Take me to your leaders

Hey,

So at the tail end of 2011, I finished up some more little dudes, so here are the photos:

All of these are 15mm modern-era dudes I'm painting up for a game of Force on Force that I'll be running in early March.

First up, I finished off the Command Platoon for the US Army guys:





There's a command squad with the platoon leader and sergeant, a radio guy, a medic, and two riflemen. There's a standard fireteam and a pair of Javelin-equipped tank hunter teams. Up front, you can see the platoon's heavy firepower in the form of five heavy machine gun teams.

This combined with the vehicles should take care of most of my needs for US forces.

Vehicles? Yeah:





That's a pair of M1 Abrams tanks for those pesky fortifications and a brace of Bradley APCs to help transport all my soldiers to the fight.

These were the first vehicles I've ever painted up and they went really quickly. Which is good because the US motor pool still needs some filling out. I need a batch of Hummers (with various armament load outs), a Stryker or two, a couple of Amtrac AAV's, some LAV-25's, and some M113s (for Vietnam/80's Cold War scenarios). Expect to see a few more projects along these lines in 2012

That's a lot of stuff for the American's. How about beefing up the insurgent forces? Not a problem:





So these are 15mm minis from Peter Pig's line of Arab/PLO fighters. I picked them to provide a little variety to the forces and because the range includes some specialists types that the Rebel minis didn't have. In particular, they have dedicated commander figures and heavy weapon teams. This batch of 24 is mostly grunts armed with AK47's and a small group of leaders and a couple of radiomen.

Although I really like the bandit-masked gunmen from the Rebel Minis set, there was a lot more variety and interest in the Peter Pig figures and they look a little less rag-tag which means they could substitute as Iraqi regular forces.

Anyway, I've got one more batch of Irregulars on the way (heavy weapon teams with RPGs and MGs of various sorts). Then I've got enough guys to run the scenario I've got in mind for March. I could stand to have another batch of the Rebel Minis put together (in Force on Force games the insurgents usually show up in droves and die just as fast). They could also stand to have a few vehicles -- very likely pickup trucks with guns mounted on them, which are good for African conflicts as well. They could also stand to have a couple sniper teams, maybe a mortar or two, and some civilian mobs.

However, after this next batch of Insurgents, I've got a small mountain of lead to plow through. There's a group of "security contractors" and a batch of African militia/military troopers. I've also got a few more vehicles to put together and then we can turn to new stuff. Finally, there's a nice line of science-fiction troopers being put out by Khurasan minis that I might commission someone more talented than me to paint up. We'll see.

The summary by the way:

• 113 25mm Plastic Saxons (Dark-Ages)
  
• 23 25mm WWII Partisans
  
• 1 25mm Gnomish Barbarian
  
• 44 15mm Insurgents
  
• 63 15mm US Infantry
  
• 2 M1 Tanks
  
• 5 Bradley APCs
  

Which is pretty much the most painting I've ever done in a year.

later
Tom

The Oldest Tale in the English Langage

Disaster and Calamity!

You remember the Saxon Army I painted up over the summer? Here they all are in their great plastic mead hall:





The Saxon king built his mead hall on the great cliffs of Shelf. There were rumblings among some that the mead hall was far too perilously high, but the king scoffed claiming that the view from atop the Shelf was much better. Besides, were not all within the mead hall protected by the magical floor that held fast the warrior's metal boots? Surely nothing unfortunate could happen.

But perhaps the aelfe heard the king's confident speech and worked their mischief. For while the warriors were firmly rooted the floor of the mead hall, the hall itself was not immune to their charms.

With a crash, the mead hall tumbled from Shelf. The violent drop disrupted the magic floor and all were thrown into confusion. Those rushing to the warrior's aid threw open the door to find everyone in a tangled heap and at first glance, a fearful carnage was expected.

But it takes more than a fall from the Shelf to break a Saxon! Man after man was extracted from the pile miraculously unharmed. Even so, the great army of the Saxons was decimated. Ten and three warriors suffered limb-rending wounds, one or two unfortunates losing both arms in the great fall. Fortunately, almost all of the wounded were Ceorls or Gebburs -- lowly warriors of no great importance.

