Happy New Year!

 Hi all,

It's been a busy year in Monkeyland,  In addition to a range of life events (back to work in-person, promptly getting Covid, the birth of my nephew, the addition of a kitten to the household), it seems like it was also a pretty busy year in terms of hobby.  Rough totals for the year include:

Minis Painted:  286 28mm (foot, horse and assorted "large" models), 5 6mm units, 12 15mm "units" (mostly vehicles).

Minis Sold or Traded away:  @240 28mm

Minis Bought or Traded in: 401 28mm, @50 15mm infantry, @15 15mm vehicles

Some of the sales were painted minis, so there was a net growth in the lead pile, but I'm pretty happy with the level of productivity this year.  I'm averaging better than a couple dozen 28mm figures a month, which is pretty good for me.

Playing around with basing 15mm ww2 stuff.  PSC T-34, Battlefront infantry.

I'd like to dip a toe into larger scale WW2 actions, probably using Rommel, so this style of dioramic basing becomes an opportunity.

Numbers this year were thrown off slightly by me jumping on a deal for close to 300 Warlord Pike and Shotte infantry.  I'm basically set for the period (for infantry) for the foreseeable future.  Another factor impacting numbers involved me dipping a toe into 3d printing for the first time.  I bought into the Turner Miniatures 7YW kickstarter, and now have pretty much all the .stls I'm going to need for the conflict.  Prussians might be a project for the new year, as they're the one remaining army out of the "core" nations for which I lack figs.  

One project that saw some headway this year was the Lion Rampant 100YW.  English now have a core of three units to face off against the French.

All figs for the HYW so far are the Perry plastics.

There's a fair amount of cross-compatibility between kits.  Archers on the left made with French bodies, to give a little more animation.

I need to add a banner on the front stand.  

While I've been tempted by any number of new and shiny things, I think the pattern for this year will be to continue to consolidate projects, and focus on painting stuff I have.  Likely contenders for 2023 project include:

1) 28mm Successors.  I've made a good start on these, and picked up some elephants before Christmas, which I've been puttering away at.  This is definitely a long-term project, and something I dip into from time to time, but it's not unreasonable to think I'd at least clear the minis I have by end of year.

2) 28mm ECW.  I am closing in on about three "batallia" between my Covenant and Royalist forces.  The Scots have the edge in numbers, but I'm working towards bringing the Royalists up to par.  As a local gaming buddy has some reasonable numbers of ECW figs as well, I think a bigger game of this (Pike and Shotte) is a reasonable goal by summer.

3) 28mm Hundred Years War.   Very close to small but playable (Lion Rampant?) 28mm forces for the HYW, with 3 units of French, and 2.5 of English (and the other .5 being assembled).  That's enough to get some games of Lion Rampant in (or Dragon Rampant with the kids), and room to grow both at a more leisurely pace once they're playable.

Ze French.  Also Perry plastics.

Heavy spear.  As I noted, the French infantry tends to be a little more animated.

Genoese crossbowmen.  The pavises don't help when you're ridden down by your own side from behind.

Ready to ride down some Genoese.

4) 28mm WWW2 Desert.  I have a "core" force of these for the British (force minimum for Bolt Action) along with about half the equivalent of DAK.  The goal will be to get the latter into playable shape, and then mess about with some smaller scale WW2 rules.  BA is an obvious choice, but I'd also like to mess about with some of the 2 Fat Lardies options, and know a couple people I can rubber-arm into games.  The absence of an opposing force kind of stalled my 28mm Soviets, but I'm hoping the ability to offer both sides will make organizing games easier.

Core of a Brit desert force.  2 infantry squads, HQ, and the forward observer.

Painting up from black definitely gave these a grittier look.

They're also "finer" sculpts than some of the alternatives.  Perry minis here as well.

Having watched Rogue Heroes, I think these boys need some SAS support ;)

And a Start to the opposing Germans.  Also Perry, and in need of some trucks, and possibly an Ark.

