The VSF army expands...

I blogged a wee while ago about the Privateer Press Warmachine range, having seen some of their figures in a 'Warmachine' game. Now I haven't played Warmachine, but their range looked to be exactly what I was after for use as a Victorian Steam Powered robot for my VSF army.

So I recently bought a Cygnar Heavy Warjack to use as a Behemoth in the VSF HotT army, and here it is. I've used a bronze colour to promote that baroque feel, and red to tie the figure in to the rest of the British theme ("the sun never sets" etc).


I think I'm going to have fun with this army. Big question now is what to use as mechanical steeds. Or maybe a couple of HaT Gardner guns as artillery? Or.. hmmm

A HotT Winter's day 2010

I recently promulgated a possible date for 'A HotT Winter's Day 2010', our mid winter HotT tournament. I've had no correspondence to the contrary, and no indication of any tournaments that will clash, so... 

'A HotT Winter's Day 2010' will be held on Sunday 4 July, Woolston Club, Christchurch. I'll post more details soon, so mark your calendar and get ready to battle with the Gods themselves for the 'Emperor Dragon' Trophy. IN the meantime I'll continue working on those British VSF boys.. they should look good!!

Tip and Run

I bought this book just after Christmas, and finished reading it a few weeks ago. 'Tip and Run' is Edward Paice's account of the Great war in East Africa between 1914 and 1918.

The account is well written, and filled with fascinating detail. Two understandings that it generated for me were:

1. The war stood or fell on the basis of the Africans who were most often conscripted as porters carrying the essential supplies without which the war could not have been fought. The death rate amongst porters was horrific, for porters working for both sides.

2. This was not the 'gentleman's war' that it has for so long been portrayed. German and allied commanders were equally ruthless in the exploitation of the African population.

3. From 1916 the war was one of hide and seek as German forces moved around the continent, pursued by allied forces.

The book offers little for Great War Spearhead war gamers, as the scale of the actions was generally too small. Major actions involved battalions and brigades at most.

This is  a well written and engaging book, well worth the money and the time.

A little progress on the VSF HotT

I bought a box of figures for the planned Victorian Science Fiction HotT army probably about two years ago ... yes, I have the same disease that most other 'gamers have: plans far bigger than the time available. I finally started on a few of them a few weeks ago: figures for a stand of Blade (charging with bayonet) and three stands of shooters. Here is the result. These will form the core of the army. I am still contemplating what else, and how to construct it. 

Thoughts: 

1. Riders on bicycles, or unicycles, or mechanical steads. 

2. Airboats: dirigibles.

3. Behemoths: team tanks.

4. Artillery.

This army will be different from the other five in that I had planned it to be shooter heavy. I'm always fascinated by how plans change from conception to reality.

Keep watching. In the meantime, here are the first units.

HotT Magic ....

Time for another HotT game, this time the Undead necromancers and their undead hordes are attacking the peoples of the Lost Worlds.

The Necromancers raise their Undead minions: shooters and blades (a veritable swag of grim reapers).

The Undead advance against the Lost Worlds warriors,

The Lost Worlds forces advance to attack the Undead left, but the shooters soon show the beasts of the Lost Worlds who's who, with a shot at 6 vs 1 .. aha, only one outcome there - ouch!!

The Lost Worlds stronghold, the prize that the Undead Hordes seek.

Without their beasts in support, the LWs warband are looking a little less sold than they did.

Magic bolts arc through the air, energy crackling as magic bolts flash between the two armies.

The Undead sneaker Vampiress awaits the opportunity to emerge from behind the skeleton legions.

Once more magic bolts crackle across the Battlefield, and a LW flyer plummets to the ground .. yes, DEAD!!

Meanwhile the LWs own magician begins to make his own presence felt.

The Undead Hero disappears in a puff of magic and smoke, ensorcelled (on a 1 to 6, about the only bright spot in the entire game for the poor LWs army). We realise that you don't mark the position of ensorcelled Heros with a marker, but the photo opportunity seemed to good to miss, especially since I had only recently found the frog.

