The Monkey that Walks

Persian Immersion

2012-02-11T15:27:00.004-05:00

Hi,

Finished up the last cavalry unit for my 300 points of Antigonids this morning, some Persian cavalry. My guess is these are included in the list to account for local allies that joined up with Antigonus when he made his bid for Babylon.

Impetus Unit Type: CM
Base Size: 8cm x 6cm
Manufacturer: Old Glory 15mm

These guys, like a few others in the army, are a bit of a fudge. The figures are actually Old Glory's extra heavy Persian cavalry, and I suspect are intended to represent satrapal guard or other elite units in the LAP army. They are, however, the only Persian cavalry figures I have besides a few Paphlagonian light horse. In the Antigonid list, the available Persian horse are VBU 4, and seem consistent with either regular cavalry or Persian colonists. I've based them 5 to a base, rather than the 4 their VBU suggests, because I suspect in future I'll use them in an actual Persian list for what they are, heavy cavalry, once I pick up suitable replacement figures.

The figure with the mace is a bit of a conversion. One of the things I'm realising is that the figures I picked up in trade a while back actually give me the basis for several starter armies in Impetus. Later Persians are one option, although I'll need a bag or two extra, notably of command figures. In meantime, I clipped the javelin from one of the riders, repositioned the hand, and made a mace with a bit of steel wire and brass tube. It's not perfect, but it distinguishes him from the other riders, I think it works ok.

With these guys done, the only thing left is another unit of skirmishers. I think I'll do a unit of Persian bow, as this will give me one of each type (sling, javelin, bow) to experiment in game.

I'm looking forward to them, as I found painting these guys quite fun. The patterns, variety, and bright colours make for a nice change compared to the more sober colours and consistent unit schemes I used for most of the Antigonids.

FMB

Plateaesque. Kind of.

2012-02-08T22:54:00.009-05:00

Hi,

Got in a game of Impetus last night, 300 points of Spartans vs. late Achaemenid Persians. JJM (of the THMG)was kind enough to bring along his old school 25mm figures, and I was able to get in a test run of the Spartan list I'm planning. Led by the brave general Vadizonos, my Spartans set out to drive the barbarian king and his slaves back from whence they came.

I ran a couple of Spartan phalanx, an allied phalanx, my max cavalry allotment (that would be one unit) and assorted peltasts and skirmishers. Across the table I faced three phalanx (two made up of traitorous mercenary Greeks, and one of barbarians seeking, for once, to fight like men), along with a number of cavalry. I was defender, and managed to choose ground that would funnel the barbarians into my phalanx while guarding my flanks. We tried the alternative deployment that's mentioned in this year's tournament pack, with each of us holding back a number of bases equal to our commander's bonus as a second deployment.

Typically fearful of the might of Greece, the opposing general hid himself on our far left, while the brave Vadizonos took up his place at the front of his Spartans.

The goal was to hold off his left and centre long enough for my Spartans to move into the "chutes" defined by the terrain, and core through him. While this would mean the allies would likely end up casualties, I figured the loss of some non-Spartans was a small price to pay for driving off the barbarian invaders (to the greater glory of Sparta).

The first few turns saw some fairly rapid movement. I pushed forward, aiming to get my skirmishers and peltasts into the forest and onto the hills, securing the flanks of my phalanx. My overall plan was to refuse the right flank, and throw the allied greeks, a skirmish unit, and if necessary, the cavalry at him on the that side.

The central hill became a focus of real conflict. His phalanx(es?) was deployed on the other side of it, and although by the end of the game they had pushed their way on, it acted to slow him down, and gave me the chance to move, and choose where to fight.

He advanced his cavalry on the left:

And on the right.

I think his plan was to use his horse archers on my right to flank / fold me up. Ever since playing against Otherdave and his horrific horse horde, I've had a healthy respect for CL with composite bows, and frankly, was more than a little worried about what might happen if he got around my flanks. Fortunately, he pushed them forward far enough that they disordered, and overlooked the threat my javelin-armed skirmishers represented. They slid into position to shoot point blank, and Mars was with me. They got a couple of hits, he rolled a 6 on cohesion, and poof:

No more CL. This prompted a running discussion about whether the modifiers for point blank shooting are too powerful. As someone who's been both on the receiving end (pesky Numidians, curse them!), and the giving, I quite like them as is. They don't pose a reliable threat to any unit that isn't already weak or damaged, but the potential forces both you and your opponent to take them into account.

With the horse archers out of the way, I was able to bring my allied phalanx and Spartan cavalry up to support one another, and was fairly confident I could hold the right flank, at least long enough to get the job done on the left.

He brought up his cavalry, but wasn't able to evade when I pushed my phalanx forward.

This had fairly predictable results, although as I recall it took a round or two of combat.

On the left, things were heating up. His Paphlagonian CL and Satrapal Guard CP ended up jostled in the tight terrain, and were ultimately pinned between the forest and my Spartan phalanx. For barbarians, the Satrapal guard were almost decent fighters, and despite the forward grind of my brave Greeks, managed to keep making cohesion tests, so that I was only able to wear him down one VBU at a time.

Perhaps it was the presence of their king, driving his slaves onward with fear?

His greeks, seeing their flanks in trouble, began to push forward across the hill in the centre, while their Persian imitators did likewise. I threw forward a screen of light troops to occupy them until Vadizonos and his picked men could choose their moment.

On the right, the allied phalanx had been thrown back by the Persian cavalry, with not insignificant losses. I wasn't too worried however, in that I expected that even if the damaged phalanx broke, the Spartan cavalry would plug the gap.

In the centre, a unit of his Persian bow had boldly marched into the midst of my army, and despite repeated showers of missiles from my own light troops, refused to leave. I can only assume they had stumbled across their first taste of good Greek wine, though given my troops total inability to score even one hit, perhaps the drinking occurred somewhere else . . . .

On the left, things were going well. His Paphlagonians had fallen to combined missile fire from my Skiritai and Peltasts, and his Satrapal guard retreated from the fury of our Greek spears. Clearly, whoever was leading the barbarians had decided to retire while his skin was still intact. Instead he advanced his barbarian slaves, dressed in a mockery of hoplite panaloply, towards their inevitable doom at the hands of the Spartan phalanx.

On the right, my allied phalanx had finished off the cavalry, but they were sorely damaged, and over-extended.

When they were charged by a group of mercenary traitors, however, I think Nike herself must have possessed them, for they fought like true sons of Greece.

The drove the enemy back, licking their wounds, and rethinking the choice they had made to accept barbarian gold as the price of their honour.

In the center, his kardakes managed to roll over one of my peltast units, but this left them exposed to the vengefull fury of Vadizonos and his men, who drove into the midst of them so hard, that when the killing was finished, they had passed completely by the second group of mercenary traitors.

At this point, my foe was all but vanquished, his army teetering on the edge of breaking. With his cavalry gone, and a great hole torn through his phalanx, the slightest factor could tip things in my balance. It was then that the skiritai, showing the honour that has long served Sparta, and desirous of glory, rushed forward. Daring the remaining satrapal guard to charge them, they hurled their javelins at the foe, and one, guided by the hand of Athena, struck the barbarian king through his heart. Broken, their leader dead, the barbarians fled the field.

It's been a long time since I played a game in this scale (the last time was back in June), and I'd forgotten what it was like. Playing at the larger scale is almost like playing a different game. Units move much faster, relative to the available space, and the table feels much more claustrophobic. It all makes for an even more intense game, through I think at the cost of some of the tactical manoeuvre, and the sense of pacing (skirmisher fight, cavalry fight, clash of the heavy infantry) that I've come to expect from the 15mm game.

Spartans, I must say, are a blast to play. At the beginning of the game, I was feeling a tad intimidated, in that it seemed pretty clear I was outnumbered, and looking at a serious mobility deficit. I was able to use terrain to guard my flanks, however, and was also aided by the fact that JJM hadn't taken any light infantry. This meant I could pretty much seize control of the choke points between channels of clear terrain, which let my phalanx move with security. Which they did. Spartans can, when they need to really put on the gas, and in 25mm scale, the can cover ground. For the phalanx with my general, moving 30cm a turn only meant passing a discipline test at 2+, and then one at 3+, meaning I had less than a 50% chance of failing. Spartans fight where they want, and they do it well. It was also a novelty to be able to oblique and otherwise get creative with large units, something my discipline B Antigonids can't do.

I had a blast, and hope JJM did as well. Now I just have to convince him of the validity of those point-blank modifiers . . .

FMB

Bringing up the rear

2012-02-05T17:02:00.003-05:00

Hi,

Finished the third base of pike for my large unit this afternoon:

Impetus Unit Type: FP
Base Size: 8cm x 3cm
Manufacturer: Old Glory

Of all the units I've painted for this army, I find the pike hardest to get through. the poses are the most uniform, and there's a lot of them, so it feels like a bit of grind. I also find that because I'm trying to make the formation dense, and the base is so small, there's less room to take advantage of the more scenic basing I enjoy with Impetus.

That said, when they're all ranked up with the other bases in the unit, it does look at least moderately bad-ass.

The 400 point version of the Antigonid list I'm planning has another unit of these, and converts the Lykian hoplites for pike. That's a fair whack of painting. I might end up leaving that on the to-do pile for a while. In the meantime, I'm now two bases plus a command stand from fully painted at 300 points. I'm hoping to get in a game on Wednesday, though likely using JJM's 25mm figures. If all goes according to plan, I'll be trying out my planned 300 point list for the Spartans. Assuming the game goes off (JJM is trying to confirm his availability), I should get an AAR up Thursday.

FMB

The 'cids are alright.

2012-02-02T11:28:00.004-05:00

Hi,

So, we had ourselves a gigantoliscious game of Impetus last night, two on two teams, 300 points each, so 1200 points total on the table. Watts and I teamed up with a couple of new players from the THMG; Watts teamed with DaveB and I teamed with marke. Both the new players were using marke's Seleucid figures, so we essentially had a Seleucid civil war with allies (Watts' Republican Romans are now unofficially lead by Maximus Anachronus). We actually used enough of the table that it was generally difficult to get pics of the entire action.

Watts and I arrived first, and rolled off for attacker. With my advantage in cavalry, he ended up defending, and laid out terrain. I adjusted a little, to define two or three clear "channels" punctuated with rough ground. In the picture above, you can see the two main channels available for our side to attack, defined by the hill and the two forests. On my far left was another forest that broke that side of the table up into two even narrower channels, visible here:

Once the rest of the gang arrived, we deployed. I was on our left, with Watts across the table (see above), and marke deployed to my right, opposite DaveB.

We decided to use the terrain to try and pull off a refused flank. I deployed my cavalry on the left wing. The goal was to advance through the "slot" between the hill and the forest with my infantry, and then loop around to flank DaveB's phalanx, while marke pushed forward to engage his front. I hoped to use my cavalry to screen / hold off Watts' Romans long enough to help marke break DaveB's command, which you can see across the table here:

The early stages of the game were the usual process of shuffling forward. I hit a bit of a snag on my first turn, when my leading cavalry unit disordered, and then spent several turns stubbornly refusing to rally. This had the effect of bunching up my entire cavalry wing, and had me moderately concerned that I wouldn't get them forward in time to screen my infantry.

The result was that Watts was able to "cork" the two clear channels available to my cavalry on the left, and I couldn't use my numerical advantage. The cavalry fight on our left turned into a unit-on-unit action.

Watts added insult to injury when his pesky Numidians (curse them!) swooped in and managed to deal a point of damage to my CP Agema, robbing them of their lovely impetus bonus.

I was, however, able to counter with my skirmishers and peltasts, who had advanced over the hill, and after a few successive waves of point-blank missile fire, Watts pulled the pesky Numidians (curse them!) back out of danger. Meanwhile, the rest of my cavalry managed to shake themselves into some kind of order, and moved up to engage the Roman cavalry on our far left.

In the centre, both my and marke's phalanx continued to grind forward, as the skirmish lines closed. Our opponents had pushed their light troops up a fair ways , but had left their core infantry in their deployment zones. It was becoming clear that if marke and I wanted a fight, we'd have to go to them.

On the right, marke was heading into a cavalry duel of his own. DaveB had looped a unit of Skythian horse archers around the forest defining the right flank, and a several-turn dance between them and marke's cavalry was about to commence.

On our far left, things were shaping up. While my persian cavalry had failed to do much to Watts' Romans, a double helping of greek light and medium cavalry had seen them off, while my skirmishers and peltasts had used successive waves of missiles to finally eliminate the pesky Numidians (curse them!). If they have room to maneuver and take advantage of the interpenetration rules, light infantry and skirmishers are an effective tool.

Watts still hadn't advanced his infantry, so my cavalry were clear to advance, and engage / screen the infantry as they lumbered their way around the woods. I could actually hear Han Solo yelling "You're all clear kid, now let's blow this thing and go home." The timing was perfect, as my phalanx had just cleared the wood, and could now being to swing right. The were opposed by a couple of units of cavalry, Watt's second Roman, and DaveB's heavy greek cavalry. The right of my phalanx was protected by the woods and a couple units of marke's light infantry, and my left had a skirmish screen.

On the right, marke had brought his own phalanx clear of the woods, and was poised to begin pushing back DaveB's skirmish line, while the cavalry continued their duel.

Watts at this point brought his cavalry forward in a bid to flank my phalanx, swinging them around his skirmishers. As I recall, however, they disordered before he could bring them to bear.

As a result, I was able to throw my own heavies forward and engage them. The combat was inconclusive, and the two units locked into a protracted struggle. Meanwhile, DaveB also brought up some Thorakitai to support his cavalry.

Way out on the far left, my cavalry, disordered and out of command range, began a wide sweep around the Roman flank. Watts moved his Triarii to intercept, but FP against CL is a tough match-up.

In the centre, things were going pretty well. Marke continued to push back DaveB's skirmishers while grinding forward with his phalanx. I had both my pike and Lykians lined up for a charge.

The Lykians managed to disperse the skirmishers in front of them with a reaction charge, while my pike block drove back DaveB's Thorakitai. DaveB countered with a charge into my pike with his heavy cavalry. We ended up pooching this a bit. His initial point of contact was on the flank of my unit, which meant that I didn't get to roll my bonus dice. Marke pointed out at this stage that DaveB's charge hadn't, in fact, been a flank charge (which must begin from behind a line drawn across the front of the targeted unit). Marke, despite this being his first game, had already been right about a few rule questions in the game; it seems there is some benefit to having recently read the rules. I rolled my extra dice, but shouldn't have, as the loss of depth bonus comes from contact on the flank. I'm not sure this had a significant effect on the outcome. As I recall, my pike ended up recoiling anyway, and DaveB was able to recontact, this time to the front. It was a screw-up, however, and my apologies to DaveB.

In the following turn, my Lykians took out his Thorakitai, and my phalangites finished off the cavalry. I had cavalry and light infantry lined up to engage the Roman foot, which still hadn't moved, and marke's line was beginning to consolidate with mine in a drive toward's DaveB.

Although I'd lost a stand of pike, things were looking pretty tasty from the perspective of the Antigonid heavy foot.

On the right, marke was about to finally chase off the Skythians, and his line was closing to engage DaveB, who was starting to look like he'd been caught between a rock and a hard place.

Unfortunately, we had to call the game for time at that point. The table looked more or less like this, although marke's pike were more advanced, and Watts' end of line Triarii went down to javelin fire from my greek CL before the end ;).

While there was a chance that Watts could push forward quickly, his FP were in rough ground on the hills. I think marke and I were in at least a decent position to engage DaveB's pike with a clear numerical advantage, and I'm confident that my cavalry, elephant, and lights could have held off Watts long enough to engage DaveB's command.

This was the first game we've played with multiple commands on each side, and it definitely adds a further dimension to the game. I'm also coming to appreciate the more subtle advantages of good command structure, and good commanders. I'm also increasingly of the opinion that the Antigonid list is damn good fun to play. It really does offer the chance for real combined arms dynamics, and learning how to use units together is becoming a source of pleasure for me in-game.

I'm hoping that we managed to hook a couple of new converts. I think another hour of play would have produced a decisive outcome. One factor I'm noticing with Impetus is that unless both players close to contact, it can take a while before real engagement takes place. This isn't a huge factor when dealing with FP armies like we've been playing, but I think that having to march across the table against a static force with good shooting (say, Indians or 100YW English) would likely be frustrating. This is pure conjecture, obviously, but it would be interesting to see the outcome.

Thanks to both my ally, and my opponents, for what was a tremendously fun game. Hopefully, there will be more in the future.

FMB

Cheeky Bugger . . .

2012-01-30T21:57:00.004-05:00

Hi,

Finished up a unit of skirmishing slingers.

Impetus Unit Type: S
Base Size: 8cm x 2cm
Manufacturer: Xyston, Essex(?)

In the Antigonid list, the only available slingers are Rhodian, so that's what these guys will be. Figs are a mix of Essex (I think, they're the two in bare heads and tunics) and Xyston. The latter were originally javelin armed psloi, but a little greenstuff did the trick.

I tried something a little different with the base this time, and built it up to give the impression of varying height. I'm not entirely sold on how it turned out on the narrow base, but I might try something similar on a larger one, maybe an 8x4 FL base.

Next up in production is the rear unit of the pike phalanx. With them done, all that will be left are the Persian contingent of my force, some S archers and CM cavalry. Pike likely won't be finished until the weekend, but I'm hoping to get a game in Wednesday, so with a bit of luck I'll have an AAR to break things up before then.

FMB

Heffalumps complete

2012-01-28T14:19:00.004-05:00

Hi,

Finished up my "kitbash" Antigonid elephants this morning.

Impetus Unit Type: E
Base Size: 8cm x 6cm
Manufacturer: Kitbash, Dollar Store Toy, some Essex(?)

I'm reasonably pleased with how this unit turned out. There's one little patch where the green stuff looks rough, and I'm not entirely clear on how it happened; it's almost as if one small part cured much faster than the surrounding area.

I'm actually a tad shocked at how well the ellies themselves turned out - the level of texture on the figures is terrific, and it didn't take much to bring it out.

The riders, I think, are Essex. Given that the elephants cost about $2, and the riders were a free toss in on another trade, I can't complain. These will do just fine.

I've decided to limit myself to one E unit below 500 points. There seems to be an emerging consensus that both minimum and maximum restrictions should be halved in games of this size, so having only one unit seems appropriate. I'll replace the other with some Persian cavalry in the list, and an upgrade to the general. This leaves me with only 4 bases remaining, 2 S, 1 FP (pike) and 1 CM (Persian Cavalry); the end is in sight! I have some slingers primed and ready to go, so they're next, and will likely serve as Rhodians. I'm hoping to get a game in Wednesday night, so there should be an AAR up Thursday. Until then, thanks for reading.

FMB

Pamphylian Ninjas

2012-01-25T18:12:00.002-05:00

Hi,

Next on the completion list are the first of my Phamphylian ninjas . . . I mean, skirmishers.

Impetus Unit Type: S
Base Size: 8cm x 2cm
Manufacturer: Old Glory 15mm

This was the unit that did such sterling service in my last game. I need to take at least one of these in games below 500 points, and will likely paint up another to with it.

As I've noted in the past, skirmishers play a somewhat complex role in Impetus. They're critical in the early game to screen, and help prevent early disruption and VBU loss, and in the mid-to-late game, if you can manoeuvre effectively, can pose a real threat with point-blank missile fire.

On a related note, the rest of my Spartan miniatures arrived the other day, thanks to a sale at Legends in Time. That package was closely followed by another with some Khador minis for which I traded (almost) the last of my Khador. While the latter are definitely in the "one day" pile, I'm pretty stoked about the Spartans. Along with them came some peltasts and Macedonian commanders who should do good service in the Antigonid force.

Elephants are proceeding apace, and I'm hoping to have them up on the blog by the weekend.

FMB

WIP Heffalumps

2012-01-24T09:15:00.003-05:00

Hi,

I'm a bit under the weather this week, and likely won't be out to play a game, so instead of an AAR, I thought I'd post a WIP of my elephants.

A while back, I picked up a couple bags of "Wild Jungle Animals" at the dollar store. Inside were a couple of elephant figures that looked as if they would scale well with 15mm figures; they look to stand about 10 feet at the shoulder. Since then, although the packs are still offered, the elephants inside have varied, and I've not found the same ones since.

Despite that, I thought I'd go ahead and try to use them for the Antigonids. I've added a green-stuff drape, a seat for the mahout, and have converted two old essex cavalry (couldn't tell you what code) for the mahout and rider. I'm a bit iffy on how the greenstuff turned out. To the eye, the finish looks pretty smooth, but in the photos, it seems like there are rough patches. We'll see how they paint up.

I'm also a bit iffy on the mahout. To make them fit, I had to cut the poor guys' legs off. The idea is that their legs continue underneath the elephants ears, but I'm not convinced the effect works. I'm hoping a hint of pink between the ear and the mahouts' skirts will make the suggestion work, but again, we'll see.

Worst case, I'll have viable, if imperfect, elephants to use on the table until I get more or better ones. Once these are painted, I'll post up finished pics. And, to close off, just because it makes me laugh, the return of:

FMB

Tarantines (and other things too)

2012-01-21T12:18:00.004-05:00

Hi,

As promised, the entry for the recently completed Tarantine cavalry.

Impetus Unit Type: CL
Base Size: 8cm x 6cm
Manufacturer: Old Glory 15mm

While in the Antigonid list, it's unlikely that these guys would actually be from Tarantum, they could be from one of a range of greek colonies, including those on the Ionian coast. They do just fine as generic Greek light cavalry in the Diadochi period.

On the subject of lists, I've been puttering away with Extra Impetus 4, and chewing over ideas for other armies. While Spartans will be my next Impetus project (I have the figs, and like painting the shields), I'm already thinking about what will come after.

There are maybe half a dozen different armies I'm thinking about, all of which qualify as bucket list entries, at least of the geek variety. The list includes:

1. Some kind of celtic / gallic / galatian force, mainly for the painting (plus I tend to like horde armies).

2. Marian Romans (Caesar / Pompey / Marc Antony vs. Augustus etc), because sooner or later everyone does a Roman army and that's probably my favourite period of Roman history.

3. Indo-greeks, because I think they're one of the coolest ancient armies. They have a wild mix of forces (elephants and indians and pike, oh my!) and their history is intriguing. We don't know much about them, but what we do is fascinating. For eg., they probably inventing the Buddha statue, having supported local Buddhists as a counterpoint to pre-exiting Hindu authorities, and incorporating the Hellenistic aesthetic into the religion. Cool huh?

4. Nevsky Russians (painting, plus some family history.

5. Andalusians (anyone ever read Guy Gavriel Kay's "The Lions of Al-Rassan"?).

6. Samurai. I used to own a copy of the Shogun boardgame, and still regret not painting the figures. Also, when I was around 11 or 12, I thought the Clavell Shogun mini-series was pretty much the coolest thing to exist, ever.

Among other things, this had lead me to post more new entries on TMP than is probably good for me.

Whatever the post-Spartan army turns out to be, another thing I've been chewing over is whether to do it in 15mm or 1/72. I'm finding I really like the 15mm, as they paint up relatively quick, but still have enough detail on them to make taking my time worth while. It's an enjoyable sort of tension. 1/72 on the other hand, would go nicely on the table against some of the opposing armies available via the THMG, and there are some really nice plastics out there now for Russians, Andalusians, and Samurai by Zvezda and HaT.

A final complicating factor is that the same trade that brought me the nucleus of my Antigonid and Spartan armies brought a DBA army's worth of Mongols (again, old glory). I have a soft spot for Mongols, primarily on the basis of these books and this movie, All I'd need to finish off a 300-400 point list would be 2 or 3 OG packs of allied steppe types.

I mean, really, what's not to love? This whole discussion is further complicated by the fact that I've still got a whack of SYW 6mm to complete, and, you know, a life. Out of curiosity, does anyone else indulge in this sort of geek-istential crisis? I sometimes get the impression that other people have a clear sense of planning and priorities; in contrast, I'm coming to terms with the idea that at least in terms of my hobby, I'm a creature of impulse.

The fact that Impetus has me so excited and enthusiastic about gaming and painting speaks well of it. I don't think I've been this juiced about a game since I first discovered Warmachine about 7 or 8 years ago. A big thanks to JET over at Geektactica, who first turned me on to the game.

FMB

Transformers, more than meets the (one) eye!

