2012 - Looking Back & Looking Ahead

Well another year has come and gone and it's time to reflect on what I managed to get done this year and what I hope to accomplish in 2013.

It was a great year for completing projects for me...not that all of the projects that were finished were done entirely by me, but still it's nice not to have to worry about them any longer.  The projects that I now consider completed include: my 28mm Mitanni, 28mm ACW Confederates, 15mm Polish 1st Armored, 15mm Polish 10th Mechanized Brigade, and Mike's 28mm Republican Romans.  In addition, I purchased a couple of painted armies that add to my available forces:  15mm Polish 1st Parachute Brigade & 15mm Sassanid Persians.  All in all, 2012 was the best hobby year I've had in the past 5 as far as basing and painting figures goes.  I hope I can keep this momentum up in 2013!

As for games, Flames of War was probably my most played game in 2012.  I played some one-off games, but also participated in several local tournaments which I enjoyed.  I hope that the tournaments keep occuring on a regular schedule in 2013.  I also played games of Might of Arms (15mm Ancients), Clash of Empires (28mm Ancients), Napoleon's Battles (15mm Napoleonics), Command and Colors Ancients (both the boardgame as well as with 28mm figures), Black Powder (28mm ACW), Action Front (28mm ACW), SAGA (28mm Dark Ages) and Combat Commander: Pacific (great boardgame).   Wow, that's a lot of games!  I hope that I can continue to play a good variety of games on a frequent basis in the coming year.

2012 also saw the end (with one exception) of my gaming GW games.  I still enjoy Warmaster and will continue to play it, but going into 2012 Lord of the Rings had been my main GW game.  I enjoyed it a lot, but the new army books they put out and the price increases associated with Finecast and repackaging the figures, let alone the new Hobbit price increases just ended it for me.  Maybe I played it too often and just got burned out, but strangely I don't feel that way  about Flames of War, even with them constantly updating army books; I think the game and the company (GW) just ran it's course with me...I sold off all of my LOTR stuff and I'm done.

Looking ahead to 2013 I hope to complete some more projects with 28mm ACW Union being my first priority followed by 15mm Marian Romans, 28mm Andalusians & 28mm Byzantines.  I may had a couple of regiments of 28mm ACW Confederates to round out Kershaw's Brigade, but that is not a top priority.  I am in the planning stages for a 15mm Late War German infantry force and am looking forward to the Early War Eastern Front books for Flames of War.  Also, several of the locals are talking about doing Napoleonics in 28mm for Black Powder; I believe I'll be contributing to this effort.  I would also like to give Hail Caesar a try, either in 15mm or 28mm...

Lastly, I continue to search for a stand-alone project that I can do on my own...I still have some ideas, but like last year I have not committed to anything.  10mm Pike & Shotte for Eastern Europe or Thirty Years War, modifying Bolt Action for WWI or Russo-Polish War or Alternate WWI, The Great War for WWI, and 10mm Lord of the Rings for Warmaster are all on my list of possibilities at the moment...let's see what 2013 brings!

15mm Sassanid Persian Army

Recently my friend John offered his very nice 15mm Sassanid Persian Army up for sale for a great price.  I've always wanted a Sassanid army and at one point in time I had an unpainted army in both 10mm and 28mm.  Anyway, I couldn't pass up such a nice army at such a great price, so I'm now the proud owner of an army I've always wanted to have.  I will use it for Might of Arms mainly, though I've had some discussions about giving Hail Caesar a try in 15mm, so we'll see.  The army is all Old Glory 15's with the exception of the skirmishers which are Essex.

Skirmishing Slingers

 Skirmishing Archers

 Light Cavalry #1

 Light Cavalry #2

 Heavy Infantry Spearmen & Archers

 Elephants

 Generals

 Clibinari #1

 Clibinari #2

 Cataphracts

 Medium Archers

28mm American Civil War Confederate Infantry - Barksdale's & Kershaw's Brigades

It's been a few months since I posted and I haven't accomplished much, but I have been working on a task that I really dislike; basing figures.  I've just completed basing 8 regiments of 28mm American Civil War Confederate Infantry that were painted  by Philgreg painters for me last year.  All of the figures are from Sash & Saber with flags from GMB flags (they are great)and are organized with 7 stands of 4 figures each.  This configuration will allow me to increase and decrease the regiment size depending on the scenario and ruleset being played; I will likely use them for games using Black Powder and my friend Don's Action Front rules that are under development along with possibly breaking out that old standby, Johnny Reb III. 

