Modelling therapy

Struggling a bit this week. Two of the kids have gone off to university and are finding it hard to adapt emotionally to the change after months of basically being isolated at home, while the feed back from Crisis Point was best described as "mixed". So a bit of model-making is called for to take my mind off things. 

Somewhat surprisingly I'm still working on 28mm Sharp Practice stuff but now it's for the 1812 campaign.

These are Perry plastic Prussian infantry; on the left, some line infantry that will get me up to 24 figures when they are complete. 

On the right and below are skirmishers. The Perry set comes with parts to make six men from a volunteer Jaeger company but while these are appropriate for 1813 onwards, I believe they weren't present in Macdonald's X Corps in Livonia. 

Instead, skirmishing duties were carried out by the third rank of each battalion so I'm using Green Stuff and spare parts to produce some more active-looking fusiliers to populate a six-figure skirmisher Group.

Interestingly this leaves me with six unused forage caps that would be quite useful if I were making Ellet's Mississippi Marine Corps in this scale but that would be silly...

Crisis Point day one pics

What it says on the tin...

 

Arab pirates!

British Privateers

Captain Litholi fights the tiger!

The British secure the bridge

Spanish colonial infantry threaten the
Fort James - Al Smut road

Woebetideus warriors occupy the fishing village

At last, a rocket is launched

Crisis Point setting up underway

This evening Richard P, Will, Andy and I started setting up the main table for Crisis Point 2021.  I think it's looking pretty good so far.

The calm before the storm

Looking north towards the Wali's palace

The mean streets of Port Charles

View over Fort James

Whitetooth Reef

No, not another Sharp Practice project!

Many, many years ago friend Tim McAlpine told me about an American Civil War unit he had a hankering to model. Back in those days it would have involved converting Minifigs 25mm models. The unit, he said, was called "Ellet's Mississippi Marine Brigade" and they wore conventional ACW uniforms but with distinctive round-topped caps. For some reason the memory of that brief conversation has stayed with me. I wonder if Tim ever got round to building the unit?

Now, I've never had a great interest in the Civil War but recently watching the Youtube video The American Civil War Oversimplified (and its follow-up) has given me a handle on the broad sweep of the war that puts the bits I did know into some sort of context. Getting into gaming the ACW now seems less daunting somehow.

And then along comes an article on the very Mississippi Marine Brigade that piqued my interest nearly four decades ago!

It turns out that the unit was even more fascinating than I'd imagined. I'm not sure I'd want to organise a Sharp Practice game about marines kidnapping aristocratic Southern belles to use as hostages to engineer for the release of captive New England school ma'ams but there are plenty of ideas there for SP2 games!

It also turns out that Thomas Brandstetter (whose Star of Bravery campaign I've been enjoying of late) has also had this idea and produced SP2 lists for the force.

And yes, I have some as-yet-unused Perry plastic ACW artillery. And no, I don't need another Sharp Practice project!

Two weeks to Crisis Point!

It's only a couple of weekends away! 

The plan is as follows:

Friday (if you're in the area):

c 1530: arrive at the Hall, collect the keys, remind ourselves of the security systems.

c1600 -1800: set up as much of the terrain as we can, set out forces and supports on the end cupboards

say 1930 onwards: Gather at the Royal for carefully paced consumption of beer

Saturday

0930 for 1000 start: arrive at hall

1000 - 1100: finish setting up, allocate remaining players to forces, councils of war - players decided who will attempt to carry out which mission (and with which support choices)

Players will be in one of two roles. Force commanders will be responsible for carrying out orders provided by their faction's non-player leader (e.g. their factor or the king of the Woebetideus). Other players will help to run a Force but will also be responsible for the actions of a non-commander character (NCC). Each NCC has an objective of their own that they will be expected to fulfil whilst also helping their Force to succeed.

1100-1700-ish: play the game, please bring packed lunches to keep you going. Cakes gratefully received!  Richard will provide tea and coffee making stuff.

c1930: back to the Royal, more beer, pies.

Sunday

1000: gather at the hall revised briefing from umpire if required.

1230: to the Royal for lunch (optional; if anyone would rather stay at the hall they can)

c 1530: wind up and pack away.

Really looking forward to seeing you there. If you're not currently signed up, please don't hesitate to contact me; we can still accommodate more players!

More Crisis Point models

I previously reported finishing one Arab rocketeer and said that I wasn't sure I could be bothered converting any more from the fantasy-ninja-type base model.  In the end I did three more before I'd had enough and then decided to bulk out the unit with a homemade brazier to give the rocketeers a source of fire from which to light their fuses.

