Sharp Practise AWI - Our first introduction game...

As you know the musket era is one of the main hobby theme on my humble workbench. Starting from the Seven Years War the conflicts of British Redcoats during the 18th and 19th century have been keeping my interest since I started wargaming about three decades ago. My very first figures during those happy days at primary school were a couple of boxes of Italeri plastics for the battle of Waterloo and the idea of highly disciplined scarlet coated soldiers never fell off of me.

Unfortunately as you know I'm a lousily slow painter and there's no chance for me to gather larger armies for all those interesting theatres of war. Nevertheless those marvellous shiny figures from those well known companies are a constant seduction.

Thus I had been looking for a blackpowder skirmish system for a while when I stumpled over 'Sharp Practice 2' when I was published earlier this year. There was a very interesting review in Wargames Illustrated #XXX and the TooFatLardies aired a couple of interesting introduction videos on the Youtube channel.

So I gathered a few club fellows of mine and we decided to give the rules a go. A couple of weeks ago our first AWI battle took place in which we decided to use the most basic rules only to find an easy way into the unusual command mechanics of the game.

We took the rather simple first scenario of the rulebook: A kind of meating engagement. 

Really a simple game with two more or less equally rated forces to try out the basic rules. So we fielded two basic lists from the rulebook.

AWI British - 6pdr gun finished

Lately I finished a set of Perry AWI figures: AW105 - British Royal Artillery aiming 6pdr

Paint Table Saturday - Challenge finished... Artillery under construction

Finally I posted all of my entries for Curt's painting challenge. This year really few figures only but at least I managed to achieve my goal of 250 points.

Nevertheless there's no time for idleness with a lead pile like mine to handle:

Home alone... Painting... AWI limber finished!

For a couple of days my dear family has left me home alone and has been staying at the sea where we spent our holiday two weeks ago. The three girl has been staying with my parents in law who are spending their holiday there now. An experience I didn't want to share...

Anyway this gave me the chance to turn our comfortable living room into a painting studio:

Although I love my family from the deepest bottom of my heart it has been four wonderful days playing the old bachelor. Actually I kept things like eating as basic as possible and enjoyed my freedom as excessive as appropriate.

Thus I managed to finish a couple of workpieces, start some new and got a lot of stuff done. First for a limber for my AWI British...

... although I haven't managed to paint the unlimbered version of the gun until now.

The set is from the Perry Miniatures's wonderful AWI range. It comes as you see it here with two horses, a kind of limber, a 6pdr gun and a driver. It's a nice detailed kit without too much trumpery.

Unfortunately the set doesn't come with ropes for the team otherwise that presents the chance to make them yourself. For these I used 0.35mm wire of which I twisted a couple of threads. This gives a nicely structured, flexible and durable rope. Sooner or later I'll try this with the six horse limber teams I have for my Napoleonic British...

Anyway during the next days I'll show you a Dark Age pit house I finished and a pair of peelers I started recently as a small recovery from soldiers.

Long time... No see... Back to business and AWI.

With horror and regret I realised that my last sign of life was a month ago. Honestly I have no excuse for that other than ongoing problem with finding hobby time. Some pleasant and unpleasant incidents ate up my time and my time to prepare and write articles for this humble blog was even shorter than my painting time.

Anyway this weekend I how much I missed the connection to the bloggosphere and that I should wade into blogging again as soon as possible.

Thus let me start with the command figures I previewed lately:

Those two figures are part of an older Wargames Foundry set from their wonderful AWI range (here). Actually those men are meant to Cornwallis and Clinton but for me they'll serve as more or less versatile generals as divisional HQ for our AWI games. Both are splendid sculpts by Alan Perry with characterful faces and awesome details. Although he made those pieces of art a couple of years ago they are still splendid and stand every comparison to his latest work. In comparison to the newer ranges (e. g. the Perry Miniatures AWI range or Front Rank) the figures especially the horses are notably smaller. For me that is no problem as long as I don't have them side by side on one and the same vignette or unit.