2012-01-18T23:17:00.005-05:00

Hi,

So, some news. My copy of Extra Impetus 4 has arrived, and, if you'll excuse the phrase, the game's afoot! While a wide range of free lists are available via the dadiepiombo website, this expansion of the game offers a wider variety (and better developed) lists. Having spent several hours muttering to myself and digging through the lead pile (and a few existential crises later), I've decided to morph my developing Pyrrhic force into an Antigonid successors list. This will allow me to use a wider range of my available lead, but still allows me to keep using the figures / units I've already painted. The main differences at this point are that my recently completed throakital / thureophoroi will count as generic peltasts, my hoplites will sub as Lykians rather than Italians, and my recently completed Tarantines (who will get their own post in a day or two) become generic Greek light cavalry (which, given they're from a greek colony city, works just fine). Also, my Italian cavalry go back to what they were, greek heavies. Now I know how Optimus Prime feels.

In celebration of my decision, I took the new list out for a spin against Watts (THMG member, universally acclaimed dictator-for-life of the club forums, and my opponent in this game) and his Republican Romans; the outcome suggests the decision was propitious. We rolled off for deployment, and with a significant advantage in mounted units, I won. Watts placed terrain, I switched around a few pieces, and we deployed.

We'd both learned a bit from previous games. Watts told me in course of the game that he deliberately "checker-boarded" his units to prevent the kind of light cavalry shenanigans of our previous match-up. I'd also learned a bit from my whalloping at the hands of Otherdave's Khurasanians, both in terms of deployment and terrain placement. I had deliberately placed the forest in the middle of the table to channel activity into two main zones. The plan was to more or less refuse a flank, sending my disposable units (elephants, skirmishers, possibly light cavalry) out to hold Watts off on the left, while the core of my force concentrated on the right to gain a local advantage.

This meant I spent the first few turns manoeuvring to cram the bulk of my forces through the channel on the right between the woods and the hills; as you can see in the picture above, this was a wee bit disruptive. On the left, my elephants with a light skirmish screen advanced toward his flank.

Just as things were starting to shake out, disaster struck. We rolled for initiative, and my dice came up snake eyes.

A roll of double ones drops your general down a level of expertise, with implications for both future initiative rolls, and one's ability to recover from disruption. This was compounded by the fact that I had downgraded my general when I re-jigged the list (picking up two rolls of destiny along the way - more on that later). At this point, I was starting to wonder if old one-eye had been drinking a bit too much the night before.

Despite the setback, I managed to dress my lines, and had things more or less where I wanted them. My elephants were set to "cork" the channel on my left, I had my light foot on the edge of the woods, and the bulk of my forces were nicely concentrated on my right. The only fly in the ointment were the pesky Numidians (curse them!), waiting to pounce on the other side of the forest.

At this point, I made a bit of a mistake. I had the opportunity to advance my peltasts through the wood, and engage his pesky Numidians in such a way as to prevent their evasion. Instead, I sent my own light cav, composed of courageous Greeks, to do the job, and predictably, his Numidians (curse them!) ran away.

This would have been okay, except that it also meant my Greeks were now facing not one, but two elements of cavalry.

On my left, my elephants were doing their job. As I recall, his skirmishers managed to get in close and do a bit of damage to one pachyderm, and Watts followed that up with a cavalry charge, but with little effect. The main problem I seemed to be having was getting them to recover from disruption.

On the right, things were going poorly, if predictably, for my Greek light cavalry. Faced with heavier cavalry on their flank, it was very much a question of now you see them:

Now you don't:

On the left, his medium cavalry fared almost as badly against my elephants, and eventually retired in the firm conviction that they weren't worth tangling with.

On the right, I continued to try and get my main force lined up for their eventual charge, while my skirmishers did yeoman service clearing the road. In the new, Antigonid, list, my cretan archers have been replaced with Pamphylian javelinmen. I don't know what Pamphylian mothers feed their children, but apparently, it turns them into ninjas.

The thing about skirmishers is that at point-blank range, they pose a real threat. They don't tend to last long when they get that close to formed troops, but it is possible to manoeuvre in such a way as to get at least one good volley off before the skirmishers are lost. Given that one bad cohesion roll can take out a unit, ignoring skirmishers is something one does at one's peril. To which Watt's cavalry can testify.

One the left, things were going fairly well. Although my peltasts in the woods had been chewed up by his cavalry, they were hanging on. His other medium cavalry were trying to manoeuvre around my flank, but the need to give my elephants wide berth had them labouring over a hill, essentially out of the game. This let my elephants begin to put pressure on his flank, pushing him in towards the limited space between the woods and the hill.

I used one elephant to "drive" his cavalry, while the other pushed in towards his light cavalry and skirmishers. I then miraculously managed to rally the unit from disruption, and put them on opportunity. In Impetus, having a unit on opportunity allows a player to interrupt the opponents turn with a reaction. For example, if your opponent begins to move a unit in the charge lane of your "opportunist", you can interrupt to charge them. If things go well, you can even wipe that unit out and charge into another in close proximity. Kind of like this.

Although this meant my elephants ended up in combat with his elite infantry (which would not work out well for them in the long run), it put real pressure on the left flank, and also prompted him to disengage his damaged Numidians (curse them). They in turn were promptly felled by short-range javelin fire from my ninjas. I mean, Pamphylians.

I definitely need to paint up this unit.

At this point, things were definitely picking up. Initiative rolls had started to go my way, and I had a couple of turns where I was able to "double up" my turns by winning key initiative rolls. Watts's commander had suffered the same fate as mine (apparently, not only Anigonus had been drinking the night before), which evened things up again. I had the core of my army lined up and ready to go, and while I hadn't been able to whittle down his core infantry, I had a fair shot, a a clear charge lane straight through his army to his camp.

I began the main attack with the cavalry, who chased away his skirmishers, and then bounced off his triarii, chewing them up a bit in the process.

His skirmishers, which had been pushed off to the flank, then gave me a taste of my own medicine, and slid in behind my flank to finish off my battered Agema. Despite this small victory, Watts seemed somewhat troubled by the situation.

I then drove in my remaining cavalry and infantry. The Lykian hoplites chewed through the principes in front of them, while the phalangites gave their target a good mauling.

My greek cavalry hammered in on the already damaged Triarii, adding insult to the injury caused by the Agema. In the end, the Triarii and their skirmishers finished off the brave Greeks, but not without cost.

Things hovered in the balance. Both of us were within a few points of breaking. On the left, his other triarii, having finished off one of my elephants, attempted a charge on the peltasts hiding in the woods, but weren't able to take them out. It must have been poison ivy . . .

On the right, Watts took advantage of the line-change rule available to legions to swap out his damaged principes for a fresh hastati. He also tried to take out my Pamphylian ninjas (I mean, javelinmen), but true to their training, they evaded him.

On the next, and final turn, the Pamphylians finished off the damaged principes in a hail of javelins, while his Hastati went down under the pikes of the phalangites. With their army in tatters, and their camp open and undefended, the Roman army broke and fled the field.

What an incredible game. Tense throughout, and about as close as they come. If Watts had managed to take out either the peltast / skirmisher combo, or one more base of either phalanx, he would have won. One of the things I really like about Impetus is the unpredictability of combat. While there are factors you can control, there is always the potential of things to go south. Winning requires that you commit your troops, but that commitment always carries risks.

Overall, the game went as well as I could ask. My basic plan seemed to work, and while I had some abysmal luck early in the game, there were a couple of critical moments where the dice went my way. I'm finding the elephant / skirmisher combo is terrific as a disposable, but effective threat, especially against cavalry. In terrain where they can avoid being outflanked, they can hold up a whole wing. In retrospect, I may have thrown away my cavalry in the successive attacks on his triarii, but to his credit, Watts used the combo of them and his skirmishers effectively, and in the end, the cavalry sacrifice let me get my block of heavy infantry engaged. While the downgraded commander meant some frustration with both initiative rolls and my ability to rally, having two "rolls of destiny" at my disposal made a difference, keeping both my itallian cavalry and the Lykian phalanx relatively fresh into the late stages of the game.

**update** Just realised I played this game at 12 points over the limit. I missed the jump in points between the elephants that appear in the Pyrrhic list, and the ones that appear in the Antigonid list. My apologies to Watts. I'll have to give him a chance at vengeance - something I'm sure he'll want ;)

While I have some slingers primed and ready, I really do think that unit of Pamphylians deserves some paint. I'll try to give the the attention they earned over the weekend.

FMB

Thureophoroi-oy-oy

2012-01-17T11:44:00.005-05:00

Hi,

Finished these guys up a couple of days ago, but didn't have a chance to get pics up until today.

Impetus Unit Type: FL
Base Size: 8cm x 4cm
Manufacturer: Old Glory 15mm

They are Thureophoroi, mercenary troops defined by their use of the Thureos. There's a neat run-down on them here. I think once we move beyond 300 points, I'm going to try and make room for more of them in the list.

Technically, these guys are Throakital, which are basically better armoured Thureophoroi. The Pyrrhic list allows for half of deployed FL to upgraded to VBU 5. I'm not sure if this is to distinguish between heavier and lighter troops, or between the more "tribal" FL (like Thracians) and professional mercenaries like the Thureophoroi. Once I get more units on the table, these guys will get the VBU upgrade, as their mail is distinctive enough to mark the difference on-table.

I've yet to see this unit do much of anything in a game, although with only three games under my belt, it's likely too soon to judge. Generally, I've stuck them on a flank in rough terrain, where they are promptly ignored by my opponent. I might try mixing it up a little against my opponent this coming Wednesday.

I've got a unit of Tarantine cavalry in process, and will likely do some skirmisher bases after that. The THMG has tentatively scheduled a mini-tournament for the end of February, and it's got me motivated to paint. In the list I've been running, the one thing for which I don't have figures are the elephants. I had planned to pick them up post-Christmas, but found a too-good-to-pass-up deal on some Xyston Spartans, and so will have to wait until next paycheque. In the meantime, I'm (im)patiently waiting for my copy of Extra Impetus 4, and sorting through my leadpile. It is a very dangerous thing to have enough figures to start several armies, but not enough to finish them.

FMB

French Cavalry: La Reine

2012-01-15T11:13:00.004-05:00

Hi,

Finished up my first unit of cavalry for Might and Reason, again using Baccus 6mm figures. They're the heavy cavalry regiment "La Reine".

Although I painted a unit or two of these guys in the past, getting paint on this unit seemed atypically hard.

My basic technique for painting 6mm depends on being able to identify what bits on the figure represent what bits in "real life", and then using high contrast to pick them out.

For some reason, I had real trouble picking out what was what on these figs, at least to start. I was also working with red as a base colour for the uniform, a colour with which I've always struggled to get good contrast.

In part, this may have simply been a product of the high detail on the figures, and my own fatigue, as most of my painting has been done late in the evening for the last while. I'm hoping that future cavalry will be less of a struggle (since I plan to max out my cavalry allotment for my SYW French).

On the workbench I've got some Thureophoroi for Impetus. There's talk of running some kind of small, local tournament for the game late in February, mainly as a painting spur. It's already having the desired effect, and I'm looking forward to getting a few more units added to that army by the time the tournament rolls around. In addition, the second batch of figs for the SYW French arrived a few days ago, so I now have enough figs to do an entire basic army. Looking forward to it.

Who shot me?

2012-01-12T13:10:00.007-05:00

Hi,

Got in another Impetus game last night, 300 point, 15mm, my half-finished Pyrrhic army vs. Otherdave's (of the THMG) Khurasanians, posing as Ayubbid Egyptians. And, man, my poor Greeks didn't know what hit them. To be honest, however, their fate was as much from my inexperience vs. horse bow as anything else.

I ran the same list as last week: two blocks of heavy infantry (one pike, one now complete greek phalanx), two units of light foot, three skirmishers, two elephants, and one each of heavy, medium, and light foot. He had four units of medium (heavy?) cavalry, and the rest of his army was light horse with composite bows, plus one unit of spear-armed lights. Imagine this but, you know, turned up to eleven:

With that many mounted units, he ended up as attacker, and I had the opportunity to place terrain. At which point I made my first, and probably worst mistake. In a "standard" Impetus game, the defender can place up to 6 pieces of terrain, and the attacker can move or remove up to two. I really, REALLY should have placed all 6. Instead, I only put down four, he removed two, and ended up with plenty of room for his light horse to manoeuvre.

I deployed with my Thureophoroi to the right on a hill, then my heavy infantry, then elephants, then Cavalry, with light cav and skirmishers to the fore. He had his heavier cavalry in the centre, and his lights on the wings. You can get a sense of the deployment here (Thureophoroi are off camera to the right).

He advanced, swinging his wings in towards me, and I replied by pushing forward my Tarantines and skirmishers. There was the usual disruption-causing "pew-pew" between the lights at longer range:

And then things got a little more serious. I knew that my best shot would be to try to tangle him up with the skirmishers, and then hope I could push home my elephants or heavy cav, and began to manoeuvre in an attempt to do so. He began a stead movement to my left, in an effort to draw me in and flank me with his light cavalry.

This is how things looked from the perspective of my cavalry on the left. You can see the basis for my concern.

On the right, I was starting to wonder how in blazes I was going to come to grips with opposing units that moved more than twice as fast as mine, and without many of the movement restrictions I faced (turns out the answer was, I wasn't).

After a few turns, he'd begun to envelope my left flank, and began to pepper my medium cavalry with a hail of bowfire. LC, with a 360 degree firing arc, composite bows, a base VBU of 4, and the ability to move oblique without disruption, make pesky numidians (curse them!) look like a bit of a joke.

I tried to hold off the advancing LC, but I felt a little like Biggs in the Death Star run, they were just coming in too fast.

This ended fairly predictably, with my poor Greek CM riddled to death by arrows. They seem to consistently fill the role of sacrificial lamb. Maybe I should have painted them with red shirts? At any rate, they did their job, and held the CL off long enough for my CP to run a charge in against his heavier horse. They more of less pulled a "Scots Greys", and pursued to exhaustion. They died gloriously in the effort, and managed to do serious damage to two of his heavy units before being ground down.

One the right, my skirmishers had pushed forward, and done a bit of damage / disruption, but just couldn't handle the multiple engagements at point-blank range from his powerful compound bows. This left the way clear for my elephants, and me with a bit of a quandary. There was no way I was going to get my ellies in against his light cav, and no way they were going to survive multiple turns of bowfire. With my heavies and my skirmisher screen gone, I figured it wouldn't be long before he trotted up and began picking off my heavy infantry at leisure. The situation looked something like this:

I figured it would be better to have the ellies go down fighting, and it might shake things up, so I sent them both in. One of them never got to close, and was arrowed to death. The other apparently had John McClane as a mahout. I managed (with discipline c) to advance, wheel, and charge, and then actually said, out loud, "I only need a two up to make this". Of course, I promptly rolled a one, and my disrupted elephants were left about a centimeter away from two of his remaining CP/M units. They, of course, promptly charged.

But the elephant didn't die. So another unit got stuck in. But the elephant didn't die. In fact, one of his cavalry units did.

They poor heffalumps did go down eventually, of course, but it was with their trunks wrapped around the bloody corpses of their enemies. I don't know if elephants go to Valhalla, but Odin, if you're listening, you might want to look into it.

This left me in a pretty sketchy situation. All I had left on the table were my heavy and light infantry. He had complete control of the board, had lost only three units, and was making eyes at my camp. I had nothing much left to lose, and pushed forward my infantry, the outcome was pretty much forgone.

What's not visible in that photo are the two or three units of CL off camera to the bottom. They were able to raid the camp (which they'd have done sooner had we discovered the update allowing I: 0 units to sack the baggage), and ended the game.

This was a tense, exciting game for me. We had a few odd situations come up, including one dealing with the interaction of evasion, zones of control, and opportunity charges we're still trying to sort out, but Impetus has solid forum support, and I suppose we'll get the rules right eventually. It's the first time I've played against a list with this much of a ranged and mobility advantage over mine, and I suspect there's going to be a learning curve. There's plenty in my army that can kill his CL - my CP, EL, and FP can all do the trick handily, but it's coming to grips with them that's killer. Pinning CL in combat seems to depend on a combination of three units: an S to disrupt them, an initial charger to force an evasion, and a follow-up charge to pin them in combat.

The trouble is, three-on-one setups like that require skill to set up, and the local superiority of units to permit the combination. While hopefully time will provide the former, the latter requires deliberate redesign of the list, something I'm a little loathe to do. I'd like to play this list again but taking advantage of the ability to put more terrain down. My FL never really got into the game, but might have done good service with more terrain and different deployment. At the end of the day, I need to learn how to use my list against this kind of force. I'm looking forward to a rematch ;)

I'll leave you with a picture of Otherdave's rather spiffy camp. One of these days, those sheep are in for a rude surprise . . . ;)

Going deep . . . .

2012-01-08T14:27:00.004-05:00

Hi,

The game I played on Wednesday seems to have charged my painting batteries, as I've managed to finish the rear base for my Pyrrhic hoplites.

Impetus Unit Type: FP
Base Size: 8cm x 3cm
Manufacturer: Old Glory 15mm

As with the first base, these guys are probably a little anachronistic. Their gear is more appropriate, as I understand it, to the Pelopponesian or Persian wars. The hoplites fighting with Pyrrhus would have been either Itallioate or post-Alexandrian greeks; their gear was lighter and used different helmets.

That said, these are the hoplites I have, and will be using for some kind of army once the Pyrrhic force is complete. I might replace these guys with "proper" hoplites later, but I'm happy enough for now.

Speaking of the next army, I'm leaning towards a Syracusan force, both for historical and army formation reasons. There's a good three hundred years of interesting conflict in and around Sicily that seems to get short shrift from mainstream histories, but I've been digging away at it. Add in the fact that they're a little more varied than your average Magna Graecia army, and it's rather appealing.

Here they are ranked up with their companion base, looking all fearsome.

I've got a game coming up on Wednesday vs. some Kurasanians, and will be posting an AAR. Next on the painting table are some SYW horse, followed by some Thureophoroi for Impetus.

TMtW

3ieme Navarre

2012-01-07T10:35:00.004-05:00

Hi,

Fist of the "vieux" regiments for Might and Reason. These are the troisieme regiment de Navarre, one of the senior regiments of the French army. In-game, they have a slightly higher combat rating (presumably to reflect their better morale?).

The current build plan calls for three more of this class of infantry.

I'll also need three more of the regular line (of which I have two finished) and two foreign regiments (likely one Irish and one Swiss).

Next up for the SYW will likely be some French horse, as I'd like to take a break from the infantry, and will need several units of cavalry as well.

In the meantime, I'm working on the back base of my hoplite unit for Impetus. Wednesday's game got me jazzed up for some more, and I have a window of opportunity, so it's time to get some brushwork in.

A crushing tie!

2012-01-05T09:15:00.006-05:00

Hi,

Got in my first game in Lord knows how many months last night, a 300 point Impetus game against Watts of the THMG. Man was it fun ;) We're both about half-painted at that point level, and were using plenty of blank sabots, but it gave us a chance to get our finished stuff on the table and give the rules a good butchering.

I was running my Pyrrhic list against his republican Romans. He had a pretty standard force, doubling up on a Triarii / Hastati / Principes / Velites formation with some can support, and I ran a core of Phalangites and Hoplites with skirmisher, light infantry, elephant, and a mix of cav.

We went with consensual terrain, and as attacker, I was allowed to move a terrain piece (denying him a hill) and deploy second. I put my heavier cavalry and thureophoroi on my left, my heavy infantry in the centre, and my elephants, the bulk of my skirmishers, and my light cavalry on my right.

My apologies for the sub-optimal pics. I'm going to have to get some better close-ups in future games. The first few turns saw my flanks advancing, and some indecisive conflict between our skirmishers and cavalry.

His pesky, pesky Numidians (curse them!) drew first blood, their javelins (which we discovered are lethal at point blank range) whittling down my Greek medium cavalry.

On the right, I sent forward a screen of skirmishers and light cav to tie up his units, while my elephants manoeuvred for a charge.

This is how the field looked prior to our first real contact. I had advanced my wings while my heavy foot plodded forward. Roman infantry are a pain in combat, and I've learned that deep formations like pike are vulnerable from the flanks. The goal was to tie him up on the wings, and hopefully cause some disruption and superficial VBU damage prior to the contact of our main forces.

I disrupted and damaged his medium cavalry with my light Tarantines, and then hammered home the heffalumps, rolling nine dice, and getting no hits. The cavalry got a hit in (on 2 dice!), and I managed to fail my cohesion test by 2. There is no justice, though I suppose it serves me right for not even having the miniatures on the table ;)

On the left, things weren't going especially swimmingly either. Over the next few turns, the Numidians (curse them!) kept harassing my advancing cavalry, and managed a lighting strike at the end to finish off my poor Greeks (they retired to the sidelines to commiserate).

This did, however, leave my Epirote heavy cavalry unengaged, with the Numidians (curse them!) pushed off to the side, and lined up for dramatic charge.

Fresh, rested, with a perfect charge lane open to his infantry, my brave Epirotes thundered forward, rolled nine(!) dice, and managed the following:

Sound familiar? This was something of a theme last night. I had three really good, hammering charges, and the first two were tragic. There was much gnashing of teeth, and it was pretty clear that someone was going to be falling on his sword by nightfall.

The next few turns were mainly devoted to attrition. I pushed forward with my cavalry, elephants, and skirmishers, expending them in an effort to thin out and wear down his legions prior to contact. His Numidians (curse them!) raided my baggage, but then were then unable to recover from disruption for several turns, which pretty much kept them out of the game (presumably they broke into the wine casks). On the right, my elephants finally rolled over his cavalry (though they were brought down to 1 VBU in the process), and limped and lumbered their way towards the Roman camp.

I think we both learned something about light troops last night. He made fine use of his blunting my second unit of ellies, and I was able to use my skirmishers, light infantry and light cav to good effect softening up his infantry formations. As long as lighter troops have room to manouvre (evade, disengage, etc), they are a real annoyance to heavy troops. While they likely won't do real damage, it is possible, and the potential alone is enough to cause one to tear out hair and gnash teeth(see that unit in the middle of his infantry? That's my Tarantines).

Things were heating up. I was shedding units like mad, but in this list, you pretty much have to take out one of the big infantry units to break the army. His legions were dispatching my light troops, but were being worn down in the process. The last turns of the battle saw our infantry lines clash. My phalanx was nicely lined up:

And I hammered it home in, if not a devastating, at least an effective charge. After some bumping and grinding (where I bounced off a Triarii unit, then closed on his rotating lines of princepes / hastatii), I had wiped out a unit (or two?) of legion, and had my hoplites ready for a second charge.

We had to call the game at that point, and things hung very much in the balance. We were tied at that point for VBUs, and both of us were close to a break point - a couple of bases either way would do it. We rolled to see who would have initiative, and he won, which might have been enough to do it right there, but who knows? Combat in this game, although subject to manipulation, is chancy (just ask my elephants), and we were at a point of crisis. My only real regret is that I never dealt with those pesky Numidians. Curse them.

The game was a blast, a complete nail-biter, and Watts, as always, is an engaging and gracious opponent. This has me completely jazzed to get some more 15s painted and on the table. I'm part way through another unit of SYW French, but once their done, I think it'll be some hoplites.

As an aside, the guys at the table behind us had a game of Lasalle going. I have no idea what happened, other than Russians vs. French, but it looked damn cool, so here's some completely gratuitous eye-candy. Enjoy ;)

**update Jan. 7 **

JJM at the THMG was one of the players in the Lasalle game, and posted an AAR with loads of pics. Check it out!

Reflections, decisions, plans within plans

2011-12-28T15:37:00.007-05:00

Hi,

In preparation for the traditional end-of-year taking stock post, I've just been looking over the lead pile and thinking about everything that's gone on over the last year.

Looking back, I started January with high hopes. I had just completed the mother of all trades, finally put together a respectable Soviet Strelkovy force for FoW, was ogling my newly acquired Blazing Sun fleet for Dystopian wars, and was well on the way to finishing the 1000 points of Bretonnians I had committed to on Warseer. Around this time last year, I looked like this:

Life has a way of surprising you. Things have been a bit intense around here, with a custody battle, a new child, a move, and some fairly significant ramping up at work. At this point, I've traded or sold off a good portion of the mother of all trades, along with my Strelkovy, to help pay some early legal fees. I've made little more progress on the Bretonnians (still about 100 points shy of my goal), and still haven't painted more than one Blazing Sun destroyer. On the other hand, I've begun several new projects, and while the last half of the year's been a bit barren of opportunities to both paint and play, did get in some progress.

