Painting Update December - more 15s

Some Confederates for my ACW project, first up Peter Pig - Command and my first 3 completed singly based figures for Sharp Practice 2

Old Glory figures on multiple bases

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Artillery - a 12lb Napoleon for each side, figures are Warband I think, which are now available from CP miniatures. 

Painting Update October 2018 Fifteens and Frostgrave

Lots of stuff finished this time

15mm ACW

More rebased ACW - 20 Confederate infantry, 8 Confederate command, 4 Union command and 4 Union infantry this time.

Newly Painted ACW - 20 more Confederate infantry and 4 command

15mm SF 

Security Force Alpha and a Laserburn Partisan scout car

25mm Frostgrave

Giant spiders and a tomb

Painting update - Mid September

Finally got some more painting and rebasing progress after a slow period. I'm concentrating on my 3Fs for the year - 15mm, Flintloque and Frostgrave though the release of the excellent Sharp Practice 2 from the Too Fat Lardies has distracted me a bit with the many projects this suggests.

Completed recently - more rebased figures from my old ACW collection from the 1980s - I've moved away from 1st Edition Johnny Reb rules to  a standard basing that should allow me to use the Lardies' They couldn't hit an Elephant, Fire & Fury and Real Time Wargames "Stonewall" Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley.

Completed

1 base of US Infantry Command and 8 bases of US Infantry

5 bases Confederate Infantry

Finally some more progress with miniatures

I've finally managed to make a bit more progress with my miniatures projects by rebasing some 15mm ACW that I've had for around 30 years and putting them onto 25mm square bases suitable for a number of sets of rules that I intend to use including Fire & Fury and They Couldn't Hit an Elephant.

I count them as 50% of painting and basing a figure for my painting progress for the year as there is a fair amount of effort required. So with 56 of them finished I'll count it as 28 miniatures done.

Confederate infantry and command

Union infantry

More Union infantry and command

Sharp Practice 2 - at last I get my plans together

In the last month or so I've been reading Sharp Practice 2 and participating on the Too Fat Lardies Yahoo Group and Forums about the rules, but not got very far with actually getting figures ready. A few purchases on e-Bay and a bit of sorting in my lead pile has given me the following plan to play a few 1861 set games.

1. finish off the 15mm Confederate infantry I have on the painting table which will get me to 3 groups of infantry and some command figures, namely 1 officer, a standard bearer and a drummer.
2. Clean up and undercoat the other 22 Confederate infantry and some more command figures - this will be 2 more officers and a sergeant.
3. Clean up and undercoat the 24 Zouaves in Kepis that I have acquired, though I will probably paint them as the 14th Brooklyn Chasseurs. These will also have a couple of officers, a drummer and colour party.
4. Sort out another 22 Union Infantry, 1 more officer and a sergeant to add to the force and paint up.
5. Make some snake rail fences and put together some card buildings to add to the table.
6. Put together some more woods markers and other terrain pieces.
7. Sort out some figures for my cavalry to paint up some command figures and a couple of individually based ones to allow my existing ACW cavalry to be used.
8. Finish painting the ACW artillery I have on the painting table to add to the fun.

So no shortage of work to do, as well as this I will be rebasing most of my ACW collection to use it with They Couldn't Hit An Elephant for mass battles. 

Sharp Practice 2 - innovation in an update of a popular set of rules.

Sharp Practice2 from Too Fat Lardies is quite innovative in updating the Sharp Practice rules.

No more blinds - deployment points which are scenario based but can be added to using a Scout from the support lists. Units deploy within a radius from these depending on their type and other scenario based conditions (e.g. attacker/defender).

In the card deck for activation there are Command Cards as well as the individual leader's cards which can be used to either activate units that have not acted at the turn end, be used to activate units out of sequence or use troops characteristics, such as firing controlled volleys.

Cards or chips to determine the order of play - something that as a bit of a numpty when it comes to shuffling cards and that I find it easier to make poker chips I am glad of.

Leaders number of actions is based on their ability.

There are explanatory posts at the Too Fat Lardies blog and videos on their YouTube channel going into more detail on these.

The rules are still available for pre-order with bundles including cards, chips and markers till Friday so it is worth getting in there quickly and then they will be released on 23 April, St Georges Day (and Shakespear's birthday).

Sharp Practice 2 in 15mm

I plan to start using the new Sharp Practice 2 rules from Too Fat Lardies with my 15mm ACW collection, which I am sure will provoke cries of horror from those who consider them to be a "28mm ruleset". This obsession which some gamers have with a supposedly correct scale of figures for a set of rules is something I find hard to understand and I am not alone in this. The distinction is more between using individually and stand based systems, though I can appreciate that it makes sense that the figure scale is greater than the ground scale as Mike Whitaker explains.

