WSS Black powder.

Tims Bavarian Troops advancing up the table.

Yesterday at the club I had a game of "Black Powder" with Tim and Against Peter and Scott. It was mostly an exercise in learning the rules and reinforcing how we thought they worked as none of us had played it very much at all. Tim gave me his French while he took the Bavarians while Scott and Peter controlled the British. Peter played opposite me while Tim played against Scott. As we were playing with 15mm figures we played in CM and not inches.

My remaining Brigade advance and secure the ridge,

Not quite the first dice roll of the game, but within my first command phase I rolled a double 6 and had a command blunder and about 1/2 my force left the table backing off my table edge. They were reluctant to return but did arrive back on turn 4, just in the nick of time!

My troops secure the ridge and take up position to fight against the 3 British Brigades which were approaching. But there is a big hole in the French Centre because half my infantry had already left the table due to my command blunder.

Seeing this hole Peter send 1 of his three brigades as far forward as he can. They ran out of steam a mere 18cm from my table edge. But still left two of His Brigades to assault the ridge I was holding.



Tim on the left tries to plug the gap left by my
 brigade which had retreated off of the table.

Just in time I manage to get my wandering away Brigade back on the table. My two guns were able to pepper Peters Brigade with canister and yet failed to cause any casualties. But my infantry were now here so I could (and did) withdraw the guns.

Peters Brigade close to my table edge.

Knowing the English with their "Volley Fire" could out shoot me. I could either stand still and take it like a man or risk it and charge. I charged and Peter got off his closing fire and my guys went in. It was carnage for both sides. I did come off slightly better than I deserved (all praise the dice gods) and managed to take Peters centre to Battalions out. While he managed to beat me on the wings.  As luck would have it I passed more morale checks than Sir Peter and his Brigade was at half strength and with one battalion falling back.

I also had lost half my Brigade, but my guys had two artillery pieces to aid them and the threat of Tims cavalry taking them in the Flank. Unfortunately Tim Could not motivate his cavalry and rather than closing at the gallop they just milled about looked threatening.



After the battle at the base line.

Meanwhile Back on the ridge. 2 English Brigades took on my single Brigade.  Due to being out numbered and bad initiative making me move first when I really needed to move second and get out of the line of Fire. Peter was able to concentrate fire power on one of my Battalions. This hurt as he was able to enfilade them and thus get double dice. Well they survived one round fairly well taking casualties but refusing to give ground. I was able to concentrate on one of Peters Battalions and force them to retreat with a bad morale check. I was also able to move my horse all the way to Peters base line. Scot sent his horse towards them and turned his guns to face them before they swept into the rear elements of the British army.

The Battle on the ridge.

I was able to turn my brigade on the ridge to stop being enfiladed but Peter was able to charge home and the badly mauled Battalion disintegrated.  Woops!

My Horse Hit the retreating British of Peter who were able to form square, but it did them no good what so ever and my horse rolled a stupidly large number of melee dice and got nothing less than a 3. So his retreating battalion evaporated and my horse were able to do a sweeping advance into another battalions rear. While this worked it was not quite as effective. But they did their job and those infantry also gave up the fight.



Tim Gets involved.

Scot got his cavalry to charge and with a failed command roll mine could not move at all and as a consequence were  both hit in the flank. And that was the end of my horse!

Peter and myself had fought each other to a standstill neither of us was in a position to press any very marginal victories and we had run out of time.

Meanwhile at the other end of the battle field Tim and Scott had not really engaged in the fight. One officer was never able to get control of his spare brigade and as  such they pretty much failed to move all game. While the British were reluctant to push forward and even get in shooting range. But in the last turn they did get involved and Tim was able to charge the British line. It was messy and very bloody and did seem to end in a draw with each force loosing 1/2 a brigade due to morale failures.



Goodies from Tim.

And this is where we ran out of time and needed to pack away. At this stage it was so even it really was anyones game. But at least we learnt a few more of the rules. And a good time was had by all.

I also managed to pick up a few more goodies for the Arab Revolt game, from Tim who owns IT miniatures. Expect them painted next week. Yes two more camels but only 2 more in this batch to replace the two I used for Laurence and the Banner bearer.


Thanks for reading. Hope you had a great weekend and got a shed load of painting done. All the best Clint





10mm Mahdists

 This was my last submission For Curt's Painting challenge. Click on the Wild Bunch Painting challenge picture top right to take you there. 33 figures on 11 bases. Each 20x20mm base has two figures with rifles as the rules I am basing these for differentiates between Shooting and melee stands so I could not just mix and match them as I originally thought to do.