5) GW games.  Gaming at the local shop has resumed, and I've been going semi-regularly for a few months now.  AoS and Lord of the Rings are likely to be my main focus (Ogors just got a new book, Beasts of Chaos are supposed to get one soon), and LotR SBG remains one of my favorite games to play.  40k will likely feature as well, but mostly with the Cub, with the occasional casual game in shop.  I have stuff to paint for all the factions I play, and so activity here will mostly involve chipping at the lead (plastic) pile, and getting in regular casual games with friends and the Cub.

6) WW2 15mm.  I've recently been messing around with based vehicles for my 15mm WW2 stuff.  I got in a game or two of early east front in 2022, and would like to do more of this over 2023.  I'd particularly like to try out a higher-scale game like Rommel, and may end up rebasing some of my stuff to accommodate a more dioramic set-up (see pics above).

I've also been nosing around the idea of a couple of other "big" projects, particularly doing Russians in 28mm, either for the 7YW or the Renaissance (I've considered Napoleonics, but that's a rabbit hole of epic proportions). While I did dive in pretty hard into my Successor list early in the year, that project has stalled a bit for me.  Turns out, there's only so much linen armor I can paint before getting a tad bored.  I don't think that project is shelved, by any means (I'm painting up my first elephant now), but I'm not sure it's going to be the "last big hurrah" project I'd imagined.  What I'm really looking for, I guess, is something that would serve primarily as a painting project, something with plenty of character, both in the ranges available, and in the conflict itself.  Time will tell.

Until then, stay safe, be well, and happy New Year!

If

 Hi all,

The Great Rebasing continues apace, but didn't get in the way of me being able to host remote DBA from my end.  It was a treat for me, both because it's the first non-WWII historical game played at the new house, and also the first ancients game played with my figs since we left Toronto about six years ago!

Macedonians top.  The grouped cavalry at the top of the pic was standing in for the Mac camp.

With what I have for figs (Spartan / hoplites and Antigonid / eastern successors) we opted for a historical, but slightly misrepresented matchup, with Philippian Macedonians vs. Spartans.  Philip, somewhat notoriously, threatened the Spartans with slavery if he won their impending conflict, to which the Spartans, laconically (ha!), replied "if".  While the Spartans may have, in point of historical fact, been rather limited socially, politically, and even militarily (and see the brilliant set of posts on Spartan social organization at CoUP, you're welcome), you can't fault them for smart-assery, which I personally appreciate.

The Spartan left wing.  Didn't want to extend the line into the fields, just in case.

Macedonians deploy on a narrow frontage, with their right covered by light troops in the woods.

Sparta, oddly enough, had elephants for a camp.

Macedon had a slight edge on aggression, and ended up as attacker, and once we'd established terrain, we had one side of the table dominated by woods, and the other mostly open.  I picked the clear side, not out of any tactical brilliance, but because it was the side that had the computer and camera set up (I had the webcam hanging off the light fixture).  Turns out, expediency is the mother of brilliance, as it meant Jura (my increasingly regular remote opponent) got stuck deploying in a narrow frontage between the woods.

Spartan generals anchor the line.

The Spartan right wheels forward, and the Macedonian cavalry counters, skirting the woods.

That's the General and companions, waving around the xystons.

Macedonian light horse engage!

The opening moves of the game saw me advancing and wheeling my right, in the hopes that I would envelope his flank.  This is a pretty standard move for me when my line is longer, although traditionally I do it with cavalry, rather than Even More Spears.  Jura countered by advancing his cavalry in column around the woods, and a rather aggressive charge with his light horse (Tarantines posing as prodromoi), which my spear handily repulsed.

The Macedonian cavalry charge home.  This one was dicey, but the Spartans repulsed the impetuous horse.

The first phase of the battle saw the Macedonian cavalry launch repeated charges against my right wing, including a number of high-stakes clashes between Phillip and the companion cavalry against my General (the Spartan with no name).  As long as the phalanx (and the side support spears get from spears in DBA) held, my general had the advantage in combat, but if he lost, the knights get a quick kill (they destroy the opposing element if they beat them, not just double them).  Turns out, a line of spears is pretty solid against mixed cavalry, and the Macedonians were thrown back repeatedly, with the light horse, at one point, fleeing entirely.

The Macedonian phalanx advances past the choke point.

On the right, the cavalry make little headway against the Spartan phalanx.  On the other hand, the Spartans can't seem to do more than drive off the cavalry - combat is largely inconclusive.

