Ray and Fran's "20 Questions"

I can blame Ray and Fran for this one. It's taken me hours and hours to go through and answer all of these questions  - which has kept me from doing any painting this evening you gits! OK, to be fair, I was feeling a bit lethargic from all the heat and probably wouldn't have done any painting anyway.



1.  Favourite Wargaming period and why?

Having only got back into gaming last year and only having played a couple of periods I'd have to say "Don't know yet". I'm definitely enjoying ancients and medievals, and very much looking forward to Thirty Years War

2.  Next period, money no object?

Oooh, err, no idea really. Next project is to complete my late medieval Swiss. If you're saying "money no object", I think you need to add "gaming/storage space and time" to the "no object" statement. If I had the time, money and space I'd be tempted to acquire enough spaceship models to represent the Alliance and Syndic fleets from Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series.

3.  Favourite 5 films?

Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, Secretary, Ronin, Quadrophenia

4.  Favourite 5 TV series?

M*A*S*H, The West Wing, Babylon 5, The Young Ones, The Water Margin

5.  Favourite book and author?

*looks daggers at Ray and Fran for putting this question in*

Too many favourite books and authors to restrict it to just one of each. Books and authors I've enjoyed reading recently - the Uther series by Bernard Cornwell, the Succubus series by Richelle Mead, the Lost Fleet Series by Jack Campbell, Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, pretty much anything by Philip K Dick and Harry Harrison. And that's just the fiction - I read a lot of non fiction stuff too and quite enjoyed reading Machiavelli's The Prince and The Art of War.

6.  Greatest General? Can’t count yourself!!

Gustav Adolf of Sweden

7.  Favourite Wargames rules?

Too early to tell as I've only played a couple.

8.  Favourite Sport and team?

I've never really been a fan of team sports - my favourite sports to watch are road-race cycling and long distance running, so it is mainly individuals I've followed. My all-time running hero would have to be Emil Zatopek - as far as I know nobody else has repeated his 1952 Olympics result of gold medals in the 10000m, the 5000m and the Marathon (the first time he'd ever raced that distance). Going back to the late 80s/early 90s it is very difficult to get better than the two great rivals Steve Moneghetti (Australia) and Douglas Wakihuri (Kenya).

9.  If you had a only use once time machine, when and where would you go?

To a point far enough in the future that they've developed a repeat-use time machine so that I can get back!

10. Last meal on Death Row?

A "Plume Special" from the Plume and Feathers in Princetown on Dartmoor, just to see if it tastes as good as I remember.

11. Fantasy relationship and why?

Errmmm, can I pass on this? It's so long since I've had sexual/relationship fantasies that I've got no idea whether I'd still fancy them! I'm not even sure if I can remember who they were.

12. If your life were a movie, who would play you?

Molly Ringwald for the current me - about the right age and she's a redhead. She'd need to punk and butch up a bit though. Not sure who would play the younger me.

13. Favourite Comic  Superhero?

Never read the superhero comics, so I can't give an answer to that. However, of non-superhero comic characters it's a toss-up between Tank Girl and Judge Dredd.

14. Favourite Military quote?

Not so much a quote as a spoofed slogan. During the late 80s/early 90s the British army had posters warning troops to "BE ALERT". It appears that in once batch of posters a typo occured resulting in it saying "BE A LERT". Some wags from the ranks (I knew one of them) produced and distributed a bunch of spoofed posters saying "BE A WARE - THE ARMY HAS ENOUGH LERTS".

On actual quotations, there is one (probably apocryphal) from the Crimean war that I sort of remember - the British commander telling his senior officers "Gentlemen, the Russians, whom we will be fighting are in front of us. The enemy (referring to the French who were our allies) are on our left" or something like that. I've spent ages trying to find the actual quote on the web without success.

15. Historical destination to visit?

Krak des Chevaliers (if it's ever safe to visit Syria)

16. Biggest Wargaming regret?

Having quit in my teens and wasted over 20 years by not gaming - so much to catch up on!!

