Blitzkrieg!

I have some new additions to one of collections this time around but first a milestone of sorts. This is my 100th post since beginning the blog in May 2009. By my calculations, that's one post every four days or so. Whodathunkit? I only noticed this because a fellow blogger mentioned the same milestone for his blog on TMP.

So, onto the new additions. Although I'm in the home stretch for painting my Carlist Wars collection (only 30 figures to go), I've been inspired of late to carry on with my 28mm WWII 1940 project (you can see an earlier post here). A couple of weeks ago, as I was preparing to leave for Historicon, I received two separate Crusader figure orders in the post. One contained the figures to finish off my French platoon (one squad plus rifle grenadiers for all the squads) and the other more substantial order brought me an entire German platoon with support weapons. As you can see from the pictures I lifted from the Crusader site, these are the same sculpting style as my French (one of the requirements for my new projects...keeping the style consistent, if possible). The ironic thing about the German batch is that I had made the order several weeks before Historicon when I thought I wasn't going down. By the time I had made the decision to attend the show, Old Glory had already shipped the order. I could have saved the shipping costs...oh well.

I haven't yet put any of these new figures on the painting desk as I've been finishing off some Carlist Wars additions (coming soon to a blog near you) and the WWII vehicles in the photos below. These I've also had packed away for a number of years, unpainted and neglected. As I was waiting for my Crusader figures to arrive and since we've playing more WWII lately, I decided to pull them out and slap some paint on them to add some variety to my future German platoon. All are superb models from Army Group North Miniatures in Toronto.

Sturmgeschutz IIIC.
This guy will provide some close-in HE support for my German platoon.

Some transport for my support weapons teams. The Opel Blitz truck can tow the Pak 36 anti-tank gun and/or carry the mortar teams. The Sdkfz 10 (1 ton) I can see pulling the 75mm infantry gun. In game terms, these will be eye-candy for the most part. Disposable Heroes games tend to be close-in, infantry-centric affairs where support weapons find a safe place to deploy and remain there for the relatively short duration of the action.

And some heavier armour to face off against the French R-35s and S-35s. This is my new medium armour platoon comprised of one Pz IVD and two Pz 38(t)s. This group will add some much-needed weight to my light platoon (see it here). The Pz 38(t) is one of my favourite tanks of the war, mainly because of its look. Something about all those sharp angles and rivets!

Historicon 2010

I was able to make it down to Historicon again this year. The decision was made relatively last-minute to go down and help out Ken at the All the King's Men Toy Soldiers booth. I met up with Ken on Wednesday at the Valley Forge Convention Center to construct the booth. After some pre-show concerns about loading/un-loading concerns, the unload was a breeze and the set-up quick and easy (as was the pack-up on Sunday...dealer hall closed at noon and we were packed up and driving away at 12:35!). There are a number of conversations on TMP about the facility so I won't bore anyone here with details. Suffice to say that the convention center was well-lit, well-air conditioned, and clean. The hotel rooms were a definite step up from the Lancaster Host and the only minor quibble about the place would be the reliability of the elevators. I suspect that, given the obvious superiority of the facility over the Lancaster Host, most of the angst and bad comments I've noticed on-line are rooted more in an aversion to or fear of change than in any real-world negatives.

Ken and I had a great show, of course, and we were able to meet up with old friends and customers. Working a trader booth can be tiring but it's worth it, at the very least, to have an opportunity to talk gaming all day long with willing participants! And the drinks and cigars were pretty good too! My thanks again to Ken for making the trip possible and enjoyable (even if I apparently can't do Beer Math).

We also were able to see number of great looking games, but one in particular caught my eye. This was hosted by Architects of War on their own terrain and run by no less personages than John Stallard of Warlord Games and the Perry brothers. The terrain was spectacular and the figures quite nice (they were all Perry figures, after all). The gun-fire smoke even had blinking LED lights inside and a soundtrack with the sound of cannon and musket fire was playing in the background. You can see the lights in the (admittedly very bad Crackberry) video below:

The lovely Spanish village occupying one end of the board. This entire building complex was raffled off at the end of the show. Unfortunately, the right person didn't win!

Spectacular sculpting around the bridge!

Small military encampment. This is a good example of how the little things can bring a game to life, even if they have no direct bearing on the playing of the game.

Village square.

Small garden: again, a good example of how little things can bring character to a game.

I didn't spot this one until a second pass-by. A proposal in action!

A simple haystack/manure pile. This is minimalism at its best!

