Raided, Looted, and (almost) Burned.

What a ride these last few weeks have been!  

Our club had a great session last Sunday.  We had the best turnout ever, and on this occasion we had to book a larger room.  Four games on the go at the same time.  It was great to see both new and familiar faces enjoying a variety of nicely laid-out games.  

The continued growth of our club, and the amount of interest in miniatures gaming evident in the Tokyo area, is really satisfying to see. 

Unfortunately, Achilleas and Matt were unable to make it with their French and British, so no Napoleonics this time.  But I did have a fun Blitzkrieg Commander II game instead, set in 1945 with my Russkis taking on British (i.e not enough Germans to go around, as there were two BKC II games going on at the same time).  I really enjoy that rule set for WW2 games.

I also received two boxes of Warlord Games' new Landwehr.  I actually think they are really neat, even if they are not the most accurate out there.  They match well in size with my Front Rank figures, were good value with free postage, and will be easy to paint.

That was the good news.  

Much less fun was the fact that my wife and I fell victim to identity theft this past week.  Some low-life had gotten hold of a whole slew of credit card numbers- ours included- from a very reputable company in the UK.

We found out from the card company after the jerks (a professional job most likely) had gone on what seems to have been a global spending spree.  Fortunately the banking system was on the ball; they had caught wind of something fishy going on, and decided to put a tentative stop on the card while they contacted us.   

After many phone calls and time off from work (at a busy time, of course!), the good news is that it is all covered by the card insurance, and we won't find ourselves out of pocket.  

But you can imagine the hassle and pure waste of time we are having to contend with. We have had to contact other merchants and services we deal with, to let them know what happened and to transfer all other payments to a different card.  We keep another card just for emergencies like this, but any new purchases of any kind are ruled out until the matter is officially settled and we get another card number.  

Needless to say, je suis très pissed-off.  

To be fair, the company in question from whom the information was stolen has been up-front and very communicative about it, sending regular updates to all involved.  And certainly we live in an age where electronic transactions are a necessary part of life, especially for me living here in the Far East.   But merchants take note, from now on it is bank drafts or PayPal purchases only.

At least things are calming down now, and I can slowly get back to hobby stuff.  We will most likely be able to have another Black Powder Napoleonics game on November 14th, so I will try to get the redoubt finished (coming along nicely now after some surgery and having added the gabions), as well as to finish up some loose odds-'n-ends on my painting table.

Protecting the Armoury

With the prospect of more Napoleonic games on the horizon, and more gamers at the club, it was clear from our last session that we need more terrain- buildings, woods, rivers, roads- the lot.  So I've been working on my allotment of trees as well as some buildings and structures for 28mm games.

I've made good progress with a redoubt I've made from old tofu tubs, and prepared bases for a row of resin buildings I ordered years ago from Hovels.  These are great buildings, and will look good once painted and glued on the base with a surrounding fence.  But being resin, they are heavy.  I've also got  the Hovels' carriage house, but that will be for later as it will be quite an undertaking.

In the background is the basic shape of what will be a small(?) armoury, something which seems suitable for opposing forces to fight a battle over.  

I knocked it together this morning in about thirty minutes from various pieces of foam packing material- the crumbly white stuff- which I cut into shape and glued together with cocktail sticks and PVA.  The whole was covered with packing tape to cover gaps and prevent the foam from crumbling away, and then I brushed it liberally with undiluted PVA to seal it.  

I will then face the whole structure with foamcore panels, and add doors, beams, gables, chimneys and the like before the laborious task of roofing it.

Being Styrofoam it is extremely light, so should transport easily to the club despite its size.

The 10 pdr. howitzer in the redoubt protecting it is the next in line in my French for priming and painting.  I've just about finished its companion, the 6 pdr. gun, and will post pictures of that once it is base is finished off.

Yes, I know I should be spending more time on painting miniatures! But to me good wargaming is a coming together of good companionship, fun rules, well-painted miniatures, and attractive terrain.  

As terrain is notoriously difficult to cart around, and I have only a short distance to travel to the club compared to others having to take the train half way across Tokyo, it makes sense that I work on the buildings as others are already painting up a good number of miniatures as well.  

And I do love making terrain, even if I keep on avoiding the annoying problem on how I'm going to store it all.

Blood and Black Powder!

