Toy Soldiers Lost & Found

       With my wife out of work waiting for surgery, I haven't had time to work on gaming. I have spent more time on the computer looking at wargaming sites. One that peaked my interest was Toy Soldiers and Dining Room Battles .  On it he has a series of battles using Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames played between two teams of children. What's more, the game is being played as a narrative campaign. Also, the armies used were made up of Zvedza Great Northern War figures, which at one time I was going to use for wargames, being excellent figures.
     I found myself excited at the thought of using OHW rules and 18th century figures. Unfortunately, I gave away my large Revell SYW collection years ago and sent the Zvezda figures I had with them; I
and traded my plastic Spencer Smiths SYW for some Peter Laing AWI figures. I started thinking of buying some Hat SYW Prussians to make two armies, if I could find them. However, with my wife not working, money is tight so I decided not to buy figures at this time.
    I then thought of my large collection of Editions Brokaw SYW figures. As I haven't used them in years, I could easily base them and used them in a one off game.

    I started looking for them in my new "gaming room". While I still haven't found them, I did find several different figures which will come in handy in other games. I found among an odd lot of Airfix figures I bought last year some Infantry Combat Group figures, and looking through some food containers of Airfix figures, I found some more 1st generation WW2 German infantry. These should give me enough figures to use with Memoir 44 as I had thought of using before.

  I also came across some Zvedza GNW figures and Revell SYW figures in another tub; possibly enough  to copy the armies on the TSaDRB blog.

   What's more, I found another tub with more Spencer Smith  SYW plastic figures. I was thinking of holding on to them; however, now I think I will try to reach the person who got the rest of the collection and send them to him.

    Still, the search goes on for my Edition Brokaw figures.

Airfix Infantry Combat Group figures. The unpainted figures are the figures I didn't even realized I had. I plan to use them with Memoir 44 instead of the infantry figures that come with the game.

Airfix 1st generation Germans. These with be used with Memoir 44. 

The newly found Spencer Smith SYW figures.

Some of the Zvezda and Revell 18th century figures that I might use with Neil Thomas wargame rules.

WW2 Wargame

       A few nights ago I was randomly going through some of my collection of wargaming parts. I came across a Micro Machine truck that I had started painting but never finished. I pulled out some paint and finished painting. If you don't know about Micro Machines, they were miniature toy vehicles that were sold in toy stores. Galoob company made military vehicles that were actually very good miniatures. However, most of them were painted non military colors.  I have a pretty good collection of Micro Machines, but haven't used them as much as I wanted to. That evening I painted several of them with the goal of using them in a game. The next day I saw a posting at Battle Game of the Month blog. It used Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargame scenario; Unfortunate Oversight. I have fought this scenario twice before. I know it pretty well by now. Instead of rolling for the armies, I just gave both sides one tank unit, one artillery unit, and four infantry units.  For rules I used Bob  Cordery's Memoir of Modern Battle.  In the scenario description the blue army moves first. For this game I was drawing colored tiles for movement. The blue army automatically got to move one unit first, then I drew for who would move next.

The German units are to hold the bridge at the town as long as possible; it is the last line of retreat and must be held. The British army wants to seize the hill behind the German line. It is an ideal observation post for German artillery spotters. The British engineers have managed to drop a bridge at night without the Germans realizing it. The British then send a task force to carry out the mission.  First thing in the morning the Germans spot the British column moving down river. Each of the trucks carry an infantry unit.

The Germans realize that the British have deployed a bridge downstream. The British have sent one infantry unit to try to distract the Germans, with little success (I wash't going to fall for that a third time!). The British artillery has managed to hit the German artillery unit.

The next move the British artillery finish off the German artillery. Originally I was going to position the German artillery on the hill. However, I decided to try to stop the British tank unit with overwhelming tank and artillery fire.

The panzer unit manages to push the British armor back, but suffers a hit itself.  As the hexes are too small to fit 3 Micro Machines tanks on, I put two infantry figures with the tank units. As the tank units took hits, I removed one of the infantry figures. As can be seen, the British Priest artillery unit has a gunner with a shell next to the gun. If the Priest takes a hit, this gunner would be removed first.

The last British infantry unit crosses the bridge.

This shot shows the end of a move.  The Germans have launched an attack to try to crush the bridgehead. They force one infantry unit back, but the German unit is caught in a crossfire and is eliminated.  The panzer unit is also eliminated. At the other bridge, the British infantry firing across the river has wiped out the German resistance in that sector.

