Canoeing in Canada - M&T inspiration

Whilst surfing I came across the following advert for a company...

French Canadian River voyage

and I found it a rather nice short video that helps set the scene for Muskets and Tomahawks.

Here's another video - I suspect of the same tour from the same company although with different people.

Oh, and I won 15 part painted Wargames Foundry "Mountain men" off Ebay today.   Some were bare metal, others appear to have a red-brown undercoat (but probably nothing that Dettol can't solve) to provide some character types.  I've already got some in my "Old West" figures but it will be good to not have to keep movng figures between two sets.  

Muskets and Tomahawks Inspiration and a pleasant surprise

I said a few posts ago that I was starting to try and sort things out and decide what periods did I actually want to game.  I think I'm currently at 15+ different genres with not really a fully painted army for any of them.  Lots of bits of armies, and lots of unfinished armies at the "8 colour" stage so that they were competition legal (flesh, bases, trousers, jackets, armour, weapons, hair, shields) but not really very detailed.

The French Indian Wars is one of those that's going to be staying due to the appeal of the Muskets and Tomahawks Rules from Studio Tomahawk although largely promoted by Gripping Beast and North Star Miniatures in the UK.

The interest goes back much, much further but what it needed was a set of rules to capture the flavour of early books and television.  I had bought "Ranger" from Partizan Press but the emphasis was on larger battles (with regiments of say 24 figures) with regular troops alongside the Indians and Rangers.  I wanted the enlarged skirmish game that is the subject of Muskets and Tomahawks.
 

I must have been nine or ten (we moved around my tenth birthday) and I had the book at the 'old house" when I got a rather super book.

Whilst the BBC version of Last of the Mohicans was on TV in 1971 with Phillip Madoc.  The book has survived with its spine intact unlike the companion volume of "The Finding Out Book of Battles".  Both books were illustrated by Ronald Embleton who also wrote the Pioneers book.  The guy behind Galloping Major miniatures is also a long term fan of the pictures and also has the book.  What I've just realised as I've checked the web link is that he appears to have chosen the same picture as one of the favourites out of the book.  

Forty years ago America (I hadn't appreciated that we might actually mean Canada then) was still somewhat exotic - Jumbo Jets were relatively new and I had little realistic chance of actually seeing America.  I've still yet to see the Great Lakes area but have now visited Boston and the site of Bunker Hill, as well other Revolutionary War sites such as Lexington and Concorde and places on Paul Revere's ride.  

As part of sorting out then I've been taking stock of books:

  

Contents

Foreword · Part I: The French-Indian War 1754–1760 · Part II: The American Revolution 1775–1783 · Part III: The War of 1812 · Bibliography · Index

(This is a somewhat meaty tome that I've only really just dipped into, but seems promising

I bought this a long while ago because it was cheap and interesting.   Rather scholarly, its good at portraying Indian life and details but is short on what I want as a 28mm gamer - pictures of different types of warpaint.  The Galloping Major website has lots of useful information on painting Indians.   

These two were bought during my "Pirate" phase, out of sheer interest for what the Colonies had in terms of troops.  Given the time period covered then only of partial relevence, and volume 3, because of the Ranger Element has direct relevence to the M&T period.  

The Ranger book is one that no self respecting M&T enthusiast should be without.  The Raid book has lots of ideas, pictures and maps but is one to take slowly, probably with a map to hand to understand the relevence and locations.

A couple of very useful books and whilst the emphasis (especially in the French book) is on larger forts which are unlikely to appear on an M&T tabletop except as a backdrop there are a couple of very nice black & white drawings of smaller fortfied villages/hamlets which are very useful. 

The pleasant surprise was Redcoat, which was a book I'd bought from one of the online bargain book sellers that I deal with.  I'd never had time to look at it in depth (thing with the book clearance trade is buy it when you see it as it may not be there when you go back later) and had always put it with my Napoleonic books.  Sorting those out for storage though, I discovered (pleasant surprise) that it is a rebadged British Redcoat 1740-1793 and large amounts for the French Indian War and later the AWI. 

 

If  I had to rank them in terms of value for money (and I've taken to buying some books second hand now to save money) then:

1: Ranger book and Raid book

2: Forts books

3: Woodland Indians, Colonial Troops.  

No French Uniform book reviewed as I'm still waiting for that to arrive, and the redcoat book needs to be looked at in detail.  

Next, Movies...

Probably "The" movie to watch with its haunting Clannad soundtrack, although like me you have probably seen the best bets as short clips previously.  Lots of fighting, lots of redcoats, lots of Indians.  Touch of romance and some excellent shooting.  

Battle of the Brave is set in New France in what appears to be the Quebec area to judge from a siege scene.   First and foremost this is a tangled love story with betrayals and accusations.  Not much in the way of battle scenes or even shooting whilst I'm not sure I spotted a white coated French Regular in the entire movie nor a tomahawk.  Lots of Plot but not a great amount of action (other than brawling and sword fights etc), and lots of scenery to look at.  I got mine for a few pounds secondhand and at that price I felt it well worth it but pay more than £5 and I suspect you will be disappointed given the advertising statements made about it.  

Cleaning Fgures: Dettol, degreaser and hot water

Been busy with gaming this and that: I really should blog more frequently but once again a flurry of posts.

I came rather late to discovering that dettol/pinesol cleans metal figures much better than nitromors paintstripper and is alot safer to use.

