Project finished?

As many of you know I started this blog as a means to follow and motivate me in my project building forces of the Little Britons figures from Spence Smith. The plan laid out in the first few posts was to paint eight units of Infantry (12 figures each), 4 units of Cavalry (6 figures each) and 4 units of Artillery (3 figures each).  The first game was played in March 2015   using One Hour Wargames. After a few more games of that and one of With MacDuff to the Frontier by Ross Mac Howard was bitten by the Shiny Toy Soldier bug and began painting and working on a set of rules known as A Gentleman's War despite all the distractions, a little over a third of the posts here refer to this project, I finished my goal of forces for the project. Three years in the making. Inspired by Grand Duchy of Stollen I decided to do a review of my troops.

The Cavalry

US 10tth Cavalry, RCMP, Hungarians, Bavarians and Generals.

 The Artillery

The Artillery, Costa Rica, Switzerland, Austria and, Serbia.

The Infantry

 Belgium, Egypt, Greece.

US Marines, Hawaiian Guard, US Infantry, NYS Volunteers.

Spain, Argentina, Canada.

Now is this project finished outside of playing games? There's a unit of Dutch bicycle troops on the painting desk and four bags of figures unpainted in the drawer. Along the way I had decided to paint flags for many of the units and may finish out the remainder putting each Infantry unit at an Officer, Standard bearer and twelve privates. Oh! and I bought some molds to cast my own figures just because. 

Thanks for reading.

2015 AAR and the New Plan

It being January I feel a need to review the last year and set plans for the new one, late as usual.

2015 was fairly successful on the gaming front we managed to get in 2-3 games a month at the local Hobby Town mostly Frostgrave but also some Little Britons using either OHW or With MacDuff to the Frontier as well as play testing Flint and Feather an upcoming set from Howard Whitehouse

Painting wise although happy with my output I bought way more than I should have. The stats, painted 146 bought 324 for a minus 178 on the year. The big purchases were some John Jenkins Warring States and the Watchful Studio Warring States Kickstarter to be used for a pair of Pulse of Battle armies.These will keep me busy for the rest of the year and hopefully nothing new comes along to temp me. All in in all a good year for the hobby.

Now on to the plans for 2016. The year has seen Three games so far, Sharpe's Practice AWI, Flint&Feather and Frostgrave, thirty eight miniatures have been painted with a good start on a dozen more.

An order has been placed for the final two cavalry units needed to finish the Little Briton project as planned. I am considering adding more to this project as I want some French, German and West Indian troops.

I'm starting to catalogue my collection and hope to get through a least four periods by the end of the year. The first is the AWI 28mm and then ACW 15mm. The Little Britons are mostly done but I switched formats so may move these over.

The plans for gaming will depend on availability of opponents but the one group I'm in is showing interest in Sharpe's Practice and Carnage & Glory for the AWI and perhaps En Guarde when it comes out. Locally word is that others are interested in Frostgrave so a campaign with that may be in the future. Dragon Rampant has been ordered so I'll be looking to play some of that using my Games Workshop LOTR figures. Once again Huzzah is on the calendar. Last year was a lot of fun. I played in the Hawks "Not Quite Seven Years War" game using modified Charge rules and fantastic 40mm figures.

So there's the layout for the next year. I'm shooting for twelve blog posts for this year with them being a recap of each months activity. It will most likely be weighted towards the beginning and end of the year though as the warmer months tend towards outdoor fun.

Thanks for reading.

One Hour Wargames outing.

I got together with Howard for a game this week. We decided to play One Hours Wargames as a good way to use my Little Britons figures. I've enough figures to have two equal forces of 3 Infantry, 1 Skirmish, 1 Artillery and, 1 Cavalry. We used the Rifle and Saber rules. Howard was Red and I played Blue.

First we played Scenario 1 Pitched Battle. In the center Howard defended the hill as I moved up hoping to be just out of range so I would get the first volley. Unfortunately I miss judged it and Howard got the first round. On the flank my skirmish unit battled with his Cavalry. Eventually my center cracked and his Cavalry defeated my skirmishers. I brought up my reserves but it was too late and I was beaten back and defeated.

Here's a few photos of the game I would have taken more but we were having too much fun.

Next we played Scenario 4 Take the High Ground. There was a little more maneuvering in this game as we both tried to gain advantage in the end though Red proved stronger and held on to the high ground.

Both games lasted about an fifty minutes . Simple as the rules are they do offer decision points that make for a challenging and enjoyable game.

Little Britons Solo outing part 2

So the battle continues

 Red reenforces the hill

 Blue moves around the flank as his skirmish unit in the woods is eliminated

 The assault on the hill continues with one more blue unit being destroyed.

 The flank attack succeeds in eliminating the remaining defenders making it a solid victory for Blue

This was a fun solo game. The rules are simple but give a good result. It took about an hour to play. This week should see an outing against a live opponent.

Here's a photo in B&W for that true old school feel.

Little Britons on a Solo outing.

Now I have enough figures to play a game with my Little Britons. I decided to try out Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames rules. I picked Scenario #8 to try. Here's the 2 forces.

Army Red

Army Blue

Red has two units on the table at the start of the game and moves first. Blue has half his force enter on the road on turn one. Red has two more units come on during turn three.

 Red has moved his skirmishers into the woods while Blue moves his cavalry north to block the road.and his infantry yo assault the hill.

 The second half of Blues force comes on on turn four.

 The cavalry of both forces fight on the eastern edge of the woods. Blues skirmishers have pushed Reds out of the woods.

 The remainder of Reds force enters from the west. As Blues force sets up to attack the hill. Blues cavalry is supported by infantry.

 Turn nine ends with each side losing a unit. Reds Skirmishers and Blues cavalry.

 to be continued....