The British infantry now cross the bridge; they will be coming up behind the German defenses.

The remaining Germans refuse to give up (at this point the Germans have lost 4 out of 6 units and have lost the game. However, I wanted to continue playing; no matter the results I considered the game officially over at this point). One German unit is forced back but immediately counter attacks. The other German unit on the hill uses a panzerfaust and hits the tank unit.

The British pushes back one German unit, which then falls back to the hill to join in the defense. The British tank unit pushes the Germans back and advances onto the hill. The Germans counterattack. They knock out the last tank and inflict 50% casualties on one of the infantry units.

The British commander now orders the Priest unit up. Instead of wasting his infantry in a costly assault, he will blast the Germans off the hill.

At this point the German commander realizes the battle is lost and saves what's left of his command.

New Hexes & a Battle Cry Ancient Wargame.

      I received my new Heroscape swamp water hexes. I'm very pleased with them. Anyone who has put together a Heroscape board will tell you that the pieces can be rather difficult to put together. These pieces went together easily, taking maybe ten to fifteen minutes to assemble the board based on the Battlelore board. As the hexes are flat, the hill hexes don't lock together as they do with normal Heroscape hexes.

   I wanted to try the new board out, along with trying a different set of rules and using two armies from Neil Thomas' book; Ancient & Medieval Wargaming.  I wanted to try a Battle Cry variant for ancient battles.  I used the recommended Persian & Greek armies. Both armies have 8 units. The first army to lose 4 units is defeated.

The new hexes in the typical Command & Colors 9x 13 board.

The new hexes with old hexes as hills.

The Greek Army on top; Persians on bottom.

The armies close. Most of the Greeks are heavy infantry so they are slow to move forward.

The Greek light infantry push back a Persian unit.

The Immortals are stopped by the light infantry.

The Immortals are hit hard and suffer 60% losses.

The Greeks push back two infantry unit.

The Greek light infantry is eliminated.

The Persians start shifting their cavalry to their left flank. 

The Greeks push back the Persian Blues, a unit that has distinguished itself in other games.

The Persian Blues counterattack, and eliminates the Greek unit.

The Greeks manage to push back the Persian center.

The Persians now sends forward their cavalry on the left. The cavalry on the right pushes back the Greek left.

The Persians overrun two units. The Greeks have lost four units, and the battle.

In the end  I think that I will use Battlelore for my ancient wargames. After all, those rules were made for Medieval warfare. I also think I will use  a point system to  pick units in the army.  I will also allow the army to deploy in the first two back rows, instead of just the last row. This will allow heavy troops to close sooner and allow for more centrally located reserves.

I wanted to try some of my terrain  in the new  hexes. I'm happy with the results.  I  think the new Heroscape hexes was well worth the money.

New Army Plans and New Figures

      Right before going camping last weekend, I had got the 3 Neil Thomas wargames books I had ordered. The long weekend of camping gave me time to go through the books. While I am not necessarily going to use the rules, his army lists are going to be of big use. With the different war-game rules I use, such as BATTLE CRY, C&C; NAPOLEONICS, BATTLELORE, and MEMOIR OF BATTLE, his 8 unit armies are just right for these games. With 4 man infantry units, 3 man cavalry units, and 1 gun with 2 men crews, using his army lists it would only take 34 figures to make a ECW Royalist Army, and the New Model Army would take 43 figures. Of course not all the figures would be used but that many figures are not beyond my painting skills.

   I received my new rubber for making molds. After some thought I decided that the first mold would be Minifigs 1st generation woodland Indian and Hessian grenadier. I tried some new ideas making the mold, which I think made better figures.

Two samples from the new mold. Only one figure went back into the pot. Hopefully the new method will work as well with Peter Laing figures.

Shiak-Brookshire War: Ambush at Needmore

     General Gillingham and the Brookshire Army quickly regrouped after their defeat at Edgewood Crossing. The army reached Needmore. The town itself was too small to provide for the army. Gillingham kept three of the units with the least causalities and ordered the rest to press on to Grafton, the next town on the turnpike. Besides the three infantry units at Needmore, there was another artillery battery which was moving forward to join Gillinghams' command. With this force he would use them as an "Army of Observation" to watch the Shiak army.
    Gillingham was expecting the Shiak Army to retreat, as it had done in the past. He was sadly mistaken. After resting for a day, scouts reported that the Shiak Army was on the move and heading towards Needmore.  As the sun sat that day, the Shiak Army started forming before Needmore.  General Gillingham sent a courier to Grafton with the order for the rest of the army to return to Needmore. However, General Loring had his cavalry scouring the countryside, and captured the rider.   The Shiak Army, instead of attacking right away, went into encampment. General Loring wanted his troops fresh for the battle and now, with the captured rider, knew he wasn't facing the whole army.
     It became apparent to Gillingham that his messenger didn't get through that night. He decided to launch an attack before the Shiak army could launch theirs.

