I finally had time to pick up the 3D print fences from Chris who had kindly re-scaled and printed the file for me.
I now had everything I needed to start building the “mouse houses”.
For the first house I cut a 120mm square piece of mdf and organised fencing with five sections on each side including one gate.
A short pathway from the gate to the house was “paved” with cut-up old business cards and then the fence and pathway sprayed white. This will also be the final coat for the fence.
The path was painted grey and the rest of the base green. I find that I often have “bleed” through with white and black undercoats when flocking so the green will prevent this.
Suitable wild life was added.
As was a potential guest.
The pathway was washed with black ink.
Highlighted with a white dry brush.
Bushes were added into the corner where it would be difficult to get to once the “house” was glued in place.
The house and visitor “accommodation” were then glued in place.
Flower beds and pathway hedging was added.
The base was then “flocked”.
To provide that “nursery rhyme” look the house was finished with a satin varnish.
The new owner moves in.
Mates arrive for the house warming!
I now only have another eight more to go!
Here is the grand plan (at the moment):
The original plan was to have eight meece retreats surrounded by a central garden with the “magic bower” in the centre and mushroom forests in each corner. With two of the houses completed I finished two of the mushroom forests to see how the looked.
I did not like them as it made the village too red so I opted for a vegetable patch in two corners diagonally opposite each other to tone it down a bit.
A ninth rodent residence will be the Mouse Mage’s Mausoleum with spider webs, dead trees, and spiders all over, and of course a dilapidated fence using some broken pieces!
Ian and I had another game of Lasalle 2 over the weekend to get acquainted with the rules. We were only up to the second scenario.
The French were attacking from the North on a strategic point in the battle line that were held by elements of the Austrian Reserve Corps.
The village of El Zurdo surrounded by a small forest
The French army of 250 points consisted of one Veteran Infantry Brigade, 2 Conscript Brigades, a Light Cavalry Brigade with an ADC and 3 foot and 1 horse artillery battery.
The French Army
The Austrians army of 200 points consisted of 2 small Grenadier Brigades, a Brigade of Cuirassiers, and 2 foot and 1 horse artillery battery.
I apologise but I am in the middle of re-basing my 28mm Napoleonic figures and some of the flocking is still not completed.
The Austrian Forces
The objectives were the Austrian HQ and the village
(the map is the disposition of forces at the battle of Wagram 1809)
Austrian Grenadiers Advance
The Austrian army are mostly old Minifigs and are my first ever complete army, complete with their original paint work (including gloss varnish). They date back to the late 70’s! Way back then dry brushing paint on the figures to represent campaign dirt was an innovation!
The Cuirassiers are a more recent addition (twenty years ago!).
French columns advancing.
The battlefield prior to deployment.
The Austrian win the first skirmish phase despite their skirmishers being outnumbered significantly.
Being totally outnumbered the Austrian Grenadiers and Cuirassiers advance on the French.
The Cuirassiers sweep over the French horse Artillery that failed to evade.
The second unit of Cuirassiers were not so efficient and were held of by the French Hussars.
Grenadiers advance with artillery support
French shooting was utterly ineffective allowing the Austrians to advance unhindered.
The French Battalion in line cracks leaving the guns exposed.
On the other side of the guns another French battalion is swept away after being forced into square by the Austrian cavalry.
The Grenadiers holding the village of El Zurdo are under extreme pressure but repulse the first French attack.
With all of the French troops now on the field and the second Austrian infantry brigade slow to arrive the Austrians were under extreme pressure across the field.
Charge to the front and flank the French Hussars are completely overwhelmed.
The French baggage (top left) is now in danger of being lost.
The French numbers were now starting to tell and the three Austrian grenadier battalions were being outflanked.
And still the Austrian second infantry brigade fails to arrive.
Being outflanked and outnumbered the Grenadiers charge in an attempt to relieve the pressure. The conscripts flee exposing the baggage even more.
The continued losses due to artillery and volley fire weakens a Grenadier battalion sufficiently for the French to take them out.
