Abscess Without Leave

Things have been busy here, just not much time or energy for wargaming and painting. Having a recurrence of a tooth abscess hasn't really helped much.  I have, however, managed to dab some paint on another dozen or so Esci Brits to bring my 1/72nd Boer War Brits up to 10 units for my Petite Portable Wargame  demonstration for Huzzah.

Were 1/72nd figures always so small?

The 24th foot on the left were painted c1984.
The 58th on the right was speed painted a few days a go.

 Luckily, without my glasses on, the most obvious difference is the lack of the bright white lace on the 58th's new service frocks. The lack of shading, sloppy belts and skipped details are less visible from three feet away in dim light with dim eyes.   I have also noted that a few touch ups where painted flaked, a coat of varnish and 3 decades of weathering has obliterated most of the original shading so the old figures blend right in.

Two Portable companies of Rifles and two of 58th Foot.

 I'm hoping for rain on the weekend so that I can maybe squeak a game in.

End of an Era

Having a converted Boer in hand, as well as a paint stripped head from a broken antique Gordon Highlander and having restrained myself from ordering replacement heads, I reluctantly proceeded with making a mold to allow the 54mm Zulu and First Boer War project to proceed.

The first recruits for the 58th Foot.
After much hemming and hawing I went all toy soldiery and painted white, unstained, helmet and belts. The figure on the viewer's left is the original conversion, the other is the copy.

 As the Boer disappeared into the RTV I had one of those forehead slapping moments. Yesterday I had looked through numerous illustrations and confirmed that ammunition bandoliers were almost always worn over the left shoulder. (Presumably to avoid interfering with the rifle butt when aiming.)  What I had just noticed was that I had accidentally (or absent mindedly) reversed this when adding the putty.

Never mind, that could be fixed, or lived with, it was really the pith helmet that I had slipped in that was important. With a bit of work, I eventually managed to coax a slightly lumpy helmet and even more heavily flashed Boer from the mould. Lumpy and flash ridden enough that I could make use of them after much tedious work but not encouraging. The rifle is a lump of flash and there is a big wedge on the brim of the Boer's hat not to mention various smaller faults.  Doing fresh conversions for each figure would be easier than rescuing these though I will do one or two 'just because'. When I finally got a helmet to form it was in slightly better shape, usable but not great.

There was enough putty left over for one more full sized mould so I decided to try again but not with the Boer. This time I used an unconverted, antique, guardsman with his head chopped off and replaced by a pith helmet. If it worked it would give me what I needed to get the game on the table. I already have an ample supply of slouch hats to use for conversions of other figures to Boers to speed their recruitment.

It was with great relief that the result was, not exactly a clean casting, but a usable one. Usable enough to save the day with a bit of tedious work any way. 

Best not let the Sergeant Major catch you with your shirt tail hanging out over your arse Soldier! and Grandpa, what the hell are you pointing at me? I was confused at first by what appeared to be a bandage under the British helmet but it turns out that it was a fault on the antique that I hadn't noticed.

It was around 1999 that I first tried my hand at making my own molds. The initial reason was simply that I couldn't buy what I wanted! If I'd gotten into 54mm a bit earlier and hadn't gotten distracted by the explosion of new and recast 54mm plastic sets, Soldierpac had everything I wanted and while expensive for my budget, within reach if I went slowly. But they closed and the very reasonable prices of the remaining suppliers were beyond my reach for wargaming purposes. Having just gotten into casting Prince August semi-flats, and having bought some moulds for copies of old Britain's from Miniature Moulds who also sell mould making supplies, the next step was obvious. Make my own masters and cast them!

I'll never go down in the list of top miniature sculptors but I like several of my masters more than many commercial figures. Making moulds seemed  like it should be the easy part. It probably is for someone with not just patience and technical knowledge but who is careful and precise and patient.  Like the song says, "it ain't me Babe". I'm not sure how many moulds I've made now. Let's say 50 at least. Maybe 10 of those reliably produce acceptable copies of the original with a minimum of flash, maybe another 10 were completely unusable and the rest were were usable on a good day with a great deal  of recovery work required to produce a poor shadow of the original.

One reason I persevered was that I dreamt back then of having my own one man toy soldier company. From original sculpt to mould to castings, raw or painted.  With hindsight, by 2005 I had enough evidence that my mould making skills had stalled somewhere between mediocre to poor that I should have started investigating having some one else make the moulds. It was a tumultuous time in my life though and there was too much ego involved for rational business decisions. Anyway, I no longer have the desire to work that hard so its sheer cussedness crossed  with a desire for cheap volume that has kept me going at the mould making.

For this project I had actually looked at the price of buying heads from 3 sources and had almost stopped myself from reaching for the RTV but, it was there, bought and paid for, and it had an expiry date. I decided to give it one more go.

