Projects Update

6mm Ancients (2nd Punic War):
My rekindled interest in ancients has been brought about mainly from recent playings of CC:A. Also helping to fan this interest has been the exchange of a good quantity of Romans. Received a package from Baccus last week containing an assortment of Roman and Carthaginian figures from the resculpted range. The retooling of the range has witnessed a great step forward in quality. These latest figures are really little gems and make some of the earlier sculpts I have quite poor. Word from Jake is that he has completed the Punic War project that I bartered for my 15mm Medievals. The new reinforcements will consist of:

•     64 Triarii w/ 1 cmd group, Buff shields
•     90 Irregular (Spanish/Cartheginian) w Spear and Shield (various colors)
•     12 Roman Cavalry (blue Shield and Red shirts)
•     36 Numidian Cavalry (Various Horse Colors)
•     60 Irregulars with Slings and shields.
•     1 Roman Command Group (3 Figs)

Once I sort all of the elements and account for what I currently have and what is in the pipeline, it will be interesting to see the size/composition of the two combatants' forces. It appears I will end up with a large force of Numidian cavalry and irregular foot. I'll await receipt to see how these irregulars are manufactured (in abreast strips or in column strips). Jake is still interested in bartering my 28mm painted SpanAm War Spanish for more 6mm figures and painting. From memory, I have about 120 infantry and a few guns with crew with which to trade.

Basing of the Romans is complete as is the rebasing of the Carthaginian contingents. With only a few unused bases remaining, another order to Litko is needed. Thirty-two Triarii have been primed and awaiting in queue behind the 28mm French battalion.

Not 6mm related, but I ordered a sample of 28mm figures from Aventine Miniatures that also arrived last week. Wow! These figures are gorgeous.

28mm Napoleonic Project:
Progress is being made on the Brigade Games' French but activity has slowed as I base the 6mm Punic Wars collection.

April 2011 Painting Totals:
April witnessed the first month in 2011 where my output exceeded 100 figures. All figures for the Albuera battle are in place and ready for action.

Monthly Painting Totals MAR 2012

10mm ACW Project:
Musket Miniatures' pack of fences arrived within two weeks. Quick turn-around from Musket Miniatures and the product looks very servicable. Once assembled and painted, these fences will look good on the gaming table.

Painting Totals for March:
Not much throughput in March. I either lost the painting mojo or the ACW rebasing activity consumed much of my hobby time. Perhaps the lack of production was due to a combination of both. April production should pick up as focus returns to painting.

Monthly Painting Tally for MAR 2012

Unit Name	Nation	Era	Scale	Figure Cnt	Equip Cnt
Hastati	Rome	Punic Wars	6mm	16
Hastati	Rome	Punic Wars	6mm	16
Princepes	Rome	Punic Wars	6mm	24
Princepes	Rome	Punic Wars	6mm	24
Triarii	Rome	Punic Wars	6mm	32
		Totals		112

Projects Update

I recently purchased Dorn and Engelmann’s Infantry Regiments of Frederick the Great from Barnes and Noble. However, the book arrived damaged with a torn jacket. Barnes and Noble said they could not order a replacement copy.
The dust jacket on this book features a handsome painting of Prussian standard bearers passing in review (http://www.schifferbooks.com/newschiffer/book_template.php?isbn=0887401635) and I would like to have an unblemished cover. Being a bit irritated with B&N's customer service, I sent an e-mail to the publisher of the book, Schiffer Books, explaining the situation and asking if I could order a replacement dust jacket. The publisher replied that same afternoon stating that a replacement would be sent gratis within 48 hours.

Well, the replacement dust jacket arrived within a week and I am very pleased to have a crisp, unscathed dust jacket. This latest episode (and there have been many) with B&N may be the catalyst that finally pushes me away from ordering again.

10mm ACW Project:
With rebasing finished, focus turned to recreating the RFF QRS to accommodate my 10mm basing. I managed to condense the existing QRS to front and back of a single, 8"x11" sheet of paper. The primary QRS change was to replace occurrences of 'stands' with 'hits'. Since infantry are based two strips to one base representing two rank infantry, each base can take two hits before being eliminated. Cavalry still takes only one hit as before. After having shared the source of his excellent looking fences, I placed an order with Musket Miniatures. This is my first order from MM. We'll see how it goes. I primed the last six of the 24 limbers I have. These limbers will be added into the painting queue.

