New 1st Generation Minifigs AWI Figures

      There were two lots of 1st generation Minifigs AWI figures on Ebay and I was lucky enough to get both lots at a very reasonable price. One lot was mainly Highlanders, with some cavalry. The other lot was mainly light infantry and militia figures that I already have; however there were some great new figures. These are the best of the lots.

This is the command strip of the Highlanders. There were three of these.

Most of the highlanders were these figures; highlanders in trews.

Unfortunately there were only a few figures with kilts.

There were enough of these light dragoons for a unit.

One great find was the highland grenadier; there was only one of these so he will be saved as a master for a mold. There was also a couple of the grenadier drummers.

This figure I have seen several times and finally I got one!

Another nice command figure.

Perhaps my favorite figure; the indian. Once again there was only one so he shall be saved for a mold master.  The drummer boy is another figure to be saved as a master.

The Plus Side of being Distracted

       My last post I talked of being distracted. At first this bothered me, as no project was being completed.  However, while no one project was completed, several projects that I have been working on have seen some progress.   I painted enough 1st generation Minifigs Russian infantry for ONE HOUR WARGAMES. While sorting out cavalry for this project, a box of 1st generation Wurttemberg infantry was found. A unit of these and a unit of 1st generation Bavarians are now being worked on, along with enough Prussians for a OHW army. I also bought 1st generation Prussian Lancers on Ebay for this army. Some more Heroics & Ros have been primed to see how quickly they could be painted.  I also bought some new Caesar Miniatures fantasy figures; Lizard, Ratmen and Zombies for the Battlelore rules. Also, an order of Figurehead 1/2400 ironclads went out today. So in all there is progress all around.

The Russian infantry receiving their final touches. I am not detailing these as I normally do; no cross belts or hat cords. 

Closeup of finished figure, including a coat of high gloss lacquer.

These are unfinished examples of the 1st generation Prussians and Russians for my ONE HOUR WARGAME armies.

Another Distraction; 6mm Heroics & Ros

      The last couple of days I've painted a few of my 1st generation Minifigs Napoleonics, with the goal of using with ONE HOUR WARGAMES.  I started looking for pictures of 1st generation Minifigs online. While trying to find the Minifigs, I read about Minifigs 5mm blocks of figures. Having used 2mm Irregular blocks in the past, I went looking for some illustrations of the Minifigs blocks and found a few pictures of them. Now distracted from my original project, I found myself spending more time searching for the Minifigs blocks, with the goal of trying to get some.  Now before spending years on a crusade to find these figures,  I dug out some Heroics and Ros figures and realized that if I want to go this route, that Heroics And Ros would be the way to go.

Always looking for a way to war-game in small areas, the Heroics & Ros is a good choice. They still have quite a lot of detail for their size. The two infantry units I have been based to represent regiments using the different rules I use.

One Hour Wargames; Another Look

      Living in Massachusetts the last couple of weeks has been a cycle of snow shoveling followed by snowstorms after you're finished shoveling from the last storm. And as part of my job requires snow removal, followed by going home to clear snow from my house, I haven't had much energy to work on wargaming.

      This week my wife and I are on vacation. During yesterdays snowstorm, while looking through the various war-game blogs, I realized that Neil Thomas' ONE HOUR WARGAMES is being used quite a bit by gamers.  While not everyone is using the rules themselves, the scenarios and army selection rules seem to be used by most gamers.  Also, on one of the Yahoo war-game forums I belong to, I have come across several variants that seem to hold a lot of promise. I also spent some time looking through my Minifigs 15mm 1st generation Napoleonics, and as I have quite a few of them, might temporarily base them to use with ONE HOUR WARGAMES.

One reason I like the 1st generation Minifigs are the Command figures. Above are some of the generals I've managed to get.

Peter Laing Viking Raid Wargame

     Having watched  some of "Viking" on the History Channel and seen another show featuring Viking Berserkers in the last few months, I decided today to use my recently purchased Peter Laing Viking and Normans.  This game used slightly modified BATTLELORE rules and HEROSCAPE terrain pieces. It also gave me a chance to use recently purchased trees.

    The scenario is simply a Viking raid to pillage a village and steal livestock. The local Baron receives word of the Viking landing and prepares to defend the village.

The Baron's army is on top of the page, the Viking army on the bottom.

Three of the Baron's troops in support of each other. When three units are in support, the first "retreat" roll is ignored. This seems to me to represent a Dark Age "shield wall". Notice the unit in the hedged in hex. They are protecting the Baron's livestock.

The Berserkers race forward of the main Viking line.

Viking archers seize the hill. The Viking shield walls are broken up be the woods.

To represent the individual Berserker, each figure is treated as a "light unit" and when suffering a hit, loses one pip on their dice. The Berserker on the left has suffered one hit and was forced to retreat by the archers in the woods.

The leftmost Berserker is forced to retreat again and the Berserker on the upper right of the picture holds back the Barons cavalry.

The Vikings on the left of the field forms a shield wall and closes on the Barons army.

The Viking assault against the Baron's shield wall suffers heavy losses.

The Baron's archers at the edge of the village manage to finish off one Viking unit. The lone figure is the Viking leader and doesn't count towards the unit.

The Viking form their own shield wall and closes with the Baron's shield wall and start inflecting losses to the Barons men.

The Rightmost Berserker kills one of the cavalry.

He also manages to make the remaining cavalry retreat.

The Baron had drawn up his army into three shield walls. The unit holding the village broke out of the shield wall to attack the Viking flank. Between them and the unit behind the hedgerow, they eliminate another Viking unit.

The Viking archers makes one unit retreat (they can be seen on the upper left), another unit of the  Baron's is eliminated, and the Berserker kills an archer in the woods.

The unit behind the hedgerow advances and forces the archers back. The peasant spearmen advance and kills two Viking. The unit of axemen who retreated last turn moves into the hedgerow to complete the shield wall.

The cavalry tries to kill the Berserker; instead they lose one man and the other runs away!

The Viking now try to form a shield wall. The Barons reserve cavalry launches an attack trying to break the Viking before they can form up.

The cavalry on the Baron's left finally kills the Berserker and in it's followup  attacks a fresh Viking unit.

The Berserker in the center is forced back as the Baron's shield wall starts to advance.

The Viking archers kill one cavalryman, while the Viking on the right of the picture kills the last cavalryman.

The cavalry overruns one Viking unit and the Baron's swordsmen kill another Berserker.

At this point the Viking have lost 5 unit to the Baron's 2 unit lost. The first army to lose 6 is defeated. At this point the Viking roll wins the initiative. They use it to retreat.


It was good getting another war-game in. I am happy with the new trees as they give more room in the HEROSCAPE hexes for figures.