Back to business: "Comedic" Bonus Round in the Painting Challenge

The Tactica show is over and I returned save and sound from an awesome trip with my THS wargaming fellows. Unfortunately I carried a cold from Hamburg which put me out of commission yesterday. So I wasn't able to sort and re-size all the pictures yet but I hope to have at least a couple of them ready tomorrow.

Anyway painting business is going on and while I'm much behind with my 750 points target I'm at least fulfilling part one of my plan and tackle all the bonus rounds. Last Saturday was the deadline for "comedic" and I entered a scratch built turn counter our 1812 games:

Since I started with the 1812 retreat topic I was pondering about Napoleonic snowmen. After I considered several possibilities for the comedic bonus round I decided to try my luck with building a funny scene or at least a scene with a twinkle in the eye. Somehow the scene didn’t turn out as funny as I wanted it but fortunately Curt accepted it anyway.

Centerpiece of the scene is a 50mm round base with two snowmen, a road sign to Paris and two frames for dice. It’s hopefully obvious who the smaller snowman is meant to represent. Anyway the frames are to place dice in as turn counters. Usually a game of White Death our custom 1812 ruleset lasts six turns but sometime a scenario might exceed that so I prepared two frames to be able to count to 12 if necessary. In front of the two snowman the creator seemed to have relieved himself with doubtful success...

The snowmen are about 28mm high (well… one of them less) and I made them out of greenstuff, glue and headgear from the Perry miniatures French infantry. The large base is by Warbases while the two single snowmen are mounted on 21mm coins. As usual I painted the figures with Vallejo Model Colors and finished them with corundum sand as snow and some static grass tufts.

 

Please don't forget to have a look at Curt's page and vote for your favourite entries of this bonus round:

H E R E

The clock is ticking... Last impressions before Tactica

Finally Tactica is prehensible. At this time tomorrow I'll prepare to launch so these are the last impressions of our winter game for now:

Hopeless stragglers stumbling over one the the Berezina bridges on 28th November 1812.

On the Eastern banks Russian guns are taking position to lay barrage on the bridge.

"Fire !"

A group of Polish troops taking position in the woods on the Western Banks of Berezina River.

"There! The Russians are coming!"

 Well... That's it for now. I hope you like those pictures which our club fellow Bernhard took during the last weeks. They came into being on the very same board we'll bring to Tactica and show parts of Bernhard's exquisite collection. The Polish troops on the last two pictures are results of my humble work.

4 Days to Tactica - Our White Death game

Four days until Tactica 2015 will open its gates in Hamburg. Time to look at the second game the THS club will present this year:

We'll bring a table which is nearly five metres long and that will represent the Berezina river in the middle and its Western and Eastern banks. There we'll offer two different scenarios taking place on...

28th November 1812

On both sides of Berezina river Russian troops gather to destroy the remains of Napoleon's Grande Armée. On the Western banks there are Polish and Swiss troops desperately trying to hold the ground until they receive support. Meanwhile on the Eastern banks Baden hussars and Hessian Chevoux-Legers ride forlon attacks to throw back the Russian troops of General Wittgenstein.

Scenario 1: Iron Men

During this scenario you players will slip into the role of the brave troops on the Western Banks of Berezina River. You'll have to hold the ground against a superiority of foes while there are the last French cuirassiers gathering under their courages generals Lhéritier and Doumerc.

It'll be your choice when to launch the attack but be careful to chose the right moment. Too early may cause a week attack since there are too few horsemen ready yet. Too late and you might have lost the chance to turn the tide...

Scenario 2: Death Charge

Here we'll lead you to the Eastern banks of Berezina River. Just the southern bridge collapsed under the weight of those countless fugitives. General Eblé's pioneers are working on it frenetically but simultaneously the Russians pile the pressure on the unfortunate French. Desperately the last mounted soldiers gather and form an unequal squadron: Some Hessian Chevaux-Leger, some Hessian Hussar, a couple of Polish Lancers, a bunch of Carabiniers and some shattered horsemen from Prussia and the Duchy of Berg. Even several mounted infantry officers gather around General Fournier and prepare for their Death Charge against the advancing Russians. You as players epitomise some of those brave and death-defying men. You'll have to defeat various waves of Russian attackers to cover your retreating comrades and to buy time to repair the bridge.

Will your sacrifice pay off?

Actually we'll try to run both scenarios more or less simultaneously but with certain time gaps to give us the chance to see something of the show ourselves. Unfortunately last year came of rather badly with that. Actually a games lasts about three hours but we'll try to shorten it here or there to adhere our apreciated participants not too long.

Anyway I'm really looking forward to the show and the games we'll play there. Feel free to come around, play a game with us or just have a look at the awesome board and the stunning collection of miniatures our fellow Bernhard brought together during the last years. The eagle-eyed of you might catch sight of the humble additions I made. Watch out for the miniatures on circular bases, these are mine.  ;-)

Contdown to Tactica - 5 days to go

Only five days to go until we leave toward Hamburg where the Tactica show will take place. Once again our club will join the presenters and deliver two participation games. On the one hand we're bringing a new scenario of our very own 1812 skirmish White Death and on the other hand we'll have a nice game of Squigghopper a dungeon race of squigg-mounted goblins.

This week I want to give a short preview of the two games starting with the latter:

And here's a leaflet we prepared (sorry, only German this time):

Have a look at Tactica's homepage for more pictures and a longer summary of Squigghopper (here) or a preview of the other excellent games presented there (here).

During the next days I'll deliver a preview for our 1812 game. And then... To Hamburg !

Starting the march on Kandahar

The last two weeks were pretty quiet here. Actually too quiet which I really apologize. But somehow I didn't feel that there's too much worth be posted here. My workbench was still covered with stuff for the painting challenge but somehow I wasn't able to finish anything but the figures for the next bonus round.

After all here they are:

With these figures I'm starting my Victorian Middle-East project. The focus is the 2nd Anglo-Afghan war but I'll include some forces for a later Sudan campaign as well. More or less my idea to include as many miniatures from the stunning ranges by Perry, Artizan and Wargames Foundry without mustering three or four different armies.

Well, these figures are from the excellent Sudan range by Perry Miniatures. I chose a couple of British with Indian Service Dress which was worn in Afghanistan as well as in the Sudan. During the next months another bunch of those will follow as well as a couple of lancers as they all are on the Lead Mountain already.

As usual I used Vallejo Model Colors to paint these chaps. Many thanks to Mark Hargreaves for his priceless hints about the khaki uniforms. I are appropriate more or less.

This time the bases are really simple with some sand, some colour and a tuft of static grass here and there.

Please don't forget to head to Curt's page to vote for your favourite entries of this bonus round. I promise that there are a lot of pleasing entries which deserve your vote much more than my humble work.