Latest video, another game of Battle Cry & Terminator Marines!

It occurred to me fairly recently that the 15 years of photos now lost in the posts of the past could be used to make a number of period specific videos for my YouTube channel. Having started with a couple from Old Johns commission work I have this time moved on to the French and Indian War collection that I put together around 10 years ago or so. 

Battle Cry.

I played another game of Battle Cry on Friday morning, this time the 1st Bull Run scenario and once again I really enjoyed myself. It ended in a 6 to 3 Union victory with the Confederate centre deployed on the hill completely devastated by concentrated Union fire, I'm sure that playing the Forced march card as the first card really allowed the Union centre to get quickly into firing line and put the Rebs on the back foot from the start. Battle Cry is not as nuanced as Commands & Colors Napoleonics, for example when the unit that Stonewall Jackson was attached to on the hill was eliminated there was no roll to see if he became a casualty, a lone General needs to be attacked by a fresh unit, so he slipped away on the next Reb turn!

Having been forced to retreat from the hill by Union fire Jackson led his unit back up again where it was destroyed by withering Union fire.

 

The Rebs occupied the hill along it's length but the firefight went very much in the Unions favour! 

Finally, David and I had a long chat on the phone last weekend where we discussed the painting of his figures. These are my first ever Sci Fi figures so I needed a lot of guidance but here are the completed first two and I am now using these as the basis of the rest of the Terminator 'Salamander' squad.

A game of 'Battle Cry', Space Marines & some Vintage figures!

An odd mix in the title there I know, but it's just what's been occupying my time and my thoughts this week so here we go!

To begin with I played my first full game of Battle Cry on Friday afternoon and enjoyed every minute of it. Rather than begin with the first scenario (which is 1st Bull Run) I simply put down some terrain tiles and then placed all of my units on the board, 25 infantry, 6 artillery and 4 cavalry so far. Probably too many units on the board but after a couple of hours play it resulted in a Union victory 5 to 3. I played the game on my painting desk where it was well lit so I took a few photos. I simply played both hands of command cards the best I could but I think that to begin with both sides were slightly hampered by the cards until I realised that I had not shuffled the pack to begin with! Once the armies became engaged - the forced march card is brilliant for getting units into the fight - then casualties began to mount up. The Rebs played the 'Fieldworks' card (I think it's called that) so could throw up three sections of hasty works which they did when deployed on a hill forcing the Yanks to switch targets. The cavalry 'Hit and Run' card was great fun and used to good effect. The artillery 'Bombard' card is a powerful card allowing all artillery units to fire twice that move. Unlike Commands & Colors dice are not reduced as units take hits in Battle Cry which took a bit of getting used to begin with. All in all a really good fun game. Set up and pack away was very quick and easy. From this week I'll start to play through the scenarios in order.

Space Marines! In exchange for this wonderful game AND the complete set of the Time Life ACW books (Oh yes), I'll be painting around 60 Warhammer 28mm figures and intend to make the very best job of them. Obviously it's something completely new to me but I do enjoy a painting challenge. More on this as things progress but yesterday I painted an initial test figure to try out a shade of green ( this unit are called the Salamanders), will no doubt need to make changes to the colours etc but it was good to get some paint on one of the figures and I'll be discussing things with David this morning.

Along with the game arrived a nice little extra gift from David, this wonderful set of 30mm 'Jason' ECW figures were part of the late Eric Knowles collection and will make a great little vignette for display, the castings are packed with period character so another little painting project on the cards.

Funny enough I also painted a group of 30mm ECW figures for Old John a couple of weeks ago which John tells me are by Hinton Hunt, interesting as I had not realised that HH made figures in this scale but again they are really nice figures.

Rollinmats review and 150th Anniversary Battle Cry!

Another quick video, a review of a printed rubber backed gaming mat by Rollingmats of Spain and I have finally got my hands on a copy of Battle Cry thanks to David Crook, all revealed in the video!

Almost 8 weeks later it's back!

Postie bought me this little surprise today (see my previous posts). At least the contents are all intact. No word on  the  £14.00 postage refund but I'm relieved to have it back as it contains £400 worth of painted figures that I thought was lost! Finishing off Noels current order and then the entire batch will be heading off again.

A busy start to the year!

As I'm fortunate enough to retain a set of regular customers I will keep the painting service running for at least another year. One decision I have had to reluctantly make is that I can't accept anything smaller than Epic 13.5mm scale from now on. To be honest there has been a very slight deterioration to my focus over the last year, not serious but I want to avoid unnecessary strain. I do tend to 'rest my eyes' for an hour in the afternoon  (or as my wife calls it 'taking a snooze'), but I'm still putting in several hours each day at the painting desk be it priming, painting or basing. 

That said I'm keeping busy and will still be rolling out monthly batches for Old John, Mark, Noel and Stephen. A few photos of recent stuff below which includes Epic scale 3D resin Dutch infantry battalions, Warlord Epic ACW's (another 40 strip order from Noel), more lovely Streltsi infantry for Old John along with a group of rare 30mm scale Hinton Hunt ECW's. I'll be starting work on Mark's 18mm AB Peninsular project in March.

For myself I have been quietly beavering away at something new, building up ACW armies for use on the Battle Cry game board replacing the individual plastic soldiers with small bases, 4 per unit. This has involved trimming down a lot of  Epic strips as you can see, it's been a labour of love but about done with over 600 figures painted. What began as a retro Fire & Fury project has developed into this because I have decided that from now on I want to focus on playing boardgames with miniatures, in comfort on my painting desk. So no more terrain building for me from now on.

I'll have more  exciting news about the Battle Cry game in a future post. 

The Donald Featherstone collection.

If you ever wondered what became of the extensive collection of wargaming figures owned by the late Donald Featherstone then you might enjoy this video. It's just one of a series made around 6 to 8 years by Daniel Borris who purchased around 4000 figures from Donald plus all of his original manuscripts. The collection is displayed under glass and features many ranges of figures Hinchliffe, Minifigs, Les Higgins, Hinton Hunt etc. The quality of the video is not the best but I was able to clearly make out the Minifigs Royalist cavalry used in the book wargaming Pike and Shot that I loved as a teenager. I have exchanged a few messages with Daniel over the years and his passion for collecting is wonderful.

If you enjoy this one Daniel has around 15 videos on his channel featuring various aspects of the collection in greater detail.

Enjoy the  nostalgia!

Round and round it goes!

Quickly following on from the last post, Cleburnes Division are now on the way back to the UK from Ireland following a brief skirmish at  Dublin Mail Centre. 

Tracking says 'Returning to sender' due to wrong customs information apparently but I filled it in as usual and it was checked by the PO counter lady as usual. I must have sent at least 18 of these packages to the same destination and never an issue before although they can be very slow and do get held up at customs awaiting additional custom charges that Noel has to pay before delivery. The lady in the local Post Office tells me that post to Ireland is currently notoriously bad for returns. Oh well, as Noel says at least we know where it is now!

I have reset the comments box so if anyone else is having similar problems please let me  know.

Cheers,

Lee.

C'mon Boys, back we go!

And Dublin!