Ideas for Future Projects

     In the last couple of months, I have had little time for wargaming. While reading Stuart Asquith"s Scenarios for the War of 1812, he recommended "Rocket's Red Glare", published by The Canadian Wargamers Group. I found a copy of it for a reasonable price, so I purchased it.This book also has a quick recap of the war and tactics used. It also has 14 scenarios, including 4 naval scenarios. They are different enough from Mr. Asquith's scenarios to make it a volume worth having.

   I bought some semi flats that. were on Ebay for several months. I already have some of these figures; I decided to buy these with the goal of painting them. It is a project started, and then set aside.

    While doing little for  my blog, I do still follow several blogs daily. Two of them have really caught my attention.Wargaming with 54mm Toy Soldiers and Tradgardland . Both of them have been gaming using late 19th century American style militia, a subject that I have great interest in. Anyone with an interest in colorful uniforms would find the American militias of the19th century worth researching.  With that in mind, I bought a couple of lots of old Britain's West Point figures, with the idea of using them as militia. I haven't quite worked out my plans yet, although several of the figures are missing arms. I have two molds with various arms that I can use with these figures. I also had an old figure that I build up a larger shako onto the figure,  that I was planning to make a mold out of. Another of the figures is a one piece figure, with the right arm cast onto the figure; this figure will be held as a possible mold master.  

New semi flats for painting.

The Arm molds

The two figures for possible mold making.

My copy of "Rocket's Red Glare"

One of the lots of Britains

The second lot, bought to experiment on.

New War of 1812 Books

     My wife and I finally managed to go camping a couple of weeks ago. It was my first real vacation in 10 months and was much needed. Last year while camping I started rereading all of Donald Graves books on the Canadian battles of the War of 1812. I was disappointed that he never wrote a book about the Battle of Queenston Heights. However, another author, Robert Malcomson, wrote a book about the battle. It was also put out by the same publisher of several of Mr. Graves' books and was the same quality read.  The name is "A Very Brilliant Affair" and  is worth the cost just for the Appendices, some which lists all the officers (and some of the enlisted men) of the units involved in the battle.
     The book has me thinking of getting a couple of War of 1812 games in. With this in mind, I finally broke down and bought Stuart Asquith's Scenarios for the War of 1812: War Game Actions from the War with America 1812-1815. One reason I hadn't purchased this before was the cost. However, after receiving it, I regret not buying it before.  It is a good volume for anyone wanting to wargame the war, but doesn't want to go too deep into research. With 12 scenarios, it would be enough to keep a gamer going for a long winter and, what I think makes this period so interesting, the different units involved: professional soldiers, militias, Native Americans, and a cast of interesting Generals and battles fought in all different conditions. Also, for those interested in age of sail battles, the war fought on the Great Lakes makes for interesting naval warfare. No Ship of the Lines or Frigates involved on the lakes, just small combatants.

Wargame Blast from the Past

At Projects & Procrastination blog, a new campaign is about to start. What really caught my eye was the fact that he is using a map from the old wargame book, Sham Battle. Long before this blog was started, I played a game using the rules and map in this book. It was also the only wargame I took pictures of.

The capital of Redina; Redton. It was to fall to the Bluvian Army.

The battlefield after the war. The dead still lay where they fell. These are the only pictures I have  (that I know of) of all my wargames before this blog.

Battlescale Ancients Battle

   With my new terrain, now I can start thinking of what armies to use. Right now the plan is just to get games in without becoming bogged down in a project that  can take weeks before a game is played.

   I started thinking of a quick set of rules to use with ancients or Medieval figures. Using Battlelore or Command & Colors for ideas, units are  light, medium or heavy.  Light infantry are either archers or infantry without body armor or shields. Medium infantry is armed with either a shield or body armor, but not both. Heavy infantry is armed with both shield and body armor.

I didn't take any pictures of this game until half way through. Using my unit classification, the Britons were made up of mainly medium infantry; the Romans, heavy. Therefore, I put two hills that the Britons should reach to offset the difference. As I was setting up, I used mainly based figures; two bases equalled a unit. It was simple enough that when a unit lost a figure, to replace the base with a solitary figure. 

A closeup of a Roman light infantry unit that has lost one man. Thank goodness I hadn't taken all the figures off their bases!

The heavy Roman infantry takes one hill.

The Romans start pushing back the Britons right flank.

The Britons launch  a counterattack.

They recapture one hill.

The Romans send three units to retake the hill.

The Romans attack all along the front and finally break the Britons line.

 

Repainted Battlescale Terrain

  With my recent use of Battlescale terrain, I was disappointed with the paint job on them. The paint stayed glossy, even after it dried. The paint also didn't cover well, soI decided to put a second coat on. I also decided to darken the green.  So with what little time for gaming I had this weekend, it was devoted to painting the terrain. As I  have been using One Hour Wargames scenarios, I  decided to paint some river pieces to use with them.

The newly repainted terrain with a river running through it. I put gloss lacquer on the water, although  you can't tell.

The hills have also been repainted. The hills surely stand out better than I was hoping.

Testing different scale figures on them . Here are some 15mm Minifigs  units . 

Two five stand infantry units, and a three stand Hussar unit.

20mm plastics.

