25th in 2026... GWSH is having a birthday...

It was an email from Shawn (rules author of Great War Spearhead) that alerted me to the fact that 2026 is the 25th anniversary of the first publication of his Great War Spearhead rules. "Next year is the 25th Anniversary! Should we try and plan a big event or do something smaller in one or two spots?" he asked.

In 2008 we jointly organised a large refight of the Marne (1914) here in Christchurch. Sadly I seem to have managed to have lost the photos in successive transitions of web sites and laptops, but it was quite a spectacle. I'm not sure I have the energy for organising or playing anything that size, but... it left me wondering. That said, you can see the current iteration of 'The Great Adventure', my GWSH resource site, here.

Here in Ōtautahi Christchurch there are a few GWSH players, most are 'occasional' players. But .. I thought .. rather than trying to organise something huge, something gargantuan in nature.. I thought .. how about we simply undertake to play some discreet games from theatres of wars not normally seen with Great war Spearhead. Now, that might be an idea. Lots of fun,. while also demonstrating the flexibility of the rules in this early part of the twentieth century.

That lead me to think about what's in the painting pile, what do I have that MIGHT fit that bill? Well .... 

There are the 6mm Russians and Turks.. although we've played the occasional game set in the Caucasus where they fought some bitter battles.

In 20mm, there are the Austrians ..

Maybe I paint up the extra figures I bought five years ago to bring this army up to Corps size .. that's my usual target size.

Then there are the cavalry that sit unpainted, bought especially for the Russian and German armies on the eastern front, late war ..

This opens up the prospect of the Russian Civil War, or the Russo-Polish war.. not often seen here in Aotearoa NZ.

Ah, now .. I did paint up some sample HaT Colonial Infantry and then bought a box .., East Africa I hear you say, although the battles are on the very small size for GWSH

Aha.. when HaT brought out their Serbian infantry I painted some samples for them, and bought three boxes. The project stalled because of the lack of support weapons, MMGs especially..

The three boxes yet to be painted ..

... and then last week I discovered these ..

No photos, but .. I have taken the punt and ordered a few of these.

The Austro-Hungarian/Serbian theatre is not something you see fought out often on the table top.

On top of all that, Murray has some Belgians, and some Americans, on the way. Belgium 1914, or the allied interventions in Russia in 1919, anyone?

I think we have some options. Anyone else interested?

Lost & the Damned Traitors complete

More progress on the Combat Patrol 400 point painting challenge. These are the last of the Traitors for the Lost and the Damned army. Again, the mix of camouflage uniforms.

First up, the urban camouflage scheme.

Then something almost (but not quite) 1980s camouflage. We would have talked about camouflage for the European theatre, but you get the idea.

Here is the Traitor part of the CP force complete, twenty traitors, with a couple of heavy weapons. There was plenty of room for figure conversion, but I haven't had the time (nor the inclination) to do any conversion with them. I am looking forward to trying my hand at some mutants though.

Next however are some Chaos Space Marines. I have no idea what  a L&tD force will look like under 6th Edition, nor the soon to be released Chaos codex. As I've said previously this is more of a painting project than anything else, and the three of us are happy playing with force compositions that have a nice gaming 'feel' to them. Now, where is that box of CSM I bought 7 years ago? And I'm still waiting for the first photos through from Adrian and Andy!!!

400 point CP challenge

The first photos are in... my first batch. These are the first traitors for the Lost and the Damned army... I have chosen to paint them in a range of camouflage uniforms to represent their diversity.

Too little time has elapsed for these guys to have adapted their uniforms, or to have succumbed to the forces of Chaos in any physical way. This first batch has jungle, desert and arctic camouflage uniforms. I loved painting them.

I pondered how I'd show their traitor status, and thought that for such an early formation a double slash of blood across the imperial eagle would do. I need to consider more conversions though.. must be some interesting things I can do with equipment, poses etc.

MUST THINK CREATIVELY.. "Didn't get where I am today by thinking creatively, Reggie!! But there are bound to be mutations in another squad.

Now for the next batch of ten.