17. Favourite Fantasy job?

Multi-millionairess who doesn't have to work, with a large house in the country where I can invite friends for wargaming long weekends to fight seriously huge battles over several days.

18. Favourite Song Top 5?

Wait For The Blackout - The Damned; Fade To Black - Metallica; Bales of Cocaine - Reverend Horton Heat; Temple of Love - Sisters of Mercy; Ace of Spades - Motorhead

19. Favourite Wargaming Moment?

Winning my first game. 

20. The miserable Git question, what upsets you?

Annoy rather than upset:

Tory tossers; idiots who get off at the top or bottom of an escalator and then just stand there blocking everyone else; Tory tossers; twat drivers who turn without indicating; Tory tossers; "slebs" who are fampus without having ever done anything truly noteworthy; Tory tossers; people who refuse for years to join a union then suddenly join when they're about to lose their job and demand that you drop everything and help them; Tory tossers; most TV presenters; Tory tossers; 

NB - I do include the DimLebs and the Blairite wing of the Labour Party under "Tory tossers"





1.  Favourite Wargaming period and why?
2.  Next period, money no object?
3.  Favourite 5 films?
4.  Favourite 5 TV series?
5.  Favourite book and author?
6.  Greatest General? Can’t count yourself!!
7.  Favourite Wargames rules?
8.  Favourite Sport and team?
9.  If you had a only use once time machine, when and where would you go?
10. Last meal on Death Row?
11. Fantasy relationship and why?
12. If your life were a movie, who would play you?
13. Favourite Comic  Superhero?
14. Favourite Military quote?
15. Historical destination to visit?
16. Biggest Wargaming regret?
17. Favourite Fantasy job?
18. Favourite Song Top 5?
19. Favourite Wargaming Moment?
20. The miserable Git question, what upsets you?

Quick AAR: FoG:AM, Swiss vs Seljuk Turks

Well, I played my third (and final) first round game in the club's Medievals tournament this evening. My Swiss were still hunting the Burgundians (even though they had somehow time traveled back a couple of years to be able to take more crossbows) and were rather confused and surprised to encounter a Seljuk Turk army, which had obviously also been caught in a time warp, as it should have been Ottomans in the 15th Century.

The time warp, and the terrain they found themselves in (I lost the initiative roll, Simon selected "Agricultural")  caused much head-scratching and led to a complete shambles at deployment. Well, to be fair, the deployment was probably OK, but then I decided to move them which meant that it caused much faffing about later on.

I did take my camera and did take pics, so here you go:

The situation after 2 turns

And after 4 turns, my first losses - two units of light foot who were charged, rolled short for their evade moves and got broken at impact or in melee. Things were not looking good for me....

This plucky unit of handgunners had been caught by light foot pursuing one of the broken battle groups. Somehow - despite being heavily outnumbered - they managed to hold on for several turns. Simon is trying to work out how he can bring his Dailami medium foot into action. Can any of my heavy foot come to the rescue of the handgunners in time?

Hmmm, maybe these halberdiers?

Meanwhile, over on my left flank some crossbowmen have charged some light horse (who they'd already dropped to fragmented by shooting) and caused them to break, bursting through a bunch of Ghilman cavalry on their way (helpfully dropping the Ghilmans to Disrupted)

At this point, we reached the 2 hours & 10 minutes "base time" for the match when we would roll dice to add a variable amount of extra time. I did offer to call the agme at that point (Simon had 1 BG broken from 12, I had 2 broken from 10) but Simon insisted on carrying on, so we did....

A couple of turns later:

On the right of the picture, the Dailami have now joined in the melee as an overlap.

The Ghilman who had been disrupted by routing light horse had, for reasons known only to them, moved into charge range of my pikes and been shot to fragmented by my crossbows. You'll never guess what I did.

