Dispatches From The Bunker #33 Now Out

See my other Blog Wall Advantage on the sidebar for the full review.

Looks another great issue with 4 scenarios for ASL in this ASL only zine. Subscribe for only $16 ($20 outside the US) for a four issue subscription, issues every 6 months.

Blast From The Past

In the post this morning I received a surprise and a trip down memory lane all rolled into one. This was in the form of a Postal Games Zine. Something I used to have a lot of back in the day. Seemsa guy called Colin Bruce has started a zine called Fury of the Northmen (FuN) which plans to run various games. So far we have Chess and Britannia running (one of each) with lists open for Chess, Diplomacy and Risk. This was issue 3 so it is very early days and was sent out as a speculative issue possibly from the mailing list for the Convention Scene zine Queens Advertiser. This issue is just 6 pages long and beyond the introduction come editorial the current game of Britannia has 3 pages dedicated to it with a short article on people born in an area depicted on a province within the Diplomacy game and within the time frame of a normal game. Rather a nice touch and runs about a full page. Contact information and game lists along with the deadline all fill up the back page.

The zine looks crisp and due to it's early stage is rather thin but I expect this to be popular as for one I really miss the old Dip zines of the early 90's. Subscriptions are £15 for 10 issues which given it's present size I feel is rather steep though lets face it well affordable to most. I would have preferred to see a minimum sub fee with a note that early issues were £1 and once the thickness of the zine builds up the cost will rise. Being an old zine editor I feel the cost of running a zine should not be born by the editor and whilst I am tempted I feel I can't justify taking on a sub just at the moment.

Anyone who has interest in this zine and want contact details let me know and I will send you Colin's address. I think it may well be a good investment if you want to play these games.

Lancer Love

On a post below I mentioned I painted and based 5 Regiments of Lancers in 24 hours. So I thought I had better show the results. I know I can paint better if I paint slower but the plan is to move over to Baccus if they are easier to paint detail onto (a major problem with these Irregular models).

Most of the paints are Vallejo and the flock is a mix of two suppliers, the brown a wargames supplier whilst the Green mix is a model railway supplier that is sold by many figure suppliers now. I have put a 5p coin (same size as a dime I think) to show scale for anyone unfamiliar with 6mm figures.

Overall I am happy with the flocking. Three of the regiments have red (well scarlet and crimson too) facings whilst the others have blue and as before mentioned orange. £1.80 for a Vallejo tub and I needed just 8 dots, now I need to find another use for German Orange.

More effort went into these guys than the Hussars I have already done. Red edging on the saddle cloths for one. Pennants on the lance tips in red and white for another. The figures are based on Warbases as per a previous post. Only one more Lancer regiment wore the green coat, the rest all have dark blue but only one of these have I found listed as being at Borodino. Plenty of Polish to consider once I have the French well represented.

Derby in 10 Days!!

The World Wargames Championships is in just ten days and will be my first major Con in far to many years. Went to The Other Partisan a few weeks ago but was not really going to buy much and just came away with a set of rules. Derby is different, I have pre-ordered a bunch of Chariot Miniatures and Baccus. This means I wont be looking at spending much more when I am there but that's no bother. High on my list will be meeting up with fellow wargamers who I am sure will be there (having already agreed to meet a ASL and figure gaming bud Andy). I am also taking a couple of show virgins in the guise of James "The Machine" my nephew who is no stranger to games cons but this is his first figure con. Having turned 18 the beers are on him LOL. The other is a mates son Tom who has yet to confirm but he has played 40K in the past and may well be ready to see what else is out there.

Other items on my wish list is spend some quality time watching a few games and get a feel for the various rules used and hopfully score a few answers to a few questions.

Wargaming Neutral.

Well I have been on fire, I have just got to finish basing the last of the French Infantry and flock them then all I have left to do is most of the limbers and all of the command bases and lastly 6 regiments of Cavalry. That means I can walk up to the Baccus stand head held high and buy a big bag of lead. The 15mm Ancients have ground to a halt with just 16 figures left to paint but that is because I need to get a game of Naps in before Derby and the clocks ticking. Once I am up and running I will swap back to 15mm, I will need to as I have rather a lot to pick up.

Been in the Loft again!!!

This time to remove everything out in time for this Friday as we are having the loft insulated. This has got Cath pawing through the old German boards games and me looking at the Magic cards, I can see us running through them. Once the loft is done it's down with some boards, up with shelves and more games brought from my mothers. Wait for the classic game AAR's LOL

Bases Arrive!!

I received an e-mail a few days ago informing me that my order had been dispatched from Warbases, which I think is a rather nice touch. I had already been waiting impatiently as per above so it was good to know it had been dispatched and that I could have one day off waiting by the letter box.

