Saturday, March 9, 2024

Jailbreak at Kindertown!

   After playing the last game,  I decided to use a roster system for keeping track of hits on figures.

To that end I put little white spots on the bases. I wasn't sure how to mark the figures. With these figures I put a letter from the alphabet. On some Napoleonic figures I was basing I used numbers.

In the end I figured using letters made more sense. For skirmish games I rarely use more than a dozen or so figures. I could also use the letter for naming the figures.

The scenario: The fiasco of the Kindertown bank robbery weighed heavily  on the Molton gang. Three members were dead and another was in jail. What's  more, the gang just found out a judge was on his way to have a trial for the prisoner. With this judge's reputation, there was little doubt that Joel Molton would be hanging by evening. The gang decided to free their companion.

 The Molton Gang consisted of Andy (the leader), Barney, Carl, and Dexter.

The townfolk consisted of Earl (the sheriff), Frank, Gordon, and Hawk.

The Molton Gang closes in on Kindertown from the west.

Carl climbs onto the building across from the Sheriff's office.

Hawk, on guard duty at the Sheriff's office notices the gangs approach and starts exchanging shots with Dexter. Earl, hearing the shots, starts coming down the road (lower left corner.)

Barney comes out of the alley and starts charging the jail, not noticing the other two deputies coming up behind him.

Barney and Dexter charge towards the jail.

Hawk is hit by bullets from Barney and Dexter. However, Earl closes in and guns down Dexter. As the two other deputies  close on Barney, Andy steps into the street behind the deputies opens fire on them.

This sudden attack from behind draws the deputies attention away from Barney. They both turn and fire on Andy, killing him. Meanwhile Carl fires on Earl, causing him a severe wound that makes Earl turn to meet the threat. With the chaos in the street,  Barney gets into the jail.

Earl and Carl continue to exchange  fire. Meanwhile the two deputies set up to shoot down the bad guys when they come out of the jail.

Barney charges into the middle of the street, gun blazing. This distraction allows Joel to try to escape.

Barney boldly races between the two deputies, firing as he goes. Earl is hit by a second critical hit, and is killed. Meanwhile, Joel runs down the alleyway, under Carl's protective fire.

The Two remaining deputies, having both suffering wounds during the fight, decide that they have done enough and don't pursue  the gang.
Incredibly Barney escaped the gunfight without a scratch!

I used Basic Battles rules for shooting. In it both side roll d20 dice. If one rolls a "20", that causes 2 wounds. Carl managed to roll two "20"s which killed Earl. Andy and Earl could each take three hits, everyone else could take two.



Thursday, February 29, 2024

Gunfight at Kindertown

  The doctor came up to the marshal. He told the marshal of a conversation he overheard at the saloon. It seemed four cowboys approached  the bank owner, asking if he would open the bank as they had a large amount of cash from a cattle sale. They had to head north to buy some more cows, but didn't want to bring such a large amount with them. The banker said that it was too late, he was waiting for his dinner. He did, however agree to open the bank earlier than normal so the cowboys to get on the trail early. The doctor said that they didn't seem like your normal cowboys; they didn't  smell like cows.

  The marshal said that he would keep an eye them. The marshal gathered four men and early the next morning the posse spread out to watch the bank.

The four cowboys walk down to the bank with the banker.

The marshals' posse wait in ambush.

The cowboy in the red coat sees the marshal and open fires.

The posse comes out and returns fire.

The Red cowboy takes a hit.

The man on the roof across from the bank gets hit, but he manages to hit one of the cowboys. Meanwhile, one of the cowboys force the banker to open the bank, and pushes the banker through the open door. 

The Red cowboy shoots and kills the marshal. Meanwhile the wounded cowboy is killed.

One of the townsmen moves forward and gets a clean shot of the red cowboy, who is shot down.

The second cowboy enters the bank.

The posse now starts firing into the bank. One lucky shot  hits one of the cowboys, who staggers out of the bank and drops in the street.

The solo surviving cowboy pushes the banker out in front of him, and surrenders 

Marking the wounds, I first used rings, then small dice. I figure with these 10mm figures, I think I might switch to a roster system. The rules I found on YouTube under Grey Army Gaming, the rules being called Basic Battles.


