Something about a tree

I could get all deep and meaningful and say that if a tree falls in a forest does anyone notice, but nah...

This is a club tree that was used in my last game now restored to its former glory.

Beautiful trunk

The tree had broken from its original trunk and so I decided to make it a new one using a black straw, PVA glue and sand plus lots of paint.  The fit was perfect and I decided to dull down the base a bit as it was very bright.

This post is actually because I have three big painting projects underway that just don't seem to be getting close to finishing and I had a need for at least closure on something.  The three projects are:

• a heap of stuff I am doing for my 15mm Western Desert Force (stuck with having used Desert Yellow when I should have used Dark Sand and whether to use transfer or hand paint insignia or just leave them out);
• thirty 28mm Madists (stuck with a range of basing options); and 
• 24 Napoleonic Middle Guard in 15mm (when I would rather be painting Russian Dragoons).

Napoleonic Russian Dragoons Uniform details from Military Modelling August 1976

So I am working my way through my Military Modelling magazines and creating an index.  It is a nice background task and frequently I find articles that support one or more of my various painting/gaming projects that I have on the go.  When I found this one on Russian Dragoons I just knew I had to do some.  I even know a lead mountain were some suitable figures languish.

Apart from a bit of nostalgia and of course inspiration, this two page article is fairly redundant as regards information given all the other sources readily available on the Internet.  However this article does serve me as a much appreciated research item and I hate for it to be hidden away.

I am of course making no claim on this information or image and would believe that it is covered under some form of copyright somewhere, although not maybe in the country in which this article is being viewed, stored or transiting, such is the web.

Source: https://copyright.cornell.edu/publicdomain

What I do know is that you can no longer buy this magazine from the publisher or their "descendants" which really means if it is not to be lost it needs to be "put out there."  And anyway, I've got more important things to think about.

Hawk People versus the Skellies

I dragged Stephen away from work and put him in command of a dozen skellies defending their home from a flock of Hawk People.

 Skellies in the attic, minding their own business.

All the Skellies were Q3 C2.

Flap, flap. flap...

The Hawk Lord was Q3 C3 Leader, the Gargoyle was Q4 C4 Artificial and Tough and the remaining Hawk People were Q3 C3.  All had the flying ability.  While heavily outnumbered, the point value was identical at 312 per side.

 Swoop!

 The Skellies gang up.

It goes bad for the Hawk Person.

 Knock down.

 Oh dear, one of the Hawk People get knocked down.

Fails to stand up...

Okay, she's really a Harpy.  Painted in 1986 if you must know.

 The Hawk Lord on its portable cloud battles on.

 Progress is being made.

 But the fighting rages on, with more Skellies joining in.

A fallen figure is quickly dispatched.

The loss of this character caused the Hawk Lord and Gargoyle to test.  The Gargoyle backed off a bit, but the Hawk Lord kept fighting.  He was soon surrounded and defeated before the Gargoyle could save him.  The Gargoyle then fled.  Fair enough.

Great little game.

Shiver me timbers

I have six Sails of Glory models. It seemed like a good idea at the time and they certainly do fill a need.

What I don't really understand is why they are so fragile...

 Both the foremast and the mizzen have broken at their respective bases.

When this happened to the Imperial, it was a clean break and I drilled out the deck, placed a hollow metal tube in the hole and reshaped the remaining mast and plugged it in (see this post).  I expected to do the same with this frigate.  I even noticed I had had a go at gluing/strengthen the mast before.

But the breaks weren't clean - as in the mast still had a little "connection" with the deck.  So I thought I would try gluing once more.  This time I first applied a dab of super glue and applied pressure to straighten and close the crack in the mast.

I'm not sure what I expected but it seemed to work.  Then I set to doing about half a dozen coats of PVA glue over the same number of days in a do-it-yourself decoupage, not décolletage, strengthening exercise although the latter term has merits.  I regularly use PVA glue in this way to strengthen bayonets, spears etc on my miniatures and believe it can be an excellent varnish (although it is cglossy and must be applied sparingly).

Repaired with the masts now standing proud and dare I say, perky.

