Back To Old Faithful.

Been wondering what to game this week and was at a bit of a lose , I was looking through my shelf of rules seeking inspiration when I came across 'The Sword And The Flame' - the die was cast ! .

I decided on the Sudan as it's a while since the figures have had an outing . The Egyptian force has to secure the railway bridge to stop the Mahadists from blowing it up and thus prevent supplies being moved up to the main Egyptian force. The Egyptian force consists of two units of infantry and a Nordenfelt Machine Gun , a unit of lancers and some Bashi-Bazooks . 

The Egyptian C in C Hicks Pasha views the bridge and can see no sign of the enemy - "it's quiet - too quiet !". The Madhist forces will be diced for randomly and their points of entry decided by the dice. 

The Bashi - Bazooks move forward on the right flank to scout out the river banks , dashing but rather poor troops . I will continue this game in the next blog.

PS a plug for the site that got me into Colonial wargaming - Major General Tremorden Rederring's site 

 .http://web.archive.org/web/20060614041903/http://zeitcom.com/majgen/index.html

Seeing Both The Woods And The Trees.

I have been looking for some more MDF trees for my 40mm SYW-ish figures , I did some 2D ones several months ago and they have been a great success, they were originally meant for displaying family trees . I noticed that some Fir trees type ones were being advertised on EBay for use as Christmas ornaments - so I ordered a pack of ten for a very reasonable price .

I had to buy some suitable round bases for them and cut up some square bases into triangles to hold the trees in place using my rather grungy glue gun to fix them . There are a couple of figures for scale 40mm on the left 28mm on the right .

I've started painting them with a hint of shading , which may or may not be working !? using a large cheap make up brush , the trunk and base are still to be completed . I'll post photos when I've got them done .

The First Of The Etruscans .

I've been working on the Etruscan warbands and have got these figures finished . I sprayed them black then blocked in the colours , washed then with a brown ink , picked out the highlights and a coat of gloss varnish to seal in the paint to prevent flaking . I then applied a matt varnish and based them . I'm busy with the next batch and a mule train for them to fight over and will post them when they are done . (click on photos to enlarge)

An Aside .

I do like plastic figures and am fascinated by the many sets that are out there , gone are the days of converting the 'Airfix' Guardsmen into the required army . A quick glance at the Plastic Soldier Review site* and you find everything you want is covered  . So when I saw this box of Etruscans I was intrigued - I've always been interested in them as they always seem to play second fiddle to the Romans . I thought 'how to use them ?' - I've been playing a bit of  'Songs Of Blades And Heroes' (SOBAH) using fantasy figures recently and think the rules are so easy that they can cover historical periods as well .

The figures are rather nice with very little flash (the bane of all plastics) and are produced by "Linear-A" a German company I believe , There are 30+ figures in the box and I cleaned up some of them and mounted them on pennies ready for spraying . I'm going to use SOBAH with about eight to a dozen figures a side for small skirmishes , cattle raids  etc and am rather looking forward to painting them - it's a while since I did any ancient figures so I put some up once I get them going . (click on photos to enlarge)

*http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/News.aspx

Old School Meets New .

I have got my copy of 'Black Powder' version 2 and decided to try it out using my newly re-based Spencer Smith figures and with the aid of  my wargaming colleague  'A' . Having glanced through the new book not much has changed and certain things explained better.

I set the terrain up and deployed the Austrians , the Prussian have to deploy on the other side of the river and cross and exit the board on one of the roads opposite .

The Austrian Commander and female 'companion' (had he paid more attention to his battle plan and less on the fairer sex he would have maybe done better).

The Prussian General unencumbered by girlfriend.

'A' deploys his troops and in the first couple of moves things do not go well for him - rolling two blunders and a series of poor command rolls , things were looking rosy for the Austrians .

Then things started to unravel, the leading Prussian battalion opened fire at close range and scored triple sixes ! - not good in any set of rules for the target  .

The Austrian battalion is shaken with excessive casualties and fails its moral test and flees ! . The Austrian left flank was overwhelmed and driven back finally leaving the table.

'A' is triumphant ! and mocks my discomfort !.

The Prussian cavalry cross on the right bridge and dominate the centre of the table having driven off the Austrian cavalry. Notice they are deployed directly in front of the Austrian artillery who couldn't hit a barn door ! .

The Prussian right flank Brigade having driven off the enemy move forward to capture the road exits and the objective of the game. After a poor start the Prussian attacks went home and the Austrians failed to respond thence losing the game. The game played in about one and half hours over seven moves and as always 'Black Powder' delivered . In the heat of the action we forgot about looking for any difference in the rules which I'm going to read through properly now.

Prussian Fusilier Command .

Having got two of the three companies of the Prussian Fusilier Regiment Prinz Heinrich Von Prussia done I decided to do the Colour bearers and an Officer for the second in command . I have chosen to use the standard bearers with cast flags as with my other units , the only problem is with the more Prussian type figures they have the flags folded and you have to work out where the various bits of flag design go . After a couple of attempts I think I have got it right .

I had a discussion with my 'wargaming colleauge' 'A' about how I feel I don't play with my toys enough and so I said I will set up and play a game or games every week for the rest of the year (I'm lucky enough to have a gaming room so things can be left mid-game) . To record this I have added a side-bar to my blog in case they don't actually appear on the blog itself .