Later Andalusians - Impetus Style

Flip Flap, says the Wargames Butterfly - and someplace it causes a storm.

Well, not a storm exactly, but at least a burst of activity. While January was very busy in real life and I hardly managed to paint anything at all, February proved to be much of an improvement. And a new project was started - since Christopher aka Axebreaker and me have finally decided on what we want to prepare for the next AttritiCon in Ulm. It will be El Cid - using Impetus rules, and featuring Christophers gloriously painted (and in the new "Impetus extra 5" - booklet deservedly honoured) El Cid-army as well as my less famous, but nonetheless quite nice Andalusian force. I may say so myself, because the collection does not only reflect my own humble painting efforts, but features the beautiful work of Monica Bello, Simon Bradley, David Millet, Jake Hallam and some others.

As you can see from these names, the project has been growing for some time now. I kept painting Arabs and also buying them painted or handing them out as painting comissions, but I really couldn't decide on what rulesystem to use, so I did not base the figures. Now, finally, it is decided for which project they will be used - and thus how to base them. Using my previously intodruced basing-system they will be single-based and then combined on Impetus-multibases. This way I can also use them for DUX or other skirmish games at a later time. Naturally, this basing-system is somewhat of an overkill and takes double or tripple time - first the figures have to based individually, then the multibase has to be prepared. But looking at the first results, for me it's well worth the effort.

What we have here are two bases of bowmen and one base of skirmishers. The pictures are not that great and I'll take some better ones with more background as soon as more bases are ready - which will be quite soon, I hope.

By the way, I didn't photoshop the bases, so while you surely can see that these are individually based figures, in my oppinion the effect typically associated with Impetus-bases (a small diorama) is not completely lost. But let me know what you think.

Have a nice evening and thanks for your visit,
Tobi

Dux Britanniarum Part 2: The Saxons

I hope you all had a good start into the new year, and may it be a happy and healthy one for you and your Dear ones. With us the start into 2013 was not a smooth as we had wished for - nothing serious, but our little girl had her first "big flu" and both my wife and I have fallen sick in turn, so it was a nice little sick bay around here. Well, now we are all better and ready for a late start into the new year.

It's been a while since I have shown my British force for DUX here, so as first blog entry of 2013 I'd like to show you the progress on that project. First, I have finished the British commander together with his champion and a standard bearer - as no standrads are required in DUX, he's just there to give flair and maybe to be removed as a marker for a wound given to the big man.

The DUX himself (original figure from the ruleset-release) with his Champion and Standard Bearer (both figures by Gripping Beast miniatures)

Next there are the Saxons: The gruel and bloodthirsty warleader with his champion and standard (yes I know, the christian symbols don't really fit in with the hammer amulette - but I liked this flag very much, and just look at the man: Isn't such a villain apt to use all advantages he can get? That probably includes being not overly choosy in religious matters...)

The Saxon high command - all figures by Gripping Beast, both the champion and the flag-bearer painted by Jake Hallam

And here we have the rest of the hairy horde: Three units of warriors with their captain (on the left)...

Saxon warriors - all figures by Gripping Beast (except for the one chap on the right, he's from Musketeer), all buildings by Grand Manner

...two units of elite hearthguards, the finest fighting men of northern Germany (and very fine figures, too - a real pleasure to paint)...

The hearthguard and their black captain (left). Figures are a mixture of Musketeer Miniatures and Gripping Beast. The chap with the green shield and the beautiful horse-freehand on the far right was again painted by Jake Hallam.

...and finally a few skirmishers.

Saxon skirmishers - all figures by Wargames Foundry, the two bowmen were painted by Jim Bowen

I've already played some games with those armies, but as a few figures have not been finished until now (and had to be replaced by stand-in vikings) I didn't take pictures of them before. But now that they are ready, I really enjoy having them. And I plan to use them as often as possible - thus I'm going to use them in my cunning ploy to infatuate my fellow club members to play DUX (a rule system I really can not recommend highly enough). Well, let's join the fight!

Next in line on my painting desk are a few finishing touches to several SAGA-armies, then I'll take up the task of transforming DUX into new eras. Best regards and thanks for your visit,

Tobi

Planning ahead

I hope you all had a very enjoyable Christmas. I also hope that you've found many hobby-related presents under the Christmas tree (or in your Christmas stockings). I for myself was very lucky indeed and have recieved an army of perry HYW figures. So together with my Samurai/Korean project these figures will be the big project for next year - and I'm very much looking forward to it.

Speaking of it, I now have finished the plan for my 100 points DUX Korean adaption. Here it is:

100 points Korean army

The last weeks I have read the "Imjin war" by Samuel Hawley - a thoroughly reserched and very, very well written account of the Japanese-Korean war in the late 16th century. Sadly the book is out of print, and I was only able to akquire a used version at a very high prize. Yet given the quality of the book it was well worth its money (or even more). I can not recommend the book highly enough.