I will be submitting a few more from this force later today. But this time the first of the melee stands. It would be wrong to say too much about them just yet and too be honest not very many in the first batch. There will be more than one submission of the melee bases though. As you can never have enough tribesmen.

Yes I will do a group shot towards the end. As someone always asks for one.

Elsewhere on the painting table I have started the Hero/Heroes bonus round submission as well as the Casualties Bonus round submission. I hope to turn them both into Vignettes but that will depend on time.

I am also working on some more camel riders. Yes more and hope to pick up the last bits and bobs for the Arab Revolt game on Sunday at the club. So the end is in sight.

And the last picture just because I found it funny. No real reason just an excuse to look at a few tidy bottoms!

All the best Take care and hope to see you soon.

Cheers Clint

Infected

Sorry guys. That seems to be the best place to start. I have picked up a spam email. So if you receive an email from me with no chatter and a link. PLEASE do not open the link just bin the email. It is only advertising weight loss and let's be honest. Eat less and move more. There that covers it all you need to know about loosing weight in one sentence and no link involved.

 Wargames wise I have re-based these to fit my Mahdists You have seen them before on different bases, so don't think they are new, just a re-base. I have submitted some more Pendraken 10mm Mahdist to the painting challenge but they only went on to Curt's blog yesterday so I should be able to show them on Saturday.

As I have mentioned the challenge I should say I have now exceeded my points target so will need to set a new one. As this is my first time in the challenge I have no idea of what I can get done. So I am open to suggestions of points totals. I know I will not be entering all the bonus rounds..... Last stand... is one round I will not be intending to enter. I will also need to make two terrain boards which will obviously eat into my time.


Anyway that's it for today sorry If you have received any spam email from me. Next planned post is Saturday. All the best take care Clint

My Laurence of Arabia.

 Well that is the vehicle bonus round submitted. If you have yet to check it out please do and vote if you wish. But be aware there is a lot of really good stuff and it will take you more than a few moments, Link .

AS you can see I have continued working on the Arab revolt project. In the top picture you can see some Arab troops in Uniform. This clearly shows the official flag of the Arab revolt. Varieties of which are still used today for various Arab nations. The design itself was created by the English no doubt with consultation from locals. I am in no way an expert or the flags of the Arab revolt but I recreated this flag purely as it was easier to paint than the tribal standards which I could not find a very good image to copy. I hope that it will make a little talking point in the game set up as I  only anticipate 1 standard bearer. And makes a clear indication of where Laurence would be on the battle field.

I have also done both a foot and mounted Laurence. The foot Laurence is a standard Arab officer from IT miniatures. Just painted in a similar manner to Peter O'Toole costume in the film. I differed from the gold headband and used black as at several times in the film a black band was used and contrasts well against the light colours of his headdress.

I had to do a very minor conversion on the Mounted version. Just a hand swap. I wanted to show Laurence with a revolver as I know that is how he went into battle. Additionally there was an incident where he accidently shot his own camel in the head while riding into war. It was not until after the battle that it was discovered that he had pulled the trigger that killed the beast but in game turns that is definitely a fumble!

As the bonus round was for a vehicle I did take the opportunity to paint a Rolls Royce Armoured Car. Larry did have his own Armoured car which he named. This one is slightly out of date being a 1928 Pattern Armoured Car, but the differences are really undecearnable at this scale partly because the external changes are minimal but also because they became modified when in the field. Thus only serious "Rivet Counters" would even think to look for the differences. Where us as wargamers would just accept it as it is. I do not intend to use it in the Game for Broadside, but it is always nice to have the option.

Other than this I have sent some more figures of to Curt's Painting challenge so with luck thy should be on here in a couple of days. And Work in progress includes some more Camel mounted troops and my Hero bonus round entry. I know it is most unlike me to not leave it for the last minute. The Hero Bonus will not have any Camels and that is a promise.

Anyway thanks for looking today. Comments are always welcome and now I need to get on with some painting. So all the best, take care and talk soon. Cheers Clint

Catch up!

 Well a week has gone by without an AAR about the game at the club. And to be honest I have forgotten a lot of the details so this will be very sketchy.

Graham and myself played a game of "Square Bashing" the Peter Pig WW1 rules. As Graham has Russian Civil War figures we both took random opposing armies. Which gave me a "Red Army Shock Assault Force". I usually am happier in defence then attack but decided to "go for it" in the pregame. The result of the pregame was that I was 30 points ahead of Graham which meant he had to roll 8 d6 for each unit to determine if that unit would arrive and if so in what condition. The result was that most of his troops would begin the game off table.

