this in previous colonial games) and calmly just kill anything that came within range.


Peter (opposite me) moves his troops up using as much blocking terrain as possible.
Matt also moves up but has far less blocking terrain.

Able to hide his cavalry in a valley out of shot
Peter unleashes a charge up hill against my
central foot unit.
 

As soon as I could fire all 3 units opened up on the cavalry.
Not killing them outright but really hurting them and bringing them to about 1/4
of starting strength,

However this cavalry screen was enough to let Peter move his Fuzzy Wuzzies
up and into contact.
There is only so much a unit can do.
Without breking they are pushed back down the hill for a second time.
 

  

Peter was the last Mhadist leader to survive
but with three British rifle units able to fire on them
it was only a matter of time before
all his troops were also killed



While the whole game was enjoyable the British firepower was utterly devastating and it did not lead to a terrible well balanced game.
But with 4 sets of rules among 6 players any issues were VERY quickly resolved.
Overall a very enjoyable day.

Meanwhile Bob has lost his cavalry and nearly lost one infantry unit
and Graham has killed all of Tim's artillery crew (His target of priority)
Broken through the centre and his cavalry were (and later his infantry were also)
pulling the buildings down

Group shot and last 3 (for now)

Well as "promised" here are the latest Burpas.

 Just 3 extras finished and they will be returned to Matt on Sunday.

The figures are of course Foundry 28mm and have been painted by me to represent cavalry of the North West Frontier. While they are thought to be of the Victorian period they could be earlier, First Anglo Afghan war or much later up to 1930's back of beyond. I am sure they could be used later than that as well given the right game and scenario. They would work in Indiana Jones games so up to WW2, beyond that you may be pushing credibility a little but that is what we as wargamers do at times.


 We  can see these three are all sword armed with the middle one probably being a leader due to the amount of armour being worn. And that is why I gave him a black shield as I knew I was not going to give very many a black shield so it is just another way to try to make him stand out. It may or may not work, only time will tell.

 The Last 3 pictures show these 10 all together. hard to get them all in focus at one time so you may need to use your imagination somewhat. I would hope that these and the previous painted figures might get an outing reasonably soon as a unit. Perhaps in the men who would be kings. But as for when I cannot say as the are Matts figures and not mine.

Thanks for looking to day and a big thanks to the good kind hearted bloggers who have joined with me to create a group submission for the AHPC this year.

A sunny day today so I will be out in the garden planting Onions later on.

All the best Clint

Frozen Planet vehicle colour Trial and AHPC

Well not VERY much finished at present. No Joe no group shots of Burpa Cavalry. Instead I have been trying colours for the 6mm Sci Fi Idea I have. These trucks are by Brigade games (Local to me about 12 miles away). They are actually South African Confederation  "Hippo" Trucks. 3 Flat beds and one Office body. Nice little 2 piece castings, the basic chassis and the type of body or flat bed. So pretty basic and easy to assemble and not mush cleaning up either.

So no fuss no muss a few trucks at 6mm for sci fi gaming. 15mm Sci Fi Players will be delighted to know that the flatbed is also available in that scale. I did want to paint them all white and then try different camo schemes out on them Well that was the plan!

However as always happens the plan just did not work. I painted the first flatbed (No 1 in the bottom picture yellow to start! Yes I know yellow in a snowy setting would stand out, but I was thinking it might be a commercial vehicle and as such standing out in snow might be a good idea. I saw the results and that plan quickly failed and knowing army trucks are painted in camouflage re-painted it white. I know I know foolish mistake to paint it yellow to start with.

So starting with white (again) I just settled on "squiggly" blue patches/lines. I will admit I did like the finished look so much I painted the other 3 the same way. My plan to make them all different and then decide went straight out of the window as I hit on the right (Right for me) colour combination almost immediately. So I have 8 more to do but they can wait a few weeks until the AHPC starts as they will be quick easy points to get the ball rolling.

