Update and the Joys of Basing

I just realized that I had not put a single post up in the month of May, so I thought maybe to keep people interested (and to assure them that I was not dead), that I should throw something together.

I have been actually quite busy with soldiering (my wife's term) over the last month, I have just not been able to get any photos done as I paint..paint..paint, but for some reason refuse to terrain the bases or apply matt!



Maybe a small update is in order.

I notice that the counter I was using to measure unique visitors has gone off line, Neo something it was called. They now want money for what was initially a free counter. Well being by nature an anti-capitalist anarchist, I say F... you up the a...hole, you f...ing P....head!

Well, I got that off my chest, so back to soldiering.

First, I had a great trip to Montreal last weekend. I went out to Moishe's Friday night with my friends Iannick and Nico, as well as Kawe from Westfalia Miniatures who is in Montreal for reasons that maybe I should keep to myself. But it does have to do with being a German though! We had a great meal washed down with some superb wine selected by mes amis françaises. The night was crowned though by Kawe opening this small box that he had by him the whole meal. In it were some treasures from Westfalia miniatures, I was able to obtain a dozen 1813 dice as well as a battalion of their newly released Saxons. Superb figures which I will review soon, but I have to say I thought that I was done for adding new Napoleonic armies, but what can one do.

The next day 3 of us (less Kawe) had a great FIW game using the This Very Ground ruleset. We were joined by a new gamer from Vermont, Rusti, who we are hoping will join us on a regular basis for gaming. He is a great guy and also has a miniature business on the side, which specializes in Modern Pulp figures, called Crossover Miniatures. He has a Kickstarter going now, so why do you not have a look. I am sure a AAR of our game will appear on Iannick's blog soon. We are having another Napoleonic game on June 22nd, so more gaming to look forward to.

On the painting side, I have been all over the place as you can see from the above photo. I will go through each era:

WWII:
I successfully sold all my 15mm FoW figures and vehicles on line and with this I have built up a very hearty reserve with which to buy new figures. SAGA has taught me that when starting a new era, I really need to stick to skirmish gaming. I am really quite excited about a new game from TFL that is coming out this summer called Chain of Command. It is a platoon level game, which really requires no more then 30-40 figures and 1-2 tanks/vehicles per side. Very doable. In fact I have already painted up all the vehicles I need, as well as half of the figures. You will be surprised to know that I went with 20 mm here, rather then 28mm. I did this for two reasons, I have a lot of terrain in 15 mm which will be great for WWII skirmish gaming. I think terrain is critical for the look in WWII gaming. I also did not want to spend a lot of time painting figures. I decided to go with the Plastic Soldier Company for the bulk of this project, not so much for the cost, but because these are absolutely great figures and vehicles. I will go more into this when I write a specific post about this project. I am supplementing the few missing pieces with AB miniatures. You can see some British on the little shelf.

Ancients:
Well I said above that if I start a new era, it is only going to be skirmish figures; but before I had made this decision, I had promised Iannick that I would put together a force to tackle his Cannites. We are planning to use War and Conquest, as our starting ruleset, so after some thought I decided to go with NKE. I have been working off the list from this rulebook and started with some allied troops and have got a unit of Kushite Clubmen and Nubian Archers already done. I started with these because I had obtained some Kushites from Warlord Games. I will be going with Foundry for the Egyptians and Cutting Edge for the chariots. More about this project in another post, but like the WWII project, I am hoping to be able to put these units together very quickly with the AP method. You can see a unit of Kushite Clubmen ready for some matt and terraining in the above photo.

Dark Ages:
I am also hoping to have a game of SAGA with Nico when I go to Montreal in a couple of weeks. I suspect that my Andalusians will get to take on his Franks. In anticipation of this, you will see my secret weapon in the photo above, another mercenary unit for the Emir of Seville. Anyone recognize who they are? I also just completed the Angry Monks Swords for Hire unit, they look like a lot of fun. They are available for any warband aside from one that uses Viking dice. I can not really see them with my Andalusians or Skraelings. But a sudden insight (I do get them) revealed that I actually can use my Dux Romano-British as Anglo-Saxons for SAGA. Problem solved. I hear the Anglo-Saxon BB is quite interesting and challenging to use. I really need to get in more SAGA games to gain some experience, with what I think is a great game.

Napoleonics:
I have been soldiering on here and have completed two units of Prussian fusiliers in the last month. I have also been working on a more coherent OB for my Prussians, you will see some evidence of this in the photo. This has been a complex decision but I am always uncomfortable when I stray from historical OB's. So the appellation on the Prussian units have been slowly changing as you can see by my Roll call to the left of my blog. I hope to get 3 Prussian brigades eventually done (9 battalions each), I think I am about half way there.

I am not sure what I am going to paint next, my new Saxons (Napoleonic ones that is), the Brunswick line or some French Ligne are all possibilities.

Anyway that is all for now.