Battle Along the Border.

 There are two tribes of rabbits in the neighborhood; the browns and the greys. The Grey's dwell in the woods; the Browns at the edge between the woods and human  houses. The Grey's have a harder life, dealing with the different predators of the woods, and therefore more aggressive and stealthy. 

In the woods is a stream that divides the two tribes. Crossing the stream is cause for conflict betwween the tribes. The Greys will raid the human gardens with impunity, as the brown rabbits find its not worth fighting, as they usually come out badly in these fights.

On this particular day the lands have been without rain and the usual watering spots have dried up and the greens are browning. A group of brown rabbits go to the stream for water and to forage for some fresh greens. After having their fill of water they notice on the other side some choice greens and, not seeing any Grey's, cross and goes to feast on the greens.

Too late, they notice a band of Grey's trying to get between them and the stream.

The grey rabbits are trying to get behind the brown rabbits.

The two larger brown rabbits try to head off the greys so the smaller rabbits can escape.

One of the small brown rabbits, armed with a slingshot, decides to join the fight.

The two sides start to battle, with the rabbits armed with slingshots  flinging rocks at each other.

The grey slinger drops the brown slinger, while two greys drop another brown. Meanwhile, one brown rabbit crosses the stream to go tell of the fight going on.

The last brown rabbit is dropped. The rabbits rarely fight to the death. For the three brown rabbits, they will be brought back as prisoners. There they will probably be used as bait against predators.

New Edmunds Toy Soldiers

    While I don't  collect " collectable" toy soldiers, one company I have an interest in is Edmunds Toy Soldiers; especially his ACW collection. In the last couple of months I did manage to get four sets of figures at very reasonable prices. Three sets were sold in a lot. Unfortunately, this seller had quite a few sets at ridiculously low prices. I was trying to work out how to buy all of them, but I wasn't  quick enough  and someone beat me to them. Then a set of the National Lancers came up. The set came without a box, but still the price was right. The National Lancers are still a state militia unit that does ceremonial duties in the state.

The National Lancers

My collection on parade.

The other new sets. 83rd Pennsylvania Infantry, the 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry (Birney's Zouaves) and Rush's Lancers.

A Closeup of a 83rd PA figure showing the amount of painted details on the figures. 

Birney's Zouaves

Battle Bunnies

    Many months ago I bought some "Killer Rabbits" from SkullnCrown miniatures. They are based on Medieval margin art on manuscripts. They are nice little figures, but a little pricy for a cheapskate like me.

  Recently on Ebay I came across some 54mm sized rabbits along the same style of the killer rabbits. They are produced by a company called Toy Soldiers LAD from Kazakhstan. I really liked the looks of the figures. There are three different sets; I will call them infantry, cavalry and bandsmen. They are plastic flats. I wanted to order some sets, but was a little leary about ordering from them. I decided to order two sets of the infantry rabbits, in two different colors (so I wouldn't have to paint them). I received  them in a reasonable amount of time and was so pleased with them I ordered two sets of the cavalry and one of the band.

I am imaging a war between two tribes of rabbits taking place in my neighborhood, kind of like Watership Down.

Closeup of one of the band rabbits. I gave it a quick wash of sepia. I'm thinking that if I do anything with these figures, it might only be a wash to make the details stand out.

The cavalry rabbits

the band

The infantry

The Kindertown Posse

    After my last game, Peter suggested continuing the narrative campaign with a posse trying to catch up with the villains. It was a good idea, and so here is the conclusion of the Kindertown raid.

  The new marshal  of Kindertown, Eugene, formed a posse to go after the Black Hat gang. They caught up with them at an outlying ranch.

They decided to wait until dawn to attack the ranch.

The posse starts their approach on the ranch. Barney, standing sentry, spots the approaching posse and opens fire. The gunfire wakes the rest of the gang.

The posse quickly loses their leader, marshal Eugene is the first killed by Art, the new leader of the gang. Doug, the newest member of the gang, is cut down by gunfire by Frank, who has been involved in all three gunfights.

Art shoots down another of the posse, George. Barney kills Henry, while Frank wounds Barney. Ike engages Art in close combat. 

Art closes in and shoots Ike at point blank range. Barney hits Frank a grazing wound. Frank now realizes that he is alone, and retreats from the fight. The posse killed two of the gang, but lost four of the posse. Unfortunately, Art and Barney, the two most bloodthirsty of the gang survived. Art killed 3 of the posse; Barney killed the fourth.
Frank, the last of the posse, is offered the job of Marshal. He grudgingly accepts the job. Perhaps in the future he can avenge the loss of his fellow townsmen.

Jailbreak at Kindertown!

   After playing the last game,  I decided to use a roster system for keeping track of hits on figures.