The chickens and the circular base are by Warbases. They are from Diane's and Martin's expanding range of animals and serve very well to make such vignettes more vivid and less monotonous.

I hope you like my first presentation after this rather long absence. Although my family and me are on holiday next week I'll prepare a some material I collected during the last weeks to stay present.

The finished AWI Camp Scene

Yesterday I promised to post some pictures of the finished camp scene here. Et voilà:

 The figures are from Perry Miniatures. An excellent set the twins published last year. It contains of six figures and a camp fire piece. Two of the figures are combined to a woman combing a man's hair. The miniatures are as good as all miniatures from the Perrys I know. There was rather little flash and the were easy to prepare.

These figures are some of the first figures I primed black for a long time. Surprisingly the colours turned out as brilliant as they usually do on white primer. I didn't expect that since my black primer experience is based on Citadel colours which seem to be far less pigmented than Vallejo Model Coulour.

 

As usual I used Vallejo Model Colours and a film of Armypainter Quickshade for shades. Once againi I was surprised by the brilliance of a colour. Obviously the Quickshade stays fresh in the plastic bottles I decanted it in and it was much darker than I presumed. Apparently I was used to stale Quikshade with less free pigments.

Anyway for my humble skills and the temporal pressure I painted the vignette under  I'm really satisfied. Together with some tents, some trees or something like that it'll give a nice touch to the battlefield.

The vignette shall represent a couple of soldiers of the 3rd Regiment of Foot "The Buffs" whose 3rd bataillon fought during the American War of Independence from 1781 in Cornwallis forces. They stayed in the colonies until the bitter end at Yorktown and were sent to Jamaica afterwards. Anyway just now the boys are having some nice tea and a chat while two of their wives shepherd them devotedly.

Monty on Tour: Crisis 2013 survived ! - Part 1

Thirtysix hours, about 600 kilometres to drive, an overnight stay, a stressful game to manage, lots of interesting traders and excellent presentations to view, some nice people to meet and a price to take home...

Crisis 2013 was brilliant !

But first things first... As last year I want to present you the event in a two part coverage. First part will be mostly about my trip and our game and in part two I'll show you some of the gorgeous games other groups presented on Crisis.

To begin with our trip started about 10.30 on friday. My mate Robert picked me up and we headed to Marl to pick up Michael as well. After having achieved this first task we headed to Antwerp and were rather lucky with little traffic. Fortunately we didn't cross the way of too many holiday shoppers. Since All Saints' Day is a public holiday in Belgium and Germany but not in the Netherlands a lot of people seemed to be heading there to do some shopping. I don't think that it was too relaxed...

Anyway we arrived in Antwerp about two o'clock and checked in at the hotel. The nicely renovated Antwerp Harbour Hotel provided some proper rooms for a good rest. At least for some of us...

Our comfotable hotel room. Much more comfortable than the houseboat last year...

Afterwards we went to the hall were Crisis should take place the next day. Some nice guys of the T. S. A. ("Tin Soldiers of Antwerp" - the organisers of Crisis) showed us the place for our tables and we started arranging everything for our AWI presentation game:

The tables prepared, hight leveled and terrain tiles laid out.

The board comes to live under Bernhard's watchful eyes.

Everything prepared and hidden for the great day...

Time for a break, a beer, a burger, a bed...

Well satisfied with the progress of friday afternoon and evening we headed to the hotel and the cinema center nearby to have dinner. Not an easy task with nine people who want to be seated together. Fortunately we found a table in some kind of American bar whose menu looked surprising. Although food wasn't bad there I wasn't too delighted either. Maybe Schnitzel is just something too un-Belgian to order in Antwerp. Anyway we satisfied our hunger and most of the fellows were lucky with their burgers and fries. Although the music was a bit loud in the bar we stayed there for a few drinks since our hotel didn't maintain a bar by itself. Major fault! Afterwards we returned to the hotel and most of us spent a good, recreative night there.

On saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel early and left for the hangar soon. Fortunately we found everything as we left it and were able to let the board come to live without any delay:

Maybe the Hessian commander in Fort George is a bit too relaxed...

... since the French are preparing their attack rather early...

... while the Hessian relief force is still having breakfast.

Even the continentals look rather adventurous...

So with the gates opening for the croud we took a short walk through the halls while Kalle and Bernhard finished the last preparations. When we returned a little earlier everything was sorted for us and we started to play a few turns to entertain the visitors and give them a chance to get in impression of how our scenario worked.
An excellent chance to get in touch with a lot of nice and interested people. Luckily several people took the chance and had some nice chats there. Anyway the game turned rather the same way as it did when we really played it during our summer event (report here and here).

The British storm the continental fortifications with all their power...

... and send further reinforcements by sea.

Heinz's cavalry is able to go round the entrenchment and heckles the rebels.

The Scots are coming !

And Hessian Jägers are protecting the flanks.

Although the French and continentals manage to capture Fort George by sending out a force of bloodthirsty Indians who were able to fight their way into the heavily besieged fortress, the British and Hessian relief forces overrun the American blocking position finally.

The American position is taken and the Scottish brigade advances under the sound of their bagpipes.

Meanwhile the leading British forces march strait towards the fort to release their comrades.

Although we weren't able to bring the game to its ultimate clash it was rather likely that the British would be able to re-conquer Fort George. But for which price...

Mischief makers on the rebel side have their own opinion who might have lead to the final British victory:

Your name is what? Benedict who? Arnold?

Anyway it was great fun to play our very own Penobscot scenario once more and meet so many interested people. It was unforgettable to meet Dave Bodley from Grand Manner who is a great guy and have a chat with him about the game we played with the excellent scenery he designed. It was awesome to meet people from Belgium, Germany, England and althrough Europe who liked the stuff we presented and it felt good to get such a positive feedback.

And in the end the T. S. A. jury elected our game the best presentation game of Crisis 2013. Not the most important thing on this extraordinary day but a perfect crowning of course:

Our team with the cup.

But that's really enough about us and our game. In my next post I'll present some pictures of the unique table other groups resented. So stay tuned !

Monty on Tour: Crisis 2013 survived ! - Part 1

Thirtysix hours, about 600 kilometres to drive, an overnight stay, a stressful game to manage, lots of interesting traders and excellent presentations to view, some nice people to meet and a price to take home...

Crisis 2013 was brilliant !

But first things first... As last year I want to present you the event in a two part coverage. First part will be mostly about my trip and our game and in part two I'll show you some of the gorgeous games other groups presented on Crisis.

To begin with our trip started about 10.30 on friday. My mate Robert picked me up and we headed to Marl to pick up Michael as well. After having achieved this first task we headed to Antwerp and were rather lucky with little traffic. Fortunately we didn't cross the way of too many holiday shoppers. Since All Saints' Day is a public holiday in Belgium and Germany but not in the Netherlands a lot of people seemed to be heading there to do some shopping. I don't think that it was too relaxed...

Anyway we arrived in Antwerp about two o'clock and checked in at the hotel. The nicely renovated Antwerp Harbour Hotel provided some proper rooms for a good rest. At least for some of us...

Our comfotable hotel room. Much more comfortable than the houseboat last year...

Afterwards we went to the hall were Crisis should take place the next day. Some nice guys of the T. S. A. ("Tin Soldiers of Antwerp" - the organisers of Crisis) showed us the place for our tables and we started arranging everything for our AWI presentation game:

The tables prepared, hight leveled and terrain tiles laid out.

The board comes to live under Bernhard's watchful eyes.

Everything prepared and hidden for the great day...

Time for a break, a beer, a burger, a bed...

