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.      

Gaming Cloth: Chlorophyll Green

A while ago on one of the blogs/forum that I follow there was a fair amount of activity on the subject of gaming cloths, with I think the Two Fat Lardies saying that what they took to shows was an old army blanket.  

Shortly after Christmas I was in B&Q looking for something else and in the clearance section was a green fleecy throw for £3.  (NOTE - they are no longer in stock - I went today to three different B&Q shops and they have all gone - you might find one in the clearance bin but I doubt it).  I thought the green matched the green I use on bases (Miniatures Paints Grass Green) and would also be fairly close to the GW green movement trays.

It's not a bad base to be working from, and click on the picture to enlarge it and you can see it does the grass green quite well - I'd forgotten quite how "lurid green" the GW movement trays are.   

Ideally the green needs to be toned down - I've thought of soaking it with a bit of brown fabric dye to take the edge off the colour, or I may just "distress" it with some spray paint.   That's what I did with one of the baseclothes that I use for pirates.  

The original base of this was a creamy/sand colour.  This picture is on the washing line where I was sprayng over it with some cheap tines of spray paint  I had picked up.   

This is it in use.  I learned a little from this that "weave" patterns will show through on close ups - which is probably an advantage of fleecy blankets.  

Lead and book mountains: the way forward

In the last issue (no34) (as it is to merge with Miniature Wargames) of Battlegames, Mike Siggins was musing about too many hobbies, too little cash and too little time, along with consideration of what figures was he actually using of late.

On the Very British Civil War forum there was a post about plans for 2013.   I think its that "spring clean" mentality alongside that "so little time, so much gaming I want to do" issues.

I did see a picture once of Mike's lead mountain.   Here's part of mine:

To be far, much of the stuff in the bottom picture is part painted, since that is what I have gamed with and I found the squarish "really useful boxes" to be a reasonably cheap way of storage, since they would generally (lance upright and standard bearers excluded) take cavalry and a Warhammer Ancient Battles 1500 pts army would generally fit in one, or at most two boxes.  More expensive than level arch files, but somewhat more durable and infinitely more stackable.   Foam, whilst nice just takes up too much space.  This is most, but not all of the figures - there are others elsewhere, along with scenery. 

The other thing is the book mountain - rules and historical books.   I seem to have succumbed to various "offers" over the past year, and the following pile are books that I haven't really even glanced through very much.

The left hand side are reference books (along with one work of fiction)

The pile on the right are rules and pretty much reflect my diverse tastes:

Gladiator (Games Workshop)

Hail Ceaser (and army lists) (Warlord) (although you should also add the other big Ancient rules out there of Clash of Empires and War and Conquest).  

Song of Arthur & Merlin (Ganesha Games)

Dux Bellorum (Osprey)

Deus Vult (Fireforge)

Bloody Barons (Peter Pig)

Pike & Shotte (Warlord)

Cutlass (Black Scorpion)

Waterloo (Games Workshop)

.45 Adventure (Ratrap)

Force on Force (plus the supplements Bush War and Classified)

I think it is time to start a bit of a clear out.  Fantasy will be the easiest - I'm very unlikely to play Warhammer Fantasy (for various reasons) and my figures are now "out of date" anyway, although the more knowing GW types refer to them as "classic" I think, rather than "what are they?".  

So, what will I be concentrating on for 2013?

A) Deciding which of the mass combat Ancient's rules I prefer.

B) SAGA armies

C) Muskets and Tomahawks

D) Pike & Shotte

E) Force on Force (Lots of scenarios have small figure count and the rules have lots of interesting ideas).  

Honor & Intrigue

Not much to say on the figure front as I have been sidetracked a little into the gaming offshoot that is roleplaying.

My copy of Honor and Intrigue from Basic Action Games arrived a while ago, although I got my printed copy from Sphärenmeisters Spiele in Germany.  Just short of €37 including postage, which was far cheaper than any other availability (which I think was ordering it from the states) I had seen to get it in the UK as a printed product.

