Foundry Matchlockmen

With a steady diet of battle reports of late, time to slip in a short painting update to break up some of the detailed battle accounts.  There remains one more Adobe Wells game to chronicle but I am still sorting photos and putting the pieces of frantic action into place.  As a teaser, consider what the narrative is behind the scene below:

Back to today's figures...

Mustering out today are 24 matchlock men from Wargames Foundry's Sikh Wars range.  These warriors will be absorbed into the Native contingents for my 25mm Great Game project that continues to simmer away very slowly on one of the back burners.

Nice figures and a pleasure to paint.  Lots more figures to parade through the photo booth.

Rejects at Adobe Wells, Again

The lede photo shows all is quiet at Adobe Wells Station, for now.  After the first gunfight with Postie's Rejects (see Rejects at Adobe Wells Station) concluded in less than 90 minutes, players asked for a reset and a second game.  I was happy to oblige!

On to Game #2!

The gun battle opens when Ray Rogers races from the cover of the rock outcroppings to the north of the station through the gap in the wall.  Firing off a couple of quick shots as he enters the compound, his bullets find 'English' Bob.  'English' lets out a groan as he drops to the ground.  He has been hit in the chest!

'Squinty' Sid, seeing 'English' go down, bounds across the compound.  Being near-sighted, 'Squinty' fails to see where he is going and stumbles.  'Squinty' face plants onto the ground!  The Pinkerton agents are not off to a good start!

The gunfight begins!

The situation gets worse...

Down at the arroyo trying his hand at panning for gold when the gunfire erupts, 'Honest' Bob climbs out of the depression to see an outlaw cautiously moving alongside the walls of the orchard.  Bob quietly moves up to the brush lining the arroyo and then opens fire on the intruder.  Bob empties his gun without even scratching 'Rattlesnake' Dick!  Surprised by the shots whizzing by him, 'Rattlesnake' spins around and makes eye contact with Bob peering over the bush. Shouldering his rifle, 'Rattlesnake' plants a bullet right between the eyes.  Bob drops with a thud.  He will not be getting up.    

'Honest' Bob sneaks up and opens fire.

'Rattlesnake' whips around...

and plants one right between the eyes!

Back in the compound, seeing that 'English' is down, Ray whirls around to bring 'Squinty' into his sights.  Having only just regained his feet from his embarrassing fall, Sid hits the dirt again when Ray blazes away with his six shooter.  Focusing wholly on Sid, Ray does not notice that 'English' has gotten back on his feet. With Sid laying on the ground, 'English' has a clear shot at Ray.  Blazing away with his pistol, Ray is hit twice.  Ray hollers out as he falls to the ground. 

Ray spins around to face 'Squinty'...

and lets him have it!
'English' Bob returns the favor!

As 'Deadeye' hops the wall, 'English' hurries up to cover Sid.  Sid regains his feet a second time and puts a bullet at point blank into Ray to keep him down permanently.  Back at the orchard and having finished off 'Honest' Bob, 'Rattlesnake' quickly moves up toward the compound.  His spurs tangle up with his long duster and he stumbles to the ground.  Damn! 

Action heats up!

With Ray dispatched, both 'English' and 'Squinty' concentrate their fire against 'Deadeye'.  While 'English' provides covering fire, Sid advances on 'Deadeye' standing behind the stack of crates.  Sid fires as he moves up but empties his gun without bringing 'Deadeye' down.  'English' manages to hit 'Deadeye' in the arm.  'Deadeye' ducks back behind the crates.  After recovering from the shot in his arm, 'Deadeye' stands and true to his nickname puts a bullet into Sid's head.  Sid drops like a sack of potatoes and hits the ground with a 'thud'.

With guns blazing, Sid charges 'Deadeye'! 

Sid goes down with a bullet to his head.

By now, 'Rattlesnake' has gotten back on his feet and makes it to the compound wall.  With Sid down, both ruffians concentrate their fire against 'English' who finds himself without much cover.  Taking bullets to chest and legs, 'English' falls to the ground in serious pain.  Time to surrender Bob!   

With that, the gunfire stops and the gunfight ends.  The ruffians have lost Ray while the Pinkertons see both Sid and 'Honest' Bob dead and 'English' in no condition to carry on.

Wow!  Another exciting example of non-stop gunplay and yet another win for the interlopers.  Likewise, another game over in less than 90 minutes.  Congratulations Ray, Steve, and Lee.  My condolences to Colin, Dan, and Richard. 

