New layout and rules

Sorry guys I have been very slack in posting on the site in the 6 weeks, to tell you the truth I have had nothing really interesting to say or show. I have been working on 2 sets of terrain (1 European and 1 desert) so I can actually have a game at my place instead of using the 12 x 6 set ups that Mark and Kevin each have at their place. I have however had the oppurtunity to use 2 really interesting set of rules in the last 6 weeks, the first of these is designed for small to medium sized battles of the ECW. The rules are available from the site of Clarence Harrison of Chesapeake whose website Quindia Studios is a inspiration for painting and terrain building. I sent Clarence an email and he sent me his ECW ruleset in a PDF file for free and I highly recommend it for ECW. The system is card driven and each unit has a card that needs to be drawn before they can move, fire etc. I will be using it for ECW but I feel for the bigger battles of the TYW and Deluge the second set I tried will be the one I am sticking to. Yesterday we tried the newly released 'Beneath the Lilly Banners' and despite them being a new set we quickly got hold of the simple rule mechanics. We played a cut down version of the rearguard scenario from the rulebook (halved everything), the new setting was Lithuania 1658 and saw a small Swedish rearguard take on a very large Muscovite force. We used the rules for the Swedes and Muscovites from the GNW section and additions from the Eastern rules section. The rules are subtle and brutal and I like to see my cavalry melees quickly settles as we tend to play with very large armies and everything else has seemed to bog down in detail, give them a try for the Deluge onward (I think the TYW would be easily handled as well). I leave you with some photos of the game and my new table, it was 7 1/2 feet by 6 feet with my new latex roads; steel wool trees and hedges and hills of foam. Until next time, I promise to write more about the rules with troop classifications and unit organisation for those who may wish to give them a try (all infantry and cavalry bases are 50mm x 50mm which is very close to the stated base sizes). Cheers Scott

P.S If you are in Australia Eureka Miniatures are carrying these for 40 dollars Aus. which is cheaper than buying from the UK (I payed 19.50 Stirling including postage). Cheers

Easter Weekend pictures

Hey guys here are some pictures of the two days of wargaming that took place in Brisbane over the Easter weekend. On the table where 250+ cavalry and 450+ infantry, of course after all of this preperation I managed to leave my camera at home. These photos were taken by Andrew Parr (thanks mate) who flew from Sydney for the weekend.

Brisbane Easter Weekend (week late)

Finally here are some pictures of the two days of Deluge gaming that took place in Brisbane over the Easter weekend. The weekend was organised and payed for by Gerry Webb of Castaway Arts (thanks mate for the last 3 years). There was a reasonable turnout over the 2 days and I hope for more next year. I managed to spend over 1200 dollars on the weekend so I kept some of the retailers happy (good to see so many up here in Queensland). The game was played using the 'Fury' rules from the Ambler gamers site and managed 250 + cavalry and 450 + infantry in 2 games over the weekend. They are not perfect but they are fun and I enjoyed them. The units are organised into 20 figures for infantry and 8 for cavalry. After dragging everything down to Brisbane (100 km) I realised I had forgotten my camera, so these photos have been taken by a wargaming friend (Andrew Parr) who flew up from Sydney (cheers mate). So enjoy and I will see you at Easter next year for a very large early Sudan game. Cheers Scott

Easter Weekend

I have made a major change to the game being played over the Easter weekend at Gerry's great and fun convention, I have had to cancel the Sudan game as I just didn't get everything done that I was happy with. I like to see games with all the trimmings, personalities, vignetes, great scenary pieces and the all important civilians but these are the things that I have not yet completed so it will have you have to wait until next year to don the pithe helmet or red fez. I am now going to do a 12x6 foot Deluge period game set in the Ukraine in 1660, with Muscovites and Cossacks besieging a small Polish force in a fortified town. The Muscovites and Cossacks are unaware of a strong relief force of Polish and German (mercenary) regulars and Tartars coming to their rescue and have to fight on two fronts (lucky they have lots of troops), should be fun.

The game will look similar to the one illustrated above that we played over a year ago but with more troops, scenary and terrain. I will be using 'Winged Fury' as the rules with infantry units of 20 men and cavalry units of 8 men, I will use a D10 for command rolls for the better trained Polish units whilst the Muscovite and Cossacks will use a D6. Come along and have a game if you are in Brisbane over the Easter Weekend, I will post lots of photos after the weekend. Cheers Scott

Painting update

Little to report these last few weeks as I have been busy trying to get loads of figures done for the Easter Weekend convention here in Brisbane put on by Gerry Webb of Castaway Arts. I have been painting Fuzzy Wuzzy figures for the Sudan game that I will be running but I will have to recycle them as they die. Leroy Simpson has been kind enough to do a British regiment in red for me as well as a Egyptian battalion (he will do a much better job than I would). I will be using the rules 'Science versus Pluck' where everyone plays on the side of the Imperial forces and I as the umpire run the Dervish forces (and try my hardest to kill them off). The emphasis is on fun and I have been waiting 15 years to finally get the early Sudan up and running ever since I saw the campaigns of Peter Gilder (great to see his old collection having an outing on the Der Alt Fritz blog site, seriously recommended). So come have a look and join in over the Saturday and Sunday of the Easter weekend if you are in Brisbane. Finally I leave you a photo of some of my Muscovite figures as Muscovites seem to be getting popular (see the fantastic link by Nigel http://nigbilpainter.blogspot.com/