The reading is very inspiring, and even if many of the accounts are shocking from an humanitarian perspective (to say the least), the period itself is very exciting and full of potential. By reading the text I could see the armies unfold on the hilly ground of Korea, and I'm looking forward to bring the Perry figures which I've treasured for so long to live with the DUX Britanniarum adaption. There'll be quite a bit more about this project in the near future.

For now I wish you all the best, enjoy the last days of 2012 and make the best of them. Take care,
Tobi 

From DUX to Duke and Daimyo

When contemplating the year 2012 (which thankfully has not ended yesterday - along with the whole earth), one of the best hobby-related things for me in the last months was the release of DUX Britanniarum. With its very accomplished synthesis of game, simulation and story-telling, it hit the bulls eye. There is only one quarrel left (which can be considered a minor one): The Arthurian era is not one of my favorites. Yes, I have figures and yes, I like them, BUT it would be so much more fun battling away in Outremer, 14th century France or Feudal Japan. There is hope for offical supplements, but I think I don't think I can wait that long.

So, my new years resolution for the hobby does include many things DUX-related. While my basic armies for the Britons and Saxons are finished (just have to take pictures which will happen soonish), they will need to be reinforced. But in addition I also want to adapt the rules to other periods. And here the big challange is to keep the balance of the game.

Therefore I have tried to deduce a point-system for DUX, which for me looks rather balanced and rates both official DUX-starter armies at the same point value of 70 points. Here's the point-system I came up with:

Point System for DUX

Let me explain how it works: The point value of each unit is calculated by the number of figures, their quality and the fact whether they are mounted and/or have ranged weapons. Thus a 6 figure unit of elites comes out at 10 points (6 for the figures, 4 for being elite). A unit of 4 bowmen counts 6 points (4 for the figures, 2 for ranged weapons). I also had to make the destinction regarding unit-size in order to adjust the quality-costs to the number of figures. A normal unit for foot is 6 figures, a small one 4 and a large one 8. For mounted troops a normal unit is 4, a small 2 and a large 6. Thus a mounted unit of 6 elite shock troops costs 14: 4 figures + 4 elite + 4 shock horse + 2 large unit size.

With this system it should be possible to adjust the game to any setting mentioned above. Flavour of the period will have to be added by the card-deck as well as by (very few) additional rules. Talking about tinkering with the rules - you will notice the term "B&M Group" in the system above. This is a group of bannermen, standards and musicians which is indispensible in every feudal army. It works as follows: The force moral level for a battle with the basic army is 6 + 1D3 (meaning on a pip of 1-2 the level will be raised 1 point, on 3-4 it will be raised 2 points and so on). Thus this can be adapted for larger games as 0,5 force morale points per levy unit, 1 per warrior unit and 1,5 per elite unit present on the table plus the additional D3. The new B&M group will count as an elite unit (thus being a very cheap addition to the force moral level - analogous to baggage in DBMM) AND allow one re-roll of the D3 when first determining the force moral level. As a downside it will fight like levies (being encoumbered with all those flags and gear) but die like elites - with a potential loss of 3 morale points. I think this might work well and will also make for a beautifull addition to the army on the field.

You may also have noticed that bowmenship is not available for levies - that is because levies trained with ranged weapons will fight as missile troops or skirmishers in feudal armies. Experts of shooting belonging to the elites shoot better (thus the higher point value). When checking for hits they treat their targets as one quality level lower then they actually are (thus elites shot at by elites use the warrior-outcome). In addition, elites don't have to shoot on the nearest target (yet they still are not allowed to target commanders).

That's enough of special rules at the moment, now let's have a look at the 100p Samurai army I'm planning to field 2013:

100point Samurai army for DAIMYO (aka DUX)

In the same way I'm going to build up a Korean force. I will report on the progress. Enough of planning ahead, now let's enjoy the last remaining days of 2012. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to you all!

Very best regards,
 Tobi

Napo-event and Liebster Award

The year's end comes alway very surprising - or so it seems. Suddenly all people come to notice what should long have been finished by now, and if those people are in charge, you can be sure you have your hands full of work. That's why I've managed to paint 2 (!) figures in the last four weeks, and my blog was in quiet tranquillity (as it befits the nearing holiday season).