We return to Adobe Wells Station on Monday when I host ten players in a remote, inter-group gun battle.  The game will feature six Rejects against four of the fellas from The No Name Group!  I have never hosted a remote game with ten players.  Hope the system and I can survive!  

Year In Review: Figures Painted

When 2024 began, I laid out two goals on the painting front.  For the first goal, I planned to cut back on the number of figures painted from 2023's total of 1,015.  The New Year's goal was reduced down to a more leisurely pace of 750.  I missed that goal but in a good way by painting 959 figures.

For the second goal, I challenged myself to paint more figures than purchased. On reducing The Lead Pile goal, I actually surpassed my expectations.  I managed to paint 945 more figures than purchased in 2024.  While The Lead Pile still looms large and I hardly notice even a little dent in its size, good progress was accomplished.  Setting this goal really helped in curbing my impulse buys.  In 2024, I only bought about 100 figures.  Now, that is progress!

Looking back over the last 31 years that painting records have been tracked, the last three years suggest my painting has fallen into a predictable pattern.  That is, roughly 1,000 figures have been painted and Seven Years War has dominated work at the painting desk.  2024 saw a few more figure counts in other periods, however, broadening my scope.  Those details are examined later on.  For figures painted, one foot, one gun, and one cavalry figure each count as one.  No increased counts for horse and rider.   

Let's examine the 2024 figure counts in more detail.

Monthly Totals
As the chart below shows, much of 2024 averaged a monthly output of about 60 figures.  Without the two big spikes in productivity in June and August, I may have hit the 2024 goal of 750 noted above.  Production began to look up as the year closed out with 100+ figures painted in each of November and December.  January 2025 maintained this trend.  December saw only SYW figures mustering out from the painting desk.

Totals by Era and Scale
Switching from the monthly bar chart to a pie chart, the total effort given to the SYW project continued into 2024.  Nearly 36% (350) of all figures painted were in this period.  The FPW project fired up in 2024 with 212 figures painted.  Even Biblicals saw a renewed interest in 2024 with 169 figures painted!  All three of these projects were goals set up for 2024.

When the counts are broken out by figure size (scale), it is no surprise that the emphasis on painting 15/18mm SYW and FPW figures pushed the weight to that figure size.  The chart below illustrates that nearly 63% of all figures painted fall into the 15/18mm classification.  25/28mm was a distant second with 239 figures painted.

15/18mm SYW/WAS Project Still On Top

As noted in the 2024 goals, expanding the SYW/WAS collection was a top priority.  That priority was in mind throughout the year and it paid off.

The graphic below shows that six countries saw units mustering out from the painting desk.  Not only did the main objective of fielding more Spanish and British/Hanoverians pan out but Bavaria, France, and Genoa all added units to the project.  Spain saw the largest influx of new recruits at 139 figures.  Hanover came in second with 70 figures added.

The graphic below illustrates the composition of each of the slices in the pie chart shown above.  Notice that Genoa and Bavaria only saw infantry painted while France and Britain saw only cavalry painted.  Hanover and Spain saw both infantry and cavalry painted.  Curiously, no country saw any artillery fielded in 2024.

    

In summary, 2024 was a solid year at the painting desk.  I hope to build on these successes in 2025.  

6 Games in 7 Days

Cooch's Bridge
photo courtesy Matt from wargamesinthedungeon

Last week saw heightened activity at the gaming table.  Action was fast and furious with six games played over the last seven days.  That is a lot of gaming in one week!

Despite the heavy gaming schedule, I managed to get some painting sessions in too.  There will be some new units mustering out from the workbench soon.

Anyway, a quick rundown of the games played this past week.

Monday saw Postie's Rejects hosted in two remote, Old West gunfights in 25mm.  The first game is chronicled at Rejects at Adobe Wells.  The second game awaits its rip-roaring write-up.

Thursday saw three CCA refights of the Battle of Po River in 6mm.  Kevin joined in for an afternoon F2F session featuring a trio of games preceded by a lunch stop.  For this session of three games, we swapped sides from our previous outing.  As in the first triplet of Po River games back in January, Carthage managed to squeeze out two victories to Rome's one. Scores were 7-4, 1-7, 7-4.  With Kevin and I knotted at three victories apiece, a third, tie-breaking session may be needed!

Finally, Sunday witnessed a return to Matt's long running AWI campaign.  The campaign is up to 1777 and the Battle of Cooch's Bridge.  With most of the Americans either dead on the field, captured, or running away, few Rebels remain to tell the tale from the American perspective.  Even the American commander managed to lose his head!  I leave it to the victors to write this history!  After a very long hiatus, good to get back to the table with Matt in a remote game.    

