Charity Shop Bargain

Picked this up today at one of our many High Street charity shops for £2.99.

I think they are still going for around £17.00 so I was surprised to see it for £2.99. Worth it just for the 2 Higgins Boats. I am sure they will come in handy for Andreivia!

TERRAIN - New Boards

As some of you know my local Costa Coffee very kindly keep the advertising boards for me after they change them over. So every month or so I get three 2' x 2' boards which are great for table boards as they are quite heavy so always sit flat.

I picked up a couple of cans of the sand textured spray paint from B&Q and sprayed up four of the boards.

They will be useful for lots of things, Force on Force, Pulp, INEPTT, Arc of Fire to mention a few. On my next trip to Hobbycraft I will pick up a can of the grey spray paint we use for the Andreivia base boards and I will spray the other sides so I can use them for city terrain as well as desert. I plan to start building some Pulp/INEPTT terrain pieces next.

15MM NAPOLEONICS - The Black Legion (Leib Battalion)

I got a couple of hours yesterday to sit down and crack on with my first unit of 15mm Napoleonics, the Brunswick Leib Battalion. The figures are Essex Miniatures that I have had for a while, an impulse buy after reading an article in a magazine about the Black Legion. Now for all you die hard Napoleonics players I believe these are in the 1809 garb not the Hundred Days garb but they may get outings in both and I am quite happy using them for both. Andy Canham asked if I was going the Gauntlet this year and I can get there on the Saturday so we are going to put on a 15mm Napoleonics game using the Black Powder rules. So I have quite a bit to get painted between now and July. Still need bases finished.

15MM NAPOLEONICS - The Black Legion

During the recent Crisis Point weekend I got talking with fellow gamer Andy Canham from the Deeside Defenders about their recent 15mm Black Powder Napoleonic game and how much it brought back memories of playing SYW games with 15mm Essex Figures and after a few emails I decided to paint some Essex Brunswick figures I bought on impulse after an article in one of the magazines.

Now it has been about 10 years since I painted a 15mm figure as I was out of the hobby for a few years and for the last 4 years have been concentrating on 6mm Moderns and 20mm Moderns but with the renewed enthusiasm from Andy and Co. at Deeside I decided it was time!

I had a few packs of Leib Battalion and I have also got some Light Infantry to do. First up I thought I best see how my painting skills were after 10 years of painting Russian Green! I started by just painting 3 of the Leib Battalion figures to see if I was happy with them. I have been reading a bit about the 'Black Legion' as they were known and I have since realised that the Essex Figures are earlier (1809 ish) not Hundred Days figures. But as there is only one battalion I am not too bothered.

So the first three!

TO THE STRONGEST - Terrain Mat Continued

Just some photos of the grid mat with some trees.

TO THE STRONGEST - Terrain Mat

As posted on my Cold War Commanders blog I purchased a couple of the Artificial Grass mats from Lidl. The original plan was to use them for CWC but I thought that one of them would make a great TtS terrain mat so this morning I marked out a 150mm square grid on one of the mats using a white gel pen from Hobbycraft. I can fit a 13 x 6 grid on one mat using the 150mm square grid system. I am quite happy with the results and I think once the table has some terrain on it the small crosses won't look too obvious.

Hope to get some terrain on the table soon to see if it looks ok. Busy painting Vikings, just waiting for the Minibits bases to arrive to sort out how I am going to base my units.

TO THE STRONGEST - Basing Question Continued...

Now a solution may have presented itself. It may have been staring me in the face all along and I was being dim, not the first time, there I said it before you all did. I recently bought a copy of 'Warband' the new fantasy rules from Pendraken. Pendraken have produced movement trays so that players of games such as Warmaster don't have to rebase their figures to play the game. There are five types of movement trays and looking at them I think they could be very useful indeed to represent the different troops types in 'To the Strongest' using the 150mm square grid system. The Oracle of Andreivia (Richard Crawley) queried how I was going to represent deep units and other unit types and this was what triggered the 'light bulb' moment!

The five types of movement trays available are:-

They are priced at £0.50 each so I will order a few and have a few trial runs to see what looks best. 

