AWI at the Club: Freemans Farm

Last night Tom ran a 28mm AWI game depicting the first battle of Freemans Farm from the Saratoga campaign.  We had over 400 figures on the table from both Tom and my collections, with the bulk being from the glorious fife and drum line.

Tom used the ruleset "British Grenadier" which I think is a fore-runner of General D'Armee.  It took us a while to get the rules down and they did work, but I prefer Gd'A a lot better.  I do have the point out that the writing style in British Grenadier is almost unreadable.  It's like they had 20 pages of rules that were stretched into 80.  The rule book itself is beautiful, just don't try to read the rules.

We left the table set up in the club and I'm going to try a crack at running the same battle using GdA and lets see how that goes.

Late Garden Harvest

Not a bad haul from the garden for this time of year.  By mid September most of the plants have run their coarse so it's always a bit random what one gets.

We do have a Haberno Pepper plant that is going gangbusters so I am going to try to make some form of hot sauce to store over the winter.

Pest control is handled by a large population of Yellow Garden spiders (Argiope Aurantia).  They are big (about 2 to 2.5 inches in diameter) and very scary looking but harmless.  They are also very effective once one learns to work around their intricate webs.  I purchase some egg sacks at the beginning of each planting year to ensure plenty are on hand.  Plus its fun to scale house guests with them when touring the garden.

Of course, my first encounter with these guys wasn't so fun.

Shelob Lives!

Legion Test Game at the Club

 Last night I committed blasphemy at the club - I ran a non-historical game.  On second thought, maybe it was historical as it did happen a long, long time ago.

I ran a game of Legion to teach the rules.  I really like Legion and think it's a much more refined version of Bolt Action.

It was a very tough night for the alliance, who pretty much got crushed.  Even poor Luke didn't fair so well against a AT/ST.

The overall opinion on Legion was very positive so I think you'll see more at the club in the future.

Wargames Illustrated Issue 383 (Shameless Self-Promotion)

The current (Sep'19) issue of Wargames Illustrated (#383) has some very good coverage last July's Historicon, including a full page spread on my game.  Hence the overall self-congratulatory post.

Thanks fro the very nice coverage - Dave Taylor is a superb photographer and his skills make even the schlock I put on look good.

WW1 French Corps Expeditionnaire d'Orient in 6mm: Done

 My contribution to the clubs upcoming Gallipoli game is complete - well I still need to seal the bases but I like to let the glue dry a few days before doing so.  I present to you the French Corps Expeditionnaire d'Orient in 6mm scale.  The figures are from Baccus.

1st division: 8 battalions of infantry, one artillery and one HQ unit.

2nd Divisions also of 8 battalions of infantry, one artillery and one HQ unit.  There's also a corps HQ/Supply Depot.

All the stuff behind the divisions is "extras" that came with the French Division set I purchased from Perter at Baccus.

This is the first time I've painted up 6mm figures in a long time.  How long - maybe all the way back to 2012.

I had forgotten how freeing painting 6mm minis are - there isn't a lot of detail that I can paint so rather than focus on individual minis one focus on the entire basing to convey the setting and time period.  It was a lot of fun.  I suspect you'll see some more 6mm in the future.

WIP: WW1 French Corps Expeditionnaire d'Orient in 6mm

A really messy "work-in-progress" shot of some Baccus WW1 French I'm working on for a club mate.  These are being painted up to be 2 divisions of the French forces used in the initial landings at Gallipoli.  The basing is at the Battalion level.

It's an interesting force with a mix of troops in French blue and a range of colonial and Senegalese troops.

I am not the most skilled painter in 6mm so am trying to make the basing look good - see the "barbed wire" to distract people from my really awful paint job.

I suspect Peter Baccus will see some additional orders from me for his WW1 line

Playtest Labor Day

 Labor Day was a big day of gaming at the club as I got to participate in 2 play tests.  The first was an outing of Josh's newly built and simply superb Gallipoli table.  It really is stunning

 We played the first day of the British Invasion at the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula.  The figures are 6mm in scale and the game was a blast

 I played one of the Turkish commanders and lets just say the Brits had a very difficult day.  I think the rules need to be tweaked as it was just too easy for the Turks.

Oh, there may have been a beach being taken away from the Brits.  Just saying.....

Josh really did a stunning job on the table.

There will be no pictures from the second game but the table and mini's are equally stunning.  Why no pic's? - cause you just might see the game this season on LWTV and I don't want to "spill the beans"

I also recorded my first two rules reviews for the channel so it was a busy day - please be kind in your complaints about my ugly visage on the You-Tube.  I am a delicate flower.

Daring Aquatic Rescue

At approximately 4:10PM this Sunday, my wife informed me that there was someone in distress.  Being a man of action, I immediately went into to rescue mode, complete with a cheesy 80's TV-show soundtrack playing in the background.  My mission - attempt a daring rescue of a skink that was trapped in our pool.

 This operation was going to be both dangerous and difficult. It also required me to channel years of childhood experience playing with cold-blooded beasties in the bayous and estuaries of coastal Alabama to become a cool, fearless reptile rescue machine.

This next part may be too much for those of you with delicate constitutions - using nothing but my hand I lifted the trapped skink out of the pool.

 It was a blue tailed skink, which is native to Maryland and as you can see does, indeed, have a blue tail.  They are actually very beautiful.  They are also vociferous mosquito eating machines and make good neighbors.

This particular skink was quite friendly and insisted on crawling up arm and resting on my shoulder for about 20 minutes before agreeing that it was time for him to return to the pool side wisteria vine.

I love it when a plan comes together.