Battle (near) Barbarian Town

It's become a firm New Year's holiday tradition to play a wargame during the week between Christmas and the New Year holiday. This year it was a big Gloranthan Hordes of the Things game.

The following pic shows the battlefield on the edge of the Storm Hills in Prax. The thin line stretching across the board is the dry bed of the Sounder's River. On the left are the combined Heortling, Sun Dome Templar and Beast Valley forces. On the right are the Praxian Nomads and their Chaotic allies-of-convenience.

Matt Zunder (left) commanded the Heortlings whilst his dad Tom took the role of Muriah, Witch Queen of the Broos.

It took a while but eventually Tom managed to summon Cacodemon (a God in Hordes terms). Here he comes!

Gus wonders what to do about a pair of wondering Sylphs threatening the left flank of his Praxians.

Soon after the arrival of Cacodemon, the Praxian Fire Spirit Oakfed arrived. So that's two Gods for the defenders to face! To the right we can see Argrath White Bull (Magician) and a giant spirit Rhino (Behemoth).

Andy Sangar looks concerned as Cacodemon threatens the allies' left flank.

No need to worry though - Matt's Heortling chieftain (now known as Nietzsche) manages to kill Cacodemon by surrounding the God and getting a lucky die roll.

In the centre the Sun Dome Militia repeatedly win combats they should lose. Eventually, Andy's Minotaur Hero and my Sun Dome Templars (Spears) kill enough Morocanth to see off the Praxians. Oakfed had lasted a couple of turns before Gus rolled a 1 and he decided to bugger off!

In all, an enjoyable if a bit one-sided battle. The defenders had three contingents and hence three lots of PIPs. The attackers had two, larger contingents which should have had greater staying power but I suspect the relative lack of PIPs was too much of a disadvantage - that and their inability to roll well in combat!

Don't Try This In Winter

It's Christmas Eve and the village is deep in snow so of course my thoughts turn to... outdoor wargaming! Actually, no, these are old pictures I found whilst idly scrolling through iPhoto.

In May 2004, Gus Woodward and I were visiting our friend Andy Sangar when we noticed the paving slabs in his garden were just the right size for a Hordes of the Things Game. Naturally we just happened to have a toolbox full of figures with us!

The armies are Gus's - 6mm models from the Irregular Miniatures fantasy range. Here we see the Goblins (foreground) and the Dwarves drawn up in battle array.

On full-sized bases for 15mm figures the large numbers of 6mm figures look impressive. These are Goblin Warband.

Here my flanking force, a large (if suspiciously rectilinear) pack of wolves sets off to encircle the Dwarves.

Here is the Dwarf main battleline - Shooters in the front ranks backed up by Blades.

Two Dwarf Hero elements. The one on the left (as we look) is the Dwarf General held aloft on his shield.

I can't recall the exact result but here's the final shot I have. Clearly the Dwarf left has collapsed whilst the Dwarf Heroes have made mincemeat of the Warbands that faced them.

...And More Ducks

The Ducks are pretty much finished. I've based them as a Shooter element for Hordes of the Things.

The base was still wet when the photos were taken and it's yet to have its dry-brushing and foliage added but otherwise I think they'll do. They will be seeing action a week on Wednesday as part of the Beast Valley contingent in my mid-Winter-festival-of-your-choice game this year.

Big CWC game progress report

Hi! I thought it would be useful to put together a summary of progress towards putting on a big Cold War Commander game in Sheffield in the Spring of 2011.

Players

Over a dozen people have now expressed an interest to some level or other. It would be helpful if they could all join the Yahoogroup as this is likely to be the main means of communication at least for now.

Forces

I’m of the view that this isn’t a problem. There’s at least one potential player who could probably provide all the forces we need from his own resources. Now, I’m sure some players, like me, would want to use this game as an excuse to recruit a shiny new force of Danish reservists or whatever and I’m sure this can be done in the time available as soon as we have a scenario planned.

TOEs

Ian Shaw has done some excellent working on putting together period-specific CWC-based organisations for the Northern Front (Scandinavia and Finland) and for Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) on the Central Front. These are in the Files area of the ColdWarCommander yahoogroup. Given the levels of attrition during an intense round of combat operations you don’t have to follow these exactly but they are a good starting point.

Setting/Scenario

I’ve heard no dissenting voices to the idea that we base the setting of our game on Hackett’s books. I’m assuming then that we are all happy with the August 1986 time frame and Hackett’s broad narrative thrust.

