More Shermans

A combination of heat and work have reduced my hobby time to a smidgeon of what it used to be, but I got something painted, at least.

Specifically, the better part of a squadron of Canadian Shermans. (Well, the last 5, I've had 7 painted for a while, but didn't want to showcase them until they were all finished). The models are Battlefronts old British Shermans, in resin (with molded on stowage) and metal. Except for one of the Fireflies, he's plastic, because I didn't have a fourth resin/metal firefly.

12 Shermans in a row... sounds like the start of a horrible nursery rhyme...

First platoon, with 2 Sherman 75s and 2 Sherman Fireflies, for maximum Firefly goodness (and what some troops might have late in the war).

In case one wants to run them somewhat earlier, one or two tanks can be borrowed from the HQ and replace the Fireflies, giving a troop of 4 ordinary Sherman 75s (or a reduced troop of 3).

From the rear, it's possible to see the troop markings. Specifically, these have Division and AOS markings on the stowage bin.

Similarly, second troop has 2 Fireflies and 2 Sherman 75s...

... or 4 Sherman 75s with some borrowed from the HQ.

Here, the Division and AOS markings are on the hull, next to the stowage bins instead.

Finally, the 4 HQ tanks by themselves. Can't have a Squadron without some leaders.

The markings are for C squadron, 29th Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment (The South Alberta Regiment), making this fellow potentially David Currie (look him up, splendid leader during the war who got a Victoria Cross for his actions during the Normandy campaign).

Now, I just need to find a game to field them in (still not being happy with Flames of War)... oh, well, if I ever get around to making some Canadians for Chain of Command, (some of) these will be good support.

Hopefully, my radio silence won't be for as long next time...

/Fool Out

Frostgrave (almost-)all female Warband

A new warband has been sighted in the frozen city (possibly more frozen now). Aka. I finally got to paint the new Female Soldiers fron North Star. Delightful plastic kit (I might have put together a few more than strictly needed), wonderful metal specialists, and all around very nice.

First up, let me show you the metal models. All of them look incredible, and was a joy to paint with very little flashing. From left to right, we have a Templar, Knight, Barbarian, Thief, Tracker, War Hound, Markswoman and a grandmotherly Apothecary.

These four, the Templar, Knight, Barbarian and Tracker, were probably the funnest models to paint, all told. I might have to get several of these...

Now, moving on to the plastics (including a few male soldiers I had lying around)

First up, the ones with only a single hand weapon (no, the torch doesn't count... I think). To the left is a second Thief, while the spearwoman to the right could also be used as a counts-as two-handed weapon-armed model.

When you're like me, Treasure Hunters are a must. The one to the left have arms from the male soldiers kit, while the one to the right is all female. The two kits fit together even better than one would expect (and I expected them to fit together very well...). Only the fur trimming of the coat is missing.

Ranged support is also a must. Two Archers (one of them with a bronze sword strapped to the backpack, meaning she can be used as a Ranger) and a Crossbowwoman.

Three soldiers who have also aquired shields, allowing them to be used as (Wo)men-at-arms to Knights to Captains. Once again, a male soldier has snuck in.

Finally, we have the soldiers armed with two-handed weapons. Infantrymen, Barbarians, Templars... they have many names and many uses, although some are more suited for specific classes, perhaps. The fellow with the naked, muscular arms ( the third male soldier that snuck in) fits best as a Barbarian, while the lady with the big sword would make an excellent Templar, as would the halberdier in the middle. Either of them could also work very well as a Captain.

All the shields (both held, and hung over the shoulder as a nice extra thing for variety) have been painted by me, mostly in various frosty themes.

Of course, a new warband demans (at least) a new wizard and apprentice. And North Star do have these extraordinarily cute lasses...

Aside from the capes, I intentionally tried to paint them close enough to a certain movie, as a challenge to myself.

Of course, some treasures are also needed. That head in the middle, is the current seat for a very valuable bird... how is it green, in the Frozen City, you ask? Because magic, that's why. The other two are what you can find lying around in the rubble and snow, a treasure chest and a pile of heavily corroded copper coins (and an equally heavily corroded bronze sword... might be magic, though).

All in all, a nice little warband. I don't think I'll need to expand it ever, and that is if we play Frostgrave again at the club (it has somewhat fallen to Ghost Archipelago).

/Fool Out, and let it go...

Blood & Plunder - Surprise extra Demo day.

So. After Easter and my last post, I thought it would be calm with demoing Blood & Plunder for some time... I was wrong, and last wednesday, I ran an impromptu demo day. Got in two demo games, and a third personal one against a friend (not quite counting that as a demo, since he's supposed to know the rules by now). Still, that's a solid 4-5 hours of demoing, discussing lists, the history around it, good and bad ideas, and so on.

For some fun and variety, I brought along a variety of forces, one for each one of the major powers (a mix between privateers and militias).

