Netflix on the iPhone with unlimited data is pretty sweet. I noticed that Ken Burns' "Civil War' was available on Netflix instant view, and having found the Civil War almost too large to grapple with (Burns' Civil War is like 18 hours long, and it's just a brief overview!) I had avoided learning much about it. Even with the streaming option, I didn't' feel I could commit the huge amount of time necessary to work through the entire series, but once I realized I could stream it wirelessly and listen to it during my commute it became much more manageable. Relying on still photographs and interviews, the "Civil War" is largely and audio experience anyway, and while I may have noticed more nuance by actually watching it, listening to it proved highly rewarding.
I found it a great introduction to the war. It illustrated the personalities involved, showed the various offensive and defensive moves by both sides, and was able to draw distinctions between the battles. I toyed with the idea of getting into ACW for real with Black Powder, but the large number of troops required for the set piece battles, and the rather bland uniforms put me off. I might do some ACW skirmishing with An Uncivil War from Architects of War though.
The Hail Caesar Yahoo group contains a ton of great info, often from Rick Priestly who wrote the game, but I have a hard time keeping up with the conversation. I also seem to lose track of those neat tips and clarifications months after they pop up in the group. To make sure I don't miss anything and to create a resource for finding those bits of info a bit easier, I've decided to pick the very best tip from each month's messages and repost it here.
August was a pretty slow month on the Hail Caesar Yahoo board, but I thought this tip from Dave Bosse (irondog068) was great:
How do you handle sieges? "I have run a Samurai siege game before. Treated the wall as a +2 save. Had one watch tower with one teppo treated as small. Every attacker was assumed to have scaling ladders and the wall was looped for fire the whole length. To force the defender off the wall the defender had to lose and fail a morale check. If they did, the winner went over the wall but was disordered for one turn."
I have plans on running some sieges in the future, and I thought Dave's mod fit the rules and would be easy to implement. Hope this turns out to be useful for other Hail Caesar players.
Just about 24 hours left, and the Reaper Bones kickstarter has unlocked a mind-boggling 220+ figures for $100. That includes things like giants and griffons, and without even mentioning the optional figures ($10 for a massive dragon? That's a steal!)
But not everyone is a fantasy gamer. There are still of great deals to be had. Check it out:
The kickstarter includes non-fantasy figures such as cowboys, pulp, modern, and steampunk heroes, along with two types of sci fi soldiers. The Townsfolk I and II could even be used for historical medieval games.
Four sets of Reaper paints. $18 for 12 paints. That's way cheap. Just pitch in $1 and you can add a paint set to your order without springing for any figures. $19 = 12 paints.
Same deal for their 100 figure carrying case which is going for $25. With the dollar buy in you can pick the case up for $25.
Even if you have never gamed fantasy before, the Vampire level pledge essentially gives you everything you need to get started: heroes, villains, monsters, etc.
Shipping for US and Canadian customers is free. International shipping is generally $5, but double check with the folks in the comments section. You'll get an answer within seconds.
If you pledge, keep these points in mind:
Always input your total pledge. For example, if you sign up for the Vampire deal ($100) and later decide to add a hydra miniature (+$15), you would click "Manage your Pledge" and enter $115 for your pledge.
If you happen to sign up for the Vampire level pledge which gives you a veritable army of fantasy figures in plastic, you'll also receive a metal "Sophie" miniature, but you can swap the metal Sophie (and only the metal Sophie) for rewards that total $25.
This is a crazy good deal. Really happy I was able to get in on it.
Pretty surprised at the generous offer the Reaper kickstarter has turned out to be. Close to 200 28mm figures for $100. Still four days to go, and look at everything you get:
That's nuts. Just spreading the word since I haven't seen a deal like this in 25 years of painting miniatures. Check out the whole kickstarter, including the huge figures at the Reaper Bones Kickstarter page.
I've been going to my Friendly Local Gaming Store for 25 years now, and been increasingly disappointed over the last decade with their service and stock. I have two shops within 30 minutes of me, and another about an hour away. Time and again I've made the trek only to find they either didn't carry what I was looking for, or were out of stock. Some things I expect to be hard to find: historical miniatures can't really compete in popularity with Games Workshop and Yu-Gi-Oh. But c'mon. Paint? You've got a rack of GW paints and all that's left is two bottles of bright yellow and a bottle of orange? Combine that with the typical aloof game store staff that's more interested in hanging out than engaging with anyone on the other side of the corner, and each trip was invariably a disappointment.