You just backed John Carter of Mars - The Roleplaying Game

I took the plunge.

Yeah me! 

This was back on 29 January.

I really just wanted my name in the book.

I guess the other stuff will come in useful one day.

Actually I really want the boardgame, but that's not due till much later.  The RPG, if all goes well, is due for delivery in July 2018.  I'm not much into RPG, so this will be a first.  There is also a set of miniature rules, although I was going to adapt Songs of Blades and Heroes.  The real challenge, as I think I have mentioned before, is that I will now have Barsoom figures in a variety of scales with still other scales beckoning.

SoL versus Super Blue Blood Moon

The two Stephens took command of three squadrons (each of six ships) of mainly Spanish ships (they had some help from a set of French frigates) to take on Darren's Rovay Navy.  The two sides were almost identical.  Activation was random using cards as per the standard rules.

 A simple set up,

 The action started almost immediately with a few long range shots.

The arrows denoted the wind direction.

 The British had a lucky success when a well placed shot caused an explosion on one of the Spanish flagships.

Great opportunity to use one of the sunken ship markers that Darren has.

Then the moon intervened...

An unsteady hand, but an interesting affect.

I tried the flash and got a better result.

Going...

Going...

Really going...

Almost totally gone.

Gone.

Normal play is now resumed

By the end of the third turn the Royal Navy has taken a hammering,

but a second Spanish ship has been sunk.

This time the loss was due to accumulated damage.

And at this unfortunately late stage we decided to sail off into the moonset.

Maybe 18 ships a side is a little bit ambitious, but I felt the game was working well.  The ship profiles were as follows:

The frigates relay ability just extends the flagship's command radius. 

I didn't use the reload option, ruled that undamaged ships would avoid collisions (which in my opinion worked well otherwise the game would have been resolved by collision damage) and toyed with an "engaged" rule, but ran out of time to try it. 

Ships were allowed to fire at any point in their move.  The wind was fixed and most ships were moving medium or long (as ships do with the galleon ability).  It would be interesting to have a "make sail" and/or "reduce sail" activation.  The idea for "engage" was like "battlestations" or "clear for action"  There would then need to a "break off" or "disengage" activation.  At this stage, more thought is required.

Quick bit of Napoleonic Naval Action

The planned fleet level game using Darren's ships and the Galleys and Galleons rules had to be postponed till next week, which was just as good, as a simple practice game last night demonstrated that a few barnacles had adhered to my memory of the rules.  They were quickly removed and play commenced.

 The British cut across the French as they head out to see.

Stephen N, as first to arrive was given command of the French who were on a mission to the Americas to retrieve an errant family member of one of the political class.  Utmost discretion was required.

Mark B commanded the blockading Royal Navy.  Interception was a given, but could they put a stop to this French adventure?

 The French got in first, blasting up the lead British ship.

As this was a very simple game to get back into the rules, the Frigates were Q3 C3, the 3rd Rates Q3 C4 and the French Flagship, a 1st Rate at Q5 C5.  They all had chaser guns rated at C1 and either Master Gunner or Trained Gun Crew ability.  

Damage has been marked with cotton wool, as I'd left black dice at home and couldn't find my other markers that I would have used for this purpose.

 As sailing ships keep moving there is little room for maneuver, although the French did try a bit.

The perpetual movement produces lots of opportunities for collisions, but I ruled ships would veer away before crashing into another ship as they are not built for ramming and also really don't take up all the space represented by their model.

I need to give this a bit more thought and I'm tending to have damaged ships to be at risk of collision and/or fouling.

 The French are through.

The British fire had been abysmal.  I had forgotten to bring my dice and we were using Mark B's sea-sickness green dice and they served him abominably.

The French will escape.

Will there be a chase?

Will they encounter other Royal Navy patrols on the High Seas?

What about the return journey?

I did make use of the Sails of Glory counters.  I now think I best actually do an inventory of the counters and their meanings.  This requires more work, but an initial allocation matches well with the Critical Damage table.

 Captain hit

 Grappled

 Magazine explodes

 Fire

 Fouled

 Rigging damaged

 Sinking

 Rudder damage

 Taking on water