General wargame blog
Most of the colorschemes I am using on the Dutch air force planes, are found on the following site:
The site has a collection with references for modeling, but also includes colorschemes used with the Dutch air forces. Most of the time showing the different variants and deliveries used. It has been very helpfull for me.
Yesterday and today I have spent some time painting aircraft. This is a slow progress. Every time referencing some photos and choosing what to paint. But it is progress and enjoyable. It will take still significant time to complete everything.
A small update for last week. I have made some progress and played a game. My father and I have played our second game of chain of command. Knowing the rules better it went more smootly. But we have still some things to learn. The scenario was a village road crossing, trying to be captured by both sides. My father played the 1940 Dutch forces, and I the opposing German forces. It ended with a firefight accros one of the roads, with the fire power of my mg34 defeating the Bike platoon of the Dutch.
Next to the game I have also managed to do some painting/creating. I have started to make a terrain cloth, with canvas lined with chaulk. I have mixed some color into the chaulk, creating a nice earth tone. This is the first very thin layer. Next I hope to apply a second layer, mixing some sand in it, to get a rougher texture. After that I will apply some grass/turf to create some random landscape.
I have also spend some time painting the cold war Dutch airforce planes, just spending an sunday afternoon hour. Still a lot of work to do. But progress is progress.
all the cold war Dutch Air force planes, and some USAF 32nd TSF stationed in the Netherlands. Also the B 52 didn’t fit somewhere else, so resides also in this box. I painted the F4’s, some Thunderstreaks and T33 and started with the gloster meteors. Hope to make some more detailed photos when they are finished.
Next to wargaming, I also have another hobby. Target shooting. Just before the Covid-19 period I recorded some black powder shooting. It is one of the greatest disciplines to shoot. Especially flint lock shooting, as it is quite unpredictable, a lot of smoke and a loud bang.
So some Napoleonic era shooting with some explanation.
Enjoy!
And the time has flown by, and I have not posted that much last year. My life has changed quite considerable. Most of it is not directly Covid related. Becoming a father and finding a new job, has changed my time allocation. Therefore not much progress, and even less time to blog/record this.
But I will update a little on the progress. I have started a complete new project. With the order for 2mm Burgundian army, I have also ordered 1 Roman army and 1 Dacion/Germanic army. Last two weeks I started with these tho armies. Basing them and preparing them for painting.
Next to that I have painted some scale models. That was a hobby I started before I learned wargaming, and what makes me somewhat experienced in painting models. I still like make and paint these models. So some periods I will spent more time on those projects. Maybe I will show someday some of these models
I also started painting the Frostgrave army/Characters. Together with the 2mm armies, I ordered some extra 10mm soldiers from irregular miniatures. I have based these, and painted 9 skeletons, 5 characters and 1 giant. I hope to take some photos and update on this in the near future.
Next to this, I have played several games with my father. As it is family and the Covid rules allow still visits I am lucky I can make some games. But less frequent as before. We have played 1 game of Infinity and 1 game of Chain of Command. My father has a decent army in 20mm for the early war Germand and Dutch troops. We hope to play some more games, as it are interesting rules.
With this first post this year, I hope I will start updating a little more often. Hopefully at least ones every month. But no guarantees. I certainly will post another video after this post. One I starter earlier, which involves some Black Powder shooting. Something slightly different and hopefully informative.
with regards.
More than a year ago, I presented some plans and ideas. Time to present an update. Some projects have lost interest, miniatures have been aquired and games have been played. I hope that this overview will provide some renewed motivation to finish more projects.
Over the past year I have aquired some new rule sets. Sword and Spear looks a good rule set for late medieval games. I still have to make some army. And I have always the possibilty to use it also for ancient wargame, if I want to expand in that direction. Frostgrave I aquired free, due to Osprey Publishing lockdown actions. I didn’t think that I would play the game, but after reading the rules, and seeing the options for terrain, I am planning to start a frostgrave project. Burrows and Badgers looks also to be a nice game, but no plans yet. Bolt action is mentioned between brackets. I don’t have the rules myself, and am not directly planning a project. But my father aquired the rules and has started to make an army, so proabably will play some games in the future.
I have aquired a lot of airplanes, so now it is time to paint them. I have already started and primed a big batch. Also I hope to play a few games of Pikemans Lament in the near future, so I should finish my army.
Pikemans Lament requires also some terrain to play. I have started to sqratchbuild some. This is looking very nice, and fun to do. Because a lot of the terrain would also fit a Frostgrave era too, I have decided to do Frostgrave in 10mm. I had some leftover figures from the 10mm army, which might give a starting warband in Frostgrave. Probably I have to invest more. But maybe good to finish some parts first.