We have had a suggestion that we should game the operations on the Northern Front. My guess is that this would produce some interesting games that are a bit different to the usual Central Front armoured clashes. My only concern would be that if we go with this setting we might bring back in the question of whether we have enough available models.

I’ve tried to accommodate both this suggestion and the Central Front setting in the six scenario settings I outlined at the Land of Counterpane. I’ll copy these into the yahoogroup Files area. So far, we’ve had only one potential player express a preference. If you think adopting a broad scenario now is the way forward, please have a look at these options and let me know which you’d prefer.

If,on the other hand, you’d prefer some other approach, let us know. We need a range of options before we can choose one!

Venue

Construction of the hall is underway and continuing despite the bad weather. I’ve spoken to the Headmaster (the building will double as Village Hall and school hall for the local primary school) and flagged up that we’ll want to book the hall for a weekend as soon as the arrangements are in place to do so.

So thanks all who have expressed an interest. Now let’s make some progress on deciding what we’re going to do, eh?

Richard

On the workbench - Ducks and More

The Green Stuff is now sculpted and the Ducks are undercoated in black, drybrushed in white to bring out the details and mounted on bottle tops for painting.

I’ve also been working on some Morocanth. My rule with these is that the army should contain no more than one unmodified example of each casting. As I need about twenty figures and only five or six different Morocanth figures have been produced, that means a lot of conversion work.

These two are by Games Workshop. Their heads have been swapped and are in the process of being repositioned. Much gap-filling Green Stuff will be required.

The final figure this time around. His arms have been slightly repositioned, his club removed and his right hand drilled out to accept a wire spear.

On the Workbench - Ducks!

I'm running a big Hordes of the Things game over the mid-Winter holiday period and I always like to add a new unit if I can for these games. I've dug some old Tabletop Miniatures (previously Dragonclaw) Duck archers to see what I can do with them.

Ducks shouldn't, in my view, be uniform so I'm converting each of them to some extent. The figure on the left has had his helmet plume removed and his arm repositioned to look like he's reaching for an arrow.

The middle figure is in pretty much the original pose (complete with distinctively raised finger). Again I've removed his plume. The final figure (right) has had most work dome to him. His head has been turned through 180 degrees and he's gained a second raised finger from brass wire so he can show his opinion of his Lunar enemies. Next step will be to add green stuff to sculpt in the fingers and clean up the neck join.

How many games have I played?

I started my Saturday Afternoon Wargames (penultimate Saturday of each month at Stately Crawley Manor) because I realised I was spending a lot of time on preparation for wargames (modelling and painting) and relatively little on actually playing.

Of late, this train of thought has taken a branch line: which rules do I actually play and which are really just useless padding? I thought I’d try and work out how many games I’ve played over the thirty-something years I’ve been messing about with toy soldiers. After much cogitation (and a little creative blank-filling for some of the older stuff) I came up with this list:

Hordes of the Things, played over 130 games

Arc of Fire, played 20

Tac: WW2, 12

Cold War Commander, 8

Rapid Fire!, 7

Flight Leader, 6

Squad Leader, 6

Challenger, 6

Firefly, 5

My own Wars of the Roses skirmish rules, 5

Air Force/Dauntless, 4

Sixth Fleet et al., 4

DBA, 4

The Fire and the Rose, 4

Air War, 3

WRG 1950-85, 3

Airfix Guide WW2, 3

WRG Ancients, 3

Spearhead, 2

Square Bashing, 2

The Sword and The Flame, 2

Corps Commander, 2

Hell in Microcosm, 2

Dirtside II, 2

Disposable Heroes, 2

Hell By Daylight, 2

Future War Commander, 2

Shock of Impact, 1

Striker, 1

Megablitz, 1

Ancient Principles of War, 1

19th Century Principles of War, 1

Polemos GNW, 1

Volley & Bayonet, 1

Warhammer, 1

Bayonet Point, 1

Fox Two, 1

Dragon Pass, 1

Fistful of TOWs, 1

WRG 1685-1845, 1

General Quarters, 1

Plus various one-offs with a fine selection of home-made rules. I’ve probably missed a few - I vaguely recall some computer-moderated Napoleonic naval rules and a mid 19th century set that used cardboard counters instead of figures.

The first thing that strikes me is how few games I’ve actually played a large number of times. It looks like just over half of all the wargames I’ve played have been Hordes of the Things!

I say “played” but I should add that a lot of the time my wargaming takes the form of setting up and refereeing games. If you were to restrict me to games I’ve actually played in, HOTT would probably be closer to 90%.

The next thing that this exercise has flagged up is the “acquired but never played list”:

WRG Renaissance

Renaissance Principles of War

DBR (sensing theme here?)