8 week 40K army painting challenge

I'm not one to shy away from a challenge, nor to issue one (although sometimes foolishly it seems). So, having been hell bent on finishing projects, I thought I'd use a challenge as a little more  motivation to finish a very long standing challenge: a brand new 400 point Combat Patrol army for Warhammer 40K. Specifically that Traitor/Lost and the Damned army I bought the figures for approximately 8 years ago.. yep, 8 years.

Now, a challenge to oneself is all well and good, but it's even more fun when others participate. So I've manage to convince Adrian and Andy to embark upon the challenge too.

Andy has opted to paint the Valhallans he bought some (he forgets just how many) years ago, while Adrian yesterday bought two boxes of the new Necrons for something different.

I'll keep readers posted with progress reports and photos.

I must admit I may have cheated a little. Remember those heavy weapons I finished a couple of weeks ago?  Aha.

And the first 10 traitor guardsmen are nearly finished, so I have a little head start. But - all's fair in love and war (and painting challenges) they say. For my part, there are more traitor guardsmen, and some chaos space marines (again bought 8 years ago) to paint. I have several fan codexes from the web that I can work to for the L&TD, although rumour has it traitors will re-appear in the next iteration of the Chaos codex. I think a Hellhound might be in order too, and that's a new purchase, but we do what we have to do, don't we!!! I'll paint some cool stuff, and see where that leaves me.

The concept for the traitors is an unholy assembly of men from different units, men who have not yet done more than come over to the forces of chaos. To represent their many world/unit origins I'm painting them in array of camouflage pattern uniforms. The first 10 are already looking pretty cool.

Keep watching.

Russian artillery finished ...

The artillery component of the 1914 Russian force is now finished with the completion of 5 stands of Putilov 76mm with the crew painted as foot artillery. The figures on the end battery show some of the crew painted in the 1904 style green trousers. I also tried to get quite a variation in 'khaki' with varying shades of the theoretical green khaki, some with more of a brown tinge, and quite a few faded to greyer khaki (attained by mixing grey with the khaki colour itself.) I mix the colours on the palette in small quantities so tat I ma mire likely to get differing shades as I work.

When Stan brought along the Putilovs, he also handed me a box of British 4.5 Howitzers (also but HaT), announcing that according to his sources 900 of these were shipped to Russia. Now these were not guns I'd planned on painting.. in GWSH they are most likely to be off table, so no models required. However (as Stan obviously knew) once I'd seen them there was no going back. I'd run out of Russian artillery crew, so resorted to crew from the Heavy Weapons box to crew these guns.

So finally here is the 'artillery park' complete. Five stands of foot artillery, three stands of horse artillery, and 3 stands of heavier Corp guns.

As a final note, a commment on the HaT kits. These are moulded in hard plastic,  are historically accurate, and go together like a dream. The crew are the modern gluable soft plastic that HaT now uses, althugh I had no cause to glue anything about the figures themselves. Highly recommended.

Next step - the infantry heavy weapons.

"Restart WW1" .. first fruits.

I'm surprised at how quickly I've managed to get back into the swing of things with my "Restart WW1" project (although the end of the academic year helps). So here are the first fruits of my labour (and the first 20mm WW1 figures I've painted in quite some time). The three guns (HaT Putilov 76mm field guns) represent a Great War Spearhead artillery regiment, with each model representing a battery. These guns are horse artillery (hence the blue trousers on the crew), while the remainder of the guns I paint will be field artillery.

I thought I'd pose them with some cavalry (Dragoons) to create a little of the feel of these guys on the table top. The foot figures are Hat Russian infantry, while the mounteds are Strelets Russian Dragoons.

My earlier work on WW1 armies can be seen here:

http://www.wargaming.org.nz/

if anyone is interested.

Restart ...

'Restart' is something of a catch cry for those of us living in Christchurch at the moment. We have a 'Restart Mall', a new beginning for retailing in our quake shattered CBD, and it has now hit my wargames/painting table.

I have restarted a project I began a couple of years ago to complete a 1914 Russian force suitable for playing Great War Spearhead. I played a very cool 1914 scenario with Nick well over a year ago, and the 'Random Morale' status of the infantry regiments (an option, but not compulsroy in the scenario generation system - you can pay the points and take Green, Regular, or Veteran regiments if you wish) makes these guys so much fun. The unpredictability of the random morale status means you can never be sure quite what will happen.

