Silver 'loque - Flintloque and Silver Bayonet combined

Looking at Osprey's new Silver Bayonet game I immediately spotted how it would be a good use for my Flintloque miniatures. My Witchlands undead give me vampires and revenants that I can use and I have a range of nations including civilian types that can allow plenty of variations. 

I've started planning a section based on my Catalucian Dark Elves as I think I've got a nice range of options from my collection.

Left to right Veteran Hunter: Ramon Tambor, Capitane Primo del Porque, Grenadier Carne de Vaca and Irregular Javier Castanette

Privates: Jamon, Croquette, Burghua, and Patatas

Cardinal Ximenez (Priest) and King Fernando of Catalucia

Commander

Capitan Antonio Primo de la Porque
Speed	Melee	Accuracy	Defence	Courage	Health	Recruitment
7	+2	+1	14	+3	12	100
Attributes: Inspiring, Unflappable
Equipment: Silver Sword, 2 Pistols, Salt Bag.

Veteran Hunter:  (30 points)

Hunter: Ramon Tambor
Speed	Melee	Accuracy	Defence	Courage	Health
6	+2	+2	14	+0	12
Attributes: Great Faith
Equipment: Cold Iron Sword, Musket, Cartridge Box.

The rest of the section use the standard profiles and I've just noted which ones I've given special armoury equipment. 

Grenadier Carne de Vaca (15 points)

Equipment: Musket, Cartridge Box, Cold Iron shot.

Irregular: Javier Castanette (15 points)

Equipment: Musket, Cartridge Box, Oil and Torches.

Infantrymen: Privates Jamon, Croquette, Burghua, Patatas (40 points)

Options

As options I can use my Catatonic Inquisitor as a priest, Cardinal Ximinez, who would cost 20 points and could replace a couple of the Infantrymen, though the recommendation is to have the maximum 7 characters in the unit. I'd give him a holy signal from the suiting his role.

King Fernando will probably only turn up as a civilian in my scenarios, probably requiring rescue from nefarious dark forces.

Todoroni Section for Flintloque

My BelloLugosi Militia section.

I like to try and have a theme for my Flintloque sections with giving the figures individual names, so inspired by BellaLugosi, I've gone with classic Hollywood movie stars from the 1930s. I've not been totally rigid in making these fit to the characters as I just really wanted to have some inspiration for the names and to get away from just calling them Luigi, Sandro, etc.

Command - Singer Pavarotto, Standard bearer Lautoni,  Marquis du Grande Frappechino (not part of the section), Teniente Errolflynni

Line in order -Privates Fairbanko and Karloffi, Corporal Hardi, Privates Laurello and Garycoopa.

Stats for the section:

Teniente Errolflynni (Section Leader), Experienced, Militia	Points 34
Skills/Traits: Duellist, Jamminess
Melee +0, Discipline -1, Accuracy +5%, Steady 2
Standard Pistol, Sword Even for a Toadoroni, the Teniente is fond of boasting, but his skill with a sword and sheer luck make it easy for him to get away with his outrageous claims.
Corporal Hardi(Second Second) Average, Militia	Points 23
Skills/Traits: Tap Loading, Grenade Tongue, Dazzling Uniform
Melee -1, Discipline -2, Accuracy +0%, Steady 1
Musket, Bayonet Private Laurello's best friend, but prone to misadventures leading to his catchphrase "this is another nice mess you've gotten me into".
Sergento Carlo Lautoni Average, Militia	Points 20
Skills/Traits: Brawler, Foul Temper
Melee -1, Discipline -2, Accuracy +0%, Steady 1
Standard Pole, Knife
Singer Pavarotto Raw, Militia	Points 11
Skills/Traits: Water Mess, Valon's Worst Coward
Melee -2, Discipline -3, Accuracy -10%, Steady 0
Singer(Musician), Knife
Private Laurello Average, Militia	Points 23
Skills/Traits: Frighten, Rapport(Hardi)
Melee -1, Discipline -2, Accuracy +0%, Steady 1
Musket, bayonet Best friend of Corporal Hardi
Private Garicoopa Raw, Militia	Points 14
Skills/Traits: None
Melee -2, Discipline -2, Accuracy -10%, Steady 0
Musket, Bayonet
Private Fairbanko Raw, Militia	Points 17
Skills/Traits: Glimmer, Hop Atop
Melee -2, Discipline -2, Accuracy -10%, Steady 0
Musket, Bayonet
Private Karloffi  Raw, Militia Skills/Traits: none	Points 14
Melee -2, Discipline -2, Accuracy -10%, Steady 0
Musket, Bayonet

And some reinforcements in the painting queue, strictly speaking neither is from the Bellalugosi militia set, but it will add some variety to have a big todoroni in there. 