As things stand, here are the projects I'm hoping to work on over the next year.

1. Seven Years War French in 6mm

This is a project I started several years back, was more than a tad keen on, and ended up having to abandon. I can't begin to express how excited I am to see some of the guys at the THMG get going on this project. We'll likely begin with Sam Mustafa's Might and Reason ruleset, but there's also been discussion of trying Black Powder and the to-be-released SYW rules from Polemos / Baccus.

2. FoW Cossacks

This will be my first mid-War project for FoW, as to date, all my Soviet armies (3, not counting the cossacks) have been for the later part of the conflict. While the release of Red Bear, the late war compilation, has me excited, I'm keen to try mid-war, and there are mid-war players at THMG, so I'm hoping to take advantage.

3. Bretonnians (with a possible twist)

I started these as a project for WFB, but there's been a growing interest in Impetus at the local club, and it's not too much of a stretch to use these for a free company or late medieval french force. The Bretonnians are sort of Hollywood French, and while I suspect it may raise a few grognard hackles, many of the models, especially the older Perry sculpts, are entirely viable, as they were based off HYW French anyway. To do this, I'd like need some dismounted gens d'arms types, but I have searches running on ebay, and we'll see what comes.

While Impetus uses dioramic basing, and my Brets are based for WFB, it's less of an issue than it seems. The plan is to make dioramic sabots for the models I have. I'm fairly keen to paint some of this stuff, especially more bow, mounted yeomen, and perhaps some questing knights (the least historical, but far and away some of the more characterful models in the Bret range).

4. Pyrrhic / Successors, Guys with Pikes in 15mm for Impetus.

Oh, how I want to work on these. If only I didn't have so many things demanding time. As things stand, these guys have been on the back burner for a while, I think because the list I'm building (Pyrrhic) was a bit of a compromise. I'm putting them together from a grab-bag of stuff I got in an online trade. I suspect if I got to use them it would spur me to greater effort, but as things stand, no one at the club is playing Impetus in 15mm, so . . . These guys will get some love eventually. In fact, as I write this, I'm thinking about priming some up . . .

5. 1/72 Napoleonics, for Lasalle . . . or something.

Realistically, these guys are an excuse to paint some of the droolingly good newer 1/72 sculpts that have been coming out of late. I'm nominally basing them for Lasalle, but that's as much a pretext as anything. The reality is I'm never going to be able to use these until I have a house, with a dedicated geek room, and two painted armies, and who knows when that will happen. But in the meantime, I'm going to keep doing a base of these whenever the fancy strikes me, as they're too damn pretty not to paint.

6. Everything else.

Dystopian Wars attracts me as much as ever, I have a tonne of unpainted lead in 15mm, I'm likely sitting on around 4000 points of orks, including some very old-school stuff, plus I have a viable Khador force for Warmachine (got a cool idea for a quartered colour scheme on these guys), and even some Beastmen.

If this last year has taught me anything about my hobby, it's to give myself some room. This year didn't see a lot of things completed, but what I did paint or play I enjoyed. Time to play is more restricted with a new baby in the house, and for all that work has been occupying more of my time, there have been rewards there as well. I think the goal, if any, for the coming year is to take things as they come, and make sure that the time I do have to spend on the hobby be relaxing and enjoyable, rather than feel like yet another thing I have to get done.

For those of you out there that follow my ramblings here, I hope the upcoming year is full of joy and fortune, and I hope you all get as much out of our pastime as I have.

TMtW

Chartres

2011-12-23T17:24:00.005-05:00

Hi,

Finished up a second base of SYW French infantry for Might and Reason.

They're the 96th regiment, Chartres.

There's a convenient parallel between the infantry codes offered by Baccus for the French and the way in which it is categorized in M&R. The game distinguishes between the nouvelle regiments, and the higher quality infantry in the form of the vieux and foreign regiments. Baccus offers infantry with no, front, and double turnbacks.

Foreign infantry in French service (like the Irish, German, and Itallian regiments) tended to have double (front and back) turnbacks on their coats. Vieux regiments tended to have front turnbacks to show off coloured lining and waistcoats.

Nouvelle regiments sometimes had turnbacks and sometimes didn't, but generally had white uniforms with only a bit of colour, typically at cuffs and collar. My plan is to used the Baccus code without turnbacks for these regiments.

This gives me a quick and easy way to ID units on the table, without having to pick up bases. I'm also thinking about using other, modelled indicators, such as extra officers, etc. for the higher-grade infantry.

More cossacks

2011-12-22T18:38:00.003-05:00

Hi,

A little pre-Christmas update, as posting might be sketchy over the next week. I've had these guys painted for some time, but only finished up basing today.

Pics are a little suboptimal, as I've yet to pin down a good location in the new place, but they'll do for now, and I'll try to get some better ones down the road.

This brings me to two mounted platoons and one dismounted. I might branch out and paint up some mortars next, just for a change of pace.

These guys will likely be a priority project for 2012, as I'd like to get a playable FOW force on the table by mid year.

Top priority in the short term remains the SYW French. I'd like to knock out two units of them to one of anything else, at least until I have something playable. Good thing is that the 6mm figs tend to paint up pretty quickly.

Merry Christmas to any and all who read this, and here's hoping 2012 is a fun, productive year in geeking for you all.

Been gone too long

2011-12-11T10:32:00.004-05:00

Hi,

My apologies for the long-term lack of posting. New baby, plus work, plus a move have put a considerable cramp in my time for painting, and until very recently, I've had nothing worth posting. Finally getting back into painting again, and have the first instalment of the secret project to show.

Behold the 82me regiment du Foix:

Some years ago, I started down the road of a 6mm project for the seven years war, using Sam Mustafa's Might and Reason rules. I got as far as 4 units of infantry and a couple cavalry, but then divorce, court, and moving got in the way, and I found myself in a place where the likelihood of ever getting a chance to play was profoundly limited, so I sold them.

A few months back, one of the guys at the THMG mentioned trying out the game, and I jumped at the chance. Since then, a few more guys at the club have jumped on board. Even better, there appears to be a bonanza of new rules coming out. Peter Berry at Baccus 6mm is planning on releasing a set of SYW rules for his Polemos series of rules, and Sam Mustafa is setting to release a combined ruleset / campaign system, Maurice. Good times ahead.

The plan is to build up a French force (because, you know, I like the French) via the M&R rules, and then expand / adapt as necessary as we try the other rule systems out. Baccus has a terrific 6mm range, and some of the figures, notably the officers, and first rate.

So far, we've got a good range of armies in the works. Can't wait to get these guys on the table.

Dismount!

2011-09-10T20:10:00.003-04:00

Hi,

Finished up the dismounted version of the first platoon of cossacks. The plan is to get two mounted and two dismounted as the core of a 1000 point force. Later, as more gets painted, I can use the stuff I've got to give me the option to dismount in game.

Work got going in earnest again this week, but despite this, managed to get these guys done. The lack of horses does make the painting go quicker.

I did some head swaps on these. Battlefront only makes models for the mounted and dismounted cossack platoons, but there are a number of other cossak units. Two that I plan to include in the 1000 point list are 57mm AT guns and 82mm mortars. In order to make the gun teams fit in, I figured I'd use some head swaps and creative painting. The helmeted heads on the regular cossack platoons aren't seem to work ok, as I've seen several pictures of cossack units wearing helmets.

It's a start ;)

Urrah! Pobeda!

2011-09-04T09:36:00.003-04:00

Hi,

So some time ago, after the mother of all trades, and before the wackiness that began in January, I swapped out a pile of British FoW models for some cossacks and cash. The plan was to add some of the cossacks on to the existing Soviet force I had been working on. For those of you unfamiliar with Soviets in FoW, they are the horde army, i.e., to play them, you have to paint a lot of them. I've painted them twice now, and both times, ended up selling them off to help pay for lawyers - the first time during my divorce, and the second time to fight (again) for residential custody of my son. For me, Soviets are associated both with significant labour, struggle, and a deep sense of bitterness.

While this may help put me in a historical mindset for playing them (and it is at this point I wish Blogger provided smilies), it left me with little motivation to paint the horsey horde, until quite recently. It's occurred to me that if I actually want to get a game in, or at least a game that's not GW (more on that in another post), FoW is my best bet. The 1/72 Napoleonics are going to be a while before they're playable, even at full-tilt production, and while there are some secret projects in the wings (no, I won't say what, it's secret), they're at least several months away.

Hence these:

To be honest, I'm a little iffy on the sculpts. I've painted some OG horses, and seen 15mm horses by the folks at AB, and they look like little horses. The BF ones, however, just seem off somehow. I kept wondering if the cossack horse herds were suffering from some sort of degenerative nerve disorder. That said, the riders are decent, and once I get a couple dozen stands on the table, I doubt I'll much mind.

The plan is to start working towards a 1000 point list, with one mounted company and one dismounted company, along with some AT guns and mortars in support.

These are Don cossacks, unlike the Kuban cossacks that BF typically illustrates. The Don cossacks are an odd case - while most of the cossacks that went over to the Axis were from the Don host, several Soviet cavalry divisions were still raised from the Don as well. The Don cossacks had a slightly different uniform - their schapkas are red with a black cross, and they typically had a red stripe down their trousers. I've painted this, but it doesn't seem to show up well in all the pics.

Between what I got in the trade, and a box set my beloved gave me for Christmas last year, I have enough for 5 mounted and 2 dismounted platoons. I'm hoping to stretch the latter with some judicious head swapping, but may need to pick up a few blisters of the dismounted fellas. In the mean time, I'll have plenty of painting to do.

Even as a relatively elite army for Soviets (rated Guards, i.e., fearless trained), their are four bases to a platoon, up to four platoons to a company, and at least two companies in the battalion. That's lots of horses. I'm going to keep plugging away at this between now and Christmas. What I'd like to do is get a 1000 point army done by then, punctuated by the occasional burst of napoleonic painting when I need a change. Around Christmas, the secret project should be kicking in. I'm pretty stoked about it, but for now, mum's the word.

FMB

The big picture

2011-09-01T09:17:00.004-04:00

Hi,

Or at least, a big post with pictures . . . .

Last night I managed to get out to the Dueling Grounds for the first time since before the new addition arrived. I didn't get a game in, but did manage to sit in of most of a game of Lasalle, and get some pics of a biggish Impetus game going on at the next table over. There's plenty of pictures in this post, so a heads up to those of you with slow internet.

First up, I managed to get some pictures of the completed Hussar base. We had a guy in doing some plaster work in the apartment, and in the process of cleaning up the dust, I found an old can of Armory matt varnish, which unlike the GW stuff, seems to last forever. A couple of light coats later, and the Hussars are ready for their public ;)

Next up, I got some shots of an Impetus game that JJMicromegas from THMG was coaching for some of the guys. I didn't sit in and follow it, but it looked good. The figures are all from JJM's collection of "true 25s", and they were playing a fairly large game - around 400 points I think it was, Philip vs. Sthpartaaaaaaaa!.

The highlight of the evening for me, however, was a game of Lasalle played by michaeld (playing Russians, guards IIRC) and James Smith (playing Waterloo notBritish), again, both from the THMG. The game was played on a table the club recently put together for a FoW show in Barrie. Looked marvelous.

Opening moves saw the notBritish advance, with an aggressive push on their right towards the Russian position around the manor house.

The Russians formed up to welcome their guests.

After both sides deployed battaries on the notBritish right, and traded some fairly ineffective shots, the notBritish concentrated their attack on the left side of the manor. In the lead were the shaky, amateur Hanoverian cavalry, who apparantly were so new to the business they didn't realise the trouble they were in.

On the left, the notBritish used the gullies that cut across the ground to advance under cover towards the Russian line.

With a (possibly drunken?) "Hurrah!", the Hanoverians charged a battary of Russian guns deployed to the right of the manor. One can only assume their officer was so amateur he was unaware of the effect cannister could have at short range. A more experienced leader would probably realised he was about to lead his troops into a dog food factory.

Of course, a more experienced leader would also not have over-run the Russian guns, and barrelled on into two battalions of Infantry, only one of which was able to form square in time.

You can see the abandoned Russian guns behind the upper set of units.

Amazingly, both cavalry units were thrown back in disarray, and the Russians promptly formed the rest of their infantry into square. It was around this time I had to leave, but the battle was apparantly settled by a clash between the elite cavalry on both sides - Russian guard and uhlans vs. Brunswick. When the game was called for time, the Brunswickers had thrown back the Russians, and the notBritish were closing in on all sides.

I have to say, the game looked terrific, and played much quicker than I had expected from reading the rules. If I had the cash, I'd be putting in an order for 15mm napoleonic figs right now. As it is (unless I find a buyer for some fo the geek detritus I'm trying to sell off), I'm going to be good and stick to the projects I've got going already. Priority is to get something on the table I can play. More on that next post.

Shiny.

2011-08-26T00:48:00.005-04:00

Hi,

Had a request over at Benno's Figures for a tutorial on how I've been doing my bases for the 1/72 project.

My main priority when it comes to basing is to get multiple textures on the base. The ground I walk around on is typically a lot more complex than the "layer of sand" approach I see on lots of wargaming figures. I figure that if I can replicate that complexity of texture, the bases will look more real. Consequently, there's a number of steps here. Bear with me if this is more detail than you can stand ;)

Step 1: Glue figures to base (I'm using some leftover bases from an earlier project that were professionaly laser cut, but am just as likely to use whatever scrap I have lying around, and my cheapy jigsaw from Canadian Tire).

Step 2: Gloss varnish the glued figs, and try to bring the varnish down over the figure's base and on to the unit's. Although I've not had problems with paint peeling from the soft plastic used for 1/72 figs, they have a reputation. By bringing the varnish coat down, I'm hoping to avoid this problem.

Step 3: Using drywall filling compound, smooth out the transition between the figures and the unit base. I find this tends to diminish the "ants on a log" effect. It also puts down the first layer of texture on the base. The stuff I've been using goes on pink and dries white. It also has a kind of rubbery texture that's easy to work with.

Step 4: Dribble, spread and otherwise distribute glue (white craft glue, the same stuff the cub uses for art projects) around the base, being sure to favour those areas that didn't get filler compound, but also to try and further break up the transition between figure and base. Then, dip in sand.

Step 5: Second sand dip. I find after five minutes, the glue starts to seep up around the sand (or maybe the sand settles?). You can sort of see the gloss of the glue in the bottom of this picture:

The effect is that the first layer of sand on the base gets damp with glue, so I dip it again, then let it dry completely. This isn't critical, but it does ensure good coverage.

Step 6: Once the glue is dry, paint the entire base black. I use the same black gesso I use to prime the figures, but any black paint will do. This helps the sand and drywall compound bind, and adds to the overall durability of the base.

Step 7: Paint the entire base brown. I use craftpaint for this (Delta Ceramcoat).

Step 8: Drybrush. I've been using a cooler grey-brown on these figs, but generally, you're looking to bring out some of the differences in texture between the filler and the sand, so the actual colour is a matter of taste and intent.

Step 9: I put down another layer of glue, and then dip in green flock. I try to spread the glue in a way that it suggests what's going on in the base. For example, with the Hussars, I've put more at the front of the base, the idea being that the galloping horses are tearing up the turf and leaving exposed earth behind. After five minutes or so, once the flock settles (as in step 5) I do a second dip. Unlike the second sand dip, however, I use a different material. This time, instead of using flock, I use static grass. This gives me a kind of layered texture to the basic vegetation, and seems to produce a better overall effect.

Step 10: Detailing. I'll generally try to include a few things on each base to break it up and draw attention - in this case the log, plus a few other things that didn't show up in the above picture. I'll get a good shot in the morning when everything is dry. I usually use a matt spray over the whole base, but I need to pick up a new can, so the Hussars will have to stay shiny for now.

Hussar WIP. For the Motherland.

2011-08-11T17:32:00.004-04:00

Hi,

Just a WIP of the hussar unit I'd primed up last post. I'm going to do this first unit as the 10th Hussars, who served in the Peninsula as late as 1813. I'm reasonably pleased with how it's turning out.

One thing I've been noticing is a bit of tension as I paint, between the style I tend to use for 28mm and what I developed for 15mm. The latter is really an extention of how I learned to paint 6mm - bright colours, high contrast, exaggerated details. The former is much more subtle. These 1/72 Italeri / Revell figs have been lovely sculpts, rewarding the 28mm style, but will ultimately rely on the mass impact I associate with 15mm stuff. I'm curious to see how my style changes as I continue this project.

On other fronts, these arrived in the mail today, by way of Bartertown:

That's a Greylord Ternion and 10 (yes, 10) MoW Shocktroopers. With the 'jacks that came in last week, that works out to over 35 points of Khador silliness. Any suggestions as to a warcaster to go with these brutes?

More Frenchies

2011-08-07T13:19:00.004-04:00

Hi,

Despite the turmoil associated with the new recruit, I've managed to get another base finished for my first unit of Lasalle Penninsular French.

They've still got their shine on from their topcoat, and I'm leery of dulling them down unitl I get my hands on some brush-on matt. The spray stuff I've been using is dusting like mad, and I'm not going to bugger these up. Might have to wait a bit on that however, as I suspect it'll be a few weeks before I can get down to the game shop.

I'm re-encountering the cardinal rule of mass armies in larger scales, i.e., they take time. I'm not as happy with this base as I was with the first, I think because I rushed them a little bit to get them finished. There's always a push for me to get things on the table, that sometimes leads to cutting corners in painting. Not sure why, as I won't be able to play with these until I get both a French AND English force finished. Must remember to slow down. Here's the new guys ranked up with the first base:

The flag should really have lettering on it. I didn't attempt it as I figured it would be a guaranteed way to muck things up - I'd take a stab at lettering on a smooth surface, but making it look like more than splodges on a folded fabric like that is, I think, beyond me. It looks, however, like there's a bit of texture in the sculpt that I missed with eyeballs, but shows up in photos. Maybe I'll get brave and try to pick it out later.

Waiting in the wings are these guys:

Theyr'e French Hussars from the Italeri 6008 / Revel 2586 pack. These really are lovely sculpts, with some delicate detailing. The plan is to do a peninsular army with light cavalry suppport. That translates to 6 infantry units, 5 cavalry (2 Hussar, 2 Chasseur, 1 Dragoon), an extra 2 units of foot if attacking, plus one unit of foot artillery, and one unit of horse guns. Each unit has four bases, so that works out to a total of 254 infantry, 60 cavalry, and 8 guns with crew. Just for the French. This is going to be a larger project than I first envisioned. Must remember to slow down and enjoy the process.

In a final note, just to complicate things, look what arrived in the mail the other day:

And now . . .

2011-07-30T19:11:00.003-04:00

. . . for something completely different.

Took the cub to Brickfete today, and saw some cool stuff. Aside from some real nostalgia in the form of a massive classic space lego display, they had some interesting and tongue in cheek displays of interest to the mini painter and wargamer.

Noteworthy among these were an Irish monastary under attack by vikings:

A UN peacekeeping force:

And a selection of WWII lego:

But my personal favorite was the 300 diorama, which I've dubbed "Hey! This is Sparta!"

All in all, a grand day.

W: Khador, H: lots

2011-07-21T20:09:00.002-04:00

Hi,

The new addition has meant I've had little time to sit down and paint over the last week and a bit, but I've been pouring over geek books when opportunity permits, including the Warmachine Khador book. And, needless to say, it has me thinking.

I'm looking to pick up some Khador, by trade if possible. What I've got is primarily Tau, but I also have some Warmaster and a few odds and ends of hordes stuff. IF anyone out there has Khador sitting around, and has a hankering to cut a deal, I've got a more detailed ad up here.

TMtW

New sculpt

2011-07-13T09:33:00.002-04:00

Hi,

Just wanted to update you all with the newest addition to the collection. I really do need to credit the wife on this one - while I played a role in the early design stages, the sculpting is entirely hers, and I think she's done a fantastic job for her first time. It's a heavy piece, weighing in at 9lbs, 1oz, and makes a terrific addition to my collection. Getting this one finished and table-ready might take a little while, but I think the effort will be worth it.

TMtW

All your base . . .

2011-07-07T15:28:00.003-04:00

Hi,

Well, really, all my base, as there's just the one. Finished up the first test base for the 1/72 French. So far, I'm rather pleased.

I ended up going with 4x2 figures on a 60mm square base.

The basing itself is a mix of polyfilla, sand, and randomly applied flock, static grass, and fiberous stuff my beloved found for me at a hobby shop.

Photos are a little overexposed, but they're enough to get the general idea. I'm enjoying painting these, which is good, as there are 4 bases to a unit, and maybe a dozen units in a smallish Lasalle force.

Detail on the figs is nicely executed, and it's fairly easy to pick out. I'm really looking forward to painting up some of the more elaborate uniforms of the period, like the hussars. I think it'll be rather tasty.

Not sure what's next up on the painting table. I might forge ahead on the nappies, but I've also been itching to add another unit to my Impetus force, or maybe get going on the FoW cossacks I've got tucked away. We're still (STILL!!) on baby-watch here, so time will tell.

Decisions

2011-07-03T09:58:00.003-04:00

Hi,

Got all excited last night as I finished my sixth Italeri French line figure. I was planning to some basing this morning whilst the cub watched Spongebob, but after a bit of musing and fiddling, have decided to hold off.

The main issue was what size of bases I was going to go with. Leading contenders were 50mm squares, or 60x40mm rectangles. If the latter, then the plan was to use 60mm squares for the horse and guns. I posted up questions about the size of 1/72 artillery at The Miniatures Page and Benno's Figures (thanks to those who replied, especially Guynemer, pics were great), and that took care of the 50mm option - while guns would likely fit, they'd be just a little crowded.

I was hoping the smaller bases would allow play on a smaller table, but frankly, given a) how much time it will take to finish this project, and b) the fact that I'm most likely to play at a store, the size factor isn't all that important. A second consideration was that I could get away with a 3x2 formation for the infantry, thus using less figures, thus getting units finished faster.

Then I realized that speed wasn't really a factor either. This is primarily a painting indulgence for me - it's why I'm doiing it in 1/72. If I wanted fast, I'd do 6mm or dip. I also abandoned the idea of 60x40mm rectangles for infantry - the 60mm squares are better for some of the firing / advancing poses. The squares also mean if so disposed, I can use the bases for rulesets other than Lasalle - Polemos Marechal d'Empire comes to mind.

This also led to a reassessment of my ability to base the figs I've painted. I'm coming to realise that with the 1/72 boxes, the variety of poses means they require some planning in terms of use. I'm leery of the kneeling / firing poses, as I think they detract from the sense of movement in the unit, so ended up with something like this:

To get this to work, I've included the grenadier poses that came in the box (rather than saving them to mix in with a converged grenadier unit), and went with 4 wide one each base. I like the sense of mass it gives. This means I'll need to paint up some more guys before I can get a test base finished, but that's ok. This is a project that's going to have to fit into the cracks anyway. We're on baby countdown here, so any goal-oriented expectations are going to have to take a back seat for a while. I have this happy image of two or three years from now sitting down at an 8x4 table with a couple of armies and puttering away, ideally with a cup of tea and a couple of kids peering over the table edge.

Gaining Impetus

2011-06-30T13:37:00.003-04:00

Hi,

Actually got out to the Dueling Grounds last night for a game of Impetus with JJMicromegas from THMG. He kindly donated armies from his extensive collection of true 25mm figs, and we played Pyrrhus (me) vs his Persians. This was our first game of the full rule sets (prior games had been the basic version) so much of what we did was look up everything we were getting wrong ;) The game was 300 points, and deployment was pretty straightforward. He set up a command on his left, I deployed, and then he set up his second command.

In retrospect, I pretty much got things wrong from the beginning. We were pretty loose with terrain set-up, which turned out to be a serious mistake on my part. There is little in the Epirote list that can fight effectively in broken ground, and the really hitty parts of the army - pike, hoplites, elephants, heavy and medium cav, require fairly open ground to be at all effective. As it happened, I ended up on the side of the table with fairly broken terrain - several hills and forests, and it really constricted how I could use my army. You can see here, as the lines close to contact, how constricted things were for me.

The result was a number of one-on-one combats that left my units scattered and unsupported, including one poor unit of Thureophoroi that ended up attacking, losing combat, and retreating to what I was certain was going to be their doom - that's them, sandwiched between me and the Persians, with their flank exposed to a unit of elite persian cavalry.

