A nice cup of tea

Next up on the painting tray is Santa Anna , Houston's opponent , again by Boot Hill Miniatures . Another controversial character from this era , lucky not to be hanged by the Texans after his defeat at San Jacinto he bankrupt Mexico with his 'creative accountancy' of it's finances . There are a lot of things me and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna might disagree about - but I'm all in favour of a cuppa tea ! .

'Big Drunk'

I've been pottering around painting up bits and pieces in between Spring cleaning and walking the dog and this couple of figures have been undercoated for a awhile - the depict General Sam Houston (right) and his pal Moseley Baker having a 'little drop of something' perhaps just before the Battle of San Jacinto , the are by Boot Hill Miniatures and capture the look of Sam in his younger days . He was always a controversial character , beating a political rival up with his walking stick , his behaviour before the battle is still mired in controversy (did he want to fight or not ?) , he lived many years amongst the Cherokee Indians and at one time had an Indian wife , the called him 'Black Raven' and also 'Big Drunk' because of his drinking habit . Admittedly he looks hesitant about having a glass in the above diorama . 

Sam Houston in later years , I must admit I rather like him 'warts and all' 

On the painting tray .

The strange thing  is I've found that over the last week  I've been so busy with gardening and  domesticity  that I've got very little painting done. I have got various bits of basing done and cleaned up and glued various models but today was the first time I've actually sat down and painted anything. I wanted to expand my Mexican Cavalry for my Tex-Mex Sharp Practise games , so I'm in the process of painting up another 6 Dragoons . The problem is trying to match them up to the existing ones which were painted about 10 years ago - the new on the left , the existing one on the right . Of course my matt black spray can ran out as soon as I started trying to undercoat them so I had to finish them off by hand . I've always liked the Mexican army uniforms which contrast with the civilian dress of the Texians . 

On the painting tray .

A few photos of some of the figures that are being finished off on my painting tray. First up four figures for my SYWish Prussian Freikorps vonKleist 'the Green Croats' , I have a few of these Hungarian figures by  Prince August ready cast up - bought off EBay a couple of years ago and have been wondering what to do with them as I don't have an Austrian force , then I found that this Freikorps used a similar uniform and the figures are close enough to do . 

A CinC for my French Intervention Force , he's a Irregular 40mm Deutsche Homage figure .

A slightly better photo of the 40mm figures resplendent in their gloss varnish .

And finally four dismounted  Mexican Presidial troopers for my Tex-Mex collection , they are 28mm Boothill Miniatures .

On The Table At The Moment.

Busy gaming the second of three linked games using my Tex-Mex figures and 'Sharp Practise' . Here Col. Fannon organises the Texian militia in defence of the town. I've started to play mini campaign/ linked games were one battle leads to the events of the next and will be using this over a series of periods and rules.

David Crockett directs the fire of his skirmishers from the roof of a adobe building . The Texians did badly in the first game fleeing the field under the aggressive assaults from the Mexicans .

However after an initial successful attack on the mounted Texian cavalry which they drove from the table their cavalry is driven back by Crockett's riflemen - the CinC is wounded and then had his horse shot out from under him .

The commander of this infantry formation was killed and another officer had to dash across to try and get them motivated .

The overall situation , the Mexican attack has stalled as their officers are taken out of action and their units are becoming demoralised as they take casualties from the Texian militia . Enjoying playing 'Sharp Practise' as it's all about unit and force morale rather than casualties and drawing the cards from the activation deck is perfect for solo gaming.

Deployment Point Markers.

One of the main things about 'Sharp Practise' is the use of Deployment Points from whence your force comes onto the table and if captured by the enemy  prevents further reinforcements and is detrimental to your armies morale . It seems la rigueur to have army / period  markers so I thought I would make some for my Tex-Mex games . I noticed some plastic cacti for cake decorations in a shop that does wedding cakes etc. so I bought their entire stock (much to the amazement of the lady behind the counter - I didn't enlighten her to my true purpose) . I glued these to some round MDF bases and textured then I also added a couple of Mexican peasant figures to them so they are ready for the next game.

The Battle Of Mission Concepcion.(Part Two).

The second move started very well for the Texians two of their leaders and their four units came onto the table using the secondary deployment point and so were ideally placed to hold up the Mexican advance .

More Mexicans arrive but move somewhat tardily - you dice for movement .

Two units of New Orleans Grey arrive via the primary deployment point accompanied by the Texian General .

At this point I cocked it up for the Mexicans by allowing their cavalry to get shot up by the Texians in the buildings , they have 6 disruption point each - these slow movement and combat effectiveness . It took the rest of the game to get them out of the way and rally both units back to effectiveness .

The Mexican infantry failed to close with the rebel militia and their attack bogged down , if a unit has more disruption points than figures they have to retire which drags the army morale down .

The other column drove the Texians back on the left flank but in doing so suffered high casualties and disruption points and had to withdraw . 

The state of morale towards the end of the game , the Mexicans have got down to 2 points which removes some of their command cards making it harder to control them . Shortly after this they dropped to nil and lost the game . A quick game and a decisive win to the Texians , my handling of the Mexican cavalry was to blame (hangs head in shame) and they never got into action . I think I'm getting the hang of the rules and they play well for solo .

