More Mini Campaigns!

For 28mm Fantsay I have been preparing 2 fantasy campaigns, one being an Orc conflict, 'The Fourth Orc War' and the other being a war against the undead, 'The 12th Holy War'. I have been building the armies for both sides as well as the terrain and so far so good. The last game from the Orc Campaign 'The Orc Raid' did not work well, but I have now supplemented it with the 'Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game' Rules, while using different stats for the figures to represent my generic fantasy wargames world. The great thing about this ruleset is that it can do skirmishes as well as large battles, along with the potential of house fighting using the Siege Rules in the 'Advanced Rules Section'. All I need to do now is find some way of making those characters throw/move tables and chairs...

On the hobby/ not typing side of things I have manged to scratch build a 15th Century cannon based of an illustration. As you can see the wheels are solid, as opposed to spoked, but this is due to the complexity of building spoked wheels without the aid of a drill. Nonetheless I remember seeing a solid 2 part wheeled cannon in a period illustration. Next to it is a Mantic skeleton crewman whom I have added a bit more flesh to. I have also been painting several figures form the Mantic/Perry Miniatures range for the campaigns, as you see below.

As regards next week at club, I do not know if I will be there to run a campaign, as I seem to have a very nasty cold.

Fantasy Mini-Campiagn

I haven't posted for a while now, as I have been so busy preparing for university, which is where I shall be going to on the 18th of September. As a result I have only 3 more sessions of club before I go :(.

Well, this week I will be running a mini-campaign for 28mm fantasy for anyone wishing to play. It will be set around the events of an Orc incursion and have at least 3 scenarios, where the events of one scenario effect the next like Neil's WW2 D-day campaign idea (with only 3 sessions left I doubt that I will have time to run the D-day game this Summer). One side will be a bunch of Mantic Orcs (and Orclings!), while the other will be a collection of 15th C. Holy Roman Empire style humans from the Perry Miniatures plastics range. I will be using the King and Captains ruleset with some adaptions for house fighting. There will be some brand-new card building designs used (rural architecture, Western European style with red raised-tiled rooves) with interiors (I might write some instructions if I get the time). The campaign will include raids, sieges and field battles-I might even include artillery! I hope to post the campaign soon.

I have also been working on an ancient Greek 1/72 card farmhouse amongst other things. Here are some sheets that I made and decided to scan. The farmhouse is designed to be modular and this project as you can see is not complete!

D-Day Landing scenario Feedback

Recently, I ran a D-day landing scenario using our basic set of rules. The game went well, despite us only getting about half way through it. Nonetheless, it was only a play test for a potential D-day landings campaign. This produced a series of errors. It seems that there are many important components for a good d-day landing scenario:

• A lot of Allied infantry is needed- to little and they will just get wiped out- so re spawn rules generally will not work. As regards infantry be generous!
• Infantry need to be able to move quickly/ the board needs to be thin. Really, it has to be one or the other.
• Morale rules- the Allied infantry cannot go anywhere but forwards, while the Germans will be operating as normal.
• Don't forget the landing craft MGs! The landing craft machine guns provide vital supporting fire.
• Machine gun rules. Sustained fire rules, along with associated reload/barrel change. Also Light-Heavy Machine gun fire at buildings special rules regarding ricochets.
• Tanks- If the allies are to have tanks then, they must not have too many, or they would have to be balanced with a large enough anti tank element on the German's side. If tanks are to be fielded, then mine rules are recommended.
• Obviously, for this scenario you need a lot of landing craft. For this I recommend the Pegasus Hobbies LCVP Lading Craft With Crew and Soldiers. It comes with 15 American Infantrymen standing in groups of 3, 3 crewmen and a water base. You will also need rules for damaging/destroying these craft. How fast will they move?
• Off board bombardment. Will both sides have this ability? If so how many shots for how many turns and what calibre will the guns be? The off side bombardment will need special rules.
• Good obstacle rules. Rules for removing barbed wire.

All of the problems related to the rule set I will adjust. The rest will have to be resolved with the campaign co-ordinator. Hopefully, this, along with the bogged-down Bocage scenario will be able to resolve most of the rule set problems. I will also try and write a quick reference sheet, as well as cutting down the data for the unit equipment and organisation sheets. All-in-all I should be able to keep the ruleset still less than 15 pages.

Scrathchbuilding 28mm sci fi vehicles

This week, I have managed to scratch build an APC out of one sheet of .5 mm plastic card. This is my first full scratch build and was far less complicated than I thought.

The vehicle itself was based on the idea of a pickup truck that had been upgraded to an armoured personnel carrier/SPG carriage. The green bits on the model are green stuff, which I moulded to make the shapes that I couldn't build, for example the seats.

Overall the model was ridiculously cheap to build, with green stuff being the most expensive part. As plastic glue did not provide the bond I wanted, I used superglue, which has built a surprisingly sturdy structure, considering it is mostly made of .5mm plastic card! The cost of the model was about £3.55, a lot cheaper than any sci fi vehicle you might buy from a miniatures company.

I am currently collecting the Hexagon and Platformer sets in order to build an urban environment. I have also recently discovered that you can use the Platformer construction set to build overpasses and even city train tracks. More progress on the D-day landings campaign will be posted soon.

