Bank holiday round up.

I had great plans for this weekend in terms of painting and an attempt to clear some of the items which have been languishing on painting table for a few weeks, but the wargaming gods were against me and I only managed to grab a few hours early in the morning before the clan awoke.

I finished the first tester for the Haitian Colonial Dragoons, the unit were said to be equiped with all-green jackets and green housing and saddles etc.

The Trent horses feel a little on the large side,  but I have been used to Perry's offering in recent years, they should be fine once flocked and the static grass added.

I do dislike painting cavalry and was not that convinced by the green jacket colour and needed to complete one to see what the whole would look like once the wash was applied.

He is growing on me.
Let's see how a unit of dragoons does to help keep the slave army at bay. The clock is ticking as they are needed on the table next Sunday.

In the absence of any serious painting I did manage to complete another batch of warbase movement trays, I have tried several over the years and warbases are still the best.

On the gaming front I had a run through of Vikings 878.
Playing the part of the English I had to defend the kingdoms from the rampaging Vikings.
The Viking come on in waves which can feel rather over whelming, but with the support of the locals and calling up the Fyrds you can stem the invasion until you run out of cards. :-(

We only played with 2 players but I can see how 4 would be fun.
Whilst I lost due to not holding enough cities after the 4th Viking wave and their berserkers ran roit in the Midlands, it did not feel like a loss in fact the turn before I felt I was on the verge of a herioc victory having struck down three Viking leaders with my Housecarls.
A fun game and a great way to spend an evening.

Having tried to keep spending down in recent months, focuing on painting the backlog, a couple of annoncements lead me to raid the paypal account.
Firstly the Warlord Summer Sale - Some great savings, more on that in future posts.

TSS have announced they are putting their system tile system up for sale, in recent years there has been a trend back to cloths, they are blocks are great pieces of kit but storage was always a problem.
In any event their flock is some of the best on the market so I ordered several bags just in case they can't find a buyer.

https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/total-system-scenic-for-sale/

I was sent a link from a good friend of mine on ebay for the following Shroud Mages Submarines.
A pretty poor paint job, but it won't take much to match them up to my current fleet.
Besides the way I have played of late everything seems to be on the ocean floor.

I also put a further order into Arcane for more Trent Haitians after seeing the latest releases and completion of the plantation house. The French definately need more reinforcements to defend against the Slave Armies.

Finally it looks like Star Eagles is edging forwards with an update from Andrea that the tokens are almost ready, this are being produced by LITKO and look pretty good.
Good job the Flash Gordon toys only come out of the box every so often, this kickstarter is so far behind now, I would be pretty cross if I had backed it and was still waiting for the resin fighters.

Let's see what the postie brings next week.

"Just nipping down the call box" - AVBCW Scenario.

"Just nipping down the call box". - Words my kids will never say..... I must be getting old.

A couple of pics from a recent British Civil War outing.

Sometimes you can make scenarios over complicated. For me AVBCW lends itself to the simplest of games, besides its been a while since these figures have graced the table.

Both the local revolutionaries and bobbies have on encountering each other decided reinforcements are needed and rush to capture the phone box and dial the switich board operator for more men, they can't destroy it as to do so would lose the support of the local townsfolk so must drive each other away from the objective.

Yes there is still a working phone in this one.

Members of the local working mens club rally round their standard and move on to the table, we were using Combat Zone again, the workers had more men and were better armed, but were green and untested.

The Police were split into two fire teams were of average quality and were only armed with pistols and the occasional rifle. Their improved training and split groups gave them the first move and they were able to make the most of it, moving up to the cross roads they could see the phone boxes, but little else.

What the working men failed to realise is being green simply being shot at can make you lose your bottle and slink off for tea. The MMG bravely brandished by one of the gang, was the first to run away as the opening shots rang out.

Their would be no revolution in the shire today, long range weapons are of little use house clearing and with several of their number ducking back the police with club and pistol in hand together with an extra action each sent the part time marxists running for home.

Next time more groups and better quality is the order of the day.
But a fun 1930's feel to it.

Charlie Foxtrot Models - Tidewater House - Part 2.

Nothing spurs you on to complete a micro-project like committing to put the next game on at the club. Having constructed Tidewater House a weeks ago I have finally finished the plantation house for the Haitian campaign of any of the occasional battles in the ACW or AWI that the club runs.

I opted for the a slightly off white colour with white facings to give it thta classic colonial feel,

I have decided not to base. Originally I thought about putting it on an MDF base surrounded by lawn's and cultivated shrubs but this might reduce it's use in perhaps more urban tables.

Now let's see if Gareth Chasse can defend the Plantation Oiseaux Moelleux?

Meanwhile news from Trent Miniatures several new items have appeared in the Haiti collection, with leaders of the slave revolt from both the begining and end of the revolution, with a bit of luck these will arrive and be painted in time for next game in early September.

Boukman, the first leader of the August 1791 slave revolt in St. Domingue. Boukman had a large and powerful physique and was reputed to be a Voodoo priest. He was killed in battle in November 1791.

 

Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniere, a female soldier in Toussaint Louverture’s army. She fought with Dessalines in the defence of Crete-a-Pierrot against Napoleons invading French.

