So long, 2018!

"2018 is behind us, men, but keep yer eyes peeled lest it sneak up on us again!"
Pretty much sums up how I feel about 2018. So far, the first week of 2019 is off to a much better start than 2018, seeing as how I'm not planning my mother's funeral or helping my wife recuperate from an emergency appendectomy! Still can't help looking over my shoulder, though, just a little . . .

Didn't get any gaming in over the holidays, though I did have good intentions. I did, instead, with just a little time off from work, give free reign to the Butterfly Brain. I repainted the John Jenkins guys in the photo above as officers of the Pennsylvania Provincials. The sergeants' green coats with red facings and gray gaiters were once red coats with blue facings and tan gaiters.

Still enjoying the NFL playoffs, especially since the Chiefs are still in! Games give me a chance to do some "mindless projecting" while I watch - for example I varnished the entire regiment of Pennsylvania Provincials last weekend:

Now I just need a warm day to spray with matte finish before basing. . . which might be awhile here in Minnesota! 

Still reviewing F&IW rules with campaigning with Bayonets & Tomahawks in mind (play-testing was put on hold), and Sharp Practice 2 is still holding my attention. Will give Rebels and Patriots a look, too, when it releases later this month.

"Flitting" ahead about 700 years to Star Trek, I built parts of a 1/1000-scale Enterprise, before deciding the models at this scale were just too much work for the pay-off. I know, based on my earlier rant about scale in space, I went in the wrong direction, but I had to get it out of my system. Firmly decided to stay at 1/2500-scale now. Firmly. Yup, decidedly.

On the subject of scale, we flit back nearly three thousand years to the Punic Wars. Still my favorite historical period. . . so much so I've never been able to commit to a scale! I have unpainted armies in both 15mm (Xyston) and 28mm (various makers). Though 15mm makes more sense for massed battles, I just "like" 28mm models. The new Victrix plastic Romans and Gauls are really nice:

 

Then, to make this scale thing even harder for me, John Jenkins releases a new Punic Wars range! DBA would be glorious in 54mm and the only way - for me - to play a massed battle at this scale!

I will note that Mr. Jenkins is bringing the same eye for drama and authenticity to this range that makes his F&IW figures so compelling. Maybe it makes more sense to play something like Lion Rampant or Saga. . . but I don't necessarily always make sense. Hey, a guy can dream, can't he! 

And finally, speaking of Saga, I picked up the new Book of Battles supplement, which has rules for new scenarios, massed battles - including a multi-player format - and a campaign. I am not currently playing Saga, but I follow it.

That's enough flitting around for now - it's almost game time. GO CHIEFS!

 

And now for something completely different. Romans.

Despite the fact that this blog has been dominated by the F&IW, my primary historical interests lie in the Classical and Hellenistic periods, particularly around the rise of the Roman Republic.

I started gaming this period in DBA and DBM with a 15mm Carthaginian army, then started painting 28mm fantasy for Hordes of the Things. And ever since I have been collecting "naked lead" in both scales thinking I might someday make a commitment to one scale. . . a commitment, of course, dependent upon Roman miniatures I could "love." 

The Xyston Romans convinced me I could commit to 15mm, so I started collecting Greeks, Persians, Macedonians, Indians, more Carthaginians and Romans. . . but couldn't quite let 28mm alone, being a fan of the Foundry Greeks and Macedonians, their later Achaemenid Persian sculpts and their wonderful Caesarian Romans. And of course, collected all of them, too.

I found myself wishing the Foundry Caesarian Romans were earlier Republican Romans, then realized I could make them so by adding feathered plumes (from Crusader Romans) and greaves from the Foundry Centurian models to create Princepes and Triarii. Hastati and Velites would require a bit more sculpting prowess, but were manageable, too.

So this Labor Day weekend I painted to a serviceable wargame standard a 15mm Xyston Princeps and a 28mm kit-bashed Foundry Princeps to put them side-by-side for comparison. I thought it might make my commitment to one or the other easier. . .

What do you think?

Project List

As promised in an earlier post, following is the list of projects that I have undertaken, prioritized in the order of my favorite historical or fantasy genres, using the premises developed and described in my previous post.

Helpful Hint: Please read my previous post as the introduction to this list.

The Baron lately wrote about games he felt defined him, many of which he played as a youth. I didn't play RPGs or miniatures games in my youth, so I wasn't relating to his post. And then it dawned on me that my obsession with hexes, and using boardgames as foundations for miniatures games, is most likely directly descended from the board wargaming I did during my middle- and high-school years! A friend of my dad gave me 4 used Avalon Hill games the summer before my 8th grade year and I can't tell you how many times I played my two favorites, Afrika Korps and Battle of the Bulge. I discovered SPI shortly thereafter. I was a model and diorama builder as a kid, and somehow also knew that people gamed with their models. I owned and pored over the D&D Mass Battle Rules, Chivalry & Sorcery, the Hinchcliffe Barsoomian Battle and Roleplaying Manuals, Angriff! and actually painted some Miniatures for Starguard!, but I never played a miniatures game until I "came back" to wargaming after discovering DBA in the early nineties.