Once I was done and looked at the results I went looking at price and availability of RTV and revisited the price of parts.   I needed about 18 pith helmets for this project assuming I cannibalised and repaired more of the antique guards and used my commercial guards mould for bodies.  The result suggests that the cost of those heads would be about equal to what one of the 2 moulds would have cost and I could have grabbed some extras at the same time. Hmmm. Less money, less work, less frustration and I can feel good for supporting the industry.  

The figure on the left is the refurbished antique, the one on the right is the recast after 15-20 minutes of cutting and filing. After all the years of doing British and Canadians in tunics with lace trim, it was realllly hard not to paint any on the front and on the rear vent of the service frocks.  

So I am announcing the end of an era. I do not intend to replace my RTV. I'm quite happy to continue buying moulds for massed armies, like the new Prince August ones and I'm happy to keep converting figures, but I'm trying to downsize my armies and focus on what I enjoy, which does not include mould-making!

If I ever get another mad, insatiable, desire to make a lot of copies of some new originals, I'll start checking the price of hiring someone to do it for me.  

Becoming a Bigger Boer

It all seemed so simple. Take a 20mm Boer War Portable Wargame to Huzzah for a relaxed Sunday morning event. I had enough Boers and a couple of Brits painted up. Could even throw together opposing Russian Civil War armies as an option.

Then I thought that it might be nice to take some non-European enemies. I had just about enough Zulus but almost all their shields were gone so I broke out my old, beloved 54mm Nku Khu (aka Zulus) and some even older beloved Britain's British. Which of course led to....."This would look good at a con and be a good example of how 54mm games don't HAVE to be big". After all, I had the Zulus and just needed to do up some proper Brits to opposes them. Of course the only ones I have in Pith Helmets are the Gordon Highlanders. They didn't fight the Zulus but they did fight the Boers two years later..... Oh.....Oh dear.....

One unpainted guards casting, one headswap, one little ball of Milliput....

OK, part of me has been wanting to do this for quite a while, nearly 20 years actually, but when I down-sized everything I talked myself into getting out of 54's, sort of. Obviously my favourite bits stayed around. Now that I'm several years into games with fewer figures  I can enjoy 54mm wargaming with traditional toy soldiers again !

His own Drill Sergeant wouldn't recognise him now!

I've always paid less attention to the first Boer War but it is the one with scarlet tunics and one of the periods where  Boer, Zulu and British wargame armies can each fight the other. If that's not versatile enough it can also share some figures with my North West campaign.

Since the rules are pretty generic, I need a "thing" to make the Boers different but I want to do it without adding rules. They were mounted infantry but during the first war don't seem to have ever fought on horseback though they occasionally did in small numbers earlier or later when the situation called for it. They were expert shots and good at concealment but occasionally shy at close combat and reluctant to take casualties.

Using the roster system I intend to treat the Boers like Native Rifles with 3 SP's  (ie like cavalry) but will give them a special rule that they always count as "in cover" when not adjacent due to their skills at concealment. This means they will typically out shoot the British in the open but will have a reason to stay away from close combat in the open. Being "native" they will get the 50% chance of a double move, in this case representing a commando jumping on their horses to get to a better position. Lastly, having only 3 rather than 4 strength points will make them reluctant to trade hits equally.

Now to test these ideas out on the table. Just got to clean up the master once the putty is dry, make a mold, cast and paint about 20 figures and also convert about 12 more from different poses for variety........ Not going to be ready this weekend.

Scheming

Ok got a gun, now what is the colour scheme?

The only pictures I have of the real 4.7" guns are Black & White and none of my brief  sources thought to mention colour. In most pictures the barrels don't look much different than the carriage, sometimes a little darker. I have read stories of British units going crazy with khaki paint during the Boer War, even painting mules, though that might be apocryphal, but a monochrome model was not going to cut it.

The finished gun with temporary crew from my Mid 19thC forces. Homemade 40mm sailors with converted Scruby ACW officer.

The original Britain's model came with a grey carriage and bronze barrel. The grey seemed plausible but I'm pretty sure the barrels were steel not bronze. Then I found a picture of the burst barrel of a 4.7 that supposedly was used in the Boer War and then at Gallipoli.

Pic from Wikimedia of a 4.7" gun barrel abandoned at Gallipoli.
Now in Australian War Memorial

Black! There we are then. Now what about the crew? If this was an historical project I would have to do the sailors in standard army khaki with a naval straw hat. Borrrrrring! Luckily my old favorite  History of The War in South Africa  by James H Birch. (You can download it or read it on line, pictures included,  here on openlibrary.org ) has a more attractive version seen below.

"How the Blue Jackets shelled the Boers at Ladysmith".  

But I also found this on the net.

(Attribution pending once I find the picture again)

Since I had been contemplating a 1914 landing party in similar dress and have some very similar original Britain's I think I will go this route, once I get some more putty. Of course having seen the landing party 12 pdr and thought "ooooh!" I am going to have to make one after all. Although, it does kinda look like that old toy gun I've been using as a mountain gun and I do have two of them......,

Ambush at New Station

Our correspondent in the Kapelle District has filed this report on the opening of hostilities on the Oerburg frontier.