30mm semi flats. 

Blitz Game: Esci Prussians vs Austrians

     One Esci set I especially liked was the Napoleonic Prussians/Austrians. However, they never got much use by me.  I had planned to use them as two small warring states, but never got around to it.

     With my new attempt at gaming, I decided they would finally get to fight it out. They would fight Scenario #1 from One Hour Wargames on my 6x6 Battlescale battlefield. For rules I used a variation of  Command & Colors.  Instead of the usual 3-2-1 fire of the infantry, the range would be two hexes, with the 3-2 fire for the infantry. For artillery, I used the range from The Stronghold Rebuilt "See the Elephant" rules`  of 3-2-2-1 range.  For dicing a 6 was a hit, a 5 caused the unit to retreat. The armies were picked by using OHW army selection charts. The Prussians drew 3 infantry, 2 light infantry and 1 artillery. The Austrians drew 4 infantry, 1 light infantry and 1 artillery.

The Austrians at top, draws first blood on one of the Prussian jager units.

The Prussians push the Austrians back all along the front.

On the Prussian right a jager unit moves forward, trying  to cut an Austrian unit off.

The Austrian artillery drives the right Prussian jagers back two hexes and loses one man to the Austrian fire.

The Prussian jagers in the center and artillery eliminates the Austrian jagers. The Prussian jagers on the right drives one Austrian unit back two spaces.

The left Prussian jagers push forward to split the Austrian center. The right Jagers cuts off the Austrian leftmost unit.

The Prussian artillery drives back the Austrian unit next to the jagers. The jagers
 take that spot and then kills another Austrian infantryman. One the right the jagers kills two Austrians, while the Prussian infantry kills one Austrian and rolls a retreat roll; however, the two hexes to it's rear is blocked. Although C&C rules calls for the soldier to die, the Prussians take him prisoner. On the left two Austrians are surrounded by six Prussians. 

The two Austrians surrenders.

The situation on the Prussian right. The Austrian on the right is about to surrender.

A Prussian leading prisoners to the rear.

The end of the game. The Austrians' center has collapsed. It is a Prussian victory.

I was looking for a quick, fun game, and this game met both requirements. The game itself lasted about 20 minutes.

Old Airfix and Battlescale Terrain

        It seems harder to get any gaming in recently. I have been looking around for some new ideas that might make it possible to get more gaming done. Among the blogs I follow is Numbers, Wargames and Arsing About . I used his Simplicity in Hexes wargame campaign earlier this year and enjoyed the game. He uses a 6x6 hex board for this game, which uses Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargame scenarios for the games.  Using these rules would allow me to use my new Battlescale hex terrain pieces.

    I've also have found myself wanting to use some of my older figures, even if it was for one game. With the Battlescale hexes set up, I decided to use my Airfix Romans and Ancient Britons with No Brain Wargame rules. As the game area was smaller, any figure retreating only retreated one hex instead of two. In the center of the board I put two hill pieces as objectives to be captured. The hills had no effect on the rules, they were simply target  points.  The game was a quick, enjoyable game as I hoped for. Now I am thinking of trying different rules using the 6x6 and Neil Thomas' scenarios.

The two armies deployed.

The Romans capture both hills.

The last two photos of the battle didn't come out. In the end the Romans captured the hills and the Britons strength  fell to under 50%; at this point I called the battle.  I'm happy with the results, and look forward to trying some more games with the Battlescale pieces and old toy soldiers.

New Books and New Basing Ideas

   I'm not much for Facebook; however, I do follow quite a few wargame pages, including "The Portable Wargame" page.  Looking at the games played, I finally broke down and ordered the rest of Bob Cordery's  Portable Wargames series (I had the original volume).   Unfortunately they were ordered right as the country started reopening, and UPS was swamped with packages. Based on tracking, my books sat in the local terminal for two weeks, then made it on trucks 4 times, only to be returned to the terminal 3 times! I did finally receive them, although the package looked like it had been through a war, the books were undamaged.

    One thing about each volume is that he introduces new ideas, such as making campaign maps and random terrain placement.  Right away in "The Portable Napoleonic Wargame", for an example of his Brigade Rules, his scenario uses the American War of 1812 for the example of play. As the War of 1812 s one of my favorites, and recently having bought two packs of 2nd generation Minifigs US infantry in felt shakos and coatees, I am now thinking of basing a Brigade of Americans and British.

   In my last post, I mentioned the based Airfix Romans. They were mounted on thin plastic bases, using white glue. When debasing them, it was easy to bend the base, instead of the figure, making separation easy, without damaging the paint job of the figure. This made me think of basing my metal figures with white glue, instead of super glue. Then rebasing figures would be easier; separating metal figures from plastic bases that used super glue is extremely difficult. I did a quick base of Peter Laing ECW in plastic. I am happy with the result and will try basing single figures the same way and see if they would work, too.

The new 2nd generation Minifigs War of 1812 Americans. I got a total of 48 figures.

The newest addition to the wargame library.

The sample base of Peter Laing ECW mounted on a plastic base. No, the hex is not what they are glued to. I put them onto the hex to see how much ground the base covered. If I proceed with basing the ECW figures, perhaps the units will be on larger bases with more figures.