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.
Basing, and applying some sand texturePrimed and applying first colors
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.
Ruins, forest and a wellOverview of the different piecesHouse with miniature for scale refferenceThe housecastleAnd receiving first layer of paint
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.
Dice rolls (normal, opposed, etc.)
AROs (reactions by non active players)
And the usual stuff, such as movement and fighting
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..
Left flank cleared of the first soldier. You can already see, the flanking maneuver planned out.
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.
The right flank, PanOcean soldier tries to flank around, and come in from behind.
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.
Final result, three panOceans casualties, two Nomad casualties.
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.
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 land of Ukkhinbar. The capital is the largest city in the land (denoted by the square)
Background story
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.
Deployment
Enemy start with 9 PEF Armies
You start with 5 armies, two under command of Marcus and three under command of Cillia.
Each army is 6 units. Scenario determines how many units are involved in each battle. Following OHW scenarios
Scouts have reported nine possible enemy forces (PEF), you will enter the lands from the south.
You start on southern edge, with 5 armies, deploy as you wish.
Enemy start northern cities with 9 PEFs. 1 PEF start at other side of water to the right.
each campaign turn is 1 day.
Capital must be reached within 30 days, to ensure you can pay the armies to complete the campaign.
Plan
I hope to start the campaign next weekend, most of the things are ready.
rules
armies
dice
terrain pieces
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.
This weekend I had planned another attack on the lead pile. Glue-ing the magnets under the planes. There is still a long way to go (probably around 150 planes to go)
But the different air forces are slowly growing. The picture of the ww2 era planes did not turn out to be clear, so there is another can full of planes. I hope to do still some more planes, and then to prime all the planes, so I have something to paint for the coming months.
For glueing of the magnets I have used the following magnets. I prepared a lot of square magnets, with the smaller magnets put on it in the correct orrientation. (I checked the orientation against the bases) Than file or scrape a flat area under the belly of the plane. Put a dot of CA glue on it, let it dry for half a minute, and put them together holding them for another half a minute. Then I would let them cure for 5 minutes. Before removing the rest of the stack and the cube.
Previous weekend, I also started to make some targets to attack. A bridge, fuel storage, an a piece of dike. Hope to put a convoy or some troops on it.
I hope to proceed with the magnetizing the coming weeks. And by the end of January priming them and preparing for painting. Probably not all planes will be based by then, but enough to sustain painting for a couple of months.
On Crisis 2019 I obtained a box of Corvus Belli Infinity Operation Icestorm. Or actually half the box, the Pan Oceania is missing, but the terrain is still in. (It was second hand, so price was also appropriate.) Also included was a starter set for Infinity Nomads, totaling in 13 Nomad miniatures.
I probably will end up to paint the starter set in blue, to proxy as Pan Oceania, to do some playing in the end. The Operation Icestorm ones, hope to finish in the Nomad red scheme, as on the box.
After assembly I have started with a black undercoat. Yesterday evening I tried some airbrushing, but it did clog up. So couldn’t get any progress. I hope to continue in the weekend. Hopefully some progress to show next week.
A couple of weeks ago my father and I placed a substantial order at TumblingDice. Within less than a week, the package was send and delivered. A was astonished by how quickly this went. This was a very good service. He even included a sample of some 16th century ships, as we are curious how these are, for Anglo-Dutch wars.
A large pile of bags, with lead. All planes nicely packed separately.
Directly after arrival I checked al my planes, and now have over 200 planes to clean and paint. Which I already have started. I think I have not even halfway. But the results are looking interestingly.
All cleaned up planes on row.The German airforce for the Dutch ww2 and Spanish Civil war projects. The JU 52 and float planes are not yet shown, as these consist of multiple parts. The painted examples were already in my possession from a earlier order. The Dutch ww2 airforce. The rear two planes are 2 Vicker wellingtons. I will try to convert these to Fokker T.V bomber planes. By changing the tail. The planes for the 32 TFS stationed at Soesterberg AB in the Netherlands. This was an American Fighter Squadron under Dutch command during the Cold War era. It shows the complete period, from f86f to the f15The Dutch Airforce during Cold War. From the Gloster meteor to the F16.On top the opposition, the Soviet planes. Including some bomber planes. There are still a couple of others.