The Cuirassiers charge and rout the Second unit of Hussars!
With the French square rolling a one in combat it looked as if the Cuirassiers would break through. The Austrians charge and unleashed their feather dusters and rolled a one themselves. This would become crucial as they were the only French unit between them and the French baggage.
Failing to evade when charged by two French conscript battalions was disastrous for the Austrian brigade battery.
Weakened by the fire of four French units the Grenadier battalion holding El Zurdo succumbed to the combined charge of three French battalions.
With one objective each the French baggage was going to be the decider between a draw and a French loss.
The Cuirassiers charge the French square who again roll a one, and again the Cuirassiers bounce by rolling a one themselves.
Finally the Austrian Second Infantry brigade arrive after six turns!
In Lasalle you need to roll a six for reinforcements to arrive. Each turn you add another die to the roll. It wasn’t until to the end of the sixth turn (rolling six die) that the Brigade General finally found the battlefield.
With night falling and the village of El Zurdo firmly in French control and the Austrians with their reinforcements now on the table confident of holding the other objective this sector of the battlefield had ended in a stalemate.
You can see how crucial the efforts of the French square was in protecting their baggage.
El Zurdo firmly in French control.
The Austrian position is now stabilised with the arrival of three fresh Grenadier Battalions. The Zebra seems to like the forage in the French Baggage!
The failure of the second brigade to arrive until it was too late meant that defenders of El Zurdo were isolated and did well to hold on as long as they did. The delay also meant that the skirmishing ability of the Austrians was also reduced by half continually handing the initiative to the French.
This was a great game that was finely balanced. Initially the Austrian quality was significant but the early arrival of the French reinforcements meant their quantity started to even things out.
The French began with 20% more points, including four more infantry units and an additional artillery battery. This was counter balanced by the Austrian superior quality. The resilience of the Grenadiers meant they were able to withstand significant losses despite being outnumbered. The downside of this was that much of the Austrian momentum was used rallying shock of their units.
Congreve rockets were first used on October 8, 1806, for the first time in combat. Fired in salvos from specially-built boats, they were very effective in burning down much of the town of Boulogne. More than 2,000 Congreve rockets were fired without the French returning a single shot.
“The Congreve rocket was a type of rocket artillery designed by British inventor Sir William Congreve in 1804. The design was based upon rockets deployed by the Kingdom of Mysore against the East India Company during the Second, Third, and Fourth Anglo-Mysore Wars. Lieutenant general Thomas Desaguliers, colonel commandant of the Royal Artillery at Woolwich, was impressed by reports of their effectiveness, and undertook several unsuccessful experiments to produce his own rocket weapons. Several captured Mysorean rockets were sent to England following the annexation of the Mysorean kingdom into British India following the death of Tipu Sultan in the siege of Seringapatam.
The project was continued chiefly with William Congreve, who set up a research and development programme at the Woolwich Arsenal’s laboratory. After development work was complete the rockets were manufactured in quantity further north, near Waltham Abbey, Essex. He was told that “the British at Seringapatam had suffered more from the rockets than from the shells or any other weapon used by the enemy.” “In at least one instance”, an eyewitness told Congreve, “a single rocket had killed three men and badly wounded others.” The rockets were used by the British, the Russians and Paraguay during the nineteenth century.” Wikipedia
Although the British Army had experimented with rockets designed by Sir William Congreve, comptroller of the Woolwich Laboratory, prior to the Battle of Waterloo (1815), the Duke of Wellington was always suspicious of their merit and he only allowed one rocket troop to take part in the campaign. They were equipped with six 12, 18 and 24 pounder rockets. Their performance at Waterloo was mixed. One observer noted that:
“most of them, on arriving about the middle of the ascent, took a vertical direction, while some actually turned back upon ourselves – and one of these, following me like a squib until its shell exploded, actually put me in more danger than the fire of the enemy throughout the day.” Charles Hamilton Smith
There seem to be a general opinion that they were not an effective weapon. See this extract:
These are all Miniature Figurines 25mm figures from way back in the day when we used to go to work with club in hand.