I had already painted one infantry regiment, and several regiments of cavalry (Cossacks and Dragoons). In the time since I started (and stopped) the project, HaT has since released a large number of WW1 artillery guns, and accompanying crew, so I thought that to get the 'gaming juices flowing I would start with the necessary on-table field artillery stands to support the force. The HaT Putilov 76mm (or 3", depending on which side of the Atlantic you live on) is first in my sights. The first four of these guns is neairng completion, with photos to follow: four guns and accompanying crew.

It's good to be back in the saddle (or on the limber!!)

Crossfire rules..OK!!

Finally finished the recycling of my old 20mm WW2 figures for Crossfire - well OK some would call it re-basing (the bane of the wargamer's life) but I'm trying to keep a positive spin on this..OK?

The photos below show two completed battalions, both late war: German and British. The photos of the Germans show a range of camouflage uniforms, while the British 'battalion' is made up fROm a company each of standard infantry, commandoes, and paratroopers. This eclectic composition is purely because those are the figures I have, and I like them.. the variety is nice. They will in all probability do service as standard infantry despite their uniforms.

The German were all painted by good friend Gerard D, a dab hand with a brush on those camouflage uniforms. The British were all my own, all from another age when I knew nothing of black undercoats, shading and highlighting etc. I had planned to give these figures a series of washes and highlights to sharpen up their appearance (see my previous blog on the Early German DBA army for an example), but as I mentioned in my previous blog though, I think these have a charm all of their own, even though my painting style has well and truly moved on since then.

The figures are almost all plastics (Airfix, and Esci mostly, from memory) with a few metals mixed in. The metal British commandoes and Paratroopers are Brittania, although I think there are a few FAA figures in there as well.. it really is that long ago that I can't tremember too well where I bought many of them from).

And yes, you aren't imagining things, some of those paras are sheltering behind crumbling brick walls (shades of Arnhem there). Each time we use them we make the jokes about how tiring it must be to haul those brick walls around after them as they go into action....

Now I am looking forward to a few serious Crossfire games.

Recycling figures...

A major new project... finishing two matching Crossfire battalions. I first bought a copy of these rules thinking that they might provide a use for a lifetime's collection of 20mm WW2 figures.

I was right.. I fell for the rules, they are wonderful. The fact that I'm not terribly good at them is irrelevant, I still love playing them.

So I have found a use for nearly 40 years worth of accumulated 20mm WW2 figures. They are in various states, almost none of them up to the painting standard that I aspire to now, but this gives them a charm of their own. I like that.

So, they are partly re-based, just the completion of the scenic effects on the bases required. I'll post soem photos when they are finished.

1944 Germans and British. The British battalion has a company each of standard infantry, paras and commandoes (not because I like super troops.. I'll use them as standard infantry).. I just like the varied look of the figures on the table. The Germans were painted by good friend Gerard D.. a variety of camouflage, and Field Grey, uniforms.. as I said, a charm all of their own.

Then there is the mass of Russians that were always my favourites: standard infantry, black sea fleet marines .. oh, yes, I'm certainly recycling figures.

HotT: an easy introduction to fantasy war gaming

I flirted briefly…. with the idea of a Warhammer Fantasy army. Why? The beautiful GW miniatures, and the sniff of a rules set that looked like it might take me back to those good old 70's war gaming values: I still harbour the fondest memories of war gaming the way it used to be (but of course we always do.. it's a shame that the 'good old days' rarely ever are.)

I took advantage of the opportunity to buy some second hand figures for a Tomb Kings' army at a fraction of their new cost, and even picked up a copy of the newest rules set in soft cover form from someone who had bought the latest WFB boxed set. Even now I read those WFB battle reports in White Dwarf, salivating at the appearance of the multitude of GW figures populating a beautifully set up table.

However, at my age I've learned to be realistic. I rarely get to either of our local war games clubs to play games, and that's where I'd need to go to play WFB (because that's where the players are), since my own local war games opponents just don't play WFB. What they do play though is HotT (Hordes of the Things) - the fantasy version of the DBA rules. Now this is also familiar territory for me; I started playing WRG rules back in the days of 3rd edition Ancients, and have grown up/cut my teeth on their rules systems. I did give away the DBM system a number of years ago when I discovered rules sets like Volley and Bayonet and Spearhead that finally allowed me to play periods in a way that I'd only ever dreamed of before.