Well satisfied with the progress of friday afternoon and evening we headed to the hotel and the cinema center nearby to have dinner. Not an easy task with nine people who want to be seated together. Fortunately we found a table in some kind of American bar whose menu looked surprising. Although food wasn't bad there I wasn't too delighted either. Maybe Schnitzel is just something too un-Belgian to order in Antwerp. Anyway we satisfied our hunger and most of the fellows were lucky with their burgers and fries. Although the music was a bit loud in the bar we stayed there for a few drinks since our hotel didn't maintain a bar by itself. Major fault! Afterwards we returned to the hotel and most of us spent a good, recreative night there.

On saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel early and left for the hangar soon. Fortunately we found everything as we left it and were able to let the board come to live without any delay:

Maybe the Hessian commander in Fort George is a bit too relaxed...

... since the French are preparing their attack rather early...

... while the Hessian relief force is still having breakfast.

Even the continentals look rather adventurous...

So with the gates opening for the croud we took a short walk through the halls while Kalle and Bernhard finished the last preparations. When we returned a little earlier everything was sorted for us and we started to play a few turns to entertain the visitors and give them a chance to get in impression of how our scenario worked.
An excellent chance to get in touch with a lot of nice and interested people. Luckily several people took the chance and had some nice chats there. Anyway the game turned rather the same way as it did when we really played it during our summer event (report here and here).

The British storm the continental fortifications with all their power...

... and send further reinforcements by sea.

Heinz's cavalry is able to go round the entrenchment and heckles the rebels.

The Scots are coming !

And Hessian Jägers are protecting the flanks.

Although the French and continentals manage to capture Fort George by sending out a force of bloodthirsty Indians who were able to fight their way into the heavily besieged fortress, the British and Hessian relief forces overrun the American blocking position finally.

The American position is taken and the Scottish brigade advances under the sound of their bagpipes.

Meanwhile the leading British forces march strait towards the fort to release their comrades.

Although we weren't able to bring the game to its ultimate clash it was rather likely that the British would be able to re-conquer Fort George. But for which price...

Mischief makers on the rebel side have their own opinion who might have lead to the final British victory:

Your name is what? Benedict who? Arnold?

Anyway it was great fun to play our very own Penobscot scenario once more and meet so many interested people. It was unforgettable to meet Dave Bodley from Grand Manner who is a great guy and have a chat with him about the game we played with the excellent scenery he designed. It was awesome to meet people from Belgium, Germany, England and althrough Europe who liked the stuff we presented and it felt good to get such a positive feedback.

And in the end the T. S. A. jury elected our game the best presentation game of Crisis 2013. Not the most important thing on this extraordinary day but a perfect crowning of course:

Our team with the cup.

But that's really enough about us and our game. In my next post I'll present some pictures of the unique table other groups resented. So stay tuned !

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go... Vignette finished

Yesterday I had a rather long evening at my workbench. Figures had to be sorted and packed, orders of battle printed, everything checked twice whether anything is missing and most important the interrogation vignette had to be finished:

It's based on the excellent figures of Alan and Michael Perrys. They are from their nice AW100 set with a couple of Hessian and British officers interrogating an American captive.

Since Giles from Tarleton's Quarter told me that those figures have real and living models - him and some of his fellows - I was very careful with painting the faces. Not perfect but satisfying for me so I hope I didn't insult anybody with disfiguring his alter ego. 

Anyway it was great fun to paint those very individual miniatures and arrange them. As usual I used Vallejo Model Colours mostly.

For now that's it with AWI. I need a break and will paint something else during the next week. First of all a small band of Saga viking mostly of Gripping Beast Plastics. Then a large unit of Napoleonic KGL riflemen from the 2nd Light Bataillon KGL for a La Haye Sainte skirmish and then a unit of FIW redcoats for Bloggers for Charity. And probably there will be enough diversions to let me begin some other project simultaneously.

But now I have to finish my cup of tea and get into my shoes. Very soon my fellow Robert will pick me up to leave for Antwerp! I hope to come back after a great trip with the boys with a bag full of stuff and my head full of new, insane ideas.

I'm looking forward to see some of you at Crisis!