Nothing to do with a gaming blog? Well almost nothing. You see my excuse for staying in all day Saturday and painting was that I was waiting in for a phone call to go fetch three 'point of lay' hens to bring my back garden brood back up to strength after a hard winters campaigning. So here are the new ladies in my life.
Warren Hybrids.
These are Warren's but bread so that they are slightly better egg layers. That is to say the already great layers become super layers. The old battery farms (and vast majority of commercial farms) use this type of bird though they also pump them full of chemicals that make them lay even faster and sell them off for turning into hot dog sausages etc. Mechanically reclaimed meat is code for whole birds, beak, legs and all just minced into puree. Don't go there! Our original birds were rescue birds that would have had that fate but are bought by a charity and whilst not in the worst state they could have been were fairly bad. Broken toes, urine burns from sitting in their own mess and 2/3rd featherless. Well post having these which against the odds all survived (many of these birds die after coming off the heavy dose antibiotics that allow them to stay alive in such condition - junky chickens coming off crack is not fun to watch), we could not take other ex-bats as we do not have a separate place to put the rescue birds whilst they recover. Putting them in with full strength chickens is a death sentence as the others will just peck them to death.
So since then we have just had young 16 week(ish) birds. Last time we went for something different, Light Sussex and Black Roc hybrids. These produce less eggs but we don't have them for the out put. So what did the old gals think of the new?
Chicken Stare!
Not impressed! Blossom, the white one has been the boss for well over a year and when ever new birds get introduced a new pecking order has to be established. The new birds will not challenge her position, well not for some time but the whole who's boss has to be ran through. It started really bad as one of the two originals fetched blood of Cath's new girl Phebe. Fortunately with the heat it dried quickly as running blood to chickens is an open invite to attack after attack. We kept a close eye but really did not want to separate them. Anyways they all settled down later and apart from the odd flap they have settled in well, just like all the others before.
Ollie, that's my girl.
Olli is mine, a Black Roc who is black all over except the neck and wing/tail tips which are golden. She is the one most in danger of slipping down the pecking order and she knows it. She is a smaller bread and has always been at the bottom of the chain. This is no problem though as they have plenty of room .
Anyways, next post will be back to what you want to see, honest.
Gerald the Duck was regretting his Vindaloos from the night before.
Oh such a quaint saying (has anyone else heard this?) that basically means, yes right of course you did/will do etc. Or to put it another way, can you believe what you are hearing? I am referring in fact to my Blog Giveaway picked way back on the 15th. Lets face it the two UK guys should have received theirs by now! Problem is I have yet to post them!!! they should go out tomorrow (That's that duck again), the problem really stems from two things. Being arsed enough to package them up (really just a padded envelope) but the other reason is any costs for the blogs has to come out of my wargames neutral stash which took that hammering at the weekend. Well I was expecting some money flowing in from selling some figures but the money has yet to land leaving me in a bit of a twist. No matter I will get them out and short term minus as I have a few other sales that will pad me out fairly well anyway and that should be in some time soon (oh the life of the unemployable). So you can stop looking in the mail, well until Monday anyway.
Close up of the damage by the farting duck (yes I know it's a drake).
Johny Cash possibly was inspired by a similar scene.
I made my wife take the picture a few weeks ago whilst we were out walking at Cromford. Well it amused me anyway. Cath was far happier taking shots like the one below, bless.
Well it was Triples yesterday and what a good day it was. I live 45 minutes away so it really is the local show. In fact though it is further away now it's about 20-30 minute's quicker to get to as we no longer have to drive through Sheffield. Lee had arranged to pick me up at 9am so at 8.45 I clambered into his car and along for the day was Adi who I had met just the once before and is a real fun guy and we all spent the day trading war stories. Of course we had given ourselves an hour to get to the Con and set off 15 mins early so once near the site we went for 2nd breakfast.
It seemed the local car park rolled well on initiative and installed a guy on the entrance who ambushed us all for £3 parking, good job we were in a good mood having just feasted so well at MacD's.
I like the new venue, no stairs, everything all together in two rooms* (though it took till lunch to find the second room). Traders for the most part round the edge of the room, displays and participation in the centre with bright lighting.
* The wargames themselves were in a off shoot from the main room, easy to see but what a difference. Dim and dismal lighting (is that a 4?, anyone selling glow in the dark dice would have done a great trade) and it was cold in there. If the con gets any bigger I think they will put them in the car park! In the same room but tucked away at the very end was what is probably the worst bring and buy I have ever seen. Ran by the guy who often runs it but possibly a victim of E-Bay, the lower numbers on the day or perhaps just what seems the steady decline and lack of interest that bring and buys seem to generate. Anyway apart from 40K it seemed that it really only held a lot of books, a few bits and bobs and the stock owned by the guy doing the bring & buy. He was (again) openly bragging to a guy about how he had snapped up a bargain for latter sale. This is the crux of the problem. Anything worth grabbing he gets, he buys it and gets the commission and the selling fee. In effect he not only gets first dibs but buys at a discount. He see's it as part payment for him doing the B&B (I assume then he makes no money (yeah right!)) I see it as short sighted strategy that is paying him back. What's the point going looking if nothing is worth the ticket price as he has had all the good stuff? Less peeps looking, less sold, less taken to be sold the following year. The circle is maintained. He gets a worse image when he is selling games he bought in The Works even if he is not making a huge mark up, they are still in my local store!!!If Triples are paying attention, if you want the bring and buy to function like a real bring and buy, stop using outside sellers and man it yourself.
