Stuf Wot E Dun

[scatterbrains]

Seems these minis didn't make you feel any good! They did win you a game though so maybe a quick wash and a light dry-brush to make them pop back into your heart?

You never know!

[has.been]

The big battle tricorn event looks very impressive.
The 40K  has a LOT of gold. I would go with a wash to take it down a bit,
but then use silver & gold gel pens on highlights to make them zing.

Good stuff, keep posting.

[Zingara]

Wargaming Al Fresco. Out in a pleasant evening again, fielding my current complete collection of Spanish War of Succession units with the usual French deployment of anchored flanks. I think I will need to base up more individuals for casualty markers. The size of the forces is currently around 40,000 a side. The two buildings are also by Peter Dennis from his ECW publication. On my list to do more of I think. Stand back around 8 feet and the battle array gives a very good panoramic impression.

[Zingara]

For what it is worth I sue the Pike and Shot Society's Twilight of the Sun King Rules. They are not the fastest playing rules in the world but give a good feel of a Marlburian tete a tete from the battle reports I have read.

Having had a chin wag with has.been I've taken the plunge and ordered a set of King and Parliament for ECW engagements. Better get some units prepared I guess!!

[has.been]

Are you going down the paper route for your ECW armies?
Or are you considering small scale (6mm, 10mm or 2mm!!!!)
Yes someone did produce 2mm Pike & Shot 'blocks' I don't know
if they are still available.
JC would tell you to just use counters at that scale.

[Zingara]

On Saturday I visited a friend who has put up a wargaming shed in his garden for my first non solo game since Christmas. I took my Spanish War of Succession figures. This project was started at the beginning of May and Completed at the beginning of July. Two months. The rules are Twilight of the Sun King and the whole lot fits into one plastic box which I picked up for £7. The internal boxes are Tesco fruit boxes (mdf) from Tesco, together with another cardboard box and some smaller ones containing cat food.

We stuck everything I had on the table and Steve elected to go with the French / Bavarians. I set up first as defender. I was well aware of my hanging right flank which the French endeavoured to exploit.

[Zingara]

The British / Dutch had the better of the fortunes of morale. The right flank cavalry due to a high rated commander would fight to the end, and the next command needing 3+ survived a scare. The French on the other hand had two commands fail immediately which led to the proverbial towel being thrown in. The Bavarians charged a battery of artillery twice with cavalry and twice the artillery threw 9 on 2 average dice, accounting for 2 cavalry brigades and heavily damaging an infantry brigade. In narrative terms the cavalry got bogged down and came to grief before the guns.

An enjoyable outing which was Steve's first game with these rules and in which he had chances.

[has.been]

Impressive. can we have a few low level shots of the troops.
I think that is when they look their absolute best.
Next your opinion of your purchased 'plexiglass' 2D figures?

[Zingara]

I've had several people asking for pictures of the Wofun flats. Basically  2mm thick plexiglass figures with figures printed on them. The well known illustrator Peter Dennis is starting to get his ranges covered.

I ordered the ACW set on 3rd July. It was posted on Friday 17th and was with me Monday 20th by DHL. I ordered the 18mm set.
Each side gets 6 infantry regiments of 24 figures on 4 bases, 3 cavalry regiments of 12 figures on 4 bases and 8 guns and crew on a base each. The artillery pieces surprised me - one there being so many (I should have read the description) and two they were in MDF. This means they are not so nice and shiny as the ones in the artillery sets seen online, but does mean that the tops are coloured so better for looking on from above. They assemble fairly easily.
The figures came on sprues so needed detaching - this lead to 2 ram rods breaking and a cavalry standard when I was doing something elsewhere on the sprue. The individual regimental set I also got sent was better in that it was a sheet of plexiglass out of which the figures could be pushed out.

The idea is that you push the pegs into holes in the bases. I found the infantry in particular too tight so ended up shaving most of the pegs with a craft knife. I lost one snapped musket trying to push figures into bases (ignored since unnoticeable) but did snap one infantry man off at the thigh and one cavalry off at the ankle (both glued back on) The cavalry mostly slipped in fine, as did the extra regiment mostly with the bases it came with. I did shatter one of the cannon wheels which was crudely glued together with PVA. Annoyingly one of the gun axles sprang away and hit the wall beside me. After finishing the others I was on my hands and knees moving the chair etc - could not see it so carved myself another. Sods law, later when I had finished and got out the chair to go down stairs it fell out of my clothing onto the floor - so I have an extra axle now.
The set does not contain any command figures, though you do get 8 command bases on the artillery base sprue. Given there is quite a lot of cavalry you could use some mounted figures as commanders. Personally I would have preferred some commanders.
Now to rules - I will have to find a set to suite - 4 bases is not a lot for such things as RFCM (Peter Pig rules) or Fire and Fury. The individual sets come in at 8 bases / 48 figures per regiment.
You could call this clever marketing since I will likely send away for the command sets, and since I'm ordering, well, you know, there are some nice New York volunteer regiments like the Campbells in Kilts, or the Irish, or the Italians.
They are great for getting into a new period if you don't want the time spent painitng hundreds of figures, especially if doing two sides. They would also work well for a club campaign, eg 2 teams of 3 could buy a couple of regiments and share costs on artillery and command. This overcomes the issue of some players not completing their painting commitment and everyone gets up and running together.

