2010

Its been a while since I last posted but as we're now into 2010 I thought I would look at what went before and what I'm looking to do in the new year.
Looking at the number of figures I managed to finish painting I was quite impressed, with some 188 Infantry and 46 Cavalry finished as well as some ACW ships. Although this did get some projects finished it did leave work for this year.

Some of my projects for 2010 fall ito the following areas.

With the release of the updated Blitzkreig Commander it's time to sort out my force. I.ve played the original version of the rules which provide an easy to play and enjoyable system. The guys I gamed with have forces for the Afrika Corps, 8th Army and US forces for the Desert War. Always looking at using an army nobody else does I said I would collect an Italian force. Considering how the fared it doesn't sound like a very good option. However winning with a force people expect to give a good kicking to is always a good thing. As for scale 10mm seems to be the prefered size which allows for largish forces at a reasonable cost.

 Its been a while since I did any Napoleonic gaming but the release of several sets of rules has revived my interest. The first set is Lasalle by Sam Mustafa. The rules are very simple and straightforward in their approach. Your force isn't an army in the traditional sense. As Sam explains it your force is from a moment in a battle where youas Commander have drwn troops from various sources together to achieve your objective. The rulebook is well laid and comes complete with enought army lists to satisfy most people. Where an army is not included (such as my Bavarians) free downloadable lists for the minor nations will be made available from the Lasalle website.

While I have enough figures in 15mm to make a  basic army I want to build a force in 28mm (I feel another Front Rank order coming on). As well as using Lasalle for Napoleonic another 2 sets of rules have been released which I would like to try.

The first of these are the Black Powder rules by Warlord Games.

The rules are designed to fight battles from 1701 to 1898 which gives quite a varied selection of conflicts from the War of Spanish Succession up to the Sudan.

Again the rules are well laid out and copiously illustrated with eye cany of superbly painted figures.

The last set of rules I would like to try is Barry Hiltons new set Republic to Empire. As with the other sets they are well laid out and yet again full of the pictures of beautifully painted figures for gamers to drool over. Trying compare each set of rules is difficult without playing them as each has its own methodology and ways of playing. One thing is sure however they will all find gamers ready and willing to play them.

Army Completion

Last weekend saw the completion of my FOG Carthaginian army when I finished off the last two cavalry battlegroups and the command bases. This brought the total of completed figures to 188 infantry and 46 cavalry.

The battlegroup shown above is a unit of Spanish cavalry. I painted two similar units to provide a strong cavalry force in my army.

The picture above shows the three command bases for the army. To make him stand out a little I painted him mounted on a palamino (although the picture doesn't give a good view of this).

Now the Carthaginians are done its on to the next set of unpainted figures. I,ve still got a lot of stuff still to do so there's plenty of choice.

Ship Ahoy

Something a little different this week as far as completed paint jobs go. In a complete change of period its back to the American Civil War for a little riverine action. I bought the ships three years ago at the World Wargames show at Derby. The models themselves are 1/600th scale Peter Pig models. They are beautiful little models and the range has a myriad assortment of weird looking vessels. It appears that the concept of the time was take anything that floated and strap on any wood, steel plate and bales of cotton you just happened to have lying around.  The ship shown at the top is the USS Monitor.

The picture above shows three examples of the kind of vessels the Union forces could use. They are from left to right the USS Cairo, USS Benton and the USS Essex.

The picture above shows the Confederate opposition. From left to right the CSS Arkansas, CSS Albemarle and CSS Tuscaloosa.

  Painting the ships was probably one of the quickest paint jobs I,ve done. The wooden parts of the ships were painted  with Khemri Brown washed over with Devlan Mud. The hulls and smokestacks were then painted black. I know the colour schemes aren't probably accurate but they suffice for my purposes. In a little over a day I managed to paint 13 ships more than enough to give both side a decent fleet. Anyway it,s back to Carthaginians next as I need to get my army finished before its first outing.   

More Completed Carthaginians

Another two units of Carthaginians have left the painting table. The first is a 4 base unit of heavy cavalry with the second being a 6 base unit of Spanish infantry. This brings the total of completed figures to 188 infantry and 24 cavalry. With their completion it only leaves a further 2 cavalry units and 3 General bases to paint to complete the army (only 22 figures).

Carthaginian Reinforcements

More figures have left the painting bench to reinforce my Carthaginian army. This time a further two infantry and one cavalry unit. The cavalry is another 4 base battlegroup of Numidian Light Cavalry. The infantry consists of 4 bases of Libyan skirmishers and an6 base battlegroup of Spanish Mercenary Scutarii. This brings the total of completed figures to 170 infantry and 16 cavalry.

With these figures completed the bulk of the Carthagiinian army is done. It only remains to paint up one unit of Spanish Scutarii (6 bases of 3 figures), three units of heavy cavalry (each 4 bases of 2 figures) and three command bases (each with 2 figures).