Sunday, February 18, 2024

R.I.P. Jerry: Return of the Black Dog

     Last Friday we had to put down Jerry, our little Jack Russell Terrier. We got him from a rescue 8 years ago. He turned out to be a therapy dog in the last 4 years, seeing my wife through some truly hard times. 

     With my wife's health improving, Jerry's  took a turn for the worse. His condition went downhill fast, and my wife couldn't stand seeing him suffer.

   I normally don't  like using my blog for anything besides my gaming, but Jerry deserves to be remembered.


My last picture of Jerry




We notified Jack's Galore Rescue, where we got Jerry from. Patricia, who runs the rescue, wrote these kind words, which sums up how I feel about Jerry. Truly a remarkable little dog.

Sunday, February 11, 2024

Kinder Buildings: Part 2

     This week I painted some of the Kinder Mediterranean building. I am happy with the result. They need a few finishing touches,  but for $8.00 for 5 buildings, if one isn't too serious about scenery  or scale, they are a good buy. And while I plan to use them for 10mm, I think 15mm figures don't look too much out of place.


Some of the Kinder building painted.

A French patrol in the village. They haven't  spotted the rifleman at the left of the picture.

A 15mm figure for scale. I think they will work with the buildings.

The models before painting.




Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Kinder Building

     I have done little with wargaming in the past few months.  I have been following Wargame  Miscellany's narrow gauge railroad build. It inspired me to get out my narrow gauge  trains and do some work with them. 

   That doesn't mean that I gave up completely on wargames. I have been leaning towards skirmish games as they take up less room. And while most rules use 3 feet by 3 feet areas, by using smaller figures smaller boards can be used.

  A while back I bought Kinder castles and cottages. I assembled and painted a couple of the castles, but that's  about all I have done with them.   Some of my model trains are American western style trains. I saw some Kinder western building and thought that perhaps they could be used on a railroad layout. While ordering some of the buildings I saw more of the castles, and other building that looked Spanish or Mediterranean that could be used in Penansula wargames.

   I placed my order and just received them. The western building are too small for the railroad, unless I use them for far background scenery. However, the building could be used in games using 10mm figures. The Mediterranean  building are also small, but I dug out some 10mm figures and they look decent with the building. I can see these building being used in 10mm skirmish games 

The Mediterranean buildings. I bought 2 sets of them.

A couple of 10mm stands of miniatures for scale. I have started painting a couple of the buildings.

The western town.

Once again, 10mm minis for scale. I bought three sets of these buildings.

Two painted castles and a painted tower. The other tower shows an unpainted copy. The castles came in colorful blue and yellow. 


Sunday, December 10, 2023

One Hour Wargame with Warmaster

 I have been trying to figure a way to use my Warmaster figures without using Warmaster rules. One Hour Wargames seem like a good option, although the lack of retreat rules bugs me. 

I did find on two other blogs, Projects and Procrastination and Grid based wargaming-but not always, that added retreat rules for OHW that are simple that seem they would work well with the rules. As the Projects and Procrastination rules were for fantasy, I decided to try his rules first.   I decided to use 1 Warmaster base to represent one unit. I put color dots on the base to identify the unit. To keep track of hits, I used a roster instead of on-board markers. Units were marked with red, white and blue dots. This proved a bit confusing as the elf army had both infantry and archers with the same color marking. This lead to me marking the wrong unit taking damage. I was happy with the retreat rules; the elves having 3 units breaking and retreating off the board. The retreat rules made for a more fluid game, which is what I'm looking for.

A couple of moves into the game, with Goblins on left and Elves on right.

Using these rules and a grid board there was more room for maneuvering and flank attacks.


In the end the Elves lost three units, and although they still had a couple of strong units, decided to save what was left of the army.


Sunday, December 3, 2023

New Model Paints

      Sometimes I just go to Ebay and check on certain figures I want, especially if they are figures that could used in current projects. One such figure line is original  Citadel Warmaster Araby Army figures. I came across  a large lot of these figures overseas. The bids were still low enough that I ended up placing a bid on them.

