Silver Bayonet - Russo - Japanese War.

Despite having the rules for a number of months, it's taken a while to get figures to the paint table. How things have changed as I picked bloody Russians.... :-(

I had an idea to shift Silver Bayonet to Manchuria and the Russo-Japanese War, which allows me to tap in to much of Chinese collection and other weird models from the Water Margin. 

The Northstar Russian faction are great sculpts, many of them are generic in overcoats and soft caps, or civilian types so swapping out a couple of figures for the Tsuba castings and the we jump forwards 80 years.

They should be fun to play, Yori who can turn into a Werebear, an old woman who is an supernatural investigator and a priest as a champion of the faith, together with a couple of squaddies the equivalent of red skirts in Star Trek.

 

The idea for Manchuria allows me to field this Russian faction, but also a Japanese faction including monks or Chinese Honghuzi who fought a guerrilla war against the Russian occupation and regularly attacked the Chinese Railway line between Harbin and Vladivostok acting in support of the Japanese.

All set for the first solo outing.

A Russian patrol goes out in search of an earlier party who has gone missing with valuable orders for the front line. As night falls and the full moon rises they hear a blood curdling howl. 

The team stumble into a clearing where they find human remains but their investigation is interrupted by movement on all sides.

This should be fun......

Brigade Games - Janissary Napoleonic Infantry.

Whilst itching to kick off the Infamy Project, these needed to be completed first. Purchased a couple of years go, they have languished in the box of shame awaiting that certain spark.

Inspired by Mark's excellent collection over on his blog 1866 and all that. it was high time they made it to the paint table and more Ottoman forces opposing the French in Egypt.

The Janissary's are from Brigade Games excellent range of Ottoman forces. Let's hope they can stand against the French columns.

 

Uniform information for the Ottoman's is rather sparse, but the white on blue has the right feel, I pulled the flag design from the web in the absence of any commercial flags available.

It was nice to get these battlefield ready...

I could easily be tempted by Brigade's camel mounted French but that's for another day.

How we just need a club night to get them on the table

French Sailors for Haiti - Return of Claude Canard.

Real life had conspired against me this week, but I need manage to get a few odds and ends completed, with the Haiti Campaign gathering pace.... (New Orders will be executed this weekend.) I begain to take a look at some of the figure collections which don't get much table time and could they be repurposed elsewhere, one of these was Ensign Claude Canard and his Friend and mentor Ensign Côtelettes de Mouton of the French Sloop "Le Vendeen".... last seen fighting off Arabs in Egypt.

 

In the early days of the slave revolt, the French Sailors were often called on to defend the port areas and supress the slaves. Our old friend Claude is far more likely to see action in Haiti in the year ahead.

Originally based on pennies, I glued them straight on to Warlord bases and built the bases up to hide the raised area. With a number of the colonial powers opting for detachments of sailors, I am now thinking I might just have to reinforce them for the campaign.

The French need a suitable General to lead them into battle, OK so Napoleon is a little bit OTT but he should inspire the troops in the Battles ahead. He needs some addition flocking but should see some game time very soon.

Haitian Buildings.

For a while now I have been pondering which manufacturer to pick to make a small town for the Haiti campaign, many of Haiti’s towns and cities feature elegant colonial government buildings and cathedrals which were built during the years of French rule. In particular Cap‑Haïtien which served the administrative center is particularly noted for its colonial architecture sadly a number of the older buildings on the island were destroyed in the earthquake of 2010.

Haiti has it's own unique feel to it which in wargaming terms can be represented in my opinion using a number of  the offerings on the market for Spain, Mexico or the Spanish maine all of which give me that Caribbean feel that I am looking for.

I do like my tabletop to have some good functional scenary that can be played across and handled without flinching everytime someone walks by the table.

Of late game and painting time seems to be under pressure from the real world so and with a backlog of figures I certainly don't want to be spending valuable figure time on construction so even though so some of the latest MDF offerings are fantastic and I might be tempted by some key pieces in the future I am only looking at pre-built offerings.

I thinned the list of possibles down to some of Brigade and Empress they both had key buildings that would get regular game time.

Brigade do a lovely set of Caribbean buildings which fitted the bill, but without an easy way to get them into the UK have stepped back from these.

The Empress stuff is lovely and the Church for example would make a great centre piece but running in at £59.00 it did make me wince a little.... (I do see the value in MDF if you have the time and skills to construct these buildings).

However the range lacks the breath I was looking for.

Then I came across these guys at Warfare last weekend. Tablescape.

Light weight, Ready Painted and with a generic feel that gives me the Haitian feel but could also cross over into several other collections that I have.

They were reasonably priced as well.

The Church below is ready painted for £32.00.

No making, sticking, green stuff or painting... that has to be a good return on investment?