In fact, the only casualty of note, was the king himself -- his left arm sheared clean off. The price of his hubris.

But then, a cunning wizard (who, it must be admitted, first suggested the idea of putting the mead hall on the Shelf) arrived with his magical salves Zap-A-Gap and Zip-Kicker. With some patient work, all of the injured were soon made whole, the mead hall was put back into good order and, very carefully, placed in a less visually exciting, but much safer location.

Heed well the lessons of the unfortunate Saxons! For you may not have a friendly wizard to hand!
Tom

p.s. *sigh* The most action these guys have seen in a month.

More Green Army Guys

Hey,

Finished up the second platoon of US Army soldiers in 15mm for my modern-day games.





So the only thing left is the command squad (with company leaders, medic, radio guy and heavy machine guns). That should give me enough US forces to play the various Force on Force scenarios I have. I might round it out with a couple of specialists (sniper teams, bomb disposal, K9, etc.), but there's no pressing need for any at the moment.

I also need to kit out the Americans with a motor pool and I've already started work on that, but I'm gonna need a lot more. The US Army definitely represents Americans' love of cars.

later
Tom

Green Army Guys

Hey,

So more work with 15mm soldiers. I painted up a batch of insurgents a couple weeks ago and they'll need someone to go up against, so last week, I did up a bunch of American army guys:





Yeah, they're not painted in Middle East cammo, but I'm also hoping to do some "what if" WWIII scenarios so they're European green. It's a pretty nice set up -- four squads with leader, M40 grenade lancher, SAW and rifleman. The platoon leader has a couple of riflemen and two Javelin anti-tank guys to work with.

I've got a second platoon identical to this and then a command staff to paint up and that should be more than enough US forces for most games I have in mind. I will, however, need to pick up another big stash of insurgent forces to provide a meaningful opposition.

later
Tom

Little Dudes and Littler Dudes

Hey,

I painted some more minis this month and finally had a chance to photograph them for you.

So first up, last Spring I painted up a batch of WWII resistance fighters. I've always been fascinated with them and there was a good set out by Artizan. One of the guys I game with down at Hobby Bunker was also painting up a set and he had a few spare that he gave to me. So here they are:





There's a Femme Fatale, a grizzled vet, and an eager young man all out to stick it to Jerry. It's not super obvious in this photo but all three of them are carrying Molotov cocktails. So this brings my total resistance count to 27. They were a fun, fast paint.

Next up, a figure I've been dying to do for awhile. Gisbert, the Gnomish Barbarian. Reaper miniatures put out a Gnome Barbarian figure and it's a character I've been dying to play for a long time now. Recently, I got into a Pathfinder game so Gnomish Barbarian it was:





I am extremely pleased with the way Gisbert turned out. Again, the photo doesn't really do a good job of detail, but for my level of painting skill, he's one of the better ones I've done. With this iteration of miniatures, I've started painting the dip onto the mini vs. dipping the mini in the dip and shaking off the excess. This gives a little more control over where the shading dip goes and, more importantly, spares your arms and shoulders from the shaking process. Anyway, here it does an excellent job of defining Gisbert's mighty muscles.

Finally, I really want to do some modern-era gaming. Vietnam, African conflicts, American operations in the Middle East and some "what-if" WWIII gaming in Europe. For this, I want to use the Force on Force rule set by Osprey Publishing. It's a fun set of skirmish level rules. But that means I'm going to need some figures. Since there are source books for Iraq and Afghanistan, and since Rebel Minis was having a sale, I picked up a bunch of figures and I just finished the batch of Insurgent figures:





If they seem a little small, that's because they are. I'm trying to go with 15mm figures instead of 28mm whenever I can. These "littler dudes" should be a bit faster to paint up although they are very small and getting even rudimentary detail on them can be a pain. Of course, I know guys who can paint these things down to the whites of the eyes, but I'm more interested in the miniatures as gaming pieces vs. models. Sure, I'd like to have a bunch of museum-quality paint jobs but I'd rather play more than paint.