Getting back on topic I find that my preferred range of miniatures for 15mm ACW, which is Peter Pig has a limited set of the figures I might need for support options in their range, but Freikorps 15 now sold by Total System Scenic does have a lot of the things like a US Army mule cart and Engineer figures for the ACW in their ranges. Though if you go looking the mule cart is under the US Mexican War (which of course it can be used for too).

Initally I may well start playing using multiple bases for the line troops in my Union and Confederate forces with just the leaders and skirmishers on single bases, but as I paint up more from the lead pile I will probably build up to being able to field most of the infantry in a game as singly based. The cavalry will probably still tend to be on the 2 figure bases I already have and likewise artillery bases will be my current ones with the crew all fixed on meaning I will use markers to show casualties.

The Friekorps range also contains plenty of other vehicles that would be useful for the different supply options for SP2 in 15mm for periods like Napoleonic or 18th Century European wars and 15mm means that it will be possible to substitute cm for inches on the measurements and play on a smaller area if space is an issue and it will feel less of a mismatch than using cm measurements with larger scale figures.

Now just have to get back to terrain making, painting and waiting for the rules on the 23 April.

Sharp Practice 2 - First Impressions

First impressions from a pre release demonstration game hosted by the Peterborough wargames club. Thanks to Mike Whitaker and the club for being welcoming and Rich Clarke for coming up and running a game after getting the game off to the printers which implies he probably had minimal sleep. 

It has been quite a while since I last played Sharp Practice as the last time I played was at the SELWG show in 2012 with the Terrible Sharp Sword supplement. That was also a demonstration game run by Richard Clarke.

There are a few noticeable changes like the replacement of blinds with jump off points deployment points, making random events occur based on the cards coming out of the deck and the Force Morale for the overall morale of each side. The system plays smoothly as last nights game had a lot of novice players but still gave an exciting and close game where the final result really came down to the order of the cards out of the deck as either side could have won. 

I am definitely signing up for this as soon as the pre-orders are available at the Too Fat Lardies website in the next couple of days. 

Worst thing is the amount of possible projects that this has got running through my head now, but my first thing will be 15mm ACW for SP2 as that ties in with my current painting project. 

Pictures follow

The terrain largely from Rich Clarke but some items like trees and roads from the Peterborough club collection.

The first rebel skirmishers deploy

The continentals and militia arrive. 

The British regulars march up the road towards the bridge

Loyalist cavalry advance

The cavalry charge and drive off the American skirmishers.

The US forces form up to receive the British regulars and Hessians.

The Hessian grenadiers finally arrive.

British redcoats advance into the attack.

Near the climax of the game Rich Clarke makes a point. 

Flintloque and Fifteens - First Painting Update of 2016

Finally I get in my first completed figures of the year, 2 Flintloque Dogmen and a few Confederate cavalry for my 15mm ACW project.

Ludwig van Barkhoven and the dogman highwayman are from the Flintloque range sculpted by Christian Cuello. I'm fairly happy how both turned out though I found trying to paint the notes on the manuscript that Ludwig holds quite tricky. 

The cavalry are Lancashire Games figures that I have had for quite a while, but only now got onto painting. The next things for me to do in my 15mm ACW project are some Confederate infantry and then some artillery for both sides. 

Plans for 2016 and 2015 in review

Plans for 2016

Painting - priorities will be finishing off the stuff in the pipeline which means a lot of 28mm fantasy including my first Flintloque cavalry (Goblin Dodo riders) and Frostgrave warband, monsters and terrain. I've also got plenty of WWII stuff in 20mm to do with terrain and vehicles as a priority and in 15mm I'll concentrate on the American Civil War with cavalry and artillery as the main arms to focus on.

Gaming - going to try and finish profiles for some of the painted Flintloque sections that I have and get some games in with both Flintloque and Two Hour Wargames Chain Reaction, Long Rifle, Swordplay and Nuts rules. I'm also hoping to get in some games of the Lardies' Chain of Command with my WWII figures.

Other rules I hope to try out are Crossfire and Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames rules from the book of the same name.

2015 in Review

Good for painting not enough games played, not as many miniatures completed but a lot more 25/28mm figures. I did get a few games of Ogre and Up Front played but not much with the miniatures.

I managed to get to the Dragonmeet and SELWG conventions and maybe hope to get to Salute in 2016, but will have to wait and see how that goes.