What has this to do with my project list? I made the decision about 4 years ago to focus on 4 major game projects - beyond the "space" I had carved out for HOTT (actually Great Hordes! which I consider HOTT with extras) - all of which were based on boardgames that used the hexagon to regulate game play. Thanks to The Baron I now know why - the "why" can always be traced to one's childhood : )

So without further ado:

1) Ancients: Macedonian and Punic Wars

The Punic Wars is hands-down my favorite historical period. I would be happily gaming away in this period with Great Hordes! in 28mm except that you can't represent the Republican Roman manipular formations without some nod to attrition in the rules, and I couldn't find 28mm Romans that I liked. Not figures that weren't "right" or "good," but that I LIKED. When Xyston finally got around to Romans in 15mm that I LIKED, that led me to revisit 15mm as a scale of "epic grandeur."

And then I found the board game Command and Colors: Ancients from GMT Games. Simple, but not simplistic, with an elegance of play akin to DBA with the added concepts of attrition and skirmishers that "shoot." Troop types give good period flavor, and BIG multi-player battles play FAST. Although, Command and Colors: Ancients does not currently properly represent (subjective rant will appear in subsequent post) Roman manipular tactics, the game system is robust enough to suffer the "appropriate tinkerings." I reluctantly traded the pips of DBA for the cards of Command and Colors: Ancients.

Could I finally commit to scale? As much as I like 28mm miniatures, they just don't feel as "epic" as masses of 15s, even when using masses of 28s. I can't personally go smaller than 15s; there just isn't enough interesting detail in Ancients to make painting anything smaller worthwhile. When Xyston finally released Romans I LIKED, I jumped into the period again because Xyston is a great range with all of the Ancients armies I want.

Next I had to commit to basing. Agony. I tried various combinations of base sizes and numbers of figures on all several different sizes of hexes, but I eventually decided on standard DBA basing on the 4" Hexon terrain I already own. Kallistra's Hexon terrain allows the miniature battlefield to be modeled in a realistic, dimensional manner. I am doubling the infantry stands (2 stands = one block) for more mass and may re-base the cavalry so they have more mass, too, but the standard basing will allow me to play with other people's toys, and to play DBA or even DBMM if I am ever so inclined. This is a photo (teaser!) of 5 15mm Carthaginian units (2 infantry stands per block) with the Romans (also 5 units worth) in their manipular formation opposing:

Possible scheme for Cavalry on the right; standard on the left: 

I am finally satisfied enough to commit so I can start gaming my favorite period again.

My only completed Ancients army is this Carthaginian army, consisting mainly of Essex miniatures, that I originally painted and based for DBM. It has seen many a DBM and Great Hordes! game, as well as allowing its Punic, Numidian, Gallic and Spanish elements to be used as separate DBA armies. At some point I plan to replace it with Xyston miniatures, but the next army on the painting table in this project will be Roman! Until then, here are the Carthos, with a few extras for "morphing."

The Generals:

Punic Cavalry:

Sacred Band and Libyan Spear:

Numidian Light Horse:

Libyan and Numidian Psiloi:

Elephants:

Heavy Chariots and Artillery:

Baggage:

 Iberian Light Horse:

Iberian Psiloi:

Iberian Scutarii: 

Gallic Psiloi: 

Gallic Warbands: 

Gallic Cavalry: 

Gallic Light Chariots and Horse: 

  

2) French and Indian War

This project began as an adaption of the boardgame Hold the Line from Worthington Games. I thought if I used the John Jenkins 54mm figures and these simple rules I coud get this project up and running quickly. The figures were the right idea, but I wasn't happy with the representation of the wooded terrain I was getting with the hexes. Instead I opted for more traditional geomorphic terrain squares and rules that provided more period flavor: This Very Ground. I also have the flexibility to play at a more man-to-man skirmish scale. You can see more of this project in my earlier posts.

3) World War Two: North Africa

The plan is to use Tide of Iron from Fantasy Flight Games with an amended battalion level order system, perhaps similar to Spearhead. Or I might just play Spearhead. Scale is 1/285; Miniatures are all GHQ MicroArmor. The Baron did some initial painting of armor for me, to which I will add detail, weathering and then base. Lots of infantry need painting, too. Terrain will either be Hexon or GHQ Terrainmaker hexes. Photos will come when something gets completed. . .

4) Crimson Skies

This was to be my nod to skirmish gaming. No adaptations here; just the straight-up oop board game from FASA and the miniatures from Ironwind Metals (originally Ral Partha) played on Hotz Artwork mats. You can get into the game with just 2 model airplanes. We played a lot of this in Tulsa and had a lot of fun with the "roleplay lite" aspects of the alternate history. I plan to post a lot more on this project, nostalgic happenings and new, in the future.

Additional Projects. . .

Of course I have more projects I want to do . . . and for which I have collected miniatures, terrain and assorted rulesets. For the following I am currently contemplating either playing Great Hordes! or some set of skirmish rules to be determined after more research:

Ancients: Classical Greece through the Roman Principate

Samurai: Ge Koku Jo / Fantasy

Conquistadors / Aztecs

Norman Conquest: England and Italy/Sicily

Dark Age Fantasy; “Broken Sword” theme per Poul Anderson

World War Two North Africa / Italy

Barsoom (This will definitely be skirmish scale)

StarSoldier (A pet project with extreme science-fiction aspects, not just beefed up moderns)


Whew. I probably won't post much more Blah Blah Blah this summer. I got some F&IW stuff to get done to do Recruits XX justice. I'll post as I get stuff done, though.


See ya!