Today was a day of firsts. 

Our first game of Black Powder, the first time my 28mm Napoleonics have ever seen combat, and the first victory for General Victor-Eugène Bouillon-Cantinat!

The 1/28e Regt. Légère takes it's place at the end of the French line.  It was to be one of the few French units to survive the game, albeit taking significant casualties.  The game ended in a French victory, but with a huge butcher's bill on both sides.

The British were provided by Matt, and many of the French by Achilleas.  Between them, they fielded a good number of extremely well painted and inspiring figures from Perry Miniatures and from Victrix, mostly plastics.  In detail I found these the equal of many metal models out there, the proportions were better, and they were a lot easier to carry! I'm becoming increasingly sold on plastics.

I'll be posting more pictures later on the West Tokyo Wargamers blog.  But for now suffice to say that it was a great game and very much a "near run thing".  So far the Black Powder rules seem to be giving us what we are looking for in a club game.  Something that can be picked up fairly easily by those unfamiliar with the rules, which can be played to conclusion in the time available, and which is both fast and furious.  

 

With French cuirassiers chomping at the bit ready to puree the British 45th Foot at the first opportunity, the much-depleted 1/28e Regt. Légère fires the final volley that will cause the last remaining British infantry unit to fail its break roll and retreat back off the table, as Bouillon-Cantinat looks on.  Vive La France! 

The way we played it, the game had a very "Featherstone-esque" feel to it, as we determined to finish it to the end with no brigade morale rules (we wanted to try out as many of the rules as possible, so voluntary retreat was not an option for either side!).  

Despite the usual mistakes and omissions that is the case on both sides whenever a set of rules is being played for the first time, loads of fun was had by all.

Black Powder- Roster Chart

Napoleonics coming to Tokyo!   I have been looking through the Black Powder rules, and am cautiously optimistic that they can make for a good Napoleonic game.  Cautious, because we haven't yet tried them, optimistic because they seem quite tweak-able.  And I have always liked to tinker with rule sets.  

The mechanics seem simple, and given that we have to wrap things up in an afternoon, this will mean a lot as to how practical the set is for club use.

I've prepared a Roster Chart- a .pdf file for my force based on a download I got from the Black Powder Yahoo! group.   I've added it to the sidebar.  One very small brigade, units organized into 36 miniatures for the infantry, twelve for the cavalry, and only one gun model.  

Not every unit will be painted for the game.  I'll try to get as much done as time allows, but I can see us gaming with a bunch of figures blu-tacked onto temporary bases.  

Purists may gasp in disgust, but at this early stage I think it best that we just muster what we can and get gaming.  If past experience is anything to go by, if the game turns out well, then painting speed will go up exponentially.

Back from Elba...

I haven't been active on my Napoleonic miniatures lately, and unlike the situation that le petit caporal found himself in well-nigh 200 years ago, in this case the exile has been self-imposed.   

I have always tended to drift from project to project like a drunken moth with Alzheimers, and with time these days being short both for gaming and for painting, it was high time to develop some project discipline for a change.  

So for the past three months I have been making a conscious effort to devote my wargaming attention exclusively to my other favourite period; the Second World War, in particular the Eastern Front and my collection of 1943-44 Soviets.
 
This is a period that a number of us are gaming here at the club, and it made sense to focus my energies on it.

And I have done so, quite successfully so far.  As a result, we have been getting in some great games over the last few months.  My collection has been growing steadily, with the pile of unmade model kits getting smaller and smaller- despite having constantly added to it!

All the time, though, I found myself looking behind my back at my Napoleonic figures, but as we were not gaming the period, there did not seem much point in getting myself distracted from the khaki horde.

Well, all that is about to change, and it appears that we actually have a Napoleonic game scheduled for September!  If all goes to plan,  three of us will be having a small game to try out the Black Powder rules to see how they go.  Nothing is carved in stone, and we may try other systems as time goes on. 

But the important thing is that Napoleonics are finally on the table!   I need the discipline of meaningful deadlines, and I know now that what keeps me at work on a project is to actually be gaming the period I'm painting.  Nothing pushes me get my miniatures past the finish line like knowing that others are depending on a contribution  of troops for the next gaming session.  So it bodes well for my commitment to the Napoleonic Wars. 