The British were not the only army to use rockets during the Napoleonic wars.
Austrian Rocket Corps
The Austrian Rocket Corps was established by Austrian Engineer Vincenz Augustin who went to Denmark to acquire the technology in return for political support at the Congress of Vienna in 1814. He seems to have been quite a strong character, and his rocket corps expanded after the war, with improved designs.
Vincenz von Augustin 1780 -1859
The Austrian Rocket Corps used Hale rockets, and even set up a special Corps with distinctive uniforms. The Corps was sufficiently advanced to serve in the Hundred Days campaign, present at the siege of the fortress city of Hunigue, though not actually used.
Given the Austrians are my favourite army I will have to paint up a set of my own. The Brunswick Horse Artillery figure is close enough to get away with, and I think I have a few left.
Along with “Pass the Pigs” this has to be one of my all time favourite “beer and pretzels” games. When rummaging in the cave the other day trying to find the remaining Free Folk figures I came across this:
This was produced way back in 1978 by Chaosium Games and then I think reprinted by them in the late 90’s in their newsletter (not sure of the date).
Anyway the story goes that a rather slow-witted Giant named Thunderpumper was tasked with guarding a garden from eighteen pesky elves.
The giant is depicted only by his sandals as the elves work to tangle him up and make him crash to the earth.
Thunderpumper is not idle. He tries to collect elves with his swinging club and tries to mush the pesky “varmits” by stomping them with his big feet in an attempt to rid his masters garden of the invading elves.
The game easily fits in a zip top plastic bag and includes counters, playing board and a two page rules set that is lots of fun.
Many a wasted hour was spent in the University of Newcastle’s Student Union building playing games such as this! As the President of the student association I was lucky enough to have my own office and lounge area where the Wargaming club tended to congregate!
Above is a much more modern picture than this one in courtyard below!
I am not the blonde, but I am one of the four guys present! This is a student association chinwag on some deep and meaningful student welfare issue. Either that or we are just goofing off!
During one orientation week the wargaming club put on a participation game using small garden gnomes (150mm approx high), a large paper mache club and a pair of large sandals. The terrain was easy as we just purloined the courtyard garden area to played it in!
The dining area became the club rooms on a Monday night.
Acoustics and folk singers were all the rage!
And the 1979 Australian top 20 singles were:
Lay Your Love on Me – Racey
I Was Made For Lovin’ You – Kiss
Heart of Glass – Blondie
Some Girls – Racey
Born to Be Alive – Patrick Hernandez
I Don’t Like Mondays – The Boomtown Rats
Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? – Rod Stewart
Le Freak – Chic
Knock on Wood – Amii Stewart
Pop Muzik – M
My Sharona – The Knack
Make Love to Me – Kelly Marie
Up There Cazaly – The Two-Man Band*
Baby It’s You – Promises
YMCA – Village People
Stumblin’ In – Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman
Hot Stuff – Donna Summer
Video Killed the Radio Star – The Buggles
Computer Games – Mi-Sex*
Bright Eyes – Art Garfunkel
That’s all I can remember because as they say if you can remember the 70’s you either weren’t there or were just bloody boring!
I am normally a very well organised individual with everything in its place so that I can always find what I want when I want. In November settlement on our holiday home finalised and our new one will not be finished for another 12 months. As a result the back bedroom and our garage are now storage cubes with another house load of furniture. This saves on storage costs, but has meant finding things in the “Cave” has been very time consuming and frustrating.
I have now finally found all of the Free Folk box sets. These include another box of Raiders, two more Savage Giants, the Heroes 2 box set, and the Frozen Shore Chariots. I also have a copy of the activation markers as well. I have shown you in other posts most of the figures. but not these two box sets:
Frozen Shore Chariots
The Frozen Shore men have queer names, as they name themselves after beasts of the region. They employ chariots made of walrus bone, pulled by dogs as large as direwolves, as transport.