They are all converted from the same base figure but with different plastic heads transplanted on and with the arms moved slightly I think they look sufficiently distinct.

The brazier is made from three lengths of plastic rod and an inverted shield from the Atlantic set. The coals are superglue and sodium bicarbonate.

I'd also decided that I needed a vehicle for one of the European ladies to travel in. I wasn't entirely happy with any of the models available in 28mm so I decided to have a go at giving my existing Roman raeda a suitably oriental look. 

The driver isn't wonderful - he's mostly Milliput and Green Stuff with a spare head and arms from the Atlantic Wargames Afghans set. He'll do though.

Rehearsal for Crisis Point

This afternoon four of us managed to get together for a game of Sharp Practice. For me this was a first in-person game with folks from outside my own household since January 2020. Andy, Richard P, Jamie, and I gathered to play Sharp Practice so we could test out some of the mechanisms I plan to use at Crisis Point and also to see how some of the troop types are balanced. Oh, and also to remind ourselves how the rules work!

I set up a symmetrical, 3-player scenario in which each force needed to achieve a plot point (a concept pinched from Pulp Alley) in order to find the location of some buried treasure and then return it to their deployment point.

Richard P ran a force based on his Woebetideus tribesmen. This consisted of three Groups of tribesmen (classified as Clan) and one of carbine-armed skirmishers (Irregular Skirmishers under the SP2 rules).

Jamie brought out his Arab pirates (Three Groups of Clan and a ship's gun).

Andy used my French force - three groups of Sepoys and one of marines.

I allowed some support elements that will appear in the Crisis Point story. Andy's French were accompanied by the lovely Josephine de Pommefrite, the wayward daughter of the comptoire; her presence gave them a bonus to their initial Force Morale. 

John Gillick, the European who taught the Woebetideus to use firearms, was available to Richard. He counts as a Sharpshooter and as a "man of letters". The latter is one of the categories of specialist I've added to the rules for the purpose of our story. It would prove useful in this game.

I'd intended to give Jamie a "strongman" (another new type) but I forgot to mention this to him before the game. As it happened, it wouldn't have made any difference.

At the start of the game there were three Plot Points, represented on the table by small scenic bases each bearing a hollow tree. The Plot Points were positioned such that each was halfway between a pair of players' Deployment points.

When Force reached a Plot Point, they rolled a d8 to determine what kind of task was required to "achieve" the Plot Point. For example, when Richard's Woebetideus skirmishers reached the first Plot Point, a roll of 4 revealed the description, "A literary reference". This, along with a subsequent roll of 3d6, told us that a running total of 11 was needed to complete the Task. The presence at the Plot Point of John Gillick gave Richard a +2 modifier when he rolled to complete the task.

Andy's French sepoys had a potentially harder job of it. Their Plot Point required a single score of 10+ on two dice to move "A heavy weight". The sepoys proved up to the task, though, with Andy rolling 10 at the first attempt.

Jamie didn't go for a Plot Point - I think blasting away with his ship's gun was a bit too tempting. but he also had the problem of a horde of Woebetideus heading towards him through the woods...

Jamie put together a reasonable firing line to deter an attack from Richard's natives...

The natives did get into close combat with the French over on the other side of the field but they were driven back by the superior organisation of the French (and Andy's superior dice rolling).

Richard managed to complete his Plot Point first and this pointed him to a second Plot Point that would give him access to the treasure everyone was after. With a skirmisher unit in possession of the treasure, Richard was able to make a dash for his Deployment Point with it. 

At this point it looked like the game was pretty much done. In one of those lovely coincidences, Jamie had no sooner said "It'd be good to finish on a chapter end here" than I turned over a Tiffin card at the start of the next turn. Chapter end; game over!

All in all this was a fun game and a useful rehearsal for next month. Thanks players!

I'm going to clarify the rules for Plot Point Tasks as follows. Note to Jamie and Richard, this is different to how we played it:

On making contact with a Plot Point, a Leader with an unused Command Initiative may spend it to determine the nature of the Task required by rolling on the Plot Points table. This may allow the player to bring up nearby relevant specialists to assist before the Task is attempted. Otherwise the nature of the Task is revealed as part of the process of attempting it without any impact on its completion.

A Plot Point may be attempted by a Leader, who may or may not be attached to a Group. Attempting a Plot Point uses the Leader's full Command Initiatives for his Activation. If the Leader wishes to rely upon an attached Group to attempt the Plot Point (e.g. if the Group contains a marksman and this gives a die roll modifier) the Group must also remain in contact with the Plot Point marker and has no actions to spare for any other activity during this Activation.