6mm Status Markers

When I bought To The Strongest!, my old mate Simon Miller very kindly sent me a pack of his laser cut counters as he knew that I'd be playing in 6mm scale and the counters would be much more manageable than the default approach of using a deck of playing cards.

If you're going to play TTS! I strongly recommend that you buy a set of Simon's counters.  They look like this:

I'm always keen that the look of a game should be compromised as little as possible by the presence of markers on the table.  The larger discs, activation markers, are all removed at a particular point in the game sequence so photos can be taken when the table is relatively clear.  They are a little large for my scale but I can live with that as you're always balancing intrusiveness with ease of handling.

The smaller, ammunition status, markers on the other hand are more problematic for me.  Most units in my Late Roman and Gothic armies are accompanied by up to three of these throughout the game and I find the stacks of counters a pain to move and to fit into what can often be crowded squares on the table.

Last night I had an idea and this morning I finished some prototypes of an alternative marker style.  These markers are designed to unobtrusively show any numerical status from one to three.  You can use more than one if you need higher numbers.

You will need...

... some wooden coffee stirrers, some fine sand, and some clump foliage.  You'll also want PVA and clear glue and a set of toenail clippers.  Oh and some sandpaper.

If you're making more than one of anything always make a jig.  In this case the 'jig' was a unit of cavalry, against whose base side I measured off lengths of coffee stirrer.  I decided to make the markers just over 30mm long.

Having marked the length with a pencil, a couple of cuts with the toenail clippers gives you a roughly rounded end which can be tidied up with a couple of passes on some medium grade sandpaper to match the original radius end of the stirrer.

You end up with something like this:

Next, smear your pieces of coffee stirrer with PVA...

... note that we're now working on a sheet of paper for reasons that will soon become obvious. In fact they become obvious now as we pour sand onto the wet PVA:

When the sand has dried you get these:

Which you then paint (I always use at least two shades of brown when basing figures and did so again here)...

... drybrush (Vallejo Iraqi Sand in my case)...

... and, using the clear adhesive, stick on one to three pieces of clump foliage:

The resulting markers should be reasonably easy to handle and will quickly communicate the ammo status of the units they are placed behind.  Like this...

... or like this:

As you can see, even with two units in a square, the new markers fit neatly.  With Longbow or Artillery units that get six ammo I'll simply use two strips.  I may make some slightly shorter ones for the purpose.

Ready for the Blitzkrieg

My 1940 French force is finally based up properly for Blitzkrieg Commander.

Most of the models (1/300th scale from H&R, Scotia, Irregular, and some scratch builds) were painted years ago but it's been a plan of mine to get all of my 6mm stuff based up for Blitzkrieg Commander and that's now officially done.

The force is roughly based on being able to field most if not all of 4eme Division Cuirassée de Reserve (4DCR) the armoured division commanded by de Gaulle in 1940.  In fact I have more vehicles than de Gaulle ever had at any on time (at least at one model to the platoon scale).

Up front is the recce group with Panhard 178 armoured cars.

Then we have the Grand Fromage himself - CO unit flanked by two anti-aircraft half tracks.

Then we get to the teeth.  46eme and 47eme Bns de Chars with Char B1 bis.  All Scotia models except for one H&R.

Then we get the rest of 6eme Demi-Brigade de Chars; Chars D2 in this case:

Then we have the elements of 8eme Demi-Brigade de Chars. These guys are equipped with Renault R-35s.

And a couple of R-40s, leading the six platoon column.

Later in the campaign (25th May), the 3rd Cuirassiers (Hotchkiss H-39s and SOMUA S-35s) were attached to the division:

Next in the order of battle is 4eme Battaillon de Chasseurs Portées, a motorised infantry unit riding in requisitioned civilian buses, infantry companies on the left and support company (25mm AT guns and mortars with Citroen trucks on the right.  They are backed up here by the 1/7eme Battaillon de Chasseurs Portées in Lorraine chenillettes.

I seem to have acquired plenty more infantry - nearly three battalions' worth here:

The division was fairly well set-up to resist enemy armour - here are some 47mm weapons of the divisional anti-tank batteries.

Then we have the artillery.  Lots of Mle1897 75mm guns:

And a regiment of 105mm guns as well:

Having painted some spare trucks and half-tracks I have a logistics train, sort of...

...and a few assorted supporting types; a platoon of Chasseurs Alpins, a Renault FT-17, and a Char d'Assault 2c.

Finally there's a bit of air support.  Two Bloch and one Breguet light bombers and Moraine Saulnier fighter:

I think, to be honest, I've probably got too much stuff.  I'd certainly struggle to use all of the infantry unless we do a really large game.

Next target is to get my 1940 German army similarly based.

Action At Macho Grande

So we played our first game of Sharp Practice for some time this weekend.  As I was umpiring and struggling to remember the rules, I didn't take too many photos.  Here's an atmospheric black and white shot of the table.