As mentioned above, numbers did seem to be down and that was in part put down to a local football teams playoff game being on, either way it was not badly attended but by 3pm it was looking beyond sparse. Still a good return for me.
Met fellow blogger Phil of The Wargammer site and his posse. He has already posted his Triples event (see sidebar) and had a chat with them all. Whilst he grabbed my pic I feared for my camera's health so kept it hidden. Nice bunch of lads and it was like we had all been mates for years! (Which after the camera gag may well not happen LOL). What I find interesting about these events is the sheer number of old and new acquaintances that spring up. Lee is a bit of a whore so every other minute someone would come up and chat to him about this and that. Hell we only got through the door before one bloke (the original holiday centre owner) was chatting with him and telling him he wanted Lee to paint some 10mm's for him. Later he caught up with us and handed the fig's he wants painting. He had a pack of Hussars that he needed painting, just mentioned someone who did not wear glasses was required to paint them. I for some reason mentioned I did not need glasses and promptly was given half the pack and told they need to be painted as Aide de Camp's!!! Upping the ante seems to be a wargamers trait LOL. The reward? You get to go over to his new gaff for a free game or so when he is sorted. He is going down the route of 10mm and with the offer of free games if you paint some gear for him he hopes to get lots of figures painted. I wish him well in the venture and look forward to painting these up for him, but the trust that gets put out there, the man did not even have my name, seems being a wargamer and entering the building with Lee is enough.
I did not take many pics as usual I left it to the end and was really feeling the day, but for your viewing pleasure.
Huntingdon & District Wargames Society 6mm Napoleonic game. Very friendly chaps who some how managed to play the game and chat to all and sundry. The pic shows just part of the battlefield and if I remember right they were using their own rules.
A close up of a few of the bases. They hammer a nail through the bottom of the base for the Hama Beads they use as markers. This acts as a great information system and also instills respect of the miniatures by those who insist on slamming their hands on the table! The figures are Baccus.
Like a Stone Wall put on this huge WWI display, that had tables flying off in all directions! Rather than the usual trench bound slog match this was fought over open terrain and seemed to have a fair bit of movement.
Another view to give you an idea of the size of the game, plenty more table dog legging to the left.
Old School done to a large scale. Each figure is hand cast from split moulds and must have taken forever to just make. The owner has for the most part just one mold per figure type but for the most used figures he had two!!! He would cast in his wife's kitchen and make them in two groups of 4 at a time.
Close up time. High gloss is the order of the day, as is the basic board. More detailed terrain just detracts from the style of the game. Many a older wargamer really got misty eyed over this one.
Very nice WWII display by Barnsley Association of Wargamers. Italian V Commonwealth and this is just a taste of the battlefield. So well done as were many of the displays.
A view from further around the table. The standards of display are so high now it has to be daunting for anyone wanting to put one on for the first time.
Mosborough Old Boys put on a ECW display, again this is just a part of it. As it was getting late in the day nothing was happening but it looked nice and I did spot my Regiment marching to the action. I think the power of the Sealed Knot is shown with the painting of the Kings Guard as it shows them with red pikes just like my company had theirs painted. Unfortunately no information is available to say that this was historical, indeed it was my company commanders way of making sure he could keep tabs on the pikes he supplied!
Another 6mm Naps, this time The Glory Boys. Effective terrain again, this time using Adler Miniatures.
A better view of the table. As mentioned by another blogger (Big Lee I think), some displays lacked either information or easy to see information on who they were and/or what they were fighting. The top pic of these two shows how easy it is to achieve this.
So that wraps up the show (I will do a stash post later). This would be it for you more normal types but we had to drop off a couple of Adi's excellent flags off at another of Lee's mates place. So we all trooped in to say hi and look at the battle the three of them have ongoing (the joys of a permanent table). I have never, ever EVER seen so many 28mm painted figures in my life. What's even better these figures are so well painted they could make the cover of any wargames mag! The table was great as well and the buildings very very good. Imagine the jaw dropping surprise when you find out this is just 20% of what they own between them! I did not take any pics as the camera was in the car. I have been invited to play with them when they get the next game set up and that is something that can't come soon enough. Andy the third member of their posse is another nice relaxed type of guy, all three play for the fun of playing, my idea of heaven. We spent about an hour to two chatting and showing me work they are doing on yes yet more figures and running me through the battle so far. Then it was a drive home from there dropping Adi off ad then back to mine more than ten hours after I left!
Well I'm off to Triples tomorrow and should be there for opening which is just perfect. It was always my favourite con really but so much has changed since the last time I attended. First up it was often the weekend one side or the other of my Birthday (MARCH!!!!!) now it's May. Next up it's at a new venue, well that will be a bonus for me as I did not fancy those stairs! and one reason for the move was the need for extra space. Good News, so what's on my list?
Essex will be one target as I need a couple of packs of Persian Cavalry to finish off the birthday ones I received also they have camels so I can get the ones I already own finished off.