The Brookshire infantry worked their way through the woods on the Shiak left flank. The artillery stayed in Needmore to support the attack. Early the next morning as the Shiak Army was forming up for the assault on Needmore, the Brookshire Army attacked.

The attack went well at first, causing one unit to retreat and hitting one battery.

The assault continued roll up the Shiak left.

The leftmost Shiak unit was destroyed.

Things were looking good for the Brookshire army.

However, General Loring rallied his troops and managed to blunt the attack.

The Shiak army now formed a battle line, and started to cause heavy losses to the Brookshire forces.

The Shiak army now started to counter attack.

The Brookshire losses continued to mount. The tide of battle changed.

The Shiak attack won the day; Needmore fell to the Shiak army and General Gillingham almost became a prisoner.

This game I tried to use stay with Neil Thomas' scenario. The Shiak army couldn't respond until the third turn. The scenario was from ONE HOUR WARGAMES: Scenario 22: Ambush.

The Attention Span of a Goldfish

     On my job I spend a good part of the day driving by myself. I therefore listen to a lot of talk radio. This week one show mentioned that scientists believe that the average American, with all our technology, have less of an attention span of a goldfish; the goldfish having an attention span of 9 seconds as opposed to the average American attention span of 8 seconds. Why do I bring this up? My Austrian Army stands almost completed; I have started yet another project! No, not making molds or basing armies for ONE HOUR WARGAMES.  I have started sorting figures for a possible English Civil War war-game.  I recently received my copy of Neil Thomas' WARGAMES: AN INTRODUCTION and find myself thinking of a Pike and Shot war-game. However, besides the ECW,  Mr. Thomas gives the make up of several different Pike & Shot armies.  What's more, Ross Macfarlane gave me a sizable collection of Peter Laing Renaissance figures. However, my knowledge  of Renaissance armies is almost non existent.
     I had found myself laughing at the scientists; as mentioned above I now believe they are on to something. This is a three day weekend for me. My wife and I are going camping. Hopefully I can figure what I want to do next.  I fought a war-game last weekend (the second of my mini campaign); perhaps when we come back Monday I can get a report on the game done.

The start of the newest war-game.

New Projects Considered

     The last few days I've been doing some work on my Austrian Army. I've got 4 infantry units and 2 cavalry units just about finished. I plan to cast some more infantry figures in the next couple of days. After finishing the infantry figures, they were put aside in a group.  They looked pretty impressive  in a group. It started me thinking of maybe making based armies with 12 man infantry regiments, 9 man cavalry regiments, and batteries with a gun and 4 man crews. In the last week I have bought 2 lots of 1st generation Minifigs French cavalry, enough for several regiments if based as mentioned above. I also came across several packages of Empire Miniatures French infantry still in their original packs, along with one of Austrian grenadiers. Each pack has 24 figures in them.  Of course, it would be hard to open those packages after all these years. However, I also have several hundred Heritage Napoleonettes that could be used to form the armies.

   I also have been rethinking my "battlefield". While the foam works ok, it tends to separate during the games. I think I will go back to a board, and try using tape for roads and rivers as other people do.

   I have received my first new Neil Thomas book, WARGAMING:AN INTRODUCTION.  Just looking through it, the book will be of value just based on his suggestions  for different army makeups. It's a shame he skipped several periods of time as far as the armies are concerned; however, perhaps he plans more detailed books to cover those periods (such as horse & musket 18th century).

My home cast Austrian Army. One cavalry unit is actually painted with late 19th-early 20th century uniforms; however, I like those uniforms and it is my army, so....

One of the unopened packs mentioned. This pack includes the command figures, so this would be an ideal set to base.

This is a pack of French skirmishers, again with command figures.

Here is the pack of Austrian grenadiers; again with command.

This pack is just of 24 infantry advancing.

I have also placed an order for new rubber for mold making. While I have a few figures already planned for molding,  if this project proceeds, my current plans might change.