A week's work

I have been on a weeks holiday in part because family have been visiting. That doesn't mean I haven't found some time for a little painting and gluing down in the games room.

First up is some base work on my 20mm WWII plastics. Not much to see really, but when they were first done, it was more important to get them based rather than to get them based well, the immediate object being to give the finger to the black dog. They're still not perfect but they are good enough.

In the same theme, a long while back a friend  gave me some markings for the Canadian 4th Armoured Division. The Sherman was marked up as from the Governor General's Foot Guards - my old militia regiment, the M3 as the Lake Superior Regiment in keeping with the infantry. The Lake Sups were the Motor Regiment that worked closely with the armoured regiments of the 4th division.  I had the jeep kicking around so I remove the pintle mounted .50 and marked it as from the 15th Field Regiment - also from 4th Armoured div. It will be the ride for my FO. Many thanks to Richard for the transfers.

side view

front

rear

A couple of notes. The decals were a bit too big for the jeep and far too big for the rear of it and the front of the M3. The M3 is an M3 and not an M5 because that was what I had on hand. The Bren on the M3 is based on a photo of a Lake Sup vehicle. It was a bugger to attach and some creative use of super glue and baking soda was needed to make a solid mount. It passes the 3 foot test and that's all I need.   The stars are skewed intentionally - this was a period Canadianism - we are not always sure how to define ourselves but we know we are not Americans - no offence to those of that house.  The Sherman is the very old Airfix plastic kit - let's just say I felt a bit bad for putting such nice decals on it. Still, it also passes the 3 foot test. Once the decals were set up, I did some basic weathering with GW Nuln oil and earth shade purchased with a birthday gift certificate from my offspring. I am happy with the results - but the price....

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That's it for now - more to follow.

Transformation

Earlier I posted an image of the new floor in the games room. Now all the painting has been done, new lighting put up, and most of the furniture built and installed. To see the difference I offer up a before and after picture:

Before:

And after:

Off to the right is a new painting desk and a recycled book case and to right of centre are 4 folding tables, allowing gaming space up to just under 5 feet by 12 (1.5x 3.5 metres).

Currently I am putting back in all the gaming bits and bobs. Art will be going up shortly and I will be acquiring some really useful boxes to help organize things. 

A new year

So here we are in 2018. A new house, a new year and a new games room with the picture above showing the new floor.  Later this month, all the walls will be dry-walled, plastered and painted. Later will come shelving and a gaming table or tables - I'm still in the process of deciding.

One thing I started before New Years was committing to 30 minutes a day doing something war gaming related. Apart from reducing the lead pile, I find it helps with my mental health and that's a good thing.

I am hoping for an exciting year to come in war gaming!

Foot notes and a brief hiatus....

Despite the horrific dice rolling in the last game, I was very happy with the results. As a way to explore the rules, it was a success and I thought that the gatling did exactly what it was supposed to do. However, I now have to pack everything away for a while because we are moving house.  We have been planning on downsizing for a couple of years now and after a brief conversation with relatives, we decided to put the house on the market and see what would happened. In short, within the course of a very busy week, we had sold our old house and purchased a new one with that holy grail for all likely readers of this blog - a dedicated wargaming space.

While the move means no more games until at least the end of October, it near guarantees that I will be able to play more often and post more often. Where my current space requires a lot of faffing around in the garage, the new space will allow me to leave the table set up free from interference from camping trailers or cats.

More to follow

2017 6x6 Challenge - My List, First 2017 Post, and a house keeping note.

So 2016 has finally gone, while it had some very good parts, like our trip to Malta, it had it seems more than its share of pretty crappy parts as well; walking out of Rogue One only to find out that Carrie Fisher's passing had been made public while we were in the theatre, being one of them.

 Now on to: 

My 6x6 Challenge List: 

Ace of Aces Handy Rotary edition

 A WWI air combat game that combines a flip book for graphics with a choose your own adventure style mechanic for movement and combat. A true analogue flight sim. 6 games complete against eldest's boyfriend over New Years, 4 losses, two draws - the boy is good.

B-17

An Avalon Hill board game of WWII air combat. Derided by some for minimal player input, this solo game does capture the looming predestination felt by bomber crews trying to hit the magical 25 mission mark.