However, I was presented with two problems recently.

Firstly some bases on some Redoubt Civilians with a few Front rank intended for Muskets and Tomahawks proved somewhat resilent to coming off.  I realised after a while that they were in fact plastic rather than the card I had supposed.   No idea what glue was used but it wouldn't "snap" off.  Since dettol I believe softens, if not melts plastic, then I wasn't willing to try the dettol bath as a first solution.  Second idea worked though - boiling water over the figures in a basin.

Next problem was with some other figures that had been undercoated in I know not what, but dettol would loosen it enough the produce a green gunge effect on the figure that wouldn't truly wash off, and scrubbing just seemed to gunge up the bristles.  What did work was kitchen "de greaser" followed by use of the old toothbrush and warm water.  

An idea on the subject of bases: great minds think alike

I wish somebody had told me about movement trays in my teens as it would have speeded up many a battle involving Airfix Napoleonics.  None of the pictures in the books or magazines at the time had them, so we didn't copy them.

Since then, the whole subject of bases has moved forward.  Often no longer mere bits of green card (often cereal packets in the Airfix days) they are now works of art in their own right, with sculpted add ons, tufts and other embellishment.   Movement trays have evolved as well, moving from the simple square or rectangle to all sorts of trays, especially ones used for skirmishers or weapon crews.  

At the Derby World Championships last year I bought a pack of the support bases (WGB-base 2) from Warlord Games.  They are in the webstore but you have to search for support bases or squad bases: try looking through their catalogue and I can't find them.

The pack contains 2x2 figure, 2x3 figure and 2x5 figure.  I thought that they would be ideal for Muskets and Tomahawks, particularly for Indians or Civilians/Militia who are likely to be in relatively large numbers.  I also thought that the ones in lines were very appropriate for walking down a wilderness trail (Some smaller movement trays - say 4 bases are a likely purchase at Salute 2013).

Now, it would seem that I'm not alone in this as a great idea, except that someone makes it even better.  

One of the blogs I follow is A Conflict of Interests except that what the author has done is to make some bases with just terrain on it.  The following picture is unashamedly taken from Jonas M's blog to illustrate the point I am trying to make.  

Suffer a casualty - just pop in a blank but scenic made up base.  So, lots more versatility.      

Partizan 2012 (May 27th)

As always Partizan entertained and inspired me.  If I could only ever go one wargames show then I suspect Partizan would be my show of choice.  Quality participation games, quality demo games, and lots of the great and the good in the wargames hobby there. 

Firstly I must make big apologies to the staff at Wargames Soldiers Strategy - I didn’t take any photos of the naval wars of the Roses game. 

There are some pictures on the Too much Lead Blogspot and here at Another Slight Diversion

  

It was only going to be a morning visit as I had both mum to visit on the way back to the in laws and then to get back down to Exeter.  The plan was to start at the furthest place from the entrance/exit and work my way backwards.  That sort of fell apart as at 10.30 I was offered the chance to play Muskets and Tomahawks.  I was intrigued what was within this rule set given that I’m a fan of the fairly innovative SAGA and this is by the same author. 

For the most part the rules are very similar to what we have seen elsewhere – dice rolls to hit, dice rolls to kill (or save), dice for morale etc.   The cards reflect that this is a card driven activation system.   Where M&T has evolved is that rather than one card per unit (as per Battlemasters), and lots of rules from Two Fat Lardies (Which I also like) this give different numbers to different types: at its crudest analysis then irregulars like Rangers get 4 cards with one action (move, shoot, reload) per card, whereas regulars get 2 cards but 2 actions per card.  There is a bit more to the system than that – Indians, Civilians, Grenadiers, Officers and morale all playing a part along with optional event cards.  As I understand it so far (need to read rules) the contrast with the Two Fat Lardies system is that your cards are guaranteed to come up, compared with the “tea break” card that causes a re-shuffle although I’m not sure.   More on M&T and the French Indian Wars in a subsquent blog post.  

The Camera came out somewhat sparingly – as usual these days.  A few more pictures will appear on my next blog entry ‘scatter terrain’.  

An Arthurian game from Westbury Wargames

A VBCW game from the Gentleman's Wargames Parlour 

A Vinland game from Shaun at the Bunker.

In talking with him he did admit that lots of the rock - including that at the left had been reused from a '633 Squadron' game.  

A World War One game from Great War Miniatures.  Lots of really nice details in this and freely admitted to be a spatial compression game (so that a manufacturer can show off what they do) - the front line to the artillery to the supply tractors would in reality have been miles.   A nice change from the brown mud games.   

A Wars of the Roses game from Perry Miniatures.  As one might expect, this was stunning although I might have liked something that told me about the battle or the sides/heraldry (if fictional).  

Muskets and Tomahawks participation from Rich Jones. 

I probably spent more at Partizan on goodies than I did at Salute.  

        

~Muskets and Tomahawks

~Two Rice paddies (A4 size) from The Last Valley

~Song of Arthur and Merlin (Ganesha Games) - Ready printed copy from Dave Thomas

Various bits for M&T - Two Totem poles (Grand Manner) for use with Indians, Redendra Bell Tents for regular soldiers, Trade goods (two different sets) from Ainsty Castings, and some second hand French Indian Wars which I have now identified as Redoubt Enterprises (and good sculpts: I feel some Redoubt stuff is good and some poor). 

Chris