First battle, English Buccaneers against French Caribbean Militia. Both players were completely new to the game, but got advice from some more experienced players (although in one case, "more experienced" in the sence that any positive number is greater than 0).

For ease of use, we ran the buildings as impassable, but the tunnel out front as providing cover, as well as the entire area inside the various barrels and boxes as providing cover (and being Rough).

The Freebooters found a nice hidey-hole while exchanging fire with the Boucaniers, at least initially.

Meanwhile, on the flank, there were some skirmishing around the field, but surprisingly few casualties.

And it all ended with a massive brawl in the middle. Annoying when it happens "all the time", but for demos and peoples first time, it's quite acceptable, especially when the road to get there is a teaching experience. In the end, the english stood victorious, and everyone had fun.

 Next up, once again English Buccaneers against some quickly repurposed (and unpainted...) Pike & Shotte Swedes, as Swedish Militia. Since none of us had any great ideas how this would work, it was quite interresting.

We got quite close to "standard" deployment, with two firing lines opposing each other (and mostly not seen thanks to terrain, with the important exception of the swedish Medium Cannon.

The cannon caused significant casualties, as well as being a psychological threat by being so far away and yet able to hit things so easily (I won't run a cannon in demo games again, unless it's naval combat, nor will I allow it to be used if someone brings one). In the end, though, the english Freebooters managed to work themselves close, and after charging the pikemen (dangerous, but it worked out), they also managed to charge the cannon, kill all it's crew, and then turn their guns on the swedish Militia. Thus, they managed to win the day, barely. Sometimes, it's good to be generalists.

Swedes should not be underestimated, for all that they die like flies to shooting. And cannons are nasty, until they suddenly aren't (usualy because their crew gets acute iron poisoning).

But still, another nice and fun game, unpainted minis aside. And I know for certain that the English player have already ordered rulebook and a starter set.

/Fool Out

Blood & Plunder - Demo Day at Gothcon

I ran a Demo Day at Gothcon (largest tabletop gaming convention in Sweden, with both Miniature Wargaming, Boardgames and RPGs), and got a quite nice set-up. As is traditional for my club, Yggdrasil Figurspelsförening, I ran a somewhat more involved demo than the usual run-em-through, fight-in-the-middle doen in an hour demo. It seems to work for us...

Since I have some very talented friends in the club, I also had an awesome table to run the demos on, which certainly helped to pull folks in.

The scenario was reasonably simple. The Spanish have to escort the governors' daughter from behind the village to the brigantine, to escape the pirate raid. Meanwhile, the pirates will try to kidnap (and/or liberate) said daughter, or at least keep her away from the ship for 6 turns.

The pirates started split. On the wrong side of the river, they had 5 Marins and 4 Enter Ploeg (with the obligatory blunderbuss).

Next to their boats, they had another 5 Marins, with an Untested Commander, and 6 Freebooters.

The spanish also started somewhat split, with 6 Marineros next to the Brigantine (presumably having prepared it for sailing).

The escort party, starting on the road behind the village, consisted of another 6 Marineros with an Untested Commander, escorting the governors' daughter, as well as 5 Marineros Piqueros and 8 Milicianos (upgraded to Trained).

Both forces were chosen in part so that no game-changing special rules could be missed, and the untested commanders for similar reasons (I've found that command points are the one rule new players gets confused by/wrong the most, especially when it's several command points).

And the first game of the day is off, an old 40k player against a group of 3 (which didn't give too much of an advantage, since they argued about what would be best enough to offset the theoretical advantage of more brainpower).

The pirates chose to focus on cutting of the route to the ship, and focusing on that group of Marineros. Meanwhile the spanish went all out perpendicular to the path to the ship, towards the freebooters.

The freebooters were swiftly cut down (after clearing up some rules confusion because this isn't like 40k). However, that detour would delay the spanish too much.

In the end, by turn 6, the governors' daughter were nowhere near the ship, and in fact caught up in a combat initiated by the spanish. A pirate victory, that seems to be gotten more by the spanish mentality of "screw the objective, kill all" than anything else.

Second game, I had two dads with their sons. Of course, the teams were swiftly split up as the two dads (with the spanish) against their piratical sons.

This time, we had significantly more speed (and less diversions to kill everything), with a major scrum in the middle.

In the end, the governors daughter and her escort is swiftly heading towards the ship, if a bit late, as the last pirate is cut down. Yes, the very last pirate, they were cut down, or routed off the table, to a man.

The spanish stand victorious as everyone had fun.

3rd, and last, game was the only one with only two players total. Both with some prevous experience of miniature wargames, I dared specify all the minor rules I had so far glossed over (Ruthless, Hard Chargers, Marksmen...)