Needless to say, the cavarly charged, intending to crush my poor light infantry, and likely panic and disorder the pike phalanx holding behind it. This was where we learned something about how Impetus plays. Combat is chancy. Bad things can happen to good troops. While there are definite probabilities that come into play, things don't always work out. Like when his cavalry charged, hit my light infnatry on the flank, and failed to damage them.

For several turns.

Until on my turn, the lights managed to go out in a blaze of glory, doing a couple of VBU's damage to the cavalry on their way down, leaving the Persian heavy cavalry disordered, damaged, and in point-blank range of a unit of skirmishing Cretans, who popped out behind a bush, and peppered the cavalry with arrows. My opponnent then completely whiffed his cohesion roll (despite the attached army commander), and that did it for his heavy cav. We spent some time looking for what happens when the unit to which your army commander is attached is routed, but couldn't find anything beyond the "don't roll a six" rule. Those of you with a clue about this game - what are we missing, if anything?

I had something similar happen to my elephants. Heffalumps are hell on wheels against horse cavalry, but lose their impetus bonus (i.e., much of their combat ability) against light infantry. Which I found out AFTER charging a unit of light infantry with them, losing the combat, and retreating. At which point I was peppered by arrows, and eventually retreated in a panic.

There's a real need in this game to understand both unit-type interactions and unit-terrain interactions, and our ignorance of both showed in the game last night. Having been singularly unimpressed by skirmishers shooting at short range, we found out about their potential lethality at point-blank the hard way.

I think the real risks imposed by combat also lead one into a degree of caution - it pays to manouvure, whittle down the opponent, try to cause disorder and preliminary damage, etc. before closing. Closing is a risk. I'm curious how slower, heavy lists - Romans, mass pike or hoplites, deal with this kind of thing? Is there an incentive for them to just smash forward, and damn the torpedoes, so as to avoid the inherent strength of their unit being ground down prior to engaging?

With the new baby due pretty much any time, it'll be a little while before I get back out for a game, but I'm eager, and in the mean time, will keep trying to plug away at the 15mm version of the army I played last night.

Speaking of painting, I managed to knock out a couple more French infantry, and had my taste for Nappies whetted by a 15mm Lasalle game going on at the next table. I managed to snap a pick of one side before the lines closed for battle:

I wish I'd got some action shots, as the game looked like a painting from some Victorian romantic worshiping at the shrine of Mars. Lovely stuff. Basing quandry for the 1/72 project continues unabated, though I'm leaning towards either a 50x50mm base with six figs or a 60x60 with 8. May not decide for some time. 50x50 saves on space, but the larger ones could, I thing, be standard for all 3 types of units. I figure I have time - with three figures painted, basing won't be a priority for a little while at least.

Phalanx backlog

2011-06-27T19:49:00.005-04:00

Hi,

Spent the last couple evenings finishing up some phalangites that have been sitting half-done on my shelf for months. Not a rush job, but I didn't spend as much time as the front unit, as this base will be stuck behind the visible guys for pretty much every game. I wanted to get these guys done before moving on to the Nappies, or the guilt would become far to burdensome.

This is two bases together:

And the new base:

Had a little fuss with the GW Purity Seal topcoat - definite "misting" on the finish. I hit them with a light topping of 'ardcoat, and that seems to have taken the worst of it off, but I'm stumped as to what did it. The can's been sitting around for a while, but I shook it well and it wasn't particularly humid. Go figure. Heh. "Figure."

On another note, I took a trip today, cub in tow, to a couple stores along the Danforth recommended by some of the THMG guys. Wheels and Wings is a block west of Woodbine on the Danforth, and John's Hobbies is a block east. The former has a fantastic selection of pretty much every plastic kit you can think of, and can get whatever they don't. Prices are better than ebay, from what I can gather, and service was excellent.

The star of the day, however, was John's Hobbies. They have a Thomas the Tank Engine table set up at the front of the shop, and the cub spent a good couple hours playing there while I puttered. Their stock has the little bit of everything approach (they do plstic kits, model trains, RC, etc.), but I managed an impulse buy (Revell French Hussars and Italeri French Staff), and the cub left with a new coach for his Thomas collection. Staff were increadible, and I had a couple of interesting conversations with different staff members. Kudos to the place, kid friendly, and knowledgeable.

I should be playing an Impetus game with JJ on Wednesday, so assuming all is well, I should have a batrep up by Thursday.

FMB

Question answered. Sort of.

2011-06-25T09:44:00.004-04:00

Hi,

Life is funny sometimes. We took a trip down to St. Catharines on Tuesday, and while down there, stopped in at a model train store so the cub could ogle trains. Turns out, the store carried Italieri Napoleonic French at less than I'd seen online, so I gave into the impulse, and picked up a couple boxes - their 6066 and 6002 codes.

So, it looks like I'm doing nappies in 1/72, probably peninsula.

I painted up a test figure last night:

I'm pleased with the result, for a first try. This is the first time I've painted a 1/72 figure since I was maybe 10, and that was an Airfix. These guys reward attention to detail, and actually have human proportions. I quite like this scale - JJM at THMG has a pile of true 25mm ancients, and they're around the same size. Big enough for detail, small enough for a sense of mass. Here's a shot comparing the Italeri fig to both a GW Bretonnian archer and a half-finished OG pikeman:

What's interesting is that the two Italeri codes are radically different in size. The 6002 code is older, and seems to fall in the middle range for 1/72, while the 6066 are much larger - to the point where the figs can't be mixed on a base. On the other hand, they are apparantly the more historically accurate figs, and are beauty sculpts.

The guys at THMG are doing LaSalle in 15mm, using a standard of 40mm x 30mm bases (the size of the bit of cardboard the figs on which the figs are standing). The 1/72 are a bit big for that base size. The larger figures are crowded in a 3x2 formation:

And the smaller are crowded in a 4x2 formation:

They do look spiffy in a 4x2 on 60mm x 40mm bases, however. I'm thinking if I go ahead with these, I'll use the larger bases, and paint up two sides myself. Another option is to chalk these up to an impulse buy / paint, bite the bullet, and go 15mm. The latter option requires some financial re-jigging, however, so if anyone is looking to pick up almost a grand's worth of Tau for $350 or so, let me know ;).

Thinking. Always a mistake.

2011-06-21T18:55:00.008-04:00

Hi,

With life returning to some semblance of normality, I've been puttering about, working on a bit of the Brettonians, and thinking about other possible projects. Both the brets and the Impetus stuff is within sight of finishing. For the Brets, I've got 2 1/2 Peg knights to go to hit my starter goal of 1000 points, and I have maybe 5 more bases for my BImpetus Pyrrhic list, all of them smaller-number units.

For a while now, I've been looking at 1/72 plastics as an option. They're cheap as hell, and the newer stuff looks quite good - in some cases, better than the available 28mm metals out there. Take a look at these for example, courtesy of plastic soldier review

Beats the hell out of the old Airfix figs I remember from my youth. I've also been doing some reading, on both Peter the Great and the War of 1812, and it's got me pondering. There are three main areas I'm considering: Peninsular Nappies, using Lasalle, the War of 1812 using Lasalle and maybe TFL's Sharpe Practise, and the Great Northern War using Might and Reason.

Nappies offer variety and the possibility of expansion, plus the largest choice in available figures. I did a peninsular French army in 6mm for the Baccus Marechal d'Empire rules a ways back, and enjoyed both the project and the period. War of 1812 has kind of caught my attention since the trip to Fort York, and offers some interesting options for painting and gaming. Armies are a little light on cavalry, but lots of interesting stuff like native forces, militia, etc. Figure choice is a little limited, for the Americans, anyway, but there are alternatives. The conflict also lends itself to some interesting skirmish gaming via the Two Fat Lardies rules, through I suppose the same could be said for the Penninsula gaming. Great Northern War has been tickling my imagination for a while. Good figure choices are limited to those produced by Zvezda, and troop types are also somewhat restricted, but the Zvezda figs are superbe, and I get to paint tricorns and wigs. And Russians.

I'm kind of in the process of knocking together lists and thinking about cost. Either way, this will likely be more of a Fall/Winter thing, as I do want the clear the decks before starting something new. Gaming on this might be limited, unless I do two sides of a conflict and strong arm some of the guys at Toronto HMG.

I've been finding of late that I'm increasingly disinclined to paint non-human, non-organic models. The Bret knights are starting to lose their appeal (though that could simply be a matter of familiarity), and some of the other projects in the wings, like Dystopian Wars, I'm having trouble finding the motivation for. I think it's because neither model has faces. The crew from my Bretonnian Trebuchet, however, were a joy to paint. They had faces.

Any thoughts on which way to go? Nappies? Nortamericano Nappies? Drag the Russian people kicking and screaming into the modern world?

Big Ella

2011-06-14T17:05:00.005-04:00

Hi,

One thing I did manage to finish over the last few weeks was my first Trebuchet for the Brettonnians.

I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out. The figures have been faves of mine since they were released, so it was nice to get a chance to paint them.

For scuzzy peasants, they've got a ton of character. The goal here was to keep the palette pretty subdued, as I want these guys to fade back a little. Knights = bright and shiny, peasants = lovely filth down 'ere.

Next up are three Pegasus knights, which will take me to 1000 points for the brets. I might dip back into Impetus first, as I have some half-painted phalangites on the shelf.

Hiatus

2011-06-12T07:23:00.005-04:00

Hi,

Looong time no post. Life has rather taken over geek for the last several months. Some issues related to custody of my son came up, and while they've not been resolved in the way I'd hoped, they are on their way to resolution. Hopefully this means the re-establishing of some sort of routine in my life, including more regular posts here.

Not much to report on the geek / painting front for much the same reason. I did, however, get to go to Fort York yesterday, wife and cub in tow. The fort itself is worth a visit, as it was the site of a battle in the War of 1812, was the first English settlement at what became Toronto, and is well maintained.

There's plenty of displays distributed throughout the fort, mostly dealing with contemporary life and equipment.

The bulk of the displays etc. are found in the two-storey blockhouse. I now have a five year old who understands the concept of a "loophole".

There's also something of a pioneer village element to the Fort. For example, we chatted with one costumed cook, who was busy baking a cake from an 1813 recipe, and who provided us with some smashing shortbread cookies.

In addition, the Fort were hosting an annual toy soldier show run by the Ontario Model Soldiers Society, which was an interesting change of pace for me. These guys are less into (28mm and under) wargaming figs, and more into 1/32 + toy soldiers, both plastic and metal. Not my cup of tea, but I can see the appeal, especially in terms of nostalgia. They also have an annual painting contest, which I might take a swing at next year.

Up until now, I've never been terribly interested in the War of 1812. As far as I understood it, the American invaded, we sent them packing, the Brits sent regulars which invaded the US, and pulled back. Seeing the fort, however, piqued my interest. There's an immediacy and local element that makes it resonate - seeing things like a compass engraved "From Brock to Tecumfeh", for example, got me a little giddy. Might have to go back in the summer when they do more re-enactment / drill.

It's also got me thinking about another possible historical project. I know OG15s do a series for the War, but I've not been able to track down pics. If anyone out there has some, could you point me to them please?

TMtW

I have never been so proud . . .

2011-04-03T13:13:00.002-04:00

Hi,

There is a geek gene. Below is the almost 5 year old cub's first efforts at mini painting.

Give him a few more years, and he'll be winning golden demons ;)

Reflections. Also, orks.

2011-03-23T09:05:00.004-04:00

Hi,

So today (cue music) is my birthday and, much as this tends to produce reflection in other parts of my life, it prompts the same in that part of my life devoted to geek. It has occurred to me that in the last couple-three months, I've sold the single remaining painted (i.e., playable) army I had, began began two new game projects, and given considerable thought to several more. On the "bookshelf of guilt", where I keep my halfpainted models, I currently have soviet infantry, Pyrrhis phalangites, bretonnian knights, 40k orks, and Dystopian Wars EoBS. Having gone through a big consolidation phase, what, 6 or 8 months ago, I find myself madly galloping off in all directions.

On top of the "to do" pile, I've been looking at 40k - the Tau codex (see the previous post), the marine codex, and the Ork codex, producing this:

4 down, what, 120+ to go? I've also been going through my annual "Hey, wouldn't it be cool to paint a marine army" phase, pondering chapter schemes, etc. This cropped up last summer, and resulted in the purchase of a ton of marine stuff, and the painting of this guy. I then swapped the marines and some other odds and ends for the orks, the first four of which I've painted almost two years later.

Then you can add in the basic fact that my gaming opportunities are shrinking. Family and work take up most of my time, and blowing off an evening or weekend afternoon to get a game in, while not impossible, can't be a regular thing. This has implications for painting. In the past, my primary motivation for "getting things done" was getting them on the table. Not getting to the table as often means less impetus to get things done, less focus on a specific project, less engagement with the social aspect of the hobby (in the, "as soon as I get these bikers done I'm really to going to give Ken's destroyers what-for" sense). Hence the half-dozen half-finished units mentioned above.

Am I just nuts, or what?

I've been thinking over how I got here, and how I function as a geek, and I think it boils down to three basic factors: nostalgia, finances, and the rewards I get from geeking.

Nostaliga: my happiest geek memories are from the beginnings of things. Best RPG arc was when I first started playing third edition D&D, with a new group. Best miniatures gaming is split between learning 4th edition 40k and 1st edition warmachine with the Newfoundlanders, and restarting warmachine in Toronto with my Magnus army in 2007. Hands down, the most fun I have had geeking is when I happen across a good group of gaming buddies, and as a group we figure out a new game or army.

I think a lot of my flitting around right now comes from nostalgia. There's a REASON I stopped playing GW, and 40k in particular. GW rules are just too loose; any game where the game company recognises there are holes in the rules and refuses to clarify them sets off alarm bells for me. Yet, like the mob, every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in. While this kind of thing can be settled amicable in a well-established "garage group", in pick up games it can be a problem. And the basic fact is, for the last several years, I've been playing pick-up games. But I keep coming back to GW, partly because of fond memories and partly because at the end of the day, the backstory and models GW produces remain as appealing as ever. From the time I was around 14, I've wanted to paint a sniper scout, or a swooping hawk, or an empire engineer, or a Bretonnian knight. At the end of the day, I still do.

Finances: I make a real effort to not have the costs of my hobby bleed into family finances, and have done so from around the time my son was born. I'm lucky enough to enjoy painting, to be a good painter, and to be able to sell what I paint at a mark-up on retail. Add in the deals one can get from places like B-town and eBay, and my hobby is pretty much self-supporting. I probably spend more on coffee than geeking, and I take a thermos to work.

That said, the way I handle my geekly finances means that I tend to acquire stuff in big blocks - I'll buy an army's worth of models on discount with the money I get selling off an older project. It's why I've got a closet full of unpainted models. What I don't tend to get is a lot of choice, or the opportunity to make an impulse purchase. When people sell large lots at a discount, you pretty much get what's in the lot, you end up with things you figure you might want to do at some point, but not necessarily now, and you often have to be ready to strip paint and do a little fix-up.

This means that if I really want a space marine army, I can get one. What's difficult is bombing down to the FLGS and drop real money on a box of space marines because I need a reminder of why I've never finished a space marine army. The price of a box of marines is comparable to the cost of taking my kid to the zoo. Guess which I'm going to opt for?

In other words, at precisely the time where I want to be able to diversify and shallowly involve myself in multiple projects, my resources require me to plan and focus. Add in the loss of my primary focus mechanism - the drive to get things on the table and play with them, and you can begin to see why this hasn't been happening.

Geekly Rewards: I get three main things out of my hobby, namely a framework for social interaction, a sense of personal satisfaction, and peace of mind. The first is pretty straight forward. Over the last several years, I've had to move around for work. This situation is now more or less settled, but one thing geek meant to me was that in pretty much any town I moved to, I could look up the game store in the phone book, walk in with an army, and meet people with whom I had at least one thing in common that WASN'T work. For anyone who's hd to relocate, you know how important this can be. I've made some pretty good friends geeking, and probably wouldn't have without.

The second element, satisfaction, is also pretty common I think. It feels good to get a unit done, get a painted army on the table, or hell, win a game. And while it's important to keep things in perspective (I think the basic problem with "that guy" is he DOESN'T), the hobby is a pretty harmless way to get a sense of accomplishment with minimal investment of time and energy. The biggest kick here, for me, is getting an army done. I tend to be goal oriented, and putting a well-painted army on the table is a definite "win" for me. I mean, let's face it, ego reward is a big part of the blogosphere, and I'm as guilty of soliciting an ego boost as the next guy. I know people who invest a considerable amount of time and energy in the local softball league or fantasy football. Not my cup of tea, but I betcha we all do it for much the same reasons.

The last thing I get from geeking is peace of mind. It doesn't matter how stressful my life gets; I can sit down with a brush and some paint, and half an hour later, feel better. Some people drink, some do triathalons. I paint toy soldiers. There's something essentially zen in the painting process for me, that seems to reset the tumblers. I don't need to do it every day, but if I don't paint for a few days, I notice it.

Given the restrictions in my opportunities for play, and the resulting impact on getting things done, these factors have certain implications. The way my life is going, the rewards of geek are becoming limited to zen; gaming and "project completion" are taking a back seat. The hitch is that my logic of geek practise is oriented towards a project-centred model: buy army, paint army using gaming as motivation, finish army, accept kudos, sell army, repeat. Removing step 2 results in the bookshelf of shame.

What I'm trying to figure out, I guess, is whether or not this is a problem, or maybe, why I think this is a problem? Does it really matter if I spend the next couple of years with a bunch of half-finished models and units, or if I float from project to project? At the end of the day, the most important thing for me is scratching the occasional urge to paint what I want when I want. So maybe what I need to do is work on a new logic - reorganise how I do things to provide me with choice rather than bulk. I'm not sure where to begin with this - about the only things I've got that aren't solidly in the "one day" pile are some 15mm Persian archers and javelinmen, but it bears some thought.

Any ideas?

FMB

Pretty please? With Sugar? And a battleaxe?

2011-03-16T10:01:00.004-04:00

Hi,

Geek activity has slowed considerably over the last week or two, and will likely continue at that pace for the next month or so. The cub arrives on the weekend, so I'll be sepnding time with him, and work is heading into the busy season. May is likely to be a tad goofy as well, for a number of reasons, so painting opportunities and posting might be intermittant.

That said, there are a number of geek-related activities that do fit into the remaining spaces of my life, notably, trolling the internet. It was whilst doing so I came across this little gem.

Oh, God, yes. Some of you might remember that part of the Mother of All Trades was a ton of Tau to go with the ones I'd gotten a little while back. The thing is, though, I've not done much with them in the months since their arrival - been busy first with FoW and lately with Impetus. Add in the fact that Tau pretty much suffer from the kiss of death in the current edition (where, from what I can gather, cc seems to be king), and I had more or less worked on the assumption that my band of alien grays was a "one-of-these-days" option.

The prospect of a codex overhaul, however, coupled with the inclusion of Squats / Demiurge has me doing the happy dance. I like Dwarfs. My first WFB army was Dwarfs. I played Dwarfs in Mordheim. I did Mid-Nor for confrontation. I've bought Hasslefree Dwarfs just to paint them. Space Dwarfs? In a Tau army? That works? I'm sold.

Just the possibility that this rumor is true has me excited about 40k again for the first time in about 6 years. Space Dwarves in a Tau army that is viable to play could very easily get me back into GW gaming in a big way.

The rumor is totally unsubstantiated of course, but apparently it's author had good info on the recent Grey Knights release. All I know is I've got a chance to play GW this weekend, and if I can, I might just dust off some Tau and take them for a spin.

FMB

Painted Lady

2011-03-05T16:14:00.003-05:00

Hi,

I've had this one sitting half-done on the shelf for months now. Between personal-life crisis(-es) and my recent Impetus infatuation, things Bretonnian got a little side-tracked. She's all done now, however, and I think I might do a few more Bret bits before going back to the 15s.

I'm not sure I've done the model justice, tbh. There's so much overlapping detail that I think I needed to pay more attention to tone / contrast in order to pick things out. She'll do for a first try, however. After the mother of all trades, there's plenty of other Bret figs in the lead pile, and no doubt I'll return to one of these again in the future.

Spent some time this afternoon sorting the aforementioned pile. One of these days I'm really going to have to sit down and paint some orks - maybe in a year or two, when the cub's a little older. He's already expressed interest in my figs - he likes to play with the "grey army" while I paint, and has asked to do some painting himself. What I might do is give him some orks to paint, or maybe some of the 15s I know I won't be using, and let him have at it. If I do, I'll be sure to post the results ;)

Itallian Stallions

2011-03-04T21:43:00.007-05:00

Despite my plans to do something for Dystopian Wars, I ended up finishing another unit for the Pyrrhus list, some Itallioate cavalry.

Impetus Unit Type: CM
Base Size: 8cm x 6cm
Manufacturer: Old Glory 15mm

I've been posting links to the ancients gallery at TMP, and have found some of the comments interesting. There's apparantly a crowd out there that seems almost offended by the less-dense, "dioramic" style of basing I've been using for the cavalry. While I understand that people have different preferences (for eg., I don't care for the super-dense, crowd-the-base style), I'm not clear on why people feel the need to proselytise, or condemn other people's preferences. Is this just a case of internet misunderstanding, or are people really that hung up on the world doing things their way?

On a related topic, I managed to hang out for the first couple turns of another BI game at the Dueling Grounds on Wednesday night. This time, it was Selucids vs. Gauls, and we managed to rope in a couple innocent bystanders. It looks like Impetus might be gaining some legs among the local crowd. As an aside, you'll note that JJMicromegas remembered to bring the elephant when HE was playing it ;) (Thanks again to J for bringing the figs - it's his collection that's letting us get our feet wet while painting up our own armies).

Of course, I had to leave just before the lines clashed.

From what I gather, things went a bit more smoothly this time around. We'll be house-ruling a few additions to the BI rules (like skirmisher evasion), but is also sounds like several other people are taking the plunge into the full rule-set - can't wait to try it out.

Next up for the Pyrrhic list will be a second unit of Phalangites. I've got the figs prepped and primed, and will likely start painting them tomorrow. One of the things I appreciate about the 15mm scale is I can maintain a degree of momentum with a relatively minor investment of time. I don't want to think how long this project would take if I was painting in 28mm scale.

Hopalong Hoplites

2011-02-27T19:26:00.005-05:00

Hi,

Despite the ravages of a miserable cold, I finished up a unit of hoplites for the Pyrrhic list.

This unit is a bit of a cheat, actually. The figures and sheild designs are more appropriate for an early persian war or Peloponesse era army. The base will eventually make it's way into the planned Spartan list as allied hoplites, once I get my hands on some Itallioate hoplites to replace them. In the meantime, however, I've got three bags of early hoplites to use, so these fellas will do just fine.

On another note, I've finished up a unit of 9 soviet shermans. While these were orignially planned for my late latmented army, they're now redundant. I'm in process of flogging them on Ebay. Take a look if you're interested.

I might take a break from the 15mm stuff to do a little Dystopian Wars stuff, before getting back to the historicals again.

First game of (Basic) Impetus

2011-02-24T08:05:00.008-05:00

Hi,

So, yeah. I'm hooked.

Got in my first game of Basic Impetus last night against JJMicromegas of the THMGS last night. J was kind enough to supply the figs, and we played Polybian Romans (he) vs. Pyrrhic (me). He forgot to bring the elephant, however, to which I credit my rather convincing defeat.

As an aside, when I told the wife about forgetting the elephant, she laughed. Occasionally, one bumps into the non-gamer perspective on things.

Despite the fact that we spent a good chunk of the game either looking stuff up or figuring out all the stuff we'd already gotten wrong, I had a blast. There are a number of issues we need ot look up, and I'll need to read the rules again, but we will definitely be getting in more games. I think our little demo may also have piqued the interest of some other people who were there last night. I get the feeling there's a pool of potential ancients gamers out there waiting for the right ruleset to come along.

As for the game itself, it mostly involved me being ground down by romans. We kept terrain to a minimum for simplicity's sake, and started from here:

He's got a boatload of Romans flanked by skirmishers, with cavalry behind. I've got (bottom to top), my heavy cav, Itallian hoplites, pikes, Oscans, and then Tarantine and Itallian cavalry at the top, with skirmishers in front. In the basic game, the option for skirmishers and light cav to flee / evade frontal attack doesn't appear to exist, so our skirmish screens mostly moved up, and then took pot shots at opponents causing the occasional disruption.

