Priming the Guard
Work and other projects have kept me busy but today I finally had a chance to begin some painting of the Napoleonic Middle Imperial Guard from Victrix I purchased a while ago.
Priming in the cold winter here in NH can be tricky without a garage or a home made spray booth. On the last army I painted, I experimented with Gesso and had wonderful results.
Golden Brand Gesso
Freshly Primed with Gesso
I did a quick search online and found this great article from ‘A League of Ordinary Gentleman‘ which sums up everything better than I ever could on using it.
I will put out there that the Gesso goes on thick and looks like you made a horrible mistake, but as it dries, it shrinks to fill in the details. I’ll post a photo in the end of it ‘dry’ so you can see the results. The Golden brand Gesso I found at our local A.C. Moore. It applied very well and seemingly pretty even. There are a couple of spots that I can see that may be a bit thin but as I touch up the primer after the assembly, I will make sure to hit these areas.
While I’m priming I am also going to do up some British infantry for Bolt Action which have been sitting for some time now as well.
On another side note, this is the first time that I am going to prime the sprue, assemble, and then I am sure add a bit more primer. I will let you all know how it goes from there.
In the meantime however, I am beginning to look at the clock and am realizing that I am running short on time for this project to get done by Huzzah in May. I think I should buy a canon or two in the meantime.
[Note: as of the end of the evening I was only able to get two of the body sprues completed – it does take longer to paint, but to me it seems worth the extra wait.]
The Mustering of a Grand Armeè
Starting a Napoleonic Army
I have been interested for some time in Napoleonic war-gaming and finally the time has come to jump in and have a go at it.
Where to start?
The first step was to talk with some local players and what better place to do this than Adler Hobbies on the last Saturday of the Month for their ‘Nappy Saturday’ event. After attending a couple of these now, I have gathered some valuable advise.
Battle of Waterloo 1815
Action… Bolt Action…
Well as you can see it had been some time. I have been incredibly busy over the last year with work (in a good way,) and I have made a little time out of my week to start up some miniatures again.
Since last I wrote, Warlord Games released a great 25mm game of World War Two combat called Bolt Action which seems to be picking up some steam here in the neighborhood.
The sprue diagram for the Late War British
I have played a couple of small battles now (500 pts,) using some proxy models and though we’ve done a couple of things wrong we’re learning along the way.
To compliment my Flames of War army, I am again going to go with a Canadian force. I contemplated going a different direction but the force book for the Brittish Commonwealth has just been released and they allow you to choose a National Characteristic for your army… I.e. special rule. And those that know me know that I love being able to customize things like that.
The game itself has a few new concepts in it compaired to games I’ve played in the past. The major being the unit activation. Bolt Action moved away from the I go / You go that most other games I can think of use. Instead, you put a token in a cup / bag for each unit in the game and you randomly draw to see who can activate next.
The reverse side if the diagram
At first I wasn’t too sure as I have played a few other wargames like this, mostly hex and chit, but Sharpe Practice does something similar now that I think of it. But those games also add in an end of turn counter so it is possible that you might get a turn where nothing in your army activates. Not in Bolt Action though. This keeps both players on the edge of their seats awaiting the next order. Yes, you might get a run of units but that just means inevitably your opponent will as well.
This game doesn’t have too many charts and its less likeley to break down a Brit rifle vs a German one. The weapons are pretty generic, as are the troops and vehicles when you get down to it. I like this. For me I have not liked having to know not only my army book, but then my opponents slew of unique rules as well (which my ignorance burned me in a tournament once as I came to find out that a rule an opponent used was not really there…)
I digress though…
The models that they produce look pretty decent and there are a whole slew of other manufactueres out there making models too which I may look at for my command and special models.
All and all I think this game is going to be a great bump back into the hobby. There is another game out there called Saga… A Viking / Dark Ages skirmish game I am looking at but next up… I am going to try to sell a couple of my old 40k armies to make room for some Canadians.
– Dan-O
Wow – What can I say. The folks at Huzzah, the Maine Historical Wargamers Association, and all of the people that ran games
out did themselves again this year. If your a fan of war gaming you should really go to this event. Chris and I attended friday and saturday this year and I would guess that next year we’ll do the whole weekend.