Crossfire

Hell and Uncivil Disorder

Hell and Fateful Decisions

Armati

Mr Lincoln’s War

AK47 Republic

Les Gens Braves

Tactical Commander

Six Gun Sound

DBM

DBMM

FEBA

They Died For Glory

Perfidious Albion

Blitzkrieg Commander

Chaingun, and finally...

... the almost unplayable WRG 1950-2000.

It’s scary how much work I’ve put into some of these games in the past!

Finally, some good news is the high position for Cold War Commander. It’s only relatively recently that I started playing this game but it’s already in the top four. It seems the Saturday Afternoon Wargames are having an impact!

Potential Scenarios from The Third World War

I'm planning a big Cold War Commander game next year and we need to decide which scenario to play. So far I've found the following possibles in Hackett's The Third World War and its sequel The Untold Story.

OPTION A - 4th August, 1985

One Division of 2GTA, supported by two Polish divs (one tank, one MR) pushes toward Kiel Canal. Polish 6th Airborne and East German Willi Sanger diversionary unit in support.

Interesting mix of units, possible major terrain item (the canal).

OPTION B - 5th August, 1985

I (Be) Corps pushed back west of Kassel. Soviet attacks open a salient between I (Be) Corps and III (Ge) Corps on the NORTHAG-CENTAG boundary. Soviet thrust develops towards Giessen. V (US) Corps counterattacks into the flank of the Soviet salient between Alsfeld and Schluchtern.

Good mix of nationalities (no Brits though)

OPTION C - 10th August, 1985

After days of heavy bombardment Soviet amphibious forces land at Bodö. A Norwegian bde and a British RM Commando move the oppose the landings.

Could be spectacular, no heavy weapons on either side

OPTION D - 12th August, 1985

SOUTHAG, now consisting of II (Fr) Corps, II (Ge) Corps and a couple of brigades of Austrian troops, under heavy pressure along the Lech. (TTWW p169)

Interesting mix of forces, possibly interesting river crossing scenario

OPTION E - 14th August, 1985

0400, Soviet 7th Guards Army launches attack on Venlo position (no chemical weapons used). Bn strength airborne attack on rear areas at Roermonde and Neuss. The MRRs lead the attack. An additional attack by Soviet MRD west of the Maas, southwards towards Roermonde is held off by a US bde with two Dutch regiments under command.

Crucial battle of the campaign, good mix of forces,

OPTION F - 14th August, 1985

Battle of the Lippe - Soviet forces attack southwards across the Lippe down the east bank of the Rhein. They are opposed by regular and Heimatschutzkommando West German forces plus a Dutch bde and elements of II (Br) Corps. Flooding, minefields and close air support help to slow the Soviet advance. (TTWW pp235-238)

Another part of the crucial battle, interesting terrain.

OPTION G - 14th August, 1985

This option combines Options E and F into a single, huge game. This may need to be “bath-tubbed” (using, say, battalion-sized forces to represent brigades) in order to fit everything in.

Big, epic in scope, too big?

Grav Tank

This 1/300th scale model has been sitting unpainted in a drawer for about fifteen years.

No idea who the manufacturer was. Now that I've bought Future War Commander I'm looking to recruit some suitable toys. I picked up some plastic Games Workshop Epic space marines today and ill be basing them shortly.

The model is based on my standard artist's mounting board textured with sand. It's raised above the base by being glued to a 1/76th scale Panzer III wheel.

Air Traffic Control part 4

My air traffic control tower is now more or less finished. Here are some more work in progress shots.

First the process of adding glazing bars to the windows of the top floor. I used Slater's Microstrip for the three flat glazing bars on each side.

Then I made some L-section by glueing two pieces together with liquid polystyrene cement using the corner of a wooden tray (the one previously seen holding my recent 6mm purchases) as a jig. Cut carefully to length these formed the corner frames.

The doors are from a pack of injection moulded (Wills?) building parts I got from a model railway shop years ago. They looked a little low next to a based figure so I added a doorstep from two layers of card sandwiched together. The bottom floors are covered with brick paper and the windows have been undercoated in brown.

Finally, for now, the windows have been painted in GW Tin Bitz highlighted with Dwarf Bronze.

New Goodies part 1 - Germans?

I'm not too familiar with Bundeswehr equipment but I think this is a pair of Marders and a Leopard of some kind.

Not enough to do much with. I suppose they could form the "West German forces retreating through your sector after being mauled by the Soviets".

Goodies arrived!

