Hearts Of Oak

Yesterday being the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, six of us gathered at the Sloan Club House for the standard Wednesday meeting of the RAP Gamers to play out Bruce P.'s interpretation of the battle. 

(L to R: Phil, Steve, Garth, Bruce, and Mike)

Bruce, Phil and Steve chose the Franco-Spanish side, whilst Garth, Mike and myself took up the mantle of the mighty Royal Navy. Determined to give the Frogs and Dons a good thrashing, we split up our ships and came up with our clever plan...."shoot and sink 'em."

The RN doesn't waste time getting stuck in!

I had several frigates and unrated vessels that were on the left flank of the fleet and I chose to charge directly at the nearest Spanish enemy, which happened to be Bruce. Not expecting the Light Brigade of the Seas to charge, Bruce was a bit non-plussed, which turned into stunned silence as my Little Fellas started schwacking his Sail of the Line. 

Combat is resolved by D6s, the Franco-Spanish moving first, then the British, then the British fire first, and the Franco-Spanish firing second. Damage is applied immediately and at range of 0-4 hexes, combat is quick and bloody. 

Another Spanish ship strikes! 

(shown by the coloured smoke)

Ships could fire both sides at the same time and my two little sloops, which threw 2D6 each, were magnificent at annoying the Dons. My frigates managed to cause a number of Bruce's squadron to strike and his dice rolling was not nearly as effective as mine was last night. 

Mike (and HMS Victory) dealing death dealing dice rolls to the dastardly Spanish and French

While Garth slowed up the rear end of the Allied Fleet and stopped Phil dead in the water, Mike served up hot dice to Steve and Bruce in the middle of the table. He split the Franco-Spanish line and shredded their fleet whilst taking minimal losses himself. 

"Thae THAT, you Spanish Ladies!" 

Another fun game and a great way to spend a couple of hours on a Wednesday evening. I really enjoy these very simple rules. John Aramtys has some grid/hex based rules I like from TPW, but these ones work really well for large fleet actions and Bruce's 1/2400th scale ships. He's got a lovely collection of ships and we really need to get them out more often. 

Being Dragooned

It's a rainy, gloomy, rubbish day here in the Duchy. 

Blech. 

Double blech. 

Having had to work yesterday, (on a SATURDAY? Really?) the remainder of what was left of my weekend was spent being "generally employed", as the Ship's Log might say, about the Ship of State. 

I did find some time to get some work done on my first unit of Spanish cavalry for the WPS/WAS/SYW project, the Pavia Dragoon Regiment. 

Santiago!!!

A closer view

The figures are 25mm RSM castings formerly produced (in the last century, I think) by The London War Room. They are detailed just enough for my liking. I used Rustoleum red brown rattle can primer instead of my usual white or grey Gesso. It did dull down the yellow coat quite a bit, even with a base coat of Vallejo yellow ochre followed with a coat of Vallejo flat yellow. I used a craft paint red colour called "Tomato" for the red. It's not bad, but I wish it were....redderer...

And I erred badly when I started painting the figures. In my rush to get cracking on these pony boys, I forgot I was going to paint them as the Sagunto Dragoon Regiment, which has black, instead of red, as the other main colour. This is because I have a flag for the Saguntos (from David of Not By Appointment blog, the BEST source for flags), but not for the Pavias. 

Insert embarrassed emoji here. 

The OTHER batch of Spanish dragoons doesn't have a standard bearer...

Coming along nicely, I think

A closer view...

After three units of Hussars, a nice simple dragoon unit is a bit of a palate cleanser. I do have more Spanish dragoons and some Fusilieros Monteros ready to get their paint jobs. 

Tomorrow will be a day of chaos at work, but I hope to get these hombres close to finished tomorrow night. 

More anon. 

Weekend Update

The weather has turned and summer has definitely turned into autumn. Herself is sick because of it, which has changed plans and such here in the Duchy. Last week at work was mental, so some hobby time was just the thing with Sandy trying to rest and me trying to get a lot of things sorted.  

I have been slogging away at three unit of Austrian Hussars for my WPS/WAS/SYW and Soldier-King Projects. The figures are RSM and will represent the Splenyi, Baranyay, and Desswffy Regiments.

I think my interpretation of the Splenyi Hussars is rather...splendid...