I charged my heavy cavalry on the left into his skirmishers:

. . . and got absolutely no hits.

Believe it or not, this turned into a couple rounds of grind before his cavalry counter charged (we need to check if you can interpenetrate into melee).

On the right, my cavalry block charged. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with light cav in the Basic version of the game. My Tarantines don't have javelins like they do in the full version, and can't evade like in the full version. Mostly, they seem to just be crappy cavalry, with the predictable result that they were ground down by the romans, who then went after my Itallian cavalry in behind.

In any event, the real battle was in the centre.

Roman republican maniples are hard. In fact, anything with a VBU of 6 or more is just sick, as it makes it difficult to make damage stick unless you hit them with an enormous number of dice. Add in the potential effect of the pila (which in this game was inefective except when he needed it most), and you've got a solid combo. One on one, none of my infantry match up - damaging Romans is a matter of luck, which means I can't count on it over the long term.

The best charge I got off was a deep unit of pike, supported by Itallian hoplites, against a single Roman unit, and I had the charge. On defense, however, he throws three dice for his pila, and got enough hits to disrupt me, which imposes a -1, plus the loss of my Impetus bonus. That brought the fight down to (IIRC) 7 dice to his six. He got two hits, I got none, and with my lower starting VBU, my front pike unit degraded quickly. Once that happened, he was able to move up and start grinding down what was left.

I think some of the observers were impressed by the fact that things get destroyed in Impetus. There's a clash, grind, tipping point / destroyed feel to the combat dynamics that people said they hadn't encountered with ancient gaming before.

In the full version of the game, I can see how having plenty of skrimishers and light cav, or missile troops, could help disrupt the Roman line prior to engaging them, but I'm still working out how to do it with the basic rules.

Good game overall, though already I'm making a list of things we missed. The basic rule in BI seems to be that if something would cause disruption, and you're already disrupted, you can't do it (for eg. a wheel). Also, infantry charging cavalry don't get an Impetus bonus. Also, you can't interpenetrate a unit in melee. I'm sure there's other things as well.

One last comment. The figures were using were the old Ral Partha true 25mm. I can't remember the last time I saw figs at this scale, and I'm wondering why people ever moved away from them. They have the same sort of appeal as 15mm for me - big enough to reward detailed attention, but small enough that you get the feel of a big battle. Pose range was a little limited, but lovely little figs. Thanks again to J for bringing them, to the Dueling Grounds for use of the space, and to the THMGS for use of terrain.

That's heavy, man . . .

2011-02-22T11:49:00.005-05:00

Hi,

It seems I've caught the painting bug. Having finished off the first unit of pike for my Pyrrhic army, I then proceeded to paint up these Macedonian / Epirote heavy cavalry:

Impetus Unit Type: CP
Base Size: 8cm x 6cm
Manufacturer: Old Glory 15mm

The initial game plan was make this a more colourful unit than the pike - which vary from figure to figure but use the same palette throughout. I was initially going to colour coordinate between horse and rider, but found it made the unit lack cohesion, so experimented with swapping them around. As it stands, each rider has colours found on at least two others. Not sure if I'm sold on the final effect, but what the hey, I'm experimenting.

I also cheated a little on the figures themselves. Two of the riders are actually on persian horses. I wanted to distinguish this unit of CP from the unit of Itallian CM I'll be doing later. My plan is to use undbarded horses for the latter, which limited my choices for this unit to "barded" horses, of which I only had two poses for the greeks. I figure we're tlaking about a generation past Alexander, so equipment styles could easily move around, especially given the disruption of the Diadochi conflicts.

One of the things I'm finding interesting is that there is a huge range of possible units in the Pyrrhic list - heavy, medium and light cavalry, heavy foot in deep, and deeper units, light foot, skirmishers, elephants. Pretty much everything but chariots, which means being able to distinguish between units at a glance will be important. My plan for basing at this point is to go with the following system.

For infantry, 12 figs per base for super-heavies (really dense formation like pike), 10 for heavies, 8 for lights, 4 for skirmishers. For cavalry, I'll go 6 figures for super-heavies (fully armoured cataphracts, ordonnence knights, etc.), 5 for heavies, 4 for medium, 3 for lights. Keeping basing standard will help with identifying unit types on the table. I've also decided that although it's more figure intensive, I'll go full size for the rear components of deep units - it'll just look cooler. I'm also going to base commander figs separately, so I have to option to attach them to different units as I learn to play the game.

Next up I'm painting up some soviet Shermans I had half finished, and they'll go up on the auction block, followed by some hoplites for the Pyrrhic list. I'm also hoping to get a trial game of Impetus in Wednesday night, so hopefully I can get some pics up later this week.

Puttering, podcasts and paint, oh my!

2011-02-19T09:11:00.007-05:00

Hi,

Just thought I'd touch base. Soviets sold, not as high as I'd hoped, but I still got a decent price. They're winging their way to sunny California as I write this, and I hope they like their new home.

As noted previously, this leaves me with a clean slate. I have no painted armies. The result, predictably, has been a feverish scouring of both rulebooks and the internet to decide what I'm doing next, despite the long list of projects already waiting for me. The local game club has been talking about doing something with the Lasalle rules for the 2012 Borodino anniversary. The thought of this managed to devour several lunches worth of internet time, as I compared the relative merits of different 15mm figure ranges before remembering that a) we're talking about something a year and a half away, and b) right now, I have no money for new toys.

What I have been tinkering with is my first unit for Impetus - successor pike for my Pyrrhus army. Borrowing an idea for format from JET at Geektactica:

Impetus Unit Type: FP
Base Size: 8cm x 3cm
Manufacturer: Old Glory 15mm

I quite like these OG15mm figs. They have good detail, a reasonable range of poses, and mix well with the other 15mm figs I have, from Xyston. The plan for the basing is to reflect southern Itally and Scicily, where Pyrrhus did most of his romping around. I might want to warm up the colours a little, but for a kind of baked earth effect, it seems to work. This is the front unit of what will eventually be a three-deep "large base" of pike. There's actually very little info on what Pyrrhus' forces looked like, especially his Epirotes, but from what I've been able to dig up, the core of his forces were actually a gift from Ptolemy of Egypt.

For the first unit of pike, I figured I'd go with some classic Macedonian-style colours and insignia, hence the yellow and red, and the use of the Macedonian star throughout. I might add in some Ptolemeic sheild insignia as I move into the rear units. I've read that the trident was a common image for the Epirotes, and that Pyrrhus had a symbol he used, though I've not been able to find an example of the latter. I'll likely use those for sheilds in the planned second base of pike.

These were fun to paint, and had me stretching a little. While I've painted lots of 15mm, it's mostly been WWII, with fairly drab colours, so learning to paint bright colours like red and yellow has been interesting. I suspect I'm going to end up somewhere between the techniques I use for 28mm and those I developed for 6mm. Faces, sheilds, etc. will get a little more attention to smooth colour transition, but I'll have to pay attention to contrast and tone to make the smaller figures pop and make detail stand out. I've already noticed that the highlighting on the yellow, especially the sheilds, seems to wash out in the photos.

The pike base has the added advantage of being the most figure dense base that appears in the army - everything else involves painting the same number or less. Next up for Pyrrhus will be some cavalry, either Macedonian or Itallian Greek, with the plan to work towards a 300 point list. Once that's done, I'll get to work on 300 points of spartans, and then use those armies to try and hook in some locals for a game.

Having been doing some painting, I've also been getting caught up on my podcasts. I assume if you're reading this you're aware of the interetherwebs, but on the off chance you're unfamiliar, think of them as a radio show on the internet. I've fallen into the habit of listening to them while painting, or sometimes on the commute to work. There are a number of them out there, and I though it was high time I gave them their propers. The d6 Generation and Meeples and Miniatures are both excellent podcasts that cover a wide range of the hobby. I painted a good chunk of my Soviets listeming to What Would Patton Do, and for Warhammer, there's Podhammer. The latter tend to earn their R rating at times, but include good insight into the dynamics of the game.

FMB

Now what?

2011-02-10T16:44:00.002-05:00

Hi all,

With the sale of my painted FoW soviets, I find myself in a strange situation. For the first time in about a decade, I am without a painted army, from any game system, to play with. I'll likely be selling the Bretonnians I've painted so far as well, leaving me with a clean slate. What this means for the blog is that the focus is likely to shift from AARs and game coverage to painting and army design / construction. Although I don't have an army to play with, I do have enough lead and plastic kicking around to hold the Keeper at bay in purpetuity. Along with the cossacks I mentioned for FoW and the Dystopian Wars stuff that just came in, I have plenty more Bretonnians, God knows how many 40k orks, a good sized Tau force, and even the beginnings of a Beastman force.

In addition, I have this:

These are the results of an impulse buy with a happy ending. A while back, I picked up a copy of the Malifaux rulebook and a starter box. I really liked the minis, and thought the game would be interesting. Unfortuneately, no one in the area was playing, and I never did much with the figs. By the time the game caught on, I had lost interest. A few weeks back, however, I set up a trade with a fellow on Btown - one I've traded with in the past, and who has always been a pleasure to deal with. Turns out, in addition to the models we agreed to in return for the malifaux lot, he sent a pile more. Add in some Xyston Spartans and OG Mongols I had lying around, and I have the makings of a number of ancient armies, for, say, Impetus. From what I gather, I have enough figs to do 500 point impetus lists for Sparta (or other hoplite-era greeks), Pyhrrus, and at least one successor list, plus possibly the mongols. Which is nice, because the first three, at least, are things I've wanted to do for a while.

I'm also hitting a point in my life where I just do not have the time to paint for the sake of "getting it on the table", or what the army I'm playing with "needs". I think that's part of what burned me out on Warmachine. The game started to feel like MtG with miniatures, rather than the game it was when I became aware of it (around the release of Escalation). Given the demands on my time, which are only going to expand in the future, I think I'm going to work on a new painting ethos: paint what I want, as best as I can. There are also a number of projects I want to do before I die (the Geek Bucket List? Good idea for another blog post). I figure it makes sense to combine the two goals.

One thing that's been on my list for a while is to try Impetus. JET, over at Geektactica has me thoroughly intrigued with this game. In the past, there have been two factors discouraging me from getting into ancient gaming: the rules, and the lack of opponents. While I dabbled in DBA a while back, and I enjoyed it, the game never felt "right" to me. The abstraction that makes the game so simple and cool to play, coupled with the small army size, meant the game never felt grand in scale; I always felt I was playing DBA, rather than fighting the battles of the ages.

Up until Impetus came out, I'd have said that DBA was the best of the ancients lot, despite it's flaws. Everything else out there either felt like a 3-D Avalon Hill game, or Warhammer without all the neat stuff. Impetus, on the other hand, just looks cool, and there's a guy at the local club who's interested in trying it out, at least the basic version. That more or less removes the existing barriers to putting ancients painting on the agenda - now that I have a rule system that seems appealing, and a stack of lead, there's no reason not to indulge. For starters, given the resources available to me, I'm looking at:

a. A hoplite era Greek army. Ever since I read the Peter Connolly books published by MacDonald Educational as a kid, I was hooked on the Greeks. It's the sheilds. I mean, who could resist painting a pile of guys that looked like this:

With the mass of hoplites in my possession, I can do this, and still have figures left over for other projects. The three Impetus lists I'm looking at here are the Spartan, Magna Graecia and Syracuse lists, but I'll likely settle on the Spartans.

b. A Pyrrhic army. I love the idea of fusion forces - armies with a little bit of everything. It's why I was looking at Carthaginians when first I was looking at Impetus. The Pyrrhic armies, however, are the ultimate in mix and match. Greeks, Itallians, hoplites, phalangites, elephants, Oscans, Tarantines, Macedonian style cavalry, the whole shebang. Add in the character of Pyrrhus himself, the guy who won every battle but lost the war, and in the doing knocked about most of Italy and Sicily, and you've got something worth doing.

c) Indo-greeks successors, for starters. I'm fascinated by the post-Alexandrian period in India. The durability of the Greek successor states, their ongoing conflict with local Indian powers, and their eventual subsumption by the Yueh-Chi / Hun / Hephthalite / Kushans makes for a pretty cool story. They also have the same sort of appeal that the Pyrrhic army has - a little bit of everything, and one force easily morphs into another. I have enough phalangites and Hellenistic figures for both Pyrrhus and the indo greeks. The indian units for the latter can be expanded into a full Indian army, or combined with other options for a Hephthalite / Kushan force. Kurasan and Xyston both make lovely Indians, btw.

There are other projects I'd like to do if these three leave me with a historicals bug. Matched Crusader and Saracen armies, Nevsky-era Russians, Samurai, Warring States Chinese. Basically about 15 or 20 years of geek backlog. On top of that, there's the FoW Cossacks, the Bretonnians, and one of these days, my 40k ork army. Once upon a time, I used to have a huge Ork army. Then I sold it (which in many ways can be considered the start date of the issues prompting me to sell my Soviets). I want another one, and this time, I want to really see how far I can push my painting.

I think I will start with building towards two 15mm Impetus lists, one Spartan, and one Pyrrhic. At 300 points, the minimum unit numbers are halved, and you only need one general, plus, as JET has demonstrated, it still makes for a solid game.

Shameless self promotion

2011-02-06T18:24:00.004-05:00

Hi,

So, the Soviets, in all their glory, are up on ebay. The whole shebang looks like this:

And a teaser close-up:

It frankly guts me to sell these, but like I mentioned in my last post, I've found myself in a situation where every bit of cash helps. Please do spread the word on the auction if able and willing - aside from my obvious interest in attracting bidders, it is a nice lot of Soviets, had a fair bit of time lavished on it, and I'd like to see them go to a good home.

Geekus interruptus

2011-01-30T08:24:00.002-05:00

Hi,

Due to some personal issues that came up, I was unable to make the tournament last week. This also accounts for the week-long post hiatus. Personal issues are ongoing, for the next couple of weeks, which means posting, again, will be intermittant.

One consequence of the issues in question is a need for cash, however, so I will be selling my painted Russians, once I get the second unit of Shermans completed (they're about half done). If anyone reading this knows someone looking for a Soviet army, this is a good way to get in. I have around MSRP $US875 painted up, and the army is designed for flexibility - you can play infantry, motoinfantry, or tanks, mid-war or late war, and have options doing it.

Keep an eye here, on ebay, and on theminiaturespage.com, as I am going to try and get the army pretty, photographed, and up for bidding by next weekend. I'm hoping to get a grand on this lot, which given the amount of painting involved, seems reasonable. Do please spread the word if you can.

On the plus side, it means that I'll have plenty of incentive to get my cossacks painted up.

FMB

Test model

2011-01-19T09:46:00.003-05:00

Hi,

A couple of shots of the cruiser I did as a test model for the EoBS fleet. I went with a darker scheme - this is a coal fired ship, after all, and I wanted something a little more muted and worn.

Going to try and get some (and by some, I mean around 10) Shermans done next, and then the cub arrives, so it might be a while before I get any real updates here. What I might do is a separate bat rep for each of the games at Saturday's tournament, and then string them out over a week or two.

On a related topic, I might have found a home for the FoW Canadians I mentioned a while back. Assuming all goes well, I'll be completing a trade tonight for some soviets - cossacks, gun teams, etc. If things go as planned, I'll try to get a "loot" post up before the weekend.

TMtW

Won't be fooled again

2011-01-18T10:00:00.004-05:00

Hi,

Busily preparing for an upcoming tournament at the Dueling Grounds this Saturday. 5 rounds, small games (600p) late war. I will be running this:

Dueling Ground 600 point Tourney List, January 22, 2011
Fortress Europe Strelkovy

Battalion HQ, add anti-tank platoon
CC1: 2 Rifle / MG platoons, 1 platoon SMG sub
CC2: 1 Mortar platoon (85mm), add Observer
CS1: 4 SU-76M
CS2: 1 platoon flamethrowers

Flamethrowers will attach to the infantry, while the AT guns will attach either to the infantry (in defense) or to the mortars (if I attack). Given that 600 point games only require 1 combat platoon, I could be facing pretty much anything short of a KT company (though I'm sure it's possible to face a single KT), I tried to be flexible. I have a nice chunky infantry unit, a cheap pinning barrage, enough AT and firepower to take on medium tanks and dug-in opponents, and the flamers if I just have to go after heavy tanks. Combined arms at 600 points is tough, but I think I pulled it off.

This is a nationals tournament, which means whoever wins gets to go to Nationals. While I sincerely doubt that's going to be me, it's a nice incentive. My personal goal for this is to get through all 5 games without repeating mistakes I've already made. Things to watch for include:

LfL I: Read the scenario, and understand its implications for the game

LfL II: Use your ambush to force an opponent to fight on your terms, not in response to an opponent’s actions.

LfL III: The role a unit plays differs from list to list and from scenario to scenario. Think consciously about how you could use a unit, not just how you have in the past.

LfL IV: When attacking, infantry must keep moving. Losing momentum means losing the objective.

LfL V: There's more than one way to win. Be open to the possibility of victory.

If I can get through all five games without screwing up any of these, I'm chalking up the tournament as a win.

TMtW

Dis tope is your tope, dis tope is my tope . . . .

2011-01-14T10:48:00.003-05:00

Hi,

Having devised a means to work around the walking catastrophe that is my mail carrier, I picked up a box at the post office Wednesday night. Inside was a whole bundle of happy.

Fleet starter box comes with a range of templates and tokens . . .

along with FIGs (Fleet Information Guides) for each class of model. That's one for the Uwatsu class frigates that come in the box, with a model and my fingers for scale.

FIGs are heavy card stock, templates and tokens are made of what feels like heavy duty photo paper. For the traditionalists out there, or those concerned with durability, there's a link on the spartan forums from a guy who refomatted the FIGs to fit into card sleeves, and I'm sure GF9 will come out with a token set, if they haven't already.

And now for the hotness. The Tenkei Sky fortress and bits:

Top:

Bottom:

Side:

Bits, including the rotors and tiny fighter stands:

With a close-up of a fighter stand:

You get 6 fighter stands with the Sky Fortress, and 10 in the fleet box. BTW, that seam on the side of the Tenkei carrier - the ONLY appreciable bit of flash across 16 models. Everywhere else was either a small film extending out from the ship base or a bit of drainage off the metal. Detail is insane - you can see rivets in some of the photos, and the fighter engine cowlings are nice and crisp. There are little doors all over the place - I'm still finding them after two days of gleeful handling.

Next up, a closer shot of the Uwatsu class frigate. These are nasty little buggers, especially in numbers. They can link fire between their fore turret and side guns to throw out an attack at almost cruiser strength.

Next up is the DFA-170 bomber, both top:

And bottom:

Game scale, these fall into the same size category as a cruiser, so you can think of them as sort of a flying super-duper fortress. With a bomb payload as damaging as a hit from a British main turret.

Next we have the Sokotsu class battleship, biggest naval vessal besides the Hachiman dreadnaught and the giant robotic squid ;):

The ship comes with the pieces to mount two different support systems, a disruptor to mess with other people's toys, and a shield generator to make the Sokotsu even tougher. Fun with magnets will ensue.

Last is the fleet workhorse, the Nakatsu class cruiser:

I cannot stress enough how lovely these figs are. Spartan seems to have jumped with both feet into CAD/CAM sculpting, and the results are visible. I suspect this will be one of those projects where I really try to stretch my painting skills, because frankly, the models are worth it.

Cannot wait to get these on the table.

TMtW

PBI

2011-01-13T07:20:00.012-05:00

HI,

Got in a game against the Sodbuster last night (my opponent from the nail-biter a few weeks back), and got beat, straight up. We played a 1500 point LW game, his Brit tanks (cromwell list) vs. a slightly modified version of the list I ran vs. Jack1080 (I swapped the 4 KVs for 10 Emcha). I'm still trying to put my finger on what I did to lose (aside from failing a couple of critical morale checks, one of them three times). I suspect I had things screwed up from deployment; apparantly, learning what I did wrong isn't the same as learning to do it right ;) Here's the AAR.

Set-up: The table was fairly flat. Although I had a nice stretch of woods on my right, around 2/3 of the table was open. While I know this would give direct / tank fire an advantage, it's also something I know I need to learn to deal with. The scenario was Free for All, which is essentially a meeting engagement. Sodbuster had choice of table edge, and was nominally the attacker. He set up his objectives on my side, with one on each of the outside third of the table. I put my objectives on the centre and the right, and we deployed.

I had:

HQ (add 2 45mm guns)
CC1: 3 Strelk platoons, SMG option,HMG
CC2: 1 Strelk platoon, SMG option, Kommisar, HMG
WC1: Strelkovy Scouts (2 sections)
WC2: 1 platoon 82mm mortars
SC1: 10 M4s
SC2: 5 SU-76
SC3: 1 section flamethrowers

He brought several platoons of cromwells (I think I remember 3), some transport infantry in UCs, a platoon of Stuart Jalopies, and a platoon of tank destroyers. He also attached his 2iC to a couple of those howitzer cromwells as another platoon.

His deployment was fairly distributed, which gave him some choices in-game. His tanks were Cromwells, which have the same stat line as my Emcha Shermans, but with faster movement, and a re-roll to un-bail. Because his tanks are so fast (their Light Tank designation means they can move up to 16" and still shoot), the broad frontage gave him the option to concentrate pretty much wherever he wanted. I suspect that deployment for Soviet infantry is going to be a bit of a learning curve. While it is critical, there's so much stuff ot put down that I often feel rushed, and unable to take the time to figure things out. I suspect this will get better with time as I become more familiar with the list and how to use it.

On the left, I put my SU-76s , followed by the veteran scouts, supported by the short mortar platoon and the small infantry company with attached 45mm guns.

On the right I had this:

That's the Shermans, plus the 3 platoon infantry company, with flamethrowers attached. Guess from which side I planned to attack? While in retrospect, I would have done better not to try and attack against tanks, I thought I would try to use the woods on the right to advance the infantry, using the tanks to screen, and with the flamethrowers as a back-up plan for taking on any tanks the Shermans couldn't deal with. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

My oponent won first turn, and proceeded to take advantage of the fact that my troops didn't start dug in by killing them. He destroyed an SU-76, bailed 2, took out a 45mm gun and the HMG on the left (his fire prioritized the guns), and a Sherman. Digging in would be a priority on my turn, and my troops responded well. The infantry and scouts on the left dug in, while the Su-76s (those that managed to unbail) fired at the cromwells to no effect.

On the right, my attacking platoons trundled forward, trying to stay in the cover of the trees.

Turn two, Sodbuster swung most of his armour to the (my) right. I think he found the blob-o-doom a little threatening. I can't imagine why ;) He finished off the S-76s, and directed the rest of his fire at the dug in infantry, killing 1 stand. He also unloaded his infnatry from their transports, and tried to position them in such a way as to avoid assault. Unsuccessfully ;)

On my turn 2, while the infantry on the left hunkered down in their foxholes, I attacked on the right. I moved my big infantry company up leaving room for the tanks to follow up, pinned his infantry, and assaulted. Because the infantry comany is so big, and because the terrain was constricting, (and to give SB his due, he did go out of his way to avoid contact) I only managed to get a few stands in contact for the first round of the assault. Now, ordinarily, this wouldn't be an issue. I have plenty of stands, I get to repeat my 4" assault move in each round, and with athe CiC and Kommisar, I get three chances to make the motivation roll. I mean, what are the odds of failing three 4+ rolls? 7 to 1, right?

See that picture? That's what it looked like on the right when your infantry pull the long odds. I failed to motivate, and my infantry retired. In hindsight, I think this was probably the pivotal moment in the game. If my infantry had assaulted for a second round, they would have cleared the way to the objective next turn. With my flamethrowers and shermans, and his tanks isolated from each other, I could have moved to assault the objective on the following turn. While I would have lost stands to MG fire, he would have stuggled to keep me back. At minimum, it would have put the fight onto his side of the table.

With my infantry sitting around drinking vodka and enjoying the apopleptic antics of the batallion kommisar, however, it fell to the Emchas to seal the deal, which they did.

This wasn't a bad thing by any means, but the results were significant. You see the tanks with dice on them? Tanks + forest = bogged. Bogged + exposed to enemy fire = dead tanks. Bogged tanks also slow down the attack as a whole, and given the speed of Sobusters forces, slow = dead.

From Turn 3 onwards, things weren't inevitable, but they were predictable. On the left, his cromwells moved up, and began to soften up the infantry, eventually taking out the remaining 45mm gun, which was the only thing that could realistically threaten him in an assault (I'm growing to love these guys - they are small but mighty).