Company Commander Kitchi leading the charge which captured the enemy PomPom gun.

No one seeing the return of that bullet scarred train could doubt the serious nature of this dastardly attack. Ever since Uncle Bob challenged Her Majesty's rights to the gold fields in the lower Kapelle foothills, a weekly patrol train has made the run through New Station to Rahdun.  This week the train carried 2 companies of Royal Fusiliers, 2 companies and a Maxim gun of Ross's Rifles, a native Atlantican battalion recently raised from the Kapelle region and a section of the newly raised Koolahat Mountain Battery.

Ambush! The troops detrain and return fire.

Eye witnesses of yesterday's incident  report that upon approaching New Station, there appeared to be a tree fallen across the track. As the train slowed to allow the soldiers to clear the way, the surrounding hills erupted in rifle fire and the pom pom pom of a 1 pounder Maxim. It appears that Old Cords has been preparing for this day by importing modern weapons while dragging out talks. The quick firing gun appeared to be supported by 3 squadrons of mounted riflemen hiding in cover on three sides of the train. 

The infantry is hit hard by flanking fire from a hill until the maxim comes into action and drives off the enemy  riflemen. 

As the mountain battery returned fire, the troops began to detrain only to be cut down by accurate rifle fire from the surrounding hills.  It wasn't  until the Maxim  came into action and drove the Oerberg riflemen from the southern hill that the troops could bring the fight to the enemy. 

On the North side, Company  Commander Kitchi led his men in a bayonet charge against the troublesome pompom. Despite its furious fire his men followed him up the hill and into the enemy position. The gun was crewed partly by Oerberg Constabulary and they defended it manfully. It was a mere rump of a company that remained when the last  enemy soldier was accounted for.

The Redcoats storm the station but are driven back by accurate rifle fire. 

The main Oerberg position was behind a barricade covering the roadblock. While the Rifles drew off the fire of the Pompom, the Royals  assaulted the enemy barricades despite having already taken heavy casualties.  The first company was cut to pieces by riflefire and forced to retreat but the second managed to break into the enemy position briefly before being forced back by weight of numbers.

The patrol had taken heavy losses and enemy horsemen could be seen galloping in to reinforce the key positions. Reluctantly Colonel Martin decided that his duty now lay in saving as many men as possible while reporting the treacherous attack. 

Loading as many wounded as possible the patrol falls back to report.

It had been a bloody hour but the newly raised local regiments had proved themselves in battle, there is even talk of a medal for CC Kitchi and there is no doubt that retribution will come. 

More details to follow in the days ahead.

The Charge of the Tin Brigadier

While I was trying to decide on a scenario for my upcoming game, I kept running into scenarios I wanted to play with 1914 troops. If I play them all now with earlier armies in bright uniforms, will I want to play them again with drab ones? So I looked at my other options and decided that since I want to get the new Indian units into action, I would try a Colonial game......... with a train. So back to Atlantica, c 1902.

This make shift pom pom gun ought to be ready by noon on Sunday. A proper gun will follow. 

I also decided that it was time to try that Charge! inspired version of the rules but with a twist. To keep the game looking right, not over crowded, I would reduce the player's force to a brigade and use the 4 man company as the basic unit and battalions as the intermediate command level.

Boer pom pom gun from the Wiki article.

The forces will be a bit of a mishmash but with careful selection and a few new figures I can start dabbling in my not quite Northwest Rebellion/Boer War. The Black Fox would be too old to leave the Rebels by then but the son of his elder years, known as Kit or The young Fox, would be about the right age.

posted from Bloggeroid

Steppe Away From Those Cossacks!

That Russian Civil War game last week got me excited about the early 20th Century again but also reminded me of how limited and superficial is my knowledge of those wars.

My go to on this is the Pygmy Wars site ( pygmy-wars.50megs.com ). A wealth of both first hand sources that can be downloaded but also some excellent presentations dealing with both history and war gaming.

I also broke open a box of Strelitz, hoping that they had developed from ugly little trolls into attractive figures since I last looked. Nope!

However, by this time I was already running over why I had put the RCW aside and remembering about my plan to reduce the number of separate collections until some are more developed. I decided to haul out some more Scruby Boers to paint and ponder the possibilities.

A reprint of a picture of my first Jacklex and Scruby Boers.

If I were to stick with a strictly historical approach I would need to cover the 2nd Boer War, France in 1914, SouthWest Africa, East Africa, Palestine and the Russian Civil War. If I were to go the HG Wells route, I would need a campaign involving lots of cavalry and mounted rifles, mostly in uniform but including volunteers in civilian clothes, natives as well Europeans, artillery and machine guns, early trucks and armored cars, planes, amphibious operations, open plains with rivers, hills and patches of woods, small villages and farms and possibly some desert.

The 2  most obvious choices to me would be to either delay or soften the 2nd Boer War so that the 1914 uprising is successful leading to a hook up with German South West Africa forces for a prolonged WWI campaign or to add a 1/72 early 20thC chapter to the Atlantica saga. I'll paint the rest of my handful of Boer castings before I decide but any expansion of my RCW collection is going to have to wait.