AHPC

Curt has made the announcement for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge again this year and I have of course signed up. Here is a link Click |ME! that should take you straight there. The theme of this year is "Camaraderie" and the entry fee will be a figure (or figures) painted by 2 or more participants. Usually when it comes to painting I am a BILLY NO MATES type of guy! I have no issue with that. But the rules state I should team up. Luckily for me I was contacted by another painter whose work I do strongly admire and he suggested we become a team. So My Partner in crime is MR LEE. (No NOT Angry Lurker, nor Big Lee). I have sent a couple of emails out to others to see if they want to join us but as yet no reply from them. So I suspect they have plans of their own. So I wish them well and good luck. But IF you are taking part in the AHPC this year and want to join a team leave a comment or drop me an eail and I will let you know.

OK Back to the Burpas now. Have a good day everyone and take care of those close to you.
All the best Clint

Yes another 3 finished.

yes 3 more Burpa Cavalry are now finished. As usual these are Foundry North West Frontier Tribesmen. And as mentioned last time they are all mounted and will go with the others when finished. Colours are all the colours I know can be easily dyed so should be about right.

So only 3 more to do next and I can relax for a while..... who am I kidding. Let me just say omly 3 more to finish in this batch which Matt will get back on Sunday.

That's about all the waffle I have for today. Having looked at the page views

 I know Burpas are not terribly popular, so Next time some 6mm Frozen Planet samples finished.

Until next time take care have fun and try not to get too wet if in the UK> All the best Clint

4 More Burpa Cavalry.

It has been a slow week. Partly from lack of motivation and partly due to the weather and partly as I have been inundated with relatives. Do not get me wrong I do like my relatives but I also like my own space and not a totally ridged time table.

Still whine over.

I have just finished another 4 figures for Matt. yes 4 more Burpa cavalry mostly in bright and colourful clothes. yes there is one in grey as well but generally in bright colours. There are another 6 cavalry started so more to come next week no doubt.  Only 4today though. And yes I will do a pick of them all at the end.

They have a suitably ragtag collection of weapons from knives to black powder firearms. The Guy in the yellow has a knife and a shield for melee and a firearm for range work. The one in the green has a Firearm as well as a knife and 2 swords, why he would need 2 swords and a knife I have no idea yet he does. The leader (in the orange) is sword and shield armed and the guy in grey carries a spear and shield as well as a sword in a scabbard. So all in all quite a well armed bunch no doubt looking to cause mayhem to the British troops in the area.

I believe all the figures to be foundry and 28mm in size and they should all fit together with Matts other cavalry which is all good fun as I know Matt does not like cavalry in wargames. By which I mean he does like to shoot at them BUT does not like to control them.

Frozen Planet Update.

No this idea has not gone away, in fact it is doing from strength to strength. below is a pack of Brigade Hippo South African confederation vehicles. they are all trucks 2 have office bodies, 2 have tanker bodies and the rest are "Flatbeds" As you can see in the very last picture.

 Other than thinking and sorting these figures out I have not as yet done much with this idea. I have determined that one force will be the South African Confederation JUST because I like the vehicles and for no other reason. The other force I am open to ideas on though but I am leaning towards the Chinese Democratic Socialist Union. But at this stage it is just too early to tell. I have let my sister know so there is a small (minuscule) chance she will buy some for my xmass gift. To be honest with you though I am not holding my breathe at all!

Thanks for reading today and enjoy the rest of the weekend. All the best Clint

QKD-4G Quckdraw and a thought or two.

You are right I am not painting much this week. But here at least is another Battletech mech the 60 ton Heavy, Quick draw.  As heavy mechs go this is a fast mech with jump capability. But in order to get the speed and the jumps it does sacrifice armour and to some extent heavy weapons. I must admit I have never played against or piloted one of these beasts however here are my thoughts on it. Yes it is fast and that is in my opinion its best feature as it should allow it to always get shots on target and to some extent stay out of trouble.  But the jumps and the speed do come at a cost. And this time the cost is in armour. For a heavy mech it is quite lightly armoured and the medium lasers also mean it is lacking a knockout punch. While it does have a long range missile system (LRM 10) with only 12 shots in it's holster for this it will want to close quickly. Within 9 hexes it has a short range missile system, thet you want to fire at every opportunity because you have 25 shots close in. But the main weapons are 4 medium lasers. Medium lasers are an OK weapon but they only do 5 points of damage with each hit and as each hit will probably hit different areas of an opponent they will most likely get soaked up by armour. At least in the early part of any game. Additionally fast moves and jumping and medium lasers can lead to this mech overheating. Which is the consequence of having a heavy mech that can jump. We all like to pull off "Death From Above" jump attacks on enemy mechs and this does have the speed and jump ability able to do that but that tactic is fraught with danger. So unless you have a player who is a good pilot and knows how to carry out attacks like that I really would not recommend this mech.

