ACW game, Battle for Sawmill Village

Last night we played a quick ACW game, using our house rules (see link to our ACW page if you want to see the rules).

I used scenario #41 from Charles Grant's Scenarios for Wargames as the setup. This is a fairly standard encounter battle, where two sides, evenly set up, both want to take control of the same village in the centre on the table. I didn't have much time setting up the table, so it was a bit on the minimal side w.r.t visuals.

A few things we observed:

• Battles that have both armies fighting for control of a relatively small area tend to become crowded and messy affairs. All units converge on the same area. The result is a lot of fiddling with frontages and facing, and sometimes outcomes of fights depend solely on the fact that you couldn't place your figures they way you wanted 3 turns ago. Even though we swore off the competitive aspect of wargaming many eons ago in favour of a more gentlemenlike apporach to the game, it still gave me some headaches.
• Our rules do not work that well when units are occupying single buildings, so we might have to work on that.
• Specific rulesets are usually designed with a specific type of scenario in mind: lots of cover, no cover, many units, fewer units, etc... Deviating from these hidden assumptions often stretches a particular ruleset to its limits.

Anyway, here are a few quick and dirty pictures. Not of too high quality, I'm afraid. I am still not used to taking photographs when wearing reading glasses ...

Game from the Union side. The casualties in the lower-right corner are casualty markers.
We use them to indicate when a unit needs to take a morale check.

Bart's giant moving hand picking up some Confederates.

Confederate Battery deployed on the hill.
Game -winning tactic, as it turned out several moves later.

Union Battery deployed on the wrong hill.
Smoke marker from Early War Miniatures.

Both sides try to take control of Sawmill Village.

More Confederate troop moving going on ...

Battle for the village in full swing.

Just to show off my Featherstone signature ... :-)

A Gentleman's wargame is not complete without some whisky or bourbon.
This time Jack Daniels Silver Select.

"To the friends of the Schild & Vriend Gentlemen's Wargaming Society!"

Oldhammer: Orcs and Goblins

In preparation for a replay of the Ziggurat of Doom, the initial WFB1 scenario, I decided to bring out and clean up my Oldhammer Orcs&Goblins. I didn't repaint the figures, but redid the bases in an 80s style - grey flock and some simple tufts of grass and small rocks.

Note that the Orcs and Goblins are not painted green, but Orcs a brownish flesh, and the Goblins a fleshy orange ;-) Sacrilege to some, creativity to others.

Identification of some of the miniatures I have labeled as "Ral Partha" is still uncertain, but I am working on it. Any help appreciated.

All Orcs & Goblins around the Ziggurat of Doom.

Goblin Wolf Riders by Alternative Armies. See this page on Lostminiswiki.

Goblin warriors - all Citadel Miniatures

Goblin Fanatics - Citadel.

Various Orcs - Ral Partha 11-409.
The one in front looks suspiciously like the Ral Partha Bunny of Doom.
The one front left probably from the Orc Legion of Death 02-083

Orc Warriors - all Citadel. Some Alternative Armies goblins in the foreground.

More Ral Partha Orcs.

Catapult (including crew) is from Prince August.
Bolt Thrower Citadel, crew Bolt Thrower probably Ral Partha

Grenadier (Classic Fantasy Blister #327) Orc General, Citadel goblin.

Citadel Orc Archers.

Citadel Goblin Archers

Old Minifigs

I started with miniature wargaming during the 2nd half of the eighties, but only started to acquire the bulk of my wargaming figures somewhere around 1989 or 1990.

Hence, I am quite unfamiliar with ranges from the seventies. However, I have started to develop a certain fondness for old wargaming figures, and although I am not a hardcore collector, I try to pick up some figures here and there when another veteran wargamer sells off some of his stock.

This week I came into the possession of a couple of scifi and fantasy Minifigs, thanks to fellow veteran wargamer Wim VDB. I do not think I ever owned Minifigs before, although I am aware of the legendary status of this brand. So, I am quite happy that now I do have some old charming Minifigs in my growing collection of old-fashioned wargaming figures.

For identification, I turned to the excellent Lostminiswiki. Not all acquired minis are shown in the pictures below.

Some unopened packs! In this case, figures from the range Aurelea Rococo,
Knights of the Silver Rose.

Science fiction figures. A selection the Central Galactic Force, Samain, and Zarquin.

Some figures from the renowned Valley of the Four Winds range.
This range was really exceptional, in the sense that it captured a Breughel-like fantasy world.

Next up on the painting table: Elves

My plan of moving through my pile of unpainted lead and plastic is nicely moving along. I try to group my painting into batches of thematically linked figures, e.g. all medievals, all scifi, etc. This doesn't always work for the odd figure here and there, it mostly provides a nice coherent feel to most painted units. Especially since I paint to a (some might say crude) gaming standard, it is important that the troops look visually as if the could belong together.

