Prussians, World War I, Space Germans, and a Zombie Dancer!

Hi,  

Just an update on aimless painting.  First are some painted plastic Perry Prussian (PPPP) Jaegers, I did up for a small Black Powder unit.  I only finished 8, ending with a tiny unit.   Sadly arms disappeared off four of the half painted models.  The cats, children, and vacuum cleaner all claimed innocence despite intense interrogation and torture.  The thief must be some of my French models, so I going to find my 28mm guillotine and little plastic heads will roll.

The leader has the wrong blade of course, but Kreuz much like his English second cousin Sharpe doesn't let the rules interfere with his choice of weapons.

Yes some of our eyes are painted too large or close together.

I finished up a few more models for m late Great War British Army.  I didn't base the mortar with crew, so that I could switch them out for heavier mortars, without having to paint multiple crews.

The Old Glory sculptor may not have been an expert on ordnance.  The tear drop shape of the mortar appears reversed or the guys are about to drop the mortars down the tube the wrong way.  Either way I can't tell which end is really the fuze or tail boom, nor wether part of it is powder bags or obturating rings.

Five more rifles and an officer, some of which have very flexible necks.  I've read that the OG sculptor purposely modeled them this way as it is a little known fact that British won the war because of the their ability to turn their heads at angles which the Germans simply could not match.

 Here's four of the old Warzone plastic models now sold by Prince August ( I think).

Zombies with lack of coherent basing scheme, left to right: Victory Force, not Barney; Victory Force; Blue Moon; unknown model

Here's a zombie stripper entertaining some undead dance enthusiasts.

And lastly a poorly breaded pooch.

- Baconfat

Black Powder Game, Salamanca Style Scenario

Hi,

If you like poorly worded after action reports and mediocre photography, this post is for you.

Weekend before last I managed to get in a fun game of Black Powder.  It was designed to resemble part of Salamanca.  About 60% of the French brigades started on the table edge with reinforcements coming on later turns.

The British were prepared in line along the road and small village.

Left  French Line, Dragoons, artillery; Center 2 line units; Right 2 line units

The French Dragoons charge some Rifles on the left destroying them.  The French center suffers a little artillery casualties.  Some of them manage to take cover from the artillery behind the trees.  The French right cheesely skirts the right table edge, to avoid fire coming from village; their plan is to round the village and attack the Brits from the side or rear, negating their numerical advantage.

The French Dragoons on the right have been destroy by British Hussars (which quickly got disordered the rest of the game) and the Brits have moved forward and both sides damage each other with brutal musket fire.  The French center doesn't really do anything.  The French right moves slow down as the Brit Guards swing around to prevent the French from rolling up the line.

Close up the French right, crap a cannon is coming.  And the Brits are hiding in the buildings as well.  If you look in the back of the photo, you can see a Brit rifle unit that failed orders the whole game.

 French reinforcements flood the field, the left have Hussars.  The original center units have moved to avoid the Brit horde advancing.  The left acquired a unit of Cuirassiers and another cannon.

 The French left taken from the Brit perspective.  The French Hussars rolled ridiculous order goodness, moved through the woods, charged the disordered Brit Cav and destroyed them.  The opposing line troops stand and bravely massacre each other with muskets.

 On the right the French roll incredibly well, move long distances, shoot well and melee well.  They wipe out the Coldstream guards and an artillery battery.  Another French unit occupies a building to negate the British in theirs.  I believe some barely involved Brits even run away, but not the static 95th Rifles solidly stood out of the action as they did the whole battle.

The battle didn't go as anyone planned and we guessed it was a narrow French Victory.  The Brits had one untouched Brigade, one almost wiped out, and another on the French left mostly shaken.

The French left Brigade was pretty beat up but would have probably finished off the Brit right shortly.  The French right owned alot of Brit real estate and I'd guess the combined French could have encircled the remaining Brits and possibly won if we had fought to a silly bloody last stand.

Black Powders' most endearing quality might be the unpredictability compared to I go, you go rules.  Also is the simple order system and movement of units, not requiring any complicated Algebra or compass.

Baconfat 

Playing Favorites

I've been seeing other miniature blogs posting their favorite influences.  I don't know who started it, but the ones I remember were on the http://theangrylurker.blogspot.com and http://bigleesminipaintingblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/blma-playing-favorites.html.

Wargames Period:  I like them all and have minis for ancients, medieval, Napoleonic, fantasy, sci-fi, modern, and WWI.  But my first and favorite would be Medieval.

Though I'd like to some day run an Anglo-Zanzibar game.  The game turns shouldn't take long as the war only took 40 minutes.  Another fun game might be the Moldovan-Transdniestrian War, when after the battles the opposing officers would meet up and drink the night away.  I wish we still fought like that.


Scale:  25-28mm.  Smaller looks like painting would not be fun.  Larger models and you might not be able to convince the wife you're not just playing with toys.


Rules:  Chainmail Rules for Medieval Miniatures, published by Guidon Games and later TSR.  The rules were simple and fun, despite a few gaps and contradictory areas.  There's even a section at the back for fantasy miniatures which was the father of D&D.

Manufacturer:  Perry Brothers.  Great sculpts, cheap plastics, compatible with many other companies.  


Metal, Plastic, or Resin:  Metal.  Resin is poisonous, metal will last longer than me, and I'm scared all my plastic will decompose before I die.


Club:  Puyallup Wargamers.


Opponent:  Whoever is across the table.


Film:  I really like the Bernard Cornwell tv show based on the Sharpe novels.  My favorite movies though are Kafka, Bladerunner, Where Eagles Dare, and of course the best war film ever made "Kelly's Heroes"


Book:  Really it's books by Bernard Cornwell.  As a kid I loved Tolkien or any Tolkien rip off.


Art:  Some of those ancient Rogue Trader artists, Angus McBride, Perry Brothers.


Web:  I check these three almost daily:  TMP, the Lead Adventure Forum and http://wabcorner.blogspot.com/.

- Baconfat