Mark's Little Soldiers, first battle.

 The Mark's Little Soldiers made it to the table last night. Matt is working on a set of simple rules for these. I think the original rules were for a smaller amount of figures but once we pulled all the figures out Matt tweaked the rules to accommodate larger units. The game moved along well and was fun. No figure removal needed we just laid the casualties on their sides.

A couple of games played.

 With the Holidays and sickness we didn't get many games in. The last few weeks things have begun again. 

First up was a game of Beef & Beer. Late 17th century on a gridded table. We used Howard's 10mm figures by Jim Brokaw.  I'm enjoying this game as I like using grids for movement and firing and the command phase allows for a fair amount of decision making. 

Behind the Hanoverian line.

Overview of the battlefield.

The center engaged.

Next we played LotR SBG. It's been a while since we played, ten years?, but the game is strait forward and moved along well. The Rohan force was trying to destroy a cave troll. 

Rohan fights off the Moria Goblins.

The Troll emerges from his lair

Rohan overwhelms the Troll.

Fun all around.

The Pledge eight years on.

The Pledge was started back in 2005 by mweaver on The Miniatures Page. The rules weren't hard and fast and each participant tweaked them to meet their own goals. I didn't count the lead pile in the beginning and I don't carry over from the previous year. For me the rules were paint more miniatures than I bought. An Excel sheet was created and the The Pledge began.

2015. It went well for the first few months. Painting was well ahead of the purchases made then a bargain came along on some John Jenkins Warring States Chinese eliminating any progress made and putting me deep in the red. Life got in the way of painting for the remainder of the year and I fell behind.  -178.

2016. Most of the year was spent in other activities but I managed to keep purchases under control. +28

2017. I didn't shy away from buying and started a GNW project. Motivated by various games we were playing I managed to paint a fair number of figures. +127

2018. Purchases kept low but painting out put was not out standing either still a good year. +53

2019. Several impulse purchases plus figures needed for various projects lead to a high figure count but concentrating on painting still kept me in the black. +27

2020. The Empress Vietnam range was too good to resist. As gaming was suspended I focused on what was bought and a few other random projects. +78

2021. Another new project started. ACW is a fairly easy period to paint so this went quickly. Purchases were about average but I was aggressive with painting giving me my best totals ever. +179

2022. The "No new projects" mantra was muffled once again. 29 figures bought in February and nothing else until I started with Mark's Little Soldiers. 177 figures bought in the last four months of the year. Painting output was very good though so the year ends well. +122

I find keeping track of things like this helps in two ways. I motivates me to paint when I need it, if only a figure or two at a time or just painting the boots on a group of 12 fig

ures. Also I can look back through the year(s) and see what I've done. 

The Pledge has often been criticized as a program that encourages not buying miniatures but as can be seen from the chart above my numbers of purchases are fairly close to what's been painted. 

The averages are

bought 205 figures per year

painted 260 figures per year

+55 figures a year.

I've never counted the lead pile, I thought about it once but it was too overwhelming, nor what is painted, working on an inventory of what I have but can't decide on a format. The last few years I've tried to paint whatever has been purchased during that year but that only happens about 80% of the time.

Merry Christmas!

 

Recruiting continues.

 A second group of Mark's Little Soldiers arrived a few weeks back. I took advantage of the deal and got the President figure. 

For this group I chose to use the Army Painter spray primers. Wolf Grey and Goblin Green. This helped the painting speed although care needs to be taken with flesh as the base color shows through but this is easily fixed. The colored primer does help save time. I gave the figures two coats but need to touch up a few of the folds. They pretty much eliminated the time spent on two coats, which I found never really covered well, touch ups are still need but are part of the regular process anyway. I still have a bit of a problem with the varnish pooling and remaining whiteish but should be able to overcome that with a little practice. 

Berglander Squad

More troops on the workbench.

Wave three is available to order but I hope to get a few more figures done before I order.

Generals and Officer.

Mark's Little Soldiers or...

 number six of "no new projects" .

I had heard rumors of this several years ago but nothing was done and then the flood gates opened.

Little Soldiers

As usual the temptation to jump in was tempered by the desire to reduce the lead pile. After several visit to Mark's Instagram page resistance was futile. I ordered a few packs, not the full first wave so missed out on the "Boy Detective" figure but enough to get a feel for the figures and see if it was something I was willing to commit to. It was. I painted up a few figures and am happy with the result. The casting clean with enough detail to look like historical figures but not so much to limit what they are or keep them from being used for imagination projects. All the goals Mr. Copplestone stated he wanted were achieved.

The 1st group, Panovians.

These figures I had primed white and then painted for the next group I will spray the main uniform color and go from there. It took 2-3 coats to get good coverage.

Now I'm all in on this project and hope to get a game in by the end of the year. 

further links

http://nstarmagazine.com/marks_little_soldiers_1.htm

http://nstarmagazine.com/marks_little_soldiers_2.htm

https://www.instagram.com/marks_little_soldiers/

https://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=23&page=1

http://recreationalconflict.lusagi.com/copplestonecastings/Mark'sLittleSoldiers/littlesoldiersm.html

The Three Musketeers with One Hour Skirmish Wargames.

 I’m trying the Sword &Sandal supplement for OHSW using the partial deck suggested by Nick on the FB page. All cards above seven are removed from the deck as well as a joker leaving twenty five cards for the deck. 

The four Musketeers are in the center of the square as Rochefort and five of the Cardinals guards enter from the north. 

Musketeers win initiative. 

They spread out on either side of the fountain.

             

Two guards advance. One stays just out of range while the other moves into fight. 

                                         

The guard draws a six to the Musketeers two. The Musketeer draws a three and falls back two inches the guard follows up. 

The guard draws a six to the Musketeers two. The Musketeer draws a three and falls back two inches the guard follows up. 

Guard draws 6 and beats Musketeer by 2 causing the fallback.

The fight on the rights sees the Guard defending with a 5 of spades and the Musketeer drawing a Joker. 

Checking morale has the Musketeers failing and ending the game. 

It was a quick game. Some modifications are needed to the S&S set but it is an easy work around. A little more thought needed to go into the scenario but it was good for a quick try of the rules.