The units represent Barksdale's Mississippi brigade and 4 of the 6 units in Kershaw's South Carolina brigade of McLaws Division at Gettysburg.  I hope to run a refight of the Peach Orchard for the 150th Anniversary next year and this will be the core of the Confederates.  I am not working on the commanders and artillery support with a December 2nd target date for completion to use them in a game of Black Powder.  The Union forces for this scenario are currently off to Philgreg being painted and I will have to deal with basing when they get back...ugh, did I mention I hate basing?

Anyway, there are the units:

21st Mississippi

 18th Mississippi

 17th Mississippi

 13th Mississippi

 8th South Carolina

 3rd South Carolina

 3rd South Carolina Battalion

 2nd South Carolina

I would like to eventually add the two remaining regiments from Kershaw's Brigade, the 7th & 15th South Carolina.  I may also look at adding different command stands from other regiments so I can do different brigades and battles, but first thing's first...artillery and command for this group.

Command & Colors Ancients in Miniature: Guagamela in 28mm

On September 1, Neil put on another game of Command & Colors Ancients in Miniature using his 28mm collection.  This time he ran a slightly modified version of Guagamela.  He took out the three elephants from the Persian side in the C&C scenario and replaced them with another heavy chariot in the center and an additional medium cavalry in each wing located along the baseline.  Thus three units were exchanged for three units and the number of cards and banners needed to win remained the same.  Each side had players for each game.  I commanded the center of the Macedonian line in the first game as well as serving as overall commander; I kept feeding the right flank cards to help Alexander and the Companions crush their opposition while our left flank barely held on.  The first game ended in a Macedonian victory. 

We switched sides for the second game and I commanded the Persian left against Kevin whom had Alexander and the Companions.  Kevin is a notoriously good roller no matter the rules set and the die type, so I figured I was done for.  However, I managed to shoot both Companion units out from under Alexander!  In this game the Persians started off really well and had a comfortable lead in units destroyed then suddenly the Macedonians had two good turns in a row and they were only one unit behind.  The game ended though with Al committing the Persian heavy cavalry in the center and taking out the last unit needed for a Persian victory!

Here are some pictures from both games.  Thanks to Neil for bringing everything and for Imperial Outpost Games for hosting the game.  Until next time...

 Game 1 Deployment

 Game 1 Deployment

 Alexader and the Companions

 Persian Heavies in the Center

 Macedonian Center

 Game 1 Coming to a Conclusion

 I Hate Those Chariots!

 A View From The Persian Center

 Early In The Game

The Macedonian Center Advances

28mm Mitanni Chariots - Army Complete!

Well after literally YEARS I've finally finished my 28mm Mitanni army!  When I started this army I was playing WAB extensively and my goal was to use this army for that game.  But with the ultimate demise of Warhammer Historicals at the hands of Forgeworld/GW and the hose job they gave to people that put in a ton of time on products that will never see the light of day, I'm done playing WAB and have moved on to Clash of Empires.  It will be for a game of Clash of Empires that this army will see the table for as I've got a game lined up next week.  If I remember, I'll take my camera and get some pictures of the game.

The chariots for this army are a collection of different manufacturers.  All but two of the chariots are from Old Glory with the other two being from Newline.  The crew area mixture of Foundry, Newline and Old Glory.  I think they all fit together just fine.  The base painting on the chariots and horses was done by Tim K. at Saguaro Painting Service and the crew were painted long ago by Fernando Enterprises; I added extra detail to the chariots & horses and did touch ups on the crew as well as the basing.   

It feels good to get another project checked off of my list.  Next up is a bunch of basing projects along with some painting for a friend...updates to follow on both of those as I make progress.

15mm Polish 1st Armored Division

A little over a year ago I did a trade with my friend Al.  He got some 15mm Napoleonics from me and I was to get a painted 15mm Polish 1st Armored Division force that he had bought then changed his mind on doing.  It was unpainted at the time and I was in no rush for the force because I had other armies to use and plenty of my own work to do.  Al recently finished up the force and I am very pleased.  The models are all Battlefront (except for my Typhoon air support which isn't pictured).  I really like the way they came out.  He did a great job painting them and put an "Army Painter" finish on them which looked good from the top, but for some reason no shading got captured in/on the tracks at all.  That was easily fixed...I broke out my trusty Apple Barrel "Nutmeg" and gave the vehicles a quick dry brush and then a shot of spray poly followed by Testor's Dulcote and the result is what you see below.  Thanks Al!

