Adrian and I took the afternoon to play a War of the Austrian Succession game, using his 15mm armies and scenery... it's too gorgeous not to show off a few photos. The action was between Spanish and Austrian froces.
Wargamingnz
Inane ramblings on war gaming and other hobby stuff!!!
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Imperial Camel Corps
Back to the Great War Spearhead Middle East forces... and I've just completed 12 bases of Imperial Camel Corps. The figures are Irregular 6mm, as usual, base labels still to come.
They are clearly (I hope) not photographed in a game context here, just clustered together for the photograph ☺
Sunday, March 10, 2024
The VSF world's naval elements in HotT
Andy and I have been talking for several months about how we might include naval elements into our HotT (Hordes of the Things) games. Why? Partly the aesthetic.. we both fancy the look of some suitable fantasy and especially VSF naval 'ships'. I'd also had a taste of the use of naval elements in some DBR games with Keith.. and liked what I'd experienced. This was an itch that needed to be scratched. I am careful to make it clear however that we are NOT looking for a naval game, merely an additional layer of 'flavour' in our HotT games.
Currently the HotT rules allow for 'water lurkers', but these are relatively limited in use (as are all lurkers). That is not to say they lack use, merely that they were not quite what we were looking for. That is just a matter of taste.
We decided to see if we could take the DBR rules for Ships, Boats, and Galleys, and adapt them to HotT games. This game was out first 'play test' to see what we had. We placed the games in the Weird World War 1 genre, with our WWW1 German and British armies.
My British army contained:
1 x airboat
1 x boat
2 x riders
2 x blades
3 x shooters
Deployment, with the two boats in the 'waterway' deployed to the left |
While the two Boat models look very different, there is no significance in their appearance, the are both simple 'Boats' |
The opening round of fire forced one of the German behemoths back |
... and a British shooter back |
Action continues on land |
The German Boat advances towards the British shoreline flank |
The British Airboat attacks the German horde.. a mistake as it happens, as the airboat was to be tied up in this combat for the entire game |
Action is joined on the British left |
The German behemoth makes a break through against a shooter element |
The German Boat prepares to disembark it's blade element. Andy placed the Blade element on the Boat base simply to remind himself that it was there. |
It gets very messy in the centre |
Repeated attempts to eliminate the German general fail |
The Germans eliminate the left flanking riders |
The British Hero general is eliminated, and the battle is lost for the British |
So, how did we think this all went? Basically well.
- Our DBR adaptation requires naval elements to carry one land based element (as with DBR). If we assume that is necessary (we have included that requirement for now) then I learned that when the opponent has a naval element too, it is better to disembark the land element asap.
- The adaptations are probably not a tournament option because if you are the attacker, with a naval element when your opponent doesn't and if she therefore chooses not to pace a river or waterway,, that means you've effectively lost 3 AP (even though they don't count towards losses). The same thing happens with a water lurker, but that of course is only 1 AP
- The option of a Boat vs Boat combat is interesting
- We found several more areas that need consideration. The DBR rules include March moves which don't exist in HotT. Rather than add them in (an unnecessary complication, as we don't intend to change the fundamental nature of the rules.. they work just fine) we have another plan.
- We found we needed to add in 'waterway' as a terrain feature, again essentially mirroring the DBR rules.
Once we are happy with progress, we'll post our suggestions for comment.
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Arab mounted troops for the Middle East WW1
I've just completed the painting and basing of 8 stands of Arab camelry, and 8 stands of Arab cavalry, for the Middle East in World War 1. These are intended for my preferred rules set Great War Spearhead, and each stand represents the equivalent of a squadron in European terms. The figures are from the Irregular 6mm range.
I am still thinking about the base label format for these, so they are as yet unlabelled.
Cavalry and camelry on the right, the Arab infantry I completed several weeks ago are on the left. |
Friday, February 23, 2024
Orcs and Pirates..
Introducing good friend Jon to some HotT (Hordes of the Things) goodness. He enjoyed the opportunity to play something less serious than usu, something light hearted, something with built in laughs. In this case he took my Orcs vs while I played my Pirates (both in 20mm).
These are just some random shots of the second game we played.. a lot of fun.
War of the Austrian Succession scenario ..
Adrian and I took the afternoon to play a War of the Austrian Succession game, using his 15mm armies and scenery... it's too gorgeous ...
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A couple of photos I posted onto a local club Fb page last week had me thinking about the armies I have built over the years. It seemed re...
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The Great War in the Caucasus is something we don't read too much about, nor do we as 'gamers undertake too much from that theatre. ...
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Can you ever have too much of a good thing? Well maybe. There was a craze went around the 'modelling' web a year of two ago for buil...