I am dropping B-17 from the list. The reasons behind my initial enthusiasm have not proven strong enough to last.  What the replacement will be is yet to be determined.

Chain of Command

 My go to WWII platoon level combat game. Santa provided a pub in my stocking so expect to see the home guard out in force defending this important strategic asset in the coming months. I want to get my 20mm stuff out on the table as well.

 D&D OSR. 

If I can stop myself from being sidetracked by interesting campaign details, I hope to be running several short sessions for friends with lives and little time.

Gruntz 

15mm Scifi. I have multiple armies now and it is a fun little game.

Soldier's Companion, Space 1889 

I have the toys, the table, and the terrain - now I just have to play with them. :)

BONUS GAMES 

Air Force
Another Avalon Hill board game of WWII air combat. Fairly detailed with some interesting mechanics.

Luftwaffe

Yet another AH board game of WWII air combat, this time at a more strategic level. I have not actually played this one at all.

Car Wars

3x post apocalypse with converted matchbox cars because Furiosa.

 So there we are. Now you may notice a lot of air combat games in there - I have the germ on an idea in my head for a game design and want to do some research in that vein.

A Housekeeping Note:

Those of you following IrrWb(F) for any length with notice that the blog template has changed to a modern interactive variation. This is not due to a desire on my part to make it "fresh and exciting" but simply because the old template became corrupted and I am still deciding how and if to rebuild it.

Dinos on the Dance Floor!

I had a lot of fun with the dino-hunt back in May so I thought I should paint up some more victims for future such games.  I wanted to avoid the usual green lizard patterns so I just went with whatever I fancied. The sharp eyed will spot one influence, the real cammo nerds - another.

For the final spray I was unable to find any matte varnish so made do with satin. It works ok for dinos but not vehicles or or human figures.

Triceratops in a daring print

Mega-velociraptor Maltesi

Steggie - No change other than a wash and spray

A pack of  small carnivores

Mid to late war Tyrannosaur

TOR games survey

Via Trouble at T'mill

Tor games has a war gaming survey up which given their product lines has some VSF and Steampunk connections.  Go give it a look.

Worth sharing - Pushing Tin's Colonial campaign

If you have any interest in colonials (or VSF), go have a look at Pushing Tin - Campaign Anniversary. Stunning game pictures and excellent fluff, it is reminiscent of the Major General's work - but in 6mm. Inspirational.

Reinforcements for the forces of Kas'trum

Thanks to the current Federal Election in Canada (If you are Canadian, please go vote) and the resulting overtime, I have been able to make a sizable upgrade to the forces of Kas'trum.

The 2/3 Dragoons will get an upgrade to a full squadron of lance and musket armed gashant heavy cavalry. Num'da's Raiders will also be increased to a full squadron of gasahant light cavalry. The Kas'trum scouts will get a bow armed platoon bringing them to company strength (and allowing them to double as  Boer style mounted infantry / dragoon dismounts in conjunction with the Raiders). The Pier Worm Roaster's Guild has also been on a recruiting drive bringing them up to company strength  -or- perhaps a rival merchant group has also taken up the worm hunting challenge? 

On the artillery side, two pairs of Greek fire projectors will serve as sweepers and a brace of 1841 pattern light howitzers has been acquired along with  the requisite Trucial and Martian crews. These crews will allow artillery on both sides.

Those keeping track will note that the Earthers are seriously outnumbered in all areas, this is by design. To simply get within charge range of magazine rifle armed troops requires an awful lot of open order troops to screen the heavies. The Martian cavalry should encourage the Empire player to pay attention to the flanks (though there is a small unit of Sikh Lancers in the queue).  The artillery will encourage the Earthers to move up and engage rather than be shelled to pieces as well as giving the Empire something to break up any fortified rebel Martian towns. I will also have enough troops for Martian on Martian battles with Earth forces playing only a supporting role - if any role at all. 

With this purchase, my Space 1889 project, at least on the figure side, is as complete as it is likely to be. Any more figures and my table is likely to 1) Look like a FoW armoured battle with wall to wall figures and B) collapse under the weight of lead.

And a picture:

   

Space 1889 - This needs to be shared

Over at One Last Wargame- SPACE 1889 Kev from Australia has been working on a little project of his own. Space 1889 in 40mm using figures he has sculpted and cast himself. Very much in the toy soldier mode and not exactly canon, these figures have a charm of their own. I can see Wells himself playing Little wars with these.