Hoorah for Oom Jack

The first batch of Scuby Boers are now done. 

Scruby '25mm' (~1/72nd) Boers. 

(My apologies on the pictures, I was going to borrow my wife's camera but now it has gone missing !!?)

I'm still finding the glossy block toy style very difficult to paint convincingly. It is so much faster and easier to use washes to soften, blend, shade, weather and also to disguise little slips but once done, these figures have just the sort of toy look I was aiming for so I will persevere. I know from looking at some of my old figures that the old painted 25mm Marx figures were not as carefully painted as my memory would have it but the feel of these now is much the same as the feel of those figures was back then. 

The Jacklex and Scruby figures are quite different in style.The Scrubies are "finer" and the ones with open arms are softer and more amenable to animating but the Jacklex are hairier with more character. One on one, up close, the different hat/head size makes them less compatible than hoped for but luckily painted up and seen on the table at arms length they seem just fine together. 

A mix of Jacklex 20mm (the hefty guys) and Scruby 25mm Boers.

I can't consistently decide which I like better but I've enjoyed both so much that I would cheerfully buy more of both even though I have enough for the games that I have planned. I do intend to pick up a couple of each of the Jacklex positions that I don't yet have  but that will have to wait a bit as will an equally small Canadian and British force to oppose them. (My apologies to all those Aussie readers who feel left out).  In the meantime, they should see action against Ron's Brits before the end of the year.

Sometimes its a positive blessing to not have spare cash to over buy or this project might out grow itself in a hurry!

Getting the Drift (Updated)

Just  a sneak preview of things to come.

Briton meets Boer on the revised table.

Jacklex Maxim Gun and crew supported by a handful of Esci figures that have been wearing red coats for 20 odd years now.

Every man the Jacklex Commando can muster, for the moment.

Have a good weekend all.

****Update*****

The Historifig Boers just arrived!

A little slimmer than the Jacklex, but nice figures! Should paint up great. 

oh and this,

not exactly Boer War material but.....

My 30mm Quebec game needed some Indians and rangers.

Taking a shine to some new Boers

After a week with no time or place to play or paint. it was a relief to get my new downstairs painting station at least partially set up. I had already painted the 4.7" and earlier today had prepared  and primed the figures so an hour later, a crew to man the gun and the first mounted rifle unit.

Jacklex 20mm/1/72nd Boers

Yes I know the Boers didn't use the 4.7" but if you were refighting the Boer War in 1913, your Britain's Boers would have needed one for a proper Little Wars game really.

The figures have better  detail than I expected and I was tempted to highlight and shade the figures or at least apply a burnt umber wash but decided to go with block painting and gloss varnish as an homage of sorts.

I also decided not to up-size the horses after all, as I was putting the figures together it occurred to me that there could be some synchronicity with WWI Africa and other early 20thC settings. However, I did use some plastic horses to give more variety of pose, unfortunately one of the standing horses turned out to have draft harness on but oh well.

Looking forward to the arrival of my Scruby's now but I really like these Jacklex. There will be another order.

We interrupt your scheduled battle report for this flash report

Its been one of those weeks, haven't had time/energy to do a battle report although I did offload the pictures from my cell camera today. HOWEVER, I got TWO, not one, but TWO packages in the mail today.

Yup, all the way from England, a Jacklex 4.7" naval gun, apparently captured by Boers.... Its a tab smaller than my old Britain's gun but more accurate and just right for the 3" grid. ohboyohboyohboy.....

Cavalry L to R Jacklex Boer, RAFM NWMP

Infantry L to R Jacklex Boer, Partha British, Jacklex US 1917, Esci British, Jacklex British, Esci British, Partha British, Jacklex Boer.

I was a little concerned that these figures might be a tad small to fight Ron's Partha's and they are pushing my boundaries though they should normally be far enough away from the British to make the difference ignore-able.  The horse are small even if they are Veldt ponies, so I may remount them on some spare horses.

In any event I don't expect a lot of Boer War games at Ron's place and they are, as anticipated, a perfect match  for the old Esci British and thus other plastic Colonials which offers some nice options for mix and match (and wagons!) for home use. Hopefully the Historifig Scrubies will be here by Christmas and I can plan an expansion for next year.

Meantime there are a dozen painted plastic Brits in the cupboard and a few more in a state of nature. (Bought those in my trailor trash days in the mid-80's along with the Airfix ACW and a few Zulus. Hmmmm seems to me I gave a way a few sprues of Esci Zulu's a few years ago, oh well don't really want to do Zulus again anyway, they'll probably show up in a HOTT army on some junkyard planet some day.)