Next to that I still have some 28mm figures. These are not high priority, but some nice painting excersises.
During all the above actions, there are still some dreams left to start new armies. For the Sword and Spear rules, I hope to create a pair of 2mm armies. Also I hope to expand the Frostgrave rules and miniatures, to actually start playing some games.
During my research for the airwar above Ethiopia, the books also described some ground actions. This wants me to invest in some ground forces, to enably to have combined actions if possible. For this I am thinking about FiveCore Brigade/Company commander. But I am waiting for the Wargamevault Summersale, and hope they are on sale then. I already have some small ammounts of tanks and figures in 3mm.
Next to that I hope to expand the 10mm Frostgrave, both in army as terrain. The terrain would have a double function also in the Pikemans Lament games.
Parrallel to above projects I hope to continue my reasearch in the following topics. But probably will these have the lowerst priority. Occacionally reading some books. I expect that above projects will eat most of the time.
To motivate me, and steamline the different projects, I hope to create a challenge for myself. A 10 week building/painting challenge. Everyweek will get a goal to finish a unit or piece of terrain. I am still in thinking process. Hope to post more details of the challenge at the end of the month.
| Project | Scale | Status | Rule set |
| Dutch air war 1940 | 1:600 | Painting | Lacquered Coffins |
| Spanish Civil air war | 1:600 | Painting | Lacquered coffins |
| Modern air war (try out) | 1:600 | Played | Missile Threat |
| Cold war Dutch air force | 1:600 | Painting | Missile Threat |
| Ethiopian Eritrean Somalia conflicts | 1:600 | Painting | Missile Threat |
| Napoleonic mass battles (including Quatre Bras) | 2 mm | Painting | 2 by 2 Napoleonic Morale Napoleon |
| Late medieval Dutch Stichtse oorlog ~1480 | 2 mm | Research | Sword&Spear 2nd |
| 80 year war | 10 mm | Acquired | Pikemans Lament |
| 80 Year war (try out) | 28mm | Sample | Pikemans Lament |
| Early Roman Empire (try out) | 6mm | Sample | – |
| Nomads (Sci Fi) | 28 mm | Acquired | Corvus Belli Infinity |
| Modern african wars | 3 mm | Wish | FiveCore Comapany commander |
| Frostgrave | 10 mm | Painting | Frostgrave |
The last blog is a couple of months back. A few months where a lot has happened. Some things sort of planned, some un-expected. A short summery: being fired, Covid-19 and becomming a father. Luckely the last one is very positive and enjoyable. It only reduces modelling and wargame time 😉
But in between all the events, I am still working on some small projects. But I didn’t have time to write some updates.
I have started to paint a bunch of the 1:600 tumbling dice planes. Starting with some of the USAF 32 TFS fighters stationed on Soesterberg, the Netherlands. I didn’t make any photo’s yet, so those have to wait.
Next to that I have started on basing the 10mm Irregular Pike and Shot units, and applied the first paint.
I hope to create an army for pikemans lament. I have decided to base them 3-2-1 on 20mm square bases.
But an army does need some terrain to fight. So have also started making some scratchbuild terrain pieces. Some houses, a castlehouse and some forest and ruins. The windmill and one of the houses had been started earlier. Now most things are primed and some have received a paint layer. Hopefully I can do some more next weekend.
So this was a small update on some work in progress. I have also worked on some scale models in between. Maybe I will post some pictures of those when I have finished them. I am still pressing on, on all different subject. (also reading some books) I hope to update a little more frequently, but expect not too much.
Originally I had planned to play the first two battles of the campaign. But it is nicer to play with an opponent. So Sunday morning after service, we could play a nice game of Infinity. I have not completely finished the painting the miniatures, but colors are blocked in, so it is easily recognized who is who.
I have the operation Icestorm box. In these starter sets is a seperate booklet for the rules. These does not contain all the rules. ( The complete rules can be downloaded on the Corvus Belli Website.) But rather have introductonary missions, which tell the rules bit by bit. Beginning at a very simple level. We played mission one.
The mision introduces to the basic concepts of the infinity system.
For this they only allow to use a basic character, with the same weapons. Maps are equal for both side, and both start with 3 soldiers. There is a lot of fluff and story on naming the different troops, but for now, they are just basic soldiers. The Red are the Nomads, Blue is Panocean. The PanOceans are sligtly better at shooting, for the rest they are similar.
We both started without any idea what we where doing. Just playing around and testing what can be done. My father played the PanOceans, I played the Nomads. We started with a small firefight. The first casualty was a PanOcean soldier..
At that moment we began to understand the system. My father tried to flank my troops form the other side. This resulted in an attack, were my troops were caught in the open. This resulted in a Nomad casualty. Luckily the source, was quickly dealt with, but another PanOcean rounded the corner.