Now it's about time for an update, and there are two important developments to report on: First I have the honour to be nominated for the famous "Liebster award" by the equally famous Christopher aka Axebreaker, to whom I'd like to express my gratidute for this great honour. Christopher is the same "wargame butterfly" as me with so many projects and hobby-objectives that reality often has a hard time to catch up. We're planning to organize a game together at next years AttritiCon in Ulm, but what it will be is a matter of discussion (and subject to change) yet. Rest assured it will be great - what ever we will finally decide on :-)

Back to the Liebster Award. As you all know by now, it has five rules, namely: 1) "Copy and paste" the award on your blog, and talk about it a bit. 2) Post a link back to the blogger who gave you the award. 3) Select for the award your five favourite blogs with less than 200 followers, leaving a comment on one of their post to notify them that they have won the award. You need also to list them in your own blog. 4)  Enjoy the moment, knowing that you have just made someone's day. 5) Of course, there is no obligation to pass the award, but it is a good deed really.

Now with that beautiful golden figure on my blog, it is time to nominate my own list of great blogs I like and visit. Well, first there's Simons' burgundian blog "Je Lay Emprins", dedicated to the development of his fantastic Burgundian Amry (mainly Perry figures). Fantastic work and very inspirational.

Also, I highly recommend "The Leutnants Diary" - it seems this blog was already nominated a few times for the award, but as it is so good I think it can handle another nomination.

Next on my list of recommendees is Jimbibbly's blog. James, the owner of the fantastic Oshiro range of Japanese buildings who always crowns the Salute in London with his fantastic Perry Samurai display, is a very nice person and so productive it puts shame on my meagre hobby-efforts... 

Then there is the sensational - if German speaking - blog "Figuren und Geschichten" ("figures and stories") of Frank, presenting beautifully painted figures in fantastic backgrounds with well-researched or simply inspirational stories around them. Highly recommended to all German speakers and readers.

Last but not least I'd like to nominate the "Lair of the Uber Geek". It may have more thean 200 followers and thus does not qualify for the award, but I'd like to interpret this rule as a mere  guideline and thus ignore it. It is with great joy and amusement that I read Miles stories about figures, robots and his wifes parties, and more often than not I call my own wife over to the Laptop in order to enjoy together the fantastic stories of this very nice and sympathetic person - I hope I'll meet him in person someday.

There are many more blogs I'd like to nominate, but five is the rule - and if I would ignore all rules then where would we be? At your average wargame tournament obviously, but this is another matter.

Thus onto our next topic, the Napoleonic Wargames Event in Ulm. The idea was to have a themed gaming weekend, and to top it up with a little bit of history - namely a tour to the battlefield of Ulm/ Elchingen.

As Marios (in the middle) presents, the event was really great fun

15 wargamers arrived from all over Germany, and whe played all things Napoleonic - especially with Age of Eagles (here our good friend Bodo has put up two great scenarios, you can read more about them (in German) here) and Lasalle. Personally, I hosted a big 28mm Lasalle Game...

28mm Lasalle with Perry Figures

and also played some 15mm Lasalle games with my Russians:

Lasalle in 15mm: Not as visually pleasing as 28mm but still a great game

It was fantastic and I think we'll repead the event next year. Well, that's it for now, I hope there'll be another blog entry before Christmas. Have a good time, buy nice presents and enjoy the snow (I just came back from showelling some snow drifts in our yard, there is something to be said for "green Christmas"...)

Best regards and take care,
Tobi

Battles in Persia, the Peninsula - and in Space

When considering the three basic elements of our hobby - painting, collecting and gaming - normally I have a strong bias towards the first two. It's not that I do not enjoy gaming as much as the others, but due to several reasons "real live" is very busy at the moment and it takes much less planning to sit down and paint than to arrange a quiet evening at the gaming table. Yet after several months of not-gaming it really was great that I had the oppertunity for three very different but really great games in the last two weeks.

First was a game of DBMM 240 with my good friend Norbert. We've had several different settings of DBMM 240 with 28mm figures during this year, all of them including Romans but from different periods. So far I was lucky and kept winning - which is quite surprising fiven both the facts that Norbert is the much more experienced DBMM-player AND my dice-luck is normally much less then average.

This time we had Sassanids against Imperial Romans - not exactly a historical match, but close enough. The Sassanids had a lot of Levies and some Elephants in the center, knights and superior cavalry on the right flank and also some cavalry and light horse on their left. Opposing them were the Romans with some cavalry and light horse on their right, a double line of legionaries supported by artillery on ox carts (which can fire over their own troops and are especially deadly for Elephants) in the center and some Auxilia on their left.

The Roman General plans ahead - and I'm so glad that Roman armies are so much smaller than my "barbarian hordes"

 My plan was simple: Advance and smash them. It worked. An advance of my knights on the rigth drew the artillery away, and although my levies were killed at a shocking rate my elephants finally broke through and were able to trample the Roman general who felt safe in the second rank. His last thought after a stampeeding pachyderme ran over him: I should have commanded from the rear...

A really great game, but to be honest I probably would have lost it if the Roman general would have been less audacious. This way alas my series hold, and I'm looking forward to the next game against Norbert.

