28mm Ancient Gaul Cavalry

This is a battle group of 28mm Gaul cavalry for my Carthiginian army for our upcoming first Punic War campaign. They are based for Field of Glory rules. The figures are all Old Glory figures from their cavalry and command packs. A lot of gamers put their Gauls in very bright clothing. I just don't feel it looks right that way. On campaign such clothes just wouldn't keep their colors or hold up. Instead I've chosen what I believe are more period appropriate colors. The shields are hand painted. I'm not thrilled with them, but it's the best I can do free hand. Some of the shirts and pants are striped or plaid. I chose to do enough to get the impression of the correct cloths being used, but also allowed for some replacement clothing during a long campaign made from the cloths of the conquered. Again I feel this is a good historical choice....it's also easier on the brush strokes.

I've been posting a lot of my re-basing work on Ebay-purchased Napoleonic lead. These ancients were not purchased painted. I painted them up myself. Next up on the painting table is a large horde of Numidian skirmishers.

28mm Austrian Napoleonic Jagers

This is the last of my units purchased in a recent buying spree on Ebay. These Austrian Jagers were purchased from Dragon Painting Services and re-based for Napoleon's Rules of War. These will be one of the primary regiments in my advanced Austrian division. The other infantry unit will be Grenzers which I plan to paint, or if I can scrape up enough 'pin money' I may have them contract painted.  Next up in the blog will be some Ancients units that I have painted myself. Several are finished and just waiting on basing to hit the blog.

28mm 'German' Austrian Napoleonic Fusiliers (2)

Another unit of Napoleonic German Austrian Fusiliers. These also were purchased from ppsbay and re-based for Napoleon's Rules of War. Both of these came painted with the grey regimental facings, collars and cuffs shown on the right-hand unit. I left this one with grey facings to match one of the other battalions that I have allowing these two to form a regiment. There's a chance in the future I may get another and re-paint it's facings green to match the other battalion I re-painted the facings on.

Falklands War Play Test

Last night we got together to help my friend Mark D. play test a Falklands War game he's planning to run next week at our club's monthly game night. Mark is able to use a meeting room at his work evenings and I must say it's one of the nicest gaming spaces I've played in: well lit, plenty of room and comfy leather chairs!

Mark's terrain is very nice and I spend the evening picking his brain about his techniques, including his homemade hex terrain that's very much like Geo-Hex.

Below left you can see the board layout and game in progress as I arrived late. Below right, the Argentinian commanders, Charlie, Dave (aka Olaf) and Ralph.

The scenario calls for the British to attack an entrenched Argentinian hillside from two angles: frontally and with a small flank force. Arriving late I got the reinforcements, including the flanking force. Waiting for me on the flank was a Panhard AML armored car. My squad ambushed it and fired it's one and only LAW rocket at it but missed horribly. Between a mountain of angry Argentinians and an armored car (proverbial rock and a hard place) I decided a close assault of the armored car was my best option. The outcome is shown below:

Fortunately for me my last squad member was able to get a grenade to detonate in a way that disabled the car's gunnery systems....then he ran for the beaches. The rest of the game I spent cautiously advancing my other squad from reserve, but they didn't see much action before we called it for the night. It was a very enjoyable evening with friends and I hope Mark got the constructive input he needed to fine tune his game. 

28mm 'Hungarian' Austrian Napoleonic Fusiliers (2)

The second of two Hungarian units for my Austrian army. These are more figures purchased from ebay merchant ppsbay_com and re-based for Charlie's rules, Napoleon's Rules of War. Together these two battalions will make up a small regiment. I could add a third later for a large Regiment. I may also paint up three additional figures to match to make a regiment of three battalions of three stands each.

28mm Austrian Napoleonic Grenadiers (2)

This is the second unit of 28mm Austrian grenadiers that I've purchased from one of my new favorite figure sellers on ebay, ppsbay_com. This will complete my Grenadier regiment for my friend Charlie's homebrew rules, Napoleon's Rules of War.

I purchased these figures based singly. I've re-based them using my normal basing process that I've recently documented.

Below is a photo of both battalions which could make up a small regiment.

Carthaginian Chariots

When Mike thought of doing an earlier campaign in Italy and the Mediterranean he originally thought of doing the Italian wars prior to the first Punic War. During the discussion of this I purchased these figures to use with my existing army to start an early Carthaginian army. Later in the discussion we brought in additional players and a First Punic War campaign fit the lead we all had better. Still I had these figures and they were partially painted, so they'll be part of the campaign representing the last gasping breath of chariot warfare in Carthage.....i.e. I bought them and painted them so we're using them! They'll replace one of my elephant battle groups in my army.

