Sunday, January 25, 2015

Warhammer Mighty Empires

     It was one of those days where I was going to different websites that I normally don't go to.  One website  had photographs of WARHAMMER MIGHTY EMPIRES. MIGHTY EMPIRES is a hex based campaign rule set that is not a game in itself, but is used to generate WARHAMMER battles. The map itself is randomly generated.

       Of course it caught my eye because of the hexes themselves. They are larger than HEROSCAPE, with different terrain, such as rivers and mountains molded on them. The game comes with 48 hexes. One good point is except the 8 mountain hexes, all the other hexes have terrain on both sides, increasing their usefulness.  The rules themselves only are 5 pages long, with about 6 different languages in the rulebook.

     I think I could use my 2mm armies with these terrain hexes.  This "game" might sit in my closet for a while (maybe years?) before I actually use it. One good thing is the game is still available through the GAMES WORKSHOP website if anyone is looking for a set for themselves.
Box cover.

Back of box.

Inside the newly opened box.



Closeup of hex.

Rulebook

Hex with 2mm troops on it.

Some of the playing pieces, including stronghold, city and mine.

Shots of different painted hexes from box.






This shows one side of hexes........

And this is the other side of the same spruce.

A not too clear shot of hexes with 15mm tree on the left hex and two Peter Laing figures on the right side.

Friday, January 23, 2015

Peter Laing War of 1812 Militia

      As mentioned earlier, I have been toying with an 1812 wargame  using Peter Laing figures. I also came across a good blog on War of 1812 wargaming, named, not surprisingly, warof1812wargaming.blogspot.com . On this site there are very good illustrations of uniforms from the period.  Among the uniforms are militia units with top hats and hunting frocks. I made a mold of the Peter Laing figure of a frontiersman marching, which is a good figure for these militiamen. Today I painted up some to represent a couple of militia units.

These figures are quite rough. If this project continues this figure might need a better mold.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Can't See the Forest for the Trees

     One of the main reasons I'm into wargaming is the love of toy soldiers. I tend to spend most of my time on the toy soldiers, neglecting the terrain of the game. I still haven't come up with the right playing field.  Do I use hexes or squares? I like the Heroscape terrain, however it leaves little room for scenery.  I have limited space to set up my game so the field cannot be too large. Somehow I still haven't found the right balance to make an attractive game board like other gamers seem to achieve.

   The trees I have been using are from a toy called "Toobs". They are made of plastic and are already painted.  I mounted them on plastic squares as they tip quite easily. On the Heroscape terrain they tend to take up a lot of room.  However, I recently bought some new trees and bushes on Ebay. They are lead so they have weight to them. They are also top heavy, requiring them to be based. However, they are smaller than the Toobs trees so hopefully will work on the Heroscape better.
A photo of a Peter Laing figure next to the new trees, with a bush in front. The trees were already primed white. These trees  have been given a wash of black paint.

Two trees that I have painted after the black undercoating.

A "forest" of the new trees.

One of the lead trees, with two "Toobs" trees on each flank.

A lead tree and "Toobs" tree side by side on Heroscape terrain. I put one of the base edges along one of the hex sides to show how much room the tree base takes up. I think one problem of space on my game boards has just been solved!

A view from an earlier game using "Toobs" trees.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

In Search Of........

I am in search of Peter Laing figures, in particular F0032 Napoleonic British infantry advancing in Top Hat and F0039 Napoleonic British Marine advancing.    I have been toying with the idea of a War of 1812 game, and are looking for figures to use as militiamen.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Peter Laing Wargames; Cure for a Bad Funk Part 2

     After the first wargame using Chris Salander's H&M 2.0 rules, I decided to use Bob Cordery's MEMOIR OF BATTLE rules, except I do not use the "crossed swords" on the dice, as I feel it leads to too bloody a battle.   Once again I will use ONE HOUR WARGAMES army selection rules. I also decided to use my Peter Laing "Toy Soldier" figures.
I decided to use my Shiak/ Brookshire imagination armies.  The Shiak army in the foreground, the Brookshire army in the background.

After a couple of moves, the Shiak army open fire at extreme range, killing two Brookshire soldiers.

The Brookshire cavalry hits the rightmost Shiak infantry. The initial attack kills one infantryman and makes the infantry retreat one square. The photo shows the followup attack. The cavalry rolls three "retreat" dice!
This shot shows the broken Shiak infantry retreating off the board.  For this game the first unit who loses three units loses the battle. Not a good start for the Shiak army!


The Shiak army forces Col Barnaby's Rifles back two squares. Col. Barnaby is Brookshires' most famous officer.