Despite countless unproductive trips, I'd still try hit the store. I think a physical shop is important to the health of the games hobby as it provides not only merchandise but a place to play and exposure to the outside world of window shoppers. I also loved the idea of immediate gratification, of heading to the store, grabbing some paints and being home painting all within an afternoon. But after leaving these game and hobby shops dozens of times empty handed I finally gave up on them. I'd used Amazon for some game purchases because of their free shipping, but their stock is limited, and the free shipping option usually takes at least a week to arrive at my house.
I finally relented and placed an order with the War Store. I expected a hefty shipping fee, and was hoping to get delivery in one to two weeks, but was shocked to see a shipping fee half that of what I expected, with delivery two days after my order. On top of that, I contacted Neal at the War Store with a question and not only did he respond quickly, he followed up several times for additional clarification and to point out some products I had missed on his site. Amazing!
I'm kicking myself for not trying the War Store before now, but now I'm sold. Let the FLGS die. I'm happy to spend a few extra dollars on shipping for such exceptional service.
I came to wargaming via the fantasy and sci-fi miniatures expressway. I cut my teeth on Games Workshop, TSR, Grenadier and Ral Partha, and while my interest have veered towards historical wargames over the last few years, I still keep a foot in the non-historical side of gaming. A week or two ago I caught wind of Reaper's Kickstarter for their Bones line of 28mm fantasy miniatures. The Bones line is a series of inexpensive figures based on existing metal sculpts, but made from some sort of plastic.
Checking out the Kickstarter page my jaw dropped at the horde of figures they were making available to pledges, the gorgeous quality of the sculpts, and the incredible value (less than $1 per figure and dropping fast). This seemed like a deal too good to be true, but I wasn't sure about the Bones material. I'd heard it was "rubbery", that it didn't need to be primed, that it didn't have mold lines, but I was skeptical. I decided to pick up one of their existing Bones figures and put it to the test to see if it held up to the hype. All the details after the jump.
Reaper Bones and Reaper Metals: A Comparison
Looking through the Bones catalogue I noticed a monstrous troll that seemed to match a metal Reaper mini I had painted years ago.
The Bones material is indeed rubbery. I heard that someone did a chemical analysis of the Bones material and discovered it's PVC. Whatever it is, it is far more flexible than I had anticipated.
Pressing on the arm bends it up easily
Release and the arm bends back into position.
The detail of the figure seemed slightly softer than a metal figure, and while there was a mold line it was barely noticeable in the unpainted figure. Still, it was a good sculpt.
Painting Up The Reaper Cave Troll
I skipped the primer and painted directly on the figure with Vallejo and GW paints, just as the rumor suggested I could. The paint adhered well, and a single coat of Vallejo + GW Foundation gray mix was enough to coat the troll. I gave it a wash of GW inks, and then a three shade highlight.
For the loin cloth I decided to see how the bare plastic held inks and gave it a wash of GW Gryphon Sepia. While highlighting the troll's teeth with Bone White, I gave the loin cloth a Bone White highlight on the ridges of fabric, but otherwise what you see is ink over bare white plastic.
The figure painted up well and when placed next to the metal version of another Reaper Cave Troll made a good match. I was really impressed. Visions of a 160mm x 80mm base of cave troll heavy infantry danced in my head, only feasible with these large troll figures running a meager $2.50 each.
How Flexible are Reaper Bones?
These figures are pretty darn flexible. Even though I was happy with the end result of the troll, the whole purpose of this exercise was to discover if these Reaper Bones could hold up the abuse of tabletop gaming. I bit the bullet and started pushing and stretching the troll to see if I could get his paint to crack.
Pushed his arm up, no sign of cracked paint.
Bent him forward to "kiss the floor", no sign of cracking at the heel.
I finally managed to find a a crack in the paint when I pushed the troll's body back, bending at the ankle. Problem is, I'm not sure it is actually cracked paint. It may have been a hidden crevice my paint brush never touched.
Finally, a bit of raw white plastic!
Bending the troll back into position and the "cracked" paint disappeared.
Aaaaand... it's gone.