Next up are the Elves. Over the years, I never really collected a lot of Elves, apart from some figures for roleplaying, but below are the main units I plan to paint in the immediate future.

The plastic Elves from the WFB 4th edition boxed set. These were released in 1992.  I bought the box, but was already moving out of Warhammer at the time. Hence, these figures never got painted, apart from 8 spearman that I once needed for the Siege of Lowenheim game. The original pastic sprues also are listed in the 1992 catalogue.

An old set, but a recent acquisition, is the Ral Partha Elven Chariot, designed by Tom Meier. The first reference I could find is in the 1982 Ral Partha Catalogue. I bought this set a couple of months ago from Wim VDB, a fellow Belgian wargamer, who also has been in the hobby for quite a few decades. I really look forward to putting this one together and painting it. 

Antares 2401: Zeta squad, Combat Engineers

In our ongoing Antares 2401 campaign, our latest game witnessed a new squad in action. Zeta squad has been trained as combat engineers, with the specific task of assaulting enemy-held bunkers, clearing paths trough barbed wire and minefields, and assist the combat squads in action.

I thought it was a good idea to use a black/yellow stripe pattern as a distinctive sign for Zeta squad.

The figures below are:

• 1 original Terminator figure from the original, 1st edition Spacehulk.
• 2 converted Terminators from the same Spacehulk game, replacing their bolter with a claw. The claw is a weapon from a Battlemech figure from the Wizkids Mechwarrior game.
• 2 Mechs from the Wizkids Mechwarrior game. Although the Mechs are at a total different scale originally, I think they blend well as (large) human-sized bots with the normal 28mm figures we normally use for our sci f skirmish games.

Sci Fi Greenhouses

A quick (15 minutes) and easy scenery project for a science fiction setting: greenhouses.

I used the lid from a pack of cherry tomatoes, put an enclosure on top to cover the hole in the lid, and added a circular ring-shaped base with an opening in the middle. Thus, the greenhouses can be placed over some model plants.

Two Citadel miniatures (Eldar Trader and Halfling Cook, Space Pirates range from the 80s) are shown for scale comparisons. The cook wants to buy some spices for his meal tonight, but the trader refuses to sell at below market value!

The greenhouses were used as a mission objective in our latest Antares 2401 game.

Antares 2401 Campaign: Mission VIII

Yesterday we played mission VIII in our Antares 2401 campaign. The mission: an amphibious assault on island Cardamon (located in the Spice System), homebase of the criminal Krypton Venk. Gamma squad (Bart) and Epsilon squad (Eddy) were selected for this highly dangerous mission, supported by Combat Engineers from Zeta squad and the Rookies from Theta Squad (note: normally, each player only commands his own assigned squad, but since only two players were available, each got an additional support squad).

The mission went not as expected. For the first time in the campaign, the StarMarines had to withdraw and abort the mission. Several StarMarines were left behind. The players blamed the GM for setting up an unwinnable scenario, the GM agreed :-)

Bart and Eddy making a tactical plan before the start of the game.

More planning ...

Theta Squad is stroming the beach.

Epsilon Squad has disembarked.

Theta and Epslion squad trying to take out the first enemy positions.

Combat Engineers from Zeta Squad are wading ashore.

Artillery is hitting the beach (right). First enemies taken out (left).

Right: The indestructible bunker!

Theta Squad ripping a mercenary to pieces.

Overview of the game: massacre on the beach?

Gamma squad flaming a machine gun.

How much damage can that bunker take?

Theta and Gamma squad moving towards the hinterland.

The game ended close after the last photograph. The defenders were too numerous, and crossing an open field using our current rules is a deadly exercise!

In hindsight, the scenario was a bit unbalanced. But what can we do about that after the facts?

Oldhammer: Ziggurat of Doom

Ever since I read Warhammer Fantasy Battle 1st edition as a teenager - and which was my first exploration in the world of miniature wargaming - the scenario "The Ziggurat of Doom" included in the 1st booklet captured my imagination. The scenario features a heroic last stand of 6 dwarves against an horde of goblins.

I still remember thinking I would never be able to stage such a scenario, but I tried nevertheless. The Ziggurat itself was modeled using wooden toy blocks, but figures were a problem (plastic 1/72 Atlantic Romans served as Dwarves and Orcs), and I only had a handful of trees to model the surrounding forest.

30 years later, things have changed. I now have enough trees to fill my gaming table twice, several 1000s of miniatures for all sorts of periods, and I even have a nice model for the Ziggurat. The model was built on commission during the 90s by a talented guy who also frequented the local gaming shop. When he announeced he would take commissions for buildings and scenery, I knew exactly what I wanted! The Ziggurat of Doom!

Here some photos I took yesterday:

I have used the Ziggurat for several games over the years, most notably our pulp King Kong game, but also for some generic fantasy games.

King Kong game, 2007

Te Wapen game, probably 1995