Jura managed to get his phalangites out from betwitxed the woods, and started to shake out a line, but it was still uneven when the main infantry formations clashed.  The Macedonian phalanx has an advantage under these circumstances, but not a decisive one, and the result of the on-going othismos (which I really enjoy saying, for some reason), was a pretty classic grind, with the deeper Macedonian pike phalanx pushing back the Spartans, but not quite breaking through.

Macedonian cavalry regrouped and charged again, with similar results.  Meanwhile, the lines grow closer.

Macedon tries to shake out a battle line, but poor C&C (i.e., low PiP rolls) meant it happened slowly.

Othismos!  The deeper phalanx begins to drive back the Spartans, as the lines break down.

At this point, my longer line, and ability to roll higher PiPs (i.e., command and control resources), let me slowly envelope and gnaw away at the Macedonian flanks.  I had plenty of opportunity to set up attacks where I could pin, and then flank, isolated Macedonian units on the flanks, and while they didn't always pay off, any win resulted in a destroyed unit (flank attacks aren't a big deal in DBA, unless they complement frontal engagement - losing is BAD in DBA if you're engaged both to the front AND to the flank).  It took some grinding, but the Spartans managed to chew away the "softer" elements of the Macedonian formation, before the Macedonian pike could really grind down the Spartan phalanx.

Spartans struggle to get past the Macedonian pikes.

Both lines are in disarray.

On the left, the Spartans envelope the Macedonian light troops, and look to roll up the line.

The Macedonians manage to wheel, but are under increased pressure from multiple sides.

Even without the delays expected from new armies and a new "technical" set-up, this game took longer than others we've played - but it felt "right".  The Macedonian phalanx had a clear, but not decisive, advantage over the Spartans, but the Spartans, with their wider formation, were able to envelope the Macedonian core.  The four elements that the Macedonians lost were their "weakest" ones - auxilia, psiloi, cavalry, and light horse, and the lost them because I was able to hit them on two sides.  The hard core of the Macedonian army had no problem driving back the Spartan centre, and had I rolled poorly, things could have gone very differently (all I needed to do was lose ONCE against his companions, and my general would have disappeared).  Even with the constraints of terrain, this one was much closer than it appeared.

This unit was frustratingly stubborn.  They just would not die!

Note how the Macedonians continue to push back the spear at the middle of the shot.

Repeated attacks failed to break the Macedonian phalanx.

Spartan turn to roll low on PiPs.  Macedonians struggle to reform their line.

Spartans step back and reform.  Behind the Macedonian infantry, their light horse are caught and flanked.  With essentially all of the Macedonian lighter troops gone, Spartans win the game 4-2.

It was so good to get the minis on the table again.  Although I do really enjoy the appearance of the Impetus / element basing, the DBx gives me more options for play, and being able to use the figures counts more, in the long run, than them looking good on the shelf.  Once I get the rebasing done, I'll get back to the Ayyubid / Seljuk painting, and am already looking forward to expanding the stuff I have (later Achaemenids, and various hoplite variations, are in the works).

FMB

Flames - and an update?

 Hi all,

Got in a Flames of War game with the Cub again.  A trip over to the Fundy side for apple picking put us close to Gametronics in New Minas, the local(ish) pervayor of FoW goodness.  Cub took the opportunity to pick up some more Finns, and with his usual industry, had them painted up in a weekend.

Soviet initial position.  We need to defend the crossroads, hill, and red building from attack - but don't know from where the attack will come!

We're using a modified / fudged / newguy version of 3rd edition for now.  Cub's Finns are in a weird place in the newest version of the game, as they don't really have updated or official rules.  He's using a specific briefing for Finn commandos (came across them in an old Wargames Illustrated of mine), and making them work takes a bit of tweaking.  Add in that I've not played the game in 7 or 8 years, and we're playing something more FoW-esque than strict Fow, but it works.

As a good chunk of my 15mm stuff is individually based for Bolt Action, I just fudged in the 45mm AT gun.

