Slow boat from China - Battlefield in a Box Terrain

I have had my eye on these additional river sections for several years they were never in stock and when they did appear on e-bay the price was higher than a galloon of 4 star. 

It's been 6 years since I last saw them on the market in any quantity. 

Then suddenly these pop up.... How could I say no...

Straight sections, Ford Crossings, T Junction and Streams, more than enough for what I need.

Add flock and river bank clutter reeds and they are table ready.

 

A great addition to the terrain collection....

Timecast Terrain 10mm - Return to the AWI.

After a brief detour to the New World, back to the last AWI and a concerted effort to clear the last of the AWI elements to crack the project before the of the month...

I felt the AWI battlefield lacked a little bit of colonial structure tucked in box was a bunch of trees from the guys at Time Cast perhaps some of the best trees on the market in this scale if you don't foliage shedding over years of gaming.

I opted for nice tidy rows so they could be used as an orchard or to line the roads on the approaches to towns or farm lands.

Also some poplar trees on make up sticks with some rounded edges to mirror the troop bases. 

Not really sure why it's taken so long to get them on the table but in the spirit of getting Sh*t done. On to the next unit.

10mm American Colonial Buildings - 1776 Lexington & Concorde.

Limited game time but an opportunity to get some additional buildings on to the gaming table, a mix of Pendraken and Timecast Models.

The stone walls are from Timecast and will be useful for walling a few of the properties on the approaches to Lexington and Concorde.

Next up Hancock - Clarke House, the guys at Things from the Basement in the US have released a range of 15mm MDF models, which come with an historical reference for each. I have borrowed their paint design for my variants and their descriptions.

Based on The parsonage, located in Lexington, MA, was originally built for John Hancock I, the grandfather of the patriot John Hancock in 1737. Subsequently, the house was occupied by Jonas Clarke and his family. It was built on what later became Hancock Street. On April 19, 1775, just after midnight, Paul Revere arrived on horseback to inform John Hancock and Sam Adams that “the Regulars are out,” not the commonly known phrase, “The British are coming.” John Hancock and Sam Adams, leaders of the colonials, were guests at the Hancock-Clarke house at this time.

Hancock's House and Barn in the background. Next up Jacob Whittlemore House.

Located on the Bay Road in Lexington, in 1775 this house was home to Jacob and Elizabeth Whittemore as well as their daughter, Sarah, her husband Moses Reed, and their three small children. Neither Jacob nor Moses fought with the Lexington militia on April 19th, although Jacob had trained with it and Moses would volunteer for other Revolutionary War campaigns. Instead, Jacob and Moses carried Sarah Whittemore Reed, who was still recovering from the birth of her third child 18 days earlier, and her children to the relative safety of a nearby woodlot just before the battle reached their home. To the west of the house, Captain John Parker led the Lexington militia in engaging the retreating British Regulars. The Whittemore family lived in the house from the time of its construction in 1716-1718 by Jacob’s father, Nathaniel, until 1780 when it was sold by the family.

A selection of smaller huts and out houses, these were from the Pendraken Russian range but will be a useful addition to bulk out the table.

Next up AWI Woodland Indians.

Dispatches from the front XXVIII - In house rules & desert purchases.

It's been over a month since the last dispatch and still everything is still middle east focused.... I was hunting around for some extra terrain items for the desert and spotted some nice pieces on Two Shed Fred's eBay page.

As usual great service from Fred.... a set of walls which will add to the village and be useful for multiple periods.

Add to that three Mine Fields, these are great pieces very simple in design with a barb wire fence around each of them, with 6 movable signs, 2 generic, 2 British & 2 German. 

Having had Fred make me some bespoke roads a few years ago, I was wondering what to do with my Battlefield in a Box Roads, the answer was found in a couple of cans of Desert Yellow and Bone Yard and there they are..... Desert Roads..... and an excuse to add a couple of house rules for the desert games around bogging and mid day heat.