Hexagon and Platformer Construction sets

In a word the Hexagon and Platformer sets can be described as revolutionary! Perfect for sci fi RPGs/wargames at least the Hexagon set can be built into any structure you choose and then be disassembled, then reassembled into an entirely new, unique structure. As regards the Platformer set, I am currently testing whether it can build strong enough structures to withstand metal miniatures, and thus not require gluing.

Apart form the fact that the sets can be assembled in a huge variety of ways, the Hexagon set can be used to create areas of habitation as you can see to the right. The building that you see has been constructed using the contents of two small Hexagon sets. No platformer components have been used, although it is not possible to create area of habitation in the way that you can do with the Hexagon sets, but if you do find a way I would be very interested. The best use for platformer that I can think of is to create platfroms to put underneath your hexagon structures. The structure to the right has windows, doors, ramps and ladders that fit 25mm to 30mm figures perfectly. The components come in sprue form and are unpainted, being moulded in metallic coloured plastic as you see below. The contents of each box have been laid out, showing how many of each type of sprue there are. Considering the versatility of the sets, I have managed to build spacecraft and I am considering building city tower blocks in the future. As of current there are no plans for any particular structures available on the Internet, save the plans of the structure advertised on the front of the box, which you get inside the box. I am hoping to create some plans of structures that you can build only using multiple boxes of these two sets. The contents of the sets, once disassembled fit into a small container easily. I store my two sets of Hexagon and one set of Platformer in a container smaller than an A4 sheet of paper and it is only a third full! The only downside to the sets is that it takes a while to build a structure of any reasonable size. These sets are clearly designed for gamers who are on a budget and want some variety in their games, who don't have a lot of space to cart their scenery around in and who don't mind having to spend some time to construct the structures before the game. Oh and the hexagon structures can take quite a lot of punishment due to their robust method of 'clicking' together.

Exams Over- Time to build, paint and game!

Now that I have finished my exams, it is time to sit back, relax and well, write another post. Relating back to my last post 'WW2 Armies', I have had some feedback and I have started to compile a list of the two armies. Sorry, no pictures yet, but there will be some soon. Anyway, here is the current composition of the two armies:

Monty's Normandy Army 1944

4x (17pdr & 15cwt truck)= 1 anti-tank platoon
3x Bren Gun Carriers= 1 Carrier section
4x (25pdr & Quad) = 1 25pdr platoon
2x Dingo
2x Humber Armoured Car
1x Monty's Caravan
80-100 Infantry (all the gun crews, plus some infantry companies)
1x Willy's Jeep
8x M3A1
4x Sherman Firefly (The ones from the Normandy landings post) = 1 Firefly platoon
4x Sherman M4(all M4A2s?) = 1 Sherman platoon
4x M10 Tank Destroyers = 1 M10 platoon
1x Small Carry case with foam

Rommel's 21st Panzer division, Normandy 1944

2x (Flak 88 & sd.kfz 7)
3x Wespe Self Propelled Gun = 1 Wespe Platoon
1x Rommel's Grief
4x Panther = 1 Panther platoon?
2x Panzer II = Panzer II Command Platoon
1x Motorcycle Section (4 Motorcycles + 2 Motorcycle Combinations)
Infantry (80-100, some different sections)
4x sdkfz 222 Light Armoured Cars
6?x Krupp Protze Trucks
4x Panzer IV F2s
4x Sd.kfz 251/1 Armoured Half tracks
4x StuG III Tank Destroyers
1x Small Carry case with foam

[Please note that these army lists are wholly incorrect, as they would not fit in a small case, as well as the fact that it would take months to paint them all- I may produce a more accurate list in the future]

Well, as you can see these armies are fairly large, (considering their scale, 1:72 to 1:76) and the way they are organised is for approximately 4 hour skirmish scenarios (at the club, we do not have time for more than a 4 hour skirmish). Battles are generally played with 2-3 units per side and with that taken into account, there are approximately 169-2197 potential unit combinations per army (not taking into account the fact 2 armies play each other, generally)! This allows for a lot of different games. The armies will come with the latest edition of our house rules, as well as a book of scenarios, lists of organisation and command structures. Both armies unit types are researched from Tables of Organisation and Equipment.

Using the list for the allied army mentioned, it is possible to construct a basic British Normandy force, but I will explain how to do this in greater depth in another post.
The photos of the German forces in the small carry case in the previous post have a grey paint scheme, suitable for circa 1941 to 1943? as I understand. To achieve the later war look, they will need to be painted with a sand base coat, followed by red-brown and mid/dark green camouflage spots according to one reasonably reliable website. Anyway, I shall have to do some re-painting.

WW2 20mm Armies

I am considering building 2 ww2 armies that I may sell, depending on how much interest there is. I have started to begin construction of an army called Rommel's 21st Panzer Division which is set around Normandy 1944 during the D-Day Landings. The other army I am building and thinking of selling is an army called Monty's Army which is a British Normandy 1944 army. These armies will be built, painted, based and boxed by me and will come with a small carry case. I have included some photos to give an idea of what the finished armies will look llike, but the contents will be rather different. I am only going to sell such armies to club members and the price will be negotaited, or if necessary, the armies will just be given away. The reason why I am posting this now, is so that I have plenty of time to prepare for this. If you are interested please comment at the bottom of this post, or tell me at the club, but this is only to give an idea to see if there is any interest and so far nothing else.