Privates Johnwayno and Rathboni awaiting painting. 

Private Rathboni, Average, Militia, Small Todoroni	Points 25
Skills/Traits: Improved Discipline(1), Nerves of Steel
Melee -1, Discipline -1, Accuracy -10%, Steady 1
Musket, Bayonet Unusually brave for a tororoni, Rathboni is able to keep his calm in most situations unlike the rest of his section.
Private Johnwayno  Raw, Militia, Big Todoroni	Points 20
Skills/Traits: None
Melee +2, Discipline -1, Accuracy -10%, Steady 2
Musket, Bayonet.

Microgaming part I

Recently I've dug up my collection of old Metagaming Microgames, which started with Ogre in the early days of my gaming hobby in the end of the 1970s. I've got quite a lot of these games, so I will not try and list everything in this one post and some of the less played games I need to spend time studying and replayging to remember what they were like.

Ogre is the most played as it is easy to play to a conclusion in 30 minutes for experienced players. This means my copy must have been played with probably several thousand times over the 30 odd years that I have owned it. Of course Steve Jackson has kept it in print and produced large numbers of variations upon it, but ultimately it still goes back to that simple little game that it all started with. This is the reprint copy I bought a few years ago as I still need to find my original one. 

I even picked up this book with articles from the Space Gamer and other magazines included in it, showing I really was keen on this. 

GEV is a stand alone game in the Ogre setting, but has both sides usually with a mixture of armour and infantry and a wider range of scenarios playable. This means that it does stand up to repeated frequent play better than Ogre, particularly if additional scenarios from the various places are used as well as the basic ones included in the game. 

Another game I really liked was Sticks and Stones - a game about the dawn of warfare in the Stone Age with a solo mammoth hunt scenario I played quite a few times.

New Books - Gridded Naval Wargames and !Arriba Espana!

 A couple more wargaming books from Bob Cordery.

Gridded Naval Wargames

One for me to pursue ACW naval battles with, though I am also really interested in the unusual designs of the pre-dreadnaught era with the casement batteries and particularly the naval actions of the 1879 War of the Pacific. 

There are 6 sets of rules included in the book including 4 battle reports and a guide to making ACW ironclads using wood. There are also suggestions for expanding the rules for combined arms actions and including aircraft.

!Arriba Espana! including the Portable Spanish Civil Wargame

I already had the Arriba Espana rules from their original publication, but the modifications to the portable wargame which I now favour for this period were a good reason to get this. Hopefully this will get me going on putting my SCW collection to use. 

Testing the ACW version of the Portable Napoleonic Wargame

A playtest of my latest version of the Portable Napoleonic Wargame for the American Civil War, Brigade level rules.

I used Scenario 25 from Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames though I adapted it by having both sides with the same size forces rather than the smaller blue army though I adjusted the balance by the Confederate infantry all having smoothbores rather than rifles. The scenario is inspired by the First Battle of Kernstown, so is quite appropriate for the ACW. The Confederate objective is to exit 2 units off the north road edge opposite from the side they have entered.

I also used the card based activation using turns as I think that I needed a stricter turn sequence for the victory conditions with the Confederates having initiative on the first turn.All the generals and unit names are fictitious, though the infantry and cavalry could well equate to real units.

Due to losing some of my notes this has been much delayed and has fairly brief descriptions of the mid game turns. 

Orders of Battle

Union 

• Brigadier General Clifford Mountain (average) 6AP
• Battery D, 1st Ohio Light Artillery (10 pound Parrot rifles) 2AP
• 51 NY Cavalry 3 AP
• 111th, 112 Ohio Infantry 4AP each
• 35th West Virginia Infantry 4AP 
• 89th Ohio (Bradley's Zouaves) 4AP 

Total of 27 AP Exhaustion point 9 AP

Confederate

• Brigadier General Graxton Cragg (average) 6 AP
• Roanoke Light Artillery (12 pound Napoleon smoothbores) 2 AP
• 18th Virginia Cavalry 3AP
• 28th, 32nd Virginia Infantry 4AP each
• 77th, 112th Arkansas Infantry 4AP each
• 56th Louisiana Infantry 4AP 

Total of 30 AP Exhaustion point 10AP

All units were rated as Average.