~ Basic Impetus Tourney – Friday
As many of you know that follow this blog (all 2 of you?) I spent a good deal of time over the last month building an army for the Basic Impetus tournament and it was Friday morning first thing that the mighty army of Eumenes (one of Alexander’s successors after his death,) took the field. Chris brought a 5th century Pictish army to the field.
The Tournament was a three round affair and though we got started a little later than planned, the games began to roll by quick.
My First game was against a SARGONID ASSYRIAN 680-609 BC army. This army has a unit of chariots, some cavalry, and some descent infantry and missile troops… and a couple of flanking skirmishers. I rolled as the defender so I set up as I had planned, Heavy Cavalry to the Left Flank, Medium on the right. My Phalanx’s of Pikemen in the center, screened by the skirmishers, and the medium infantry in reserve. Solid plan I thought. To my left a gentle hill and to my right, closer to the Assyrians, a steep hill (we ruled it impassible.) From my left to right, my opponent had set up his skirmishers, missile troops, guards, and chariots. To my extreme right he set his cavalry in route around the impassible terrain in an attempt to flank me.
The First Moves
The game started out good as both sides advanced. I sent my medium cavalry out to meet his soon to be flanking horses. As we closed in on range he began toopen fire with missile weapons and soon brought disorder throughout my ranks. Soon my Skirmishers fled, my heavy cavalry suffered great losses and did not move forward (I wanted to try to remove the disorder marker,) but my medium cavalry took a great stand against his cavalry and held them to a choke point where he could not advance further.
There used to be some Cavalry to the left - but at least the Chariots are avoiding the Pikes.
By the time all of my pikemen reached his lines they were weak and disordered and in no time, the army fled the battle to return again next round. I had managed to not take out a single unit of my enemy so my score was now a whopping – Zero.
As the second game rolled around, the 6th player arrived so we now had a third table playing albeit a game behind. Chris’s picts had lost their grueling battle at the river so as it turns out we fought each other next.
Chri's Picts vs. The Persians - I managed not to get any photos of our battle
I swapped sides of the table I had just lost on, but now there was a pesky lump of trees added to my right flank (which had been added between rounds.) I had the honor of setting up first yet again and now that I had a much smaller area to do so in I placed my phalanx of pikes in the center as before with the skirmishers screening yet again. My Heavy cavalry however set up to head left and move to flank around the impassible terrain such as my last opponent tried while the medium set up in reserve hoping to punch out once the infantry pushed past the tree-line. Chris as the attacker sent everything in at me in a reverse V. As the game began and I struggled to get out of my deployment area, the Picts came barreling down upon me fast. It was a short and bloody battle as his troops converged upon mine. Neither Cavalry could get in position – Big mistake and soon I was crushed. In this battle however I was able to score some casualties and brought my new total to – 24 Points.
So… a bit frustrated I examined the flaws in my tactics as we took a break for lunch in hope to re-group the troops and pull out a win against my next, and last opponent – the Romans. (Late Imperial I believe…)
Some of the great miniatures at the tourney
Well, with plan in hand we returned from the King of Burgers and lo and behold, my third opponent had left for home unexpected to him (I do hope that everything is alright.) Unfortunately for him, this was the same gentlemen who had shown up late so he only was able to play one game. I was offered a game against Chris’s first opponent who was now set to battle the other gentleman, and tourney organizer who also had only one game under his belt however I declined… after all, the smack talk between these two guys on the Maine Wargammers Forums now needed to be settled once, and for all. A third game would have been fun, but the gauntlet had been thrown weeks ago and I was not going to get in the way (and, I had hoped to learn something more about the tactics of Basic Impetus.)
More great miniatures
So in the end, Chris ended up winning his third game and placed Second overall missing first by only a few points. [When I get the final results, I’ll post them below in the comments.]
We both came away with some 1st Corps Miniatures donated by Dadi & Piombo [The publishers of Impetus] which will be a good start to a 28mm army for next year.