TO THE STRONGEST - Basing Question Audience Participation

At the recent Crisis Point IV event organised by the 'Oracle of Andreivia', otherwise known as Mr Richard Crawley, try saying that in a Tommy Lee Jones voice you get the full Dr Richard Kimble moment from 'The Fugitive'. Sorry where was I, oh yes Crisis Point IV. Over a pie and a pint, as you do at Crisis Point events, we were discussing other games that people were interested in at the moment and Richard C mentioned a set of rules by his good friend Simon Miller called 'To the Strongest' so on my return from Yorkshireshire I read a bit more about the rules and also Richard had posted some info on the rule system and an AAR of a game he and Jamie C had played using 6mm on his http://thelandofcounterpane.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/to-strongest.html site.

So I took the plunge and ordered a copy and within minutes my inbox pinged with a PDF of the rules from Simon. The main reason for getting these rules was the fact that, a while ago, I purchased an obscene amount of Kallistra Hordes & Heroes 10mm/12mm figures from Mr Peter Andrew Jones (doesn't quite work with the Tommy Lee Jones voice, nevermind) of CWC/BKC/FWC fame. The figures mainly consist of enough figures to fight the Battle of Hastings in 1:1 (well there are alot!!) plus a load of Vikings. They have sat in Shed HQ awaiting a decision on their future. Now recently Pendraken released 'Warband' so I thought some of them could go and form the basis of a Warband army. Great. that still leaves we with a load of figures left. What to do with them? Mr Richard Crawley (stop it now!) mentions 'To the Strongest' and I think mmmm that might work.

So after a quick skim through the rules it was off to Shed HQ (while cooking gammon, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese and broccoli, who says men can't multi task) to get some figures. How to base them? With the amount of figures I have got I would like to go for the mass effect as they will look impressive on the table top. The rules use a grid system, no measuring, and looking at the rules the games I will probably play will use either the 100mm square grid or the 150mm square grid for bigger games. So I have come up with a few basing options and I would welcome peoples opinions on what would look best. Bear in mind when looking that you can have two units in any one square so there needs to be room for both. I cut a couple of squares from card and used some bases I use for CWC.

150mm Square - 6 bases 40mm x 30mm with two ranks of four plus a couple of figures at the front. Like the massed effect not sure about the amount of space taken up.

150mm Square - 3 bases 40mm x 30mm with two ranks of four plus a couple of figures at the front. Again like the massed effect and there is a bit more room in the grid square for a leader base.

100mm Square - 2 bases 40mm x 30mm with two ranks of four plus a couple of figures at the front.

Using the smaller grid the bases work with a leader. Probably just enough room for another unit. 

 

150mm Square - 6 bases 40mm x 20mm with two ranks. Plenty of room for two units plus leaders but looks a bit Napoleonic!

100mm Square - 4 bases 40mm x 20mm with two ranks. Little less room than the 40mm x 30mm.

Interested to hear what other people think, now to work out what to do with 23,426 Norman Cavalry figures :-)

P.S. I managed not to burn the tea either. Brownie Points off to Shed HQ.

Andreivian Air Support

The Andreivian Government has taken delivery of a UH-1H Huey Gunship which will be a welcome addition to the Andreivian Air Force. It is currently undergoing a maintenance check and has had the Andreivian colours added. A few more details need to be added and it will be ready to take to the skies over Andreivia (keeping a close watch for Russian SA-7 launchers that have a nasty habit of shooting down Andreivian aircraft).

Currently on the workbench are two Folland Gnat conversions.

Crisis Point IV - Return to Andreivia (Part Five)

Just some other photos I took from Day Two.

The Andreivian Government forces defend the Administrative District

Andreivian Governement APC's defend Central Square

Andreivian Government armour on the streets

ASU-85 at TIA (Tcherbevan International Airport)

Russian VDV occupy the Airport

Russian support takes up a position on the roof of the airport buildings

Andreivian Turk Mule Train sneaks on to the table with a cargo of AT-4 launchers

Andreivian Government Paratroops defend the railyard against the Russian advance. Arthur and Leo, our young players, put up a dogged defence despite some terrible dice rolls

A Russian SA-7 team on alert for incoming air attacks, "Sergei can you hear anything, I could have sworn I heard the sound of jet engines in the distance".

War torn Tcherbevan!

"Quick Sergei FIRE!"

"Good shot Sergei"

An Andreivian L-39 shot down over the airport

More Russian air defence

A 'liberated' Type 61 under the control of the Andreivian Turks trades shots with the Andreivian Government armour

Andreivian Government gunboat supports the paratroops at the railyard

Andreivian gunboat

The Andreivian Government forces near Central Square come under heavy fire from the ground and the air

Russians advance into the railyard

A BMD is hit by fire from a Government Type 61

The Armenian T55 meets its match!