The Battle Of Mission Concepcion.(Part One)

This is a game played using 'Sharp Practise'  , the Mexican army under Colonel Ugartechea has surprised a Texian force based at the Mission Concepcion and their task is to drive the rebels from the table and capture their deployment zone . Here we see the Mexican initial deployment markers (discs with blue flags) where they will appear on the table .

The Texian end of the table with their deployment markers , the one nearest the table edge on the left is the one the Mexicans must capture to win , the other in the centre is a secondary one where Texians can deploy but has no tactical significance .

When a Leaders card is drawn he and the units under his command can deploy . Here they can deploy at 18" - 12" for being cavalry plus another 6" for being out of sight of the enemy deployment marker.

The Texians get lucky and draw two leader cards, each leader has two units of militia under them . I decided to deploy them on the secondary point to hold up the Mexican advance . Being infantry they  have to deploy within 6" of the marker.

The Mexicans draw another leader card and three units of infantry appear . Then the 'Tiffin' card was drawn and the move ends,  the cards are re-shuffled ready for move two. 

The two forces have an initial morale which diminishes as bad thing happen . The Texians are on 8 (militia) , the Mexicans 10 (regulars) . Too be continued …….

A Rules Test .

So having re-commissioned my Tex-Mex collection I cast about for a set of rules , I bought these off EBay breaking a rule I have that rules MUST have a play sheet , 'Sharp Practise' don't because the author says you don't need one - I beg to differ and found a fan published one on a forum and printed then out. .

From this somewhat rocky start I set up a game and played a test game . It's not that the rules are complicated - the mechanisms in themselves are fairly simple based on D6's , it's just that there are quite a few rules and the complications start with the command and control . Cards are drawn to activate leaders of various qualities and these are enhanced by command cards . The turn can end at any turn of the cards when the 'Tiffin' card is drawn , this I find makes it easy for solo play .

The forces morale is tracked and drops as nasty things happen . These rules seemed to be very popular with people who like them and I can see where they are coming from , it's just getting used to the rules and their various quirks . 

The objective of the game was for the Mexicans to capture the gun from the Texan 'rebels' , this was based on a early skirmish when the Mexicans tried to reclaim a gun that had been given to the settlers to protect them from raiding Indians.

A closer look at the 'Gonzales Come And Take It Gun' (by Boot Hill Miniature) the figures are 'Old Glory' 28mm .

The games afoot ! The cabin has been set on fire by a random dice throw , the red markers are 'disruption points' (DP) , the cotton wool marks if units have reloaded or not . At first I was a little cool towards these rules as I don't like learning new systems - BUT I am coming around to them as they will handle I think the small skirmishes which made up the majority of actions in this war . With most wargaming rules you have to cause casualties and remove figures to win but with these the DP's start to make your forces unusable without loosing lots of figures which seems right with this conflict when casualties were not great (Alamo and Goliad excepted) . I'm going to set up another game and try again with a better grasp of the rules . I've also got most of the figure revamped which I'll illustrate next.

King Of The Wild Frontier.

Been revamping my Tex- Mex figures , re-doing bases and chipped paint etc , I had also purchased some of the 'Boot Hill' figures which I had never got painted so I've been painting them up as well. Here we see David Crockett (centre) with some of his volunteers and a couple of Tejanos Mexicans .

Behind them is a MDF church which I have been busy building , it is by 'Sarissa' and is quite the business ! , I find 'Sarissa' easier to put together than the '4 Ground' buildings , they are not as detailed , a bit more robust - but come unpainted . 

The 'Boot Hill' figures also come with a mounted version, here is Davy and his posse , behind them is a 'Sarissa' Adobe Railway Station which I have converted into a Hacienda type building .

Technology has moved on since I first painted my figures and I have started replacing the rather sad tattered ones with some down-loaded ones from the 'Boot Hill' site .

A selection of Texian flags - the Gonzales 'Come And Take It' , New Orleans Greys' and the 'San Jacinto' flags . I'm starting to play some games which I will illustrate next time.

A Return From Obscurity .

Nothing personal dear reader - but an introduction to a collection of figures that have not made an appearance on this blog as yet .

About ten years ago (?) Warhammer Historical published the above rules and I started collecting figures for them , mainly 25mm Old Glory (they did some rather good deals at that time on big purchases) and really got into system and the era . 

A quartet of Davy Crockett's (l to r Boot hill Miniatures , Old Glory , ? can't remember and Dixon). The problem with the Texan War of Independence is everybody concentrates on the Alamo forgetting the other actions which are probably more interesting and don't mention to a Texan that Crockett died anything but a hero's death (A La John Wayne) as they get VERY annoyed !. 

Generalissimo Santa Anna and staff (in period type photo) . I played it a lot at the time but being a 'wargaming butterfly' I moved on and the figures got pushed under the wargaming table and got forgotten . I was having a clear out of books and rules I wasn't going to use/read again when I came across the rules and was overcome by waves of nostalgia , so I sat down with a cup of tea (and biscuits) and re-read them , they are simple enough but lack a robust morale system maybe . So I thought I should give them another go . The figures could do with sprucing up and there are a fair few needing painting (isn't there always!?) I don't think I need to buy any new figures for this project (Huzza !). So I will chart my progress in this old/new period over the coming weeks .