Wargaming Again

So, its been since April that I put anything on the blog.  In the meantime, we moved from Kansas City, Missouri to Fort Collins, Colorado.  I am retired now, and we had decided a long time ago to move back to Colorado.

 I miss the guys I gamed with in Kansas City.  They are a great bunch, and I had many good times.

Since coming to Fort Collins, I have gamed with my brother, playing Arc of Fire.  I enjoyed it very much, and will paint figures for it.  I played a game of Desperado at the local game store (Gryphon Games) and that was fun also.

This weekend, my friend Brad Thorton came up and we played the first game ever with my 40mm figures painted for the ImagiNations of the Grand Duchy of Waldo and the Ruskin Palatinate.  We were using the rules All the King's Men, from the website of the same name.

http://www.allthekingsmentoysoldiers.com/

The rules were written for their 54mm figures, I hope they will excuse us for playing with the diminutive 40mm figures.

The rules are easy to play.  The units are 12 for infantry, 6 for skirmishers or cavalry.  I have no cavalry at this time, so we had equal forces:

1 grenadier unit
3 line units
1 skirmisher unit
1 gun

We ended up playing 2 games, it moves quickly.  Its a card based game, where you take two of the suits out of the deck.  Each side is then moving on either red or black cards.  Each unit starts the turn with a green marker.  When a unit is moved, it degrades to a yellow marker, and if it moves again in the turn, it goes to red.  Green units firing have successes on 4/5 and 6, yellow on 5 and 6, and red on 6.  Units can and do get activated multiple times in a turn.  At the beginning of the next turn, all the units go back to green markers.

Firing is an opposed roll, with the firing unit needing more successes than the defending unit to cause casualties.  Taking fire casualties also causes a drop in color for the unit.

Melee is an opposed roll, but both sides take all the casualties caused by the other.  The attacker, no matter what his color going in, rolls as green in melee.  At the end of the melee, both units are automatically red, no matter what color they started.

The first game was a straight up battle.

Brad was on the far side with the Grand Duchy of Waldo, I am the closer army with the Ruskin Palatinate.  This battle ended up with a definite win for the Grand Duchy of Waldo.  I used my grenadiers to charge a unit, but then a fresh unit on the other side charged them and destroyed them.  I had previously lost my skirmishers and one other unit.  If you lose half your units the game is lost.

The second battle was a little more challenging.  a river crossed the table, with a bridge in the middle.  There were two fords by the woods along the river, causing you to lose speed for the ford and the woods.  Each side's skirmishers started on the table a foot from the bridge.  I managed to put my skirmishers on the bridge, and push two units across a ford.  I caught Brad in a crossfire and defeated his units in detail.

It was a fun day, and I liked the rules.  They are a free download at the All the King's Men website.  They have more tactical decisions than you might imagine for a free set of rules, and worth a look.

Charge! Regiment finished

I finished the third company for my first Charge! regiment.  Three 16 man companies each with an officer and NCO, and a Regimental officer with flagbearer and drummer.

This brings my total to 102 figures and 2 guns with the grenadier company, light company and gun battery.

As yet I have no cavalry.  I haven't had much luck getting the cavalry molds to come out right.  I also am not sure what I am going to do for a mounted officer, which I would like to have for my infantry.

I still have another company of infantry to start painting up.  That will probably be a different coat color for a different country.

I haven't painted this many figures in years.  I find I really enjoy the whole process of casting and painting up the figures.

NQSYW Light Infantry Company

Latest addition to the forces of the Grand Duchy of Waldo, the first company of the light infantry regiment.

This brings the total forces to:

2 companies line infantry
1 company grenadier infantry
1 company light infantry
1 artillery battery

My next project is the third company for the line regiment, which will finish that unit.

NQSYW - An Afternoon Casting

I had painted all the 40mm figures that I had cast.  The weather was going to be 65 and sunny, perfect day for casting some figures for winter painting.
I recently bought another infantry mold, in a slightly different pose.  That one and my regular infantry figure were both casting well today.  I got 2 full companies of infantry, and a company of light infantry.  Actually, I just clipped the bayonets from 12 regular infantry and will paint them in dark green.
With command figures, it all came to 51 foot.
I also tried again to cast cavalry.  I thought I was doing well, until I went to cut the sprue metal off of them.  All but five had the swords break off.  Oh well, I will try that again.
All in all, a great day casting.
This will give me the final company for my regiment, and a light company.  I now also have an extra company of infantry, which will get painted with a different coat color, as I plan to start doing a second army.

NQSYW - Artillery Battery

I recently finished an artillery battery for the Grand Duchy of Waldo's army.  That brings me to 2 companies of line infantry, a company of grenadiers, and an artillery battery.  I need to finish out one more company of line infantry, some light infantry, and some cavalry.  I recently got a new cavalry mold, and I have a second mold of my main infantryman on the way.

A Morning Spent Casting

I recently got a cannon mold and 2 molds of artillerists for my NQSYW project.  I also got an order of metal in from Rotometals.  It was supposed to be in the mid-70s until around 11, so I decided to take advantage of the good weather and see if I could get a battery done.

Casting brand new molds always is a problem, but I got them to cast after some careful venting.  The cannon mold was used, and cast pretty well once it got warmed up.

So now I have enough for a battery for my Grand Duchy of Waldo force.