Finally the LWs' great Ape God appears, but it's already too late, the day is lost. The heart has been ripped from the Lost Worlds army, their warriors now joining the legions of the Undead, as the Necromancers weave their magic on the still warm corpses that litter the battlefield.

This was another great game with the deceptively simple HotT fantasy rules. We really must try some Big Battle HotT for even more HotT goodness.

What inspires us..

It's fascinating (I think) to ponder what has inspired us to take up our hobby. I wrote some time ago about Commando comics. Here's another thing that really inspired me.

My Dad was a Fitter and Turner, and a model maker extraordinaire. However he didn't make his models from plastic kits. He used wood and metal, parchment and plexiglass. I still have some of the wonderful models he made, many of them from plans that would arrive with his subscription to 'Hobbies Weekly' fresh from England. These included a lighthouse, a church, a swiss chalet, and.... this model of the Golden Hind. It sat in our 'sitting room' (as they were called when 'I were a lad') and I have clear recollections of being mesmerized by the model.

You may be able to see here the cannons, and the lifeboat complete with oars (all hand carved) beneath the layers of dust.

There is also an A13 tank in what must be about 1/32 scale I guess, that sat on my tallboy as I grew up, and I clearly recall imagining this giant machine going into battle. Today it sits in my study at work. I keep it there to remind me of what it was like to be a boy, in the hope that I will deal with boys sent to me with a degree of humanity that I rarely saw when a lad at school myself.

These were things that inspired me, although perhaps it was my Dad who inspired me more than the models themselves. I'm certainly glad he did.

Spanish victors!!!!

Another Friday night with good friend Adrian, and a little Volley and Bayonet action. Out came the 25mm Napoleonics armies. Now these armies are actually older than most of the 'gamers at our local club, and were painted by various of us, at a time when shading and washing were unknown to the average 'gamer; we just block painted them. They may not be up to modern painting standards, but there is a certain nostalgia involved in using these armies, we like them.

So, the two armies (Spanish and French) faced off against each other. The armies had been composed by fellow 'gamer Jon using the VnB Road to Glory points system. However we didn't use the RTG Scenasrio system to generate the game itself. We are still in the 'throw down some terrain and let's get those dice rolling' mold. This first photo shows the armies deployed at the start of the action, French on the right, Spanish on the left.

The armies advanced against each other, but the Spanish (OK, that was me) reached a defensive position and made it clear they weren't going much further at this stage, so it was down to Adrian to attack with the French. Here the French and Spanish cavalry face off against each other.

Adrian's plan was to hold the centre and drive in the two Spanish wings (a little Hannibal there.. and we don't mean 'Lector'!!). Here the French left approaches the Spanish right wing.

The attack was however bloodily repulsed by the Spanish, leaving the French left wing battered, and pulling back to a defensive position around the town on the flank.

The French attack on their right also went in, with cavalry supporting their infantry. This attack too was bloodily repulsed, with the loss of a complete French cavalry regiment.

At this stage the Spanish became a little bolder in their action, and began to move against the French centre. Here Spanish grenadiers move out from behind a town sector to try to work their way through a gap in the French lines.

The French renewed their attack against the Spanish left, deploying a mass of skirmishers in support of the infantry columns, and this time their punch exhausted the Spanish defenders. The Spanish left was hanging in mid air, and the tension across the table was palpable (the 'gaming tension, that is, the players were still laughing and joking across the coffee pot).

However the Spanish had decisively won the battle for the centre. Two regiments of militia cavalry (would you believe) raced through a gap in the French lines, lead by the Spanish CinC. They distracted the French cavalry sufficiently that the better quality Spanish cavalry were able to attack the French cavalry you saw earlier in the photo sequence, defeating them decisively.

Here you can see what is left of the French centre after the decisive cavalry action.

The two brave Spanish cavalry regiments can be seen at the top of the photo - that's the French rear (the photo is taken from the Spanish side of the table).

The French victory on their right had come too late to save the centre, and the French infantry divisions were forced to withdraw under cover of night fall. Another fantastic game using the Volley and Bayonet rules, but I've never known anything else with these rules. I'm always left feeling as if I've actually run a battle.