One last photo of a different game. This one is a Carlist Wars set-up using Black Powder rules. Another nice Spanish town but I found the boards rather drab. I have an issue with all games set in the Iberian Peninsula depicted with brown, drab terrain. But that's a rant for another time!

Lanceros de Tortosa

I've been able over the last couple of weeks to add four new groups to my Carlist Wars collection although I haven't posted pictures of two of them since they are just add-ons to two of my 12-figure Carlist infantry units, making them 18 figures each. These additions push the collection over the 230 mark. I only have about 40 figures left to paint and then the planned project is completed.

First up are the Lanceros de Tortosa. I chose these because of the unique sky-blue tunics and red facings. Finishing this unit I found myself in a conundrum I'm sure is familiar to many figure painters. I spent some time and effort equipping these figures with the fiddly but very nice lance pennons from the Adolfo Ramos collection. I thought that these really set off the unit but as I checked my painting notes, I noticed that the pennons were supposed to be red-yellow-red. Damn, I thought...do I leave them? Probably nobody would be the wiser. Or do I rip 'em off and get the proper type? So I went back to the source and was somewhat mollified to find that it said "pennons may have been red-yellow-red" (Conrad Cairns, A Savage and Romantic War, Spain 1833-1840). OK, I thought, I can live with the ambiguity. But as I was reading the passage I came upon another note which I had obviously missed or (more likely) chose to omit when I was originally researching the uniforms of this unit. Apparently, they were supposed to have brass shoulder scales. This issue was actually much easier to deal with, since you can see from the picture below that the figures don`t have shoulder scales. In fact, to my knowledge, Carlist cavalry figures aren`t available with them. Besides, justifying their absence would be easier in a conflict in which there was a decided dearth of adherence to regulations.

I wonder how often these types of compromises are made by gamers. Quite often, I suspect. Of course, there was no need to confess the ambiguities. It would have been unlikely that I would have been confronted with someone calling me on it. And if someone were to do such a thing in one of my hosted games....well, those who know me well enough also know what my reaction would be.

Lanceros de Tortosa. Perry Miniatures with Adolfo Ramos lance pennons.

The second batch is made up of Carlist guerrilleros (or they could simply be poorly-equipped infantry). These are a motley bunch and took a bit longer to paint than their regular infantry brethren. They are akin to ACW confederates in this way. More variation in colours and types of clothing and equipment makes for more time switching paints. These are some of the Perry brothers best figures in the Carlist Wars line and they are led by a suitably heroic Big Man (waving his sword in the center of the frame). I must devise a suitably tongue-in-cheek name for this fellow!

Carlist guerilleros. Perry Miniatures with Adolfo Ramos flag.

Up next some additions to the British Auxiliary Legion in the form of lancers and rockets!

Weekend Gaming

I was able to play two games this weekend at MIGS. First up on Friday was an opportunity to put out my entire Carlist War collection. There wasn't much to the scenario, beyond wresting control of a small village from a force of outnumbered Carlists. Thanks to Alex, Steve and AJ for an enjoyable game! Some random pictures below (from Steve's camera!):

Tortosa infantry await the assault of the French and British legions.

Aragon infantry on the other side of the village, also waiting to be attacked.

A force of Cristino infantry and artillery approach the village: Marines (blue uniforms) in the foreground with a guard unit beside them.

Carlist cavalry in reserve.

The British Auxiliary Legion deploys to attack the village with the French Foreign Legion backing them up.

Second up, on Sunday, was the first test of my 1940 French force using Disposable Heroes rules, accompanied by Steve and John (thx guys!). We had scrounged together some German infantry from around the club to to go with my German armour and face the French. An understrength French platoon with one R-35 in support was tasked with blunting a German attempt to take an important crossroad. The Germans attacked with a full-strength platoon and some light armour in support. Unfortunately (for the Germans at least), the French were more than a match for the Germans.

German infantry and smoking armoured car in the foreground. The French hold the village at the centre of the photo. The R-35 that hit the ill-fated armoured car sits behind a hedge just to the left of the village. The roof of the stone building has been removed to access the stubborn French defenders within.

The view from the other side. German infantry approach the village from the left. A German Pak 36 anti-tank gun has deployed in the woods on the left and is drawing a bead on the French tank on the opposite side of the village (and ultimately missed its mark!).