Command: 2 Sherman V's + Firefly

 Command Crusader AA Tanks

 3 Tank Platoons of 3 Sherman V's & 1 Firefly each

 Al used Polish 1st Armored Decals on the vehicles as seen below with the "PL" and the Division symbol.

 SPAT Platoon of 4 M10's with 17 pounder guns.

 Recce Tank Platoon of 3 Stuarts

 Motor Rifle Platoon with command MG team, 3 MG teams, 1 Piat & 1 light mortar

I may eventually add some artillery to this force, but for now I like it as it is.  I used it last weekend at a local FOW tournament for the late war period using the "Version 3 Approved" pdf on the Battlefront site. I managed to finish 3rd which isn't bad considering I had never used the army in a game prior to the tournament!  I had a chance to win it, but a poor decision on the first turn of the last game combined with my dice going cold led to me losing the last game without taking out an enemy platoon.  Oh, well...I was ecouraged by how things went with this force and I look forward to using them in a game soon.

28mm Republican Romans - Project Complete!

Well, it's taken me a long time, but I finally completed painting up Mike's 28mm Republican Romans from Crusader.  I should have been done a long time ago, but between other gaming distrations, real life, and just plain not being in a painting groove for so long I just kept putting off finishing the painting.  The good news for me is Mike is very patient and I hope he likes how these came out.  Now we can get in some games of Clash of Empires!

48 Roman Princeps/Hastati

 Close up of Roman Infantry

 15 Roman Cavalry

 Close up of cavalry

So, what's next on my list?  Well, it's completing another 28mm ancients force that has been languishing incomplete literally for years!  I should have it done in a week or so and will post at that time.

Tom O

Flames of War Additions

Here are a few additions to my Flames of War German DAK and British 8th Army forces for North Africa.  I have a good selection of options for both of these forces for the mid-war period, but when the early war books came out for the game I realized I was short a few stands for both forces to give me some options.  I purchased some Peter Pig 15mm troops and had Tim K at Saguaro Painting Service paint them up to match the existing figures in the armies.  I just had to base them up and finally got around to it this weekend.  There are 4 AT Rifle stands & 2 light mortar stands for the Brits and 2 AT Rifle stands & 2 light mortar stands (actually just weapons crews minus the mortars) for the Germans.

Up next I'll be posting on another project I completed this weekend!

Command & Colors Ancients: Epic Battle of Chaeronea, 338 BC, in Miniature

Today I had a great time playing an "Epic" game of Command & Colors Ancients using 28mm miniatures.  There are several of us locally that really enjoy the boardgame, and a few of us have considered building armies for it using 28mm miniatures; largely due to the efforts of Neil.  Neil was the first in our gaming group to take the steps to play the game in miniature instead of a board; including building his own mat, basing troops so they are easily identified, and building appropriate terrain pieces for the hex mat.  Well today he took things a step further and put on a game of the Battle of Chaeronea, 338 BC in "Epic" scale.  The regular sized game is impressive enough, but I think it really shined in "Epic".  This was the first time I gamed using his rule variant; ideally each side has 4 commanders (one Commander and 3 generals for each sector) and the Commander doesn't move troops, but rather delegates cards and tries to orchestrate the battle with little, if any, communication.  Today we had 3 players on each side so the Commander also ran the center sector.  The first game was very close with the Thebans doing heavy damage to the Macedonian left before running into Alexander; the result was a very close 11 banner to 10 banner victory for the Macedonians.  We enjoyed it so much we reset the game, had the players switch sectors and played a second game; in it, the sides were tied at 7 banners each when suddenly things went south for the Greeks and they ended up on the losing end 12 banners to 7 or 8 I think.  All in all, it was a great time and Neil's armies are very impressive.  Thanks to Neil for putting the game on, the other guys playing, and Imperial Outpost for the table space.

Battle Deployment:  Greeks on left and Macedonians on Right

Chaeronea

View from the Macedonian Right

End of Turn 1

Theban advance on the Macedonian left



Theban breakthrough on the Macedonian left

Alexander facing the Thebans

Athenians motionless

Game 2 - Battle lines close