Now this is without primer, without any sort of sealer or varnish, and bending this figure to the very extremes. I've seen more extensive chipped paint on metal figures with bent weapons or nicked surfaces from simple handling. In short I was very impressed by the durability of these figures! I've long held off on getting out my figures to play with my four year old son for fear that rough playing would damage their paint jobs. These Reaper Bones figures seem tough enough to be painted to high standard and given to a toddler to play with. And they are about 1/3 the cost of a metal figure. Reaper Bones are awesome!
It's been a busy summer and far too long since we got any minis on the table, but my wife and I found a single free evening to play a short game of Hail Caesar. Each time I play Hail Caesar I try to get a better handle on the rules and try something a bit new. For this game we came up with a scenario rather than fight out a simple bash.
Julius Caesar is throwing around his muscle, using the migration of celtic tribes as a pretense to launch attacks on their "aggressive advances". In this hypothetical scenario a detachment of Roman legionnaires, having defeated one celtic tribe in battle, advance on celtic village intent on burning the inhabitants out. Will the defending celts summon a defense in time to drive the Romans off? AAR after the jump.
Hail Caesar Scenario: Driving out the Barbarian
The Romans begin arrayed along a short table edge. They need to advance out of the woods, over a shallow river, break through the Celtic defenders and set fire to the barbarian village.
Romans
Heavy Infantry (6 units) Numidian Light Cavalry (1 small unit) Roman General (leadership 9)
The heavy infantry must set up with 18 inches of their friendly table edge. The light cavalry may set up anywhere on the roman side of the river.
The shallow river is fordable for its entire length and is treated as a linear obstacle.
The Roman goal is to burn the village. Any unit that spends it's entire move action in contact with a building burns it down. If the Romans burn all three buildings they are victorious.
The celts have been caught unaware. Only a few young men and hunters have managed to form up on the celtic side of the river to hold off the Romans. The barbarian chief quickly attempts to gather his warriors to form up and repel the invaders. Scouts from the previous battle have also returned to inform the chief that cavalry remnants from the previous battle are enroute to provide additional relief.
Celt Barbarians
Light Infantry Archers (2 small units) Celt General (leadership 9)
Celt Reinforcements Warbands (3 units) Medium Cavalry (1 unit)
The celt general begins in the center of the village. Two units of light infantry begin anywhere on the celtic side of the table, at least 12 inches away from the river. A stone wall marks the outer edge of the village.
Each turn, the celt general may issue an order to the village, just as he would issue an order to a unit. The general makes a command roll and summons a number of warbands equal to the moves rolled (for example, if the celt general rolls a 7 he summons two warbands). The summoned warbands are placed on the table in contact with the stone wall that marks the border of the village.
At the end of the 4th celtic turn, the medium cavalry arrive on a random table edge on the celtic side of the river.
If the Celts destroy 3 of the 6 Roman units they will break the invader's morale and drive them off.
The Alarm is Raised
My wife commanded the Romans in this game again, proceeding cautiously towards the river. She kept her Numidian cavalry close, taking cover in the woods.
My celtic archers moved up and managed to inflict a single hit on the Roman line. Thankfully on my first "summon warriors" roll I manage to call forth two warbands who form up in front of the village.
Across the River
The Romans and Celts spent the next two rounds moving into position, the Romans crossing the river under ineffective harassing missile fire, while the celtic chief manages to summon his last warband. I placed the final warband on my left flank to meet the Numidian cavalry who had crossed the river and were looking to dart around to my rear. Finally, with the battle lines drawing close, the relief cavalry arrives on the Roman flank.
Battle is Joined
To screen her cavalry, my wife detached part of her line to take care of the warband guarding my flank. Using the proximity rules she forced the warband to deal with the Romans directly in front of them, and managed to charge them.
Hoping to use my light infantry to hold off the main Roman line, I formed them up into close order. I wanted to gain the +1 charging bonus for my warbands since I knew I had to make that initial charge count. If the Romans couldn't contact my main line with a rush, I thought I could initiate a charge of my own.
With my flank engaged, my wife managed to sneak her cavalry into my village!
So That's How a Sweeping Advance Works
Each of these skirmishes seems to drive home a new aspect of the rules that I hadn't quite internalized yet. For this game it was the sweeping advance. On my flank, my warband was no match for the Romans in the sustained combat. I had used up my warband's wild fighters ability and was only rolling 6 dice to the opposing Romans 7 plus 3 dice from a supporting Roman unit. After destroying the warband, and with no enemy units within their front arc, my reading of the sweeping advance rule indicated the victorious legionnaires could make two moves, taking them to the edge of my village!