OK, you did guess - I declared a charge on them with my pikes causing them to take a cohesion test. They promptly failed the test and broke taking a general with them.

Over in my centre, the halberdiers declared a charge against the light foot in front of them, but angled such that they could contact the light foot who were in melee with my handgunners. Their original target evaded and my halberdiers surged forward, spurred by a high dice roll (they got an extra inch of charge!!) to join in the scrap. After a round of melee with the Dailami having joined in, the handgunners had gone down to Fragmented. My halberdiers coming in helped even things up a little, dropping the Turkish light foot to disrupted at impact.

During the melee, my halberdiers and handgunners managed to cause the Seljuk light foot to double-drop and break (well, the dice Simon rolled for his cohesion test did that to them). Unfortunately my handgunners, after bravely fighting for several rounds of melee could take no more and also broke.

the Dailami didn't like seeing their friends break and promptly failed their morale check and dropped to fragmented (we think - they had a disrupted marker, but we can't remember when they dropped - it may have been there to mark that they were "disordered" by the difficult terrain)

Simon's routing light foot managed to slip past the ones who had been my halberdiers original charge target. My halberdiers had rolled a 6 for their pursuit move which was just perfect - straight into the back of their original chargees. This meant they had to face me in the next turn's impact phase. Having been hit in the rear they were disrupted and would only have 1 dice needing 5s or 6s against my 2 dice needing 3s, 4s, 5s or 6s (and re-rolling 1s for being "Superior"). 

I'm pretty sure I dropped them to Fragmented at that point, During the Manouevre phase we expanded out  leaving Simon with 2 dice versus my 6 dice, with the same to hit rolls needed as at impact. I don't recall what Simon's dice were but I rolled 3 sixes, a five and 2 ones. Oooh, re-rolls! Make that another 2 sixes!Automatic base loss and a crappy roll for the cohesion test saw them break and run.

Positions at the end of the battle.

Somehow, from it looking as though my Swiss were going to suffer their first defeat of this campaign (and still no sign of those dratted Burgundians!) it all got turned around in the last 2 turns.

End result:

Swiss: 3 BGs broken from 10
Selkuks: 4 BGS broken and 1 (we believe) fragmented from 12

A narrow victory for me. As far as we can tell, that puts me in first place in our group. Clive is currently in second place, but there is a sneaking chance that either Elliot or Simon could squeak past him if they win their game 25-0. I say that, but it's been a while since the results tables were sent out.

WIP: 30YW Commanders #3

A bit more done this evening - not as much as I'd hoped, but it took longer due to switching colours after doing something on each figure.

Done today:
Breeches - 12 colours used (4 reds, 4 blues, 4 greens)
Jackets - 12 colours used (as above)
Boots and gloves - 3 colours used (Burnt Umber, Cork Brown and Khaki Grey). 1 pair of boots and 1 pair of gloves got a mixed colour.

As my Swiss have their 3rd club tourney game tomorrow night, I probably won't get any painting done, but it's still looking good for having them finished (certainly to the stage of being glued onto bases, even if the basing hasn't been done) for my first FoG:R game on Monday.

Next steps:
Hair
Hats
Leather bits (belts, scabbards, stirrups)
Sashes
Collars and hat feathers
Metallics detailing
Other detailing

So the photos:

RIP: Harry Harrison

I don't know how I missed this earlier today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/15/harry-harrison

Harry Harrison was one of my favourite SF authors as a teenager and young adult. His range of works from the comedic to intensely tragic was remarkable.

I think I've read all of the Stainless Steel Rat and Bill the Galactic Hero series at one point or another, along with many of his other books and short stories.

Harry - you will be missed.

WIP: 30YW Commanders #2

After last night's post I did do the shading washes on the horses. As is always the case, this ended up too strong on the white horse, so my first job this evening was to dry-brush with Ivory to re-highlight, followed by a thin wash of ivory to tone down some of the shading in the recesses.