The Brookshire army manages to push back one unit back two squares.....

...and Barnaby's Rifles force back another unit.

Meanwhile Shiak's Speckled Horse cross the front and hits the Brookshire cavalry hard.  At  the top right of the picture a Shiak infantry unit has hit the Brookshire Volunteer Grenadiers, killing two and making the last retreat. The Volunteer Grenadiers is one of Brookshires best units.

Another view of the above photo. The Speckled Horse pursuing the Brookshire cavalry.

The Shiak left counterattack ; half of Barnaby's Rifles go down and another unit retreats.

The Volunteer Grenadiers counterattack and eliminates the Shiak infantry unit singlehanded!  No wonder it's one of the most famous units!

The Brookshire counterattack forces the Shiak army back. If Shiak loses one more unit, they lose the battle.

The Shiak counterattack wipes out Barnaby's Rifles. Meanwhile the Speckled Horse  continue to pursue the Brookshire cavalry.

The Brookshire counterattacks pushing the Shiak army back. Even the Brookshire cavalry has managed to put the Speckled Horse to flight.


The Speckled Horse sees that the Volunteer Grenadiers are severely weakened, so they attack  and  eliminate the last of the Grenadiers.

Meanwhile, the Shiak infantry kills 4 Brookshire infantry.

The Speckled Horse hits the Brookshire cavalry in the flank, killing two of them and  forcing the last to retreat.
The Speckled Horse pursue the remaining cavalryman, cutting him down.



Meanwhile, the Shiak counterattack eliminates two more Brookshire units, leaving only two infantrymen standing. Shiak has pulled victory out of the jaws of defeat!

The Shiak infantry takes the last two Brookshire infantrymen captive. In the background the Speckled Horse can be seen going after the Brookshire general. He beats hasty retreat.

I called these cavalry the "Speckled Horse" as the horses are speckled (although you can't see it in the photos.) It looks like whoever painted them used a wash of black paint for shadowing, but the paint seemed to have beaded up and dried into spots on the horses. I painted the men in uniforms such as were wore by U.S. cavalry after the Civil War.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Peter Laing Wargames; Cure for a Bad Funk

       The last couple of months I have been in a funk. I just had no interest in anything, including Peter Laings and wargaming.  I have been going through my collection of PLs, hoping for some spark to get me going again.

      Today I was going to try to get a game in. However, once again it was going nowhere. I was randomly putting landscape pieces on. I couldn't decide which figures to use. I have some WW1 Russians that I have never used and wanted to use they today. However, the field just didn't look right. I was going to give up again, but then thought why have any terrain? Why not use Chris Salander's Horse & Musket 2.0  and have the armies fight on an open field? I used ONE HOUR WARGAMES rules on picking the composition of the armies. It would be Russians vs Germans.
The Russian Army

Behind the German line.

As soon as the German gun got in range of the Russians, it opened fire, causing one Russian to retreat.

Russian artillery kills one German.

The Russian machine gun (I treated it as another artillery piece) makes two Jagers retreat.


The Jagers return to the fight.

Between the German artillery and Jagers rifle fire, two Russians are killed and another retreats.

The Germans attack one Russian infantry unit with three units; one Russian retreats  and one is killed but the Russians hold firm.

The Cossacks hits the German leftmost unit, killing two and making another to retreat. Between the Russian infantry and artillery fire the Germans suffer three more killed.

The Russian MG unit managers to kill one of the German gunners. The German left flank is in retreat.

The Germans regroup and counterattack.

The German Hussars attack the Cossacks, who lose one man but holds fast. Meanwhile the Jagers kill  one Russian.




The Cossacks kill one Hussar and forces the rest to retreat. The Russian infantry in the center kills the last German gunner, and the MG unit forces one Jager to retreat.

The Germans counterattack. They kill one Cossack and infantryman. On the right they kill one of the MG crew.

The German attack continues. They eliminate the last Cossack and forces two infantrymen  and the machine gunner to retreat.

The Russians counterattack. The Russian infantry in the center turns to attack the Jagers, leaving the Russian right flank hard pressed.

Between the Hussars and infantry on the German left, they have pushed the Russian infantry back and killed one gunner. On the right flank they have made two Russian infantrymen retreat.

The Russians attack again. They manage to kill a Hussar  and two German infantrymen and push the Jagers back.

Between the artillery and MG fire, they kill one German infantryman. The Russians also kill the last two Jagers. At this point the Germans call for a retreat.


       This battle turned out to be a fun little game. Often when I find myself in one of these funk, these simple rules often kickstarts my interest in gaming. In fact, after this game I played another using the same open field but different toy soldiers and rules. That will be my next report.