I'll still be working on my Soviets of course, and we do have a big game scheduled for October.  But now I've the motivation to get on with the units of French I've already got so tantalizingly near to completion.  And if interest in the period can be maintained amongst other club members, the potential of sizable Napoleonic games becoming a regular feature may be realized. 

In the meantime, there have been a number of notable developments in the hobby recently, what with a number of companies entering the arena with ranges from the Russian army of Suvorov and of Austerlitz, and very recently Perry Miniatures and Warlord  coming up with plans for plastic 1813 Prussians.

The plastic "revolution" is an interesting one, and given my recent return to plastic modelling, I find myself looking more and more favourably on the development.  The quality gap is closing- has closed in many instances-, the price is right, and as anyone who has had to transport large numbers of miniatures to a club game might know, the weight saving is not one to be ignored.

In fact, the plastics are what is making the appearance of Napoleonics here possible, but more of that in my next post.

Happy Anniversary M. le Archiduc!

This week saw the third anniversary of Clash of Empires, Iannick Martin's (a.k.a Archiduc Charles) excellent site and home of the La Bricole forum.  

Iannick is one of those people whose whole-hearted enthusiasm for the hobby, and for Napoleonic wargaming in particular, has been instrumental in keeping the flame alive in me even at those times when I wonder if the whole thing is worth it. 

Even while I envy his project discipline (apparently beginning to crack these days, mind!), he has been both an inspiration and a good friend.

So as a present to Iannick, and as a mark of respect to his beloved whitecoats, here is a musical salute to the Kaiserliks.  

The Weiner Alexander March, an Austrian march written towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars to celebrate the Allied ascendancy, and itself a parody of the French Revolutionary anthem, Ça Ira.  It was also a favourite of Czar Alexander at the Congress of Vienna, hence the name.

Never mind the Prussian flag, it was a popular march that soon found its way into the Prussian Army book of marches, and can still be heard played today. 
 

Thanks Iannick, and keep posting!

Tidbits

Work, home projects and painting miniatures have been keeping me busy recently.  

The painting has been productive, and I've been focusing on trying to complete the half-finished or nearly finished units that have been taking up space on the painting table.  

Pride of place so far has been this vignette for my 18th C. project, but I've also been working on my Napoleonics, so I hope to have some eye candy here very shortly.

One setback has been physical.  Over the last few weeks I had been spending a lot of time at the computer at work finishing off some reports and a textbook draft.  This was followed by a weekend of intense painting.  

Well, I spent so much time huddled over my desk painting without taking the occasional stretch and walk, so that on the Monday I woke up with such severe back/ shoulder pain that I couldn't move.  I had to take the day off and just lie in bed with pain killers until the agony subsided.  

Moral of the story- I need to remember to pace myself.  I'm not as young as I used to be!

*****

Other news is that I received my copy of Republic to Empire and it looks good!  It is complex, but not necessarily complicated.  At first reading, in fact, it reminds in in some ways of my old and beloved Complete Brigadier rules that I used to play back in 1985.   

The photos and overall design are just gorgeous, but it is obvious the rules contain a lot of "meat" as well.

Even if it means using unpainted or half-painted figures at first, (shame! Shame!), I intend to try out the starter scenario that Clarence Harrison developed, and which was played out by John in his excellent post on the Battle of Puente de Piedra.

On the subject of blogs, I've added a link to another one here.  "Grognard" is a French wargamer living in Rouen, and his blog, L'épopée, showcases some very excellently done Front Rank figures. I can only drool in admiration!

*****

Finally, I received my latest copy of Battlegames magazine, and this edition came with a free sprue of Perry plastic dismounted French dragoons.  

The detail is amazing, and honestly these are more than the equal of any number of metal miniatures out there these days.  While some purists insist that plastic models don't have the definition of their metal brethren, I'd have to say that the gap is closing mightily fast with these models.  

And when you factor in the adaptability, conversion potential, and of course price, I cannot see why anyone would not want to have at least some plastics in their collection if only to bulk out the army.  

Not to mention that a brigade of French infantry in plastic will be a lot easier on my back to take to the club than would be the equivilent in metal!

Of course I am not about to throw away or stop buying metal miniatures.  No way.  I see the best of the plastics as complementing my existing collection, not replacing them.  There is room for both metal and plastic miniatures in my wargaming world.