And Now for Something Completely Different, In Her Majesty’s Name

Rules Cover

I received a parcel today containing In Her Majesty’s Name; Heroes, Villains, and Fiends; and Sleeping Dragon, Rising Sun. Top notch products, stem to stern; kudos to the authors Craig Cartmell and Charles Murton. Osprey Publishing has done a superior job of publishing quality books and their efforts shine in this series of rules and supplements.

I must confess my imagination was given a work out when I initially read the varied discussions, the many blogs, and the myriad reviews. Having the books in hand has only confirmed my anticipation, and my appreciation of high quality writing. I wish I had acquired the rules and the two supplements sooner.

I usually prepare several Companies with differing “themes”. For example I can offer Villainy and Heroes, Egalitarian and Despotic, even Hard-Boiled and Whimsy. Armed with such comprehensive and well-conceived rules as the authors have prepared I am most certainly more able to find a congenial opponent to take the challenge of a good romp around the game table.

Have questions? Give me a shout.

English Civil War Royalist Take the Field

The Original Half-Army with Royalist Colors

Your comments are welcome.

Warlord Games(tm) have very good boxed kits for the English Civil War and for the Thirty Years War.

Building the Kits

Once I made a complete mess of one musketeer the others were quite cooperative with my fumbles and hack performance. I hacked off the first chaps arms, cleaned the wound, and re-applied a new set of arms and “gonne”. Never a finer set of lively lads ever graced a spray-paint booth with courage and determination as they.

Here is a link to Warlord Games ™. http://store.warlordgames.com//collections/pike-shotte.

The Half-Army Concept

In my gaming environment producing half-armies in historical setting has finally caught on. I have been “building” both sides for historical, sci-fi, and fantasy gaming for eleven years. I do the same with “skirmish” gaming gangs, teams, and posses.

Other generals have adopted a similar mien, producing half-armies. This serves multiple purposes. You are most able to guess the first purpose, I shall not mention it then.

The second purpose is we have a fine group and a lot of interest in gaming with a ‘friendly’attitude. So, when other generals bring half-armies now two can play in a limited space.

Three, since I have two half-armies for an invitational game or a ‘one-off’ game I can provide a new player or a fellow gamer to ‘give Pike & Shotte a go’: men in flouncy shirts and rugged warriors all.

Four, combine both half-armies into one army for large engagements with another general.

This army in the picture also includes Wargames Foundry(tm) and Old Glory ™ figures. Both companies produce top quality miniatures for the English Civil War and other eras in history.

I had experienced quite an upset to build a fine large army and place it in a ‘carrier’ and dust it every week. With half-army concept I get more time playing with my figures and enjoying the camaraderie. I suppose ‘small tactics’ well executed often produce good results. If I’m going to dust them anyway I might as well use them too.

Wargames Foundry–“The Foundry” http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/english-civil-war/

Old Glory–http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/products.asp?cat=202

English Civil War Parliament Infantry

Warlord Games(TM) produces some very finely detailed soft plastic (styrene) miniatures for several historical armies. I recently purchased a box of 40 English Civil War (ECW) miniatures to bolster the Royalist (Cavaliers) and the Roundheads (Parliament) I already own.

Patience is a virtue, yet I do not feel virtuous. Modeling the Musketeers weapons to correspond to the molded bodies was a chore until I learned the tricks to make them go together easier.

There was a brief moment I wondered how the entire box might sound in the trash compactor.

They are all ‘built’ and cleaned. Ready for the primer stage.

Painting Horse Miniatures

Every opportunity for improvement is found in each horse.

Apply that idea to any miniature I paint, horse, pirate, or trooper and I have a winning attitude even if my aptitude suffers.

This is an essay on process painting 25mm metal or plastic horse figures for table top gaming purposes. The particular game will be a set of rules published by Studio Tomahawk, SAGA. The subjects of this essay are Saracen mounts for the Crescent and Cross expansion game.

Find Studio Tomahawk here: http://www.studio-tomahawk.com/. Choose français-anglais or some of both.

First Paint Step
After the horses are cleaned and air dried they go for a bit of primer. This group was spray primed with matte black and allowed to dry for about 24 hours.