To give you some idea of how small these guys are, here's a photo of a resistance fighter, Gisbert and an Insurgent fighter:





Yeah.

But, I'm hoping I can crank out a lot of forces more quickly and storing them will be more efficient. Also, Gisbert, despite being a Gnome (and thus, hard-pressed to clear 4' in height) is bigger than the human fighter. Some of this is that fantasy figures are always a big "bigger than life" and some of it is that Gisbert would be singularly unimpressive (he'd only be a bit bigger than the 15mm figure if truly built to scale). Eh, I'll go with it. He was a great figure to paint.

So that's October. Next up, a batch of US troopers for our Insurgent friends to fight and then probably some more Insurgents (they usually arrive in pretty large groups and the 20 figures I have now, aren't enough).

later
Tom

[Saxon Muster] Field Exercises

Hi,

So you may remember I spent most of July/August painting up a bunch of Saxons for a campaign game being run by the Boston Trained Bands. Last weekend we had a test game so my guys got into action for the first time.

Right, so the rule set of choice for this game is Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB). An interesting choice because the gamers in the group are extremely uninterested in most Warhammer products. Although, to be fair, WAB is barely kept in print by GW and you have to order it special from them and give the password and special wink. I’ve never played with it before and it’s been ages since I’ve done any straight-up Warhammer stuff so it was going to be a learning experience.

We broke up into two sides for a big battle. I took center stage with my Saxons. On my left I had a small but powerful Romano-British group and on my left and another batch on my right. Across the table we had (from left to right as I saw it): an unruly band of Scots, a small block of frenzied Vikings and…I believe some more Scots/Picts (the majority of which were represented by my figures…so I guess I win no matter what).

Here let me show you:





I’ve got a pair of warbands flanked by a couple of small groups of archers. The group on the right has my leader. The guy with the red stick is trying to work out how quickly he can run me over with his Vikings.





It’s not like I’ve got bolters, so we all start rumbling towards one another. That little block on the left coming towards me is a warband of Scots. But you’ll probably notice the group of horsemen bearing down towards me. Keep an eye on that.

Here are a couple of wider shots of the battlefield. On the center-right side:





You can see my valiant allies taking their sweet time getting around the village. My only saving grace is that the Picts who oppose him haven’t really gotten off their starting positions yet.

And now we pan to the left:





I’m not sure why the Scot split up his forces like this, but he decided to send his skirmishers after the guy with the cavalry and heavy infantry. It goes about as well as you’d expect.





Back to my guys. Yeah, that cavalry charge goes in on my hapless archers. Well…maybe. The archers took a snap shot as the horses rolled in. It was totally ineffectual so they took to their heels. They actually managed to outrun the cavalry’s charge and then managed to make their Leadership test so they spun around to take another shot at them.





And take a shot they did. Put down two of the pesky Picts.

Meanwhile, the Scots had advanced just close enough so I decided to rush ‘em:





I get lots of bonuses for charging in like that. However, this is my group without a leader and I’m facing off against the leader of the Scots. Also, I apparently can’t roll for crap. In one brutal exchange, I chip one guy out of his group, he peels away four of mine, and then proceeds to rout me and run me down.





Yeah. It was like that.

My archers didn’t survive a second round with the cavalry and the other group of archers, as you might be able to see above, were running for the hills and never rallied.

Well, when in doubt, attack. So I lined up on the Viking horde and rushed them with all I had left:





So, in a 500-point army, that block of 20 Vikings, with leader, musician and priest probably gobbles up 400 of them. By contrast, my group is about 200 points (and 75 of that is the leader). The Vikings are frenzied (so each guy who can fight gets to attack twice) and the priest makes them immune to all psychological effects (like the auto-rout warbands like mine cause). We had a pitched exchange, but I gave a little better than I got (surprisingly) and we stayed locked in combat. My hope is that my allies there would hit the flank and give us enough weight to grind them down.