Newline need a visit to check out their 20mm Numidians though at £3.30 a pack of three they will have to have something nice to get me to add them to the plastics. I also really need another Zvezda Carthaginian Numidian Cavalry box as I really need just a few more for the 20mm project to be ready to work on. I received my package from Hayfield's yesterday and have to say I really like the Zvezda and they are well worth the extra.
Donnington seem to be the only supplier holding Gallatian Infantry so I will take a look at them and if they are not a fit for what I need then I will probably pick up the closest I can find from one of the others. This and the camels will as good as complete my Later Seleucid arm, well as far as lead goes anyway. Painting well that's a different story.
Vallejo, if I can beat the local shops price I will pick up a few more colours, I feel I have arrived as I am in need of a new White as it's almost used up! Maybe also some horse colours, any suggestions?
Warbases will get a visit, i will pick up a few bits but mostly just to say thanks for the great service I have received in the last 6 months, really fast, helpful and pleasant guy.
Looking at Barbed Wire options, AP is on the clock at £3.59 for 2.5m so will be looking to beat it.
The sticky question of dice, at the moment I use my ASL dice but this means sometimes using them twice to get enough dice in. So buying some of the cheap as chips dice should be considered.
Timecast will get a nod as I need 6mm buildings but another company also do nice buildings and slightly lower in price so will be looking them up as well.
Pendragon for the 10mm ECW/TYW options. Still don't know where we will go with this but I think we will buy a few packs just to try them out. If we go with them it will mean a big spend to build up the armies.
Want to chat at Triples? if you see someone who looks like this, it may well be me.
Different Jersey though, 96 Hood will be the flavour of the day.
OK the random stuff now. Phil from The Wargaming Site got me thinking when he was writing about the standards of our hobby suppliers. The general consensus is that they all should be professional, have good websites and react fast to queries. All this was sparked by a mates problems with Heroics and Ross (problem was out of H&R control and has been resolved) but as my professional background is Retail Operations Manager level I have both insight and a personal interest in this matter. I also really should side with the customer as I HATE poor service and unprofessional action.
But we have a few issues that really need to be considered to get the full picture. Many of these companies are part time or if not fairly shoestring affairs. This means that either (and sometimes both) time or money is in short supply to do everything that is needed. Even so a basic standard should be expected but even that can be wanting. So what is reasonable?
E-mails and phone messages replied to. If service is up and running then it's fair to expect a reply within a few days but consider someone who has a full time job, they may well have to fit in casting, packaging and posting out so many orders at some points that they really struggle to get round to it, especially if it's just before or after a show. Still I think it's fair to get a response within 5 days especially if a weekend is included in the time period.
Pictures of the figures on the website. The real gripe of wargamers. Conventions may well be the place many of us get our figures from but how often have they been pre-ordered or selected from the Internet? Also Internet is very big business and so many of us do a lot of buying there. It makes perfect business sense to have all your figures on line with a good and secure ordering system to speed up taking our hard earned off us. The problem for some suppliers they simply do not have the now how to do this themselves and have may well have used someone to build their website who would have to be relied upon to add this feature or maintain it. It's likely in this case to cost a fair bit to do and as such becomes not viable, especially if they have a large catalogue. Money better spent would be to get a training session to learn how to do it and then devote a few hours a week to steadily doing this until you get the whole back catalogue on the system. Will it add sales? yes for sure but possibly not enough to warrant the already limited time for some. But this is a flawed strategy as slowly they will loose sales to competition who's product you can see. What the internet has done is allow us to see and purchase just about anything, if I want a hard to get (say in the UK) set of figures then by direct from where ever they are made. Companies such as H&R really should have pics, they have been around for so long and it's so important that such bread and butter companies get images across.
Getting what you want not an alternative/mistaken item and when it happens getting it sorted. Lack of a retail mind is often the reason for either slipping something similar in the parcel or not reacting fast to errors. Customers tend to hate these errors and can turn a happy loyal customer into a never again and outspoken unhappy camper. Quickly sorting out errors though has just the opposite effect, we love it!
Another similar issue. Out of stock and waiting, waiting and the sands of time drifting away. OK three weeks but I have waited every day for THAT parcel. I will use Hayfield's as an example. I ordered about £25-30 of items, I know already that they take a few days to get back to you, not sure if it's a one man band but it's always the same guy (Andy) who gets back to you. I received an e-mail from him stating the sale item I had ordered was gone (no surprise as it was the last one) and another item was going to be out of stock for two weeks. He was happy to send what he had and send the rest on or hold the stock. I was happy to hold as he told me it was a couple of weeks before the other item came in. A couple of weeks later he lets me know they aer in. Do I still want them and if so how to pay? We sorted the detail and 3 days later they arrive. At all stages I knew what to expect, instead of three weeks of letterbox camping. Warbases is great because he e-mails you he has sent the items out, this he does when he gets home at night, power to him, great service. Keep the customer informed and they stay happy longer, problem is that it takes time and unless they are well organised , lots of time.
Time is the issue for these guys, especially if they are a part time business. So should we cut them some slack? I think so, not a lot after all they are taking our cash but any of these companies that are at the point of going from part time to full time they have it the hardest because that other revenue will be missed for some time whilst they try to make it as a going consign.