But in the meantime, I have begun to feed a long dormant desire to play fantasy war games using HotT. I can vividly remember several of my very long time gaming friends playing Lord Of The Rings games way back, using home grown rules, and piles of Airfix plastics converted for the purpose. What’s more, I have this feeling that HotT will allow many other 'gamers to feed their own fantasy war games desires as well.

In 5 weeks I have been able to paint up two complete HotT armies: 'Lost World's, and 'Mediaeval Chaos', and very pleased I am with the results. The armies aren't exactly world beaters in terms of effectiveness, but there's one thing I have learned after reading White Dwarf for 7 years: theme is important. My HotT armies are themed around specific visions (not original I hasten to add, my themes are derived from others' fertile imaginations), and they are an absolute joy to field. The Chaos army uses a White Dwarf inspired painting theme that has come up a little short in the execution department, but still looks great to my eyes. The Lost Worlds army is an eye catcher, begun with a self-set challenge to create an interesting army using cheap plastic toys (hence the dinosaurs, and the gorilla).

But that's another wonderful aspect of the HotT system. While sample army lists are derived from the enormous range of fantasy literature available in bookstores, the system allows the imagination to go wild while governed only by composition guidelines the sole purpose of which is to ensure playable balanced games.

I have discovered that this tool unleashes powerful imagination as I have watched boys develop their own interpretations on the fantasy themes created by writers over the past decades. For my part my third HotT army, a Victorian Sci-Fi army, is already in gestation: 300 years ago claims that I had visions of steam driven behemoths might have lead to my incarceration. Today, my wife just smiles quietly and waits for me to return home with another box of plastic soldiers.

I may well go back to WFB: I still like those old-fashioned rules approaches, and I do still adore the GW figures. But in the meantime I have seen HotT generate enthusiasm and excitement in young minds (and in this not so young one as well!!). It has given me an easy introduction to fantasy war-gaming, that'll do for a start.

Here are two photos of elements from my recently completed Chaos army: a Dragon, and several bases of Chaos knights, seen here in their second action of the day when a few of us recently got together for a day of DBA and HotT games.

"Lost Worlds": my first HotT army

So I've finally finished my first HotT army: themed around the idea of "Lost Worlds", a little 'King Kong' ish in fact - dinosaurs, a large gorilla, and fearsome tribespeople.

The army (this is a view of the whole army) is composed of:

1. Magician general


2. God (large ape)


3. 4 x warbands (wild tribesmen)


4. 1 x Behemoth(large dinosaur)


5. 1 x Beast


6. 2 x Flyers (Pterodactyls)

and yes, that's 26 army points, so I can vary the composition a little.

The warband

The behemoth dinosaur

The God looking on at the magician general, a Shaman and acolyte, making a  human sacrifice in the 'sacred grove'.

On their first outing, the army managed a victory against a semi-historical mediaeval army (the behemoth sure took it to those knights). Of course the God managed to avoid turning up at all, so thank goodness the opposition Dragon had taken the advice of Actors Equity and decided to do the same.

Now for the generic chaos army .. what a fantastic dragon!!

More HotT Stuff...

A month or two ago, as I suggested in an earlier post, I introduced boys at Christ's College to HotT (Hordes of the Things, the fantasy version  of WRG's DBA war games rules). I had only recently decided to get into these games myself, even though I bought my copy of the rules a couple of years ago. 

I had set myself the challenge of creating armies with cheap plastic toys, as the fantasy supplement to the fantastic array of 20mm plastic figures now on the market.

I had thought that HotT would be a great rules system with which to engage young guys: the armies are small, and therefore  cheaper to collect than other systems, and also faster to paint.

The armies involve all sorts of fantasy creations: magicians and dragons, orcs and trolls.. they are all there. What's more there are no prescriptive army lists, just a very simple army composition rule to ensure game balance.

Finally the games are simple and quick to play (although they are of course anything but simple in complexity). 

Wow!! Was I ever right? The rules system, and my incomplete examples of armies, have engaged a number of boys with an almost religious zeal. Armies have started to spring up, with some boys planning  second and third armies when they have still to complete their first (now, does that sound familiar???).