Gus with two nine man groups of 95th Rifles started on the left between the wheat field and the cabbage field. Arthur (with a group of British Light Dragoons and the overall British commander, Major McLeod) began behind the woods on the right.

Jamie, who had a unit of French Dragoons and the escaping Colonel Lamarck with his wagon and mules, began on the road in the middle of the village of Macho Grande.

Andy meanwhile had a large force with two French guns atop the far cliffs and 40 fusiliers at their base.

The Colonel's mule train and dragoons escort just had to make a dash for the cliffs at the far end of the table where the French Artillery, and safety, awaited.

Jamie got the chance to move first and immediately moved his Dragoons to occupy the houses to the left (west) side of the road.  This would prove vital later. Andy meanwhile began a general advance with his infantry.

To the east of the road, Arthur moved his light dragoons up through a cornfield towards the village.  It looked like he would be best placed to intervene to stop Lamarck's caravan.  Gus moved towards the two houses making up the western side of Macho Grande.  His first group launched an attempt to storm the bigger (northern) house but they were weakened by the dragoons' carbine fire and artillery fire from the hills.  They failed on their first attempt to fight there way in at sword-point (rifles fix swords, not bayonets).

While this had been going on, Andy had continually advanced his fusiliers.  He was soon able to form a line formation facing towards the wheat field Arthur's light dragoons must cross.

Riding across the front of a formed infantry line was never going to be easy for the British horse.  By the time the photo below was taken they'd already lost two men and picked up a couple of shock points.

The cards and the dice were cruel to Arthur and he didn't get to move quickly enough to get out of the fire zone.  By the next turn he was reduced to just the two Big Men (McLeod and the light dragoon sergeant).

Unable to prevent Lamarck's escape, Arthur and Gus decided that discretion was the better part of valour and the survivors made for the bridge and safety.

Whilst I was reasonably happy with how Sharp Practice handled the action, I've come to the conclusion that the Too Fat Lardies design a good set of rules but they don't always write them well.  There were a few cases where the wording was unclear or ambiguous.

In one case we had to "reduce the number of dice rolled by two thirds (round up)".  What does that mean?  Calculate two thirds of the total (rounding up to a whole number of dice) and then deduct this from the total?  Or deduct the two thirds and then round the resulting number of dice up to a whole number?

Now you might point out that it's only one die either way and as long as you're consistent what's the worry?  But it caused confusion and slowed down the game unnecessarily while we worked out what to do.

Nonetheless the effort we've invested in relearning the rules will stand us in good stead in two weeks' time when we play another Sharp Practice game a few days before the 200th anniversary of Waterloo.

Over Macho Grande

I've ben quiet here of late as pressure of family stuff has kept me away from much game-related stuff and any blogging.  However, tomorrow we're playing our first game of Sharp Practice in many a year.

The scenario takes place in 1814 in the foothills of the Pyrenees, just near the little village of Macho Grande.  Here's my test set up of the train:

The scenario's a four player job with two French players and two Brits.  Should be plenty of opportunities for staunch disregard of danger and looking dashing in a well-tailored uniform.

Eagles in Edinburgh

Not much from me of late as I've been away in Wirral where my Mum's now out of hospital (hurray!) or up in Edinburgh on a slightly early 25th Anniversary break with Stella.

Our arrival in Scotland's capital coincided with the opening of a small Waterloo exhibit at the National Museum of Scotland.  I say small, there are probably only a couple of dozen artefacts in about five cases but two of them are these...

Reunited for the first time since 1956, these are the two French eagles captured at Waterloo.  The one on the left, that of the 45th Line Infantry Regiment is the very one captured by Sergeant Charles Ewart of the North British Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys).

And later the same day, in the parade ground before Edinburgh Castle we came upon Ewart's final resting place....

Detailing Bjerkvik

I had a bit of aching over on Richard Phillips's blog about the difficulty of obtaining bits of civilian clutter to dot around 6mm scale battlefields.  The other evening I decided to have a go at doing something about it.

I sat down with the bits box and some plastic card and rod and knocked up this tanker-trailer.

I was going for the kind of thing that might be pulled behind a tractor and contain some kind of liquid feed or fertiliser.

This is part of my plan to add detail to the Bjerkvik base before this year's Joy of Six event.

Nothing To See Here...

... move along please.

Weekends have been busy of late with trips to Liverpool and Hull so I haven't completed much that's particularly photogenic.

I've decided to spend a few evenings getting the whole of my 6mm early WW2 French force based according to the standard I use for Blitzkrieg Commander (though it will also function for Tac:WW2).  Here's a Renault R-35 battalion in mid-basing.

And below another shot showing the whole army to be completed.

The chopping board on the left has models in various stages of base painting including the R-35s plus another battalion of Chars B1 bis.  In the middle are infantry and support weapons (Scotia).  The two boxes on the right contain mostly finished models but also a reinforced infantry battalion (Heroics and Ros) that need rebasing to my current standard.