Yes today we celebrated our Silver Anniversary ;-)
This obviously meant I was torn bodily from in front of my Computer for the day as we went out on our own after taking the kids to school. Well and after checking e-mails, reading a few blogs and dare I say it flocking 24 Peltasts, 20 ECW Foote, 3 Impetus Numidian LC and six Japanese Sniper Reminders. Cath took it fairly well (I think she was hoping to finish that book before heading out the door and the silence in the car was her reflecting on how lucky she is).
Very nice walk it was too, part way through Cath admitted to finding out a few old miniatures she had never got round to painting and starting to feel the urge to get them done.
When we got back I de-flocked the excess and after fetching the kids from school I spent the next two to three hours adding tufts and other bits and bobs to the bases ready for a photo shoot hopefully booked for tomorrow. So anyone waiting for the AAR from yesterday, well you have one more day to wait as I will get it done tomorrow and the miniatures catch up over the next few days. Meanwhile, here is a picture of my painting table just two days ago.
It was a real mix of projects, all coming to the same point, hence the wife having to wait. Kuani is in the process of being made (10 foot high grass as seen in the PTO), Numidian 20mm for the newest venture, got to love painting them! Peltasts keeping the ECW Foote company at the top and the last of the Japanese Sniper Reminders top right. I have in fact set up a permanent painting desk (my old work desk) but awaiting a small lamp before I can use it. I will still do a chunk of work on this little table though as it allows me to be in the same room as the rest of my bypods.
Just had an e-mail from Maelstrom Games, they will be increasing their price for the Vallejo paints to £2.10 from Friday. That's Game Colour, Panzer Aces and the standard range. At this point they are £1.80 per bottle. This is in reaction to Vallejo increasing their prices so expect all your suppliers to also follow suit. If Maelstrom has increased my 30p expect most suppliers to be looking at the 30-35p range meaning anyone selling at full price could well be almost breaching the £2.50 mark. All other Vallejo products are also set to increase as well, just no details available at the moment.
Maelstrom Games will honour any orders sent in before midnight UK time on Thursday night, even if the items are out of stock. Free delivery on orders over £10 so if you are running short of a few it may well be a good time to get them in as they say.
This last two weeks has seen me enter not one but two competitive games. Given that it's something I just don't do a great deal of (yes I play very competitively but not in competitions). Does that mean I have changed my spots? Will I change my style? And just what exactly am I playing?
Well anyone who has ever played this game will know exactly what I have signed up for. I joined the waiting list for this game about 4 -6 months ago in one of the few paper zines that still seem to be in existence in the UK. I have managed to get my second choice in Germany and so am ready to roll. My only concern is that Austria has no e-mail address which could effect how well we work together. For those who have not played the Diplomacy, Germany and Austria really need to work together for either to do well. If one falls the other tends to follow. Signing up for a postal Diplomacy game is really signing up for the long haul, unless you get knocked out early then games can run on for years. We have an international set of players and as such it should be rather interesting, I will report here on my progress (or lack there of) but if you want to follow all the other games or join one or more take a sub of Fury of the Northmen or FuN as it's also called. Games currently being played, Chess, Britannia, Diplomacy (now two games) and waiting lists for Chess and Diplomacy. Get in touch with me and I will supply Colin's address for you.
The other game is in fact a league. Committed through the rest of this year but I am sure I will play in following years as well. This is the ASLeague, a play by mail ASL League that has three month deadlines to play a scenario. Live play is allowed so you can hurry a game along if required but for the most part it is played out via VASL. It has received a great deal of interest and we have three Divisions this time round with over 70 players. Next year these Divisions will be seeded to an extent so the better players will get a chance to lock horns. This year will only have three rounds but regular years will have four. My first game is already well under way and I have just had a really rough turn, losing two Sherman's to a hidden SPG. On the bright side I have made good forward progress with my infantry. It really is still very open and any ones game.
I have cut down the map but have crossed half the boards, I am the tan (British) and need to control the Church and the woods hex. Casualties do not count against me. The pic shows me half way through my turn 3 move out of 8 turns. I am already flanking the top German unit, a half squad and hero. At this point we both have a lot of units Concealed (marked with a ?) this is mainly because we are fighting in Bocage so gaining concealment is easy. My units at the bottom have a few issues not the least in losing the two tanks but Ken my opponent has problems of his own with not enough forces forced to cover to much ground. The scenario AP33 Second Cristot has a reputation for being very well balanced based on reported playings (about 40 wins for each side) so it's set to be an excellent game.
As for how I intend to play them. Well just the same, play all out to win but have lots of fun getting there. But no that's the total sum of competitive play for now. The ASLeague just allows me to play a few other players that's all.
Me Bitter? Twisted? Need you ask? Well having never been to Salute I really don't know what I am missing which possibly is a good thing. I think most of all I would have liked to meet up with fellow bloggers but maybe next year etc etc.
What I did manage to do though was spend a bit of money and commit some more. Both to a new project mentioned recently, that of my 1/72 Numedian army.
Yes I know what your thinking, Dacian? Why Dacian. Well being plastic they convert rather easier than metal and I plan to do a fair bit of cutting and gluing until these Dacian's look more like Numedian Light Infantry. I bought two boxes and these are the first edition before the re-tooling and are supposed to be superior to the new versions. Each box was just under £5 with free postage from Drum and Flag. The rest of the basic army will run to about £25 and I will use the Romans I already own as Roman Deserters so total cost for a whole army will be about £45 and will be based for Impetus. The biggest challenge once painted will be learning how to fight with it as it's got a lot of light troops! I fancy playing at Maelstrom Games to take advantage of the larger tables!
I have to admit to being rather excited now that I have started to get it together and with some of the units being very basic in dress they should paint up really quickly, but I have said that before. My only issue is how to glue the riders to their mounts, after all I have a mass of glues but none of them like medium consistency plastic. Anyone want to help me out here?
Of course there is also the new TYW/ECW 15mm/10mm project waiting in the wings, Triples will hopefully help with the final decisions on that one but I don't plan to just sit back and wait. I plan to rebase at least one foote regiment in 15mm to see what it looks like. Ideally I would like to stick to 15mm as this would mean far less work but ironically could work out costing much more which is a issue given the £££ situation right now.
Well I am close to finishing off my Japanese Sniper Reminders, the figures were finished last night after painting them on and off through the afternoon and evening. Just need varnishing and then on to basing which is a fairly large task in itself. Then it's on to the Australians. After that I plan to major on figures for me for awhile as it seems that I am missing out on painting my armies.
Yesterday Mr. Postman dropped my prize from http://www.onemanhisbrushes.blogspot.co.uk which was great. Dave runs an excellent blog and paints great looking figures so if you don't follow him have a nip over and I am sure you will like it.
It was great to win something and I had chosen Zulu as it's been ages since I last watched it. It now sits next to the TV waiting for the kids to go back to school so I can watch it without the Dad.............. etc.
So Thanks Dave, and get behind the sandbags chap's
I was more than happy with March. The best Month for blogging for me with 22 posts. More than double that of the previous months and much helped by the final month of the painting contest as well as the better weather allowing me to be almost pain free for a couple of weeks Yippeeee!
I also picked up a few more followers which is always good and have continued to do so since so very pleased. The other gauge of outward success is hits. Every month has shown an increase in hits but last month jumped from 748 for February to a massive 1376 for March. This really blew me away as I have maintained a high regard for such things. The comments have come a lot thicker than previously which I also welcome.
The other more personal scale of success is the level of enjoyment you get out of writing the blog and this is only something you yourself can work out. I have to say that all the plus marks in followers and hits have helped but really it's been such great fun and shows no sign of dropping off. I've been frustrated this last ten or so days as sitting in front of a PC has been a no no. So what can you expect from the rest of April and beyond?
More Painting, I managed to finish off some 6mm before being struck down, I also have yet more Yanks to base up and then they are up for display. Unable to paint I have had enough hand control to make up a test piece of Terrain that should be finished before the weekend so will throw that on. A couple of book reviews and I will continue the ECW history bits as it seemed to be popular. Hopefully I will get a few games in in the next few weeks if I continue to progress and who knows what I will get up after that. May brings both Triples and Partisan shows though I don't think I will get to both so looking at Triples as being the event.
Just have to blog this as I'm very proud. Alice my daughter has achieved a end of term Merit Badge, mainly for her written work, especially imaginative stories. Alice is 7 so still early in the school process. Last year she was getting lots of recognition just as her younger brother has done this year. But for Alice this year had not seen the usual slew of awards, simply because this age group they don't hand them out like candy. Seeing her brother get various awards has really miffed her as she loves recognition and the attention that comes with it. Not only that but we always reward them with treats and such as well. Alice has continued to work hard and continued to achieve levels well above the average. Cath has a lot to do with this as she spends so much time with both Alice and Joseph each evening with reading and spelling etc.
So Alice was rewarded with a Merit Badge, a Zoobal a cuddly donkey and a choice for a special tea. I',m glad she choose the meatballs yum yum.
Oh Joseph got a couple of Playmobil skateboard dudes as we always treat both if one does well. I am now trying to not think about how much lead I could have bought.
I just Googled Cavalier image aiming for a pic of a dashing fellow to use in this post. Well I should not have been surprised that the first image I came across was not so easy to mistake for our Errol, but I was so smitten I have had to go with it. The word has over time been twisted from it's original meaning and become almost a compliment. In the post below I mention the use of the word as a troop type, well it started a long way away from that in it's first use.
The original word is a bastardisation of a Spanish word and meant a heavy drinking, womanising waste of space. This fit the image Parliament wanted the rest of England to believe the followers of Charles I King of England were. In short it was both propaganda and an insult. As mentioned yesterday, this was countered by Royalist circles introducing the term Roundhead when talking or writing about Parliaments leaders. Whilst Roundhead fell out of use soon after the Restoration the Court and hence the rest of Britain continued to use the term Cavalier as a badge of Honour. The breed of Dog favoured by the now dead King Charles I was named King Charles Cavalier Spaniel hence the cute pic. More recently a car (1970's) in the UK was rather aptly named the Cavalier (cornered like crap and in the rain well crapper) and was sporty and the desired car of every boy racer who could not afford a real car.
OK a bit of a reach for ECW related post but I am trying to pad out till the bomb shell post (and trying to link them all LOL).
No not Ray and Fran's Postie, mine. Today I received Festung Budapest which is the final Christmas present from last year. It's been some time coming but that's OK, now though I want to have a play. But this is just the latest in a nice stream of items as most of my Birthday stash has arrived this way and as much of it was ordered by me post Birthday it's been fair game at the letterbox. here is a quick run down in the order of last past the post.
Far less of interest to most of the followers of this general wargames blog that probably the rest but certainly the most expensive. I paid £100 for this in the UK rather than pre-order it from MMP. The result was I got it exactly 7 days after a friend who ordered direct and for £20 less than if I had pre-ordered, such is the effect of cost of post to the UK and the extra levy for collecting the Tax. If Duncan had received this weeks ago then the extra £20 would seem worth the cost but in Duncan's case I can see him being a bit miffed. Well for the none ASL player, what you get is a typical book case sized box but just over 3" tall and fully packed with 'stuff'. You get 9 sheets of counters and whilst you need Beyond Valour and the Rule Book to play this, that is all you need. Most Historical Mods require counters from two or three core mods but MMP decided due to the difficulty of getting the Axis Minors that they would include all these in the box. Fantastic for the guy without the counters, for me the guy with everything not such a great deal but going through the countersheets only a couple will be left unpunched. 17 Scenarios and three campaign games means you get a lot of ASL for your money. MMP will also release yet more scenarios for the maps in the future so plenty to look forward to. I have yet to dive in fully but that is for tonight, Ian is a happy Carrot.
Two days before this dropped through the letterbox from Amazon. £16 if I remember right and new . Osprey are not the only supplier found to be selling their own product cheaper via a third party than by their own website. If they think this does not piss off other stockists then they are wrong. But from a customer point of view, great. I could have spent £3 less and got a second hand copy but hell live a little. I have yet to read all the way through but so far it's totally FoG core with added flavour. Even most of the tips (that I hate so much) are exactly the same ones from the original rule set. This has the great advantage of being able to jump from one to the other and as I like FoG I assume this will be a good thing. However the proof will be in the playing which will not be for a few weeks or more as I have to re-base the figures and have yet to decide if I will do a quickie or a proper job based on need to play. One thing is already clear the rules really have ECW as a base of period and the rest seems to be worked round it, again good for me. However in grates that one class of Troop is Cavalier, I wonder if the rule writers know this was a term of insult? I can see it now, I charge your CAVALIERS with my Fatherless Sons. Maybe it could start a trend?
Ordered at the same time but coming from the States is the supplement that also covers the ECW, this is second hand and a snip at just under £4 with less than £2 post!!! Again Amazon is my friend. Obviously this has yet to land but again no hurry, all is fair in Figures and War.
Next up is some tufts I ordered about a week before.These can be bought in the UK from http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com where I nabbed the pictures from. I wanted to buy from these guys but they were out of stock so I went direct to the supplier in the end. Two days after ordering I got an e-mail from the UK supplier stating they would be back in stock in a few days. Oh well, but as it turned out ordering direct was slightly cheaper than buying from the UK (oh the Happy Whisk would be so proud of me). Anyways these arrived at the start of the week. I ordered the 6mm tufts for the 28 and 15mm figures whilst also getting a pack of 2mm for my 6mm and 15mm figures. I hope the mix will really work well. Rather than getting the small packs I went large. Antenocitis Workshop really bang on about certain OTHER suppliers getting the sheets, cutting them down and ramping up the price. I assume they mean The Army Painter who charge £4 for a little box. Well it is their small sheet I measured against the big sheet I ordered and I would have to buy 8 Army Painter packs for £32 opposed to the £12 from MiniNatur Direst or £13 odd from the UK (note the post to the UK from MiniNatur was lower than buying in the UK!!!) so quite a saving to be had. Even buying the small sheets works out far cheaper than going to The Army Painter.
Another selling point was the extra strong packaging supplied with the original opposed to the OTHER supplier. Well that I don't agree, bot my boxes were twisted and do not close well, what's more the delivery box was stout and undamaged so any damage was pre packing. The box itself is fairly low grad plastic packaging that is not meant to withstand heavy knocks whilst the Army Painter little box is far more durable. So if you want the best packaging pay near on 3 times the price? Ah maybe not then. Overall I am chuffed to bits with them and will soon put them to good use. Meanwhile I am cracking on with my 6mm French.
Demonstrations were not at all uncommon in 17th Century England. In fact the term Roundhead was originally coined in response to Students and Apprentices who wore their heir cropped close to the head giving a far more rounded shape to the head in comparison to the norm that of wearing your hair long. The term was used by Royalists as an insult to supporters of Parliament.
Full blown riots were less the norm at the start of the ECW but as the war wore on more and more demonstrations started to turn ugly and Parliament had to struggle between quelling anti Parliament demonstrations and the fear of turning the City against them by not allowing the people to have their say. Lord Essex summed it up best when he famously stated (roughly) "If we beat the King a Dozen Times, He still be King, but he beat us but once and we will be hung as traitors" well words to that effect anyway.
So in an attempt to keep the ECW theme somewhat in the twilight zone I give you a double whammy. First of all the riot that happened on 8th August 1643 (14 days before the first anniversary of the start of the war) was by women. It seems girl power did not start with the Spice Girls! The demonstration was sparked by Parliaments rejection the day before of the latest Peace Proposals. Women with white ribbons in their hats blocked up the approaches to Parliament crying out for peace and down with Pym and Say. The following day they gathered at Palace Yard, but in even greater numbers and presented a petition for peace them banged on the door to Parliament demanding Pym, Say and other Roundheads to be handed over so they could be thrown in the Thames. After an hour the guards tried to clear a passage and when this failed they loaded their muskets with powder and wadding (no bullet) and fired as a warning. The women thinking the guards had no bullet to fire became bolder and violent, tearing up cobbles and other objects carrying them in their skirts and started to pelt the soldiers. After suffering this for some time these troops finally loaded with ball and fired into the crowd. They still seemed to have scruples as the only killed were two men, one of which was egging on the women. Rather than bring the women to submission it emboldened them and more missiles were thrown and chants of "That Dog Pym" were added to the threats and demands. A troop of Wallers Horse arrived but this just aggravated the women more. Shouts of Waller's Dogs were soon followed by the women attacking the troopers. At first these men flayed about them with the flat of their swords but with the women still attempting to drag them off their mounts they started to use the edge. Quickly women started to be injured, some through cuts whilst others by being ridden down. This was enough to start to disperse the crowd but unfortunately not before a women who was passing on an errand was shot and killed. At least one other women died from wounds. The innocent passer by was shot by one of the troopers who was later arrested and charged with murder. Whammy two. His successful defence against the charge of murder? At the range the shot was fired, if he had aimed at the women he would have missed so hitting her had to be an accident!
So the Painting Challenge came to an end on Tuesday. I was more than happy with my final score of 900 and 11th place out of 24, roughly the position throughout the whole Challenge give or take a few places. My utter respect to all those that finished above, especially the top 5 as these guys produced high standards and just dominating quantities. My thanks and respect also go to Curt for running the show, the amount of work he had to do must have been just crazy. Two things really stood out right from the off, the sheer good will and friendship displayed was heart warming. Such a competitive lot us wargamers are it was a credit to us all that we really were supportive and pleased for each other. Secondly, the standard of painting was overall rather good and in the odd case stunning. I certainly enjoyed showing off my painted figures whilst fully aware that I was certainly rubbing shoulders with my peers.
I must confess to have had mixed feelings about the end run, much like a really good read. I could not wait to reach the end whilst wanting it to go on forever. As I have mentioned a few times before, painting is one of the few things I can do that does not make me more ill, but the level of painting in the last 10 days of the contest was really stretching my ability to keep at it. I was conscious that I should not push more than a set amount but at the same time I wanted just one more unit, just one more. The last three units painted was expected to be a unit or two too many as time was close to the end but in the end I managed to get all three finished with the last touches done just after taking the kids to school. I finished with 19 hours to spare! To do this I had to stop doing almost everything else. Blogging came to an almost stop. My other blog Wall Advantage was not posted on for 6 days, a first in about two years. No ASL other than a weekend game for a few hours. Yes it was all hands to the pump.
Now I already planned to have a very small break when the deadline was reached. The plan being to catch up with the other interests I have. I also needed to thank Cath with a nice home cooked meal as she has been very understanding and has followed closely this last three months. In all honesty I was shattered, cooking a meal added to it, but after two whole days I now have the next lot of figures cleaned up and base coated, all 108 of them. I guess it's a good job they are 6mm. Shamefully I have held off them till post challenge as the work to points ratio was not good enough. But I have had them next to the PC waiting till this day and whilst I am dog tired I can say I am looking forward to painting them more than I would have guessed.
I will be blogging the final entries in the challenge over the next few days.
Whilst in the Sealed Knot we put on a muster at Newbury and as we often did we found ourselves down at the pub. I got talking to one of the locals who was really interested in the Civil War but was obviously disappointed with the distinct lack of knowledge of the average Knotter. So he was rather happy that I not only knew something of the period but actively wanted to chat about it. By the end of the night not only were both of us as tight as a drum but he was my new best friend! He was more than just interested in the Civil War he was keenly interested in the two Battles of Newbury and had visited the battle sights a good number of times. Would I be interested in a tour of one of them before the battle the following morning? Yes but it would have to be early and I would have to bring my hangover with me.
So next day EARLY saw me and this guy (I have forgot his name) walking around part of the battlefield and after he has given me the this happened here and that there for some time a twinkle came in his eye and out of his backpack he pulled a short spade, handing it to me he instructed me to dig. The photo's are the musket balls I dug out of the bank. Seems their is hundreds of the things in that area, so much that they are no value to the local historians or museums as they have so many already. For me it made my year and these balls remain one of my most savoured treasures.
I have taken the above pic for scale, these are 15mm Magister figures. The balls are various sizes, note the damage to some of them? Possible corrosion or possibly hit something on their way to the bank. These balls all but certainly missed their mark given that they were in the bank in the first place. Just one is almost perfect with a clear mold line round it. Also some of the dents would probably been from being chewed to make a better fit, though in these cases it seems the smaller balls are most pitted.
You wanted your ball to be as close a fit as possible to the muskets barrel as possible. If it was much smaller it would rattle down the barrel and be far less accurate. Consider at Marsten Moor that many pikes had their heads shot off through the enemy firing too high. This of course was early in the conflict and it was possible that the men firing the muskets were far less intent on killing their fellow man. Only later did it become a truly uncivil war. Oh and yes it's a great hangover cure.
OK this image connects three things together rather well but what are they?
The thing is I am not sure it will help you if I tell you, but here goes. My Birthday, the Painting Challenge and repair of a tour bus.
OK I did warn you did I not? Want more help?
If you go to the painting challenge you will see my score. A whopping 666 points. I am so impressed I have even thought about not putting in my final entry for tomorrow, but then I thought the word final just sounds too risky so maybe I will after all. Next up my Birthday, what about it? Well it was yesterday, OK that may not help you, though on a follow on post I will let you into what I got wargames style. What I got that has nothing to do with painting was a couple of the more recent Maiden albums, Dance of Death and A Matter of Life and Death. Played both once today whilst er, painting, sound OK but yet to get into them. So the tour bus? Well legend has it when on tour the bus broke down and the repair bill was £666, they insisted on paying a different amount, though I don't know if it was more or less.
Once the challenge is over I have a great AAR to file of the first full Impetus game Barry and I have played. Enough now is to say it was a real fun game.
OK I just know I have your interest now. But what has all these things got in common? Well for those who don't know, The Sealed Knot is one of two English Civil War reenactment societies based in the UK. They were formed by Brigadier Peter Young to promote one of his books (Edgehill I think) and from promotion work to charity work was a little bit of a long journey but lots of beer was spilt and blood drunk between. Er, or maybe the other way round! Anyways, the SK grew to become rather large and amongst it's membership was a number of part time historian's, you know the type, the ones the real historians loath with a vengeance (well some do for sure, paging Mr Newman). Well you won't have noticed but many sets of Back and Breast are missing a single Tasset (leg armour that hangs from the Brest plate as shown above). This means a lot of Back and Brests in Stately Homes tend to be missing Tassets. As many soldiers would discard their tassets as soon as they could on campaign this is no surprise. The issue is that it was almost always the right tasset that was missing and mostly from Garrisoned sets. The Professional Historians had yet to figure out why but it was at one of many musters that the mystery was solved. As SK members started to buy armour it became like mini arms race. My Regiment (The Kings Lifeguard) soon found that having the whole front rank in armour put the fear on anyone tasked with taking us on. We were the biggest Regiment in the Knot and were known at the time for being tough to fight. Anyway I digress, imagine the scene. It is Sunday morning, some of us will have made it to our tents sometime between midnight and dawn, some of us may well have had a drink or two. You tend to form up at least an hour before you march onto the battlefield and the public eye. So maybe just maybe you want a pee? So imagine the scene, 20-40 men in B&B with tassets on all pissing for all we were worth. Every one of us had lifted up our left tasset so that we could get to our friend and point him at, well bushes mostly! I always had a horrible image of dropping the tasset as they almost joined down the middle!!!!!! Anyway, why is this relevant? Even with a slight wind, that right tasset got somewhat splashed. Pee is corrosive you know and repeated leaks would have a steady effect. Why Garrison troops? These not only fail to discard their tassets (and are often forced to wear them, more so the less likely they were to be attacked) but these guys often stood round for hours and often relieved themselves at their posts.
As a quick note, my tassets shown above could also give rise to a second and possibly more correct reason for the ruin of a tasset. Mine was stored with the rusty one under the none rusty one, both in the same good condition. It is clear to see the result. I question this though as a greater mix of odd tassets would be rusted rather than almost always the right one.
At a later point I will do another post on my observations of wearing Armour.
OK I am not looking at a gift horse in the mouth but I have been working through the figures that Martin gave me late last year. Lots of clean up work is needed to take them back to the start for the part painted stuff. No issues there but I do have a slight problem. I have 10 camels. The only reason this is an issue is that I need 12. So if anyone out there has a couple of 15mm camels they are willing to sell me I would be interested. Obviously I will buy a full pack of camels if none turn up, I mean the only other figures I have needed to buy so far has been one pack of command and I need some Gaul infantry (I think I have the Cav) but for less that £10 I will have almost a complete army so no grumbles at all.
This all comes about as I have started painting some of the figures that Martin supplied. I really want to get away from just 28mm and as I am working on 16 28mm Brit's I wanted some space. As I get more and more into FoG I want to expand what I have. I still need a few bits to finish off the Persian Army but it's very close. To complete I still need 14 more packs of Persian Cav, that's a fair amount given the amount I already have but you know I think I will do it.
How about this for a blast from the past. My wife was looking through some old photo's yesterday and came across this gem from when I was about 16 years old. Taken at my parents house. In fact four of us are in the photo, three of us continue to this day with some form of gaming (could be all four of us but I lost contact with the guy leaning on the wall). My old N gauge train layout was often used for 1/72 scale battles. Books were used for hills, we used a very basic home grown rules for the most part. Line of Sight is being checked by me with a periscope my father had made (also great for getting you right into the action). The one thing it was above all else was a great deal of fun. If only we could still capture the raw enjoyment of those heady days.