 

 

The guys have a broad range and the out houses can be added to some of their main buildings to give me a little more variety as needed.

Each building is made from rigid foam, the smaller buildings are solid and the larger buildings have a hollow centre, you won't be able to put figures in them, but most Sharp Practice games I don't tend to do that anyway.

 

I will probably add a little colour to the window frames and doors but they really are table ready straight out of the box. I picked up a couple of core town houses, the out houses and farm buildings.

No excuse now not to get on with the Infantry languishing on the paint table.

I will post some comparisons next to the figures in the coming days.

Paint Table Sunday.

I have done very little painting over recent months everytime I see light at the end of tunnel it always seems to be somebody witn at torch bringing more stuff to do, work, training - essay writing (its been 25 years since I last had to do this....), household tasks, but finally it feels like all these matters are under control and the paint table can come out from under the mountain of non-hobby tasks.

I thought I would ease myself back in with a couple of odds and end from the to do list for Sharp Practice. I do like a nice scenario and Sharp Practice is best played with a little more texture to its games rather than simply dropping figures on the table. So what better than a couple of Front Rank  "ladies" in need of rescue. Not your high class offering here but more camp followers - But my Ottomans care little as long as they are European....

The Ammunition cart is also from Front Rank, I considered adding a draft animal but figured it would get more use as a static piece.

The shock markers were from the odds and ends box, I have added two dice frames to keep the number of markers on the table low.

Meanwhile the French get some reinforcements for the stalled Dawn and Departures Campaign in the form of a light artillery piece and crew - Another great set of castings from Brigade Games.

Dressed in the Kleber uniform of the day they should give the French a little more of a punch and keep the Ottoman Cavalry at bay.

French Artillery

Right back to the brushes before I get dragged off on some other non-hobby task.

Mameluks Cavalry Force within Sharp Practice.

With the first outing of the new look Egyptian project tonight and after completing the French Legere time to switch back to more Ottoman's.

The Mameluks were originally slaves who came to rule Egypt for themselves, they were renowened horsemen each riding an Arabian stallion, their tactics were to charge in at the gallop discharging their carbines and numerous pistols before finally slashing with the Scimitar....

Following up to the rear of the Mamelukes was a number of foot servants at arms, there role was to mop up after the charge and collect the discarded firearms before finishing off any survivors.

The core of the cavalry were painted a few years ago but a quick reorganisation and some newer releases from Brigade Games mean't that they were in need of a slight make over.
I have added in 4 further mounted figures to bring them up to a more rounded cavalry force.

I am a little light on the core cavalry as the unit should be made up of 8 figures for the Mameluks, but will consider back filling still further in the coming months for now it will be 6 figures on the table but will fight as 8.

The core make up for Sharp Practice is as follows together with the supporting stats.

Leader Status III

Leader Status I
Three groups of Impact Cavalry.
Leader Status I
One group of Scouting Cavalry
Leader Status I
One group of Wallahs with Big Choppers.


53 Points
 

Mameluke Cavalry					Type	Impact Cavalry
Points Value	9	Weapon	Carbine and Sabre		Size	8
Formation	First Fire	Controlled Volley	Crashing Volley	Step Out	Drill	Characteristics
Always	Yes	No	-	2	2	Tally Ho, Sam Colts Equalizers.

Scouting Cavalry - Bedouin					Type	Scouting Cavalry
Points Value	4	Weapon	Lance		Size	8
Formation	First Fire	Controlled Volley	Crashing Volley	Step Out	Drill	Characteristics
No	Yes	No	-	2	-	Tally Ho, Moveable DP, Prominent Leader

Servant Men at Arms					Type	Wallahs
Points Value	4	Weapon	Big Choppers		Size	12
Formation	First Fire	Controlled Volley	Crashing Volley	Step Out	Drill	Characteristics
No	No	No	-	1	-	Prominent Leader, Tactical, Moveable DP.

Napoleon takes a day out...

Second post in two days, I really have hit a purple patch.

Next up a set of French Officers from Brigade Games including Bonny himself. I picked up a couple of fish tank specials at the local pet shop which will be perfect for the desert campaigns.

I can't imagine where the inspiration for this photo came from..

Wonderful castings all of which it could be argued depict Napoleon.
Asuming he has not been cloned all can be used for various officers within my Sharp Practice collection. An exploring officer, Artillery officer or table top NCO?

I received my latest flag order from Grahame at GMB Designs, a very comprehesive list of standards and regimental colours, well printed and produced on a good quality paper. The only problem is it gets you thinking about additional regiments to match his flags..

The colour party.

I look forward to getting these on the table in the coming weeks although I am not sure the man himself will make an appearance, however it's always a little risking, what with the curse of freshly painted figures in their first game. The whole course of the war could change.