At that moment we tried out dodging. resulting in some firefights, with a second Nomad casualty. Making the stand even. I tried to find cover from the roof, and we ended in a firefight. After three turns, I was the lucky one, to land the killing shot.
All in all, it was a nice game. I am looking forward to play the next mision, and think it is an enjoyable game. My father did like the game, but doesn’t like the sci-fi setting that much. He would probably prefer a ww2 themed version (which might be doable, if you don’t use all the special abilities, and a little more troops.
I hope to play some more games in the future, and finish the models some time. But don’t expect much progress on the short term. Hope I can play some campaign games this week.
During the weekend I found some time to start the campaign. So I played the first 3 campaign turns. Next step are two battles, to end turn 3.
Above you can see the start of the campaign. Red pawns are my armies, black pawns are Potential Enemy Forces, turning into a yellow pawn, when resolved to be an enemy army.
My plan is to march with two different groups, as quickly as possible to the capital. Due to the rivers and roads, these two entry point would be the quickest.
After turn one, marching up along the roads. Enemy movement was not that much, which is quite logical as they will try to defend.
Closing in on the first bigger towns, enemy forces, will try to block the road.
In the West, I tried to sneak past the enemy, but their scouts got news of our troops, and did catch the second army by surprise. In the East, they just blocked the road and hope to stop us as soon as possible, by moving forward one of their armies. I don’t know what they have in reserve.
On both fronts it turns into a battle. I still have to roll for the scenarios, and find my troops. I have found a solution for the playing area. A printed grid, with some fields from google earth in the background.
I didn’t have time to play the first game, but looking forward to them. Until now, it was just half an hour, including setup and finding nice pawns. Up to the battle next.
The only army which is in a reasonable state to play some games, is the 2mm Napoleonic armies. I want to play some more games this years, and play also some solo. Therefore I have ventured into the realms om Imagination.
The basic idea is, to have a simple campaign system, without a lot of bookkeeping. Playing multiple battles in an evening or Sunday afternoon. I have created some backstory. Probably not the best. But a reason to move some troops and play games.
The campaign system is created by myself, simple moving some armies from area to area, to secure the capital, and destroy the enemy army. Enemy movement is mostly based on the chainreaction system from two hour wargames.
The battle which will happen when two armies will occupy one area, will be played out with the Simplicity in Hexes rules, which I found on the blog of Jay Ward, with again some enemy behaviour based on the chainreation system of THW. Scenarios will be coming from the One Hour wargames book of Neil Thomas. The terrain will be a hex landscape, slightly larger as in the rules, for visual reasons.
Below I will tell the background story, and show the map. The map has been created with the help of the fantasy map generator on the web. (see link below) the data has been exported to QGis, a map making tool. Playing around, some visual formatting was done. If you like the map, you can download it for your own projects, and also the more detailed rules for the campaign in the links provided at the bottom.
The year is 1785, 7 years after Marcus Fontusius Rethida and his sister Cillia Rethida were forced to leave their beloved country Ukkhinbar. They had grown up as prince and princes at the royal court in the Capital Wawic. But had to flee south during the coup. Their own nephew had murdered their father and crowned himself emperor.
Now it was the time to march back to their hometown. Five large armies listened to their command. When they had left, they had been young. Heading south they found rest in Segifell. A rough city, were you’re live was most precious. They had met an old man, which had taken them into house. The 17 year old twins, had been weeping and sleeping for a week, they had lost everything. Only the ring, received from their father was still on their finger. The man tried to comfort them, and learned them a riddle: “Bait with smelt to catch a cod”
The first year they worked here and there. Creating more and more connections, and growing a larger network. Both on the legal side as on the dark side of the world. After three years, Marcus and Cillia started to think about revenge on their Nephew. They started to employ people for their cause. Now after the 7 years, they have amassed 5 armies. Built from mercenaries, pirates and adventurers. But very loyal, as long as they paid regularly.
They had only a limited amount of money, so they had to do a quick campaign. Moving as swiftly as possible, to liberate the capital. After that they would deal with the rest of the country, but would have access to the treasure of the crown to pay the armies. Spies are reporting multiple armies which are defending the capital and surrounding lands. The only way to their home, is forward.
I hope to start the campaign next weekend, most of the things are ready.
Only the hex grid for the scenarios I have to arrange. I have the possibility to print on white paper. The files are ready, but I am thinking in a little more pleasing solution, with more eye candy. I don’t have a solution yet.
This is just my first try, to play a campaign, have a backstory. I don’t know how it will turn out. And probably adapt the rules on the fly. Hope it will make some fun.