On the right, he swished around the table to get some nice firing lanes, and proceeded to shoot the hell out of me.

His jalopies took out the stands hiding along the fringe of the woods (stupid mistake of the game - leaving one of my two precious flamethrower stands on the edge of the woods). His Cromwells also took out a Sherman.

On my turn, my tank crews bravely declined to either unbog or remount, and the few tanks I had functioning moved out and fired, managing to bail two of his tanks.

My infantry nudged forward, but it kind felt like a light brigade moment - MGs to the left of them, MGs to the right of them, MGs to the fore. The clear road to the objective I had hoped for on turn 2 was rapidly receeding.

Turn four was the final turn. On his turn, he assaulted on the left, killing teh mortars and some infantry, and driving the rest off the objective. I tried to motivate to counter assault, and failed. Kommissar tried to "motivate". And failed. Stupid Kommisar.

While I was able to move back on to contest the object on the bottom of the turn, the left was going to be, at best, a stalemate for me. With a bit of luck, I could keep him from claiming it, but I lacked the resources to drive him off / destroy him.

On the right, his tank destroyers had line of sight to the tanks I'd moved up to shoot. They used it, and destroyed the Shermans in a position to do anything usefull.

With three of my tanks bailed or bogged, this took me below half strength on the M4 company, which promptly failed a morale check, and ran. I really want to hate those TDs, but it's hard, 'cause they're so pretty:

What is it with me and tank destroyers? The FoW boards are full of people grumbling about how useless they are, but the shoot the hell out me every time I play against them.

It was getting late, so I conceded on my turn 4. Ordinarily, I dislike doing this, but to be honest, had we had the time to play the last couple of turns, he would have won. With no AT assets left to speak of (1 flamethrower stand, with luck, meant one successful assault against one armoured platoon), I probably could contest my objectives until time ran out, but there was no way I was going to take his. He was ahead on platoon kills, and even without the objective, would win when time ran out. In fact, all he had to do to win was pull back to defend his objective.

It was a good game. In retrospect, a heartbreaker, but at the time, I didn't realize how critical that failed infantry motivation roll in turn 2 was. Lessons form Losing PT. IV: When attacking, infantry must keep moving. Losing momentum means losing the game.

Lessons from Losing Pt. V: There's more than one way to win. Having lost momentum on the right, what I probably should have done is dig in. There's no way he would have chewed through that much infantry once they were in foxholes, and I could bring my tanks back and around to snipe his units. While that meant giving up on an objective win, I could have tried for a win by points or forcing his company to break.

Once again, Sodbuster was a terrific opponent. He used strengths of his army and the terrain well, and earned himself a solid win. Thanks to the Dueling Grounds for the playing space, and to the THMG for terrain.

TMtW

Spoiled for choice. Possibly just spoiled.

2011-01-09T10:35:00.003-05:00

Hi,

So, the refund from Blizzard came through, the order to the warstore was sent, and the package, I am told, is en route. Dystopian Wars is a comin'. Huzzah!

So, what do I do with the rest of the money?

I realise this is a bit like a kid complaining because he's got too much candy, but there's a degree of logic to my lament. I generally try to keep my geek habit (aside from the occasional puchase of locktight and Wargames Illustrated) self-financing. If I want to get into a new game, buy a new army, etc., I either trade for it (hellooooo, Bartertown), sell some of my painted stuff (helloooooo, EBay), or do without.

Having disposable geek income is kind of blowing my mind a little.

Everyone has those "Rainy Day" projects kicking around in the back of their head. For me, it's the notion of an army for the SYW or the Napoleonic wars. One of my earlier memories is reading a book my dad had of famous battles, published by Sandhurst, and illustrated with minature dioramas. The chapter on Leipzig is, I think, what hooked me on miniature gaming, history in general, and the Napoleonic period in particular. Thanks, Dad! Once upon a time I had a rather nice French nappie army from Baccus, but I sold it off in what turned out to be the run-up to my divorce. Frankly, since then, I've missed the army a hell of a lot more than my ex-wife.

FoW has also introduced me to the wonders of 15mm scale. While 6mm is great, 15mm seem to be a sweet spot for me - small enough that you can get a dioramic effect (check out JET's work at Geektactica to see what I mean), but large enough to really pick out the detail on the figs. While you can do the latter with 6mm (I once painted tartan on a 6mm fig), and some of the 6mm sculpts are outstanding (take a look at the Baccus Franco-Prussian war range), I find the effort tends to be wasted, as the detail is lost in the mass. 15mm strikes a lovely balance between payback for attention to individual figs, coupled with dioramic / mass effect.

So, one option would be a napoleonic army in 15mm, using one of the newer rulesets - maybe Lasalle by Sam Mustafa, or even using Polemos rules, as I enjoyed playing with them at 6mm scale. Another would be something for the SYW, though my interests there tend more towards the North American theatre.

The problem here is time and opportunity to play. While I have grandiose visions of a 5-year project gearing up towards a 200-year anniversay replay of Waterloo, a) I don't think I have that degree of concentrated effort in me, and b) who the hell would I play with?

Another option is an ancients army. I always feel slightly guilty for never really getting into ancients. It's sort of like being the 40 year-old virgin of miniatures wargaming. For years, I've toyed with a number of rule sets, and even have a good idea of what army I'd like to do, having been fascinated by the indo-greek successor cultures for years.

Brief aside - do you know why Buddhists have statues of the Buddha? Because of the hellenistic influence of the greek successor cultures in India, who adopted Buddhism as a political counter to the association between traditional / indigenous authorities and Hinduism. The humanist tradition in hellenic culture prompted them to make statues of the Buddha as a person - something that hadn't been done elsewhere, or before, but which spread along with Buddhism form that point. The army is cool too, as the Indo-greeks combined the traditional elements of a Macedonian army, like pike and horse, with local troops. The ability to take pike, Indian bow, a range of cavalry, and Elephants in one army is, frankly, the bomb-diggity. But again, who would I play with? JET emerged out east as a sort of one-man Impetus road show in NFLD, but the local scene here seems kind of devoid of interest in ancients. Instead of being a 40-year old virgin, I'd have a trophy wife. Or possibly just a trophy.

I could just sit on the money, and dole it out piece-meal when I want to buy something. This is probably the most sensible thing to do, as it means I don't have to muck about with trades etc. every time I want to pick up a blister, but it seems . . . boring. I have an opportunity here to one-shot my way into a totally new dimension of the hobby - a new army, a new game, a whole new kind of gaming. Spending the moola piece-meal feels like wasting an opportunity.

Any thoughts?

TMtW

Needz moar gunz

2011-01-07T17:41:00.017-05:00

Hi,

Got in a game on Wednesday night vs. Jack1080 from THMG. The guy who qualified for nationals last year, did pretty good whilst there, and seems to be generally considered one of the more badassish geeks in town when it come to FoW. I figured if I'm going to learn from losing, might as well go up against the best, and he didn't disappoint ;)

Having finished up painting the bits and bobs needed for our upcoming 600p tourney, I wanted to try them out, and so went with Strelkovy for the first time, running the following at 1500 points:

FE Strelk 1500
HQ (add 2 45mm guns)
CC1: 3 Strelk platoons, SMG option, HMG
CC2: 1 Strelk platoon, SMG option, Kommisar, HMG
WC1: Strelkovy Scouts (2 sections)
WC2: 1 platoon 82mm mortars
SC1: 4 KV-85
SC2: 5 SU-76
SC3: 1 section flamethrowers

He ran Canadian 3rd with Treleavan, and more carrier patrols than I could shake a stick at. We played fighting withdrawel, and I was defending. Deployment was as below.

From bottom to top, I have the big strelk company with 45mm ATG and flamethrowers attached, then the mortars, then the KV-85s, then the scouts, backed up by the short strelk company. The SU-76s were in ambush. He had (bottom to top) a carrier patrol, a bunch of 6lbders, some more carriers, a big platoon of infantry, his M-10s, more infantry and carriers, including his HMG carriers and wasps (flame-thrower carriers). He also used the night attack option for the Brits, which allowed him to deploy further forward, and restricts visibility for the first few turns of the game. This is where Learning from Losing began to kick in. In this scenario, three objectives are placed, two by the attacker, one by the defender. Around turn 5, one of the attacker's selections is removed by the defender, but the objective placed BY the defender must stay on. You can see the two placed on the centre and left by my opponent below, while the one I placed was well on my right, in the woods.

What I should have done is put my choice in the centre, along with the big infantry company. This leaves me in a position to cover the objective I have to defend, while letting me move to cover either objective on the flank. In retrospect, I probably should have placed the short infantry company in ambush. If necessary, I could then deploy them as a stopgap, or to backup the main company.

(As an aside, I forgot to take notes for this game, so details might be a little fuzzy) Turn one, he advanced, pushing up his carriers on the flanks, and advanced his infantry into the large forest. His shooting was negated by the limited visibility of the night-attack conditions. I have to admit, I was a little worried by the carriers advancing on my flank. I needed to move my infantry up to defend the objective, which meant the wouldn't be able to dig in the first turn. This would mean the following turn, he could roll up the carriers on the flank, and unload with MGs - a nasty proposition for infantry in the open. To prevent this, I popped my ambush, revealing the SU-76s . . .

. . . and wiping out his carrier patrol.

Lessons from Losing pt. II. While the carriers are a threat, three of them could be dealt with by other means. On average, they only would kill 2 stands of infantry a turn - I would have done better to soak the damage, dig in the following turn, and save my ambush for a more critical moment.

In the centre, I moved up my infantry, and slowly pushed the tanks forward, looking to cover both the centre and right objectives.

Lessons from Losing Pt. III. The tanks were KV-85s, which are barely a step down from Tigers in terms of firepower and armour. There was nothing in his army that could reliably damage them beyond the wasp flamethrowers and the M-10s. I was intimidated by the wasp carriers, as they had the potential to chew up my small infantry platoon or the scouts. I used the KVs to take them out. This was, in retrospect, a direct consequence of LfL I above. With the big infantry platoon in a central position, this would have been less of a threat, and I wouldn't have needed to use the tanks against the wasps.

What I should have done with the KVs is ram them down his throat, wiping out the M-10s, which are the only things that could threaten at range, then use the heavy tanks either to back up an infantry assault, or to rampage around his backfield. To some extent, I think failing to do so was related to the switch from armour-heavy to infantry lists. When I take the KVs in a tank-heavy list, their role is to be the scary lurker, while other, cheaper tanks romp around. In THIS list, they need to be my spoiler - they're ultimately a sacrifice unit, and I need to use them to kill stuff and screw up my opponent's plans. As it worked out, I lost them turn 3, to no real purpose.

Turn three was critical. On his turn, my opponent ranged in his 6 lbders, which shot the hell out the SU-76s and my mortars. See LfL II. He shuffled around his carriers on the right, setting up for a combined flame and MG attack on the scouts and short infantry company, and shuffled his M-10s around a bit. He pushed his infantry forward to the central buildings in a bid to attack my tanks, but failed the morale check (infantry must motivate to assault tanks). On my turn, dawn lifted shooting restrictions, and my first withdrawn platoon came off (I pulled the remaining mortars). I knocked out one of his 6lber guns with my 45mms and HMG, and then I tried to assault the infantry he'd placed behind the buildings with my tanks, but after a single round of combat, my (fearless, supposedly) KVs failed to motivate to counter-assault, and ended up parked behind the building.

On his turn 4, he pretty much attacked all over. His M-10s blew away two KVs, his infantry took out a third in assault, his large infantry blob moved out towards my infantry, his 6lbers shot up my infantry blob, his MG carriers did the same to my infantry on the right.

On mine, I pushed my infnatry blob forward, assaulting him, tkaing out two platoons of his infantry . . .

. . . but pretty much decimating my own big infantry blob in the process.

We had to call the game at this point, but frankly, with 8 more turns to go in the scenario, he had the game in the bag. He still had 3 M-10s, most of his 6-lbders, 3 carrier sections, and some infantry kicking around. I had my scouts, and two units of infantry at around platoon strength. There was no way I could cover all three objectives for the next two or three turns, and even if I could, he could easily concentrate enough strength for an assault. So, what did I learn?

First, with the shift to an infantry-based list, deployment and deep understanding of the scenario implications trump manouvre. With a mobile / armoured list, what I do with my stuff in game (especially where I move them) is critical, while where I deploy them is less of an issue (they move, after all). With a relatively static infantry list, where I move is less of a factor (because, really, they're not moving that much most of the time), but where I put them to start (so I have options when / if I move) is critical.

Second, ambushes are one of the defender's most powerful weapons. I lost track of the number of times in this game where being able to pop those SU-76s (or even the rump infantry unit as mentioned above) would have been game changing. Because all weapons no mounted on a turret have firing arcs, being able to pop infantry behind his carriers could have let me totally alter the game. Using the SU-76s to ambush the M-10s would have had the same effect. This doesn't even take into account the mind-games dimension - an opponent is going to be very wary of any area terrain if it could hide an ambushing unit. Using that threat allows a player in a relatively passive role (as defender) to affect the flow of the game.

Third, the role units play has as much to do with how they fit into a list, the demands of the scenario, and what an opponent deploys as what they are in and of themselves. Note my comments on the KV-85s, above.

In a different scenario, or against another list, one with, say, PaK43s or Panthers, the role of the KVs would have been different again. Some of this comes from experience, I'm sure, but I'm going to have to think about this more consciously in-game.

This was a fun game, and one I had to think about. Aside from LfL I-III above, I also learned a few things about list design. My opponent's list had plenty of platoons - he could lose (IIRC) 6 before having to make a break test. However, a fair number of those platoons were soft - 3 carriers, etc. In a tournament game, each lost platoon costs the winner a point (moving from a 6-1 victory baseline to 5-2, 4-3, etc). This means that while it can be durable, it is easy for the list to lose a tournament despite a solid record of wins. I'm also learning about some of the depth of this game - the shift from a mobile tank list to one that relies on static defense, is going a long way toward illustrating what the game has to offer. The same unit can play a radically different role (such as the KV-85s), while the lack of mobility makes deployment a far more significant element (as opposed to in-game manouvre). Jack1080 was a terrific opponent (as always - he's an old Warmachine nemesis), and I look forward to more instructive ass-kicking in the future. Thanks and props again to the Dueling Grounds for the hospitable game environment, and to the THMG for the use of their terrain.

TMtW

Happy Belated Geekmas! Also, New Year's resolutions.

2011-01-06T09:47:00.011-05:00

Hi,

There comes a time in every geek's life when he gets a box in the mail. And by "box", I mean "Freaking huge box full of more toys than you can shake a fist at". For me, this happened Tuesday, and it's taken a couple of days to shake down, sort out, and otherwise come to terms with Geekmas.

You may recall several posts back, I mentioned that my interest in Cryx, Warmachine, etc. was waning. After considerable thought, and a chance comment by someone with whome I'd just completed a trade on Bartertown (Norseman, a gaming buddy from TBay, who sent me Tau), I decided to unload my Cryx. ALL my Cryx. Which meant everything made for Cryx, aside from some of the newest infantry and solos. Plus, you know, more Cryx.

What I got in trade was this.

1. Pretty much all the brettonians I'll ever need, want, or otherwise conceivably be associated with. In the box was 2-3000 points worth, including some of the cooler pieces like an extra Trebuchet, the King on a hippogriff, knights galore, enough Pegasus knights to form the RAF, etc. I might trade some for a few of the more obscure units like a relique, but at this point, I'm more or less in a position to paint heraldry until I die.

2. Around 2000 points of Canadian 3rd Division for FoW. The initial plan was to raid these guys for their lend-lease units, notably the Shermans, for my Soviets, and then flip them. However, after a couple of days of caressing the models, muttering "precious" to myself, and eating live fish, I'm starting to wonder if that's what's going to happen. Things became even more complicated last night, when I played a 1500 point game against the C3D at the Dueling Grounds. That's them across the table.

They're cool. I like the figs, and they have some nifty options - including a few that are unique in the game. This may end badly, given I already have a Soviet "to-do" list coming out my ears. While the Shermans are still destined for lend-lease (see my discussion of new years's projects below), the rest of the army might just have to stick around.

3. More Tau. This is one of those "rainy day" projects, but the fact is, I've had a thing for the Tau since they came out. I've always wanted to do a Tau infantry Horde - a metric crapton of fire warriors, Kroot, and Pathfinders backed up by suits. Now I can. This will end up as a modelling project (because really, until the cub is old enough, am I really going to spend my limited gaming time on 40k?). The geekmas box contained a ridiculous number of crisis suits, weapons, a tribe's worth of Kroot, and some odds and ends (krootox, a model I've always loved).

4. Odds and ends for my growing, but unpainted 40k orks. This will likely be the Cub's unspoken legacy, given he likes to play "pew-pew" with them, and the little buggers are sturdy enough to hold up to it. Unlike the Tau. And yes, I learned that the hard way. Among the odds and ends, I'm including a Baneblade.

Yes, a Baneblade. That's it on the bottom right, the big black sucker bigger than the infantry company box beside it.

Way back in the dawn of time when I lived in St. Johns' was married to my first (now ex-) wife, and had an ork footslogger horde for 40k, I began construction of a centrepiece model for my army, a battlewagon, natch. It never came to fruition, as I found that while my converting skills were up to par, scratch-building was not part of my geek-fu. But now, I have the Mother of All Tanks to convert up into an orky monstrosity of doom. Time for a manga-esque "squee!!" of delight.

It's taken a couple days to shake all this down (having spent most of December either working my ass off or driving to other people's houses, I'm currently taking a few days of belated holidays). My wife woke up yesterday to find me knee deep in boxes, happily sorting my bits and bobs into their new homes, and periodically stopping to cook up army lists and cackle. Everything is now sorted, and tucked away into it's appropriate box. Which leaves me with the happy question of what to do with all of this crap ;)

While random painting has it's moments, this is going to be a busy year, which means a little planning is in order. I suspect my hobby efforts to date will be focussed on three things, FoW soviets, my Brettonians, and Dystopian Wars. So, in order:

a) FoW Soviets. My loving, understanding, and irredeemably sexy (new) wife was kind enough to give me a company box of Kazachy for Christmas (that's cossacks for you heathens out there). It comes with company command, two platoons, and two Tachankas (which were nifty little horse drawn machine guns, FYI), These guys, coupled with the Shermans I just picked up, and a few other bits and bobs (like the extra cossak platoon I have in my to-do box), will lead to the of the following 1750 point FE Soviet list.

HQ M4
10 M4
10 M4
3 platoons Kazachy w. 2 Tachanka
3 SU-152
Short mortars (82mm)
3 platoon Arm. Transport, flame-thrower

I'm not convinced this is a national tournament level competitive list, but man, it will be fun to paint and play. It has 21 Sherman M4 lend-lease tanks (which I am growing to love in game - in terms of value for points, they rock), 15 large bases of cavalry (which are fantastic for assaulting anything without armour, and can dismount in a pinch to form a defensive infantry blob), 3 of the nastiest mobile artillery Soviets can get, a cheap pining unit, and a nifty, mobile, flame-thrower and MG toting support unit. I'm pretty stoked about this.

b) Brettonians. I'm currently participating in the WFB painter support process at www.warseer.com, and am working toward the following list:

General: Lvl 3 prophetess (life), warhorse, crown of command
BSB: Paladin, enchanted shield, shrieking blade, Bwarhorse
10 KotR, musician, standard
12 Knights Errant, musician, standard
20 Peasant Bowmen, musician, standard, braziers

I've posted some pics of these as the list grows, and will continue to do so. Next up is the Prophetess and a couple more knights to round out the KotR bloc. Once the first 1000 points are finished, I'll add a couple of trebuchets, a unit of Pegasus knights, a unit of grail or questing knights, and whatever else I can fit in - ideally some skirmishing archers and a damsel, though the points might be tight.

c) Dystopian Wars. This is sooooo going to happen. For those of you who have not been anywhere near the geekly interwebs of late, Dystopian Wars, is the newest offering from Spartan Games, the people who did Uncharted Seas and Firestorm Armada. The latter game nearly caught me, but sanity intervened, along with a growing determination to limit geekly expenditure (ideally to the point that my habit becomes self-funding). DW, however, looks pretty much tailor-made for me. It is steampunk - in the pseudo-Victorian, Jules Verne sense. It is an integrated land-sea-air battle game, which nicely jibs with my growing appreciation for large-scale (vs. skirmish) games. It's a third generation rule set, reflecting the lessons learned from Spartan's previous two lines. Finally, I just got myself a geekly windfall.

For some time, I've noticed that my Paypal account seems to be bleeding money - regular payments to Blizzard (the people who do World of Warcraft). It's taken a while, and a number of customer service calls, but I was finally able to determine that Blizzard has been regularly biling me for an account that was supposed to have been cancelled years ago. Consequently, they will be refunding me around four years of payments. Which means I have a nice little nest egg for geekly pursuits, including getting into DW.

While my favourite model to date is the French battleship, the French are not a core option in the game (they won't be a full faction release in either the first or second wave. What I've decided to go with are the Empire of the Blazing Sun - essentially, the Japanese and their co-prosperitors. I love the look of their ships, especially the battleship and air fortress, they have a giant, pagoda-topped spider walker land leviathan, and from what I can gather, one of the best air-combat capacities in the game (I like fighters). It'll likely be a month or so before these are purchased and delivered, but keep your eyes peeled.

So, there you have it. Geekmass and New Years resolutions all in one post. I hope you all had a fantastic holiday, and I wish you the best of the new year.

TMtW

Bat Rep: Learning from losing

2010-12-30T16:21:00.010-05:00

Hi,

Had a game last night at DG, against a buddy of JJMicromegas, with JJM giving some advice, and a few of the other THMGers serving as advisors and rules consultants. Again, props to the club for the use of terrain.

I ran a late war FE Motostrelkovy list at 1750 with the following:

HQ 30
CC1: 2 MStrelk platoons, SMG option, Kommisar
CC2: 2 MStrelk platoons, SMG option
WC1: Full H. Morter with observer
WC2: 8 M4s
SC2: 2 SU-152
SC2: 5 KV-85

He ran a FE Panzer company with two units of panzer III/IVs, a Tiger, a platoon of pioneers, some stugs, and a few other odds and ends.

The game was something of an education. We played an Encounter scenario, which I've since learned is somewhat controversial among the competitive FoW community, for reasons that shoudl become clear. This was the second time I'd used infantry in numbers, the first time in late war, and the first time I defended (technically, I was the attacker in this scenario, but again, as will become clear, it didn't work out that way).

The defining features of the Encounter scenario is the role played by reserves. Half of one's platoons start off table (which is why so many of the lists posted on the FoW boards have "lopsided" platoon structures - 3 large, point-intensive platoons and three "filler" platoons. Beginning on turn three, there is a chance they can come on - you roll one die turn 3, two on turn 4, three on turn 5, etc. For each 5/6 that turns up, you can bring on a platoon. However, where the platoon comes on is randomly determined. In a scenario where victory is determined by control of objectives, this random element can make or break a game - again, as will become clear.

I chose to keep my mobile / armoured elements in reserve. The plan was to dig in with my infantry on the objectives, weather the storm while plinking away with morters, and then counter-attack with my tanks.

These pics show the situation on turn three - no reserves turned up, my morters had been only minimally effective, and my opponent had spent the last few turns machine gunning my infantry guarding the rightmost objective.

I had managed to dig in my infantry by turn 2, which gave them some protection, but the limiting factor was that Soviet infantry lack any integral anti-tank assets. With strelkovy, this can be mitigated by attaching flamethrowers, anti-tank guns, and ATRs, but Motostrelk rely on their armoured support. Without that back-up, there was little I could do but hunker down, and hope I got lucky with the HEavy mortars. While they have a chance to take out tanks (note the smoke), it's not huge.

The next turn, he assaulted with his tanks, pulling in the heavy mortars (if a unit is close enough, it gets dragged in), mauling both the infantry and the mortars, and seizing the objective.

While I was still contesting, things were not looking good on the right. I really needed a reserve unit on the table, and on my turn, was able to bring on one. It's at this point that the dynamics of the Encounter scenario come into play. I decided to bring on my heavy KV-85 tanks. These had a chance to take out the Tiger, and have a good chance of shrugging off the main guns of the PzIII/IVs. Unfortuneately, they came in on the wrong side of the table - my left, well away from the action. Because that side of the table was heavily wooded, it meant that the tanks only had a narrow approach, and while they were able to account for a few dead Panzers (and drive off the remainder), never got close enough to the objective to contest it.

