WSS Issue 96 - The raid on St. Albans

"To go along with the theme of Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy 96, which looks at raiding actions during the American Civil War, we picked a rather interesting little scenario for your amusement. What happens when a group of Confederate rascals force their way into a sleepy Vermont town, intent on stealing all the money they can for the Southern cause? And did we mention that the Canadians also end up getting involved?"

The theme for this issue are Raiding actions during the American Civil War. You can for free download my contribution the the Theme "The raid on St. Albans" on the WSS Online, I hope you like it.

The latest issue 96 of Wargames Soldiers and Strategy are in the post to all subscribers, some fortunate could pick up their copy at Salute. If you are not a subscriber and want a copy you can order it here.

19th Century Ruga-Ruga with Gripping Beast Plastics

Hven´t been much painting lately but I have at least managed to paint the last minis from the Gripping Bests plastic medieval Arab Spearmen and Archers box that I use to build me a 19th century Zanzibar Slaver force. Pictures below show the 12 Ruga-Ruga Bandits/Mercenaries.

In The Men Who Would Be Kings rules I probably will run them as Poorly Armed Irregular Infantry with Sharpshooters and Field Craft @ 5 points.

Poorly Armed but with Sharpshoter as they most often used Antiqued Muskets loade with stones, metal scrap, marbells etc, more like a short ranged shootgun, i.e increased Firing Value due to the Sharpshooter option.

19th Century Baluchis with Gripping Beast Plastics

During the last week i continued to paint minis from the Gripping Bests plastic medieval Arab Spearmen and Archers box that I use to build me a 19th century Zanzibar Slaver force. Pictures below show the 12 Baluchis with Sword and Shields.

In The Men Who Would Be Kings rules I probably will run them as Fierce Irregular Infantry @ 6 points.

The one of you that already are familiar with the rules know that Fierce are not a Option for Irregular Infantry, but I give them the option anyway to illustrate the Baluchis:

Fierce: Fighting becomes 4+. Cost +2 points

This ease to adjust Dan´s "Rampant" serie of rules I realy love.

Next up are the Ruga-Ruga.

19th Century Arab Slavers with Gripping Beast Plastics

So here follows some pictures of the first painted minis from my use of the Gripping Bests lovely plastic medieval Arab Spearmen and Archers box as a base.

The first I decided to paint was the 16 Arab Askaris I built me, I hope you think they turned out good enought, next up willl be the 12 Baluchis with Sword and Shields.

Gripping Beast Medieval Plastic Arabs as 19th Century Zanzibar Slavers

As I got me a copy of Dan Merseys latest rules "The Men Who Would Be Kings" I thought I needed to paint me some new minis for the Darkest Africa....

For Darkest Afrika games in 28mm you have a bunch of lovely metal minis from Foundry and also from North Star, but as you know I like to cut cost by using plastics...

So I decided to go for some Zanzibar Slavers using the Gripping Bests lovely plastic medieval Arab Spearmen and Archers box as a base for them. In a box I get 40 minis so it would be enough to build me 3 units of 12 minis with 4 extras.

The units I will build from the box are:

• 12 +4 Arab Askaris
• 12 Baluchis
• 12 Ruga-Ruga

To get the minis in the box moving from the medievaltimes to 19th century I used a bunch of left over muskets from different Perry plastic Napoleonic and ACW boxes, as well as the Perry Sudanes box. I used some heads from the Wargames Factory Zulu box for the Ruga-Ruga. I also had some left over heads, swords, shields from the Gripping Beast Mounted Arab boxes that come in handy.

Here are a bunch of pictures of the 40 minia I built, painting next...

Arab Askaris

Ruga-Ruga

Baluchis

Additional Arab Askaris

The Men Who Would Be Kings

Cover

Today I got my copy of Osprey latest wargaming rules,The Men Who Would Be Kings writen by my matey Daniel Mersey, his 4th rule set in the Osprey wargaming serie, and the 5th will be published in January...

The Men Who Would Be Kings use the same rule engine as in Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant but with some twists to give a better Colonial wargaming flawour.