The other bits I did this evening were:

Socks and face markings on the chestnut and black horses (Ivory)

Eyes on the horses (Black Grey)

Ground colour on figure bases (Flat Earth)

Faces and exposed hands of the riders (Flesh Base)

Horse tack - 4 colours used - Black Grey, Red Leather, Leather Brown and Saddle Brown

I also did the saddle cloth (mix of Flat Earth and Bronze) and pistol holsters (Red Leather) on the white horse. I'll do the holsters on the other horses after posting this and may do the saddle cloths.

Later on in the process, the saddle cloths will get coloured borders and the holsters will get some detailing in Bronze or Silver. 

Tomorrow I'll start on the riders - breeches, boots, jackets and gloves. If I get time I'll do hair and hats.

Anyway, it's not text you want, it's pictures.

WIP: 30YW Commanders

Sorry for not posting yesterday - I was just feeling shattered and didn't feel like painting, so there was nothing to post about.

I've got my first ever game of FoG:R lined up for Monday, so a minor change to plans was needed. I had been planning to do the armour/gun barrels/metallics and horse colours for the commanders, reiters, dragoons and the artillery in one batch and then split them for the rest of the painting. However, I will want my commanders finished for Monday's game so I've decided to focus on them.

This evening I have done the following:

Yellow Ochre basecoat for breeches, jackets, sashes and saddle cloths
Black basecoat for armour, gun barrels and drawn swords
Oily Steel dry-brush for armour, gun barrels and drawn swords
Thin black ink wash over armour
Very thin black-brown ink wash all over to provide deep shading (I could have omitted this step - the next step seems to have covered it)
Thinned down paint basecoats for horse flesh*

*1 horse = Ivory, 2 horses = Pale Bluegrey, 2 horses = Light Grey, 3 horses = Chocolate Brown, 3 horses = Mahogany Brown, 1 horse = Mahogany Brown with a little Iraqi Sand. The horses with Chocolate Brown and Mahogany brown basecoats will be split between chestnuts and blacks when I do the wash-shading step

Before I go to bed tonight I'll do the shading washes on the horses. In the meantime here's a pic:

I should be able to get these done in time, despite not being able to do anything this Thursday - I have my third match in the group stage of the club's Medieval FoG tourney - my Swiss against Simon's Seljuk Turks.

WIP: 30YW Foot, the Green-Red and Red-Blue Regiments #6; On The Workbench

And they are finished! That's all my 30YW foot done for now (I'll eventually be upgrading the three 6-base regiments to 9-base ones and maybe adding some musket-only units to the army).

Last night they got glued onto bases and basing gunk added. This afternoon I dry-brushed the gunk, sprayed them with matt varnish and then flocked them. I haven't tufted them - when I checked my box-file I spotted that the first 3 regiments I'd painted hadn't been tufted. I may do tufting of them all tomorrow afternoon.

So, the pics:

Oh, the perils of the close-up! It my be not so obvious here, but if you enlarge this pic you'll see that the Colonel's forehead has some pretty big "pockmarks". I'm not going to do anything about it - I think they actually add a little bit of character to him.

I'm not sure how, but this regiment does seem to have somehow gained more than the average number of not-very-well-prepped figures - several have VML ("visible mold line").

And now for the two regiments together:

I do like how the darker shades of red and green for the breeches look against the brighter jackets colours on the officers. There's a part of me that wants to go back to the first three of regiments I did and go over the breeches of their officers but that would just be too fiddly so I'll leave them.


On The Workbench

This evening I have done the white-wash on the horses of the command groups, dragoons and reiters. I might do the black basecoat for the armour and carbine/pistol barrels before I go to bed. Then, after dry-brushing with Oily Steel and doing a black wash for the cuirassier type armour, I'll do the horse flesh colours & washes and markings in one go, before splitting them off into their separate groups for the rest of the painting.