These are only the planes I have cleaned up. And I think it is only around half of the pile. As I have still the Ethiopian, Eritrean and Somalian planes. Plus all the Spanish Civil war bi-planes and some additional soviet planes.
I have already ordered some new magnets, so I can base all the planes. Hope these will be delivered this week. Hope to have more detailed pictures when I start painting the different air forces. I have already started searching for color schemes. I have not decided yet on which air force to start. Maybe the Dutch or American Cold war forces, as I know best the colors for these, or maybe the ww2 forces. Up to the next update.
Last week we played the Battle of the three roads I posted earlier on. I did not have time to do more preparation. So we just decided to play the scenario, with the rules from the 2-by-2 rule set. I try to describe the changes we made below.
The map we used
We used the map as shown on top. We copied it to the gaming cloth I made. Unfortunatly I did not have enough forest to cover all the forest, so those had to be drawn in. We didn’t include a lot of terrain rules from the scenario. Skipped the weather section. We used the following rules:
The passing trough the water at the top left is fordable, on a 5+ for infantery, and on a 4+ for horses. The French did have a pontoon brigade, which could construct a bridge, allowing easy passage. On a 1-3 it would take 1 turn to construct the bridge, on a 4-6 it would take two turns. Optionally it could be tried to build a bridge on a different spot, but only on a 6+ they would find a suitable spot.
For the high ground in the middle, we decided that people below could see and fire at people up to the road (which runs in the middle of the high ground) If you were on the other side of the road you would be safe.
For deployment, the British would deploy most forces as wished for in the op third of the map. And act as defending forces, only a small portion would act as reinforcements. For the French would start with a small force on the table, and would have to wait for reinforcement every turn. The total French force was larger than the British, but due to the slow reinforcements the British could defeat them small batches.
The goal for the French was to leave the map with an as large as possible force, at the two exits at the top, behind the river. The British should prevent this. The French did have two corps, every corp would rout if 3 or more units were destroyed. (acting independently from each other). The British side would route if 6 or more units were destroyed.
British Forces
The British were divided in three main forces:
1st Netherlands Division: Stedmann
3 regiments of line Infantry
1 battery of foot artillery
4th British Division: Colville
1 regiment of guards
1 regiments of line Infantry
1 piece of foot artillery
Hanoverian Reserve: von der Decken
2 regiment of guards
2 regiments of line Infantry
1 piece of foot artillery
Attachments:
1 squadron of heavy cavalry
1 squadron of light cavalry
French Forces
The French had two Corpses
I Corps: d’Erlon
8 regiments of line Infantry
1 battery of foot artillery
1 squadron of light cavalry
II Corps: Reille
8 regiments of line Infantry
1 battery of foot artillery
1 squadron of light cavalry
Attachments:
1 company of Engineer/pontoniers
As you can see in the forces list, the French are numerical superior, but the British do have slightly better infantry units. Combined with their deployment advantage, we hoped this would match them up evenly.
Battle started
The Battlefield, the highground.
The Battle started with the advance of the two different French corpses towards the top corner (A and B) The British decided to defend near the town and the bridge (C and D)
The French closing in on the Bridge, while the British scouting force was heading back to the other side of the bridge.
This resulted in a firefight and artillery bombardment at both sides of the bridge. (See F on the map)
On the other side the corps did get confused with the heavy cavelry moving close by, and was in the end locked in at the forest at E. After a couple of turn this force started to break, and even some cavalry reinforcements, did prevent the collapse of this front.
On the other side things started to look better, when the first regiment formed a bridgehead at the other side. But reinforcment and relieve couldn’t bring in quick enough. Resulting in a stalled fight. The British which defeated the forces at E now diverted to the bridge, making the situation very risky for the French. A quick break through didn’t happen, and a major retreat had to be called by the French.