Carlist mountain gun

At the risk of boring everyone to distraction, I've added yet another unit to my Carlist army for the First Carlist War project: this time around a mountain gun and crew to give the Carlists a bit of extra punch. These were small 3 or 4 lbers that could be broken down easily and transported by mule over rough terrain. I've used two Perry Miniatures codes for this gun team, deployed and packed on mules. I'll use all four mules when the gun is packed up and probably keep around the ones with the gun packed aboard even when the gun is deployed. I'm sure this group will look great struggling over rough terrain and deploying where Cristino cavalry can't get at them.

The gun team with gun deployed and ammunition mule close to hand.

The gun packed on mules and ready for transport.

The red boinas (large berets) are quite distinctive and set these fellas apart from their Northern army brothers.

1940 French support

It's been a busy couple weeks in the hobby for me. I attended Torcan and Raycon a week ago and received my hotly anticipated Perry order on Monday last. I had run out of Carlist War figures to paint and had mis-timed my order. Usually I try to get my orders here before running out of stock but there was unexpected benefit from the wait. During the three weeks that I was waiting for the Carlist figures, I pulled out my 1940 French and started to work on them (you can see some of them here). Nothing unusual about that. What caught me by surprise was the spark it ignited in me again for World War II gaming. Those who know me also know that I sold off a fairly large 28mm WWII collection some years ago. I had played a lot of games with various rule sets and, frankly, had burned out on the period/genre. Over the last five or six years since the sale, I've been waiting patiently for the interest to return. When I pulled out the Frenchies and put brush to figure the park was re-lit! Yesterday, Steve, John and I played a game of Disposable Heroes at the club on Steve's fabulous terrain (of which we neglected to take any pictures at all...doh!) and this has just fed the flames for me. Admittedly, we played with the modern supplement, so not exactly WWII (but close enough to add fuel to the fire). So the first addition (of two) to my collections over the last week are some support teams for my French platoon and the beginning of the platoon command.

French infantry platoon command, missing the platoon sergeant and rifle grenadier (Crusader figures).

French 80mm mortar team (Crusader figures).

French HMG (Crusader figures).

French 25mm AT gun team (Crusader figures).

Second up are more Carlist infantry for my FCW project, this time of a Valencia battalion. Not considered to be the best of Don Cabrera's troops, there were nonetheless "light and agile and useful for sudden attacks and skirmishing" (The First Carlist War, Conrad Cairns).

I chose to model this Valencia unit in the greatcoats more common to the Northern Army but not unseen with Don Cabrera's forces. I've also mixed in a few with red trousers. This will hopefully help distinguish them from the Aragon and Tortosa troops.

Next up for the Carlist Wars: more Carlist cavalry (this time in sky-blue tunics), a Carlist mountain gun, and more Carlist skirmishers.

Raycon 2010

Saturday and Sunday last, aside from attending Torcan, the IPMS model show in Toronto, I trekked north with Vidal to Southampton on the shores of Lake Huron for Raycon 2010. Raycon is small private annual gaming weekend held at a cottage owned by Ray Martin, world-renowned journalist and philanthropist. I've been unable to attend the last couple of Raycons so Vidal and I were eager to get away for the weekend and bask in the glory of our hobby. We arrived on Saturday to a steak dinner being prepared and we quickly settled into the meal and the attendant wine. The evening was spent spinning the usual hobby yarns and imbibing.

Saturday's sunset over the lake. What a great setting for a gaming weekend! Cigars and wine anyone?

Sunday morning we set up the tables outside on the lawn and I broke out my Carlist War collection. With the soft breeze wafting off the lake, we played a spirited game of Sharp Practice in the sunshine. As you can see from the photos of the game below, the colours really "pop" in the natural light.

A general view of the table. We had a small village in the center of the table defended by a Carlist force intent on getting their booty away from the attacking Cristinos. They had loaded the valuables from the church in three ox carts (in front of the church in the center of the photo) and were trying to get them off-table.

Cristino line cavalry prepare for a charge (which was ultimately unsuccessful).

Cristino light cavalry penetrate into the town after massacring a Carlist infantry detachment blocking the road. This was the decisive action of the day!

Another shot of the Cristino light cavalry backed up by British rifles near the bridge.

Carlist infantry awaiting the Cristino assault on the town.

Carlist skirmishers use the high ground to snipe at Cristino cavalry that have approached too closely.

Aragon battalion defending a stone wall. It was this unit that was crushed by the Cristino light cavalry (the green-coated unit in the photos above). The round of Fisticuffs that resulted from the charge of the cavalry saw a record 35 dice rolled by the cavalry commander (and with only six component figures!).