These figures are from SHQ Miniatures. I think they'll match up favorably to the Old Glory figures in the rest of my army just fine. I'm counting these as 32 figures in my 28mm painting tally: 16 horses + 12 crewmen + 4 chariots. I'm definitely not of sound enough mental fortitude to paint an entire chariot army. This one battle group almost broke my will. Too much painting for a semi-effective combat unit in my opinion.

Huzzah! 2013

This weekend was the Huzzah! 2013 Wargaming Convention. I was only able to attend Friday night and Saturday morning and afternoon sessions due to other commitments. Still I had a great time. This was the first year for the convention in a new hotel conference center and I have to say the new venue is a great improvement. There was a lot more room, on site 'quick food' catering and separate rooms for board games, large on-floor games and also a Field of Glory ancients tournament. Although the convention spanned many areas, the majority of the action centered around the main ballroom where most of the games, the vendors and both WWII tournaments (Flames of War and Bolt Action) were held. Below is a video panorama of the ballroom on Friday evening. Please excuse the poor quality, my still camera suffers in video quality particularly in low light.

My good friend Gordon from Adler Hobby was there as both a vendor and also as the organizer of both of the aforementioned WWII tournaments. For my part I donated some prize support in the form of the sportsman prizes and donated my laser time to manufacture the trophies. Gordon did a nice job finding a variety of interesting 54mm figures which he painted to look like sculptures to decorate the award plaques.

Friday evening I pre-registered for a "paint and take" session hosted by Eric Jones of Hotspur Historicals. Eric is a fantastic painter and had a great session planned where we all followed his instructions to learn how to paint using his 'big battalions' method. This wasn't like any other speed painting techniques I've seen before. I learned a bunch of great tips: spot washing, how to efficiently black line small detail items like musket barrel straps and buttons, and other great tips like which colors to use with a wash so you get the correct final colors you desire. Even though I was painting in a dark room and not at my usual work station, Eric's techniques produced a great looking figure in a little more than two hours including instruction. I could probably reproduce these techniques on a half dozen figures in two hours at home. Twenty minutes per figure for something looking this nice is pretty awesome - especially for ACW Zouaves with lace details!

I've been painting figures for almost 30 years and I always benefit from learning how other people paint. Even if you're an experienced painter I highly recommend you participate in such seminars yourself. Also holding such a seminar at your club or with friends is a GREAT way for everyone to improve. A huge thanks to Eric for sharing his knowledge and for hosting such a great session.

Saturday during the mid-day session I played in a Carnage & Glory game hosted by Peter Lowitt. The game was the battle of Crysler's Farm 1813 - part of the war of 1812. This scenario showed how unique Carnage & Glory is. The battle featured a 4:1 advantage in numbers for the American army but the battle ended in a British victory. Fatigue from crossing battlefield obstacles and traversing muddy fields took a toll on the Americans in the battle and C&G models that well enough that as a scenario designer, Peter was allowed to use a historical order of battle and still host a competetive game. In the end this time the Americans lost horribly, but Peter has run this scenario several other times where the Americans have been able to achieve victory.  Thanks for the fun game Peter!

Also at Peter's table, but not part of the game, was a 28mm Monitor he built for anther game hosted at the convention by a friend of his. I was impressed at the workmanship of this scratch built gaming model.

2nd Punic War Campaign Moves Spawn the Battle of Locsium

Monday evening Charlie, Mike and I got together to do the board game moves to generate the next battle for our ongoing Second Punic War campaign. Although Scipio Africanus arrived onto the scene recently he spent most of his time doing some much needed housekeeping in mainland Italy. By the time he got to Africa, Hannibal jumped Marcellus' army in Locsium, Western Numidia.  Marcellus is fresh off of a victory against Hannibal in Thevestis. One more victory and we might be calling him Marcellus Africanus.

In addition to each of their full 800-point Field of Glory armies each commander drew from locally controlled provinces additional forces. Hannibal drew on Carthaginian locals to raise a unit of Elephants and a unit of heavy cavalry. Marcellus raised three units of Numidian skirmishers and a unit of Numidian cavalry from the provinces of Eastern and Western Numidia. This should be another large game. We hope to settle it early in June after the Huzzah! convention, May club game night and a couple other games previously scheduled. When it comes to gaming we're currently experiencing an embarrassment of riches.

28mm Austrian Napoleonic Officers

This is another purchase from eBay for my 28mm Napoleonic Austrian force for my friend Charlie's new homebrew rules. These were purchased from a vendor that is new to me,  26wargamelady2011. The figures are very well painted and the packaging was good as well. You need to be careful when paying for figures from this vendor that multiple figure orders combine shipping properly. Mine did not but when contacted, the vendor was very responsive. I asked for extra figures instead of a refund and got what I asked for. Hard to complain with that type of service.

These are the figures that I used for my basing tutorial post last week in case anyone wants to see the final product from that post.