Baranyay Hussars in their "apple green" dolmans and pelisses

Desswffy Hussars in their light blue in the foreground, almost complete. 

I am mounting my figures for Honours of War, but my light cavalry will be mounted on 40mm wide by 60mm bases to distinguish them from their heavier brothers. For my Soldier-King project, two stands will make a unit. If I want to play with ATKM, then I'll use three stands for one "unit". 

Either way, painting these fellas has been a bit daunting and a pain in the arse. But one cannot have an Austrian Army without them. Now, back to finish those bits on the Desswffy figures. 

Busy Times in the Duchy

This rainy, gloomy Sunday is a quiet one here in the Duchy. Herself is off to New York City with some friends to see a show. I have no idea, except either a friend of a friend or one of her former students is in the thing. Meh. I have trouble keeping track of me these days... 

Last week the RAP gamers played a second night of "Six Empires", a boardgame set in post-War of Spanish Succession Europe. The six empires are thus: The French, Spanish, Russian, Austrian, British and Ottomans. 

I was not there last week, so I took over for Michael who could not make it this week. This gave me the Ottoman Empire. Never having played the game before, Garth gave me a quick tutorial, but honestly, it wasn't that difficult to catch up and it was quite fun to play. 

From L to R; Garth, Phil, Bruce (our host), Steve, and John

We played several turns in three hours and decided to leave the board up in Bruce's basement for another round. This coming Wednesday we are back at the Sloan Clubhouse, but we'll be playing "Jaws" (yes, it's a game about THAT movie...) since two of our stalwarts will be on holiday. 

Thursday I was off work and puttered around the house, but Friday and yesterday I went down to Harve de Grace, Maryland to the BARRAGE show put on by the HAWKS club. This is always an excellent show with a terrific mix of games. It's a much smaller show than the big HMGS ones, but its an excellent example of how to run a solid regional event. 

I played in two regular games on Friday, the Battle of Puebla 1862 and the postscript to the Battle of Navarino Bay 1827. On Saturday, I entered into the Art De La Guerre tournament pitting my Golden Horde Mongols against whomever I would draw, since it was an Open Tournament. 

Puebla, from the Mexican position

A drone's eye view of the French behind their blue pipe cleaner Start Line

The French may have had wine and better food, but we had a Mariachi Band! 

Mid game, the French still hadn't managed to take either fort and, despite our losses, the Mexican commanders held doggedly on. 

End game for the French. They came on in the same old way, and we saw them off in the same old way!

Viva Mexico! 

Tm, Jim, and Josh ran this game at OttoDotCon and I was not able to play it then, but fortunately I was able to sign up at BARRAGE. These guys run excellent games. Tried and true The Sword and the Flame rules were used with the appropriate modifications for the Maximillian Adventure. Six turns and we held by great shooting and lucky dice rolls. 

Keith W. and his Navarino Bay game using Form on the Admiral's Wake rules

My third of the Turkish fleet. Last in line. 

Oh dearie me. I seem to be on fire. As per usual... 

End game for the Turks.

The Allied goal was to sink five Turkish vessels and we had to do the same to the Allied fleet. It was a bit of a slugfest, but the Allied ships were a bit bigger and in the end, that made the difference. But I enjoy these rules and they are currently undergoing a re-write by the author. 

Saturday saw my Mongols ready to go against....well....nobody actually. 

There were an odd number of players signed up for the tourney, so Walt, the organizer, asked for a volunteer to take the first round off. After a moment, I raised my hand and said I'd be happy to help. Walt very kindly offered to play his Tamil Indians against me as a learning game, since he knows I'm a newer player to this system. 

The tournament room

Playing The Man Himself, Walt L., The Jedi Master of ADLG

While Walt did take it easy on me, in terms of making suggestions and pointing out when I was making truly silly errors (Mongols are NOT a new player army, as I have found out) eventually, I did beat him fair and square with some clutch die rolling. 

Walt's Ellies are a pesky lot. But he showed me how to play against them. 

In the end, I managed to outlast Walt and finally get some CP hits to send him over his limit. 

Walt is one of the true gentlemen in this hobby and I am very lucky to have been able to have spent some time with him learning the game and just talking about things in general. 