Using the battlefield layout from Albuera, I am laying out an ACW scenario set in 1862 Virginia. Of course, I replaced the Napoleonic Spanish houses with mid-19th century American buildings but all else remained much the same. The game will pit Williams' Federal division against elements of A.P. Hill's Light Division. The Federals will be deployed across the high ground with a commanding view of the valley. A.P. Hill will be bringing three brigades on table by two approaches with orders to clear the heights and seize certain key terrain objectives.

15mm Second War of Italian Independence Project:
Currently on the painting table are 48 Italian infantry to build four line battalions. These 48 figures are proving difficult on which to make much headway. I have tackled this number of figures in the past and often this large number seems daunting and I swear I won't repeat painting this many figures in one go. Well, I must forget the pain upon completion of such a large grouping and I dive once more into the morass. As a future reminder to myself, 24-28 figures ought to be my maximum for any one, painting group.

CCA Contests

Gaming has been limited to several sessions of C&CA. Nick and I faced off again with C&CA in a Friday night session on the 2nd. In this meeting, we played Beneventum three times. We each won one game as the Romans and Nick one the final game as the Carthaginians. All three games were very closely contested affairs. In fact, two of the three games went from the side trailing in banner count 6 - 5 to winning 6 banners to 7 by capturing two banners on the last turn.

On the 10th, I traveled to CDA to face off against Scott. I believe we played eight games. I may have won two. It was a tough day on the battlefield for my troops. My faction was decisively outplayed by Scott in nearly all scenarios.

On the 17th, Nick and I again wrestled with three replays of Bagradas. The Romans won two games while the Cathaginians one only one. We each won one game as Roman while Nick picked up the sole Carthaginian victory. The key to my Roman victory was Nick advancing his three elephants to the forefront of his battleline early in the contest. I then played a double time card and advanced three units of medium infantry (two with leaders) to engage and destroy all three elephants.

On the painting front, not much painting has been completed in March, thus far. The only figures finished are 100+ 6mm ancients. Much of my hobby time has been spent rebasing the 10mm ACW collection. Last night saw the completion of the rebasing project.

Projects Update and CCA

Kevin and I met at Scott's today for an afternoon of Command and Colors: Ancients. We played through five games with three games of Dertosa before the lunch break and then two games of Pharsulus after lunch. Although I did not note games times, I wager few of the games exceeded one hour in length. In Dertosa, the Romans won twice and Pharsulus saw each combatant take a victory. The system is quite elegant and play is smooth. When heavy infantry are involved, losses (and banners) and mount quickly. In my Pharsulus game with Kevin, the heavies on both sides dealt heavy casualties on their opposition and created a number of breaches in the line. Next up, Kevin has offered to host a Command and Colors: Napoleonics game. I look forward to giving a few of the smaller British vs. French Napoleonic battles a try.

18mm SYW Project:
The first battalion of Swiss Regiment Diesbach is finished. The Blue Moon figures are really quite handsome with good proportions and nice detail. They fit well with Eureka's SYW range and offer a substantial discount over the Eurekas. Following the Swiss battalion are two battalions of Eureka Prussian infantry. Both battalions are from Musketeer Regiment #19 and are being finished this weekend. Next up for the SYW project will be the grenadier companies from IR#8 and IR#19.

15mm Napoleonic Project:
After re-reading the Albuera OOB's, I discovered that there was one Spanish battery (Miranda's) of 6 pounders at Albuera. So, I tore open the bag of Spanish artillery and will be priming figures for two Spanish batteries. On the painting table are two batteries of Portuguese artillery. With a number of orchards covering the battlefield, I have been looking for alternatives to my collection of conifers. Searching the web, I found a model train company (JTT & Partners, MiniatureTree.com) that sells 1" and 2" deciduous trees. The package arrived this week and the trees both look nice and provide a good value at 55 trees for $27. I haven't decide to base these in clusters or individually.