Please go take a look!

Thoughts on Kas'trum and Old School Game Design.

The scenarios in Space 1889, especially those in the core books, have received a lot of criticism for being on rails. Some modern commentators have rightly remarked that players and game masters both are locked into a single story line. For example, if  On Gossamer Wings is played out as written, no matter what the players do to fix Professor Grant's ether flyer, they will always crash - no exceptions and no player input.

So too is much of the rest of the Space 1889 background. When working up possible organizations of my Martian lead pile, I found that the options I wanted to use did not fit into any of the published city states and especially not Oenotria. Instead, I put them in the previously unknown city state of Kas'trum. I wanted to put Kas'trum off to one side of the main British advance preferably in the swamps between Crocea and Gorklimsk. According to known maps, the only way the British can get to those swamps by water is through Crocea with canal routes further north blocked by mountains. Crocea itself is still powerful enough to block any raiding red men coming down the canal and the British are close enough to its walls to make shoe-horning in a decent sized city state difficult.  So what was I going to do? After much hemming and hawing, all I had to do was remember how we used to do things. I'll let Frank Chadwick speak from the designer's notes for the Soldier's Companion rules:

Let me close with a piece of general advice to players and referees alike. Miniatures gaming is a form of entertainment, and these rules are intended to provide you with the means of putting on an entertaining game. It is foolish, then, to let the printed rules stand in the way of your enjoyment. The bulk of this book should serve as testimony to the effort put into making it as complete as it can be, but a set of rules is sterile without an active set of players. If you disagree with anything in these rules, please feel free to modify it to suit your own tastes. Just don't argue about it while the game is being played. During the game, the referee's word is absolute law, above even the printed words of the rules.

So with a plan refreshed by this wisdom Crocea is going to get moved further south, new canals dropped into place and Kas'trum will be put exactly where it needs to be so nothing stands in the way of my enjoyment.  Besides, the Earther maps were likely wrong to begin with.

To no particular scale - but around 3.14159 miles to the hex.

This is entertainment. If you are not re-fighting particular historical battles or you are not playing in a tournament where consistent rules are a necessity, throw out the canon and rewrite the rules until you get the enjoyment out of the hobby that works for you. It's what we did in the old days so there is historical precedent.      

The Forces of Kas'trum for Space 1889 (and Happy Holidays)

In the swamps between the cities of Crocea and Gorklimsk lies the independent town of Kas'trum. Though out of the thick of the current war against the Earthers, Kas'trum provides an important gateway to the High Martian liftwood groves to the north. The exact details of this town are not yet known, but below is a brief report on the military forces thought to be under her control.

I sat down the other day to look over the new acquisitions as well as my existing troops and come up with some reasonable units. Unfortunately, RAFM packs provide figures in multiples of three while the official Soldier's Companion organizations are in multiples of eight. Eight and three don't factor well so it took a bit of thinking to make it all work. Ratings are all conjectural at this point but more or less follow the book.

Canal Marines

Marines simply because I like the blue scheme I used for the originals. A little light with only 15 in the unit rather than the usual 19, these will be pure shooters with rifle muskets or possibly breech loaders. I am thinking Regular V1S or E1S.

The Stalwarts

My conception of  Oh'ktava'an's experimental shield gunner company. One half company each of gunners and cutters, all troops get the +1 defensive bonus for being armoured. This is a defensive rather than offensive unit. Regular V0 or maybe even E0.

Kas'trum Civic Guard

Basic city infantry with the usual smooth bore shooter/cutter split. Irregular T2 or X2

Kas'trum Fencibles

A mix of armoured (+1 defensive bonus) troops  armed with shield guns and choppers in the front half company and a twelve man over strength cutter company in the rear. Another defensive unit Irregular T0 or X0. I might try splitting morale with the front half company getting V0 and the rear T0  or even G0

Kas'trum Volunteers

A mishmash of civic minded militia. Mixed shooters and cutters in the front half company with all cutters in the rear. These boys are enthusiastic but Irregular G1 or at best T1 armed with a few smooth bore muskets.

Pier Worm Roaster's Guild Social Club and Civil Defence Force "The Red Caps". 