I have participated in the playtest and i like the rules even if Colonial wargaming is not my major era. I also manged to get two pictures in the book:)

Now I will start working on my new force, some Zanzibar slavers...

Info about the book.
The Men Who Would Be Kings 
COLONIAL WARGAMING RULES OSPREY WARGAMES
Author: Daniel Mersey
Illustrator: Peter Dennis
Short code: OWG 16
Publication Date: 22 Sep 2016

"The Men Who Would Be Kings is a set of rules designed for fighting historical or Hollywood colonial battles in the mid to late 19th Century, from the Indian Mutiny to the Boxer Rebellion. Large scale colonial clashes tended to be one-sided affairs, but there are countless reports of brief, frantic skirmishes in every colonial war, where either side could be victorious, and these are the battles that The Men Who Would Be Kings seeks to recreate. Although focusing on the British colonial wars against the Zulus, Maoris and others, these rules will also permit players to explore the empires of France, Germany, and other nations, as well as allowing for battles between rival native factions. Gameplay is very simple, and is driven by the quality of the officers leading your units, in the true spirit of Victorian derring-do and adventure, where larger than life characters such as the (real) Fred Burnaby and the (fictional) Harry Flashman led their troops to glory and medals or a horrible end at the point of a spear tip."

A last look at my mock-up cover of the rules:)

The REAL The Men Who Would Be Kings front cover

REAL COVER :)

Dan Mersey just posted the REAL front cover of his upcomming (release August 2016) colonial wargaming rules, The Men Who Would Be Kings, painted by the very talanted Peter Dennis.

So its time to say godbye to my mocked up cover for TMWWBK, featuring Danny and Peachey.

NOT the real cover ;)

1,2,3 basing

Sins I got the ideea and also more often used the 1,2,3 basing for my 28mm skirmish minis I have got a lot of question about way and also of course questions regarding base sizes.

It all started with me being lazy, thinking it was tiresome to move all single based minis around...what about movement trays you say... indeed they can be good to have but using rules with casualty removal then you soon end up with movement trays with missing minis and that dosen´t look good at all, and we do want our games to look good dosen´t we...

So I started to test aroud to base several minis on the the same base and still keep some singlebased for "change", after some testing with number of minis and base sizes I ended up with the 1,2,3 basing you now can see me using on my Pike and Shot minis and also started to use on my Medieval ones.

The 1,2,3, basing gives me good looking units while retaining the feel of skirmish gaming, as well as speeding things along with fewer bases to move and with the possibility to remove casualties, sounds like a winning concept ;)

As it seems it will also be the recomendend basing style in my and Dan Merseys up comming Pike and Shot rules, The Pikemans Lament, of course the rules are mainly writen for singlebased minis but as they, like Lion Rampant, are very forgiving regarding formation and basing you can use all kind of based minis even the 1,2,3 basing, luckey me...

So down to business...

Infantry

• 1 model on a round 25mm base 
• 2 models on round 30mm bases 
• 3 models on round 40mm bases 

Cavalry

• 1 model on a round 40mm base 
• 2 models on a round 50mm base 
• 3 models on a round 60mm base 

Artillery

• 1 gun on a base large enough to hold it  and the gunner models based like other infantry units 

Using this basing standard means that you easily group the bases together in 6 or 12 models depending on troop type and still remove casualties with ease, if/when you need to...

If you have really bulky minis you might wan´t to add 5-10 mm on the communal bases to fit all minis in, but I rather have them close toghether (maybe cutting some off/adjusting the models base) than increase the base size.

I hope this answer all your questions regarding the 1,2,3, basing.

Painted some minis for Africa

During the last week I have built me some Elite Askaris for my The Men Who Would Be King´s forces. I used plastic minis from the Perry Zouave and Sudan boxes to build most of the Askaris.

Some Askaris and the White Officer are from the Foundry Darkest Africa range as well as the African tribal minis that I just rebased and fixed up the paint work as it was some 15 years sins I painted them.