We also home-brewed a scenario.  Three objectives (crossroads, supply depot, and hill commanding the town).  Soviets start in control of all three, and if Finns take 2 (i.e., start their turn in control of them), they win.  Seemed like a suitable thing for Finn raiders to be doing - hit and run attack on a Soviet garrison, looking for supplies.

Finns move on to the table, concentrated behind Soviet lines, the tricky fiends.

Cub's Finn commandos get to make a pre-game move, move quickly when they move at the double, and we gave them first turn.  Basically, it meant that Cub could chose the terms of engagement, and he used the option to swarm in from what we'd designated as the "Soviet" side of the table.  We had roughly the same number of troops on the table, but Cub's are better (Finn commandos have the best ratings in the game, for both motivation and skill), so we decided that Soviet reinforcements could start arriving on turn 2 (5+ roll, then a 4+ on turn 3, etc.).

Crossroads about to be hit hard and fast.

It made for a pretty cool deployment, actually.  The unsuspecting Soviet garrison were confronted with a sudden, close-contact attack by Finns pouring out of the woods behind Soviet lines.  It also meant Cub could close to assault distance turn 1, which he used to good effect, gutting the Soviet platoon defending the crossroads.

After the assault.  Soviets still have a toehold, but probably can't pull it off again.

The soviets managed to hold off the initial attack, but it cost them, and I started my own turn one hanging on to my right flank by my fingernails.

Cub, making good use of LoS blocking terrain ;)

I opted to pull the remaining teams in town into some buildings, with the hope that they'd be harder to dig out, and slow the Finn advance.  Meanwhile, on the outskirts of town, the Finns swarmed over the objective hill, and moved in to attack the supply depot.

More Finns surge over the hill commanding the town.

There was an initial firefight here.  The Finns had the advantage, both in terms of their superior troops, and because the elevated terrain let them bring more teams to bear.

With their right flank more or less collapsed, the remaining Soviets spread out into a firing line.

Cub then followed up with a close assault that was much more one-sided than his attack on the crossroads.  My soviets were driven back, and the Finns moved in to raid the supply depot.

Finns push forward.

The arrival of a supporting SU-76, and a daring attack out of the buildings, let me retake the crossroads, but there was nothing I could do about Cub's control of the other two objectives.  Finns win.

Soviet reinforcements arrive, but possibly too late to matter.

For all that this was a bit of a bodge game, it turned out to be really fun.  In retrospect, I might have deployed in a more dispersed way, but I really only have a couple of formations, and at deployment, had no idea from which direction Cub would attack.  I also underestimated how far onto the table he could move with the combination of his pre-game shenanigans and the first turn, and it really felt like I was playing a garrison surprised by a sudden commando raid.

Soviets retake the crossroad, but Finns control the supply depot and hill.  Finns take it.

.I think (hope?) we'll be playing more of this.  I know there's a lot of purists who don't like FoW, and I get it, but the game always struck me as falling firmly in the "game, not simulation" category.  Cub's interested, and I have enough stuff to build up Soviets that we can play larger games as his collection grows.  It'll also be a nice spur to get some terrain done - the mdf buildings we used are functional, but could use some sprucing, and there's lots of opportunity for scatter and area terrain that would enhance our games.

Speaking of game enhancement, I've decided to take the plunge, and have begun the Great Rebasing of 2020.  All of my ancients stuff is based for Impetus, as that's what I played in Toronto when I first got into the period.

The only problem is, no one around here plays the game, I've had limited success (or motivation, if I'm being honest) in sparking a community, and much as I enjoy Impetus, I enjoy actually playing games more.  As a result, I'm rebasing my entire 15mm ancients collection to DBx standard.  Turns out, I have a lot of hoplites.

It should be noted - I can still play Impetus with the new basing (though I'll need to paint more figs), but the basing shift also means I can play a lot of other games as well, including more DBA, which, via remote gaming, is my best prospect right now.

In point of fact, I'll be "hosting" a DBA game today, probably running Successors vs. Sparta.  My Successors are a bit of a fudge, as they were built initial for Pyrrhus, and then morphed to Antigonus, but they'll serve.  I'll also need to work up something for camps, but I'm chuffed at the prospect of getting in a legit ancients game at my place.  I'll take pics, and throw up a post later on to cover it.  Until then, take care.

FMB