The first few turns saw me take 1 of the 4 objectives in the game and prepare to assault two more objectives. My off table artillery brought down a barrage and stopped any White army reinforcements arriving until turn 3. Alas both my assaults failed and Graham inflicted heavy casualties on both forces as well as pushing my elite troops back to my base line.

I did manage to regroup and my cavalry forced Grahams command from the table. They then attacked a single mortar. Two Cavalry battalions and somehow the mortar won and the cavalry had to retreat. But they passed all there morale checks and were able to join in asulting  the second objective along with my now returned elite unit and a militia unit from the flank. This time the dice favoured me and Grahams objective was beaten. He could not retreat due to my cavalry and thus took more and more damage instead.

I did manage to take the third objective but for the loss of my 2 armoured cars. But Graham was able to bring his reinforcements up and reinforce objective no:2. And then we ran out of time.

Overall a really good game and a Minor victory for me, but with very heavy casualties. From my point of view the off table artillery was the decisive factor in my Victory as they disrupted Grahams efforts to reinforce and even sent a unit from the battle field due to failed morale checks. They were also able to keep objective no:2 Pinned down and having to take morale almost every other turn. Grahams Armoured Train did very little in real terms but I was worried about it's potency so did not even attempt to attack the 4th Objective. This was more my reluctance that it's effectiveness in combat. And as the first time we had used the train was an interesting addition to the game.

Additionally I picked up a few goodies from Tim (Frontline Wargaming and IT miniatures) Some of which are already painted and Pictures sent off to Curt and the painting Challenge which shall no doubt be put on his web site later today.
Not going into details at this stage but you should be able to work out what I have submitted based on the picture and knowing that it is the Vehicle Bonus round.

As of last night I have a War of Spanish Sucession game planed for next Sunday so I am putting the 10mm Ansar to one side yet again to do some lace covered frilly figures in 15mm. So expect them in the paining challenge this week.

Thanks for reading and more in a couple of days. Take care and have some fun.

All the best Clint

More 10mm Sams. and BROADSIDE news,

 My latest additions to Curt's Analogue Painting Challenge netted me an additional 24 points. Comprising of 12 mounted Samurai with three to a base. These are clearly destined to become part of my RED Samurai army. 3 figures to a base and 4 bases to a unit.

Not really a whole lot more to say about them really except perhaps that unlike my previous samurai they have all been painted in the same red armour. Historically there are several commanders who dressed there armies in Red so the uniform appearance is a little different for me with Samurai rank figures as opposed to ashigaru which always look better in a uniform.

BROADSIDE NEWS: The Swallows Leisure Centre, the venue for the last two years has at short notice decided that we cannot use one of the halls (the Wyvern Hall). They have not provided us with an alternative so the show this year will need to fit in a single hall. As we have already paid for the advertising in magazines and on flyers it is too late this year to seek an alternative venue. Consequently space will be tight, about 70% of what we have had for the last two years. One of the ways we are getting round this issue is that we are having to limit the size of the display games to 4'x6'. We have sent out emails to all the clubs concerned and informed them of this new situation and have been very pleasantly surprised with both the promptness of their replies and their understanding. Needless to say it is not ideal for any concerned, but we are getting there. It is possible that we shall look at alternative venues for next year. Chatham Dockyard has been suggested but at present nothing has been decided.

Well that is it for today. Thanks for reading  this blog and hope you found something of interest here.

All the best Clint

Challenge Fee

 As I do not think I will get a chance to blog tomorrow, I thought  I would add this in today. So I will hope to do the next one on Saturday.

I thought I should show you the figure I have already posted to Curt as part of the Wild Bunch Painting Challenge. This is a single heroic 28mm Reaper Chronoscape figure. It was given to me (unpainted) by Anne O'Leary when I won a prize on her blog. And as it makes a suitable "Wild Bunch" figure it was painted and dispatched to the wilds of Canada.

Obviously armed with two hefty revolvers the figure is quite intimidating. He has a confident no nonsense stance and a bit of a Tom Selleck Moustache. His Grey trousers have a yellow stripe up each leg and with the two large revolvers he gives the appearance (I hope) od an ex Confederate Cavalry officer. Curt will no doubt make up his own back story should he ever use the figure in anger. And I hope he does.

I chose a simple undecorated brown coat for the chap, maybe it is leather or suede but defiantly something hard wearing. With his gun-belt and holster fastened over the top to allow fast draws should he need. There are cartridges in the gun belt so he can reload if in a long gunbattle or at the end when all his enemies are dead. (Or maybe he is and then no need to reload at all, leave that to someone else, I know I would).

