A Month of Shame

Well I do have a bunch of stuff on the painting table that will help me out next month but it's fair to say that July has not seen me at my best what with two games and all the weather bringing the painting total down a few pegs whilst the buying did not totally get brought under control. The numbers are....

Lets start with the 6mm as that is the worst offenders.

6mm Infantry PLUS 15 as I finished nine battalions this month but then I did buy twenty four of the new Baccus French. At least I have six Battalions on the table at the moment. Actually the big gain does not bother me as over the next few months I will get that into the minus figures and I actually needed twelve of them anyway.

6mm Cavalry, none got painted this month so I am still on PLUS 11, lets see what I get done over the next five weeks, I think I see more Prussians done.

6mm Command, got 10 of these guys painted so a MINUS 10 for the pile.

6mm Guns and Crews PLUS 8 but four of these are on the table part done the rest next month?

6mm Buildings (Gulp) I did paint ONE this month so that makes a mere PLUS 35 then! I guess building of the week will be back next week or else!

6mm Planes as this is a new diversion yet to be started I am on PLUS 10 but I think once I get going these will come along well.

28mm Infantry, MINUS 6 as I got the cowboys done. My next lot of the Winter War are due any day so I can expect the figure to go the wrong way probably next month, ow well I do plan to get the Vikings finished in the next couple of weeks as I am off work for a week and want to get a game of SAGA in with the son so need to get cracking.

28mm Wagons, still on PLUS 2 as I have yet to paint the ones picked up at Partizan, must get on them.

28mm Horses PLUS 2 see wagons for the same answer.

The good news I guess is that I do not see any actual purchases for the whole month but with The Worlds at the beginning of October I can see a little bit of buying going off. I could also get the Arena Rex Kickstarter arrive in October adding yet more Resin to the mountain.

So I hope that August will be a month of shrinking down on the gains whilst October may get a few figures bought (I am thinking SAGA and Cowboys) and a few buildings but nothing beyond that. If THAT actually works out then the run towards the end of the year could be good for slimming down the mountain and if I get the best part of the Project Waterloo figures finished this year you should see other parts of the mountain slim down. OK lets here your views LOL

Stringbags - Rules for WWI Aircombat

I am declaring Gary Amos rules here, only wargames figures actually count towards expenditure on wargaming so these rules are free. Actually they almost were as they cost just £5 off ebay with a couple of pounds added for postage.

When I bought the planes from Heroics & Ross I did ask about rules and one of the customers recommended these so I grabbed a set when I found them. Apart from the creased corner and slight dog eared pages they are in very good condition. I just hope my son will be able to get on with the rules. I have only had a very quick scan of the rules so far so can't comment on them but from what I have seen they look to be worth a go.

Whilst some may be fans of Wings of War/Glory the price and size turn me off a little and I like the idea of painting my own up. At the moment we have just ten planes, five for each side but I know if we get going at this I will get a load more, the small scale (1/300) of the planes hopefully will allow for a game on the table. So I have a few reading and run through sessions ahead of me and of course at some point I will have to assemble and paint the blighter's, yes another diversion has caught me and hooked on.

Prussians Get an Outing AAR

On Friday night I got the chance to run the Prussians out in a game against Matt. Matt having never played the rules before meant I would also get another view point on the rules not an opportunity to be missed I hear you say, too right I answer.

I gave Matt some fairly standard French, twelve battalions of infantry including three Ligne, three batteries including horse, one each of Lancer's, Hussars, Dragoons and Cuirassier regiments. I as the Prussians also had twelve battalions though six were Landwehr, three Reserve and three line battalions. The Landwehr though was defending the town on the left flank. They also had a battery of guns and two Landwehr cavalry regiments. I also had two Dragoon and two Hussar regiments and a total of two batteries so I had the slightly larger force.

The town, this has to be held to win the game. I put three battalions in the town with the other three Landwehr behind the town to the left of the picture. On reflection I should have had these in the town as well.

I expected the centre to be attacked and had the reserve regiment in between the two hills, when this did not happen I was slow to get the troops into the action, this would mean extra pressure on the town.

I had put the two Landwehr cavalry regiments on the hill and when one was charged I had to counter charge off the hill (I should have added the uphill bonus though it would not have helped as I was facing three French regiments and was routed after just one round of combat though I did get the Dragoons to drop one level of cohesion.

Chasing after the routing Landwehr the Lancers crashed into my second regiment of Landwehr cavalry but being unsupported failed to drive these ahead of them. A swirling melee was to last a number of rounds before I was finally driven back in retreat.

Meanwhile I was trying to catch up with three battalions of French infantry that composed the French left flank with my centre. I had already dropped one of the Battalions two levels of cohesion and a morale level so I had a chance of driving these off if only I could keep pushing.