The game was roughly similar to the previous one (as I would expect), except that the spanish did a magnificent bull rush towards the ship, getting out on the pier and almost to the ship by skillful use of screening units and 12" moves for the command unit. In the end, by equally skillful use of command points, good luck with dice, and maybe some liberal interpretation of rules by me to make it a game (I think I interpreted it correct, but I am not 100% certain and erred on the side of "don't want it to be over yet"), we have a standoff next to the ship.

After the last actions, there was a standoff between two captains, two Marins and two Marineros, with a lady in the middle. Noone could see quite how it would go, and a draw was agreed upon (since we were at the very limit of the pier).

In all, I had fun, and my players had fun. As it should be. I will have to spend more time thinking of scenario next time (I really wanted to do boat action this time, but I haven't had enough ship fights myself to feel comfortable teaching those rules). I absolutely think doing the slightly larger forces and longer games was the right decision, both for the players and for me, but it did mean not as many could try it. Next year, I will have to get a friend to help, and run two days (again... did so last year, and was absolutely knackered afterwards).

Best of all, I ran into one of my players the day after, and he told me that he had ordered rulebook and some englishmen that very evening :) The best kind of compliment.

/Fool Out.

Blood & Plunder - Dutch Navy painted

We're taking a short break from the usual battle reports (because I'm busy gearing up for the convention of the year here in Sweden, Gothcon... there will be a Blood & Plunder demo table, look for Yggdrasil Figurspelsförening if you're there, and say Hej). Instead, here's a showcase of my recently painted Dutch Navy.

They're a bit low on ships, but I'm sure I can "borrow" some from the spanish...

The crew is the better part of two boxes. Delightfully, the Pirates & Privateers box make an excellent expansion for a Dutch Navy (or Dutch Privateers), giving some variety of sculpts as well as more bodies in general.

First up are of course the commanders. Both a generic commander, and Piet Heyn for a legendary commander. As the rules currently stand, I dislike the generic commanders, because Strict is too much of a punishing rule. Rumours has it that it will change soon, though. Looking forward to that, and until then, I will have to make do with an Untested Commander and some characters as back-up.

The elite and vanguard of the Dutch is the Enter Ploeg. Armed with approximately all the pistols, as well as explosives, boarding axes, some more pistols, blunderbusses, sword and daggers, these fellows are very short ranged, but lethal at that short range.

Extras to the left, originals to the right.

They also serve as an excellent example of how I expanded the force with Pirates and Privateers. There is only 4 Enter Ploeg included in the Dutch box. But P&P also has "Sailor Upgrades", giving me another blunderbuss and a fellow with explosives (well, you get two of each... don't worry, I have plans for the remaining two). Add in two suitable sailors, and the Enter Ploeg has doubled in size. Although in hindsight, the Enter Ploeg models were such a delight to paint, I might just have to get an extra blister...

Of course, normal Zeelieden are also a must, and preferably plenty of them. I'm somewhat limited (since I have yet to master the art of conjuring infinite sailors), but in groups of 6, they're good enough for a Fluyt, at least. And worse comes to worst, almost all Dutch can do a good enough job working artillery and sailing a ship. In the middle is one of the exclusive figures from the latest kickstarter. She serves excellently as a special character, be it a Master Gunner, Son (daughter?) of Neptune, Sailing Master, or what have you, or she can just be a normal sailor that looks a bit special.

The third group of Zeelieden can do double duty as Militie Artillerie (militia crewing artillery), with slightly less guns and more tools for handling guns (and massive balls of iron...). And of course they're bringing along a cannon as well.

All the Zeelieden are a mix between official Zeelieden and European Sailors models, meaning that (so far) all the models in each unit are unique. It will also allow me to use these as European Sailors in good conscience (as if I would be bothered...) if needed.

Since the Dutch Navy is officially the Dutch Navy, and not just any random bunch of Dutch pirates (a distinction I'm sure the Spanish appreciated...), they of course have some official Dutch Soldiers (European Soldiers models). These look surprisingly nice, with the more uniform look.

Finally, there is some Kapers in support. Similarly to the Zeelieden, these are half official Kaper models, and half European Sailor Musketeers. This means that in each unit of 8, there are still no repeats of sculpts. And just as with the Zeelieden, I can freely and in good conscience use these as European Sailors upgraded with Muskets. Or as Dutch Boslopers, if need be and I get a Dutch Militia force going...

In total, this amounts to close to 300 points if I were to field everything (and that's with minimal upgrades), giving me plenty of options for the more normal 200 points games.

All in all, the Dutch were a joy to paint (aside from going slightly nuts over all the striped pants). The only models left unpainted from those two boxes in the beginning, is 8 Militie, two European Sailors with extra weapons, and a European Commander. But I have plans for all of these, not to worry. And I did have to add 4 extra Zeelieden, as well as the 8 European Soldiers. How did the Dutch suddenly become my largest crew? That wasn't part of the plan.

And as I'm writing this, I'm realizing that these would make excellent Danes, if I ever were to want to test them out...

/Fool Out