Well known for their marksmanship but better known for their drinking, the Red Caps began as an informal gambling league when the Roaster's Guild started taking bets on who could pick off the most marsh slugs - rapacious predators of the pier worm. Marsh slugs have excellent vision making them a tough prey to tackle. The Red Caps bright head gear and garish clothing show in part their contempt for the eagle eyed slug.  Irregular X3S or V3S. Rifled muskets.

Second Troop, Third squadron Crocean Heavy Dragoons

A Gashant unit on loan from the city of Crocea, the 2/3 Dragoons give Kas'trum some mounted support. Regular V0H

Num'da's Raiders

A Hill Martian light cavalry unit hired by Kas'trum to provide long range scouting. Irregular T2

Kas'trum Scouts

Another half band of Hill Martian mercenaries, the Scouts provide reconnaissance and skirmish capability to the city forces. Irregular T2

  

Moeris Lacus Trucial Company "The Prince's Own" 

 A dual purpose unit. As loyal sepoys, The platoons can be split up and assigned to red forces to provide a much needed native scouting capability.  As mutineers, they can be used to give Martian forces a much needed boost to their fire power and morale. Regular X2 (I love these sculpts)

The Rest

Left over figures who will serve as overall field commanders, rebel leaders and other roles as required.

This will give me five possibly six companies with some supporting troops as well - note that the two Martian Whitworth guns are not depicted here. Hopefully, they will be able to take on a British platoon, maybe even two.

In any event they give me much to paint over the holiday period.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all! May your pier worms always be well smoked!

Magic the Gathering Pauper Draft

I last played Magic the Gathering back in the days of Ice Age with just a smattering of Alliances. I traded it all away for Jyhad / V:TES which I considered a more interesting game. Years later, board games are back and with them board game stores. Magic is back in public view and is no longer relegated to tournaments and niche stores.  You can even find cards at the dollar store.
 
A couple of friends wanted to play. Jamie has never stopped but Marc and I haven't picked up cards in years. So rather than buying pre-built decks of the latest release, we held a pauper draft last night with five packs each from  the dollar/pound store.  To do the draft, each player opens a pack, looks through the cards and selects one then passes the remainder to the right. The select and pass continues until all the cards from that pack have been distributed. Each player then opens another pack and the process repeats until all packs have bee distributed.  Basic land is added in as desired to make a fifty card deck.

For the old timers there were more than a few questions about card abilities but in the end we were able to muddle through. I was gratified to see a Legends reprint Cat warriors in my first pack - I could understand this card at least, and looking at the rest chose that as the basis of a green-black deck.  It was not to be since Marc was to my left and was also collecting green and snagged all the good cards.  I had to revert to a Black/White deck with a focus on graveyard recycling and low coloured mana cost critters and spells.   

The games went well with the usual problems of getting the land balance right. Jamie beat me pretty soundly with some new fangled magicky stuff. Marc and I took classical deck design approaches and had a couple of very close games. Two stand out. The first was where Marc had a heavily buffed up Cyclops ready to pound me to smithereens, and I played Eye Gouge sending it screaming to the graveyard. In another game I was hurting but Marc was down to 3. I attacked with a 1/4 which Mark did not block planning to kill me next turn with his creatures and I used a white border Transmutation to flip it to a 4/1 and killed him.  The old cards are still good cards.

It wasn't about winners and losers though, just a bunch of mates having a good time playing games.  I very much enjoyed playing and thought that I would enjoy getting back into it. Then I remembered that Magic is as addictive as crack and that a lead habit is much less problematic and costly than a card habit.

Top level decks in our area run between $250 and $2,000 to assemble, the "legal" cards change yearly if not more frequently and they're just frigging playing cards.

Back to buying lead I think.

But maybe just one more pauper draft.....

Epic - Mad Padre's PBEM Diplomacy Game is over

There have been two games in my life thus far that I can call truly epic. The first was a double blind umpired game of Squad Leader I played back in my 20's. The second was the Diplomacy game set up and run by Michael - The Mad Padre that wound up this week: Diplomacy Game: Peace Breaks Out, We Have Winners.