Second Paint Step
To turn up the flow of the painting process I dry brushed a medium gray acrylic over the black primer if I anticipate a brown horse. I go to the burnt umber and again dry brush with a round #5. I stay loose with the brush held, for me, overly long from the ferrule closer to the brush end.

I am beginning to see the value in using larger brushes on miniatures at the base coat phase.

For a ‘gray horse’ I go again with a medium gray over the black primer. Then a wetted course of lighter layers of dun gray (low yellow 1% to 5% tan and the previous gray tone).

For a ‘chestnut horse’ I use a medium bright red over the black primer. The wetted course of lighter layers follow and are allowed to dry.

When I anticipate a ‘bay horse’ I experimented with a Payne’s gray dry brushing over the primer.

My plan for a ‘black horse’ included a shot of darkest blue (Payne’s gray mixed with phthalo blue red shade)dry brushed with a 1/4″ shader, of course, minding to leave some shadows.

The under painted miniatures dried for about an hour. This will vary depending on the local humidity and air temperature.

Third Paint Step
I followed the under painting with a acrylic medium wetted coat and avoided the nice shadows created earlier. This added a bit of emphasis on the higher regions of the horse, at least temporarily. In any event the shadows remained.

This is a trial run so I expect some errors. These so-called ‘mistakes’ will be noted and shot at sunrise, or at least banished temporarily to the re-paint shelf. Yes, I have an entire shelf dedicated to my lovely errors. The ‘no-vacancy’ sign is rarely lit.

I feel if I keep at this hobby, painting miniatures, I may one day get remarkable better at it. Being Good will probably have to be reserved for the Angels.

An Adventure in Pathfinder, the RPG

Last week I was invited to play Pathfinder(tm). The game is good but my colleagues in stealth, strength, and cunning are the reason I returned for my second game.

My character, Nip, began in the Pathfinder rules. In the end he’s became a Dwarven chap and comes equipped with a fairly formidable mace , not the sort one sprays, but the sort one swings.

A swing of the mace for Nip means taking out everything from the belt line downward. That is okay with my fellow Les Misérables (viz.adventurers) because the belts, purses, and pockets hold lots of swag, yeah, loot and booty too.

Nip receives a share of said swag after he has calmed down a bit from his swirling fit of “Tasmanian Devil” like routine as seen in the cartoon of the same name. He bashes, he smashes and he’s ever light on his feet.

Nip creates songs along the way as a soundtrack to his contribution to mayhem and menace. Not delightful songs full of feeling or creative genius. That would be too kind.

Nip, part mace wielding pleb and part raconteur, 100% poor in both aspects.

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Norse Conquest

These pictures show part of a Dane Hearthguard in a 4+ game called SAGA. The rules are by Tomahawk Studio. Ivar the Changeling is the chieftain and the quasi-legendary trickster of this band of Norsemen.

The figures are from an earlier time when I did not inventory miniatures or keep meticulous records.
SAGA is a “Dark Ages” skirmish game produced by Tomahawk Studio.

If you would rather play as Dark Ages Welsh, then SAGA has you covered. Like cavalry and dudes in chain mail and want to play Norman, go for it. The good people at Tomahawk Studio have three supplements and goodies for your skirmish gaming heroes. You can be the very image of a medieval hero or the last man off the field on a stretcher.

http://www.studio-tomahawk.com/gb_index.php select Français or English

Terrain for Campaign

Terrain for Campaign

Tau Expeditions™

In October 2012 Devereux’s Volunteers will host a resumption of Warhammer 40K gaming.  My army of choice is Tau, for the greater fun. Seven armies have selected assignments for the mini campaign we have dubbed Expeditions™ for our autumn ‘diversion’.

A bit of Tau terrain and buildings seemed a good idea. Most of our games are held at the game shops in our area. These locations offer an abundance of terrain goodness, mass quantities actually.  Expeditions™ will be held at Devereux manor, which offers a nice games room, however, not much 40K ‘space opera’ terrain.

 1. Stage One Tau Pylon

I was advised to make plenty of Tau ruins. Well, to begin Expeditions™ on a grand positive footing I have made several drawings for structures for bombardment. In this way I am a civil engineer playing host to mechanical engineers, you know, the ones who devise a method of job security for civil engineers—destruction!