Sadly, we started late and it was well past lunchtime so we called the game here. I was probably toast on a stick.

On the right side:





I don’t know what was going on here. Neither side came to grips. The enemy tried a bunch of piddling shots that never did anything. I have no idea where that cavalry is going. Perhaps he was going to send it after the Pictish cavalry that ran down my archers or maybe he wanted to swing them around to hit the Vikings, but it’s a bit of a mess on that side.

On the left, however:





Man, the Scots kept hanging in there, but they were just meat to the grinder. The Romano-British would’ve finished them up but who knows what they’d face as they cut across into the flanks of the enemy.

Oh hey, my other group of archers. Bye, guys!

So what did we learn? First, the Vikings are going to be a real hassle to take on so find some allies (preferably some guys with cavalry). Second, the archers need to be massed into a bigger block to be effective. They could probably also stand to have a champion or other leader figure who can boost their morale. The same could be true for the warbands though. The Thegns are a bit fragile without a leader type.

Also, I need to power up a dice charger because my rolls were just terrible this time around.

But hey, it was fun and my investment of time and effort has started to pay off.

Later
Tom

[Saxon Muster] He Led Soldiers

Hey,

So I finished up the last few guys. I got a small group of Viking mercenaries and 3 leader-types (well, two leader types and a spear-wielding Thegn who needed some superglue surgery).

Here's them:





So yeah, I started this around June 25th. In a little over a month-and-a-half, I've painted up 108 Saxons. Still, I never really considered how much work I'd gotten done until I put all the dudes in their storage case:





That's what 108 man strong, 1000 point Saxon army looks like. I glued down a magnetic sheet to the bottom of the plastic case and the washers the dudes sit on stick to the mat. So it'll be easy to tote these guys around. Anyway, I was a little gobsmacked to see all those guys lined up and ready to go.

Now I'm going to take a break from painting for a bit. I've got an idea for the next project and I've even got some figures together for it, but this time, I'll be painting in 15mm so...not little dudes so much as tiny dudes. Better give my eyes a rest.

Here's hoping these guys weren't painted in vain.

later
Tom

[Saxon Muster] Monkey Ceorl, Monkey Do

Hey,

So yesterday I finished up my second, 20-man unit of Ceorls. These are the cheap, not-quite-as-good soldiers I'm using to add mass to my units of Thegns.

I've pretty much got it down pat now so these guys came together rather quickly (I also had a couple double-days where I did one painting step in the morning and the second one in the evening so I think I had these completely finished in about 4 days total.

Anyway, here they are:





So, technically, I'm finished. I've got 1000 points worth of dudes and I'm ready to go to war. But I happen to have 8 more dudes left. Five of them are Viking mercenaries, the other three are leader types. So I'm going to do those guys up as well (and I'm hoping to be done early next week with those dudes as well). But for the record, I've painted up 100 Saxons in a little over one month. I'm kinda astonished at my productivity.

All I can say is, we'd better play this damn campaign and I'd better win a few games. :)

later
Tom

[Saxon Muster] I woud Thegn be finished

Hey,

So although I've been very remiss about posting the in-progress photos, I've been working on another batch of Thegns for the Viking game I'm playing this fall. This batch of 20 is armed with swords and axes, but they'll probably be treated as carrying spears and joining in with the big blocks of spears/shields that the previous Thegns will be heading up.

I've finished everything but the leather accessories, the fronts of the shields and, as always, the lovely dip:





Sorry these came out so dark. I've had to paint these in my bedroom because the lovely air-conditioning makes it possible. Anyway, I should get these guys squared away this week and hopefully I can roll into the last group of Ceorls and a small pack of miscellaneous guys.

later
Tom

[Saxon Muster] Getcher Gerburs

Hey,

So here are the Geburs, my unit of archers, all dipped and based and ready to go:





I now have the minimum amount needed to take the field this fall, but I'm going to try and fill out the other 40-odd guys I have (another batch of Thegns and Ceorls, plus a leader and a few Viking mercenaries). But the immediate pressure is off.

later
Tom