Cheers Scott

Winged Fury Test

Hey guys I played my first game of Winged Fury (free set of rules from the Ambler Gamers Yahoo group) at a club in Brisbane on Sunday and had great fun. It was a Polish versus Imperial/Austrian battle with 116 points aside (only had a 8x6 foot table). The infantry units had 4x50mm bases each (20 figures) and the cavlary were mostly 3x50mm bases (6 figures) except for the cuirassier units which were 4x50mm bases (8 figures). The only modifications that I made were to unit morale status which I think was a mistake as it did lengthen combat/melee times and units stayed around too long when they should have run or routed. My reading of the rules before play made me agree with Pan Mark's statement on his Yahoo Renaissance gaming group in one of his previous posts about the brittleness of unit morale and hits from firing but after playing I feel they are probably right. I played against James who is a regular opponent (he is 16 this year), he loves the period and usually fields a very large Brandenburg army but he used his dad's Imperial one for the battle. The game rules were easily picked up by both of us, there is some problems with the language but a repeated reading of the sections helped to understand. I took a few photos but the lighting in the hall was not the best and they did not come out very clearly, sorry for that. All I can say is that we both enjoyed the game and I did not come away from it feeling that something was not right which I have felt after my last few games of 1644 (or just exhausted from all the dice rolling and working out attacks in WECW). Try them out, they are not perfect (what is) but they are fun, free and give you a good feel for the period, what else can ask for. Cheers Scott

Cossack wagon tabor and Easter Weekend

Here are some photos of my Cossack wagon tabor that I finish a few weeks ago. I meant to put these up a few weeks ago but the batteries in my camera were dead so this post has had to wait until I got new ones. In the next 2 months I will only be painting bits and pieces for my Deluge collection as I am busy painting several hundred figures for an early Sudan participation game Nathan Vinson and I will be putting on at the Brisbane Easter convention. The convention is a great and relaxed 2 days of gaming in the heart of the CBD in Brisbane organised by Gerry Webb of Castaway Arts. If you are in Queensland come along and join in the games and sample the growing range of figures and terrain now available from Queensland companies. Gerry will have his large range of 25mm figues (Castaway Arts), Matthew will have his 15, 20 and 25mm ranges (Battlescape), Nathan Vinson will have a sample of his extensive 25mm range (Elite Miniatures), Kevin Jowett will have his new 25mm ACW range and extensive and excellent range of painted and unpainted building in 15mm, 20mm and 25mm from Hudson and Allen, Scenic Effects and Historical Building Authority. Check the Castaway Arts site for more details of the weekend. Come along and have great day of gaming in the airconditioned rooms of Chiffley of the Mall. See you all there, Scott.

50mm x 50mm basing

Some guys have been asking why and how I base my figures on 50mm x 50mm GW bases. The main reason was because I felt they looked good and the larger base gave me more room to add terrain and other bits to the base. Another important factor is transport, these figures are protected on the larger base and as a gamer who has brought back to Australia large collections by sea and air from several years in the UK and Norway they do work. The 50mm base with 5 foot figures does upset some because the frontage is not right (20mm per figure), as we started off playing WECW. However the photo here shows how a unit of 20, 40 or 60 would have a frontage of 20mm each and keeps the Warhammer crowd happy. Basically you alternate 2,3,2,3 on you base (1st and second rank), couldn't be easier.

Austrian and Brandenburg Command stands

I thought I might post photos of two command stands that I painted as Christmas presents for Kevin and James Jowett as I didn't have time to photograph them before they came over for Christmas dinner (Austrian stand with yellow and orange flag). Kevin has a very large Austrian army for the TYW and Deluge period (Old Glory which you will see later) so I thought a command stand would be a good present (bit more personal). The figures for the Austrian stand are all Essex Miniatures and the flag was a black and white printout/photocopy which I then outlined with a good black pen and then painted. The outline with a good soft point pen helps the paint stay within the lines and is much easier than the handdrawn masterpieces of the League of Augsburg (they draw and paint on cloth which is beyond my skills).

James who is Kevin's 15 year old son (and also an ex history student of mine) is a very keen historical gamer who has a large painted Brandenburg army (mostly Renegade and Bicorne). The Brandenburg stand used Essex Miniatures for the cavalry escort but the Brandenburg Elector is a Redoubt figure. The figures all have had head swops and the head of the Elector was modelled with green stuff to look like engravings and paintings from the period.