'Battle Cry' Epic project is about done!

 This has all come together fairly quickly and with the completion of the figures, (save for a few little extras), the arrival of the PVC battle mat and the terrain hexes in progress I'm almost there. I have the card on order to print a set of command cards using the printer friendly files from the C&C/Battle Cry website and rules printed from the same site.

'Battle Cry' - 24 infantry, 4 guns, cavalry mounted and dismounted plus Generals.

Terrain tiles. 

As mentioned previously I had intended to simply print these, but having done a few trial prints and placed figure bases on them it did not look right. I think what struck me most was the inability to identify line of sight, so I thought about ways of making terrain tiles that remained in keeping with the overall 'game look' that I wanted but enabled me to feature trees, hills, towns etc without going down the whole realistic terrain build. After a lot of thought I decided to go with what you see below and I think it's both functional and effective and I think works well on my PVC mat. 

The trees are functional rather than pretty!

Hill topper tile, needs some grass adding to finish.

Can't get a decent photo of the mat yet!

Cheap and cheerful was the plan for this project and so in keeping with that the trees are simply pieces of Javis clump foliage dipped in watered down PVA and based on 1p coins. They are more functional than realistic because I wanted to be able to place three trees in each wood/forest hex and place them around my 60x35mm bases when occupied. I'm happy with the look of them. 

I spent a fair bit of time trying to represent corn fields, firstly just printed and then using cut down trips of washing up sponge. But I wanted a base of figures to be to stand in them and not on them and eventually came up with this simple solution below, again not perfect but keeping with the overall low relief look whilst clearly showing blocked line of sight to those within or behind. The next issue was representing towns and again I started with printed hexes then tried to make something that features top down buildings which just looked plain silly! My solution here is to use some of Steve Clays wonderful 'Battlescale' 6mm ACW models, selecting only the taller two story buildings that come in around 35mm tall and will do what I what them to do nicely with the 13mm scale Epics. Larger scale 10mm options would just not work with the 75mm hexes and look out of place in the overall low relief look. I'm just waiting for them to arrive. Hills will be 10mm foamboard topped with a hex.

Below: A short pan across the ranks!

More 7th Cavalry and Epic ACW's!

Another two troops of 7th US cavalry - B Troop and L Troop - have been painted for Mark bringing the total so far to four with a further two to paint plus the dismounted figures for all six troops. I have tried to add a touch more contrast to the general Blue shades with some slightly more faded shades and overall I think they work well. B Troop were mounted on Bay horses as were L Troop but Mark requested that L be mounted on Black horse for a bit of contrast. The remaining troops will ride Sorrel horses and of course the famous Grey horse troop E. In front are the mounted and dismounted versions of General George Armstrong Custer, the latter with repainted blue battle shirt piped white. There also remains a further 100 mounted Indians plus lots of civilians/cowboys etc so still a fair way to go yet.

Qualiticast 20mm's and Satin varnished.

My own Epic Battle Cry project is also coming along well with 22 infantry bases now completed of the planned 24. I'm starting to print and fix the rear unit labels now on the black strip. Also made a start on the 'top down' terrain tiles and will be printing a set of command cards this week using the printer friendly version that is available as the wording is much sharper and easier to read.

Still waiting for the printed mat to be shipped from Tinywargames as they seem to have a bit of a backlog on orders.

Royal Mail meltdown and Ariel landscapes !

I feel the need to have a bit of a rant regarding the current state of the Royal Mail postal service! I don't know how reliable it is for you chaps but around here in the Medway area of Kent it is appalling, no other word for it. I'm not knocking the individual posties for one moment, but the  reliability of the service is very patchy and they will admit that they are unable to maintain a daily delivery service and that agency and courier staff are employed to cover some weekends. I have had several examples of poor service in the last couple of weeks alone. Firstly, a 10 day wait for a first class signed for package posted to me by Old John and containing a Graham Farish 0-6-0 tank locomotive purchased on my behalf from John's friends shop. When it failed to arrive I checked the tracker which showed a failed delivery attempt on the Sunday (!) with no card left. I was in all day that day and mostly sat painting by the window and with Poppy the dog in the room who always barks when the door knocks. I  duly booked a redelivery for the Thursday, waited in and again it failed to arrive. This left me having to wait over Easter thinking it would be delivered on the Tuesday but again nothing. On Wednesday I managed to catch the postman who suggested I rebook again but said he would check at the delivery office. On Thursday he pulled up in his van at 3.40pm and knocked on the door saying "I think this is what you have been waiting for". This was a great relief to me and also to John and his wife Cynthia (who had posted the package), and I know it caused them a lot of stress and worry. 

In addition to the above a package from eBay due to be delivered on a Thursday arrived on the following Monday and this last week a 1st class letter posted to me on the previous Wednesday was delivered on Monday. I think you will agree this is a rather shoddy state of affairs.

Creating terrain tiles for 'Battle Cry'.

With the PVC game mat now on order from Tinywargames I have been thinking about putting together other components required for the game. I have sourced the  rules from the 150th Anniversary Edition, a printer friendly set of replacement command cards and even printable patches for the dice. Now to the question of terrain tiles. My idea has been to print the tiles and glue to 75mm MDF hexes, it is possible to find the original tile designs but I want to make my own using satellite or drone images. I have had some success in this, a few examples/ideas you can see below including woods, corn and wheat fields etc. I also have hilltops and roads rivers etc. It's a fun exercise and I hope to have something ready to print by the weekend. My main issue is finding a suitable town hex design but I have some ideas. In sharing a few example images I should state that all are readily found on Google and will only be used for my personal use.

Wheatfield?

Cornfield?

'Unofficial' BC tile.

Unofficial 'Dunker Church'

I like this for woods.

'Peach Orchard'

Wheatfield.

Some thoughts on my 'Battle Cry' project.

We are now comfortably settled into our new permanent home and enjoying bungalow life. After the upheavals of the last few months it feels good and as I said to my wife the only way I'll be leaving here will be in a box!  It's quiet, as it's over 55's only, and my painting desk is set up beside a large south facing window overlooking a green with some tree cover for the Summer. With the natural light coming in from my left where my two lamps are placed on the desk I have also added a standing lamp at right with a small lower 6500 or daylight bulb that can be extended over the desk for additional light. This is about to be put to the test as I finally begin painting Geoff's next batch of 2mm bases.

I just wanted to share a few thoughts about the Battle Cry project that I am doing on the side. I have been researching the game in both it's original form and the variations that bring the game more in line with the later Napoleonic C&C games. For those who do not know Battle Cry was the first game in the C&C series put out by GMT games, the rules are quick to learn and play whilst still offering tactical challenges and scenarios can be played out in a round 45 minutes average. This really appeals to me so I have firstly decided to stick firmly with the original rules. Whilst I don't own the original box game (it's very hard to find now at a reasonable price), I do have the rules and access to the command cards etc. 

My game will be played on a printed 13 x 9 hex grid of 75mm hexes and in order to stick with the boardgame look as far as possible I'm having it printed on PVC by Tinywargames. Further to this I have made the decision to keep everything on MDF tiles only, with all scenics just printed 'top down'. This will be quick and I hope should look quite effective using satellite images of woods, fields, rivers hills etc that can be placed around the board as per the scenarios. I will probably raise just the hills using 10mm foamboard. The reason behind this is that I will be doing a lot of scenic detail work on my model railway shunting layout so wanted to keep this really simple and in line with the board game concept just played on a larger board and using Epic scale units.

More Union Zouaves, New Yorkers in pale blue jacket and trousers.

Latest video features the growing number of ACW bases for the project.