2 Wargames and a Break

     I have done little in the way of gaming. I have tried to start several projects, without success. I also was going to try out Travel Battle, but once again couldn't muster the interest in prepping the figures for the game. I did try a game using the Travel Battle board for gaming, using Risk figures. It didn't play out well. My fat fingers kept knocking the figures over.
     I started reading Osprey's "The Men Who Would be Kings". It sounds like a good set that one could have individual heroes.  I was thinking of using my Peter Laing Colonials for this, but realized that I don't have enough Colonial cavalry or Native troops (save Zulus) to play the game.
     I found myself going back to my 2mm figures, which I managed to have an enjoyable game.

  I find myself in a situation where I have accomplished nothing with my gaming, and what games I play are enjoyable to me, but offer nothing to my blog. I therefore will take a break from my blog until I have something that might be of interest to the few followers of my blog.

Using Risk figures with Travel Battle board.

The 2mm game using my ACW armies. The game is in the advanced stages. I wasn't going to take any photos of this game, until the Confederates manged to cut off one Union unit (in the foreground).

The Union unit in the foreground managed to hold off the Confederates attack.

The surviving Union unit takes shelter in the woods. Meanwhile the rightmost  Union unit launches a bayonet attack to try to reach the cut off Union regiment.

The Union regiments link up.

However, the Confederates launch an all out assault on the woods.

They wipe out the Union regiment in the woods, and drive back the Union reinforcements.

At this point the Union has lost 50% of their forces, and concedes the battle.

I have been thinking of doing more work with my 2mm figures, if for no other reason to keep some interest going with my gaming. I have also thought of possibly buying some more 2mm figures.

New Ancient Chinese Figures & Vacation Reading

    Shortly before leaving on vacation, while doing a Google search, I came across some nice looking  plastic ancient Chinese  toy soldiers. They are listed as being 1:120 scale.  To me they look like game pieces.  They also had to be ordered through a company in China. I was leery of ordering them. They were also quite expensive; $19.00 for one set. I could only order one set of them (  I wanted to order two). In the end I decided to take the chance and order them.

   When my wife and I went camping we took the dog along. However, being so hot out, and the campsite we stayed at limited what we could do with Jerry, we asked my stepson if he would watch Jerry, to which he said yes. We brought Jerry home, and while there I checked the mail. Way back in the mailbox was a small box from China. I took the box back to the campground to examine the contents that night. I will say that I am happy with the purchase. I received 40 infantry, 10 cavalry and two general figures. I also thought they might be a good match for the Risk plastic Napoleonic figures, which is illustrated below.

    Among the reading materials I brought with me was Bryon Farwells' "Armies of the Raj". I am a big fan of his books, but in the past I couldn't get into this book. I finally got through it and, as always, enjoyed the book. I really can't understand why I waited so long to read it.

My new Chinese ancient figures. I did a quick black wash on the figures to highlight the details.

The back of the figures.

The new Chinese compared to Risk Napoleonic playing pieces.

Risk Napoleonic Figures Comparison

     After my last posting, I went looking for more of my Risk figures. When I first got the game, I started painting several armies of the Napoleonic Wars.  I was going to post some pictures of them.  In the comments on the last posting, David Crook mentioned about some other plastic Risk Napoleonic figures. I know there were 4 different Napoleonic Risk plastic figures that I know of (of which I've had two.) There was a version with kneeling soldiers, another kneeling soldiers with rifle at ready, the small version of the advancing figures, and the newest version, of figures firing muskets. I have taken some pictures to compare the two different figures, along with some other figures for comparison.

Risk Old Guard Conversions. All the painted figures were mounted on to washers.  The washers were magnetic.

Risk figures painted as Prussians and French light infantry.

The first three figures painted as War of 1812 American infantry, next three painted as Austrians, last two as British.

Two Risk figures, compared to two Heritage 15mm Napoleonettes.

Two metal cavalry men compared to the infantry figure.

Heritage Napoleonette, 2 plastic Risk infantrymen, metal infantryman, metal cavalryman, plastic cavalryman.

Plastic Risk infantrymen compared to Old Glory 10mm figures.

Plastic Risk infantry compared to Old Glory 10mm, and at the far right, Perry Miniatures Travel Battle 8mm infantry.

Comparison of the plastic and metal figures.

Wargaming with Old Risk Figures

     I started thinking of another Chessboard Campaign. Each side would get three cities on their side. Of course the goal was to capture the opposing side's cities. For this game I wanted to use figures that were generic. I came across some old Risk figures. They were from the 40th anniversary addition, which were made of metal This Risk set came out when I first started wargaming. Coincidently, around the same time, I found Chris Salander's set of rules, in which he suggested using Risk figures with his rules.

     I set up the game to try my newest campaign rules. After playing a few rounds, I realized these rules weren't working. However, after seeing the Risk figures on the board, I reset the board and played a quick game using Chris Salander's H&M 2.0.  I really liked seeing these old soldiers back in action. It brought me back to those early wargames.

The green army scores three hits on the blue army.

On the left, the green army captures one of the blue cities.

The blue army recaptures their city.

The green cavalry hits the blue cavalry from two directions.

They manage to push back two of the blue cavalrymen.

The blue army counterattacks and hits the green center.

The green center breaks, and the right city falls to blue infantry.

The blue army has the second green city surrounded and is about to be captured. Green concedes the field to blue army.

Hyborian Wargame using Risk Figures

   In recent weeks when I have time I putter around with my wargaming collection. While there has not been any one project that has captured my imagination, I have made some progress with several projects.  I continue to knock ideas about on how to use the colored wood tiles to create uncertainty in my solo games.  Yesterday I played a game using the tiles to pick what the army has and how it was deployed. Once the armies were deployed, the tiles were drawn randomly. In this game every unit moved on a turn.

  The army of Cimmeria (blue army) has launched an attack on Aquilonia (red army).   Both armies have 6 units, which were picked randomly from tiles, and a headquarters.  The tiles are then once again mixed and put down randomly. The battlefield is a squared off board, 12 X 12 squares.  In the middle is the one piece of terrain, which was a large hill. Units were based on Battlelore units, although I used Battle Cry dice during the game.

The Aquilonian Army (hereafter referred to as the red army) in the left, the Cimmerian Army (blue army) on the right.

The red army has one archer, two cavalry, and three infantry units. The blue army has two cavalry and four infantry units.

The blue cavalry wins the race for the hilltop.

The blue army pushes back the red army in the center. The rest of the pictures were taken at the end of the turn;  the arrows shows the different movements and retreats.

The red army now concentrates its attack on the blue army's flanks.

As the armies lost units, I would remove a matching tile. I placed the tile on the opposing armys' headquarters as an easy way to keep track of units lost.

At this point in the game both sides had lost two units.

The blue army makes a big mistake. They have brought an infantry unit up behind their last remaining cavalry unit. The red army then rolls; the blue infantry is blocking the cavalry's line of retreat, so the last piece is removed from the board. In Battle Cry the crossed swords count as a hit against all units, however, I don't use the crossed swords in that fashion. To me, it leads to a bloody game that tends to end too quickly.

Close up of the mistake.

At this point the Cimmerian army has lost four units, and has lost the battle. What's left of the army now retreats towards Cimmeria.