To compliment these pieces a small order from Ironclad Miniatures with a selection of fox holes, nothing says desert warfare than a bunch of infantry hiding in fox holes, whilst these are rather high I like the fact that I can drop them over the top of infantry or support teams rather than half figures.

On the subject of House Rules, I played a couple of Pint Size Campaign games with Chain of Command over at the Wyre Forest Club, a good encounter between the French Defenders and the attacking Germans... It's been a few years since I last played CoC, they have some nice mechanisms and feel a little more realistic than Bolt Action however my gaming tastes have changed slightly and I am leaning more towards the 'fun' game but still keeping a degree of realism. 

It got me thinking about adding in certain key elements of Chain of Command into Bolt Action.

I like the Force Morale elements in the Too Fat Lardies game mechanism, this makes you think about when you commit your troops but also not leaving sections too exposed. So adding a Bad Things Happen Table for the loss of a unit in addition to a loss of a dice makes for some jeopardy. 

This is the draft.

Snipers in BA can be pretty lethal and players always go for the LMG in a squad, Force Morale makes Officers more important and their loss could reduce the Force Morale which feels better rather than just taking dice from the bag.

Movement within BA can feel a little rigid with 6" for Advance and 12" for a Run so I have tweaked this with 1D6 for Advance and 3D6 for a Run HOWEVER if you get a double a unit gains a pin. This makes a Run a useful move but you may need to spend a turn reordering the ranks in a future turn.

If a unit fails a pin test and breaks under the house rules now units fall back 6" plus 2D6 and then go Down, but also take a Bad Things Happen Test.

One of my gripes with some rules is how whole units are taken off the table after a few casualties, it takes so long to paint units do I really want them back in the box after a few rounds of fire. So when it comes to Hand to Hand now when units lose they not taken off the table but rout backwards and gain pins equivalent to the difference in casualties.

The initial run through in a small game as French take on the Italians for a desert watering hole played really well.

How to test it with a few more players who are used to BA proper let's see if the tweaks hold up.

Happy gaming...

Desert Terrain make over and a new project.

The recent return to Kings of Bronze and the last of the New Kingdom Egyptians and Hittites gave me the most suitable nudge to complete some of the terrain pieces which were needing an upgrade.

I purchased some rough terrain several months ago but was a little disappointed when they arrived, they look okay from a distance but up close more of a decorators apron with what looks like masonry paint slapped all over the place.

I had toyed with simply putting them on ebay but as I had been working on some other pieces which looked far better and more in line with the Syria type terrain, I figured I would give them a make over with a new paint job and added large pebbles and tufts.

With the terrain make over bug firmly underway I had a crack at this plaster stream, which was a lovely gift but it just did not fit with my other European type terrain and another one of those items that looked far better in the picture than in the flesh. With high banks and a rough paint job it really didn't add anything to the table, but would make a great gully or small wadi. 

Several coats of paint and half a pack of grasses later and the small wadi is complete.

Plenty of twists and turns and whilst the pieces don't fit together that easily, it is sure to get more use in the desert than it would as a stream.

With a bunch of new terrain I have been thinking about how to make more use of it, whilst you could describe the Hittites and New Kingdom Egyptians as mainstream, for some in explicable reason I seem to be unable to stick to sensible armies or theatres and find myself gaming in areas that little more off the beaten track... So over the usual post game chat we talked about other desert periods.... 

So when a birthday gift landed in the shape of Perry's Desert Rats... how could I resist but find a use for them and a new project starts to take shape ;-)

Stay tuned over the next few weeks....

Irregular Miniatures - 6mm Teepees.

Wigwam, Lodge, Teepee, Tipi - who knew there were so many names....

With so many encounters based around the hunt for the elusive Sioux and Cheyenne, an Indian village is a must.

These from Irregular Miniatures and are great value at 88p each, I based them in clusters so they can be grouped together for a large village or smaller family groups. 

The main camp with a burnt out camp fire, is this yet an abandoned camp? 