A change of direction perhaps (but only a little change)

So that is my giant robot fix for today. But I am not yet finished with sci fi! I have been a little down in the dumps of late and lacking motivation. But I did speak to a neighbour yesterday and they did cheer me up. And that got me thinking.  I do like 1/300th scale, and I do like Science fiction games. yet in all my life I have never collected a 6mm sci fi army! What is more I also Know Tony in Brigade Models (LINK) and see no reason that should not be a place to start and look for a game.
I was going to have a quick poll on the blog (I do enjoy them) asking what kind of world I should set the game in. However I have already decided that a snow/ice world would suit me best. Why a snow planet? Well firstly there are no trees, secondly hills and cliffs and other snow terrain is easy to build. Oh yes it is! Additionally I rarely see games set on snow planets so I am seriously now looking at this as an idea. I see it as being a game I can transport easily (1 or 2 A4 box files.) be fairly cheap and a good stand by game at the club. Rules wise (someone always asks) I am looking at "Future War Commander" as I already have those rules and they should give the kind of game I am thinking of. And just to put the icing on the cake the local games shop actually stocks (some but not all) Brigade Models so I can if I choose pick up a pack every now and again.

Thanks for reading the waffle I will have some historical figures on the blog soon. I hope to finish some Burpas by Sunday at the VERY latest.

All the very best Clint.



Bad weekend, but no disasters.

Well the title sums it all up reasonably well.  I Have struggled with any form of motivation at all recently. I have not as yet finished the Klintanistan turns yet. (They will be done soon I hope, about 1/2 way through them). And yesterday at the club we played "EnGarde" again with two players who did not know the rules or have forces or well you get the idea. As in the club it is now customary to drop out of a game and reff if another player does not know the rules or have a force I did just that. So I cannot give an AAR as I just did not take many photos as I thought I was going to play right up till about 2pm and by then the game was about half way through and as I thought I was going to play had not taken any pictures.

So I settled for a brief description of the forces involved.


My troops
All old Games Workshop
Empire.
That I was using as Border Reivers
on this occasion
Had of course I been playing
So Used instead by Colin.
The force was
2 rank 1 croossbowmen,
2 rank 2 Halberders
2 rank 2 Sword and buckler men
And one rank 5 Chieftain.
total was 99 points.

Matt using ECW troops
Lots of Militia with Pike and matchlock or musket.
 

Tim using the Pirates list
And yes he did have a "Swivel Gun"
With both a captain and a petty officer

Graham using Tims Figures
Using a Cardinals guard list.
Some  Guards, some Ruffians and one Captain

We all as it happened settled for different army lists in a "Hollywood" type game.
With Matt and Colin against Tim and Graham.

I cannot give a better report as I was busy refing the game and not playing and it was at times like herding cats. The rules are very simple and Graham picked them up fast but Colin was stil unsure even by the end.

The Result would have been a Matt victory if we went on longer as Colin (his ally was all dead) Tim was all dead, and Graham was mostly dead. And Matt was about have dead troops. But Graham was not in a position to take the objective and Matt was. So a MARGINAL Victory to Mat. Well done Matt.

A loyt of painting

Mostly I have been painting in my spare time and not progressing the Klintanistan game. But It is slowly progressing and I hope to finish 2 more players turns this evening.... that is of course until the football comes on and then sorry I will be glued to the TV.  However until the kick off here are a few more figures to entertain you.

Yes more 28mm Foundry Sikhs above is a group shot of all the ones painted this week. 2 Flag bearers as well as officers (both European and native officers) non commissioned officers and enlisted men. I have split them into smaller groups so you can see them more clearly and not just a bunch of kahki clad figures.

The Flags are from a famous Irish regiment and not Indian at all. But a lack of Indian flags are produced commercially so I just went with what looked good. For the historical perfectionists among you I do apologise and do indeed look forward to you sending me replacements. What you are not going to send replacements well in that case hard luck I am not changing them.