Cooch's Bridge
photo courtesy Matt from wargamesinthedungeon

Cooch's Bridge
photo courtesy Matt from wargamesinthedungeon

It was a busy week on the gaming front.  This week looks a bit more subdued.

Rejects at Adobe Wells Station

With details of the scenario laid out in On The Table Today and one, five-player game under my belt (see Gunfight at Adobe Wells Station), time to kick it up a notch with a six-player game hosting Postie's Rejects.  As in the previous game, some of the players submitted a character bio.  In the following game photos, white arrows show movement while red arrows show shooting. 

On to player bios.  

The Baddies

Rattlesnake Dick (Steve) - Little is known of Rattlesnake.  Hiding under his large hat, long bushy beard, and even longer duster, Rattlesnake tends to keep his thoughts and Winchester close to the chest. 

Ray Rogers (Ray) - another mysterious ne'er do well giving up few clues to either his background or motivation.  Rumor has it that Ray is an ex-lawman with little respect for the Pinkerton Agency.  Perhaps he had a run-in with them once before?

Grunt 'Deadeye' Brundle (Lee) - 'Deadeye' is a mean SOB who'll fight anyone, anywhere, anytime. Chews Baccy, hates beans, and washes religiously at least once a month cos his momma raised him right.  

The Pinkertons

'Honest' Bob (Dan) - an ex-lawman who sees law enforcement as a dead-end job.  The life of a Pinkerton agent has much more potential for personal enrichment.

'Squinty' Sid (Richard) - A fine Pinkerton veteran agent generally referred to as "Squinty Sid"... but never to his face! 

'English' Bob (Colin) - another fine Pinkerton agent with self-proclaimed experience on both sides of the Atlantic.  'English' has adapted to the rough and tumble code of the West, a situation far removed from his home country and more civilized forms of martial combat.

On to the gunfight!

At the first sign of trouble, the two Bobs ('Honest' and 'English') are the only two Pinkertons at the station.  'Honest' is inside the station and 'English' is positioned in the northwest corner of the compound.  'Squinty' Sid finds himself out of position down at the arroyo panning for a little gold in the small trickle of water passing down the arroyo.

Ray is the first outlaw to appear.  Emerging from the rocks to the north of the station, he makes a mad dash toward the shed.  From the relative safety behind the boulders from near where Ray bolted, 'Rattlesnake' Dick covers Ray's dash to the compound.  "English' moves quickly to find more substantial cover behind the adobe shed.  With his back now firmly against the outer wall, Ray quietly waits for the other two members of his gang to converge on the station.  'Deadeye' Brundle skirts the corral and approaches the compound from the south.   

Gunfighters position themselves.

With a double action, Ray runs through the gap in the compound wall taking cover behind a large stack of crates.  English Bob has little time to react as Ray's movements are nearly a complete surprise.  English barely makes his wheel to face Ray before a hot searing bullet from Ray's six-gun strikes him in his chest.  Letting out a moan as the impact knocks the wind out of him, English drops to the ground, unconscious.  Even though 'English' is down on the ground, Ray continues to empty his gun into the Englishmen's motionless body.  That's not cricket!

Honest Bob, still in the station, repositions himself so that he can see out of the window facing the center of the compound. Bob momentarily questions his decision to be caught inside the small confines of the station.  Bob watches as Deadeye hops the wall in the southwest corner of the compound.  Before Bob can get off a shot, Deadeye ducks behind cover and disappears.  While Honest Bob cannot see Squinty Sid, he hears him call out, "watch out!"  Sid takes up a position in the southeast corner of the compound drawing a bead on the pile of crates where Deadeye was last seen.  Approaching from the north, Rattlesnake reaches the compound wall.  From his vantage point, Rattlesnake has a line of sight to English, lying crumpled on the ground, Ray, off to his right, and Deadeye moving into the compound from the south.  

'English' Bob goes down!

Not heeding the Code of the West,
Ray keeps firing at 'English' down on the ground.

Seeing Sid out of the corner of his eye, Deadeye moves around the crates to take cover before Sid can squeeze off a round or two.  With English motionless on the ground, all three of the outlaws pump rounds into English's lifeless body.  Deadeye empties his gun at English Bob.  These fellas are taking no prisoners!  

'English' attracts fire from everyone!

