What's been happening? - Latest news from the Shed

 Morning All - apologies for the radio silence over the last three weeks but things have been rather busy.

First up a quick update on the move - we are only a few short steps away from completing on our purchase of our new home in North Somerset, hopefully the solicitors and surveys can be completed soon and we can then become very excited about moving on. Of course the move will be tinged with a degree of sadness as I say good bye to our family home of 27 years in Surbiton but also saying au revoir to my mates and the shed. Rest assured the gaming will continue and hopefully on a much bigger scale. Once I know we are definitely on the move I'll be revealing the plans....

With a sense of the Shed closure in the next few weeks we have been trying to cram in as many games as possible and I have been busy painting more figures in the limited spare time I have. In no particular order here are some of the things we have been up to in the Shed recently.

A revisit to the North Eastern Americas was definitely on the agenda as the group got together for a furiuos and fast paced game of muskets and tomahawks...the game was played out on a 10ft x 5ft table with loads of terrain.

The game featured a raid by French troops and Indian Allies - a close fought affair that saw the attackers win a marginal victory..

Sticking with the Americas we moved into the badlands for a spot of US Cavalry versus Plains Indians

  

Apologies for the poorly painted teepees - I knocked these up in an hour before the game.

A week ago we decided to refight my epic Rorke's Drift scenario - this was new to most of the players and the Brits only just held out against the natives...

 

As far as the painting was concerned the focus was adding to my Norman army - four more boses bought from these chaps - Conquest offer a great discount on for or more figures and they are great value.

So 30 more horse joined the army...

and another 88 foot

These are now added to my rather large Norman force...the front row is two ranks of over 120 horse - stretching nearly 2 metres

Finally last night we fought out a large 28mm Napoleonic game that was fought to a very bitter and close finale - the Allied forces triumphant.

Hope this is of interest and another update towards the end of the month

Stay safe folks

The Big Gun - A muskets and tomahawks scenario

Monday night and a return of a Shed favourite - Muskets and Tomahawks. We are still playing with version 1 rules as I cannot justify purchasing the new version at the moment. These rules always deliver a great game and lend themselves nicely to multiplayer scenarios.

The table was set up using a 6ft x 6ft configuration with opf course plenty of trees, rivers and a few log cabins,. The focal point of the game was a semi complete fort protecting a redoubt. Inside this redoubt was a large cannon overlooking the major river. 

The scenario was set as follows. The French have built the redoubt to prevent ships and boats from travelling up the river. The stockade is almost finished and is well defended by French regulars, Canadian trappers and some friendly natives.

The French had at their disposal the following

 two units of French regular infantry (a 12 man unit and a 16 man unit)

three units of Canadians ( 1 x 8 man and 2 x six man)

three units of native Indians (6 men each) 

Prior to the game starting the French forces were randomly disperesed across the board in the defensive areas. Both Regulars fortuitously started in the fort area

The British assault force was 50% stronger (in units) consisting of 

Two units of regular infantry (both 12 men strong)

Five units of Rangers (each six strong)

Five units of Native Indians (each six strong)

The British objective was simple destroy the gun and its powder supplies at the fort. Again the British forces were dispersed from random start points away from the fort.

Mark and I played the British, Alastair and Callum the French.

The scene was set for an interesting game.

In the picture below you can just make out the French regulars in the fort area, the British redcoats are advancing top left. Most of the rangers are hidden in the woods top right and Indians are hiding out in the Woods to the right.

The early part of the game saw some skirmishes outside the fort in the woods where the French quickly nullified many of the British Indians, elsewhere stubborn resistance from the Canadians slowed down the British advance

The British regulars finally managed to get into play quickly destroying a Canadian unit 

By now the French regulars were starting to take up defensive positions in the fort

The French manning the palisades were able to lend their support to the firefight taking place in the neighbouring woods

The Rangers eventually moved up to assault the large cabin in the village.

Our random deployment ensured action was taking place across the field but with numbers on the British side the French slowly started to retreat backwards.

The Rangers are finally poised to move forward into the fields

The continuous crack of musketry and rifle fire increased as more targets were spotted

Recognising that the attack was building a company of French regulars blocked the road and volley fired anything that got too close

A loan band of Indians quickly sneaked into the fort and before they could set fire to the powder they were assaulted and despatched by the defending infantry

As the Canadians were driven from the village they ran into a hail of British lead

By now the Ranger rifle fore was beginning to tell, their long range hitting the French hard. Darkness had fallen (event card) and with much of the French force destroyed they beat a hasty retreat leaving the redoubt in the hands of the British

This was a great fun game - both sides fought well but the numerical superiority of the attackers finally carried the day.

Something NEW next week so watch this space

Stay safe

28mm Woodland Indians - something to paint

Since I finished painting my Roman Legion I have been mulling over my next project but whilst I am deciding what this might be I needed to satisfy my painting craving. Its been almost two months since I lifted a paint brush.

With Muskets & Tomahawks second edition just round the corner I thought it would be useful to add to my French Indian War collection, and why not add to my 80 plus Indians already painted.

With cost in mind I decided to buy into Warlord Games Plastic Woodland Indians - not just one box but three boxes.

These were sourced from Ebay at a relatively good price of about £16 per box.

The intention is to paint them all in one go and then sell around half to cover the original outlay. Hopefully;-)

As figures go they are nothing special - but they are quite fiddly to put together.

So on Saturday afternoon I assembled the full 72 figures in one massive session. I used 25mm round bases rather than the squares bases they came with.

Once the figures were dry I spent an hour dabbing on the flesh colour.

The bases have been treated with sand and grit. On top has been given an emulsion brown paint job

With a bit of luck these will all be finished later in the week at which point in time I'll post up the ebay link

cheers



I'll post up the

The Siege of Fort William

Our second Muskets and Tomahawks game in a week - the French try to take the Fort

With most of the terrain set up from the previous game I reconfigured the table and following the events of the previous game the French pushed up to siege Fort William.

- things did not go well for the French and their allies - enough said

three lessons were learned

1. Defending troops are very hard to hit
2. Indians assaulting the parapets need darkness on their side - do not try this in broad daylight
3. The French should have brought cannon..

More soon