Republique+

The postman dropped off a package from Multiman Publishing Friday afternoon. In the box was one copy each of the games Guadalajara (SCS series) and Baltic Gap (OCS series). Although I have been active in reducing my wargame collection, MMPs Black Friday sale tempted me to pick up these two offerings at 50% discount. I haven't played either of these series in at least ten years and have been wanting to revisit the updated, OCS series. My recent visit to Spain and a reading of the Spanish Civil War (SCW) conflict whetted my appetite to try a SCW game at the SCS level.

Republique+:
I have made several changes to Republique since the last time the group gamed the rules. In fact, most of the original rules have been supplanted by additional mechanisms to the point that I think it fitting that the current version ought to be deemed, Republique+. Much of the original game engine is still under hood somewhere but changes were made to better reflect my view of grand tactical, Napoleonic combat.

Recent additions include:
All die roll resolution has been converted to D6. In assault especially, the use of 1D10 resulted in too much randomness for my tastes. Of course, entering into battle on the Napoleonic battlefield was quite risky but the old opposed 1D10 roll could really skew the results even if one of the participants maintained a decided superiority in modifiers. To reduce the impact of a potentially devastating DRM of +/- 9 'random' element, I have downgraded the random component to an opposed roll with 1D6 each.

Assault Results table has been condensed; narrowing the spread of results slightly.
All measurements have been converted from inches to 'Base Depths' (BD). My intention is to increase play speed by having all measurement in units with less granularity. Since all bases are 1-1/2 inches deep, one Base Depth equals 1-1/2 inches. Measurement sticks will be constructed to eliminate the use of tape measures.

With the change to measurments reported in BDs, all movement rates and ranges have been converted into BD equivalents.

Artillery fire modifiers now include an asymmetrical (-1) DR modifier for firing up one or more elevation levels or down two or more levels.

Artillery fire points are halved if the battery moved or changed formation during the turn.

Artillery fire modifiers now include adverse modifiers dependent upon morale status of the firing battery. Before, batteries could either fire or not fire depending upon morale status. Now the battery may still fire but with diminishing effect as the battery loses cohesion.

Another change to speed play was to make units in disordered morale state automatically rally. Before, much time was lost resolving rallies for disordered units when in most situations (unit has morale grade of Average or better), the unit would successfully pass its Rally roll and return to Ordered status. For solo play, I modify this by adding the restriction that disordered rally is only automatic if the unit is outside of either unopposed skirmisher range or artillery arc of fire.

28mm Ancients (2nd Punic War):
Two, 12 figure units of Renegade velites are on the painting table and nearing completion. For basing, each figure pair will be based on one 60mm x 30mm stand.

Projects Update

Scott and Kevin came over on Saturday for several hours of Command and Colors: Ancients and a good bit of kibitzing. I lost count on the number of games played but I believe the total may have been around a dozen. Twelve games in four hours including a break for lunch is quite an impressive feat. Most of the games were real nail-biters coming down to the last banner. Great fun and a system we should put into rotation more frequently.

With the ECW collection pictorially documented, I ought to consider tackling another collection to add to the documentum. With only a few units of 28mm Punic War Romans completed, perhaps, that would be an easy, next step.

30mm ECW Project:
Work is finished on the final Scottish foote regiment. Painted in hodden grey, this Renegade regiment can be fielded with either combatant. Although Scott commented that the Renegade figures look a little squashed, I like the look of the Renegade ECW line and they are a pleasure to paint.

What I found in the ECW Ironsides' games played is that the size of my current collection is at the "sufficient and complete" stage. That is, twelve units of foote and nine regiments of horse (per side) deployed the length of a twelve foot table not only "completely" covers the length of the table but keeps two players per side "sufficiently" engaged. Actually, this force size allows four or five players per side assigned as:
2 cavalry commanders - one for each wing
2 infantry commanders - one for each infantry brigade (or first line and second line)
1 Lord General/Master of Ordinance

18mm SYW Project:
Ordered a few Blue Moon figures to add to the collection. My plan is to add Hessian Jaegers from the BM AWI range as Prussian jaegers and Hessian fusiliers as Prussian fusiliers. Since the BM French fit in nicely with the Eureka range, I am hopeful that the BM Hessians will fit in with the Eureka Prussians. To my eye, the Eureka fusiliers' mitre is too big with respect to the grenadiers so I am hopeful to use the BM Hessian fusiliers for future, Prussian fusilier battalions.

