Happy New Year 2016!!!!

I want to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2016!!!

This past year has been a good one. Lots of gaming was had with my group throughout the year.  I was able to attend our local convention Enfilade but even more exciting was attending Historicon in July.  It was great seeing and catching up with old friends. I'm hoping to make it again this year but we will have to see how things work out this year.

I did a lot of painting this year.  I was able to finish up a division of Russians and Austrians for WWI. There is still more to paint for that before I can put them on the table.

I also painted up some Pulp Fiction characters. Now I just have to decide on a rule set for them.

I made my own terrain mats this past fall which have worked out pretty well. I'm planning on making another one once the weather warms up again.

My biggest accomplishment was starting my 10mm Renaissance figures. I've been putting off starting them because painting the uniforms scared the hell out of me. But I pulled the trigger in December and so far things are going well. I've completed 5 out of 15 units so far.  The Pikemen are on the painting table now. Should have the first unit completed in the next few days.

Going forward into 2016 I will finish up the Renaissance figures and get them out on the table this year.  

I need to figure out what game/s I will run at Enfilade this year.

I also want to start my 69AD project with Roman vs. Roman.

Also I've been toying with the idea of doing 1/285 scale WWII Pacific games. I would need to build terrain and gather up the troops etc for this but maybe I can start it by December of 2016.

I'm sure I will get side tracked onto something else but this is a good start. 

Happy New Year everyone and thanks for taking an interest in what I'm doing.

Santa Clause 2015!

This is the second year I've participated in Chris Stoesen's Santa Clause. It has been fun finding out what to paint for the person chosen for me and waiting to see what is received.  

This year Santa delivered some wonderfully painted 10mm Ancients to face my Romans.  As an added bonus Santa also delivered some gifts for my wife and daughter.  They were very humbled by the generosity of Santa and they thank him.  I also thank Santa for the wonderful gift and for thinking of my family.

My daughter was very intrigued that the chocolate she received could not be bought here in the states.  She actually took a moment and said that maybe she shouldn't open the box because it was special.  I told her it would be okay to enjoy it and to remember that it was given in kindness.

Thank you again to Santa!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

From my family to you and yours,

Merry Christmas!!!

4 units of Arquebusiers completed

I finally completed my first 4 units of 10mm Renaissance units.  I have been on sabbatical since Dec. 6th and was planning on painting every day for a few hours.  That has not, sadly, happened and I'm a little behind on what I thought I would have completed by now.  The figures paint up quickly.

This picture shows the 4 units (the upper right unit is a primer coated swordsmen) and each unit is 24 figures with 6 figures per base.

Two tricky shots, holding the popsicle stick and the camera and trying not to shake either one.

Now I'm just waiting for the bases I ordered from Litko to show up so I can get them based.

My first Renaissance unit

Well I've started my Renaissance project.  It's taken me some time to collect all of the 10mm figures (Pendraken, Warmonger Figures and Old Glory).  I don't know if anyone else does this or not but I divided up the figures into ziplock baggies.  Each bag is a unit.  This is the first time I've done this and it seems to work.  Each figure is accounted for and ready to be painted.

I decided start with my arquebusiers for my Spanish army.  I pulled two units which are 24 figures each.  They will go on 4 bases.  My prefer set of rules for this will be Piquet: Band of Brothers.

The top three photos are my paint pallet for the first unit.  Red will be the primary color with Green, Yellow, Blue, Gray, Black and White are the complementary colors.  I primed the figures using Black Gesso.  It took about a day for it to dry. 

I started painting the primary color with one sleeve, the jacket and one pant leg.  That will tie each unit together.  Overall the painting only took 2 days after the gesso dried.

I will start the next unit tomorrow.  I'm pretty happy with the result.  I just hope everything goes as quickly and easily as this unit.

The Battle at Palestro: May 30th 1859

On November 14th, my group and I got together to fight the Battle of Palestro.  This battle took place on May 30th in 1859 and was part of the 2nd War of Italian Independence.  The Sardinians were charged with keeping the Austrians busy while the French made a flanking march to attach the Austrians on their right.  That battle would end up being the Battle of Magenta. 

Not being able to find any reliable maps for the battles and working from some brief descriptions of the battle field, I reconstructed the battle as best I could.  Mainly the battle field was open field with irrigation trenches and some small rivers running through it.  There were only a few slight rises above the battle field itself and very few trees. 

The rules used this time was Piquet's Field of Battle.  A set of rules we have used quite a bit in the past.  We like them and have added our own modifications to them.

A first for me, I was able to put the rosters for both sides up on this blog.  I also upped the size of the forces so each infantry or cavalry unit was a Brigade so each player was commanding a Division.  Every two divisions was a corp.  In order to show the larger number of men assembled, I upped the unity integrity to 5 instead of 4.  Seemed to work well, so units didn't start having issues until the UI dropped to 3.  You can see the rosters below. 

The setup the Italians are on the right.  They had the orders to attack and to cover the flanking maneuver that the French were doing behind them. This didn't actually happen for the game but was what the French did historically.

The Italians pushed forward.  The center saw the most action all night.  Both wings rolled 1s consecutively causing both sides to stall.  I've never witnessed it before but both sides rolled 1s for movement (meaning they couldn't move) 4 times in a row. 

The Austrian forces moving across when of the streams.

The Italian right waiting for their move orders.

The Austrian left waiting for its move orders.

Austrian cannons causing casualties to the Italians.

The Italian center continued to advance.

The Austrian left. I ended up taken this flank over after one player had to leave. I broke the streak of failed movement and my cavalry took off across the field.

A routed Italian cavalry unit.

The Italians wait for my attack.

The Austrian right flank finally starts to move.

The Austrian center starts to take a beating from accurate Italian gun fire.

The Austrians started bleeding chips and so were the Italians.

My cavalry charged and lost big time. My infantry continues to advance.

The center units come together and both get very bloody. Both sides were down to 3 or 4 morale points a piece.

One of my Infantry units makes it and attacks the Italians.

That unit died to the man.

Italians continue to advance in the center

The Austrians and the Italians were both out of morale chips and the Austrians pulled the Army Morale card first and rolled poorly.  The Austrians lost.  Piquet's Field of Battle again gave an incredible game where it was settled on the last die roll.