Three of the boys played their second and third games last Saturday. Here are some shots. Their armies are still largely unpainted (something I normally deplore, but to harness their enthusiasm, it was well worth while), but they are alredady learning many of those often quoted subtleties of the system.

Dragons: a nice plastic winged dragon from our local $2 shop, and  a nice home-made Chinese dragon - a street parade dragon, complete with legs beneath the cloth. The two armies are fictional ancient Chinese, and semi-historical mediaeval.

A dragon meets its nemisis.

The neat home made stronghold in the background.

You have to forgive them the unpainted figures - they are just so enthusiastic!!

In the meantime, my own 'Lost Worlds' army is nearly complete. I'll post some photos in the next week or so.

The Guns of August... wow!!!

Well, after months of planning 'The Guns of August'  is over. Six guys, 24 Great War Spearhead divisions, over 3 days.... and that's the first battle of the Marne re-fought.

Play started last Friday, as we fought the preliminary meeting engagements of the battle. These actions then fed into the main event on day 2. The most important impacts were that the French were able to turn the German left, while the BEF successfully pushed back the German cavalry on the German right. 

The impact: the French started in an advantageous position on the German left, while the BEF was able to deploy straight onto their table at the start of the main battle. Over the two days, the German Guards corps was lost (gulp, honestly, it wasn't me who commanded them....).

There were few chances for the Germans to break through the allied lines, the best chance seemed to lie in an attack by the Guard corps against that part of the allied position held by the French cavalry.  Unfortunately the amount of artillery allocated in support of the cavalry was so great that the Guard was seriously under strength by the time they reached the French lines. Early successes were not sustained and the Guard fell back in disorder: many of their colleagues lay where they had fallen.

These photos show a view of the main table on days two and three, with the BEF nearest the camera. The players are, from left to right: Robin Sutton (that's me!!), Robert Dunlop (back row), Shawn Taylor, Stan Walker (back row), Jon Harding, and Nick Sutton. 

We had a fantastic three days of great gaming and fantastic company. 

Here's my chance to publicly thank the players (especially Robert who flew in from the UK, and Shawn who flew in from Canada), also the organisers of the New Zealand Natcon who put on the event (the Christchurch Cavaliers Club): thanks guys.

Thanks are also due to the product sponsors of the event:

Eureka Miniatures

HaT Miniatures

Irregular Miniatures

Leva Prodductions

LKM

Magister Militum

Miniature World maker

Osprey Publishing

Pendraken Miniatures

These companies gave us fantastic support.... with fantastic products - thank you very much.

The HotT obsession

The HotT obsession (Hordes of the Things, that is) has bitten. I have found myself planning and scheming the creation of HotT armies. In particular I have become obsessed with the creation of great looking and highly fanciful HotT armies using some of the huge array of cheap plastic toys that we can buy in stores locally.

I started to plan a 'Lost Worlds' army, with dinosaurs (nice behemoths, flyers and beasts) supporting some ancient looking humans (warbands and hordes). I was browsing in a local K-Mart amongst the dinosaurs, when I stumbled upon this wonderful looking beast. Now here was King Kong if ever I saw him. 

But of course I wasn't seeing a large ape, but a God (in HotT terms, you understand!!). I had flashbacks to tribes worshipping the great ape, and battling amongst and with ancient dinosaurs. Of course they would have large fanciful 'idols' in their stronghold in the jungles, so a small aquarium piece, along with some aquarium plastic plants looked  be just the thing.

A tyrannosaurus (well this actually a velociraptor) for a behemoth .....

A couple of small dinosaurs for an element of 'beasts', and a couple of flyers and .....

Then there will just be a couple of bases of primeval humans and, with a Shaman to complete this tasty family, there's a 'King Kong' lost worlds army.

I am hoping some of the boys that I take in the Saturday 'gaming group at Christ's College will read this, and be inspired to try to create their own HotT fantasy armies. In the meantime, I'll post some more pictures when these fellows have been based and are ready to go!!

Of course right now I really should get back to the 6mm WW1 Armies for The Guns of August'.....so many projects, so little time!!! This HotT obsession ..........