This months MWWBG

It seems I'm famous! An article on the Featherstone Weekend was published by Henry in this month's magazine, and it had several photos of yours truly in it. I have to say I think the best shot is of me accepting the prize for "best attitude" which captures the back of my head - undoubtably my best side!

Mmm

The Napoleonics have arrived. The Perrys have gone straight on the painting table as I'm keen to see how I do painting the larger scale.

I'm still not sure about the 10mm. They are very good sculpts but it's the scale that may be the problem. I have this nagging suspicion that no sooner will I have painted them then the plastic soldier company will release theirs. I've heard that similar to their ww2 range it may be in multiple scales, so then I'm tempted by their 1/72 range as I've built several of these kits for my son who's playing ww2 in that scale. If the ratio if figures is anything like that of the ww2 range then it might be possible to get large armies cheaply ( 150 15mm or 60 1/72 for £20 or so). Even using big battalion rules ( 40 men regiments) a reasonable brigade will be less than £100 in 1/72 and much, much cheaper in 15mm.

Either way I'll probably end up painting the 10mm first to see if I like the aesthetics etc once they're based. 

Take 2 scales for the same period?

I recently told you how I've sold all my 28mm Napoleonics as I hadn't used them. As you could have predicted, no sooner had I done so then I wanted to game in that era. This wasn't  helped by looking at all the beautifully painted Napoleonics lining the walls of the Wargames Holiday Centre. Before I new it I was looking sideways at the new Warlord plastics, but managed I resist. The main reason for getting rid of them in the first place was that I didn't have enough for a reasonable sized game, and I've got limited space. So I wasn't going to reinvest in 28mm. Then a little voice said,"you've liked the 18mm blue moon ACW so why not look at their Napoleonics?" 

For some reason, I don't think the way I've based the ACW will work for Naps so I want keen to go down this road, yet. I've previously tried 6mm and didn't like the amount of effort needed to get a good look; I probably also didn't have them based properly. 

At the same time most of the rules that are exciting me currently are for skirmish games. I keep toying with the idea of going down the road of Sharpe Practice. So finally I decided to order some 10mm Pendraken French and some of the 40mm Perry French. I'll paint them up and see which I like the best both in terms of finished product and the process. I think it's likely that I'll keep the 40mm for skirmishes and go to 15/18mm for massed battles but don't want to pre-empty myself. I think the deciding point will be when the Plastic Soldier ones come out. 

I didn't go to salute

Due to a variety of factors I didn't get to go to salute this year. I've been checking desperately online but haven't yet managed to find if there were any new items that might prove to be the next big thing. I had hoped that the PSC Napoleonics would be out or at least previewed, but not a sausage. Hopefully at Warfare?

The itinerant gamer

The painting continues. I've finished the BUF and Welsh Nationalists for VBCW. Although I enjoy the setting, I can't agree with the way the Welsh are portrayed. It is really unlikely that people would switch from non-conformist chapel to Catholicism. I can see them seeking aid from the Irish nationalists but that would be union of convenience rather than bound by religion. 

For my birthday I was given some vouchers for my local game store, which were used to get a box of the PSC 15mm Cromwells. This together with some half tracks and infantry will form the basis of XXX Corps. I've already got the paras and will move onto the German forces soon. The plan is to do market garden as a summer project once the shed is built.

If anyone remembers the shed is to be the gaming zone for my boys and I. I've decided that it needs to be a little smaller so have gone with a 16x10 area. This will still allow a 6x6 or 6x8 table, plus a good area for storage. It's being delivered today and assembled tomorrow so hopefully soon I can post some pictures. It's all coming together at the right time as the planning application has gone in for the rest of the building works.

The secret of great wargaming

In my last post, I mentioned that I'd been to the Wagames Holiday Centre with amongst others Henry Hyde and Charlie Wesencraft.  The game was regimental fire and fury refighting Gettysberg. I had several divisions and although I didn't know the rules , by the end of the second turn I had a good grasp if what was going on. I liked the d10 mechanics as the role of a natural 10 had many consequences such as leaving your troops out of ammo, or your commander being killed. The main drawback is that the results of fire are such that it mainly acts to disrupt your opponent so frustrating their plans. To kill a stand you need either to concentrate the fire of several regiments and batteries or charge several regiments into the same combat. The removal of the disruption is normally a matter of course so tends to be a temporary hindrance at best. What I did like about the rules was the way defensive fire went before offensive and have you the chance to stop that charge going in due to disruption.

Nevertheless I've ordered the rules from the company and intend to have a go at them with my new 15/18mm armies when their done. One idea I'm going to steal from Mark is the idea if generic stands with seperate command and the use of little labels on the stands with most of the stats needed on. This really sped up play and wasn't as obtrusive as I'd feared.

Now that I've played some ACW I'm on a painting drive and hope to have some Union brigades painted soon. I need to get some command figures, but will wait to see if my current eBay sales go before denting the paypal balance again.

As a backer of their new Russo-Finnish war I got a 10%discount from Baker Street and used it to pad out my VC force for Vietnam. 90 28mm Castings arrived the other day and they're up I the usual standard. I think that I'll probably have a unit of 15 and 28mm on the painting table at the same time for now and hope to crack through quite a lot, well, enough to beat last years painting stats anyway

The Featherstone Weekend

This weekend I've been at the Wargames Holiday Centre in Basingstoke for the Don Featherstone weekend. 12 gamers including Charles Wesencraft and Ron Miles re fought the Battle of Gettysburg. I had the honour of commanding Heth, Pender and Pickett's divisions. I fought 13 turns and al mostanaged to break through to the Emmersburh Pike, and indeed the Corps next to me managed to breach the Federal line, so the game was declared a confederate victory! The other ahistorical fact was that Jeb Stuart arrived around turn 9 of the 13 we played.