Both of these characters are available from Arcane scenary and models or Northstar Miniatures.

It's encouraging to see some new releases including new French Sailors, things are starting to hot up in the Caribbean.

Best laid plans.... An FIW Encounter.

A little behind on postings of late, however last Sunday saw the Wyverns venture into the northern reaches of Canada as the French with the aid of the Indian tribes attempted to attack the British homesteads.

The mission was a simple one secure the bridge and drive off the defenders, the river ran the length of the table and aside from the bridge was only crossable at the ford.

I think is was Moltke who said “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” and so it proved on Sunday. I had it all planned rush the bridge drive off the French regulars and turn on the Indians before they could get organised.

It was all going to plan, the counters were first out of the bag and forming a closed column the Brits with supporting skirmishers and the light company pushed ahead and secured the bridge before the French could react.

The French Indian allies were forced to reveal themselves early and ran for the ford.
 

The British flying column reach the dead ground in the valley before the French were able to cross the first picket fence. So far so good.

 

Meanwhile the Indians were pushing hard and I was only able to get a scratch unit of colonial skirmishers upto the fence, they were freshly painted, so I should have known how they would fare.

The British creast the rise and are greated by a french volley and fire from the flank by an Indian unit hidden in the wood, shock was becoming a problem, compounded by 4 Blue flags, curses.

The French prime their muskets and let loose a second round of fire.

The skirmishers are wiped out as shock mounts and force morale falls.

Meanwhile on the western flank the colonials fall back with only the scots saving them from having been routed from the table as the scots ragged fire slowed down the natives advance.

The British column still yet to fire fell back across the bridge and formed into a firing line, but casualties were mounting, including the commanding officer who took a wound whilst trying to steady the line. Force morale fell again.

Under constant fire and unable to remove enough shock points to become effective, the broken formation now separate groups fell back turn after turn, leaving the French and their Indian allies firmly in control of the northern bank and poised to cross the river.

With the British force morale nearing the zero they were forced to leave the table.

Victory to the French.

A great nights gaming even if the result turned out to be nothing like my original plan.

Charlie Foxtrot Models - Tidewater House.

A few days away and a chance to crack on with the construction of Tidewater House from Charlie Fortrot Models or Plantation Oiseaux Moelleux as it will be known in the ongoing Haitian campaign.

The instructions are a little thin so I thought I would document some of the stages for those interested.

After the initial scare of opening the bag and being a little surprised at the amount of 'bits'. The good news is many of them are windows and shutters which once separated make the task somewhat less daunting.

The construction can be completed in two parts, which means you can work on both at the same time. It's quite imposing once you put the shell together with plenty of room to put figures in, some of joints are a little tight but they do fit together rather well with no gaps between connecting walls.

I should have added the sills in first before adding the shutters as this made the task of adding them in some what challenging espically if you don't leave enough room either side of the windows. However ignoring the fact I should have read the instructions first. I found the back of a tea spoon useful to ease the sills in to place before the wood glue dried.

Whilst the windows and shutters were drying, I completed the porch and chimney stacks, not overtly complicated once you have all the pieces put by. Although you will need to sand down the stacks to create the right angle for the roof.

Next up the steps and doors, the doors are a little loose in the frame, so I added a small block to secure the doors in place. I am not expecting to be opening them during game play, but it was nice to have the option to leave open or closed.

The roof fitted together very simply with a central support to keep it strudy, I found securing this first easier to create the right angle for the end sections and matching fascia.
 

Now for the trickest part, the front porch. The plastic columns are a little short, you will find a couple of spare cut outs from the column bases, I glued these to the plastic tubing to give that little bit extra length to secure the roof and floor by the columns. A strong elastic band allowed it to dry in place (thanks for the tip Steve.) so it did not lift up from the base.

Finally a liberal pasting of PVA glue and the adding of the paper tiles covers the gap in the roof apex and the entry slots of the wall to the roof.

 

Now complete it's quite the mansion and an imposing piece of terrain and will certainly fill the table top. I am toying with the idea of basing it adding in some shrubs and lawn, but will probably wait to consider this once it's painted.

I am still not sold on the MDF buildings over resin, whilst their might be an initial saving, once you factor in the man hours to construct and how resilient they are on the gaming table is their really that much difference in value/gaming return?

In any event it's nice to get it complete. Now just the task of painting it up.

Plantation workers - Haitian Revolution.

Whilst constuction of the Plantation House continues I thought I would catch up on a couple of household staff to try and defend the estate from the slave revolt, they will serve are an irregular skirmish unit within the Sharp Practice rules.

Gareth Chasse is owner of the Plantation Oiseaux Moelleux, a ruthless land owner attempting to steer a path between the Royalists and Jacobins on the island, the last thing he needed was a revolution and disruption to his business. Let alone a rebellion by the slave popultation.

The figures are by the Perry Twins and whilst designed for the their AWI southern colonies range, I figured they would be useful to represent some 'Small Whites' looking to defend their homes on the night of the fire - The first mass revolt.

Monsieur Chasse and two of his household staff.

Let's see how much he likes these coffee beans when the insurgents look to burn him out.