There are at least two factions of them, one wearing antlers on their hats and others wearing walrus tusks. The two sorts do not get along with each other. The Great Walrus is one of the free folk leaders from the Frozen Shore.
Huts of ice are used by some inhabitants of the Frozen Shore. While most free folk worship the old gods, some coastal tribes worship gods of snow and ice.
Free Folk Heroes II
Most people in Westeros think that giants are creatures of legend or simply myths and stories made up to scare children. However, giants are more than just real, they are making their way down from the north to invade.
Not simply mindless brutes bent on destruction, giants are capable of becoming commanders in the Free Folk army. Woe to those that stand across from them on the battlefield.
The Free Folk Heroes #2 box setgives Free Folk players a pair of unique giants for their forces. Wun Wun is a wrecking force, getting more and more infuriated as he takes damage.
Mag the Mighty, arguably the most cunning giant, is capable of being the army’s Commander, complete with his own unique Tactics deck that focuses on the other monstrous units in the army. This will make a massive six giants with both heroes!
I have not had a chance to do much painting of recent times as we lost the builder that we thought we had locked in, and have had to spend a lot of time locking in another one.
I hope I now have some more time to do some more on the Free Folk for Song of Ice and Fire. I have a number of half finished models and will work on these first. They are great models, easy to paint, and easy to get motivated to finish. Here’s hoping!
This one came from Book Depository the other day. It is an interesting read and has some interesting game concepts.
I enjoy skirmish wargames where the focus is on the tactics of a small unit and where the actions of an individual matter. The fast play nature of thee rules captures the essence and intensity of small unit actions.
The basic rules have additional sections to capture the flavour of different periods including Horse and Musket, The Rifle Period, World War 2, The Cold War and Pulp Era. A scenario is provided for each of these as well as a variety of ideas for different types of campaigns.
I have not played a game as yet, but I have put some figures on the table and worked through some of the games mechanisms.
Rogers’ Rangers
No dice are needed as the rules just use two packs of normal playing cards, one for each player.
I have often been of the opinion that troop movement, shooting, and close combat, have not changed much over the centuries. Sure weapons, protection, tactics, skills, and ethics have changed but the basics from a game system point of view have not. This is reflected in the book by having a core set of rules and then period specific modifications.
Eastern Front
Two decks of cards are used to give actions and results, different modifiers make more cards played against each other, and once you pick it up it gives a very flowing game, the book has stats on all weapons and I found it easy to make up simple rules for anything on the table that was not in the book, large hand weapons and heroes given extra cards.
In the Jungle
A points system allows you to create almost any type of figure you will have in your collection with ease. Although John Lambshead does argue that points systems are very arbitrary and do not take into account such factors as player personality, terrain and gaming styles, and is at beast an arbitrary relative cost.
Bast Warriors
Warrior Monks
My quick desk top play through shows that the rules have some interesting concepts that seem to work very well.
I hope to run a solo game over the weekend and will write a Batrep when I get a chance with more thoughts on how the game system works.
I had hoped to have these completed in December last year but well Christmas got in the way! Only three weeks late.
“Contrary to popular perception, the Old West was much more peaceful than American cities are today. The real culture of violence on the frontier during the latter half of the nineteenth century sprang from the U.S. government’s policies toward the Plains Indians.” The Independent review.
“I have vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals.” Butch Cassidy
“Fast is fine, but accuracy is final” Wyatt Earp
Anyone who has ever watched a Western knows all about how “wild” life was back then. Damsels in distress were tied to railroads, cowboys’ cattle were rustled, trains and banks were robbed, and the sheriff was usually a slacker with scant interest in enforcing what little law existed, or was a hero taming the wilder elements in town. In short, you risked getting lassoed into a gunfight every time you went to the saloon or walked down the street.
Well, that is what Hollywood portrays, and is what attracts us wargamers to the period. The reality was somewhat different. The West was a lot tamer than it’s often portrayed in popular culture, but according to historians certain areas did have dangerous undercurrents of violence.