Matt at this point was attacking the town with a relatively light force but whilst he lost one battalion to rout he was driving back the Landwehr from the town. My decision not to put two regiments into the town was starting to tell on me. My support was in the town and to the left but it allowed the better class of French to get a hold on the town, I would need help from the dice now.

I allowed Matt to hold me near the town that and I was not winning the majority of the initiative rolls meaning one formation was missing out whilst I found I needed to use the one in the town every turn so either the infantry top right or the cavalry bottom right did not get to move. If I did I could possibly have had the troops on the hill crushed between the two forces.

All this could do was play into Matt's hands and sure enough he not only got the town fully under his control but wrecked the Landwehr division. I rallied the retreating cavalry (not the routing one) but I still had two battalions under forced retreat and two routing. Enough to signal forced retreat on the Division and whilst I could get this to halt I would be lucky to get them in order to attack again and even so they would be very fragile.

Two battalions about to withdraw from the town Matt would have most of his troops in good order from the attack. A better defence would have seen his force reasonably spent but these guys enjoyed a bit of a cake walk.

The Landwehr cavalry failed to regain cohesion meaning I would have to leave them close to a forced retreat to go and try and start rallying one of the infantry battalions. This formation is finished for the day.

The three Reserve battalions on the right never so much as fired a shot, the line also never got into the action. At this point I decided the best option would be to retreat under cover of the cavalry that was still in good order and able to take the fight to the French if needed.

Not that the French needed to attack, they had captured the town and was content to sit on the hill, no doubt happy to see the Prussians retreat at great haste, would the Prussians put up a bigger fight next time.

So ended the first outing of the Prussians and down to a few mistakes by me they suffered. Well they will be out again sometime soon to try again. I made the Landwehr fairly weak as this was supposed to be when they were untested in battle and to be honest felt they performed as could be expected. Better support would have given them a better showing. Whilst Matt was not flushed with love of the rules he wants another game with them and I think he could get to like them a fair bit. Not to replace the rules he uses but as a different flavour to what he plays on a regular basis.

Cowboys Double as Bad Guys

To fight opposite my sons good guys my daughter needed more support and so she gets to use the first three cow hands.

These again are Dead Man's Hand figures (I think) and again have nice poses though all three are action poses which suits their use.

My daughter was convinced that all three have ripped their trousers and showing their underpants LOL. I am reasonably pleased with the pinstripe type finish on the waistcoat. 

I have painted up the rifle as a Winchester 1 in a 1000 thought he gold/brass plate looks a little yellow on some of the photo's/ 

This guy has yet to put on his shirt, longjohn's in plain sight! I thought the girl would like some pink and he seemed the obvious choice.

More split pant's, Lee who told her that they were split has a lot to answer for :-)

Another one with raised rifle, similar pose but with a few differences such as angle of the head though all three are wearing chaps.

A fairly basic paint job on all three but a lot less use of ink and washes than I would usually do. This allows for ten per side game or as we have 21 figures painted up we could go seven a side, that would be interesting.

I have a few more DMH figures and a lot of Foundry which need to be cleaned up and got onto the painting table. Of course I have a lot of stuff sitting in that queue.

Joy of Six Purchases

I just know Dave and Loki are going to have fun with this but never mind.

Right at the end of the day I bought a few bits, though these are for my son so maybe they don't count? OK guilty as charged. I used to have a great set of rules for WWI planes and had loads of fun with them. I really don't know what happened to those planes so bought a few to paint for said son to have a go with. Five Brits including my favourite, the DH2 Pusher. 

The Germans got a mixed bunch though the Albatross DII leads the way and another old favourite the Focker EIII single wing fighter. I can see this growing some as he gets into it. Just need some rules now. I consider this not a new diversion but rather an old one brought back to life.

Last up of the bought figures is one pack each of French Late Foot Artillery 8pdr and Horse Artillery Howitzer. The guns will be swapped out with the Howitzers being used in foot batteries whilst the horse will have the 8pdr's. The flags are for the 1815 infantry bought the day before. 

My son also got a few extra's such as winning a pack of WWI guns that Lee had set up with Peter and all was rewarded with a fail of despair from me when he was given them. I was still thinking it was all Peter's shenanigans until last night when my son admitted it was set up by Lee. Peter did though give him anther pack as we were leaving. I worry it may come to something over time, though he loved the Naps game so if I feed him a diet of 6mm Naps maybe just maybe......

Mike from Leven also was at the show and we swapped packages, I got a lot of unpainted resin and he took away a much smaller bundle of painted stuff. This is a mix of yet to be released, recently released and old staples. Here is Mediterranean and Spanish buildings that have been recently released. They seem to fit in well with the TBM buildings I already have and I will do a proper comparison once they are painted up.