So next post in a couple of days will be a recap of the rest of the Huzzah but the highlights include Field of Glory Renaissance, Ambush Alley, Black Powder and Jai Hai (A Home Brew.)
And lastly for Chris… By 1st Corps Miniatures –
Elephant by 1st Corps
~ Dan-O
See More photos of the tournament and Huzzah here, at my photobucket.
Off to Huzzah!
Well the bags are packed, the army is painted, and the alarm is all set. I will try to spend some time when we get back to jot down some of the good times at Huzzah.
Hope to see you there,
~ Dan-O
An update from the paining bench…
Well it is late for me so I’ll add some photos tomorrow but as of now for The Basic Impetus, Army of Eumenes
2 units of pikemen fully painted (save their pike tips (5 min,)) 24 figures – Done.
1 Unit of Light Infantry – 8 Figs – Done
1 Unit of Skirmishers with Slings – 4 Figs – Done
1 Unit of Skirmishers with Bows – 4 Figs – Done
2 Units of Pikemen – 24 Figs – Basecoated, ready to wash, add pike tips – In Progress (20 min to go)
Which leaves A unit each of Heavy and Light Cavalry – 12 figs on horses (Of which the horses are primed.)
oh… and I have to base it all but I really do think I can finish it all in time for the weekend…. er… Friday.
~ Dan-O
Basic Impetus and The army of Eumenes
The (unpainted) Army of Eumenes
So as some of you know, Chris and I are entering into the Basic Impetus Ancients tournament at Huzzah in Portland Maine this year and in doing so… well, we both need an army. Oh, and this tournament is three weeks away so I better get cracking on painting, basing and most importantly… Learning the game.
I have chosen (at the moment,) to go with the Army of Eumenes from Volume 3. One of the main reasons is the pikemen. Very few armies in the game (in this time period – I don’t know about later in life,) have this many pikemen. The thought and look of them poking up and out is one thing that got me interested in wargames in the first place. I am contemplating one other list, but I will look into that after a live playtest or two.
EUMENES (VDT=18/9)
Nr Type M VBU I VD Notes 1 CP(*) 10 6 4 3 Xystophoroi 1 CM 10 4 1 2 1 FP(*) 5 5 1 3 Argyraspids – pikes 3 FP 5 4 1 2 Phalangites – pikes 1 FL 8 4 1 2 2 S 8 2 0 1 short bow B or sling Special rule. Argyraspids can form Large Units with other Phalangites.
Chris incidentally is making a Pict army and perhaps sometime down the road I’ll have to create a Roman army as an adversary. Read more…
Sturmovik and Havoc
This weekend I was able to put the finishing touches on the planes for the game (except for finishing off the bases and a varnish.) The two submarines are close to finished (or about as close as I am going to get.)
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- 1/700 Zeros
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- 1/700 Zero
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- 1/700 Scale Wildcats
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- 1/700 Scale F4F Wildcat
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- 1/700 I-370 and I-68 Subs
Next up are all of the support pieces – Turning templates, fire arcs, measuring sticks, etc.
~ Dan-O
Havoc and I
– or is it Havoc and Me? –
Well, I officially submitted my request to run a game at Havoc this year (Apr 1-3, 2011). It’s for a WW2 Air game I’ve mentioned before called Sturmovik Commander.
The Rookies Earn Their Wings
“Listen up Rookies. Do you see that captured Japanese ship over there? It’s our job to look over it and make sure nothing happens but first, get up on the flight deck and I want you all to show me what you’ve got!” – This ‘What If’ introduction to the game Sturmovik Commander (http://www.sturmovik-commander.com/) will take the pilots through the ropes as they learn to maneuver and shoot the F4F Wildcat somewhere over the Pacific, but what could possibly happen when their training ends?
So yeah – there we are. I’ve requested Saturday Night partly cause there’s not much going on that I see on the schedule, and partly cause there’s a couple of things I want to play in the other time slots.
The To Do list – Playtest, Paint, Playtest, build, Playtest, and hope that the event gets chosen… and Playtest among a few other things.
~ Dan-O
Red Stick Slashers 