Preoccupied with finishing off poor old English, Deadeye does not notice Sid slipping around the compound wall to come up behind him.  Determined not to be labeled as a 'backshooter', Sid hollers out before opening fire.  Deadeye never sees the bullet with his name on it.  Luckily, he turns his head when Sid shouts.  That little turn of the head probably spares Deadeye's life.  The bullet from Sid's six-gun only slices off his left ear.  While only a flesh wound, blood pours everywhere as Deadeye drops to the ground from the unexpected and sudden impact.  

Sid comes up from behind and lets Deadeye have it!

Knowing that one more Pinkerton gunman is still holed up in the station, Ray races across the compound sliding to a stop with his back to the northside of the station wall.  With the wooden window shutters closed from the inside, Ray has no way to poke his gun through the window and clear the interior by fire.  Instead, Ray waits pressed against the station wall.

Ray need not wait long.  Seeing English go down in the courtyard and knowing that Rattlesnake is positioned at the north wall, Honest Bob decides remaining within the confines of the building is no place to be.  Bob runs out of the building and around the outside to take up a firing position to Rattlesnake.  As Bob reaches the edge of the northside of the building, he is surprised to see Ray with his back against the wall, gun raised.  In a flash of guns blazing at close range, Bob is hit twice in the arm and chest.  Unfortunately for Bob, his gun jams as he blazes away.  Fortune smiles upon Ray.  He is untouched.  

Honest Bob and Ray blaze away over the wall!

From across the compound, Rattlesnake takes a shot with his rifle at Bob to finish him off.  Rattlesnake's rifle jams as well!  Bob now faces Ray only a few feet away and his gun is useless.  Bob tries to clear the jam but he is unable to fix the gun with the wound in his left arm giving him little control to manipulate his firearm.  Ray freezes, surprised at his good fortune.  Still, Bob's nerves hold as he recovers from the wounds under a time of extreme duress.

Honest Bob is in a tight spot!

Back on the other end of the compound, Sid takes one more shot to finish off Deadeye before the bandit can regain his footing.  Sid's gun jams!  "Damnit!", Sid shouts.  To finish off Deadeye, Sid will have to get closer.  Sid hops over the wall to deal with Deadeye. 

Sid hops the wall to get to Deadeye.

Back at the fight between Bob and Ray, Ray decides to take the fight to Bob.  Hopping the wall, Ray pops Bob one more time at point blank range.  The bullet strikes Bob in the left arm ripping open a gaping hole.  Bob drops to the ground in agony.

Ray takes the fight to Bob.

Across the compound, in the seconds it takes Sid to hop over the wall, Deadeye rises from the ground and regains his footing.  Maddened by being shot from behind, Deadeye, clubs his unloaded pistol and lunges at Sid.  In the scuffle, Sid is knocked out.  He lays motionless on the ground.

With all three of the Pinkertons either dead or down on the ground, this gunfight is over. 

The outlaws win this contest!  Congratulations to Ray, Lee, and Steve!

Surprisingly, neither Ray nor Rattlesnake took any hits in this gunfight.  Deadeye walked away with a piece of his left ear missing.  'English' Bob went down almost before the fight began.  What a quick and brutal fight.  Game lasted about 75 minutes.  With such a quick resolution, players asked to reset the game and have a second go.  That is what we did but that is a take for another time. 

Thanks guys!  This was an action-packed contest and good fun.  You all have one game of The Rules With No Name under your belts.  Given the ease of the bandits shooting a fella when he is down, the next time we gather for a game, I may introduce the 'Hate' and 'Fear' attributes into the game. 

Walloon Guard

After a few battle reports and a couple of thought pieces, time to return to parading some recent units mustering out from the painting desk.  January saw another productive month at the painting desk.  More than 100 figures marched off of the workbench.  At the photo booth, a logjam forms with a large number of units awaiting their turn.  Notice in the sidebar that I managed to reduce The Lead Pile by 945 figures in 2024.  Great result!  Expect a broader discussion on the painting front when I publish year-end review of figures painted.  

Anyway, into the photo box today are two units comprising the Spanish Walloon Guard.  These two units are made up of 46 figures with Old Glory foot led by Eureka mounted colonels.  Flags are by David at Not By Appointment. 

Why the Walloon Guard?  Well, if I am going to refight the 1743 Battle of Campo Santo, Walloon Guard need to be on the table.  This is a first but necessary step.

On the gaming front, Monday sees a second playing of the Adobe Wells gunfight.  That action will feature a completely new cast of characters as six of Postie's Rejects take to the field.  Should be fun as they try their hands at Triggeronometry in the Old West.