The building on the left is yet to be released, the middle was released recently whilst the one on the right has been out 3-6 months. The building top left on the previous photo is the yet to be released Mediterranean Tavern.

Buildings that have been out for some time but had not made it into my collection are these add on's to the large farming section (excluding the top right farm house) so lots of new buildings to have a go at.

More farm buildings, but many of these are somewhat smaller and will go on farm bases and should add a few points of interest. Another of the normal farm house again, will have to paint some of these up a little different I guess. Leven now have over 240 buildings in their range. No one else has such a broad range in 6mm and with three Waterloo farm complexes on the work bench at the moment for a total of 25 buildings I can see the 300 point passed before the year is out.

The two top right are first casts of the new Fachwerkhaus building to be released some time. It's meant to be a more commercial type building and will be fairly high up the painting queue as I want to see how it will fit in with the others. The bottom right is a new Norman church that will also find it's way to the front sometime soon. The rest are older models though two of them are new to me.

Two of the bridges, one at least will be fitted into future boards and these may be the first to get painted as I have plans to use at least one in a game on Friday. The packets have another two packs of walls as these need to get done as I now have four packs and I have plans to add to farm tiles.

It was really good to meet Mick and Ricky, both are so very passionate about their buildings and it was great for them to meet other customers, both current and those just discovering Leven. Not only did we have plenty of Leven buildings on the table but also I had put a selection of others on the table to show them off and this helped raise the awareness of the buildings to gamers as was the intention. I hope this will help spread the word some more as they make very fine buildings and I want them to do really well.

I know Leven will be doing some trade shows next year and we have agreed to put on another display game at one of those shows next year. Exactly what is yet to be decided though you can be sure it will include a bunch of Leven.

Joy of Six and the Demo

Got back last night and was cream crackered so no report was a coming. Well I had to be up for 6.30 with my poor son. Well I was up at five as I had failed my sleep task check due to forgetting to take my night meds with me and so was fighting a losing battle come time I went to bed. I was so very tired when it was time to leave for the show. 

We did the usual stop for breakfast at the Golden Arches and still rolled up outside the workstation to set up and be ready more than thirty minutes before kick off so we simply started the game. I explained to my son he would need to attack the woods hard and try and clear them of the defenders. He then amazed me with his plan that included sending reserves to attack the second line whilst using other troops he had spare to attack into the flank of Lee's centre! Actually this would be a great plan and he really did seem to be thinking many moves ahead. My boy :-)

The view from Lee's rear area, he starts with less than ideal forces and as such a strong attack would leave him with no reserves to plug the holes. However with only two commands on the table at the start he should activate all his formations leaving us with one division unable to move.

We were in the doorway so it was really nice with a cool breeze the only issue was taking photo's from my end could be fooled by the light coming through the massive door way.

View from the side with Quatre Bras in the distance (top right of photo). The boards went down very well with Lee getting the much deserved praise. Mind you the figures (especially the basing) also got the thumbs up which was a great feeling.

Bossu Woods was again the scene of the hardest fighting with sunbeam driving Lee's first line of defenders from the woods routing one Battalion and forcing withdrawal of two others. Two of his own battalions were close to forced retire but he halted these trying to bring them back to order whilst bringing up two more battalions on their flank to join the two battalions he still had in good order. Also bringing up a further two battalions that could either replace the worn battalions on his left flank or support them if required. It does need to be noted that he had diced Lee royally.

I meantime had caused a cohesion check on another Brunswick battalion which routed off on a double six so Lee was somewhat up against it. In fact apart from initiative rolls Lee was rolling quite bad all along. My son then attacked the less powerful second line in the woods but here his dice rolling started to fail him and after two rounds of close quarter firing and chargers was beaten back but not without causing almost as much damage to Lee as he took. The difference was that Lee was now out of reserves in the woods and failing to halt his retreating right flank whilst the boy was getting his two battered battalions back in order and had made up a third wave able to attack the weakened last defenders of the woods. 

Lee had just prior charged two battalions of my forward infantry and brought those close to breaking. The cavalry doing the damage then returned to their lines in good order. However I brought up four regiments of light cavalry to screen the infantry and moved back the mauled infantry and replaced them with fresh troops.

I then charged his cavalry in the following turn routing one and forcing the other to retire. Lee was now in the dangerous position that he may soon loose the Division if he had a few more units routed or under retire orders in the Brunswick formations. Help was on the way but if he wanted to keep the Brunswick's in the battle long term he would have to surrender Bossu Woods and fall back on Quatre Bras and that was far to early for this to be anything but a big worry. 