Setting is essentially swashbuckling - so that loose time period and setting that encompasses the Three Musketeers (Thirty Years War) through Pirates with a dash of Casanova, Bonnie Prince Charlie and Zorro thrown in.

I've skim read it all probably 2-3 times by now, and am currently dissecting the mechanics and generation system to fully understand them.  From a roleplaying viewpoint, then it is pretty much going to be a "play off the character sheet" system, but I suspect does need players who like the genre, a bit of storytelling and who can think on their feet regarding free raises and bonus effects etc.   

Going through the film list set me off on taking stock of what I already had and one that I might only have in Video format - Le Bossu...

I got a (secondhand) copy of the DVD fairly cheap off Ebay, which I then had to watch to remind myself of how much I enjoyed it.   

    

March 2013 Current Reading and is a love affair about to end?

So, what have I currently got on the go?

Current top of my list is a book that I got for £1 from Poundland:

This guy tells it as it is; often brutally honest.  I picked this up, given its cheapness and following my recent interest in Force on Force.  Its a tale of daily life in a combat zone, fighting a war that has yet to make it to the silver screen, and yet which at times we already seen through CNN etc.  Recommend for a £1. 

The latest issue of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy (no 65) arrived on Friday.  I will say straight away that I write the boardgames column for this magazine. 

With a central theme of Biblical warfare then this would always be a weak issue for me, given that I don't go back beyond Imperial Romans - which really means around 40 AD and the invasion of Britain / 70 AD and the Roman Civil Wars.  Yet, there are reviews, painting help, columns by Rick Priestley, Steven MacLauchlan and Richard Clarke, some stuff with actual gaming stats (the AWI game, the chariot race) and other bits of interest (figure storage, in depth look at Deus Vult and a Battlefront thing amongst others),  So, after an hour I still haven't finished it.  

Which brings me to a love affair that may be about the end.   For a few months now I've been thinking that the magazine was going more "White Dwarf" ified, with a big Flames of War emphasis (current owners) battle reports, eye candy pictures, and not an awful lot of actual gaming, and then padded out with regurgitated history, when I would be better off buying the relevant Osprey or two in the first place ?  Is this the historical gaming magazine for the attention span challenged?  

113 Pages:

8 pages - 1066: battle report: lots of 15mm eye candy, but nevertheless a battle report for all that.  Army listings after a fashion(might be appropriate for the rules used) but no real map or starting disposition. 

14 pages - Battle for Hunner Park: lots of 15mm Flames of War Eye, but another battle report.  Map this time but no starting dispositions.  

18 Pages - 1069 - SAGA/Hail Ceaser battle reports, without even giving me the army listings, nor maps and starting dispositions to enable me to refight it.  

4 Pages - Scenery making - the wharf and some other boards.  

8 Pages - building Leonardo Da Vinci's tank.  Interesting enough if somewhat specialist. 

6 Pages - Scalp - FW wars - finally something with bit of gaming substance that I can take away and use rather than just look at. 

6 Pages - Battle of Kut Al MAra - potted history

2 Pages - Siege of Kut Al Mara - back to what I call proper gaming.  

4 Pages - Advertising FOW - back to Vietnam.  

10 Pages -Martinque - Eye candy.  Next issue the battle begins.  Will that mean rules, or a battle report that means more eye candy but little else? 

9 Pages - Egypt for the Egyptians - more potted history with a nod towards some gaming. 

4 Pages - Trip report to Battlefront HQ in New Zealand. 

Remainder will be advertising or editorial.    

Very Glossy but not an awful lot to return to after 30 mins of flick through or use in my own gaming.   Ultimately I want my gaming magazine to have things related to gaming that I can take away and use or learn from: something that battle reports with no maps, no army breakdowns, no starting dispositions don't give me, even they have lots of nice pictures.  And the love affair about to end?  Well, I bought WSS from issue 3 onwards after seeing it in a local newsagents.  Issue 2 was back ordered, and issue number 1 had sold out, although I have it from either EBAY or a bring and buy (I forget which). 

I think last month's was somewhat better I seem to remember