On the main battle line the Romans easily overwhelmed the light infantry as expected, but again the sweeping advance allowed them to charge forward into contact with my warband line, denying them the +1 charging bonus and carrying their own +1 victory bonus for defeating the light infantry archers. Disaster!
My original plan was to charge the Roman flank with my cavalry once the main battle lines met, but with the invaders descending on my village, I felt I had to race my cavalry to hold them off within the village and hope the warband line could defeat their opponents on their own.
The ensuing melee saw my hopes dashed as my warbands crumbled under the Roman assault.
With the Romans in the village, over 50% of the celt defenders destroyed, and very little hope of the remaining cavalry fending off the Numidian cavalry, two units of roman heavy infantry and destroying half the enemy legion we decided to call the game.
Rome wins!
Conclusion
The deck was stacked against the celts. Going by the points from the Hail Caesar army list book they were at a disadvantage, plus they had me as a general. Despite those factors I wanted to see how much terrain would have an effect on the battle, how much linear obstacles like the river and wall would slow units down and if the "gathering forces" scenario concept would work. Overall I was happy with the game as a small Hail Caesar scenario, but I think it needs to be tweaked quite a bit.
The celts need to be able to whittle down more of the Romans during their approach. Additional rough terrain, hills or woods for the celt skirmishers to hide in would have helped, along with additional celt skirmisher units.
The Romans arrived on table already in "battle formation". Forcing them to arrive in column because of restrictive terrain so they could only form up on the far side of the river may have added an additional wrinkle in the Roman plans.
The celts need at least one more, if not more additional warbands. The Romans should be forced to race against the growing threat of the growing celt menace. Here are the overall changes I think I'll implement if I try this scenario again:
Romans Heavy Infantry (6 units, 2 on table at river edge, 2 on table in column formation, 2 off table may enter as space permits) Numidian Light Cavalry Roman General
Reinforcements Warbands (4 potential warbands. Warbands may not be summoned once there are any Roman heavy infantry within 18 inches of the village) Medium Cavalry (1 unit. Arrive at the end of turn 4) Warband stragglers (1 unit. Arrive on same table edge as cavalry at the end of turn 7. Do not have the Wild Fighter ability, having expended it in the previous battle against the Romans)
Another fun game of Hail Caesar, even if I lost (again!). I really need to get some more ancients painted up. I've got celt skirmishers, cretan archers plus a host of carthaginian figures ready to go that will help bring my two opposing forces up to parity.
I bookmarked this video tutorial about painting 28mm wargame horse some time ago and just got around to watching it. I've been using a staining method in which I apply a base coat, then a dark oil overlay which I wipe off with a rag. It's fast, and honestly, I really didn't quite know how to handle the "large rounded surfaces" mentioned in this video.
The multi layer technique is probably too time consuming for churning out mass quantities of cavalry, but I'm going to try it for the next mounted general or hero I tackle. Lots of great tips, and watching painting techniques is so much easier than trying to learn a painting process from still images and written descriptions.
20mm tanks by Revell and Italeri, SS infantry by Pegasus
I started my wargaming career with two sets of opposing forces: Revell and Italeri World War II Germans and Americans. I had stumbled across wargaming after trying to find out more information regarding HBO's "Band of Brothers" while it was on the air. In the image search of my Google results I saw a number of World War II miniatures staged on some intricate European terrain. I was familiar with the fantasy side of gaming, but this was my first exposure to historicals. That single image lead me down the rabbit hole to Crossfire, TMP and the whole world of WWII wargaming, but with a limited budget at the time, I jumped into the hobby with the cheapest option available: 1/72nd scale plastics.
Apparently the Germans didn't really use the shoulder mount? Too bad, I was really proud of my custom job on that.
I slowly put together the antagonists, fumbling my way through uniform research, painting German oak leaf camouflage, basing, and trying to figure out what the heck a "Stug" was ("they made tanks without turrets???"). My gaming group played quite a few Crossfire games and I had grand plans to expand into the Battle of the Bulge, the Eastern Front, and Italy, but I became distracted by ancients and over time my additions to my WWII collection slowed. We still broke Crossfire out occasionally, but the lack of tanks and the focus on platoons didn't quite scratch my WWII itch.