Since it was my wife who actually cleared the mailbox today, it was almost inevitable that this ebay find would arrive on the same day. I've had my eye out for an Elastolin  4cm Landsknecht range gun for a while but they tend to rise too close to $100 for me indulge a whim. Couldn't believe it when I saw this one for $10 with no bids and 2 hours to go.It has some minor damage, a missing bracket in front and the trigger doesn't work so you have to pull back on a piece of nylon line to cock the spring. It'll still send a matchstick across my table though! Not that I'm going to fire matchsticks at my Elastolin's, especially since they are glued to 60mm masonite bases!.

Getting to be a bit of a Boer

Images from Historifig website 

Well, I've taken the plunge. Last week Ron broke out the Colonials for a nail biter of a Colonial game with "my" Brits just hanging on to a ridge for a narrow win. With a  decision still pending on the best way to scratch my long deferred  Boer  War itch, I took the plunge when I got home and ordered some Scruby Boers from Historifigs and then a handful more of Jacklex figures from Spencer-Smith (gotta  have a classic 4.7" somewhere in my collection) to get me started.

Reinforcements on table from a week ago with Brits holding the hill. Ron Porter's figure and table.

Not saying I will never do it in 40mm toy style but these classic ranges have the right sort of OS look, are cheap enough for even my budget and, based on pictures and remarks on the Plastic Pelisse  and John's Lead Garden and my own experience with Scruby 25mm Mamlukes, are close enough to the Ral Partha's that  I'll be happy fielding them on the same table. 

For now it will be a small force for Battlecry games to be followed by British, and then I suppose by Zulus/Matabele/Basuto. Whether or not it ever expands and blossoms into something else or reaches as far as Tel el Kebir is another question for another day.

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This week, long time friend Simon MacDowall (red 'jumper') crossed over the pond. Its been  a decade or two since we have been able to squeeze a game  in but Ron graciously hosted us for a 3 player Battle Cry game, a long way from Simon's usual fare but just right for a quick break from the pub. This time it was the Afghans defending the ridge and Simon and I ended up on the same side, the first time in 40 years as far as we could recall. Innuendos that it was no accident that Simon's Afghan force (see http://legio-wargames.com/#/the-legio-blog/4553964887 for more pictures)  was driven off the ridge and wiped out before reinforcements arrived, must surely be dismissed in face of the great personal risk run by my General and his escort who defeated Ron's right wing, capturing its general and preventing the capture of the only flag we held at the end. Luckily enough of my men were left at the end to be able to garrison his tribal areas as well as my own once we let the British buy peace.

As an aside, probably the last time that all 3 of us were in the same place at the same time would have been at a meeting of the Montreal Wargamers at the old fort on Ile St Helene in 1976/77. 
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OK back to designing my card table game and experiments with going small but grid-less or not and with abandoning casualties or not.

A Real Man of Steele or Forty Years in Canada

Colonel Flint of the Queen's Lancers, 1866

I haven't made a lot of book recommendations but I enjoyed this one so much I can't help myself. It is the autobiography of Sam Steele and by default an account largely of the formation and development of the North West Mounted Police. My copy was published as part of the Prospero Canadian Collection but is available as a free ebook. http://archive.org/details/fortyyearsincana00steeiala 

He began a military career by volunteering for the militia during the Fenian Raids, served in the Red River expedition, was a member of Canada's first regular artillery battery where he served along side not only a veteran of the Crimean War but also an 88 year old officer who had fought in Bull's troop RHA at Waterloo!  He joined the NWP when it was formed and rose to high rank as he served through the settlement of the west and the Riel Rebellion, the construction of the railway through the Rockies and the Yukon Gold Rush. When the Boer War broke out he raised the Strathcona Horse and led it in the field before being asked to form a South African Mounted Police. Finally he served as Major General in the Canadian Army during the First World War. 

Among the things that make the book so interesting are the many descriptions of his encounters with a long list of people, some famous including numerous British and American officers to Indians such as Sitting Bull, others less well known such as the scout Jerry Potts and others completely unknown. Some of the incidents he either witnesses or took part in or reports as hearsay are worthy of any adventure moves.  More than that are the descriptions of every day life and service, all the nitty gritty of how many miles ridden on patrol in how much time, provisioning details, how various crimes were solved and on and on. It is also a description of the rapid change from wild prairie peopled by warring Indian tribes and whiskey traders  to "civilized" farmland with modern cities of up to 200,000 people by the turn of the century 30 years later.  

Of particular interest to me, despite being brief, is of course his part in the South African war. Oddly enough, his accounts of a few skirmishes, like the accounts of several Boers that I have read, are reminiscent of those lithographs and illustrated news after all. It is possible that I will have to relent and forego the big battles and fight the little war instead. The problem still remains of scale, something on the order of 1,000 yards to the foot with a line of 12 figures well spaced out representing a battalion and patrols of 1 or 2 figures having a role. There will definitely have to be some sleight of mind and some theatrical magic employed to get the right effect.

The Queen's Red Lancers from Faraway's Household Brigade.