[Zingara]

The plastiglass is not so visible from a normal wargamers viewpoint.

[Zingara]

The central marks on the bases are the sprue join marks - useful for rules whre the centre of the base is important - you can of course simply blacken them out. The last confederate picture shows the 5th Florida - 8 bases of them unlike those in the army deal which come in 4s.

[has.been]

Look nice, quick to table etc. but most of them are for periods
I already do in 28mm metal. Could be tempted by the Alamo
figures though, at least for the battles, I already have some of
the very nice Boothill figures for a skirmish.

[Belisarius]

Just spotted this thread, Z , thanks for posting the Wofun plexiglass figures . I’m a big fan of Mr. Dennis’s illustrations especially the WSS . Those ACW illustrations don’t seem to be his , however.  I also have the Jacobite book which is a great resource for 7YW French, British , Bavarian and Dutch / Prussian.  If you print them out in black and white they can then be hand coloured into virtually any nationality.  I printed them in card then laminated them and mounted them on Perspex stands . Sam Mustafa’s “ Maurice “ rules are what I intend to play with but I’m also tempted to use the  Grant’s War Game rules , especially for the large units , as I certainly won’t be taking several years to paint the armies required. Two armies can be assembled in a week . Great for dipping into and trying other rules and periods .

[Zingara]

After discussing ACW rules with Has.Been on Tuesday I took the plunge and purchased Rebels and Patriots that very night, coming in at just under £10.  Managed to get a game in with the Wofun 18mm figures, running at 36 points on a 4ft by 3ft board, reducing the deployment zone to 3" in. With all units "Green" apart from the artillery, that made for a lot of units on the board. I played the first scenario.
Battle of Cunningham's Rise.
It is said that on a New Moon you can sometimes see the shadowy figure of an old man with a cheroot in his mouth ascending the rise and surveying the surrounding land from under the tree.
Two brothers Tom and Frank O'Malley really did not get on, so when Tom signed up to fight for the Union it was no surprise that Frank signed up for the South, and as fate would have it they would meet at Cunningham's rise.
Tom had a fine reputation amongst his men, whereas Frank was more proud and arrogant, a strutting peacock of a man.
Features of the forces involved. Better equipped Union infantry are potentially better in a firefight, whereas you would expect the Confederates to prevail in close in fighting. There was one light horse on the confederate side who might get stuck in, the other mounted troops on both sides were skirmishers.
Infantry: 6 Union units to 7 Confederate.
Cavalry: 0 Union units to 1 Confederate.
Mounted Skirmishers: 2 Union units and 2 Confederate
Guns: 2 Union to 1 Confederate
The scenario works in that if one side has uncontested units within 3" of the tree at the end of both players turns they get a Renown point. At the end of 8 turns roll a d6 after each turn and add to the turn number. If the total is 14 or more the game ends and the side with the most Renown points wins. An army can break if it loses 75% of its force points.
The early turns saw the Confederates advancing mostly as desired, with the Union hesitant. This resulted in the Confederates getting established on the rise and accumulating Renown points with the Union unable to contest. Through the middle turns the Unions artillery and superior shooting started to tell and Confederate units started to buckle under the pressure. One amusing turn saw the Confederate cavalry and a Confederate infantry unit both succeed in charging the enemy for both to throw 3 on 2d6 and come up just short. The Union side then promptly failed to order both units so the Confederates got away with not being shot at close range and duly charged home the following turn.

Another feature was the Confederate side in particular rolling a number of double 6's or double 1's on their activation dice resulting in various random events. Two friendly fire incidents caused no damage due to the Confederates poor firepower. They managed to get a Regular infantry reinforcement (can only occur once so the other one was wasted), who failed to activate and a couple of turns later rolled double 1 and the effect was for them to retreat back off the table !!

[Zingara]

So we got to turn 8, the Confederates  were teetering with 4 units functioning and one broken and Frank's unit had quit the field.  Up comes a 6 and the engagement ends with Frank getting 3 Renown points for turns dominating the objective. Tom also gets 3 Renown for having inflicted 33% casualties and having suffered less than 33% himself.