The Chief's lodge, I toyed with painting all of the Teepee's with designs or colour but in the end opted for plain approach, perhaps the next batch?

The full village - But how many Indians are home.

With the village complete - Now for the Battle of Powder River March 1876...

MIddle Eastern Encampment - Adrian's Walls

A slightly delayed post. A fantastic Christmas present from the family, I could probably have scratch built something similar but I was pressured into giving them a list and was told that it can't contain all my usual "weird" stuff. - The cheek of it.

Cast in resistant resin they come ready painted out of the box, this middle eastern encampment will be suitable for the Ancient encounters, but could easily be used for the Napoleonic project right up to modern day.

I gave them a slight tweak dry brushing the bases to blend with my own terrain and added some extra grasses and rocks to give them a levant feel.

Now they just need some game time that might have to be solo given the current status of the UK.

Germans in Winter Gear - Kampfgruppe Sticker.

This is a very odd feeling. I have actually completed an entire project, not a single piece of unpainted metal exists for this collection. I was ambushed by these last week when reorganising my storage boxes, they had sat based and undercoated in the box for around 5 years.

The combination of locked down, monthly focus on certain projects and desire to clear 30 years of stored figures finally brings them to the table.

Most of the original units have a wintery feel to them a rag tag bunch of Germans in greatcoats and Volkstrum in civilian clothing, so these represent a more well equipment unit in full winter gear.

I remember reading an article several years ago on Operation Werewolf where the German High Command planned to operate behind allied lines carrying out sabotage and ambushes, with members drawn from the Nazi party, Waffen SS and Hitler Youth.

I figured these could be something interesting to bring into the Kampfgruppe Stickler narrative campaign.

The figures are largely early Battlefront and are based in 12 man sections with a MG34 Team and one single Pz Faust which will give them some defence against the Russian armour in the forthcoming Bolt Action games.

Meanwhile continuing with the winter theme I completed these to add to the winter feel, donated to me by a friend of mine several years ago (thanks Dane.) I never did fancy sticking clumps of foliage onto the branches, but they do make rather good winter trees and will give the table that slushily feel after the a heavy frost or the snow begins to melt.

So there we are. One completed project. So that's that it feels like.

Although the Forged in Battle 88mm's are rather nice and to make the postage up I might as well grab some more Soviet Infantry after all you can never have enough Russians, besides I have some spare bases and I would not want to throw them away. These guys will need some transport and they do a nice pack of three Halftracks which includes a radio car, which would be good for a scenario I would like to try...….. Hell I have been in doors for a month and seen how much we waste on food and 'stuff' I should just go ahead and treat myself....

Welcome to mind of a Wargamer.

I guess I am not finished after all.....

Charlie Foxtrot Models - Tidewater House - Part 2.

Nothing spurs you on to complete a micro-project like committing to put the next game on at the club. Having constructed Tidewater House a weeks ago I have finally finished the plantation house for the Haitian campaign of any of the occasional battles in the ACW or AWI that the club runs.

I opted for the a slightly off white colour with white facings to give it thta classic colonial feel,

I have decided not to base. Originally I thought about putting it on an MDF base surrounded by lawn's and cultivated shrubs but this might reduce it's use in perhaps more urban tables.

Now let's see if Gareth Chasse can defend the Plantation Oiseaux Moelleux?

Meanwhile news from Trent Miniatures several new items have appeared in the Haiti collection, with leaders of the slave revolt from both the begining and end of the revolution, with a bit of luck these will arrive and be painted in time for next game in early September.

Boukman, the first leader of the August 1791 slave revolt in St. Domingue. Boukman had a large and powerful physique and was reputed to be a Voodoo priest. He was killed in battle in November 1791.

 

Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniere, a female soldier in Toussaint Louverture’s army. She fought with Dessalines in the defence of Crete-a-Pierrot against Napoleons invading French.

Both of these characters are available from Arcane scenary and models or Northstar Miniatures.

It's encouraging to see some new releases including new French Sailors, things are starting to hot up in the Caribbean.