One final word regarding this game: DBMM 240 works really fine for 28mm figures. I don't enjoy 15mm gaming of this ruleset as much as I once did, but in 28mm it is just great.

Next: My good friend Marios came over for a game of Lasalle - by far my favorite ruleset for non-skirmish games at the moment. We used the generic scenario generator for a game of French vs. British (both my own 28mm armies of Perry miniatures) and got "the valley" - a narrow valley between two large hills. The british were defending, the French went for the attack. Both armies were waiting for an off-table reserve of heavy cavalry.

The British (front) await the French attack - all figures are Perry Miniatures from their fantastic Napoleonic range

 My plan as French commander was simple and elegant: Advance and smash them. It, errr, did not work.

At first it looked good: My center advanced in force and my heavy cavalry - commanded by a commander with high vigor - arrived quite soon. A barrage of rifle volleys and roundshot from my guns reduced the British guns to firewood and then - everything went wrong.

The British psoition looks rather frail - sadly it was indeed implacable

Despite several audacious tries to storm the hill with both infantry and heavy cavalry...

My carabiners attack, but the British are able to form a square in the nick of time - all this valor for nothing...

...I suddenly was restricted to the lower numbers a dice has to offer, and this in a tremendous continuity. In fact after the initial rout of the British guns I was not able to kill a single batallion, while my own batallions grumbled away under British rifle volleys. When the British heavy horse finally arrived and my left flank wavered...

British heavy horse (on the far left) arrive and my left flank turns tail and runs

... not even my own heavy horse (moved there in a hurry) was able to stop them. We run out of time around turn 16, but already over a third of my army was gone - forcing me to make tests for the army moral now every turn. Thus I left the field, swearing to return to those hills sometime in the future and to bring better dice next time.

The game was great, and again I really enjoyed not only Marios' company, the great rules and the beautiful figures, but also the many advantages of the gaming mat - it was so easy to create a realistic looking valley by simply butting small parcels under the mat. How much better this is than the contour-lined pieces of carton or plastic that I've used for hills so often before...

The third game was yesterday with my dear nephew Jan, who with his 16 years already is a cunning strategist. We've played a game of X-Wing, and it was tremendous good fun - although the emperor will not be pleased with my efforts to wipe the rebel scum from the galaxy I have to admit.

We've played with 100 points, giving me the best five TIE-fighter I could muster against Luke and two of his pals. I have to say the asteroid-belt we placed in the middle of the playing field (which I had speed-painted the evening before on the backside of a 90x90 MDF board) did more damage to my ships than his lasers. I should not have taken Vaders laconic view of "asteroids do not concern me" at face value. Later I realised it is easier to neglect those flying mountains if you pace in the bridge of an executor star destroyer, than sitting in the tight cabin of a minute spot of dust that is a TIE-fighter. Well, I'll have to go back to the acadamy and repeat those navigational-eaxams...

End game - three TIEs are already destroyed by the combined force of stone and laser

 I like this new game very much, and I think it is a worthy adaption of those space dog-fights I've loved so well in my youth.

Next week I hope to squeeze in another game-night at my club, then I'll return to my painting table and finally get thos DUX Saxons done...

Have a nice evening and thanks for your visit,
Tobi

Smallville

No, I'm not talking about the TV-series of that name (although it is reasonably entertaining) but about a small medieval town that I have bought at Ebay. You have certainly seen it before as I have myself many times - it is from PMC games and at first I was very reluctand to buy it. The pictures on ebay are not the best, and I have never seen them in reality, so...

Well, After months of thought-wrestling I've finally re-invested the revenue of an ebay sale, and I was really surprised when the parcel arrived. The buidlings are of very good quality, look the part and are, especially at this price, more than a bargain. I've aired them a few nights in the garage, thought, as they obviously were packed right after painting. Now the smell seems to be gone, but the looks remains. Enough said, now see for yourself:

PMC-games medieval town - laid out on my new gaming mat. The river is from litko (painted by me)

Here is the same view with some background added...

... a detail-picture of the mill (I'll probably add some water-effects on the wheel later)...

...and a panorama-view:

All roofs can be lifted off to place miniatures within the buildings, although there are no interior details (I for my part really don't miss them). Some more pictures of the scenery:

Perry Miniatures Knights preparing to defend Smallville

As you can see from the pictures, the buildings are a little bit on large side for the Perry figures. But they are just fine for Fireforge, which perfectly fits my new project planned for 2013 (more about that some other time).

I couldn't fight the urge to do a little photoshop with the pictures, but I have not altered any of the buildings. In my opinnion, they are really good. Now I'm looking forward for the first game of medieval street-fight.

Have a nice weekend, thanks for visiting,
Tobi