Doing so would give Lee the time to get Battalions of infantry back into a much better fighting condition and even return the retreating cavalry into the threat he would need to slow my infantry down. I was at the point of attacking the join between the Brunswick's and the other Division and had six fresh cavalry regiments including a lancer, two dragoons and two cuirassiers a mass of infantry. 

It would have been a totally different game to the previous one with the fight carrying to Quatre Bras itself. However we had spent a LOT of time talking to other attendees and as such we really could not get it played out. However I hope the three of us can get together again and play it out from the start. 

It was certainly a success from all points of view, and a great game and display, hopefully all who wanted to talk to us got the chance and a number of blog followers turned up on the day so talking to these guys was one of the highlights for me.

In fact the game and the chatting was so much fun I failed utterly to take any more pictures, however I still have enough to talk about to do a follow on post tomorrow regarding the other aspects of the day.

Joy of Six are Go

So it's nearly 6.30 am and all is ready to be loaded into Lee's car in less than an hour. My son is about to be dragged out of bed, though he will be more than happy to be on the get go. Looking at my pile of stuff it seems a little light but I am sure Lee is making up for it with not just his troops but also the boards.

Hope to see some of you guys there later, doors open at 10am, we are rolling up at 8am so we can get set up and start the game.

Of course I could not help but buy the new released on the day figures, French in 1815 uniform and also in Greatcoat. Line infantry and skirmishers. I need to get the new artillery crews and some flags today. At least I have nine battalions to count against these twenty four purchased. A small blip soon to be painted flat again :-)

Igor even had a love letter for me, well until he explained the kisses were in fact gravestones! OOps

My son was well received and had a rare old time of it, though today I think will top the Saturday. I have had the tour before but it was great to do it a second time and it was a treat to see how the figures are made. Sorry forgot the camera!!!

More Law and Order

Whatever western setting you have, you always need more Law, so my son gets welcome reinforcements with these dudes. Certainly makes a change from all the six mill I have been working on for the weeks before.

I think these are all Deadmans hand figures, would have to check with Dave D to be sure but I really like the poses, especially the two in bowler type hats and I felt those two really work well together.

I went for quite a dark look on these guys as it felt right, sometimes the Law is not as nice as you would want it to be and the first two look especially so to me. Went for a mostly brown look to this guy and I have a feeling that he is just noticing a threat just behind to his right. Will he react in time?

Not the best day for a lawman perhaps? New figures to use will I am sure give rise to more demand to play a game, this won't be over the weekend due to other events but I am betting by the end of next week blood will have been spilt.

I used a mix of washes and shading to get the results and though you can't tell the buttons did get a bit of a colour change. 

Here we actually have a figure pointing his gun at the bad guys. Again I really like the look of the figure, the pose and that long coat really work for me.

I also love the hand cannon, nothing subtle about that one! Long hair on the good guys? what a scruffy bunch they are.

And then the Boss, I am guessing he could do the job on his own, no need for the deputies but hay he may want a day off sometime.

So that's another three for the good guys making ten for my Son. I also have painted up another three for my Daughter which I will post about after all the 6mm madness of the weekend.

3rd Neumark Landwehr - Baccus

The last three Battalions painted up recently are the 3rd Neumark Landwehr and like the two previous regiments I have had to improvise on what could have been their standards. The figures are the same paint job as the Elbe regiments except they have red rather than the pale blue facings.

Another shot of the 1st Battalion showing the flag off a little better. These are part of the IV Corp, this is the Corp that has by far the most work outstanding on it as I have worked I Corp down.

2nd Battalion with two foolhardy commanders (again Adler) pointing the way forward. I went with a reversed colour cross as 1st and 2nd Battalions in the line regiments reverse the colours whilst of course the 3rd does not carry a flag.

I like the look of this Battalion, as the two officers give it a little bit of a different look and I like the way the flag ruffles around the bearers head. Having carried a standard in the Kings Lifeguard a few times I know how the bugger can get in the way.

Finally the last Battalion, back to black for the flag but this time with a golden trim just to make it that bit different. This one also gets a larger bush which the Battalion has made it's way around.

As mentioned in previous comments, I have started to put more and more additional bits on the bases as I think it really adds to the look and makes them that bit more interesting and breaks up the flat look that you get otherwise.

All nine battalions all together, these are now all stacked away with the rest of the army. Given the amount of time and money that has gone into this army it's a little bit surprising that to date it's received zero play. At some point before May next year some of these guys will be brought out of their boxes and the stats we give them will be tested. I am planning at least one game with Matt to see what he thinks of the rules, not that I can convert him over to our rules as he has A LOT based to 60x30 though the rules would work as such.