I went very simple on the base just 2 dry grass tufts and a flatish stone. Actually it's not a stone at all it is part of a broken plant pot repainted. Broken plant pots make great base ornaments as they are far easier to break to the correct size than actual stones and they have a strata across them much finer than normal rocks. The base was textured with building sand and painted the same colours and tones at the rock. All in all very quick and simple to do and yet not overdone I hope as I do want to keep the focus on the figure.


Today has been a much better painting day. I have submitted the 10mm Samurai to Curt already so I hope to be able to show them soon.

I have resprayed the 10mm Sudan figures. And Be based my few stands of British to marry up size wise.

15mm Half tracks nope not touched them today.....

20mm I have re-painted my vehicle and attached it to a base and started painting a foot command figure for it.

20mm Arab Revolt. I have finished the two very minor conversions . Just an arm swap and a hand swap, but they are now primed and ready to start paining. One will eventually become Larry of the Sands, or Laurence of Arabia if you prefer a more formal title.

So all in all far more productive then yesterday and I hope to get Larry of the Sands ready and submitted over the weekend as well. I make no Guarantees at this stage as tomorrow is pretty much written of with Counselling and Doctors and the like. But all in one day so I can get it out of the way all in one go. I should get a few hours on Friday and with that be able to get the vehicle the vehicle commander and Laurence all finished.

Thank you for looking today and I hope you get a chance to pop by again soon. I might do the AAR of the game I played at the club next time, but it is fading into my memory as I type this so I will just have to wait and see.

All the best folks Cheers Clint

Got to have bad painting days ...Painting Challenge WIP (3)

To appreciate good ones! Well the picture really does sum it up for me today. Had a great day at the club on Sunday could not get my act together at all yesterday and today all that I am working at is going to slime. Ahh well sometimes it just happens. No big mistakes but lots of little ones.

20mm Vehicle for the Painting challenge bonus round is looking rougher than barbwire underpants I only got it on Sunday and Now I am going to have to strip it back and start again..... Not that I am a perfectionist but it is seriously rough at the moment and needs to be started again.

15mm PBI Halftracks now they are slowly getting there but I realise just how much extra work I need to do on them so they are not going to be ready this week. But at least the base green looks OK at this stage.

10mm The Sudan/Marhdist figures ran out of white primer while spraying these, I'll get some more tomorrow. Which means that only one side of them is primed. 10mm Samurai two of the figures have come off the base and pulled all the filler/texture with them and it then crumbled. They can and will be salvaged but it has put them back a day.

So all in all nothing to share today as everything I attempt is going wrong. Like I said nothing major but lots of little things. Stiull I am enjoying all the little cock ups today and I hope I can get them all out of the way in one go and then just crack on tomorrow!

I think I shall leave it for the rest of the day and go and do something constructive, like watching "Day of the Triffids" on DVD.

Thanks for popping by, all the best and feel free to laugh at me! (I am laughing at myself and not taking it seriously! Just one of those days.)

Cheers Clint

More Camel Riders.

I know you like to see a picture with the whole force and when I get to that stage I will show one. Today however I am not there. I will be picking up the next batch of figures for the planned Arab revolt game this afternoon. So until I get them prepped and painted here are the next 12, which doubles my force to 24 at the moment.

The Figures are  IT miniatures (link) and 20mm or 1/72nd scale. So for recreating the filmic (if not totally accurate) attack on the port of Aquaba they will very much look the part. There is a variety of different camel colours all with different saddle blankets and differently clothed Arabs. As I have only found 5 different poses of Arabs and 2 different Camel the diversity of clothing and blankets helps to give an irregular feel to the troops. Historically many of the riders would have been clad in the same colours but as a game I think it works better this way as I do not want them to look like a uniformed army.  We can see that more recently in the Arab spring a couple of years ago now. Many of the people involved were wearing jeans or tracksuit trousers and yet they all look individual and not in uniform. I daresay in the future someone will wargame the Arab Spring and in doing so will arrive at the same conclusion with regard to clothing as I have for the Arab Revolt of 1916-1918. But with "Technicals" as opposed to Camels!

So other than these I have started work on a few other things for Curt's painting Challenge. On Monday I shall start on my entry for the "Vehicle" Bonus round. I have had a couple of false starts on this already and decided yesterday to go in a slightly different direction. As such I have already started five 15mm US Halftracks for PBI. These will get done soon, but seem to be taking an age to do as well as needing 3 coats (so far) of paint. I am applying them thinly so as to preserve as much surface detail as possible.