   With 16 minutes to go I was winning the figures. As I was out with the wife shopping, I could not keep a close watch on the bidding, and in the end lost. However, I did see an original Citadel  Undead Starter Army for a reasonable price. The box was open but complete, with many of the pieces primed white. As the Undead in the set are skeletons, I decided to reprime them black, then drybrush them white.

   Most of the paints I use are hobby acrylics from the local big craft stores. The paints are on the thick side and as they get older they get really thick. I had to thin it down with water to cover the figures.

    As I was driving at work the next day listening to Youtube, I decided to see what wargamers used for paints. One name kept coming up; Vallejo Paints. Many years ago while working on a Napoleonic wargame, I bought some paints from the company that I was ordering from. Incredibly almost all those paints are still usable.  That night I went on Amazon. I found a set of Vallejo paints with 16 basic colors for around $26. While listening about painting figures, I found out that there is a particular brush designed for drybrushing. I found a nice set of brushes that include 3 drybrushes. This is my largest purchase of painting supplies expressively for painting miniatures.

 I received  the packages a couple of days ago. I was hoping to try them out this weekend; unfortunately the envelope the brushes came in was crushed,, and the bristles  of the brushes were bent, along with at least one ferrule. One thing I will give Amazon credit for is their return  policy. I immediately went on line to get the problem resolved.  My new brushes are due to arrive  tomorrow (hopefully in a box!) and I can drop the damaged package off and not have to deal with wrapping it all up again.

The Vallejo paint set. 

The container the paintbrushes came in. The bristles were in the crushed part.


Monday, November 13, 2023

One Hour Skirmish Wargames

     My last post was a game using Song of Drums and Tomahawks. What lead me to these rules were John Lambsheads' " One Hour Skirmish Wargames"; a set of rules that using only playing cards to resolve combat. As usual, while listening to Youtube videos on OHSW, I found several videos using the different "Song of.." rules, and was distracted from OHSW.

  I decided to play another game using Song of Drums & Tomahawks. The game was of an Indian attack on farmers working their fields, and the local militia response. The game started  ok, but after a few moves it seemed to me that the game was going to take too long to play out. I was about to break the game down, when I decided to try One Hour Skirmish  Wargames. I figured  to play a couple of turns, and if I  still wasn't happy with the game, I could  always stop.

    I found the game enjoyable. Instead of using two decks of cards for both sides, I used only one deck. I had seen a video of a solo game where the player used only one deck, and it seemed to work well.

  Hopefully soon I can get another game in using One Hour Skirmish Wargames.  


The game setup, with the Indians on the left in the woods, the farmers in the center, and the village militia on the right.

Closeup of the farmers and militia guard.

The Indians attacking through the woods.

The Indians draw first. The Queen gives them 12 actions.


One of the farmers manage to flee with the cart. Unfortunately  the militia wasn't  so lucky. 

The colonists lost 8 men, the Indians 4. Most of the Indians were killed in hand to hand combat.


Thursday, November 2, 2023

Song of Drums and Tomahawks

    I keep looking for a wargame to jumpstart my interest in the hobby.  As usual I listen to Youtube on the job. I came across a wargame being played on the King Philip's War, which was fought mainly in Massachusetts in 1676. Living in Massachusetts, this war has been of interest to me. The rules used were " Song of Drums and Tomahawks" based on Andrea Sfiligoi's "Song of Blades and Heroes" wargame rules. 

  I do remember when they first came out. I almost bought them, because they also had supplemental scenarios for the Pequot and Beaver wars. I actually  got so excited for these rules that I also bought the Pequot War and Beaver Wars, Song of Blades and Heroes, and Fear and Faith rulesets.

What's more, I finally managed to play a game. Besides the usual mistakes when first starting play a new ruleset, by the end of the game I think I had the basics down. 


Word comes out of an Indian warband in the woods. Captain Smith leads a band of militia to drive the Indians off.

The indians try to flank the militia. Both sides exchange shots.


One brave engages two of the militiamen. For most of the game, the brave kept these two militiamen from helping their comrades. 

The two militiamen finally put down the brave.


The warband leader, seeing the brave go down, starts charging towards the two militiamen. One militiaman takes a shot, and luckily hits him.

At this point, the Indians have dropped  below over 50%, so the Indians have to roll for morale. One retreats off the board, the second follows the other.