2. Primed Tau Pylon

The remarque of a Tau Keep floats in the background. I sometimes work in the studio without an outline or drawing. Making the drawings is so much fun. The next Tau structure is a larger ‘strong point’ . The drawing can be seen in the background.  I try to see how close to plan I can create. The assemblage method is just as much fun, just a bit different approach, just as energizing for me.

3. Tai Pylon Base Coat

The shapes are evocative of commonly known Tau ones. One Tau shape is the saucer.  As the maker I want to infuse the motif of sails and masts in order to infuse some visual interest in the Tau structures, reminiscent of primitive ships and ancestral voyagers on expeditions of discovery or even conquest.

This pylon was completed as an assemblage or a group of shapes brought together and all the unnecessary bits removed so only the essential remains.

Extra bits include communication assets, weapons pods. The finishing touches with decals, markings and a finished paint / seal job.

I like a bunch of terrain. We will use a 122cm x 244cm (4’x8’) table so off to the toy shop to produce more terrain.

Basic Bill of Materials Used

• Sugar Pine
• Western Red Cedar
• Styrene plastic bits
• Tau Decals
• Glues–wood, CA, hot

If you have suggestions for the terrain build send them along in the comments section.

Notorious Captains™: Presenting the Center Lances

Notorious Captains™

Company Center Lances

A Condottiere’s Company would be divided into several 50 or 100 lance squadrons. Their bands were largely of cavalry, and their principal soldier was the relatively unassailable man-at-arms or gendarme.

The Center Mercenary Lances of a Notorious Captain™

Condottierii bands could include infantry of various sorts sometimes being half the strength of most Italian states’ field armies in the late 15th Century. Most of these infantry were missile-men, armed with early handguns or later with arquebus, or with crossbows, even longbows.

Hired troops are expensive troops and the Company was careful to preserve those soldiers. The Patron and the Company Captain realized the Company needed to be kept on campaign, in the field; preferably some other one’s  field for plunder and pillage was the order of the day. Loyalty sometimes turned on the choicest gold or good chances of rich plunder, where greener pastures were likely as not to be over on the other side at any moment, then as now, money talks.

Personal Banner of  Notorious Captain™ Gerhard von Reichart

Light cavalry in the form of Stradiotti, artillery, and pikes, round out the other troop types. It was a tumultuous time involving the interests of the French, the Spanish, the Pope, Italian city-states and on-going military innovation. The next big thing that might prove the tipping point to secure the Italian peninsula for Bourbon, Hapsburg, or the Holy See, all others played the Great Game for a place at the table, whether minor instigator or Imperial potentate.

Free-Companies, contract soldiers, Condottierii, Grand Companies lead by Captains from a variety of countries flourished, which seems an oxymoron, to flourish amid war, but nonetheless it was so. This is the inspiration for building armies of this era and likewise representing these Notorious Captains™ on the gaming table.

Gerhard von Reichart’s personal banner was crafted using MS Paint program, so it was not so ‘involved’ a process.

Terrain

August 27, 2012

“If anything is obvious about hobbies; when they are done well, the rewards are greater.” Maxx I. Muss

Terrain

Terrain is the sum total of the entire game table minus the figures. If the terrain is a flat game table mat or cover so be it, if it is something more all the better.

What is the distinction between cluttered terrain and rich terrain? So often the terrain is an afterthought. The terrain should fit the game. I think a setting ought to fit a story. A drama is in each turn, like so many chapters, unfolding as the conflict continues until there is some resolution; the outcome takes place within some setting. I like a rich setting to fit the mortal struggle on the game table.

Recently I became more aware of one of the fine distinctions of Wargaming aesthetics one finds on the gaming table. For one I enjoy a richly, and rightly, fully terrained game table. The best game table may not lend itself to a WIN!  with the minis but it makes the outcome sweeter than on some miserably sparse playing surface. Ah, the first fine distinction; give me a rich terrain.

I want to contend for Haganau through their gardens and among their chicken coops when I command the men of the 101^st in 1945. My point is designed terrain is giving the flavor of the era without going overboard.

Craters are good additions to terrain, flavorful

Next is a logical follow-on:  the terrain features should be well-designed. Likewise, the parts are best when consistent with the universe in which the game takes place. In an historical game situation when the table is even close to being plausible the effort is well appreciated. Balance is quite necessary; remembering less is often the best course of action because clutter and cluster is just out.