So fast forward two days and I am back in position (think less cute than a dog but higher on the dribbling and you got me). Finally he arrives with the goods. A rather imposing and none too light package which is very neatly wrapped. Rather exciting to say all it is, is bits of MDF but such is my life these days. Off with the paper covering and now a sealed box that did not withstand my efforts very long but provides excellent storage of them for the short period they await deployment. Overall my imprecation is rather positive, well very positive to be honest. Well packaged and a printed sticky address label so it has the lowest chance of getting lost in the post. So due props to the guys at Warbases. However I have one thing above all that tends to send my vision red and that's postage cost. Too many times have I suffered postage costs far greater than the item has actually cost to post and the stock answers of Handling or Packing Materials (usually a second hand jiffy), so looking at the printed stamp what do I see? Cost of postage of £4.41 and I paid 10% of order, something around £2.50. What a class act! They are at Derby in just under two weeks time and I am sure to pop onto their stand, thank them for the service and hand over more coinage for more bases, what more can be said?

Inside the box. that's a lot of bases. I only had enough sent to base my Prussian and French (yes more than I need but I plan on getting more French!) and have not ordered any for my Ancients as unsure what size bases to use as awaiting contact with some of my old playing pals.

The bases are all uniformly cut and dust free so can be used straight from the box. I have already based up 26 units, more on this later and very happy with the look and feel. I will never go back to cardboard again and for the price it really makes sense to go this route. The time saved alone is worth the cost. Now all I need to do is base up over 100 Prussian units and finish painting and base about 60 French and all before Derby. Well I will settle for half that.

Yes it's a deep box as well! Whilst waiting for the bases to arrive I started painting the French Lancers, I had 5 Regiments for some reason, well I won't be getting any more for awhile whilst I catch up with all the others. More again to follow on a later post.

Awaiting Bases

I have had these Prussian's for years and years and have played with mostly Computer rules which we have had issues with but were better than over complex paper rules or dots or over simplistic ones. So stuck with them. Now I want to give Polemos rules a bash and for this they need basing, as do the French that I am part way through painting. No mean task given the 100+ units I will need to base when all is said and done.

Yes I am impatiently waiting for Warbases to drop through my letterbox LOL.

These Prussians were painted for me by Red Triangle, I don't even know if they are still in business, all I know is at the time they were considered the best and cost a packet but I have always been very happy with them. It's the only time I ever used a painting service and I doubt I will ever do again though I was very happy with the result. Good job I enjoy painting figures I guess.

The only view I want to see of them, that is advancing to victory. I can't wait to base these and get to see what they look like, only problem will be storage of them.

Some of the French I did too many years ago. The latest batch of 12 regiments took less than a week to do (these need finishing touches which I will do over the next day or two). Not as nice as the Prussians but I have the knowledge that I did them myself.

I am hoping that the Baccus paint easier that these Irregular as the paint does not flow on these guys and most detail is not well enough formed to paint well. Or is it my painting skill?

Warganing Neutral

The idea is not mine, not at all but I first saw it in Another Slight Diversion which is a great figure gaming blog if you don't already know it. In fact I think Andy is a good part of the reason I am back to figures and also running this blog, so you can blame him. I have taken Andy's idea and twisted it to my advantage. My idea is that I have to fit to the two rules (with slight alteration) that Andy works to, these being

1. Can't Buy a Figure unless I have painted a figure from my lead pile.

2. Can't spend money unless I have either created money from sale of hobby stuff or it's from my gameing stash.

Due to the low level of figures I had at the start of the process I am allowing myself one free splurge at Derby in a few weeks. This is fine as rule 2 still applies. Good job I just sold a ASL item then ;-)

Paint, bases, materials and Rules do not count to 2 as it is the figures that need watching.

I also have an idea that may well help me out with getting figures and keep me supplied with things to paint without the cost impact. More on this at a later date.

The Books.

Figures owned since last purchase

6mm all Napoleonic's

14 Cav regiments 3 painted

31 Infantry 24 painted

12 scermish strips 6 painted

9 guns and limbers 3 painted

15mm

ECW

10 mounted Dragoons Painted

10 dismounted Dragoons Painted

30 figure regiment of foote

Ancients

56 infantry 40 painted

Most of these have been painted in the last 4 weeks so I have mounted up plenty under rule 1 and paying for the replacements is covered as well. Good times.

I plan to buy a bunch of Baccus French Naps to round off the French army and can do this under 1 as I should have almost all the above painted by then. But I also plan on buying a fair chunk of Chariot Miniatures for a Macedonian army but not knowing what rules set I am likely to use this could limit me to buying the obvious troop types.