There were quite a few other games that interested me, but I was not able to play, due to my participation in the tournament. But that did not preclude me from picking up a couple of things from the dealer area and the flea market. The number of vendors is quite small, maybe six or so, and the balance of the tables, which surround the perimeter of the playing area, are for the HAWKS version of the flea market, which is a bit like a bring and buy and a bit like a traditional flea market. 

I did pick up one very, very nice deal....

A complete painted Roman army, ADLG List #83, with fortifications for a camp. 

For $100 USD. Yes, that's correct. One hundred US dollars. One Roman army, ready to go. 

Now, to find some Gauls to paint to give it an opponent. 

More anon. 

A New Book in the Duchy

I do enjoy the 18th century as a wargame period. And based on some conversations we had at the Virtual Wargames Club, a book on wargaming the Russo-Austro-Turkish War of the late 1730's was brought up that piqued my interest. 

David Watson, aka Balkan Dave, has published a history of this period with some good basic details if one would be interested in playing out this particular conflict. There are a couple of scenarios for the Battle of Banja Luka and the Battle of Grocka, as well as a generic skirmish scenario. 

Dave provides some basic details of the Russian, Austrian, and Ottoman forces and also snippets of the main commanders of the time. 

The only complaints I have are that the maps are hard to read and the two orders of battle are likewise in a very small font. Additionally, the rules that Dave and his friends use are called Lust For Glory, which is a set that has not yet been published. It would have been helpful to know some more details about the rules to help understand the OOBs provided for the scenarios. I am especially interested in refighting the Battle of Banja Luka. 

Overall, I am enjoying the book. Thanks to Alan and Tidders for mentioning it, a great recommendation! 

A "Master" of My Own Destiny

Yesterday, I completed a two-year journey and finally walked across the stage at SUNY Maritime College and received my Master of Science degree (with Honours) in Maritime and Naval Studies. 

There is a lot of emotion, as one might expect. My father, who was such a huge supporter of my journey, passed away in February. In spite of his Alzheimer's, up until maybe four months before his passing, he would always excitedly listen and talk about my progress in my degree. 

My wife Sandy gave up so much in terms of time, emotional space, and physical space as I re-decorated our living room with piles of books and papers and extolled to her about Spanish explorers or the business end of American 19th century whaling, or, finally, the role of mermaids in the culture of the Taino people. 

And now it's done. 

So now what? 

I asked that of my academic adviser and my Department Chair as Sandy and I had lunch with them before graduation. 

My chosen field has been that of the Quasi-War with France. That was a complete accident. I had originally intended to study the maritime aspects of the American Civil War. But it seems that Other Paths were laid before me. And mine seems to be the early Federal Republic and its Navy. 

I've decided, for the time being, to don the mantle of "Independent Researcher and Maritime Historian", until I can truly answer that question. But I can see there is a path forward with the Quasi-War. Both on the tabletop in wargaming (I mean, I DO love me some naval gaming) and as a proper Maritime Historian. 

"On se canisse!", as one might say in Quebec, before beginning a journey. 

 

Weekend Update

The arrival of moderate weather led to a cry to be outside of the house as much as possible. This meant hobby things have taken a lower priority to taking some long walks and attending a festival. However, I was able to get some hobby things done. 

First on the list was a much needed general clean up and put away of things in the Game Room. While I still have some things to sort out and go through, the table has been cleared and several things have gone back into boxes where they properly belong. 

Today I finished cleaning and preparing a number of Spanish WAS/SYW figures, mostly mountain fusiliers. I even was able to get primer on the first eight dragoons. 

I was also able to make some more progress on my RISK figures, getting four of the bags washed in soap and water. Tomorrow I'll be able to take the figures and get them on craft sticks and hopefully get some of them primed. 

After lunch, Sandy and I took advantage of the annual Polish Festival being held in Doylestown, PA. It was a crowded and very energetic celebration of all things Polish. One was literally awash in a sea of Red and White. We arrived around half twelve and parking was already going pear-shaped. Queues for food were getting long. And the traditional music was jamming right along with the Polish form of disco. Go figure. 

There were also quite a few re-enactors there putting on some excellent displays. I knew a few of them from WW2 events where out paths have crossed. 

All in all, it was an excellent day out. We did manage to get some pierogis before the lines became too enormous. We also picked up a bottle of local maple syrup, of all things. 

Tomorrow is Labor Day and I have the gift of no work. So, hopefully there will be hobby things done tomorrow.