The uniforms are copied from those of the English 16th Lancers between the adoption of the tunic in 1856 and the switch to black plumes in 1880. The figures are Zinnbrigade 1900 Prussian Uhlans right out of the mold apart from the officer and the addition of rolled cloaks. He was made from one of the lancers. I cut off the lance, straightened his right arm, removed his left arm and cut him at the waist.  I added a left arm from wire and putty and used an ACW horse from Merten. I kind of wish I'd gone for a more authentically toy soldier single yellow stripe on the pants and a single bold red stripe on the girdle rather without the more accurate "light" that separates them but I'm not redoing them. Final basing finish for all of the Atlantican armies is under discussion.

More Boering Thoughts and other things

Having just re-read Marquis' Canada's Sons on Kopje and Veldt, which covers the experiences of the Canadian contingents sent to the Boer war, that war has been on my mind again. The book focuses on the Royal Canadian Regiment from recruiting to its arrival back home but also touches on the Canadian Mounted Rifles, Strathcona Horse and the 3 batteries of artillery. Unfortunately for me, from 2 angles, it focuses on the main actions from Paardeberg to the fall of Pretoria, only touching on the guerrilla war which the artillery and mounted troops were so active in. Unfortunate because it has drawn my attention back to the formal stages of the war with thousands of British atacking on a 30 mile front and unfortunate because it provides so little additional detail and examples of the smaller, more intimate actions of the guerrilla war. I have, however, been doing enough poking and prodding at this to decide that well I may be able to do some satisfactory 40mm Toy Soldier games inspired by the Riel Rebellion and "First" Boer War, the Second War is going to have to be a 20mm/1/72nd project and probably a very abstract one. Jacklex & Hat ought to be able to provide pretty much everything I need including ox wagons, 15 pdrs and 4.7" guns without shields. So hopefully they will both still be around next year when I get back to this.

Left Trident Jeger waiting for flocking, Right Sash&Saber Jaeger

One figure painted. Better than none and now the Hessians have a full 8 man unit of Jaegers. He's built a bit more like a grenadier than a light infantryman but he fits well enough and I figured the size difference would show less with a kneeling figure.

I think the AWI game is about to get another outing, this time with most units fielded as 20 line infantry as originally envisaged. Its not that there was anything wrong with the larger number of smaller units  but I'm not sure the added fuss really added anything but fuss. When I consider that my plan is to play mostly teasers and teaser type games, which often call for only a handful of units, there seems little point in designing rules that call for a lot of little units and then making translations. Yes, this is not the first time I have come to this conclusion, but I seem to keep forgetting.

A few of the ACW lads have been out too, playing with ranges and regimental sizes   (and scales -sshhhhh). Partly this is because I have also been reading Sherman's memoirs off and on as well as dipping into Battles & Leaders. All of which leads me back to thoughts of the standard game with larger Regiments as units (as in 4 or 5 stands vs 3)  which can double up as Brigade Units when playing using the CM scale. Given my 40mm wide bases, that would put my cm scale brigades  in the same ball park as Fire & Fury.

 While pondering these issues, I suddenly remembered a  possible solution to my close range/long range quandry when the bands were so narrow and the dilemma of having 1/2 a unit's fire zone either too deadly or completely useless.. In essence it involves 3 range bands instead of 2 with muskets having a 0" close range (ie in contact only) which nicely gives infantry a reason to hold fire, and most other units have a close range of 6" at which they currently get a +1. The medium range band is the same as the existing single range band. The long range fire can only hit close order targets and only on a 6. Since it robs troops of the right to move or to shoot later at a closer range, it probably won't be over used. That leaves the existing range bands and scores as is but replaces a die modifier which needs to be remembered by a range band. so cleans up that process a little too.

Thinking about game balance and troop type differentiation (as in rock vs paper vs scissors) and simplicity and game flow, I have relented and allowed skirmishers to move and fire and have slowed down field and siege artillery to give light guns a raison d'etre, and removed some lingering anal-ity from the artillery movement rules. It also got me fussing again over what size cavalry to use for game balance if I did use the 20 man line units. The 8 man ones currently seem too weak but 12 are too bulky in 40mm.

Lastly, I have been thinking again about desirable "game" attributes, one of which is excitement. In terms of the Memoir game this comes partly from 3 things, not knowing what your opponent will do next, (got that), uncertainty that you will be able to move the units you want (got that albeit in different format) and the uncertain nature of combat. I have that to some degree but not quite as much so I have been testing various situations to make sure that  some things, like a cavalry charge should be exciting with a chance of glorious victory, ignominious defeat or a waffle. It was almost there but I have gone back to try something I tried before and chickened out on because it was hard to predict the rare extremes. I've become convinced that as long as those extremes are rare, their existence is not a bad thing as they can get the adrenalin pumping. Oddly it has also meant replacing die modifiers with something simple. 1 die per charging cavalryman vs a +1. This means lower chance to hit but a higher possible number of hits. It also means 8 or 9 man cavalry units are  good match for a 20 man infantry unit. I love it when things start to mesh and flow.