More Progress, NQSYW

I recently finished the second company of my regiment, leaving only one to go.  The figures in the background are my company of Grenadiers.

My immediate goal is another company of line infantry to make up the regiment, a company of light infantry, an artillery battery and 2 squadrons of hussars.

The figures are fun to paint, and large enough that with the optivisor they go pretty quickly.

As many have mentioned today, Don Featherstone has passed.  He was an inspiration in my wargaming, as I am sure he was to many other people.  The first Historicon my friend Darryl and I went to, we were sitting at the bar and Don came up and sat down and started chatting with us.  Its about the only time Darryl and I have been at a loss for words.  

NQSYW Grenadiers

Whe Rob and I casted last time, I was able to cast a company of line and a company of Grenadiers.  These are the Grenadiers.

I am also almost done with a second company of line from when I cast figures a week ago.  That will bring me up to 3 companies.

I also recently got in the mail 3 more molds that are the cannon and 4 different gunner figures.  I hope to cast those up soon. to get a battery.

Sure hope I like this game.  I am having a great time casting and painting the figures for it.  :)

NQSYW More figures and a question for those who home cast

I don't have a picture today.  I spent a couple of hours this morning casting figures.  My basic infantry figure cast well, I have enough now for my second company of hatmen.  I got some specialty figures, I don't expect them to cast that often but I only need a few.

My problem is one piece cavalry molds.  I have 3 different hussar molds.  These are Prince August 40mm molds.  I must have cast them 20 times this morning and got two I could use.  (and those have a few problems I am choosing to overlook)

I have cut some vents in the molds.  It hasn't seemed to help much.  The problem is the body of the horse.  There will be a pit or a furrow along one side of the main body of the horse.  I don't know if this is air escaping during the pouring process, or what.  I have made vents at both ends of the horse's body, and on one of the molds even made a vent between the pouring hole and the back of the pelisse.  I still didn't have much luck.

If there is anyone who sees this that has experience, please let me know.

I got a cannon mold on Ebay, and I have artillerists coming from Ireland.  I am sure casting the cannon will cause me to pull my hair out also.  I had a 25mm cannon mold years ago, and getting the wheels to cast was a real problem.

NQSYW Project, First Unit

Rob and I recently cast some 40 mm figures from Prince August molds for our NQSYW project.  This is the first company of infantry finished for the Grand Duchy of Waldo.  They are in medium blue, with light blue facings.
I thought I would take a break from the 22m ACW figures I was painting.  I finished these with gloss, but I may spray them with a satin finish, I haven't decided.
I also am working on the other unit I got cast, a company of grenadiers.  My organization will be classic Charge!  The infantry will be 3 line companies.  I am doing stand alone Grenadiers and lights.

40mm Sort of Seven Years War

I recently won an ebay auction that was 2 Prince August 40mm molds, an officer and an infantryman.  I then went a little crazy, and got 2 more molds from Prince August in Ireland.  They are very easy to order from, and ship quickly.

I became interested in this from reading posts about the Not Quite The Seven Years War project of the HAWKS club.  I had always wanted to game using the Charge! rules, and I loved the look of the 40mm partially round figures.

I had my first casting session today.  It went pretty well.  The two molds I had gotten off ebay cast the best.  They had been used before, the seller said he had cast the molds and painted figures for a client.  They were not vented, but still cast well.  I had bought in addition bought 2 molds that were double molds.  They had an NCO, a drummer, a grenadier and a standard bearer.

I got 6 of the basic infantrymen, 3 grenadiers, 4 officers, one standard bearer, one drummer and 2 NCOs.  I will probably only keep the best two officers and melt the others.  That mold casts well, and I don't need that many officers right now.  I plan on casting on a regular basis.  I am casting outside, and I don't think it will work too well when it gets cold.

All in all, a good afternoon.

Little bit of everything

Well, its obvious.  As a blogger, I suck.  :)  Long time since my last post, and a lot of changed directions.

I have been working on a French fleet for Dystopian Wars.  I bought the starter box, and then some more ships.  So far I have finished the 9 small ships, and work is progressing well on 3 destroyers, 3 cruisers, and the pocket battleship.  I am not sure where the other people in my group are in this process. 

I started painting some 15mm Franco-Prussian war figures, intending to do an Imaginations project using The Portable Wargame.

http://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/

I got small units for each side done, but in 15mm they look quite similar from a distance.  I am not sure how I feel about this.  The figures are not exactly painted for FP war, its my own take on this.  I may end up using a much lighter blue for the French to make them easily distinguishable on the table.

The last project comes from my long interest in the old Charge! rules.  About the time started reading about the Not Quite the Seven Years War project that the HAWKS wargame club has been doing for a while.  http://nqsyw.blogspot.com/

I liked the idea of the 40mm figures, and I managed to get two Prince August molds of an officer and a soldier off of ebay.  I then went a little crazy and ordered more molds from Prince August in Ireland, metal from a company in  California that gave free shipping with orders over $100, and am scrounging for a suitable pot for melting the metal.  I plan on initially using a burner that is on my gas grill, but may buy a melting pot made for casting bullets later.

So, as usual I am involved in more stuff than I really have time for.  This is in addition to a bad World of Tanks habit with my brother and my nephew. 

Gotta get better at posting...