Painted trench, barbed wire enough for well done terrain

How does one achieve a good design. First, avoid crowding a lot of ‘material’ onto the board,what I call the ‘Easter Basket’ effect, the act of ramming a lot of things into a tight space and hoping a nice ribbon will make your excuses. In short, planning, preparation, and presentation are key points. It is a hobby, of course, we all have different degrees of skill or ability as Maxx I. Muss pointed out once, “if anything is obvious about hobbies when they are done well, the rewards are greater.” I add only do your best and challenge yourself to do better, the rewards for such are greater indeed.

Back to Avoiding the ‘Easter Basket’ effect; let me ponder this. Perhaps it is enough for now to type: first — plan, then — prepare, and on game day present the terrain. The proof of the terrain is in the gaming. No amount of ribbon tying is going to save a poor presentation of a ill-considered plan.

Soon

• Making a Good Full Plan

• Plan to Actual

• Presentation Day

Notorious Captains™

Miniatures in a Wargame

“There is a rich world to explore in your imagination.” Bayou Jean

The Playing of Roles

As purchasers of minis we have our role to play. Miniatures hang sealed in packages and at ease in boxes some small, some quite large. They have been spun out or molded in their multitudes. When a person picks one of these sweet bundles of pewter, plastic, or resin, the clatter or rattle makes a kind of music. So the allure begins.

One has seen the sculptor’s art; detailed or plain in an instant a paint scheme comes to mind followed by myriad changes. The mini is still in the blister package it has not left the shop yet and it is considered in the imagination. That is true power of an un-purchased mini; the beginning of connexion; the puppy in the window, the “next new thing”. The challenge is to walk the gauntlet of a twenty-four foot display calmly, the five-year-old in a candy shop is lurking somewhere just below the surface of the thirty-something gamer. The same grin is still in evidence albeit the only difference is the face needs a shave.

Producers make their efforts to advertise their wares. I love understatement. Gamers play their role too. I describe conventions as an ice-cream sundae:  one part carnival, one part safari (big-game hunt), seven parts gaming session, one part advertising write-off, covered in a sauce of mini lust, and there is a line around the building paying to get a glimpse of the old, the true, the rare and the new. We really should avoid being defined by what we collect.

We all play our bit parts. Mentioning bits and parts even these tiny nuggets come packaged for our imaginative conversions. When will it ever stop?

No, wait, I did not mean that.

Last, the producers make the minis and the rules gurus churn out the step by step process by which the gamer gets to deploy those precious chunks of painted goodness. Then the game is over and the minis go into their padded lockers on wheels to await the trumpet and the ole hack and hew, wot!

In my area few admit to morphing their minis to other games unless it is one historical set of rules to another. The reluctance there is the pain of ‘re-basing’ their minis.

In a few short months one of Ridiculous Diversions here at Dice Lords Central will be Notorious Captains™, a free-wheeling skirmish game of the Italian Renaissance ilk. This game project is easy to follow.

First have an army. Do not have an army, then get one. Starting small, warlords and their loyal followers extend their influence and control. Next, develop your heraldry. Perhaps, write the history of your clan. Create the livery for your troops. Extend your boundaries and meddle in your neighbors’ affairs. Make alliances. Make your soldiers feared or dashing.  Sell your services.

Notorious Captains™ will be all about fictitious nobles, ersatz Condottierii leaders, Sell-Swords, Cutthroats, Warrior Bands, and self-created city-states, from around the Mediterranean and perhaps to include interlopers from the northern hinterlands thirsty for fame and power. The Coasts of the Med have many Potentates that will test the resolve of the European Upstarts egged on by the eastern Sultan of the Sublime Porte.

Think of Notorious Captains™ as more return on investment. More gaming with our historical armies re-purposed. Why? Because humans get bored easily, that is why we look for the “next new game” or mini set or rules. Second, a game will run its course and something new is sought and usually that is whatever the producers have made to sell.

In the third place I am just that independent that I play the role of creating the “next new game”. It is part of my game and I call it Notorious Captains™. It should be infamous fun.  The rules will be announced later once the group has made their decision.