Battle of Albuera:
The Battle of Albuera is slated for 17DEC2011. I changed the earlier initial deployments to begin the game at the 0800 turn rather than the 0930 turn. The French will now have the options of attack points and not be forced into initial assaults on the Allied right. The Spanish will still be in their initial north-south deployments on the heights and will have to maneuver into positions to counter any French attacks or redeployments. Godinot is still poised to assault la Albuera at the start.

Projects Update

18mm 1799 Italian Project:
Two additional French line battalions were added. Both battalions are composed of AB figures. Of course, the eagle would not have been present but you use what you have.






28mm Napoleonic Project:
I recently ordered eight Brigade Games' early chasseurs a cheval as a sample of Lon's horse. I have several battalions of French and British line and like them very much despite their rather high-end price. The French chasseurs have much character and are equally as a nice as the infantry. These eight horsemen are painted as the 5th Chasseurs a Cheval.




30mm ECW Project:
Photos of the ECW collection have been posted under the Projects section. The Project_ECW page contains a photo of each unit in the collection. On the painting table is the last unit of Renegade Scots. If I could acquire two more Scottish pikemen, I would have enough figures to muster one more Scottish foote regiment.

MMP Black Friday Sale / Projects Update

While I have recently been in a selling-off mode for a couple of months with respect to my boardgames' collection, I used MMPs Black Friday sale to pick up two games. I chose one OCS game (Baltic Gap) and one SCS game (Guadalajara). I had fond experiences with OCS from 15+ years ago and wanted to see a more recent version of the rules and, perhaps, refresh my memory on the mechanics. I sold Hube's Pocket but still have Tunisia, Guderian's Blitzkrieg, and Enemy at the Gates. I was looking for an OCS title that wasn't too big and hope that BG will fit that requirement. MMP has a France 1940 OCS game in Pre-order that interests me, I will wait on that title until it is released. Boardgames downsizing seemed justified since my stacks of games have been languishing on the shelves for many years. That, and my focus has gravitated towards miniatures games almost exclusively.

November is shaping up to yield another productive month covering a wide range of sizes and periods. Details will follow with my month-end painting tally.

6mm CCA Project:  
Jake stopped by on the 11th to drop off the remaining 6mm ancients that we bartered about one year ago. Included in the delivery was an assortment of Baccus foot and horse with enough figures for the following:

• Two stands of Roman cavalry (2x7 figs).
• One stand of command (3 figs).
• Six stands of Moorish/Numidian light cavalry (6x5 figs).
• Seven stands of Ballearic slingers (7x4 figs).
• Eight stands of Spanish scutarii (8x12 figs).
• Two stands of Roman triarii (2x32 figs).

 All of these figures have been based and flocked during the Thanksgiving holiday.

In addition to the above figures (courtesy of Jake), I painted two stands of Celtic/Gallic warbands (18 figs each). Added to the primed inventory box are 4 stands of Carthaginian citizen infantry. Based on discussions with Scott, these will be based as medium infantry; each stand holding 24 figures per base.

30mm ECW Project: 
Having only enough Renegade figures to complete two more foote regiments and not having completed any regiments for 2011, I put 27 figures into the painting queue. These figures will muster as the Queen's Regiment of Foote. The flag is from GMB Flags. A picture of the completed regiment is below.

I spent a couple of hours on Friday taking photos of the ECW collection on a unit by unit basis. Now, I have pictorial evidence of each unit in this collection.  My photo session really helped quantify the units present and I may attempt adding the pictures into the Miniatures Painting Log database. Once I resize all of the photos, I plan to post them in the Projects folder.