On his next turn, my opponent finished off my remaining infantry, consolidated his hold on the objective, and hunkered down. I either had to contest the objective on my turn, or lose. To do this, I needed to get some reserves on the table. At this point, I was rolling three dice - all I needed was a single 5+, and I was back in the game. Worst case, if they came on the left side again, I could move my heavy tanks out of the way, and double across the table to contest. I would lose some tanks the following turn, but could at least buy some time.

So, of course, I rolled a 1, 2, and 4. No reserves, no way to contest the objective (my heavies were too far away). My only chance would be to drive the infantry and Tiger off, and with only the rump of my mortars and the few heavies in a position ot fire, it just wasn't enough.

I think I learned a couple-three critical lessons in this game. First, while Soviet infantry is tough (It did take him four turns using 7 tanks and infantry to shift them), without tanks in support they are hamstrung. One of the observers suggested deploying the KV-85s at the start of the game, something I might think about in future, trading them for either the mortars or an infantry unit. I have tried deploying the KVs in cover before, and they can be remarkably durable. It also gives me a fair bit of AT on the table - five 85mm guns can go a long way to influencing the game.

Second, I was hesitant to move my second infantry platoon, with what seemed like good reason. In the open, on the move, infantry are far more vulnerable than they are hunkered down. However, in a game like this, immobility is less of an option. While it would have been a risk, advancing with the infantry would have at least threatened my opponent's assaulting force, and put him in a position of having to make choices. I suspect knowing when to move infantry is one of the subtle, but important elements of this game.

Last, I learned a few things about list design. I've wondered for a while why so many lists posted to the FoW forums seemed disproportionate or lopsided - several large platoons, along with several small ones. Now I know. In scenarios where half your force starts off table, beginning the game with a disproportionate amount of points in play give you a huge advantage. I've been playing around with this concept, and came up with the following list by way of illustration.

HQ: T-34/85
CC1: 10 T-34, 5/85
CC2: 10 T-34, 5/85
WC1: 2 45mm AT guns
WC2: 3 82mm Mortars
SC1: 5 KV-85s
SC2: 2 45mm AT guns.

In encounter, that list can start with the 26 tanks on the table - more than 1500 out of 1750 points. When, or if, reserves come on becomes an academic issue. While this is a bit of an exagerrated example, I think it makes the point.

I should have a few other things to post in the next couple of days, but in the mean time - a happy New Year to all and sundry.

TMtW

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T09:34:00.002-05:00

Hi,

For most of the last month, I've either been in end-of-term mode or dad mode, leaving little time for painting. However, the last few days have seen me at loose ends, with little to do but paint, so I've made up the time. A couple of quick pics to round off the year.

Bretonnian archers painted and (mostly) based:

Bret knights (mostly) based:

Soviet SU-76Ms painted and based:

In other news, the local gaming club has announced a small-point (600) FoW tournament in January, and I'll be playing - I'll update with pics as my tournament list gets painted, and of course, pics from the tourney. Planned list keeps changing, but current front runner is:

FE Strelk
HQ add anti-tank platoon 75
CC: 2 platoons Strelkovy = 215 / 290
SC: 4 SU-76M = 150 / 440
WC: Short Mortar (85mm) w. Observer = 70 / 510
SC2: 1 platoons flamethrowers = 90 / 600

The list gives me predictability (I'll be defending), durability (that big infantry unit plus add-ons will be hard to shift), reasonable AT (especially in defence) and good combined-arms options. I think ;)

I'm also about half-way through the mother of all trades - unloaded my Cryx, both painted and unpainted, for a metric crap ton of other stuff. I'll post pics of the great unboxing when my end arrives.

Thanks to all who've been following, and the best of the holiday to you and your families.

TMtW

Objective unlocked?

2010-12-06T21:46:00.002-05:00

Hi,

Just a quick update, with some close-ups of a soviet objective I finished a little while back.

How could my brave soviets not push to rescue their comrades, cut off, but bravely holding out?

I've been doing a ton of list crunching lately, playing around with different ideas, options, etc. The mid-war / late war shift has me thinking about the way that different ratings affect how a list operates and what it can do. I've also been thinking about how the different catagories of lists (infantry / mech / tank) combine with the scenarios to place different demands on lists.

While I've done this kind of thing with other games, it's the first time I've had enough of a sense of FoW to begin the process with it. The game has already revealed a fair bit of depth in terms of play, so it's nice to unlock a similar depth in list design. This is less about making an "uber" list, and more about matching the available capabilities to the demands and limitations of the role one plays in different scenarios.

Food for thought, at any rate.

Encounter at the Ford

2010-11-25T13:04:00.014-05:00

Hi,

Got a game in Wednesday, versus a fellow I've played once before, at the Duelling Grounds. Mid-war - my first from that period in FoW, and it was an absolute blast, one of the best mini games I've played, period. Solid and engaging opponent, back and forth swings, both of us playing balls-in, and it came down to a climactic company (platoon) morale check. AAR follows.

Pre-game: I came to the store with a couple of late war lists, but hadn't anticipated a mid-war game. Upon arrival, my opponent (Sodbuster on the THMG forums) mentioned he wanted to play a mid-war game with his Gurka / Indian force (I figured I could chalk up the anachronism to another trick of the wiley fascists). I was able to borrow a copy of the Eastfront book from the store, and managed to more or less convert the list I had planned for the day. It helped that the Soviet stuff I have was picked for flexibility - all my units can be used in both mid- and late-war, albeit with different points values and force orgs. We played a no-retreat scenario. It's a prepared defence scenario, including ambush, with the attacker approaching down the length of the table. As a mechanised infantry force vs regular infantry, I was the default attacker, and had the first turn. I deployed with heavy mortars to my rear, a two platoon company of infantry on each flank, and my armour positioned more or less centrally, with the ability to move to support either flank. I put my Su-85s on the right flank. With him able to place a unit in ambush, I needed to "guard" my flanks. You can see the deployment in the picture below, taken from my opponent's side of the table.

Turn 1: I moved up with pretty much everything I had, including my mortar observer, who took up residence in a house on the outside of town. My morters tried a barrage, but I was confronted with one of the inherent challenges to using Soviets mid-war. Unlike in late war, where Soviets are trained, in mid-war they are conscript. Remember the scene in "Enemy at the Gates" where the troops are shuttled off the train and into combat? Same idea. Being conscript makes it much more difficult to actually get hits in a barrage, and despite the size of my battary (it matters, natch), I failed to hit any enemy units. On his turn, he more or less kept his units hunkered down, and fired a counter barrage that managed to clear a swath of infantry on my left. Brit arillery in large battaries has the option to either concentrate firepower in a regular template, or spread it out over a larger area. He spread it out. You see all that empty space on the right side of the picture below?

That used to be occupied by infantry. Again, the effect of conscripts came into play (they are easier to range in on, and hence, more likely to get caught by the artillery template).

Turn 2: Again, I advanced. The infantry on the left, disliking the effect of my opponent's artillery, moved toward the village, taking what cover they could. My morters managed to pick off one of his big guns, with the added effect of pinning his artillery (any hit from an artillery barrage pins the platoon hit, which is a critical role of artillery in-game). My big guns, Su-152s, moved up and took a shot at some enemy infantry lurking in the houses, but missed. His troops were hidden, hadn't revealed their position by moving or shooting, and I had moved, making them extremely difficult to hit. At his point, I took a gamble, and had my Shermans swing across the ford in the river, moving at the double to get into a degree of cover, and be in position to assault next turn.

Moving at the double means my tanks go faster, but they become much more vulnerable to enemy fire (twice the dice for shooting). I was betting that he wouldn't unpin his artillery, and the gamble worked. With his artillery unable to fire, and my Shermans out of line of sight of his AT, he elected to keep his infantry hidden, and held fire. He did, however, manage to bring on two of his reserve platoons - veteran British infantry, and a pair of portee 6 lbrs.

Turn 3: At this point, the game got bloody. I moved up my shermans, and with a combination of machine gun and rifle fire, pinned the Indian infantry guarding the objective on the right flank. Pinning is critical in assaults, as it radically reduces the amount of fire my tanks face as they move to assault, and with his infantry loaded with PIAT guns and other AT assets, the less I faced, the better. In town, the SU-152s fired on the Ghurkas hiding in the house on the outskirts of town, and levelled the roof around their ears.

I quite like the SU-152 (the big assault guns at the bottom of the picture above). They don't throw out a lot of shots, but the ones they do are petty damn big. I first took them due to an opponent who regularly sheltered Fearless Veteran SS in built-up areas. Those kind of troops, in that kind of cover, are almost almost impossible to dig out, but the SU-152 is pretty much designed to make that unecessary. If one team in a building is hit, all are hit; unarmoured targets automatically fail their save, and the Su-152s have unsurpassed firepower.

On the right, the Shermans moved in, and began a long, bloody fight.

The way assaults work in FoW, if you don't eliminate all enemy teams within 4" of your assaulting teams (i.e., win the assault), your opponent can pass a morale check to counter-attack. If they don't win in turn, you can pass a morale check and counter attack back, and so on, until someone either chooses to break off, or fails a morale check and is compelled to do so. Both sides in this assault were fearless, however, and I was attacking with conscript tanks. This meant that my tanks weren't terribly effective at killing his units, while the bulk of his teams had to struggle to get through my armor (possible, but hard). This meant a slow, back and forth attrition struggle for the objective, with each roll to counter-attack critical to the outcome. One tense moment came when my command Sherman bailed out. While it wasn't destroyed, if I broke off the combat, it would be left behind, overwhelmed by pursuing Ghurkas. In the end, he failed a roll first, and retreated, and my somewhat mauled Shermans moved to consolidate their hold on the objective, which was now contested - both of us had units within 4".

On his turn, he unpinned his artillery, which proceeded to drop another template on my infantry, killing several, and revealed his ambush - three anti-tank guns, which unloaded on the remaining Shermans, destroying three. Ouch.

Turn 4: My Sherman commander unpinned, as did the infantry that had received the artillery barrage . . . eventually. At this point, we witness one of the less savory elements of the Russian morale system. As well as benfitting from the usual advantages of support from independent command teams (a re-roll), attached Kommisars can motivate infantry and gun teams . . .

. . . by executing one of them.

In this case, effectively. My Shermans moved up, intending to assault the remaining Ghurkas, only to have two of them bog down in the woods (a 1 in 36 chance!!). On the left, my infantry moved up to assault . . .

. . . but were driven back by defensive fire (I hadn't been able to pin the platoon I was assaulting, as I was once again firing at well-hidden troops). On the right, I moved my SU-85s up to support the assault I anticipated in the next turn, one of them bogging down in the process. In the centre, the SU-152s moved up, and lent a little supporting fire to the overall action. In his turn, my opponent moved up his portee guns to point-blank range, and one them bogged down in the woods. His artillery and infantry on my left chewed up my infantry company a bit more, and his AT guns turned their attention to the SU-85s, destroying two.

The remnants of his Ghurkas assaulted my Shermans.

Remember, only one of my Shermans was unbogged, and able to fight back. Even with his depleted platoon, my opponent was able to destroy the active tank, and the other two, bing bogged down, were overwhelmed.

On the left, his infantry assaulted my whittled down, and much abused infantry company, who still managed to thow out enough defensive fire to drive the Ghurkas back in disarray. Finally, the recon platoon my opponent had brought on this turn advanced.

Turn 5: The penultimate, and most savage turn. I was unable to unbog the SU-85, but everything else unpinned. The critical thing now was to take and hold the centre objective. I had to clear out the remaining Ghurkas on the objective, and have enough infantry left over to hold it through my opponent's turn. To begin, I unloaded pretty much everything I had on the Ghurkas, and used my mortars to destroy another gun and pin the artillery platoon. I then threw the infantry into the assault.

This was a fairly dramatic moment, the infantry coming to grips among the smouldering hulks of the Shermans. I was able to cut down a fair number of teams with shooting, and had overwhelming numbers, so the assault went off well, and I was able to move up and consolidate my position - now I just had to hold it! On the left, I was able to finally pull off another assault.

Between shooting and the assault itself, I destroyed the remnants of the defending platoon on the other objective, and seized it as well.

Unfortunatly, I only had a handfull of teams left in that company, and it was unlikely I'd be able to hold it. My thinking was, however, it was one more thing my opponent would have to dedicate resources to, and might draw some fire from the main event on the right.

On my opponent's turn, he moved up the veteran British unit that had come on in reserve. He also advanced his recon unit (armed with multiple machine guns) into assault range on the left. His artillery, unpinned, hammered the infantry defending the righthand objective, while the remaining SU-85s withered under a hail of AT fire.

On the left, his recon units unloaded their machine guns into the tattered remnants of my infantry, and destroyed most of them.

He then threw the recon carriers into an assault with the remnants, and eliminated them to the last stand, including the battalion commander I had attached to the unit. This was bad news, as it meant that if I lost another platoon, I would lose the game.

Once below half strength, a force in FoW must roll a morale check to keep fighting. With my commander gone, I would automatically fail the roll, and lose. In the end, it came down to the battle on the right, between the two infantry units. This was a tough fight. The British were veterans, which made them effective combatants, and the British have a special rule that lets them reroll morale checks to counter-attack. On the other hand, I had a lot of Russians, they were fearless, and had their own re-roll capacity in the form of an attached command team (the 2iC) and a Kommisar. This one was a meatgrinder. We went through a good three or four counter-attacks. I started out with something on the order of 15 stands, and lost about 3 stands for every one of my opponents. In the end, however, he broke off, and the remains of my infantry moved to seize the objective.

At this point, the game came down to a die roll. My infantry were well below half-strength, which meant they needed to take a morale check. My Kommisar had been killed in the fighting, but my 2iC survived. I had to roll 3+ with a re-roll to keep the platoon in the game. If I did, the platoon would hold, I would start my turn in control of the objective, and win the game. If I failed, my platoon would break, taking me below half strength, and without an overall commander, the remains of the force would break and run, losing me the game. I rolled the dice . . .

. . . and made it.

I had a handful of infantry, my SU-152s, and my mortars. I could just picture the few battered survivers standing, gasping, watching in disbelief as the British withdraw, and hoping that higher command re-enforces them before the next attack comes.

Best game I've had in a long, long time. Mid-war is a very different creature. I've spent some time looking through the book today, and I get the feeling everything is exaggerated. Units are bigger, gutsier, and less effective. Consquently, events are decisive - they happen big, or not at all. I think I might have to paint up some new toys

I have to give thanks and propers to the Toronto Historical Miniature Gamers, a club playing out of the Duelling Grounds. Not only are they unstintingly generous with their terrain, they also made themselves available for rule clarification throughout the game, handy, as both my opponent and I are still learning the finer nuances.

**EDIT**

Just found out that an attached 2iC doesn't give a re-roll like the overall commander does. So, this raises the question, which of the two dice I rolled counts as the first one? Yeesh.

Damn, that's a lot of soviets . . . .

2010-11-23T10:01:00.003-05:00

Hi,

Some pretty pics today. Didn't get a chance to get game pics last week, as my opponent bailed out at the last minute, but it looks like I'll get a chance tomorrow. In the meantime, I thought I'd post some pics of recently completed stuff for my FoW soviets.

First up are the Spetznatz / Scouts.

Not sure if you can see it in these pics, but the mottling on the uniforms? Camo. First attempt at 15mm, and it turned out ok, though I think some more practise is in order.

These guys are handy, in that they allow a player to infiltrate another unit when attacking against a prepared defender. In FoW, soviets tend to do best at short range, and getting there typically involves an unpleasant degree of attrition. Anything that gets you closer, faster, is worth it's weight in gold.

Next up are a company (and a bit) of infantry. The fun thing about Soviets in FoW is how much stuff you can put on the table. Of course, that means you need to paint it all.

With the addition of these guys, I can now run two companies of infantry at 2 platoons each - about the minimum necessary to field an infantry-based force. I'll start them out as a motorised company, as it means I can use most of my painted armour in support, but I'll shift to regular infantry once I get more arty and anti-tank painted up. Katies are likely next on the block, or maybe some ZIS-3s.

Finally, a WiP shot of my next Bret unit, scruffy peasant archers.

Of the six basic scenarios in WFB 8th edition, one involves a contest for control of a centrally-located building. While knights and other mounted units can attack units in the building, they can't actually enter it and take posession. Hence, infantry are a necessary element in most army builds. I have about a jillian of the old Bret archers - the ones that came in the box set with lizardmen. I managed to pick up some extra heads from the new archer set, and with a little xacto work, have a 20-strong unit of archers about half done. They're also handy in that they can make their attacks flaming for a minimal investment of points, which goes a long way to cancelling units that have regeneration saves.

I'll try to get some pics tomorrow, assuming the game goes off, and will try to get another post later this week. With my cub arriving on Saturday, and exams coming up, I'm not sure how producting December will be. Keep my fingers crossed.

Dangerous Thoughts

2010-11-12T11:34:00.002-05:00

HI,

Of late, I've found my interest in things Warmachine waning, and I'm having trouble putting my finger on why. I loved the game when I started playing it, and still enjoy the games I play - witness last night, when Mael was kind enough to indulge my interest in trying out the "new" Circle battlebox.

But off the table, it's just not holding me. Of late, I have zero desire to paint WM/H. I can't remember the last time I checked out the forums. I have no idea what the new releases are. The latest "OMFG that's broken" controversy fails to sway me. And to be honest, while MkII caused a brief resurgence of interest, I've been drifting this way since the last couple books of Mk I.

In contrast, I'm pulling my hair out over whether to paint more Brettonians or Soviets. My gaming time is at a premium, and I've been devoting it to those two games. I've been list-crunching for both, especially FoW, like mad.

I'm starting to wonder if it is a skirmish vs battle-game issue. Some of the Warmachine crowd at DG were playing Malifaux last night, a game I love the figs for (and for which I own a starter set). Yet, I came home with little inspiration to dig out that box and get painting. Instead, over coffee this morning, I finished sorting out teh figs for my next strelkovy company, and I'm already trying to lock in a FoW game for next week. If I didn't have so much marking right now, I'd be thinking about going to GW to get in a 8th ed game on Sunday. And I'm pretty sure once I've posted this, I'll be cruising the FoW forums looking for insight and tips.

Is this the end of skirmish gaming for me, or just a normal part of the geek cycle?

TMtW

Long time no post

2010-11-09T17:46:00.003-05:00

Hi,

Been ages since the last post - marking season plus Cub cut into painting time. Did manage to get a few more knights painted.

I might go back and clean up some of the detail on the BSB, but I'm content for now. I now have 9 finished knights, enough for a basic knight bloc. Next step will be to base them, and their movement tray.

I've been on a bit of a FoW kick lately. Got in a couple of games last week, and might try again tomorrow. If I do, I'll bring the camera, as there are some nice armies at the local store.

Blast from the past?

2010-09-19T09:22:00.004-04:00

Hi,

Played a 35 point steamroller tournament at X Planet in Mississauga on Saturday, and had a grand old time. Haven't played that much Warmachine in many a moon. Humor: I spent most of my free time last week agonizing over which of two lists to run, only to discover at my first game that I could take two lists. Must have missed that part in the tourney rules . . . ;) As a side note, I can't recommend the store enough. Clean, well stocked, with plenty of playing area, some of it at ground level in natural light. The store owner / operater is an enthusiastic gamer, and an extremely likeble guy.

I ran:

Wraithwitch (e)Deneghra
Nightmare
Leviathan
Nightwretch
Deathripper
Skarlock
Full McThralls
Necrosugeon and Stich Thralls
Necrotech and Scrap thrall
Pistol Wraith
Machine Wraith

Played three games, against Vlad / Khador, Kromac / Circle, and Saeryn / Legion. I have pics, but sadly, none of my games were against painted opponents, so they're not the eye candy I hoped for. I will try to post a glam shot of my list by tonight.

The games brought home to me something I've been thinking about for a while now. Let me illustrate.

Game one, against Vlad, was three turns. Turn one, I moved up. Turn two, I moved up, and took out a couple of the Doom reavers sheltering Vlad. Turn three, I made eDennie incorporeal, slammed a McThrall into Vlad, charged with eDennie, teleporting Vlad into the waiting arms of Nightmare. Nom, nom, nom, I win.

Game two, against Kromac. Took much longer - we actually took up the whole time slot for the round. I gradually took out his beasts, except for one, then made an assasination run. Teleported Kromac to Nightmare when he had 2 Fury remaining. Nom, nom, urgh. Kromac was left with one health, and on his turn, switched to beast form, jumped back to eDennie, and took her out.

Game three, against Saeryn. By this time, I was getting tired, and sloppy. Another long game. I made TWO assasination runs, both against a full Fury Saeryn - stupid, I know, but I couldn't see any other option to win. Both failed, and I ended up losing by scenario, with the remmants of my army scattered, and my opponent concentrated in the scoring zone.

See any patterns? In all three games, I played aggressively for the assasination, with my usual tactics: don't worry about losses, all units are expendable as long as they create an assasination opportunity, it's ok to hang your warcaster out there as long as you take out the opposing warcaster that turn. I've played this way pretty much since beginning warmachine. The tactic generally works - against warmachine armies, except when it doesn't (as my many Gaspy vs Sevvie games against Kennoth of Menoth will testify). I played this way in part because I liked it - the aggressive, make or break style was part of what made Warmachin fun. I'm finding, however, that while it's fine for a Sunday afternoon game or two, the style of play doesn't work for competitive play. Here's why:

1. Bear in mind, this was a steamroller event. In the new format, there are three basic ways to win: by assasination, by scenario, or by army points destroyed (if neither player wins by the first two). What I found was that consistanly, while it was difficult to win by scenario, it was easy to lose. By this I mean that against an aware opponent, planning to win by scenario was almost impossible - preventing win conditions is easy. Failing to pay attention, however, and forgetting the scenario conditions, could very easily hand my opponent the game.

In my second game, I could have won. All I had to do was, rather than making the assasination run, pull back, and protext my army. I had taken out most of his warbests, including all of his heavies, for the cost of my McThralls. Instead, fixated on the assasination win, I took a needless risk, and ended up losing.

In my third game, I could have directed my energies to destroying his beast-heavy army. Instead, tired and losing concentration, I made a number of pointless assasination runs. While I might still have lost, I certainly would have had a better run.

2. Aggressive, do-or-die style play is TIRING. Not, say, as much as digging ditches, but the blunt fact is that by game three, I was off my game, and not thinking straight. In a recent post, I noted that I got in three large games of the new WFB 8th edition with no sense of fatigue - this is not the case for Warmachine, at least the way I play it. A play style that drains my emotional resources is not suited to multiple successive games, as it means my play gets increasingly sloppy as the day goes on.

3. Hordes. The introduction of the Fury mechanic, and the reality of mixed-environment play, means that having assasination as a core strategy is no longer viable. Assasination wins against Hordes are like scenario wins in steamroller - your opponent has to be not paying attention, and leave his warlock naked of Fury and exposed, in order to win. I've found that two fury, camped on a warlock, is generally enough to ruin an assasination run, unless dumb luck and the dice come to your rescue.

Taken together, these three factors suggest a need to rethink both my basic strategy and tactics - how I plan to win, and what I do in games to win. I need to retool from list design on up. Generally speaking, I favour lists with redundancy and disposable elements - cheap infantry like McThralls, more arc nodes than I need, multiple heavies, duplicate solos. This is so I can throw away units willy-nilly in the bid to open a hole to the assasination run - as I did in game one.

The problem is, this doesn't work against Hordes lists. Game three is a perfect illustration. I lost the game because I lost my army. I lost my army because I burned it up gaining access to a caster I wasn't likely to be able to kill. If I had concentrated on my opponent's army, and focussed on force preservation, I might have won.

Force preservation may be my new watchword. I need to learn to play in a way that lets me take out opposing units / jacks / beasts without exposing my own forces to retribution (or at least that lets me come out ahead in attrition). This, at first glance, might be a bit of a challenge for Cryx. We don't do durable. While there are obviously some Cryx units that are tougher than others, army-wide, we are outclassed by pretty much every other army in the game. I've finding that even those durability "tricks" we do have - Necrosurgeon regenerating McThralls, for eg., are ineffective. In every game I played, my opponents tagetted the stich thralls and necrosurgeon first, before they got to the McThralls themselves.

What Cryx does have is mobility and offensive power. Up until now, I've used this to create assasination opportunities. Now I need to learn to use it to hit while minimizing the risk of counter-damage.