That's my last army - withering away in the beer halls of Silesia

When Michael put the call out for interested players, I put my name in and drew Germany. I had played before but not since high school so naturally I went on line and read up on the best strategies to follow for this august and important nation.  Two main points came up: 1) you must ally with Austria or you both will die and 2) you have to talk to other players.  Armed with these words of wisdom, I sent a flurry of messages across the map even to Turkey but most importantly to Austria.  All was well at first, then after a couple turns, Austria went silent. Unfortunately the player had to withdraw. Life happens and I bear him or her no ill will but it left me in a bit of a pickle. I had antagonized Italy while I tried to defend a passive Austria, England was leaning hard on the Low Countries and Turkey was pushing hard for Vienna.

In retrospect, an alliance with Italy would have worked out well in the long run - he turned out to be an honourable player and good neighbour to the end. However, faced with no prospect of winning, I decided to focus on in no particular order 1) surviving and 2) making the game interesting for the rest of the players. So rather than keep the persona of a sober and solemn diplomat, I went with the bat-crap crazy but mostly harmless unfortunate street person down at the bus station that everyone leaves alone.

There were numerous conversations with a predatory Uncle England about the high failure rate of Royal Navy compasses. I may have accidentally on purpose misquoted different messages I received before sending them on to other parties and I thought I found an interpretation of the rules that would have allowed for a 3 or 4 way win with me holding the swing vote.  Most regrettably I was utterly wrong about that last bit.

However, the most epic bit of epicness was the all out charge against the forces of compass sabotaging Bolshevism. Figuring I was dead anyway, I headed east putting more pressure on the Czar than he really deserved. And England and France did nothing... So I kept going and they kept doing nothing. In the end I had to turn back and defend Munich and thus survived far, far longer than I had any right to expect.  In the Fall of 1906 mere moments before the outbreak of peace, my last army fell and the Kaiser went into well deserve exile in Canada.

A wonderful game and a wonderful experience.  Many many thanks to Michael and all the other players.

My one regret is now my inbox is regrettably lacking in content.

A CoC Challenge the Results are In!

What a great group of Chain of Command List submissions from the community.  For the official envelope opening see:  The Winners Is

Thanks to all the contributors and to Lardy Rich for a special bonus.

Fort George and the Grand Canadian Steampunk Exposition or Canadian Combat Wheelbarrows!?

This past weekend (11-14 September 2014) I was at Fort George Ontario for the first annual Grand Canadian Steampunk Exposition.  Apart from all the steampunk goodness, a real treat for me was being able to explore the fort and even spend several nights in the barracks.

I took a great many photos and some will certainly show up here in future posts. I did find traces of a little known part of Canadian military history: The Combat Wheelbarrow!

Now wheelbarrows are so generally useful it is to be expected that your standard wheelbarrow will see use by the military such as these cargo variants:

And a better shot of the model on the right. the slats seem to suggest this was used for fodder or other bulk material:

Then there is this model with adjustable sides:

Surely the mortar in front is just part of a general display of equipment under repair in the Artificer's Shop.   But no.  In the depot section of the barracks block, the ingenuity of Canadian (Ok early British Imperial) military thinking is revealed. An example of one of the earliest self-propelled (or should that read squaddie propelled) artillery pieces in North America the Combat Wheelbarrow!:

In loaded and deployed configuration:

Based on information in the display and accompanying markings on the equipment, this was not just an interesting way to pose equipment in the museum but a historical method of moving and deploying light mortars. A great vignette for any modeller or gamer. Forward the First Upper Canadian Barrowmen!

Chain of Command Contest - First entry!

Adrian Deacon of Bullets Bandages and Lard has posted the first entry in my Chain of Command Challenge.

It covers 3 kampfgruppe of the 21st Panzer Division in Normandy and contains a tasty selection of French armour and conversions in German service as well a good assortment of light armour.  Nary a Tiger or Panther in sight

Well worth a look.

Chain of Command Contest!

Lardie Rich has been cranking out lists like crazy and still people are asking for more.   So I figured some of those people should pick up the slack and let Rich get on with other things like In the Buff.

It's simple really make a list and post it to the Chain of Command forum or Yahoo group and get a chance at winning stuff. Details here: A CoC Challenge! 

Get posting and Good Luck!

It's Here!

Too Fat Lardies Summer Special!

And yeah I have a piece in it!

RAFM Summer Sale!

On now at http://www.rafm.com/ 35% off  when you use the code  SUMMER2013 - go, go now!