Bocadillas in Madrid

 During our recent trip to Spain, Madrid was our home base for a few days. Besides a great calamari bocadilla on the Plaza Major, I stumbled upon a great game shop a few blocks away. The shop is called Atlantica Juegos (http://www.atlanticajuegos.com/). The shop has walls of miniatures and a very nice collection of books, rulesets, and boardgames. They also produce their own line of 28mm SCW figures. With walls covered in figures, I was finally able to physically browse through hundreds of packs of Warmodelling and Perry figures. While I bought no figures, I did pick up two uniform books on the SYW.

18mm SYW Project:
Battalion #2 Austrian IR#7 Neipperg is on the painting table along with battalion #2 from Grenz Regiment - Carsltadt Liccaner. The grenadier companies from Neipperg will be crossing the painting table following completion of these two battalions.

Received an order from Eureka this week containing a resupply of Prussian foot, mounted battalion command, and Russian hussars. Even though I don't have any Russians, I picked up the 12 Russian hussars in Mirliton to use as either Austrian or Prussians. SYW hussars were often quite generic among nationalities and the Russian hussars have a much smaller footprint than the larger and more sprawling Austrian and Prussian light horse. In fact, I had to mount the Austrian and Prussian hussars on bases 40mm in depth rather than my standard 30mm depth used for cuirassiers, dragoons, and foot.

28mm Napoleonic Project:
On the painting table is one battalion of Brigade Games' early French in bicorn. The battalion will consist of 16 figures distributed on four stands and two skirmishers. When I began the unit, I lacked two Brigade Games' skirmishers so I grabbed two, left over Elite Miniatures' skirmishers in shako. Late last week, an order from Brigade Games arrived containing the two French skirmishers needed, a few extra British heads in shako, and eight, early French chasseurs a cheval.

The early French chasseurs look really nice but I must compare them size-wise with my existing Front Rank cavalry before I make judgment. The two Brigade Games' skirmishers will be mustering with their parent battalion.

Also on the painting block are two mounted officers: one British and one French. Primers and ready for paint are four more mounted officers to command the troops already painted. In the game at Kevin's, I would have not had enough command if more players has participated. Painting additional commanders will allow each player to field (and command) one brigade. While all mounted commanders are currently based individually, I may create divisional bases containing two officers or one officer and an ADC.

Painting Lull

Nearly two months since my prior update. What have I been doing? As seen from the AUG and SEP Painting Tallies, not much. In the painting work that did get finished, most centered on the 18mm SYW project. The only other completed units were my first Brigade Games British (nice figures) and one Austrian grenadier battalion for the 1859 campaign. Hopefully, October's output will see an improvement.

Met with Scott at Kevin's for two games on Saturday. I GM'd the morning game consisting of a Napoleonic brigade action set in the Peninsula. In the afternoon, Kevin GM'd a similarly sized Napoleonic game set in Egypt. Sunday's planned game at Scott's was scrubbed due to illness.

My game was based on the action on the Coa in 1810 where the British were attacked by the French near Almeda. The British goal was to either hold the village and bridge or failing that, escape over the bridge and deny the crossing of the Coa to the French. The French focused the thrust of their attack towards the British LOC and effectively cut the the British off from their escape route. Below is one shot of the Coa action with the French bearing down upon the British defenders and forcing them to fall back away from their LOC. Unfortunately, for the British in our game, the British made a stubborn defense at the village and were virtually eliminated.

18mm SYW Project:
Battalion #1 of Austrian IR#48 - Luzan was completed in July and battalion #2 appears in the August Painting Tally. Also in August, I finished the first battalion of Austrian IR#7 Neipperg and four squadrons of horse. These four squadrons were mustered to bring two Austrian horse regiments up to six squadron strength.

Summer Doldrums

Summertime gaming activities have slowed dramatically.  With better weather, much time has been spent out on the bike getting miles in on the road rather than at the gym.  July painting totals still showed good progress but August totals will take a precipitous drop.  

15mm Narvik Project:

One more French H-39 and one Panhard were added to the Narvik project.  Also completed 1-1/2 companies of chasseurs alpins.