My not so “Wild” Western “stuff”:
Going to the laundromat
The Wild West encompassed a vast area stretching from the Rocky “Mountain states likeMontana all the way down to Texas and then across to the West Coast,” said Terry Anderson, professor emeritus of economics at Montana State University and co-author of “The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier” (Stanford Economics and Finance, 2004). As far as a time period goes, we’re talking about the 1850s, or pre-Civil War, all the way to 1900. “It was when the range was open and cattle could just graze anywhere,”. Live Science.
Hat waving is a favourite past time
Much of this was before statehood, and so there was little or no rule of law and the Federal government was not that interested. This lack of a centralized government is partly responsible for our collective imagining of the Wild West as a rowdy and fierce place to live.
Only surpassed by a waving hat race
“It’s depicted almost as a state of anarchy where there was fighting amongst the Indian tribes, [and] then along came the Europeans to join in”. While battles worthy of John Wayne’s portrayals did happen (for instance, three people died in the 1881 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Arizona Territory), there were also periods of peace that lasted long enough for the settlers to figure out society’s rules in a makeshift kind of a way.
I’ll have yah!
The Hollywood version shows anyone and everyone fighting over water rights and land, but what we discovered is that, in reality, people understood the negative consequences of fighting and instead found civil ways to resolve their disputes”. For example, cattle owners often divided up extensive plots of land and formed associations to document and assign range rights.” Live Science.
No sir! I will have you! Queensbury rules of course!
This is not to say that all was “fine and dandy” as Mathieu Couttenier’s study in the Journal of the European Economic Association demonstrates. The 2017 study into crime statistics showed that parts of the Wild West were demonstrably more violent than the Eastern states, especially in places where gold and other minerals were discovered. For example, murder and physical assault weren’t uncommon.
Fine ladies of the town
In other words, when the resource in question was plentiful — such as land for cattle grazing — people were more likely to come to some sort of nonviolent arrangement. But if the resource was rarer and more valuable, such as a precious metal, people were more prone to throw punches or draw a six gun to get their way.
Not long after I purchased the “Dead Man’s Hand” rules I was looking for some figures and was impressed with the Dixon Miniatures range. At the time the Australian Essex Miniatures site were distributing them and they had a collection of a few hundred figures, mostly civilians, for sale at a give-away price in their specials section. There were many duplicates including a dozen bar men, but after getting a full list of the figures I decided to buy the lot as the purchase was worth it just for the cowboys.
Not so fine “ladies” and their boss
Well, as you can imagine, all of the cowboys were painted up quickly and the rest stayed in a box in the deep dark recesses of “The Cave” ………………………….that is until recently.
In the tavern
The local newspaper team
The photographer must be a time traveller!
Cookie and victim
Townsfolk with rifles
It wasn’t me
Townsfolk with shotguns
Townsfolk with pistols
Wild Bill Dead Man’s Hand special character
Dutchies courage
Strange? Menfolk with NO weapons
“Have a sack”
Rolling out the barrel
Amigo!
Shopkeeper
Assorted workers
Not all is as it seems
I now have more than enough (seventy two) townsfolk to decorate the table with.
I have been trying to get these items for some time and have only just been able to find them. I could only find a Region 1 version of the film but fortunately my DVD player is multi regional.
The title was penned by the author, John Maxwell Edmonds in The Times 6 February 1918, page 7, headed “Four Epitaphs” composed for graves and memorials to those fallen in battle – each covering different situations of death. The second of these was used as a theme for the 1942 war movie Went the Day Well?:
Went the day well? We died and never knew. But, well or ill, Freedom, we died for you.
