This is a period that I have wanted to do for a long time, but the idea of taking on the whole thing single-handed was daunting. I've never painted any Napoleonic figures before, and aside from fantasy figures for D&D or Frostgrave, I rarely paint anything in 28mm. So from the beginning, this was going to be a huge but exciting challenge. And of course, the best forum for a challenge of this nature is the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge which starts in a little under two weeks.
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No video today I'm afraid. The gastrointestinal bug that I have had for the last three weeks has not gone away and if anything is making me feel even worse. I've managed to crawl into work this week because I had some training I couldn't get out of, but the end result has been crawling right into bed as soon as I got home. So no painting, and certainly no writing or filming. I'm hoping I'll be back to normal soon (the Painting Challenge starts in just a couple of weeks) but I've been thinking that for a while.
Instead, I have pulled this one from the back catalogue. I know some of you enjoy my videos on a Sunday (thank you) so hopefully this can fill the gap.
Keep an eye open on Wednesday for a special announcement. I'll be revealing the 'secret project' that I have been collaborating on with a friend of mine for a few months. No painting has happened yet, thats for the Painting Challenge, but a lot of technical details have been worked out between us. I'm itching to get started as this will be my first collab project and I'll be stepping outside of my comfort zone as you will see when all is revealed on Wednesday.
Wonders will never cease, and this weekend, the rejects witnessed the arrival of sci-fi in Stuart's Shed-o-War for the first time. Steve has been painting models from Star Wars Legion for quite a while now and kept threatening to bring a game to the shed for the Rejects. After joining our ranks a few years ago, this was his first outing as an umpire for the Rejects. And he did pretty well for his first rodeo!
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| Storm Troopers moving into position. Amazingly they were not as bad a shot as they are in the films! |
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| Indeed this squad's shooting was incredible, giving the Imperial forces their first kills of the battle. |
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| Although outnumbered, there was a huge cast of characters on the Rebel side. Now if they can just get them into range we'll have something to shoot at! |
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| Our AT-ST stands very imposing in the centre of the table, ready to dish out some suppression fire. |
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| This squad had a rocket launcher so would attempt (poorly) to keep the Rebel snow speeder from causing too much damage. |
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| Steve explains that Surjit has positioned his AT-ST in exactly the wrong position because it cannot step over obstacles. Sujits pain was palpable. |
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| These little rebel walkers were a real pain and their armour made hitting them very difficult. |
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| Steve did an excellent job of navigating a bunch of Star Wars Legion newbies through the rules. The first turn was a bit slow but we soon picked things up. |
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| Some of Surjits Storm Troopers. We had a lot of troopers. |
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| My Imperial Bodyguard. Tough, and deadly, they made short work of an enemy scout squad from their elevated position. |
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| Meanwhile, the Speeder swung around the flank to try and destroy the AT-ST. Thankfully the pilot needed to go to Specsavers and didn't hit a thing. |
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| However, with a rear canon, the speeder can shoot in two directions at once! How unsporting!! |
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| I had two Speeder Bike units on the table. I really liked their speed and firepower but got too close to an imperial robot which attacked them as they tried to fly past. |
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| Meanwhile, Vader gives an inspiring speech... that was about it for his involvement I the game. |
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| Rebel Scum hiding behind a barricade. |
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| Han and Chewie likewise took cover and hunkered down for most of the game. |
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| Surjit moved the AT-ST but now he's pointing in the wrong direction, with his rear to the rebel speeder and to make matters worse the pilot can't hit a thing with the Las-Cannons. |
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| Not only Sci-Fi in the shed, but we even got Stuart to take some pictures on a mobile phone. Somehow he managed to click away and didn't take a single picture. He really is the man the 21st Century forgot, bless him. |
We only managed to get three turns completed, partly because we were new to the rules and partly because the game was very large and there was a lot to activate. Steve did an admiral job of keeping us on track, without looking his mind in the process. Even died-in-the-wool historical player Stuart enjoyed himself so I think we can call this experiment with sci-fi a success. Steve has promised us a follow-up game in the new year and we're going to hold him to it.