Projects Update

I haven't been active in miniature gaming but I did spark an interest in Command and Colors: Ancients with both Paul and my son-in-law, Nick. Nick saw the game set up on the dining room table after a session in which I introduced Paul to the system. Paul enjoyed the game very much and is looking forward to more games when he is in town. Nick, likewise, really enjoyed the game and has asked for another session Friday evening. In our first session, Nick beat me three times in Cannae. We'll see if I can turn the table on Friday. 

Scott has a General de Brigade game slated for Saturday at his house in Couer d'Alene. Tentatively, the plan is to have a French vs Austrian match-up. It will be interesting to see what scenario Scott cooks up and enjoyable to face Scott and Kevin on the field of battle.

Monthly Painting Tally for FEB 2012

Unit Name	Nation	Era	Scale	Figure Cnt	Equip Cnt
Nadasdy IR#39 w/Mtd Cmd /1	Austria	Bonaparte in Italy and Switzerland	18mm	13
Nadasdy IR#39 w/Mtd Cmd /2	Austria	Bonaparte in Italy and Switzerland	18mm	13
Novarra Light Horse Regment SQN 1,2,3,4	Piedmont	Italian War of Independence	15mm	12
Ligne Regiment in Shako w/Mtd Cmd	France	Napoleonic Wars	15mm	13
Ligne Regiment in Shako w/Mtd Cmd	France	Napoleonic Wars	15mm	13
Browne IR#36/2 w/mtd cmd	Austria	Seven Years War	18mm	23
		Totals		87

18mm SYW Project:
A small Eureka order was placed with Scott to bring in a few additional SYW figures. I wanted to take a look at the new French hussars in mirliton as well as the Russian cossacks. The French hussars are much better posed than ether the Austrians or Prussians. Recently completed was the second battalion of IR#36, Browne. On the painting table are two squadrons (12 figures total) of Prussian dragoons.

18mm Napoleonic Project:
Two units of Campaign Game Miniatures' French in campaign dress are finished. Nice figures that paint up very quickly. Like the Austrians painted earlier, the French are in the larger, chunkier style.

Each unit contains one AB mounted officer.

10mm ACW Project:
Rebasing of the infantry has begun. Unfortunately, I ran out of bases and have had to make two additional orders to Litko in a futile attempt to keep up with my conversion activity. Currently, I am about 75% complete on the infantry rebasing but have ground to a halt awaiting the next Litko resupply. Since one infantry stand under the old basing scheme contained one command strip and three rank and file strips, I will end up with two stands under the new scheme. The result is that I will have one stand with command for every rank and file stand.

My thought is to use this to my advantage on the gaming table. Perhaps, use the number of command stands to denote the morale status of the unit. That is, a Fresh unit would begin with three command stands, lose one command stand when it drops to Worn, and lose a second command stand when it drops to Spent. Alternatively, the number of command stands could denote each regiment's quality.

15mm Second War of Italian Independence Project:
Four squadrons of Sardinian light horse have passed across the painting table. These four squadrons represent the Novarra regiment and all are armed with lances. Also included is a snapshot of Bersaglieri. The figures are Mirliton.

Monthly Painting Totals JAN 2012

Monthly Painting Tally for JAN 2012

Unit Name	Nation	Era	Scale	Figure Cnt	Equip Cnt
Union Zouave Infantry Brigade	USA	American Civil War	10mm	20
Line Regiment in Bicorn w/Mtd Cmd	France	Bonaparte in Italy and Switzerland	18mm	13
Artillery and 4 crew	Piedmont	Italian War of Independence	15mm	4	1
Infantry Regiment #18 w/mtd cmd	Austria	Napoleonic Wars	15mm	13
Ligne Regiment in Shako w/Mtd Cmd	France	Napoleonic Wars	15mm	13
Ligne Regiment in Shako w/Mtd Cmd	France	Napoleonic Wars	15mm	13
Ligne Regiment in Shako w/Mtd Cmd	France	Napoleonic Wars	15mm	13
Fusilier Regiment #46/1 w/mtd cmd	Prussia	Seven Years War	18mm	23
Musketeer Regiment #25/2 w/mtd cmd	Prussia	Seven Years War	18mm	27
		Totals		139