My eBay purchases arrived this afternoon. I'm going to have a fun time deciding what to do with this miscellany of 1980s kit.

Among the highlights are:

• a whole Mech Bn worth of FV432s (by at least two manufacturers) - something I was thinking of buying anyway
• the makings of a nice little Soviet airborne force - BMD-1s, ASU-57s (two of the cutest little AFVs imaginable)
• Some very nice M-60s that may join my Spanish army, and
• A selection of trucks - I'm going to need help identifying these.

More pics later when I begin to get the sorting done.

Air traffic control part 3

A day off means I'm making considerable progress on this baby.

The roof is now on.

The roof is a sheet of foamcore. An edging of artist's mounting board overlaps the top of the windows and will make the whole thing much stronger.

Goodies Expected

Having finished painting all of my modern 1/300th scale vehicles I had to go and do something silly didn't I?

I've just won a few auctions on eBay and am now awaiting delivery of what were described as "120 WWII tanks and trucks, 20mm". Having looked at the photos they were clearly 6mm scale and modern, not WWII. Some at least are Soviet - there are a couple of those big, truck mounted radar vehicles. There are also 18 assorted aircraft.

Works out at 18p a model. I'm looking forward to the lucky dip element of this. I'll post pics here when they arrive.

Air traffic control part 2

More progress on the air traffic control tower for Tcherbevan International Airport. The basic box shape of the building now has a string course of card around it. This will support the outward-leaning windows of the control room itself.

The windows are black plastic card. I'll be painting them - trying to get the effect of metallic coated glass. They slot over the body and rest on the string course.

The final shot shows he roof in place (temporarily) with the windows secured with masking tape while the glue dries. I have some brick paper that I might use to cover the lower story.

On the workbench...

... or more precisely, on the kitchen table.

I've started building a control tower for the airport in my next 20mm moderns game.

The material is some foam-core I rescued from work when we moved to a new office building. A single sign pointing the way to Legal Services provided three walls and a couple of other pieces gave me the third wall and the roof.

The box in the background will be used to store the completed building. Always build your buildings to fit an available box rather than trying to find a suitable box afterwards!

PVA glue is great for sticking foam-core and dressmaker's pins make good temporary fixings while the glue dries.

Andreivian Tales

The problem with running multiple blogs is that stuff ends up on one when it could reasonably be on another.

Current work in progress is a modern Arc of Fire game to take place in Meols (Wirral) on November 27th. An initial test of the terrain and some more details here:

http://andreivian-tales.blogspot.com/

Fiasco, Leeds

Yesterday was Fiasco, previously at the Royal Armouries but now moved across the way to a nearby conference venue. To be honest, you could hardly tell the difference once you were inside.

This year it seemed more than ever to be a shopping opportunity rather than a games convention. I did far less than my share of the shopping though. I bought some dice. You need lots of d6 for Cold War Commander so I picked up a box of 36! I went with purple, which I figured minimised the chances of getting mine mixed up with anyone else's.

I also picked up a single Spartan APC in 1/300th (needed because some previous Spartans I bought turned out to be Stormers) and four painted T-28s that have gone straight into my WW2 Soviet army.

Finally, I bought some steel paper. Now I'm undecided as to whether I should put magnets on the bases of my 1/300th armour and use steel paper to line the storage drawers or vice versa. Decisions, decisions!

A completed Soviet army at last!

After starting to buy bits of 1/300th scale Soviet armour in about 1979, I've finally completed my collection. Completed, that is, in the sense that I have no more to paint. Trouble is, it's Fiasco in Leeds tomorrow - I might just to have to go and buy some more!

Click on the pics to enlarge.

Here's the whole force:

Six tank battalions, left to right T-80s, T-55s, T-62s, two battalions of T-72s, and a battalion of PT-76s.

ATGWs old and new - BRDM3s on left and "suitcase Saggers" on the right.

The air support, left to right, back to front - Su-24, two Su-25 Frogfoots, Hind-A, two Mi-28 Havocs, two MiG-29s (one in Czech airforce colours), MiG-27, two Hind-Ds, East German MiG-21, Mi-14 Haze(!), and Mi-8 Hip.

The engineers - engineer platoon in truck, TMM truck-launched bridge, MTU-20, GMZ mainelayer, and an unidentified engineer vehicle. The HQ has another GMZ and a TMS-61 decontamination vehicle.

Motor Rifle battalions - left to right two battalions BMP-1, one of BMP-2, two of BTR-70s. Clearly I need to rebase my infantry consistently.

The artillery and the SAMs.

Various bits and bobs:

And finally, a close-up of the CO unit: