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Sunday, July 26, 2015

Here's to you Warhammer . . .

It was a good run but now the White Dwarf and Josef Bugman have one last toast for an epic Fantasy Game . . .
The two veteran warriors meet to have one last toast . . .
 
 Josef sighs, "Who would have thought that we would have to fight Chaos Space Marines now?"

 "I know . . . I laughed silly when I saw the Space Marines on our side!"
 
 "Back in the day those Chaos Space Marines were a lot tougher . . . these new ones have round bases!  They have no rank bonus and will be easy to cleave in two! "
 
Well . . . at least the XXX Brew is still a trade secret!
 

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

The Bavarian Army for the WSS Part 4


The Bavarian cavalry adds contrast for color compared to the sky blue coats of the infantry.  The Bavarian Cuirassier regiments wore the lobster tail helmet and front and back cuirass.  Though an anachronistic look it may have been useful in the campaigns against the Ottoman Empire.  Uniform details are from Charles S. Grant’s From Shot to Pike.


Regiment Arco Cuirassiers:  It appears at the time I painted them as the Latour Cuirassier regiment with green facings and distincitions.  Oh well.  Here are the colors for Arco: Coat iron grey, lining blue, cuffs blue, waistcoat blue, breaches blue or leather and blackened armor.



Wolframsdorf Cuirassiers:  If you had the opportunity, how could you not field a regiment with the name Wolframsdorf?  Coat is iron grey, lining sky blue, cuffs sky blue, waistcoat sky blue, breaches leather and blackened armor.





Dragoon Regiment Monasteroi:  Coat is red, lining yellow, cuffs yellow and waistcoat yellow.




Dragoon Regiment Santini : Coat is red, lining green, cuffs green and waistcoat green.




Hussar Regiment Locatelli:  Blue dolmans with white loops, blue breeches and hats of fox fur with blue bags.


Saturday, July 18, 2015

The Bavarian Army for the WSS Part 3

Here is the rest of my infantry for my Bavarian army for the War of Spanish Succession.  Figures are mounted for Volley and Bayonet and bases that are 2 /12 inches wide. It is a colorful force that would pay a high price at the hands of the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy. 

Regiment Bettendorf:  Coat sky blue, lining red, cuff red, waistcoat red and breeches pale blue.




Regiment Haxthausen: Coat sky blue, lining red, cuff red, waistcoat sky blue and breeches grey-white.  I am particular proud of the flag I painted.


Regiment Tattenback:  Coat sky blue, lining bright yellow, cuff bright yellow, waistcoat bright yellow and breeches red or grey.



Converged Grenadiers: These figures are Edition Brokaw and I now realize that they were mislabeled as the grenadier cap is completely wrong and should just be a fur cap with no front plate.  To disguise the fact I painted the front plate black. The uniform details are a mix of the other regiments.




Next up is the Bavarian cavalry.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

The Bavarian Army for the WSS Part 2

There were several reasons why I started collecting and gaming the War of Spanish Succession toward the end of 1992:

1. I was starting to get Napoleonic "burn-out" in 15 mm painting the uniforms.  It was also a time when I was extremely disappointed with the rules at the time.  Empire was too complicated, Napoleon's Battles didn't seem right, WRG had too many tables . . . Now don't get me wrong - I love the Napoleonic period and it was the plastic 20 mm Airfix figures that got me into gaming.

2. I wanted to collect some armies that had variety in color.

3. I bought Warfare in the Age of Reason and I really liked the rules.

4. Looking at purchasing Osprey's  Marlborough's Army from the MAA series sealed the deal.

When I started collecting and researching, it seemed to me that Marlborough's campaign in 1704 culminating in the Battle of Blenheim would give me the maximum opportunity for army variety.  And how can you do Blenheim without the sky blue coats of the Bavarian Infantry?  In 1701 the regular infantry counted a guard regiment of three battalions, five regiments of two battalions and four independent battalions. The militia counted 12 battalions and so the infantry totaled 29 battalions. The cavalry consisted of 17 cavalry squadrons and 12 dragoon squadrons.In the early summer of 1704 the Bavarian army reached its zenith: 8 cavalry regiments fielding 47 squadrons and 9 regular infantry regiments fielding 26 battalions.


 In 1704 the Bavarian army suffered heavy losses in the battle of the Schellenberg and comparably light losses in the battle of Blenheim. The loss of the troops which were in Bavaria when the country was subsequently reduced did however lead to only a small force continuing the struggle in the Spanish Netherlands. The Bavarian troops then suffered again in the battle for the Brabant lines and the battle of Ramillies, but did continue the fight till the end of the war.


Sources I have used for my armies of this period come from From Pike to Shot, Charles Grant; Marlborough Goes to War, Iain Stanford; Wargaming in the Age of Marlborough #2: Danes, Bavarians and Prussian, Pat Condray; Osprey Men at Arms series; various articles in War Games Illustrated; the Web and lots of research at the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College.

Maximilian II (11 July 1662 – 26 February 1726), also known as Max Emanuel or Maximilian Emanuel was the ruler of Bavaria and an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire.  Closely allied with the France of Louis XIV, he was the last governor of the Spanish Netherlands and duke of Luxembourg. An able soldier, his ambition led to conflicts that limited his ultimate dynastic achievements.


Max is the army general for the Bavarian army which is mounted for the rules Volley and Bayonet (VnB).  What makes his command stand look great is that the general officers wore red coats. Accompanying Max is another mounted general, a dragoon trooper as escort (also with a red coat) and an officer from one of the infantry regiments.


The Leib Regiment (all uniform references per From Pike to Shot): Coat sky blue, lining blue, cuff white, waistcoat sky blue and breeches sky blue.


