Friday, December 24, 2021

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.


Thursday, December 02, 2021

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, MilitiaPoints 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, MilitiaPoints 20
Skills/Traits: Brawler, Foul Temper
Melee -1, Discipline -2, Accuracy +0%, Steady 1
Standard Pole, Knife
Singer Pavarotto Raw, MilitiaPoints 11
Skills/Traits: Water Mess, Valon's Worst Coward
Melee -2, Discipline -3, Accuracy -10%, Steady 0
Singer(Musician), Knife
Private Laurello Average, MilitiaPoints 23
Skills/Traits: Frighten, Rapport(Hardi)
Melee -1, Discipline -2, Accuracy +0%, Steady 1
Musket, bayonet
Best friend of Corporal Hardi
Private Garicoopa Raw, MilitiaPoints 14
Skills/Traits: None
Melee -2, Discipline -2, Accuracy -10%, Steady 0
Musket, Bayonet
Private Fairbanko Raw, MilitiaPoints 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 TodoroniPoints 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 TodoroniPoints 20
Skills/Traits: None
Melee +2, Discipline -1, Accuracy -10%, Steady 2
Musket, Bayonet.

Saturday, November 27, 2021

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.





Monday, October 25, 2021

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. 

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