Another week of games..

Just a little more 'eye candy' from this week's games: a 'Boxer Rebellion' game played using the  Volley and Bayonet rules, and Adrian's fabulous 15mm figures (and boats), and an evening of HotT played using a range of our 20mm armies.

The HotT games.

Andy's Undead army

Andy's Undead stronghold

British and Turkish VSF

Barbarian (warband, a couple of heroes, and some shooters), vs Andy's 'Sparatacus' army

Barbarian Stronghold

Greek, Roman, or generally ancient, Stronghold

An ACW Ironclad

Quite a few years ago I painted up a series of stands to play American Civil War in 15mm using the Volley and Bayonet rules. I plan to add a few more stands to each side (currently the collection includes 16 infantry brigades, some artillery batteries, and one regiment of cavalry per side). With encouragement from 'gaming friends Adrian and Jon I bought the  Sarissa model of the USS Monitor . I assembled and painted the model itself a month of two ago, and finally found the motivation to base it ready for action. Here it is.

I painted the water effect with a green/dirty brown base, as I figured that North American rivers aren't exactly pristine pure blue. I do recall from my visit to Memphis some years ago that at that point anyway the Mississippi ran looking pretty brown and discoloured.

Righto... I guess I should try and organise some games.

More variety in another week of 'gaming

Another week with a bit of varied war games activity. First was a game from the War of the Spanish Succession in the 1740's, an intriguing scenario in which the French and Spanish forces are retreating form the Austrian army, and are trying to get a supply convoy of four wagons across and off the table. The armies are from Adrian and Jon's collections, all 15mm.

Despite a massive encircling move from the Austrian cavalry, the cavalry were defeated and the convoy 'got away'.

The second was a game from the Franco-Prussian war of the 1870s. The Prussians are from my collection, and the French from Keith's, all 6mm Heroics and Ros figures.

Both games were played using the Volley and Bayonet rules. The small rules changes that are used to differentiate the sub-periods wokr amazingly well, giving two very different games that capture the feel of the periods.

A British VSF stronghold

Every now and then I have a flash of inspiration. Not exactly like realising how to split the atom, or solve world poverty, or banish the forces of the neo-liberal right wing .. but in the 'gaming sense, a germ of an idea that with a little time evolves into something I quite like. This is an example. 

My British Victorian Science Fiction army for HotT (Hordes of the Things) has lacked a stronghold. Browsing through my many 'bits boxes' as you do I stumbled across a 15mm old country farm house, and a futuristic piece of equipment that could perhaps have been a 'power house' .. or ... whatever heinous machine you care to imagine. The appeal, the inherent anachronism, of their juxtaposition appealed to me. Both on the same base, a heinous machine pseudo-disguised, only half hidden, behind an old farm house. So this idea took shape.

The finished product, farm house in front, scientific 'machine' behind connected with a heavy red cable, as you do.

I wanted the machine half hidden behind a mound, as if the ground had been partially excavated and the machine is half hidden deep in the earth. To create the 'mound' or hillock I glued some old plastic sprues to the base in order to give the filler compound something to key onto, and also to save weight on the overall base.

I then gradually layered filler over the sprues, allowing each thin layer to dry before proceeding. I am hoping this will minimise the chances of shrinkage and cracking

The base overall was then given a layer of plaster

... and the building and machine were glued into the wet filler

A few small hedges ... actually hedgerows for 6mm, but who notices ...

A piece of thick copper wire to represent a heavy duty cable connecting the machine and the house...

... and an old Airfix Cuirassier figure standing in the road outside the farmhouse with horse.. yes I know it's French, but this is 'fantasy', so I can do whatever I like.. and it was a way of emphasising the anachronisms I wanted on the stronghold base

And voila, a stronghold for the VSF army. 

A bit of 'gaming variety

I think I may finally starting to get the hang of this 'retirement' thing.. albeit that I have to agree with a journalist who recently wrote that the word retirement, implying as it does a withdrawal from something, is not be the best word to use for this new stage in life offering up as it does enormous freedom to do what gives us jou.

Anyway, last week saw four different wargames/genres/rules sets, and this week has seen two .. a Volley and Bayonet game run by Adrian and set in the Indian Mutiny, and a NW Europe Crossfire game with Americans and Germans. This is not an AAR, merely a small selection of photos from each.

The Indian Mutiny game used Adrian's beautiful 15mm armies and terrain.

The Crossfire game with Jim used my own 20mm armies and terrain.