wab-ramblings (click on photos for better view): Wargaming plans for 2009

Several big wargaming plans for 2009, they mostly have a colonial slant. I blame Gerry Webb of Castaway Arts as he got me really interested in the period when I first met him in 1997 (I was a Sudan fan but Gerry opened my eyes to the gaming potential of the little wars of the 19th century). I will finish painting the rest of the Sudan stuff and actually have a game, this will be my big game at the Brisbane convention in 2009. The main painting project for 2009 will be (drum roll):

1. Wellington in India.

This will be a big project and probably take all year. For the British I plan to start of doing 2 British foot Regiments (6 stands or 18 figures each), 6 Indian Sepoy foot regiments (6 stands each), 1 British cavalry regiment (10 figures or 5 stands), 3 Sepoy cavalry Regiments (8 figures each or 4 stands) and 8-10 guns with British (galloper) and Sepoy (battalion) crew. Basically I am trying to start of with the orbat for the Battle of Assaye. The Maratha regular foot units will around 6stands each (15-18 figures) whilst irregular and Jezail units will be 6-8 stands each (12-16 figures). I had originally intended to use a mix of figures but as I got a huge number of figures from the US distributor of Redoubt at a 75% discount I have decided to stick with this whole range (plus the range towers over everything else, each figure is about 32mm tall). 75% figures already bought.

2. Italian Wars Renaissance

I had intended on doing this when I could actually feel comfortable with painting French Gendarmes but Andrew Parr (him again) has sold his large painted collection to Kevin Jowett (him again) which has forced my hand as I like to have some of my own figures on the table whe I play a game. I just love the period, nothing is prettier on the table and the battles are fantastic. This is a period that I do not have to spend any money on however as the infamous Andrew Parr sold me a load of older style GW plastic Empire figures a year ago at MOAB for a very good price (thanks mate). Before anyone starts to moan about the GW figures just have a look at Phil Olley's Italian Wars stuff using a lot of GW plastics (look at links and go to the Italian Wars showcase). Phil has done a great job and if mine look half as good I will be happy. I have been assembling plastic GW figures over the last week and I am impressed on how good they look but not impressed with all the extra work, however it will be a unique army as I am adding lots to each figure. I am basing my army on a German Imperialist force and have enough to do 2 pike blocks of 40 figures with 10 halberds and 8 musket per block (58 figures each), 1 pike block of 40 with 8 musket, 1 unit of 20 musket, 12 two handed swordsmen, 1 unit of 12 extra heavy cavalry (German knights), 1 unit of 16 heavy cavalry (German retainers) and 2 heavy guns with 4 crew each. I will be using Andrew Parr's excellent Italian Wars adaption of WAB which are really nice and have loads of extra stuff and get rid of the problem areas usually found in WAB for this period (i.e. Armies of Chivalry).