I also want to go into another period at some point but need to start gaming again and reach out to suitable rules.

ASL Everything Is Lost.

Played my seventh scenario from Journal 8 last week and it was a ball. Came down to my very last turn after losing both ISS-152 to either P'faust or P'shrek shots. We had building hexes being rubbled and falling rubble landing in the street, flamethrowers and units jumping out of sewers to attack my guns or broken leaders as well as some gritty close combat. The game acted as the perfect advertisement for ASL, see Wall Advantage for a full AAR.

First Figures Painted in over 10 years!

So after 10+ years away I was a little rusty but also rather nervous about trying new techniques such as no shading and the army painter. Also by basing style needed a total refit as the standard of today is fantastic in comparison.

As mentioned before it all started with six packs of Chariot Miniatures so it was fitting I started here.

JLS and Shield (Psiloi) x16

JLS and Shild -Thracian (Psiloi) x8

JLS and Shild - Mercenary Greek Peltasts (Ax) x8

Slinger - Thracian (Psioloi) x8

Bow - Thracian (Psioloi) x8

I went for the easy ones and did all the JLS and slinger's in a job lot which went surprisingly well with just the base painting but looked so flat I felt they were showing my rust. Then out came the Army Painter for dipping. I will admit to being nervous about doing this but really wanted to give it a go.

I was expecting the gloss shine so this was not a surprise and as I always mat varnish neither was it an issue. What was/is is that white don't stay white but I do like the effect so it's a trade off at the end of the day.

Basing was done on the what I thought was a reasonable bit of cardboard and I must confess I lack self discipline to be patient to find good material. This caused the bases to curl and I am waiting for some MDF bases from Warbases to arrive so I can rebase them all. But I was happy with the effect and look forward to rebasing them.

Overall I was very pleased with both the paint job and the dipping process. I plan to dip and rebase all my 15mm figures over the coming months once rule sets are agreed with anyone I will be playing with. Derby should bring the answer to this question I hope.

What's in a name?

The Wargames group I have played with the most was just a collection of friends meeting at one house or another (mostly mine in the early years, mostly Matt's in later years). One year at a wargames con, I think Derby at the Assembly Rooms we decided to have a wargames zine as by that time several of us had gone off to university. For a little group this was rather OTT but never mind. The title after no agreement was for the first issue you understand "The Mag With No Name" and a couple of years (and about 4 issues) later I discovered the Eurogame scene (German Games as it was labelled then). Well the zine took off and the subscription increased to over 100 as it covered all parts of the hobby including the then almost new Magic The Gathering card game. What can I say it was loads of fun and lasted a few years before imploding over it's own success. Last two issues going over 100 pages and being every 6 weeks the cost just killed it.

Now we have a free option, whilst it will not be the same as games will not be ran on the blog I would like to hope through the comment section you can all join in and I look forward to getting some of the old subbers back on board.

Welcome Home

Hi there. This is not my first blog, this honour belongs to Wall Advantage, a blog dedicated to Advanced Squad Leader that recreates WWII in the cardboard world. This blog will not be WA nor do I want it to be. The plan with this one is to just lay down my thoughts and experiences as I get back into wargaming with figures and as such the posts will be far shorter in length.

It's been a few weeks now since I decided to do something with the lead I had left over so over the next week or so I will try to catch up. I have had a few packets of Chariot Miniatures lying around which had found their way onto my computer desk (maybe a lead version of Toy Story?) and after sitting there for a few weeks I decided to go in the loft and get out the old paint box and see if any of them were ok. Well about 50% were still in good enough shape to start me off but I had read about The Army Painter and wanted to try something new so found a local stockist and added a few paints and new brushes and a few other bits and home I went to try out this old hobby of mine.

I had forgotten how much fun it was and I soon was back up in the loft looking for more materials to play with. I also brought back home from storage at my Mothers my 1/300 scale Prussian Napoleonic's, weighing in at 30 Infantry, 20 cav and 15 guns and limbers all painted. These had managed less than a dozen games in 25 years mostly down to a lack of rules my old group really liked.

I have got rid of a lot of stuff over the years but I have at present

Prussian Napoleonic 1/300

ECW Royalist and New Model 15mm based for Tercio

Later Achiemid Persian 15mm based to 6th EditionWRG

Projects started but not really pushed

French Naps to go with the Prussians (12 infantry regiments painted out of two divisions)

That scattering of Chariot for a possible Macedonian army.

A scattering of Fantasy figures from the days of Roleplaying.

Lets see where this takes us shall we?