The film reinforced the message that civilians should be vigilant against fifth columnists and that “careless talk costs lives”. By the time the film was released the threat of invasion had subsided somewhat, but it was still seen as an effective piece of propaganda, and its reputation has grown over the years. It has been noted that by opening and closing in a predicted future where not only had the war been won but a (fictitious) full-scale German invasion of Britain defeated, and by presenting a scenario where all echelons of British society unite for the common good (the lady of the manor sacrifices herself without hesitation, for example), the film’s message was morale-boosting and positive rather than scaremongering. Anthony Quinn, a film critic for The Independent on Sunday, commented in 2010: “It subtly captures an immemorial quality of English rural life—the church, the local gossip, the sense of community—and that streak of native ‘pluck’ that people believed would see off Hitler”.Wikipedia
In 2005 it was named as one of the “100 Greatest War Films” in a poll by Britain’s Channel 4. The 1975 book, The Eagle Has Landed, and the later film use some of the same ideas.
The story is told in a series of flashbacks by a local villager from Bramley End during World War 2. Some British soldiers arrive in the town and are welcomed by the villagers for livening up their humdrum existence. All, however, is not as it seems.
If you have not seen it I will not spoil it for you.
Suffice to say that it is full of interesting yarns that could generate many a Very British Civil War (1938) scenario, including armed Land Girls, a fiery priest, bungling telephonists, a treacherous squire, home guard and a fair amount of good old British pluck!
Which brings me to this:
I do not intend to write a review as Neil Shuck on his podcast “Meeples and Miniatures” has done a far better job than I could. I can say that we are both in agreement that these are a great set of rules for a niche period and capture the flavour very well.
I can recommend both the rules and the DVD if you are interested in this period or even the WW2 hypothetical Sea Lion invasion.
As you can see the invasion was successful and we continue to see the impacts until this day!
“A popular skirmish wargame from Warlord Games is being resurrected, following the 2016title Project Z back to the tabletop. With a limited edition pre-order run, the game will include updated rules to bring the apocalypse into 2021.” Warlord Games
The update was absolutely needed as there were quite a few issues with the original 2016 version which demonstrated a poor approach to quality assurance and proof reading” you often see with Warlord Games products.
Misprinted cards, and contradictory rules, showed what looked like a distinct lack of play testing with independent control groups. Amendments on their website did not really make up for those who had spent their “hard earned” on a half baked game. Harsh but true.
I am pleased to say that most of these glitches seemed to be ironed out this time around.
The rules are a variation of their Dr Who game and seem to work quite well, although my familiarity with the Dr Who system may have made this easier.
The figures are up to the usual Warlord Games plastic standard. The quality and variety of poses is great but in this day and age the people I talk to are not wanting to spend endless hours putting together a figure with up to a dozen parts. I certainly don’t. If we want to do this we use 1/35th scale scale plastics or 54mm/75mm metals.
I do like the Biker gang box set with three bikes, some with pillion riders, and the Special Operations Teams box set.
The Special Operations team Humvee is a crisp model. whilst it is a simple model to put together, there are no instructions, or even a photo on its “generic” box to assist the novice gamer. You need to go to the website if you want a painted photo as a guide.
There are two metal figures one zombie and another survivor (?)
The lolipop school crossing supervisor termed a zombie beast. Just an upgraded zombie.
Dr Puke who has found a way to circumvent some of the brain-dead functions of the shambling hordes, augmenting the horde and bending them to his will. Under his leadership, Zombies become a dangerous and viable playable faction, rather than be controlled by the game. This is an excellent option!
There is the capacity to run your own campaign as your group of survivors can gain additional skills and equipment, but there is only the typical Warlord Games couple of 12 page rules booklets, one with the rules and the other with scenarios that we are used to for these boutique games. This leaves the campaign information very light on.
I prefer the Last Days of the Zombie Apocalypse put out by Osprey Publishing that has great rules, excellent campaign system, and more detail in a sequel for those who want to worry about games through the four seasons. Last Days is easy to learn and without a lot of the Warlord Games ambiguities.
I am not a real fan of the Project Z system and would recommend that you be very selective with what you purchase. The starter set with the rules is just OK as there are a lot better Post Apocalyptic zombie rules out there.
My advice is buy the Biker box and the special Operations Team and vehicle, use Zombicide figures for the rest (more detail and figures do not require assembly), and play with the Last Days rules.
This will work out cheaper and provide a better game.