The Great Ordinance Divide

I'm not in a tearing rush to get a "turn of the previous century" game on the table. I have lots of bits and bobs to work on for other projects and I'm over due with various yard and garden chores. But I figured it wouldn't hurt to source a few things and narrow down the time frame. After leaning briefly close to WWI, I`ve been leaning back towards late 19thC or very early 20thC.   I did managed to confirm that a Lithograph of a Boer War 4 wheeled, gas powered, 1 man, motor machine gun vehicle was real not an imagining of the artist and sorted a few things but when I started trying to figure out when gun shields were introduced, I've hit an "uhoh".

I really like the look of Boer Ware era field guns but one of the secret attractions  of the period is that I would finally have a period and scale that fits the old Crescent 18pdr  that's been around since before I can remember.

Well, thinks I, surely the one must have taken awhile for one to replace the other. After all, it took decades for rifled breechloaders to replace muzzle loaders and there were still upgunned WWII tanks (Centurions) in service with the Canadian Army when I joined the services in the early '70's. Well, I was sort of right, apparently there  was 1 battery of unmodified 15 pdrs used in East Africa during WWI, just one, in the whole world. The gun shield is a very visible mark of difference between late 19thC and 20thC artillery. It was also an insignificant one. 

I'm just not a very technical  guy so my brain tends to doze off when I start reading stats and the brain flips a switch and routes these things onto a bypass so while I knew that the French 75 had a reputation for rapid fire and knew vaguely that WWI guns had recoil absorbers above or below the barrel, I never really thought about it. The key development was of course the introduction of a recoil absorption mechanism when the famous French 75 was introduced in 1898. There were other developments but this was the key one that allowed a field gun to fire faster than a bolt action rifle. It was such an important development that all nations who could, adopted new  field guns and modified existing ones while they were waiting. Alas (for me) it appears to have been a relatively quick and easy adaptation and it totally changed the look of the guns. So, even assuming that Oberhilse and the rest can't afford the latest and greatest, I appear to have a fairly narrow window for mixing the two styles of gun and need to deal with one being about twice as effective as the other.

There is another problem. While I can probably track down enough Crescent 18 pdrs for my WW1 needs and Berlin Zinnfiguren has Shieldkrot`s 77mm FK96, no one seems to make a 1/43rd Boer War vintage 15 pdr BL or a 75 or 77mm Krupp Bl or anything even remotely looking like either. I really don't want to  teach myself to make gun carriages and turn barrels on a make shift lathe. So far, about the closest offering that I`ve seen so far would be a S&S ACW 3" ordinance rifle for the 15 pdr or a 10lb Parrott for the Krupp, and that only because I have no eye for detail on machines but who is to say that surplus American artillery didn't find its way to Atlantica? Especially if I want to do some 1880's games? Something to think about anyway.

Of Potluck, Pom Poms and Pretend History

I haven't read Courts of the Morning yet but I've flipped through an HTML copy and various summaries and put it aside until I finish Commando!  So, too soon to say the details have affected me, but already I have walked further along a path that my subconscious has been trying to open up. Rather than point you back to various posts, I'm just going to reuse some pictures (my on line album is already more than 50% full!)  and lay out some thoughts and see how long standing threads come together..

In random order:

1.I find myself drawn to Times of Transition in military history. The late 19th and early 20th Centuries are one such era when horse and rifle met steam, petrol, wire and machine guns and drab uniforms began to be adopted widely. This is one link between the Boer War, Lawrence, the Russian Civil War, and so on.  The political setting of such campaigns may or may not be of interest but is a separate question from the purely military aspects. .

2. I feel a connection and/or interest to my Grandfather's time. Oddly, or not, this is also the late 19th and early 20thC. I also like the look of glossy toy soldiers from that era. So did he.

3. Rebellion against what is perceived as External Authority draws me. Again, the politics and questions of  right and wrong of either side are separate questions. It is the idea of armed citizens standing up to professional (in the very broadest of terms)  armies. The period or authenticity of view points isn't all that important either, so Botha,  Bowie, Boadicea, Braveheart (sic), they all tick this box as do many others. For me this resistance to external power is one of the attractions of classical Colonial wargames and the Boer War in particular.

4. A mold in the hand is worth 2 OOP molds in someone else's hands.  I thought briefly of shelving this project until Mike had the old Scruby Colonial molds ready, after all, you can't do the Boer War without any British and if I made my own, where would the incentive be to buy the Scrubies, if/when they come out?  In the meantime I hauled out a couple of my homecast Zinnbrigade c1900 Prussians (sic). It occurred to me that I could start there and fit them in somewhere. I then hauled out my Frontier Light Horse and once again thought that the Scruby Confederate cavalry in slouch hats with rifles would make good Boers.  But where to fit the picklehaubes in, State Police perhaps?



5. My Standard Size (ie small 54mm) Britain's WWI machine guns caught my eye, reminding my of their last use. unfortunately, they just look too big for machine guns for the 40mm figures.

I wondered what weapon might look like a big MG.