A group of the Rejects headed down to Farnborough yesterday for day one of the Warfare Show. For us, this was primarily a shopping trip, and we came home with armfuls of goodies. But there is also a good selection of Demonstration and Participation games to see, and of course, a large part of the hall is given over to tournament games. As usual, I took loads of pictures and compiled them into a short video of the demo games.
The Other Partizan Show took place today in Newark and as usual, the quality of the games on display was amazing.
Is remote wargaming a fad, the future of the hobby, or just another way to enjoy doing what we love?
Remote wargaming has become a regular feature of my group's gaming calendar. It started during COVID and we enjoyed it so much that we have continued to play remote games, even after returning to our beloved face-to-face wargames in the shed-o-war. We will always love moving our little metal men around a physical table, but games across thousands of miles, facilitated by the World Wide Web, have become a permanent feature.
How do wargames tackle a problem like 3-dimensional space? This week I discuss aerial combat wargames and (briefly) discuss how a few handle the complexities of warfare in three dimensions.
Over the weekend the Rejects gathered in the Shed-o-War for something different to our normal fayre. Richard has been writing again and has come up with a cracking set of rules for aerial warfare in WWII. The rules could work for other periods (within reason), but the test games, particularly this game, are set firmly in WWII. I donned my lucky lederhosen and flying goggles to join the Luftwaffe in a linked pair of games somewhere over the channel, with the white cliffs as our backdrop.
The first game was a simple dogfight with two flights of aircraft battling for supremacy. The Germans were flying Messerschmitt Bf 109E and the British were flying Spitfires. For this introductory game, there was no spotting required and no cloud cover to complicate matters. This was to be a straight-up fight with both sets of pilots finding their wings and learning the rules.
Unfortunately, I didn't have long to enjoy my win because Sprog Pilot, Stuart (shot down earlier in the game and respawned as a lower-level pilot) was able to put several bullet holes through my own fuel tank. Unfortunately, my pilot wasn't as lucky as Dan earlier and was lost in the resulting explosion.
Richard has posted more photos on his blog My Wargaming Habit and I recommend you read that for a fuller review of the game/s. I'm sure this won't be the last time we play this game, and everyone seemed to have a good time, even when we were being 'bounced' by the enemy!
How to protect your miniatures when you transport them from one location to another?
This week I discuss the options available when you want to take your miniature armies out on the road, to a show, convention, tournament or even just to a friend's house. The last thing you want is for your miniature works of art to be damaged in transit. So here are a few tips on transporting your troops safely from A to B, and back again.
Can Sci-Fi wargames ever be 'realistic'? This is a subscriber question from some time ago that got missed (sorry). But its was an interesting topic to explore.
A few weeks ago I made a set of test models, Archer's Stakes, for my 6mm Medieval armies. A few people asked if I would do a tutorial. It's taken longer than planned, but finally, here it is π
Last weekend's game saw my entire Wars of the Roses / Battle of Bosworth collection of 6mm figures out on the table. I built my armies with one aim, to include as many of the nobles and Lords who were present at the battle, and feature the flags and banners for them on my bases. I'll let you decide if that last objective was worth the effort, but I was certainly happy with the outcome on the game table.
My orders of battle were built from the lists of known participants for each side, although the specific number of troops and of what kind each brought to the battle, requires a bit of guesswork. I couldn't find any specific details, so I had an approximate size and arrangement in mind for the overall army compositions and worked towards that. You may disagree with how I built my armies but from my own research, this 'best guess' is probably as accurate (or inaccurate) as any other variation I have seen.
Am I a blogger who wargames, or a Wargamer who blogs? I've touched on this subject before but decided to discuss it in more detail today (I've had a couple of questions about this). I am happy with the mix of gaming and content creation that is 'My Hobby', but I am aware that I could game more if I wasn't writing blog posts or scripts for YouTube. However, I think the benefits of the social interactions from blogging and vlogging far outweigh the impact on gaming time.