I'm thinking of putting together a "training" list designed to learn this new approach. I remember back when I first started to play, for three or four weeks straight I went into games solely to learn how to use slams. Every game, I was less concerned with winning, than I was learning how to anticipate and position my 'jacks to set up and capitalise on the slam power attack. I'm good at slams now - see game one.

I need to put together a list that maks it difficult for me to put my caster at risk, and where I can't afford to throw away units. The Coven seem like a good pick here, as they're not much use near the action anyway (in fact, if they are anywhere near the fight, I've probably lost). In terms of a list, I'm thinking a combination of fast, relatively expensive units like satyxis and soulhunters, along with expensive and flexible 'jacks - the spider 'jacks, DJ, etc. With the Coven running an "elite" list, I will have to learn to be selective in how I engage targets, and work to preserve what I have.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

FMB

Follow-up

2010-08-31T10:16:00.004-04:00

Follow up report:

Played the uber-tournament at GW on Saturday. List was:

Lvl 4 Prophetess (Life), Barded warhorse, Silver Mirror, Crown of Command

General: Lord,Gromril Helm, Holy Icon, Mantle of Damsel Elena, Shrieking Blade, Bwarhorse, shield, Questing Vow

Heroes (696): BSB: Paladin, enchanted shield, Relic Sword, Bwarhorse Virtue of Duty, Grail Vow

Paladin, Virtue of Confidence, Gauntlet of the Duel, Gold Sigil Sword, Bwarhorse, Questing Vow, Shield

Damsel Lvl 1 (beasts),warhorse, Dispell Scroll

Damsel Lvl 2 (beasts), Chalice of Malfleur

Paladin, Virtue of Heroism, Dragonhelm, Grail Vow, shield, lance, Royal Pegasus

12 Knights Errant, musician, standard, Lichebone pennent

11 KotR, musician, standard

20 Peasant Bowmen, musician, standard, braziers

20 Peasant Bowmen, musician, standard, braziers

16 Peasant Bowmen, musician, standard, braziers , skirmish

4 Pegasus Knights, musician

10 Questing Knights, musician, standard bearer, banner of swiftness

7 Grail Knights, musician, standard bearer

Trebuchet w. Yeoman Craftsman

Tournament started at 10:30, finished at 6:30. In that time, we fit in three BIG games comfortably, with plenty of time between for breaks, lunch, filling out game reports, taking on / putting off fluids, etc. The new version plays very smoothly.

The first game I played was against a veteran O&G player, in the meeting engagement scenario. This one is a diagonal deployment, with the two zones only 12" apart. It escalates very quickly to combat, with little time to manouvre, and equires the first dployer (me in this case) to deploy their entire army. This, I'm finding, is a bad thing for Bretonnians, where being able to pick the terms of combat is critical to success. I gave up a solid loss. As it happens, my opponent won prettiest army, primarily on the strength of the terrain peice he brought (as the entrance fee to the tourney). Fantastic job on his "Waaaghsteraunt - that's it in the background, but you'd need closeups to do it justice. Crazy amount of detail went into it - my fav was the snotling picking shrooms in the mushroom patch.

Second game was a minor loss to Dark Elves, which would have been a draw, except I misunderstood the secondary objectives for my side. It was the dawn attack scenario, which has a randomised deployment. I again deployed first, and again struggled with trying to control my army as well as I needed. Probably my most fun game of the day, against a fantastic opponent who went on to win favorite overall opponent. He got my vote. Visual highlights included his massive (60 strong) unit of spearmen, which take advantage of both the Horde rule in the new game, and the inherent rules for elves and spears, which meant most of his unit got to fight. One of the cooler exploits of a high-point game I saw. You an see it here, just as it was about to crash into my peasant bowmen - saved by the bell on that one. The knight unit in the picture was already gone.

Here you can see the situation on my right - the two hydras at the back had been killed, and my remaining knight lances were about to sweep across the table. It was actually a game where we both would have liked to see another turn or two, as things were very much still in the balance.

Last game, I massacred a high elf army in the Blood and Glory scenario. This one involves hunting banners (1 point each) and generals (2 points). I brought my opponent down to four points, while keeping a margin of nine, and met my secondary objective of keeping my general alive, while denying his (taking a banner). Bretonnian rules helped me here, as while he took a peasant banner, dirty peasants don't count. I think I played well this game, kept the scenario objectives in mind, and since I had more control over deployment, was able to plan, coordinate, and execute combined unit strikes with my knights. Which, when done well, hit like a train. Below you can see some lances about to shake off a unit of bowmen, and then finish off the units in the background, before swinging around to hit the spear unit in the right of the picture. That evenually was smashed by a combo of four lances.

Overall thoughts.

1) Brets are fantastic at focused violence - high armour and toughness aren't a huge issue. Where I struggled was against big units with lots of attacks. My O&G opponent just had too many blocks of high attack producing orcs on the table, and because we deployed so close due to scenario, I couldn't use my mobility to avoid / concentrate (which I did in the third game). Same problem against my second opponent, and his 60-odd, cauldron-buffed spear horde. Ordinarily I would drop rocks on it, but he was threatening with enough other killy stuff that I didn't have the option. I'm going to need to figure out how to deal with a threat saturating opponent.

2) Magic. I love it. I love the lore of life. I really love regrowth with Throne of Vines up, which allows me to reliably regenerate 2-3 knights. However, unlike every damn opponent I played, I don't seem to have access to multiple use items that grant power dice, extra spells, dispell bonuses, and general magic buffery. This means I only seem to get spells off on turns where a) I roll a crapload of power dice, and b), I generate a "boom" spell for my prophetess (like Dwellers Below, which can gut an entire unit), which prompts opponents to hold on to dice in order to dispell. I just don't have the tools to shut down opposing casting, or to force through my own. This makes me sad.

3) Trebuchet. God I love this thing. Hands-down MVP. Nuked at least two units per game, except in the second, where it was blade-winded to death in the first turn. Apparantly, my opponent was familiar with what they could do. Don't much care for this spell. Going to have to pick up another trebuchet soon.

4) Items that grant extra mobility - charge dice, movement, pursuit dice, are key for Brets. While our armour does give us lots of durability, it only takes one turn of bad dice (4 out of 6 ones on questing knights one turn - ouch!) to gut a unit. Widespread use of lances means we need the charge (one of the few armies in this edition for whom getting the charge remains critical), and if we do break the opposing unit, we must destroy in pursuit. Anything that mitigates the chance element here is huge.

5) Deployment is huge for Brets. There are things out there that I just haven't found the tools to deal with; see point one. I don't even know if we have the tools to deal with them. Other than trebs, how do we handle spammed high units with a high number of attacks? Winning for Brets seems to depend on being able to avoid those threats, and concentrate on ganking everything else in their army - to whit, my third game, where my opponent's swordmasters and white lions only saw combat with a unit of bowmen, while my treb and knights ganged up two or three to one against pheonix guard, spearmen, and bowmen. Scenarios where I have to put down my entire army first (first two games) are bad for Brets - if gives my opponent too much control over how the fight proceeds. Not sure what to do about this. Ordinarily, I'd look to use a tarpit unit (such as a deep Men at Arms unit or Grail Relique), but unless I can get that tarpit where it needs to go, it's a waste. I might try running some small units of mounted peasants. They're the cheapest option I have for quick speedbumps.

Overall, I had a really good time. Three good opponents, three fun games, learned lots, and improved each game. Looking forward to plenty more.

Last thing is a set of progress shots on the Brets. Some new knights to show.

FMB

Yeesh

2010-08-22T10:22:00.003-04:00

Long time no post. Between getting a new job and moving to TO, I've had bery little time for either gaming or painting of late. As things settle down, however, I should be able to get back in the swing

Highlights of the last few weeks include a visit to the new location of the Dueling Grounds in TO. They continue to be one of the best stockists for Warmachine and FOW in the city, and in their new location, have a ton of gaming space. Only downside is all that gaming room is in the basement, and ventilation issues mean that one is faced with some serious gamer funk. I'm hoping things clear a bit as the weather cools, but we'll see.

I also trekked up Yonge St. to the new location of the Toronto GW store, and tbh, was pleasantly surprised. While there remains the contractually-mandated level of enthusiasm that marks most GW stores, the staff are solid, there's lots of tables, it's on street level, well-lit, and airconditioned. I was there yesterday for the kick off of their WFB 8th edition escalation league, got in three games against some extremely normal people, and generally had myself a good time.

The list I played was as follows:

10 KotR, musician, standard = 264
12 Knights Errant, musician, standard = 261 / 525
BSB: Paladin, enchanted shield, shrieking blade, Bwarhorse = 94 / 619
20 Peasant Bowmen, musician, standard, braziers = 140 / 759
General: Lvl 3 prophetess (life), warhorse, crown of command = 240 / 999

Lost my first game against a knight heavy Khorne WoC list, then won against orks and high elves. Bear in mind I'm only three games into 8th edition, but a couple of things jumped out at me.

1. Combat is very much a risk vs. reward dynamic. The new rule set provides incentive to bulk out one's units. It give more attacks, gives a better chance of decisive wins in combat, and makes one more resistant to leadership failure. The thing is, however, that means concentrating points into smaller numbers of unit. When a unit does go - breaks from combat, flees from a charge, etc., then the result is decisive. I won my second game when a unit of orks fled from my KotR charge, rolled high enough to run off the table, I sucessfully redirected into the flank of his other big unit, and reamed it. I won my third game when I beat his big unit of sword masters by one, he rolled just enough to break, and I ran him down, taking out his banner and general.

2. Scenario variation is huge. If you play the book scenarios, rather than line up and fight, it puts pressure on list design to bring in a wide range of army capabilities. I'm going to sit down with these and give them a closer look - there are elements I need to incorporate into my list designs.

3. Bretonnian knights are still viable - maybe not at the level of national tournaments, but locally, they do fine. They do need to be big, however. Lance formatin is a huge advantage, minimising the attacks that opponents can bring to bear. Charging for Brets is still critical, and the random element in charging means that any abilities or items that make chargin more reliable are at a premium for Bretonnians.

I'll post pics of what's been painted as soon as I unpack the camera ;)

Tourney report, and thoughts on being an army whore.

2010-05-09T09:11:00.004-04:00

Hi,

The long-anticipated WFB tournament took place yesterday, and I had a blast. I was utterly slaughtered in my first game, pulled out a tie in my second, and was randomly tapped for a bye in the third (boo!). Still waiting to hear if I won the coveted "best sportsman" (aka dead last) award.

I'm finding that I'm enjoying playing my Brets far more than I did my Dwarves back in 5th / 6th edition. I'm not sure if this is a factor of edition shift, or just the degree of mobility Brets have relative to Dwarves. A Dwarf army is slooooow - and this game seems to revolve around manouvre. Bret mobility gives me choices as a player, and apparantly, choices are fun.

The tournament was 2500 points, using the "Ard Boyz" scenarios. Seven players - more were expected, but we had some no shows. I took the following:

2500 points of Bretonnians

Lord: Questing Vow, Virtue of Confidence, Birthsword of Carcassone, Enchanted Shield, Mantle of the Damsel Elena, Gauntlet of the Duel, Barded Warhorse = 243 / 243
Paladin: Battle Standard Bearer, Virtue of Discipline, Gromril Helm, Barded Warhorse = 119 / 362
Paladin: Questing Vow, Virtue of Duty, Cuirass of Fortune, Shield, Barded Warhorse = 134 / 496
Damsel: Dispel Scroll, Warhorse = 105 / 601
Damsel: Dispel Scroll, Chalice of Malfleur, Warhorse = 125 / 726
Core 1: 8 Knights Errant, Full command = 181 / 907
Core 2: 8 Knights of the Realm, Full command = 216 / 1123
Core 3: 8 Knights of the Realm, Full command = 216 / 1339
Core 4: 25 Peasant Bowmen, skirmish, brazier, musician = 185 / 1524
Core 5: 8 Knights of the Realm, full command, war banner = 241 / 1765
Special 1: 8 Questing Knights, full command, Valorous Standard = 301 / 2066
Special 2: 5 Pegasus Knights, musician = 285 / 2351
Special 3: 8 Mounted Yeomen, musician, Standard Bearer, shields = 149 / 2500

First game was against a mixed Warriors of Chaos list, led by the Lord of the end times himself, Archaon. For those not in the know, Archaon is pretty much the most badass h2h character in the game. That's him toward the bottom of the pic, taking on two of my knight lances and the big unit of bowmen. That fight? He won that fight.

See these Chaos knights of Khorne coming around my flank?

Yeah, they helped clean up Archaon's leftovers.

See these units in my dead box by the end of turn two?

Yeah, those are the units that tried to charge Archaon, failed their terror checks, and fled off the table.

Lessons learned from game one: Archaon is a badass. Bret leadership, while good, is not great, and there's little in the army that can counter fear and terror causing units that isn't a) expensive, or b) charging. I'm going to have to learn to use what resources I have to dispatch this kind of threat quickly. One option is a Pally with the Grail vow and the Morningstar item that allows him to destroy opponent's magic weapons. Archaon is a special case, but represents the extreme end of a class of terror-causing units typified by monsters. I'll need to learn how to deal with this stuff.

Other lessons learned - I need a better sense of charge distances. Archaon got in on me early because I moved my knights just a little too close. This is just a matter of experience. I've learned that Brets need to pull off coordinated, decisive charges. While they have good armour, after the first round they lack the offensive punch to win combats. This is just a matter of experience.

Game two was against a gorgeously painted and converted beastmen army. Here they are lined up across the table. The picture doesn't do them justice, but believe me, they were lovely.

This game was a close-fought tie. By the time I got to turn two, I was learning to hold back my knights. I'd figured out by this point that just because they can move fast doesn't meen they have to. Rather, their mobility means that I can advance more or less on my own terms, and consequently choose the terms of engagement. I made a stupid mistake with my Pegasus knights early, leaving one in the charge arc of the minotaurs on his flank, and not noticing it. This let him start his minos rolling in (they get better the more they kill), and they were a hassle the rest of the game. I did have the satisfaction of taking out his giant however. They are a little random, but fun. For example, when killed, it turns out they fall in a random direction, and can cause considerable damage if they land on your units. You should have seen my rendition of the "oh shit" dance;) We kind of ground away at each other throughout the game, and ended up with a closely fought tie.

Got the bye on the third round, which was a bit of a disappointment, as I was hoping for another game, but still, plenty of lessons learned.

There are four things I really need to work on (besides getting more stuff painted, of course).

1) I need to get a handle on leadership. I've noted the issues with fear and terror above, but there's not much in my army core (i.e., knights) that has leadership "bells and whistles". I'm gong to have to develop a feel for what my army can and cannot handle, and maybe put together specialist units for the things they can't.

2) Coordination. Brets, at least the way I'm playing them, are a little one-dimensional, but that narrow focus still offers tactical depth. I don't have a capacity for attrition. Period. That means I have to choose combats I can win, and win them in the first round, when I charge. More to the point, it means I have to learn how to use units in my army together in order to achieve that goal. This is harder than it sounds.

3) My light / fast units. I did okay with my mounted squires, but lost my Pegasus knights by turn two both games. This is a disappointment, as they are one of the better units in the list. I need to work on using my most mobile stuff to leverage the rest of my army. Neither of these units are throwaway, which leads me to point four . . .

4) Force preservation. Remember what I said about attrition? This is foreign to me. I play Cryx in Warmachine, and used to play orks in 40k. Caring about casualties is kind of a new thing for me. Brets don't have chaff, however, and every unit counts. Learning how to not only win combats, but win them in a decidedly one-sided fashion is going to be key to the success of playing them.

So there you go. A couple of fun games, some lessons learned, and the slow rehabilitation of my WFB experience continues. One last thing however.

I think it is time to simply admit that I am an army whore. I was looking over some other armies yesterday, and caught myself thinking "ooh, those would be fun to paint" pretty much every time. Chaos? Check. Beastmen? Check check. High elves? Checkaroonie. This is dangerous, as I simply do not have the time these days to hop from army to army. It's a problem however, as the number one project killer for me is when painting (which I love) starts to feel like work. I'm not really sure how to deal with this. I'm temperamentally unsuited to single-focus painting, but lack the time for multiple projects. Any ideas out there?

TMtW

Yeesh

2010-04-25T09:03:00.003-04:00

Hi,

So, end of semester rush plus arrival of the cub plus a nasty cold has slowed down progress, however, I do have a few things to post up. First up are some new additions to my Flames of War soviets, some SU-152s. These were painted up for a 1750 tourney that never really got off the ground. While there are a number of FoW players in the area, only three of us show up on a regular basis. Hope that changes soon. A couple pics from the tourney follow - the SUs are the big suckers on the left, above the wheat field.

Next up is a new addition to the Brettonians. I'm reasonably pleased with how it turned out, though I think I need to work on both the consistency and "pattern" in my next freehand attempt.

There's a large tournament coming up in 2-3 weeks. I'm trying to get stuff assembled in time - both the stuff I've bought, and a large lot I traded for. With a few additions a local friend is loaning me, I should be able to meet the requisite point limit. We'll see how the tournament goes. It's been a looooong time since I played WFB (not counting the trial game from the other week), but I'm curious to see how I enjoy it.

Forgive me father, for I have sinned . . .

2010-04-07T07:41:00.004-04:00

Hi,

After painting waaaay too much soviet green and brown Cryx, I felt in desparate need of something bright. And so this happened.

I know, I know . . . but honestly, I've had an itch to do Brets since the 5th edition box set. No rush on this project, but it'll be a nice break from the gloomier painting I've been doing. I also got in a game last Friday, and frankly, it was kind of fun. I find that as long as you play GW games with people who aren't complete dillholes, they work. So it'll just be a matter of selecting the appropriate opponents.

TMtW

Valentine's Day - sort of . . .

2010-03-15T10:43:00.003-04:00

Hi,

Flames of War post today. Battlefront, the nice people who bring (read, sell) me Flames of War, put out a special, "Valentine's Day Massacre" scenario for the game. Details can be found here

The basic idea was that it was a team game, everyone was limited to taking an infantry formation, and no one could take more than one armoured platoon (or for me, company) in support. We played my Soviets, plus Randy and Mike's Amerikanski imperialists, against Dave and Daniel's Fascist invaders of the Rodina (with them also running Randy's Germans, so it was three against three). 1500 points each meant 9000 points on the table in total. And despite the fact that the armies were only half painted, and we only got about three turns in, it looked fantastic, and was a blast.

The table was 12' by 5', and had loads of terrain:

The armies deploying. The first shot is a view from our left, before the forward detachments went down - in my case, a company of lendlease Shermans. Mike is on our left, with my Soviet infantry and heavy morters in the middle, and Randy is on the right, with his heavy artillery distributed along our base line. I only have one full company of infantry painted, and need two for the core of an infantry force, so was forced to use unpainted models (boo, hiss).

Some shots from turn one (we were attacking, and had first turn). Randy's Shermans moving into the ruined cathedral. See that observer hiding in the ruins? Guess what happens to him?

The centre-right, turn one: My infantry and Randy's trudge forward. See those lone bases on the other side of the table? More observers. Guess what happened to them, too?

Our centre-left. You can see my shermans gunning for the German line (see those Stugs? Guess what happened to them?). On our left, Mike and Dave were kind of in a stalemate - both had limited artilley, both had veteran infantry, and neither had the kind of fire support necessary to pin the opposition. Had the game gone on longer, I could have punched through with my tanks, and supported Mike, but we ran out of time. At the bottom right, you can see my heavy morters. I love those guys. Cheap, effective, and with enough range to be a real threat. Mmmmm. Morters.

Here you have the last stand of Daniel's Stugs. My Shermans had advanced under the cover of the wheat field, blunting his fire to the point where, while he bailed out a few of my tanks, none were take out of action. At this point, he's lost one Stug to artillery, and the rest are about to pull back into cover of the forest.

My Shermans rolled up, and proceed to gun down both his tanks and the Neiblewuffers to their right. You can also see some of Mike's infantry advancing in support - again, if we had time, the plan was to swing left and break the infantry stalemate.

On the right, Randy's tanks had run into some trouble. Daniel pulled off a fairly effective assault by infantry on tanks, using the ruins and a smoke bombardment to cover his infantry. This was, I think, the highpoint for him - he had brought a load of artillery, but for some reason couldn't range in to safe his life. You can see the aftermath here, with the remaining tanks in the platoon pulled back from the ruins. And no, that observer didn't make it either.

A couple of angles towards the close of the game.

This was a hoot to play. If we did it again, I'd say we definitely need more time - set the whole day aside, with some time to break in the middle. As it was, we had to stop just as things were getting interesting. From a tactical perspective, I'd say next time we'd do well to concentrate our armour - the potential for a stalemate between infantry is high, and having mobile direct fire support would make all the difference for us as attackers. There's some talk of doing it again, but with armour-heavy forces - can't wait ;)

Tourney results

2010-03-09T14:54:00.004-05:00

Hi,

Had a 25 point tournament at the LGS Sunday. Scenario-based, but not SR2010 - TO just took some scenarios from the book. Came in 3rd (of 6). Lost my second game by failing to take out Drago by 3 points. With the Nightmare, and backstrikes. Which left eDennie hanging out in the wind, for easy pickings. Note to self - use the ARMOUR debuff on 'jacks. 2nd / 3rd came down to a run off between the 0 and 2 players, and the one I beat lost. To be fair, it was her dice - she played a good game, and just came up a few points short on an assasination run. The atmosphere around the table at that game was pretty tense - plenty riding on the game ;) I ran:

eDennie
Scarlock
Nightmare
Deathripper
Nightwretch
Full McTHralls
2 Pistol Wraiths

Some pics:

McThralls taunting the opposition:

Nightmare eating Rahvyn

Nightmare not eating Drago:

Notes and reflections - eDennie is ridiculously fun, as is Nightmare, athough I think I may just skip the prey shenanigans and declare the opposing warcaster from the outset. Epic D brings so much board control and movement shenanigans that opponents struggle to predict where the attack is coming from. I'm currently prepping a 40 point list (don't ask) for next months tournament - and will update with info when it's fully painted. I'm hoping we get some more bodies out at that one - there are apparantly other players in the area, so hopefully they'll show.

The Dragonfather's way . .

2010-02-28T13:57:00.003-05:00

Hi,

So, a couple weeks now since my last post. I've had my son with me, and have been spending as much time with him as I can, so there's been limited opportunities (or energy ;) for geeking. I'm proud to announce, however, that when I took him to the LGS the other day, he left the delighted owner of his first 30-sided die - a giant red monstrosity that caught his eye at the cash register.

I have had a chance to do a little painting, the fruits of which you can see below. First off, Master Necrtech Mortenebra, and her loyal sidekick, Derlyss.

Not sure what that crud on her chin is - I'm going to go at her with a file and touch-up brush I guess. I'm intrigued by this caster, but likely won't get her on the table until I get a few more combat 'jacks painted - I've got something like 3-4 heavies assembled, but want to get some brushwork done before they hit the table.

Next, is an almost obligatory Deathripper. I used to take these for the sheer cheapness (and still do - the much vaunted price hike of Cryx arc nodes seems overstated). I've had actual utility in-game of late, however - at the last LGS tourney, I think a deathripper ended up with the caster kill in at least two games. The MAT boost they've received, plus a slight boost to their attack, makes a significant difference to their threat potential.

Last, but not least, is machine wraith #1 (of 2 planned). this is one of my favorite models in the game, and likely my favorite in Cryx. It's a fantastic example of the steampunk horror aesthetic that first drew me to the faction. They seem to have a new lease on life in Mk II, and I'm eager to try this guy out on the table-top.

Last, I found out yesterday there's going to be a 25-point tournament at the LGS this coming Sunday, and I should be able to make it. I'm leaning towards either Gaspy or eDennie. One list I've played around with is:

eDennie
Deathripper
Nightwretch
Nightmare
Skarlock
full McThralls
Pistol Wraith x2

This list opens up a fair number of attack vectors, has great speed, solid terrain management, and a good combination of ranged and melee threat. A second option is to switch out the wraiths for some other units / solos - maybe a Warwitch Siren, Gorman di Wulfe, and a Necrotech and Machine Wraith. I like having the death chill option and 4 ranged shots to go with eDennie's marked for death, but wouldn't mind some utility support (and getting more figs on the table). Either way, I have a couple models to get finished for Sunday. Wish me luck.

TMtW