I also have another unit of 10mm Samurai started and am re-basing my 10mm British colonials. There are only 10 bases of these so it will not take long, but as I am not painting anything they will not be submitted to the painting challenge.


Anyway folks have a great Sunday. I am off to the Club in a couple of hours so I should get an AAR out in the next few days. So until then stay warm, don't kick the dog and take care of yourselves. All the best Clint

More Villains.

 Well here are the things that I started for the Villains bonus round, but did not finish in time. No excuses I dithered and procrastinated and just did not get them done in time. So I finished them and sent the Pictures to Curt anyway a day after. Points wise It has made no difference as I did get the bonus points from the challenge for the Mexican Bandits. But these extra Villains are now finished so no point in not sharing them here.

First off we have an Artizan Designs Mexican Bandit. From the same pack as the other two (Banditos II). As the sculptor had given the figure frayed trousers I decided that he was not the most successful of bandits so gave him simple hat and trousers. I wanted to try out a new Green paint and for no other reason that became his shirt colour. I think he probably stole it from some where. The light blue scarf around his neck is mostly to inject a spot of brightness. I did consider a red scarf but went for the blue as it lifts the figure somewhat.


 Of all three bandits he really was the most fun to paint and has turned out to be my favourite by far. I am sure he will get some table top action in the near future.

Scanning down you will also notice the very last (at least for now) of my Wild West Zombies. These with the others have been very simple to paint. Just base colours and a couple of dark washes. In this case a heavy grey was and a dark brown was. Then just pick out a few details and they are all done.  Honestly they really have been that simple. I was surprised at the fact that people seemed to prefer them to the bandit, as they really were just so easy to paint and that I spent more time on the Mexican than all 4 of those put together. Still it is not my place to decide what others like or dislike and I was happy with each and every comment.

The analogue-hobbies painting challenge has been a fantastic incentive to get things done. It has meant I have spent at least an hour each and every day (except strangely Yesterday) painting prepping and basing figures. The results from all over the globe are impressive so I would recommend checking it regularly as there are several new posts each day.

That is where I will leave it today, thanks for popping by and I hope to see you again soon.

All the best Clint

Villains Bonus round

 Well the second bonus round has come and gone on the painting challenge. With some breath taking entries. which can be found HERE LINK. If you have not seen them I would seriously check them out and feel free to vote if you so choose.

I struggled to come up with a good Villain and did have a few option. I finally settled on two Mexican Bandits. I have since sent pics to Curt of 5 more Villains and they should be seen here soon. Well with luck.

Anyway these two miscreants are by Artizan from the Banditos II pack which I bought at Broadside in June last year.

I have the intention of passing the figure on the right to Fran ( Angry Lurker) as he was the first of the 600 club to break the target. I have yet to clear 400 points so jolly well done to him. But it does make me wonder if he should have set himself a higher target. Only time will tell as maybe he will do no more painting until the end of the challenge now.

Anyway 2 more in the wild west box and on to the next part of painting challenge. The next bonus round is of course "Vehicles" and Long time members will know that I have prepped some 15mm vehicles already for my PBI armies.

Ok that's it for today. Thanks for looking/reading at this and more again soon. I say soon as I am reliant on Curt putting things on his blog and then have to wait at least 24 hours. But I intend to blog again on Friday or Saturday at the very latest. So until then, take care and look after yourself.

All the best Clint

10mm Sudan Camel riders

 These 10mm Pendraken Camel Riders were submitted as part of the painting challenge and as such if you are following the challenge you will have already seen them. They have the same base frontage as they Fuzzy Wuzzy's I showed  2 days ago. One figure is on a round base. This one will act as a scout in "Patrols In the Sudan" and thus will be sent to discover any hidden forces in different terrain.  It allowed me to use all 15 figures in a pack with none spare.

The flag was the result of a quick Google search and then reduced in size and printed off. I think it adds to the troop quite dramatically.

I will be doing a load more 10mm Colonial troops over the coming months as I have really gotten into this project. That said I have submitted some 28mm figures for the latest painting round so I will be showing those next time. Elsewhere on the painting table I have the next batch of 20mm Arab revolt figures some 10mm Mounted Samurai and 7 more 28mm figures, some of which might be for one of the other bonus rounds.

The next bonus round is "vehicles" and I have some US 1/2 Tracks in 15mm prepped for this round and wanted for my PBI Games.

That's it for today, Thanks for popping by. Hope you found something of interest and with luck I should see you in a couple of day. Take care, have fun and look after those close to you.

All the best Clint