Then I wondered what  Pom Pom guns looked like? Wikipedia? Ahhh, OK.

Boer and Australian Pom Pom guns From Wikipedia. Look like big Maxim guns on wheels to me.

5. Countries of the Imagination are only as narrow as you make them. It was in the middle of all this that Bob Cordery pointed me towards  The Courts of the Morning.  The first temptation for me is always to do a vaguely historical recreation of a campaign or campaigns that catch my eye, However, translated into a fictional setting, I see that I could weave a rich background like a novelist and incorporate most or all of the aspects that attract me while exercising my imagination.  The blank canvas of North Atlantica is wide open.

As I looked again at the figures on the table, various bits of already established Atlantican History began to fold together and I began to shift my thoughts about where to start. I will paint up some British troops but there is no reason that I have to start with them. Oberhilsian expansion North of the Mountains would be unlikely to be able to avoid conflict with the free settlements of Moose Jager and Natives in this area, pushing them to coalesce behind a great leader and fight for an Independent State. Exactly where Faraway and the British (whose presence in the 1860's is already attested) fit in, remains to be determined.

A plan comes together! It may take some months to appear on the table, especially as I have ancient, medieval, 18thC (NQSYW) and ACW  projects elbowing for my attention but, starting as soon as possible:

1) Finish a map of North Atlantica
2) Sketch the history from 1850 to 1910 and come up with names of places and people. Especially attention to the Brethren, the Moose Jager, the various native tribes and Metis or mixed blood societies and Oberhilsian expansion and the role of the FTC North of the Mountains.
3) Pick an opening scenario and establish an OB for both sides.
4) Cast up an Oberhilse army and paint them straight out of the Zinnbrigade Prussian molds but in drab/field grey. Infantry, Cavalry, and gunners. Obtain or build appropriate artillery and transport, wagons or train.
5) Assemble opposing "native"/"rebel"  forces from conversions of homecast molds, original figures and more Scruby Confederates.  Forces to be smallish units of free standing single toy soldiers. Possibly uisng Asquith's Big Wars but more likely I'll pick up on the idea of an expansion of With MacDuff To The Frontier into the early 20thC.

The Other Boer War

When I was a wee lad, there was this book in the hallway bookcase. It once belonged to my grandfather.

History of The War in South Africa  by James H Birch. It was published in 1899, you know, after the war ended...(oops).  You can download it or read it on line, pictures included,  here on openlibrary.org
Hopefully this means no one will mind me including a couple of the lithographs from my copy, just to illustrate my point.. 

It is such  shame that my grandfather died when I was so young. If his health was better, I know the day would have come when we'd have played wargames with his collection of toy soldiers. (hmm its a little uncomfortable for me to contemplate that the Boer War was closer to me when I first read this book than the 2nd World War is now, almost as uncomfortable as watching the Caine Mutiny a few days ago and realizing the ships and navy in the movie were more like my brief navy days than today's)

Anyway, the wargames came regardless and it is not surprising that my thoughts turned to the Boer War. The problem was that the more I read, the deeper the gulf became between the war as presented in those late 19th/early 20thC books and newspapers with their dramatic lithographs of "gallant charges" and more modern works or even contemporary works by serving officers.

A few gallant wounded and dead, this wasn't represented as a picnic. 

To recreate the actual war in any real sense, I was going to need a large table, small figures and the games were going to be as far from those lithographs and stirring stories as they were from reality.(Check this Boer War wargaming site out)

Nor  was it all about gallant charges, there were pictures of British prisoners, pages of photos of Canadian war dead and so forth but even the desperate last stand of the questionable Jameson Raid has that gallant last stand aura. 

 If you've read  Duffers Drift (should be available on line if you Google it), I wanted war to be more like what the young lieutenant thought it was at the start,  even after dreaming the dreams! However, to game the illusion was going against what I thought and felt wargaming was all about then and was going to require more Chutzpah than I could muster to face down any detractors. So the Boer War still waits, but periodically I haul out that old book and I think about things.

I can still be fairly thin skinned on occasion but my foray into 54mm gaming at the end of the last century (ok and a few more decades of life outside of normal )  helped developed a lot more Chutzpah. So did the whole Old School thing.  (Charge! is still a wonder to me, so simple, so elegant, so wrong on the surface and yet still producing games that ring truer in their essentials than many games that I've seen that are more "correct" and thus should in theory produce more realistic games .)   I also have a much wider view of what and why wargames are. (Looking back, for a guy who prided himself on seeing the world in shades of grey, I used to hold some pretty strong prejudices). After struggling to free myself from the shackles of "ought", I think I'm almost ready to try to develop a game aimed at reproducing that other Boer War, the one of the lithographs, reporters and old soldiers sitting by the woodstove back home.  Almost.

Anyway, what brought all this on? There was an excellent discussion about some aspects of the theory and practice of developing wargames, dealing specifically with the Boer War but applicable in general,  on :Lard Island. If you have any interest in wargame design, go read it.