As part of the Empire they are entitled to carry the Union Flag (only called a Jack when it is flown at see).  Two of the officers wear sheep skin coats to keep the cold out in the chilly night of the high mountain passes, all the other troops are in uniform Which in this period is Khaki. I am told when the army swapped from red uniforms to khaki  they dye was sent as a powder in tins and the instructions were not totally clear so many different shades were produced due to the local water and the amount of dye that was added. So as far as I am concerned any Kharki is right for this period.  If you know better I would be happy to hear from you.

Well that is the painting done for this week now I need to get typing.

All the best folks and I should manage a post either Sunday night or Monday morning.

Have a good weekend everyone.
Bye from Clint

A world afalme... well nearly.

Well as mentioned some painted figures. No not what you were expected. These are 20mm Russian Civil War figures by IT miniatures. The Donkey comes from the WW1 range. I think French, but could be British or German. Anyway we were talking about some interwar period games at the club and I had these in the painting queue and so I finally took the plunge and got them painted. They are not brilliant but they are at least painted and look about right for some "20mm BACK OF BEYOND" games which will most likely never happen but a squad ad a supply mule finished anyway.

Thanks for looking, more again soon.

All the best Cheerio
Clint

Secrety Santa Update.

Yes I have news! Firstly my "Secret Santa" gift has arrived. So who ever sent it was very swift at the dispatch. If that was you many thanks I found it quite exciting and NOT the usual mail I get through the door, that tends to be fast food leaflets and occasionally a leaflet from a man offering gardening services or a builder trying to drum up work. So who ever sent it Please know that it has arrived, and I do not know what it is, but I suspect it to be figures of one kind or another. So who ever you are you have put a smile on my usually grumpy face!

I had best get my act together and send my SS out as well.

All the best folks and I can now start looking forward to Crimbo!

I will try to post again tomorrow with some painted figures.

 Cheerio.... Clint

Turn 3 Klintanistan

First some game news. From this moment on I will be processing turns in the order they arrive.

This means several things. Firstly the international arms market does have a very finite level of resources. And they will be dealt with on a first come first served manner.

Secondly attacks (should there be any ) will also be dealt with in this order, so if you plan any hostile actions. Say for example you want to blow up another players assests perhaps a mine. If that player has already had his turn processed they will still get the money from the territory. This also applies to military attacks so if you want to attack an enemy BEFORE they attack you the turn reaching me first will strike first.

BUT...

And it is a "big but and I can not lie!"

Yes this was a real tank of the period!
And yes it is on a two wheeled trailer.

If you want to spy on another player you will get MORE information if the turn was later  than the person you want to spy on. As I will have not written their turn when I process yours if their turn comes in after your turn.

So from now on it is up to the players to try to balance and second guess what other players might, or might not do!

• I hope this makes it easier for me.
• makes each player plan their turns a little more as the time element is now crucial. As players determine if they want international aid more than information about an opponent.

Rumours and Gossip.

• The GIMP is the saviour of the nation.
• Secret Police are watching your leader.
• Italian contacts are unreliable in the game.
• The Order has the biggest military machine
• There really are NO Dodos honest they are desert eagles flying to the central highlands.
• Millistan is holding a great horse race the winner will be crowned as a prince.
• there is a Royal wedding being planned and no sign of any baby bumps either!
• At least 2 deep water ports have now been started. And more are planned.
• What on earth is Scottie Service?
• Millistan is giving land to soldiers free.
• DI7 is a real thing.
• The above is a lie!
• Franonia is recruiting
• There are now units of female soldiers so if you want any typing done....
• No you did not see a Yeti!
• An assassination is planned on a significant leader of another country.
• The workers hate the Order.
• Lock up your daughters
• There is not and never has been any spies. They are just the 5th column
• Some countries really want to buy more aircraft but no one is selling any.
• America has allied with a country. Don't mess with the Yanks.
• Maulisia is a hell hole do not go their they are likely to eat dodos or so I have heard.
• Canukistan is concentrating on building schools in preference to making an better army.
• The worm is slowly turning.
• At least 2 countries are close to a revolt by the.... Gulp ssshh don't say any more the secret police are everywhere.

That's all folks until nest time !