With my latest surge in interest in WWII gaming, my long time game partner Mike taking his first steps into painting up and army, and our decision to drop to 15mm in order to get more vehicles on the table, it looks like my 20mm collection may be shelved for some time. As a send off we got them on the table for at least one more game, but this time trying out the Blitzkrieg Commander demo rules just to see how they compared to the other rules we've been looking at. Pics after the jump.
20mm American Infantry
20mm German and SS Infantry
Blitzkrieg Commander
Americans arriving, facing Germans setting up behind the farm house.
US tanks swing around the German flank
US tanks knock out a "Stug" (tonight the part of "Stug" will be played by Jagdpanzer")
We gave the demo rules of Blitzkrieg Commander a whirl, but pretty quickly found that we were grossly misreading the rules or they were lacking some essential elements. As far as we could tell, there was no opportunity fire for units to interrupt attackers advancing on their position, a key part of Crossfire and something we felt was important to a WWII game. Checking the BKC forum after the game I get the sense the full edition contains such rules, but for whatever reason they were not present in the demo, or we simply failed to comprehend them. Suffice it to say, they weren't our cup of tea.
The Soviet hordes ready to be primed for the Motherland.
After dithering with the idea of doing Eastern Front in 10mm, Historicon finally pushed me over the edge into 15mm. My buddy Mike and I really enjoyed the North Africa armor game of Fireball Forward we played, and with 40 tanks on the table it convinced me that a 15mm game with tanks could look reasonable. At least it looked reasonable to me at the time. I've even begun to soften towards Flames of War which I've managed to resist until now.
I've built plastics in the past. I started wargaming with 1/72 Italeri, Revell and Airfix and even when I moved to 28mm I built a number of plastic WGF and Warlord Games plastic kits. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the Plastic Soldier Company Soviets.
Like most plastics, the detail is softer than metal and the poses are a bit flatter, but there was still a lot of decent poses, and no real "stinkers" that are unusable. The plastic is much harder than the soft plastic in 1/72 kits, and there are also a number of multi-part sculpts, that require arms or heads to be attached separately. Unlike the 28mm plastic kits Iv'e built, these aren't multi-pose kits. The arms and heads only attach in a single configuration, but the precision with which the pieces fit together was frankly shockingly good! Most likely as a result of the computer modeling from which the molds are made, the pieces fit in snugly making the build fairly easy. Some of the bits are quite small (the officer's arm in particular is quite tricky), but with patience and good lighting I didn't run into much of an issue.
Basecoated Plastic Soldier Company Soviets. Ready for Army Painter dip and basing.
I totally botched priming them though and managed to obliterate the detail on a few figs, but it was totally my fault. On the 90% that I managed to give a nice even coat, the detail is still crisp and clear. I've started painting them up, and while I'll likely pick up more metals in the future, I'm really happy with the PSC plastics which went together easily, had zero flash, and are half the price of metals. Certainly the most painless way of starting up World War II in 15mm.
I've been reading FIFTH GUARDS TANK ARMY AT KURSK to get a handle on the Eastern Front. I'm enjoying it as a high level perspective on the lead up to the Battle of Kursk, but so far there have only been a few snippets of company sized engagements that could be turned into a wargame scenario. I have the German counterpart volume, but I'm betting I'll have to dig into some more personal accounts to construct scenarios for potential games.
I happened to see Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjager on the Eastern Front, 1941-43, a Kindle eBook mentioned on the WWPD forum, on sale for less that $2.00. I haven't read it, but thought I'd pass on the news in case anyone else was searching for personal accounts of Eastern Front combat to turn into wargame scenarios.
I skipped the primer and painted directly on the figure with Vallejo and GW paints, just as the rumor suggested I could. The paint adhered well, and a single coat of Vallejo + GW Foundation gray mix was enough to coat the troll. I gave it a wash of GW inks, and then a three shade highlight.
On the main battle line the Romans easily overwhelmed the light infantry as expected, but again the sweeping advance allowed them to charge forward into contact with my warband line, denying them the +1 charging bonus and carrying their own +1 victory bonus for defeating the light infantry archers. Disaster!
and Italeri
), some Zvezda tanks
to get a handle on the Eastern Front. I'm enjoying it as a high level perspective on the lead up to the Battle of Kursk, but so far there have only been a few snippets of company sized engagements that could be turned into a wargame scenario. I have the German counterpart volume, but I'm betting I'll have to dig into some more personal accounts to construct scenarios for potential games.
I happened to see Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjager on the Eastern Front, 1941-43