To that end I put little white spots on the bases. I wasn't sure how to mark the figures. With these figures I put a letter from the alphabet. On some Napoleonic figures I was basing I used numbers.

In the end I figured using letters made more sense. For skirmish games I rarely use more than a dozen or so figures. I could also use the letter for naming the figures.

The scenario: The fiasco of the Kindertown bank robbery weighed heavily  on the Molton gang. Three members were dead and another was in jail. What's  more, the gang just found out a judge was on his way to have a trial for the prisoner. With this judge's reputation, there was little doubt that Joel Molton would be hanging by evening. The gang decided to free their companion.

 The Molton Gang consisted of Andy (the leader), Barney, Carl, and Dexter.

The townfolk consisted of Earl (the sheriff), Frank, Gordon, and Hawk.

The Molton Gang closes in on Kindertown from the west.

Carl climbs onto the building across from the Sheriff's office.

Hawk, on guard duty at the Sheriff's office notices the gangs approach and starts exchanging shots with Dexter. Earl, hearing the shots, starts coming down the road (lower left corner.)

Barney comes out of the alley and starts charging the jail, not noticing the other two deputies coming up behind him.

Barney and Dexter charge towards the jail.

Hawk is hit by bullets from Barney and Dexter. However, Earl closes in and guns down Dexter. As the two other deputies  close on Barney, Andy steps into the street behind the deputies opens fire on them.

This sudden attack from behind draws the deputies attention away from Barney. They both turn and fire on Andy, killing him. Meanwhile Carl fires on Earl, causing him a severe wound that makes Earl turn to meet the threat. With the chaos in the street,  Barney gets into the jail.

Earl and Carl continue to exchange  fire. Meanwhile the two deputies set up to shoot down the bad guys when they come out of the jail.

Barney charges into the middle of the street, gun blazing. This distraction allows Joel to try to escape.

Barney boldly races between the two deputies, firing as he goes. Earl is hit by a second critical hit, and is killed. Meanwhile, Joel runs down the alleyway, under Carl's protective fire.

The Two remaining deputies, having both suffering wounds during the fight, decide that they have done enough and don't pursue  the gang.
Incredibly Barney escaped the gunfight without a scratch!

I used Basic Battles rules for shooting. In it both side roll d20 dice. If one rolls a "20", that causes 2 wounds. Carl managed to roll two "20"s which killed Earl. Andy and Earl could each take three hits, everyone else could take two.

Gunfight at Kindertown

  The doctor came up to the marshal. He told the marshal of a conversation he overheard at the saloon. It seemed four cowboys approached  the bank owner, asking if he would open the bank as they had a large amount of cash from a cattle sale. They had to head north to buy some more cows, but didn't want to bring such a large amount with them. The banker said that it was too late, he was waiting for his dinner. He did, however agree to open the bank earlier than normal so the cowboys to get on the trail early. The doctor said that they didn't seem like your normal cowboys; they didn't  smell like cows.

  The marshal said that he would keep an eye them. The marshal gathered four men and early the next morning the posse spread out to watch the bank.

The four cowboys walk down to the bank with the banker.

The marshals' posse wait in ambush.

The cowboy in the red coat sees the marshal and open fires.

The posse comes out and returns fire.

The Red cowboy takes a hit.

The man on the roof across from the bank gets hit, but he manages to hit one of the cowboys. Meanwhile, one of the cowboys force the banker to open the bank, and pushes the banker through the open door. 

The Red cowboy shoots and kills the marshal. Meanwhile the wounded cowboy is killed.

One of the townsmen moves forward and gets a clean shot of the red cowboy, who is shot down.

The second cowboy enters the bank.

The posse now starts firing into the bank. One lucky shot  hits one of the cowboys, who staggers out of the bank and drops in the street.

The solo surviving cowboy pushes the banker out in front of him, and surrenders 

Marking the wounds, I first used rings, then small dice. I figure with these 10mm figures, I think I might switch to a roster system. The rules I found on YouTube under Grey Army Gaming, the rules being called Basic Battles.

R.I.P. Jerry: Return of the Black Dog

     Last Friday we had to put down Jerry, our little Jack Russell Terrier. We got him from a rescue 8 years ago. He turned out to be a therapy dog in the last 4 years, seeing my wife through some truly hard times. 

     With my wife's health improving, Jerry's  took a turn for the worse. His condition went downhill fast, and my wife couldn't stand seeing him suffer.

   I normally don't  like using my blog for anything besides my gaming, but Jerry deserves to be remembered.

My last picture of Jerry

We notified Jack's Galore Rescue, where we got Jerry from. Patricia, who runs the rescue, wrote these kind words, which sums up how I feel about Jerry. Truly a remarkable little dog.