American Civil War books for Wargamers. Part 1 Uniforms and Tactics

American Civil War wargaming - a short list of recommended books. This is my personal set of recommendations for gaming in the ACW though there is a vast literature available particularly from university presses in the US.

Uniforms:

The following two Ospreys cover most of the basic uniforms of the forces involved, though not the more specialised volunteer units like the Zouves, Chasseurs, etc that were common in the earlier period and add a lot to the appeal of the ACW. There are the obvious limitations of the Men at Arms format and these can be supplemented by many other books on specific units or types of unit.

American Civil War Armies (I): Confederate Artillery, Cavalry and Infantry.

American Civil War Armies (II) Union Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery

American Civil War Armies (III) Specialist Troops

For more inspirational uniform books Don Troiani's books are hard to beat and the main one for the ACW is  Don Troiani's Regiments and Uniforms of the Civil War.There are a number of other books illustrated by Don Troiani on more specialised subjects such as Cavalry and Artillery, Infantry, or Militia and Volunteers.


Tactics:

Paddy Griffith Battle Tactics of the Civil War (Yale Nota Bene) Controversial but a useful examination of the tactics used in the war and a challenge to the rifle myth. I think it is not completely accurate in calling the ACW the last Napoleonic war, as Nosworthy helps makes clear. 

Brent Nosworthy The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War builds on the work that Paddy Griffiths did in Battle Tactics with actual statistical analysis of the ranges that combat occurred at. This helped prove that the ACW was usually fought at closer ranges than were claimed by many historians.

In part 2 I'll talk about campaign and unit histories and personal memoirs. 

5 Inspirational non fiction books for wargamers

5 Non fiction books that have inspired my wargaming and ideas on the rules to game them.

Pegasus Bridge Stephen Ambrose

Ambrose has his limitations as a historian, but he is an excellent storyteller and the coup de main at Pegasus Bridge is a remarkable event and an example of careful planning and execution. The actual capture of the bridge would not be a particularly great wargame as the attackers vastly outclassed and outnumbered the defenders, but there are some good scenarios for the Too Fat Lardies I Ain't Been Shot Mum in the 2006 Summer Special and the Kampfgruppe Von Luck scenario pack for Chain of Command. 

Black Hawk Down Mark Bowden

A really well written narrative of an operation where things went wrong and lead to a major surprise to the US and ultimately their withdrawal from Somalia.The film is pretty decent as a war film, though the cast is surprisingly multinational for the US forces. In terms of wargames rules there are plenty of options, but Ambush Alley was designed for just this sort of asymmetric warfare game. The original AA rules are available as a pdf or the updated Force on Force published by Osprey cover this, with the Say of the Rangers scenario pack. I've not actually tried gaming this yet myself trying to get other projects done, but my choice of minis would be 20mm with Elheim having suitable figures  

Setting the East Ablaze Peter Hopkirk
The Bolshevik revolution in the eastern parts of the Russian Empire. Plenty of scope for both role playing as well as wargames actions with the different agents, and colourful characters like the Bloody White Baron, von Ungern-Sternberg.

In wargaming terms this is often called the 'back of beyond' and can be gamed with either 20th Century skirmish rules or with WW1 period rules for a larger game. My choice would probably be Through the Mud and the Blood by Too Fat Lardies. 

Gettysburg - Stephen Sears
Out of the many books on Gettysburg I think Sears is one of the best as it gives a clear narrative of the campaign and battle including enough detail to give a flavour of one of the decisive battles of the American Civil war. 

The obvious set of rules for this is Fire & Fury Brigade level as that is in many ways designed as a set of rules for the battle of Gettysburg, it is still a good set for the ACW in general though. There are scenarios for Gettysburg both in the core rules and available online, so it is possible to do anything from a smaller action such as Little Round Top up to the full battle itself. 

Campaigns of Napoleon - David G Chandler

If I have to pick one book to cover the Napoleonic wars then this would be it, though there are many others that are inspirational.

My current choices for Napoleonic wargaming rules are the Portable Napoleonic Wargame by Bob Cordery. This has rules for games at the brigade, divisional and corps levels using a gridded table. It does not require huge numbers of figures or a massive table to play a game unlike some of the popular sets of rules. 

And one extra that is not specific to one period.

The Atlas of Military Strategy David G Chandler. This is an inspiration for campaign wargames as it shows the importance of not just battles but the use of manoeuvre to force an enemy to battle on your terms or avoid battle. It does cover a wide period unlike many of my other books.