Not sure what will be next, but I see Perry Miniatures have released a couple of new packs so perhaps another order will be on the cards.

Sharp Practice in Egypt - Support Options

Whilst I await reinforcements from the Perry's for the French forces and Brigade for more Ottoman's. I thought I would ease myself in with some of the support options available to the Ottoman's and French Forces in Egypt within Sharp Practice 2.

I ordered a number of items from Brigade several months ago and this is the first opportunity to get them on the paint table, whilst others have been repurposed and touched up a little.

In order of cost.

Physic - List One
Part of the Force Commanders Retinue, useful for bringing to a leader who has been knocked out or patching up leaders wounded in combat.
The Physic is from Brigade Miniatures and the Camel litter from Redoubt.

Musicians - List One
When attached to a force commander he my double his command range and my add plus one to any roll on the uncontrolled troops table. Very useful given the quality of some of the Ottoman troops.
A French Drummer from Brigade and also an Ottoman Trumpter from Brigade with a Drummer from BlackTree (?)

Holy Man - List One
What Ottoman Force would be complete without your inspirational Preacher, when attached to the unit he may remove 1D6 of Shock from the unit he is attached to.
Not sure of the colour in the photo but he does look better in the flesh honest...

Water Cart - List Two
Two for the price of one here, a Warbases Water Cart for the French and an Arab with flask for the Ottoman's or they could be used together if necessary, I toyed with adding a mule but figured it was more likely to be used unhitched within various scenario's.
Perfect for all kinds of uses from washing off the dusk to quenching one's thirst.

 

The Colours - List Three.
Perfect for driving home the advantage in melee espically if bested in melee by two points, but don't get them captured.
Two more offerings from Brigade Games.

And finally some additional Shock Markers from the "Bits draw".
I have added a couple of dice holders on two of the bases, given the increase in shock which a unit might absorb in a turn.
I think originally from Foundry's Zulu War and Darkest Africa Range.

Next up more cavalry.....

Chain of Command goes East - Far East.

After the recent spate of Chain of Comand games, I thought I would convert my existing collection of US Marines and Japanese to CoC, the good news is that I am only a few figures away from the right level of troops for the various fire teams and sections.

A recent trip to Warfare and the Warlord stand and I am now the proud owner of the two missing junior leaders and Artillery observer, great castings and a really good fit compared to the existing collection from Westwind, Battlehonours and Brigade.

With Chain of Command in mind I also picked up the casaulty pack, which I thought would make excellent shock markers.

As with many projects somewhere in lead mountain I had kept several extra's from a westwind order, which at the time were put into storage as painting the dead and the injured seemed a worthless exercise, however now with Chain of Command they suddenly became important and made it to the summit of lead mountain.

Red dice for the Marines.

Yellow dice for the Japanese.
The circular bases are from the guys at Warbases and the dice frames from Minibits.

There should be more than enough here for typical platoon games and it's utilises some of the extra's that have been languishing in the painting draw for several years.

Scenario #22 "Making the Best of a Bad Job"

Sunday saw an outing for the RJW project over at Wyvern Wargamers, I picked another scenario from Grant & Asquiths - Scenarios for all ages, an excellent find in a local charity shop.

Outline.

The Russian's are lost, they know they need to head east, they are tired and have become strung out  out over a length of road, which appears to be heading into a wood. They are on the march when the action starts. The Japanese unaware of the Russian forces are not much better off. They are camped on the edge of the wood. Their cavalry have gone off to find provisions and the remainder of their force is unprepared for action.

Both sides have less than ideal circumstances, the Russians need to proceed east through the wood with at least 60% of their forces, the Japanese need to prevent this.

 The Road east with the wood at the far end of the table.

 Russian blinds, stumble into Japanese blinds, the Russians getting the first opportunity to find out what they were up against.

The Japanese camp is revealed.

 Guns and machines guns are rushed into defensive postions but still the Russians remain on blinds and the Japanese have little idea what they are facing.

At the far end of the table the Russians have a similar idea, their artillery and machine gun ocuppy the little wood. Both sides swap fire.

Russian blinds and Japanese blinds stumble into one another, two units of Cossacks face off against 3 units of Japanese infantry, this will be bloody....

Standby for a fistful of dice.

 The bloody encounter is over, one unit of cavalry is forced back, whilst a unit of Japanese infantry head for the tree line, whilst the other 2 units are littered with shock and low ammo markers.

 Finanlly further Russian units arrive, but the Japanese still hold the high ground.

 Yet more Russians are unmasked.

Time was running out for the Russians, they have smashed the Japanese defenders, but had failed to make it beyond the ridge line, as with many a game, if only we had another hour... :-)

Played using Too Fat Lardies Mud and Blood rules, for once the MG's kept firing and the cavalry actually made an impact.....