I love flags and for the Leib regiment I had to paint both the "Colonel's standard" of Madonna and child plus the classic diamond patterned regimental flag.



Regiment Lutzenberg: Coat sky blue, lining red, cuff red, waistcoat red and breeches red.



Regiment Maffey or Maffei: Coat sky blue, lining yellow, cuff yellow, waistcoat sky blue and breeches sky blue.



Regiment KurPrinz or Prince Elector: Coat sky blue, lining sky blue, cuff skyblue, waistcoat sky blue and breeches sky blue.



Regiment Spilberg: Coat sky blue, lining red and later dark blue, cuff red and later dark blue, waistcoat dark grey and breeches dark grey.



More to come in Part 3.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar

Warhammer The Age of Sigmar.  What the . . . ?

I must have been really napping.  Where is Warhammer?

Dinosaurs of the Lost World


A dreadful thing has happened to us. Who could have foreseen it? I cannot foresee any end to our troubles. It may be that we are condemned to spend our whole lives in this strange, inaccessible place. I am still so confused that I can hardly think clearly of the facts of the present or of the chances of the future. To my astounded senses the one seems most terrible and the other as black as night. 


 No men have ever found themselves in a worse position; nor is there any use in disclosing to you our exact geographical situation and asking our friends for a relief party. Even if they could send one, our fate will in all human probability be decided long before it could arrive in South America . . . 



Let me give you, with as much detail as I can, the sequence of events which have led us to this ca And there we were, the four of us, upon the dreamland, the lost world, of Maple White. To all of us it seemed the moment of our supreme triumph. Who could have guessed that it was the prelude to our supreme disaster? 

 
We had turned away from the edge, and had penetrated about fifty yards of close brushwood, when there came a frightful rending crash from behind us. With one impulse we rushed back the way that we had come. The bridge was gone!  From The Lost World, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


Dinosaurs of the Lost World is a board game inspired by The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Trapped on the plateau of the Lost World, each player leads an expedition of exploration while trying to find a way to escape the dangers and return to civilization.  The game features many of the events from the book: the lost expedition of Maple White, ape men, and of course dinosaurs!  The object of the game is to earn 25 victory points through discovery, adventure and collecting specimens. Once your expedition has done this, and you have items to help you escape - then be the first to escape the plateau!

Honorable Son #5 and myself had a pleasant afternoon introducing a friend to the fantastic Lost World of exploration, danger, treachery . . .  and of course dinosaurs.

Honorable Son #5 on the left and friend on the right.

The game is set up with an outside track running around the edge of the board and a map of the plateau is in the center. On the plateau map are 30 unexplored area hexagonal cards which are randomly set up to make each game different. While exploring they are turned up and reveal various locations such as a Geyser, a Phorusrhacos (the mighty prehistoric chicken) nest, Ape Town, a Lava pit or the lair of the Tyrannosaurus Rex - or nothing at all!


At the beginning of the game, you get to choose eight tools in which your expedition is equipped.  Different tools provided bonuses, in the form of experience cards, for different encounters and adventurer while some tools (rifles and gas bombs) are used for battle. Losing a battle can be traumatic - if you lose you are chased by a creature on the chase track.  If they catch you tools are lost. Not only that, if you lose you have to return back to the base camp and lose a turn.

 My expedition is chased by a T Rex after I ran out of ammunition and lost a battle.
 
There is a tool sheet and a reference list that indicates which adventures different tools are useful – so there can be some strategy in choosing your tool set, or you can just ignore that and pick what you think sounds cool.  Based on experience, I always start with 2 rifles (the maximum allowed) and some gas bombs to put those creatures to sleep. While exploring you may find more tools or even steal them from other expeditions.

My list of tools . . . a few turn before I ran out of ammunition!

Each turn you can either roll two dice and move on the outer-board or decide for your expedition to have an encounter on their current hex on the inner-board (e.g., movement on the inner-board is governed by the spaces on the outer-board).


What is unique about the game is the use of "comic book" adventures that add another dimension to each location site.  Expeditions can explore each location on the comic book cards which can result in encounters with dinosaurs, the rescue of an Indian ally, discoveries of new creatures and the map from the lost Maple White expedition.


The game comes with cardboard counters and plastic pawns to represent the expeditions and other participants of the Lost World; but we used figures from Wargames Foundry for the first time to represent the expeditions on the plateau map.  Tarzan even represented the Indian Tribe and a goblin from the Lord of the Rings game ended up being an ape man tribe.  Next up will be to get little plastic dinosaurs to battle on the board.  There are also solitaire rules for the game as your expedition races against the clock before the volcano erupts and destroys the plateau with you on it.  A great game that is easy to learn and will challenge and entertain.  So fill those canteens (ran out of water last game) and cut your way through with a machete to escape before that T - Rex gets you!

 The figure that represented me along with my Indian allies. 
 

 The ape men attack!
 
 President Roosevelt (Honorable Son #5) eyes a potential trophy for the Smithsonian Museum.
 
 One way to escape is to make a balloon and fill it with gas.

TR decides to investigate an area near the ape men . . .  

 TR is attacked by the ape men too!  In fact they attacked everyone in the game this time.

Note the mighty prehistoric chicken in the upper right hand corner . . . yeah he beat me and battle and I lost 4 tools running away.

 Crossing the lake in a canoe . . . what is that behind?
 
I had 25 Victory points and the means to escape the plateau . . . so of course the ape men attacked me again!
Almost there where I can repair the bridge and escape the plateau . . . yikes. Where did that T Rex come from?
 
 How will we survive?
 
 One gas bomb left . . . 
 
 KABOOM!!!

  . . . and the king of the dinosaurs gets to sleep one off.
 
 Now that I am at the bridge I can fix it with the rope and win!