The British came out very victorious, by only loosing two regiments of infantry, but slaying 4 French regiments of infantry, a squadron of light cavalry, the HQ of one of the corpses, and capturing the engineering/Pontoon brigade.
Conclusion
This was a real fun game. I had quite a busy week, and did not have a lot of time in preparation. And we had to decide the rules of the scenario at the beginning. But the rules flowed very well, felt quite even matched and did give a nice gaming night. In hindsight I should have focused on one attacking location, and combined the two corpses on the left side (D), hoping to tumble the fronts one, by one. I think we will play more of these games in the future.
I had already some planes painted up on the Dutch air war of 1940. 4 Fokker G1, 4 Fokker DXXI, 2 Bf110, 4 Bf109 and 3 Do17. I also do have some others left to paint. But I could not finish them as the roundels where missing. But last friday they did arrive. And because the planes were already painted and coated in gloss I could directly start.
The four Fokker G1 wihtout the roundels to start with.
I started with the four Fokker G1 planes. After a quick search on the web, I determined that decals should be put at six positions. Top and bottom of the wings two each, and on the outside of the tail boom. Also there has been two variations in the 1939-1940 period. The 4 color rozet the same as in use today, which was replaced at end of 1939 with a orange triangle.
As I wanted to try out multiple sheets of the decals, I did one of the Fokkers with the Rozet, and the other three with triangles.
The Fokker G1 with rozets on six positions. The rozet on the tail boom was not yet flat, so has been later solved with some extra decal soft.
Next to the Fokkers I did also try out the German “Balkenkreuz” on the Do17. Process of application is quite simple. I did already have experience with scale modelling kits, especially smaller scale, so it was not to difficult to handle. First cut out the decals, close to the edges. Put them in a little water for a couple of seconds, and put them aside (I placed them on a cutting mat with contrasting color, to easily spot them) After a short wait, I picked up with the decals on a sharp exacto knife blade with a needle. And placed them on the planes. With a needle I put it in the correct position. With a dry large soft brush, I pressed them in place. Because the brush is dry it will soak up all the extra water. After that I put a drop of Revell Decal Soft on it, to secure and form it in place (it will force it in the recesses, and make sure that it is flat. To secure it I do a matt varnish afterwards (still have to do that. Only Have done on of the Do17s to check if there is no chemical reactions)
All the planes done so far. For the Fokkers I have still to do the orange triangles at the tail booms, and two of the underwing tringles.Another view of the planes.
At this moment I am very happy with the decals, and how they work. Now I have to make some production line. Finish all the Fokkers G1, do the Fokker DXXI and paint up the Fokker CV, so they can also receive decals. Then finish all the Germans, and I can play the first game.
Hope to make a better photo progress report of the different steps in the future. Maybe with the Dutch cold war or the Ethiopian and Eritrean planes.
Recently I was searching for a follow-up on the Battle of Cinq Bras. I just searched for wargame scenarios in google, and stumbled upon the deepfriedhappymice website.
They do have a nice collection on Napoleonic wargame scenarios for Grande Armee. One of the scenarios is appealing, and hope I can convert it to the 2-by-2 wargame rules we are using. The Scenario is called The Battle of Three Roads, and is a hypothetical alternative history, were Napoleon did not attack Wellington at Waterloo, but started a maneuvering war threatening the supply line and the left flank. Trying to defeat the enemy in detail. (Original scenario)
It is not possible to use all the terrain rules and reinforcement rules as written, but the map and the forces are possible to use. I have colored the map, and made it square, to fit my purposes. And also added some towns, to complete the terrain.
For the forces, I have to look on what I have available. I do have some pontoon bridging models in my stack, so probably need to finish them quickly, as engineering platoon. For the rest I need to check the available forces, and find some way to create labels.
Hopefully we can play this scenario at the end of July.
Small scene from “Battle of Mont Saint-Jean or the Battle of Waterloo” colored litho by Antoine Charles Horace Vernet (called Carle Vernet)(1758 – 1836) and Jacques François Swebach (1769-1823) (Source: Wikipedia)
