I Have Been To....Fall-In 2026 (Sort Of)

Work has been just a bugger. Twelve hour days. Three new accounts in the one warehouse. New Hires to train and Refresher Training to execute across the whole facility. 

Meh. 

Harrumph. 

Originally, I was not going to be able to make Fall-In in Lancaster, PA this year. Either I was going to be mobilized (and either in CONUS or OCONUS) or it was drill weekend and I'd be in Vermont. 

Yet, neither quite happened. 

So having a very slim chance at being at Fall-In, I registered last-minute for the ADLG tourney on Saturday, since there was no way I was going to be able to have both Friday AND Saturday off. 

I shall post pictures of the show later. Suffice to say, I'll focus on my ADLG experience for now. 

Our Open Tourney for 15mm had 20 players. Not exactly ideal. Dan Hazlewood, the organizer, broke us into two groups, Early and Late, which had 10 in each. That left Dan to "find" two players to even out the bracket. Which he did, by playing the two danglers himself. That was me and Nathaniel. 

Dan and Nathaniel setting out terrain

As I mentioned, Dan ran Seljuk Turks against my Palmyrans. I used a slightly modified list from that I used on Monday against Phil. Basically, I just took a couple of suggestions from Dan and went with my original list with an organizational mod. 

Palmyrans (still with a ger...hmmm....need to fix that)

Dan's Seljuks being menacing...which they were...

They spanked me like a bad, bad camel... 

But in another example of why I really love the ADLG community, Dan gave me such positive feedback and then asked Ethan, who is an Army List expert, to look over my list and give me recommendations. His suggestions and feedback were all helpful and designed to help me better use the army to my best advantage. Not to create a "super army", but to understand how a Palmyran army might play better in an open tournament format and how I should look at my opponents. 

My second game

For my second match, I drew my friend Jim B. I've known Jim for over 15 years and he's a great guy. Truly one of the guys who finds real joy in just pushing toy soldiers, no matter what the era, with his fellow hobbyists. You couldn't ask for a better ally or opponent. 

Jim ran Hellenistic Greeks, with lots of Pikes and Hoplite Spears. I tried Ethan's recommendations, and found they didn't match exactly as I expected, but it worked out well enough. 

Game and Match

Six turns later, I had bested my bestie with a combination of solid dice rolling, not panicking, and steady advancing against his Greeks. He broke his line, which allowed me to flank his line and eventually break up his formation. 

I was very happy with how the Palmyrans performed. I can see where I need to to tweak the force structure to better support the elements and play to their strengths and protect their weaknesses. 

More importantly, I had a wonderful time with like-minded friends and saw fellow hobbyists help one another and support each other, instead of knifing each other for some silly bit of ribbon or bauble. That to me was more important than anything else. 

It's a nerd hobby. But I do love it. 

A New Army for ADLG

For a person who does so enjoy 25/28mm wargames in the Eighteenth Century, I have developed an aggressive form of fanaticism about the ancient and medieval rules "Art De La Guerre". I'm not nearly ready to toss out the old collections and cocked hats, but I have found a very much enjoy playing this set of rules and even....<gasp> Tournaments....

Now, do please pick yourselves off the deck, we've not gone so far as to declare Empire (tm) the One True Rules or French Naploenics as the One Religion or anything. 

I do have Standards.... as I define them, anyway.

But it's fair to say that this set of rules and the community of gamers I've played this system with have been the antithesis of WRG 7th that I attempted when I first came into the hobby (well, after 1/72 scale ACW plastics, that is). 

In short order, I've my Golden Horde Mongols (kind of like giving a Lambo to a sixteen-year-old), my Triumvirate Romans, a partially painted Graeco-Bactrian army, a partially painted Italian Condotta army (I'm seeing a trend here...), and I found bits and bobs and "when the heck did I buy that and WHY did I buy that?' which is giving me the starts of a Macedonian army and Early Germans, too. 

My friend Tim, part of the PaWM crowd I game with in NE PA, decided he's having a clearing out and he mentioned to me a couple of months back that he had some ancients he was willing to part with. A few emails later, I was offered his 15mm Palmyran army, originally built for WRG 7th, but perfect in its current state for ADLG. Maybe three seperate mounted officers need to be added, but otherwise fully functional. 

The entire collection....way more camels than I need...

Cataphracts...rather like knights, but not impetuous

Midnight at the Oasis...Medium Camel Bow, Mediocre

I have no idea what makes a Camel "mediocre". It doesn't stink enough? They are bloody great dumb brutes, at lease the ones I've encountered in the Middle East. Although to be fair, they probably think the same about us Pink Hairless Monkeys. 

Bows...many, many bows. Both Light Infantry Bow, like these fellas and Medium Bowmen

Outside of the Cataphracts, it's an army with lots of bows and not much else. The earlier version gets you an option for Romans to provide stabby-stabby power, since they were a client state of Rome. But my flavour of Palmyrene army comes sans Little Gaiuses. 

So, no garum, but lots of big armoured horses and riders, light cavalry with bows, both light and medium crunchies with bows, and only two flipping stands of Medium Camel Bow Mediocre. 

I wondered how these fellas would do on the table. An offer from Phil, our local ADLG Spirit Guide, to come over on Monday and take them on a test drive was too good to pass up. This, despite work being bonkers and working multiple 12 hour days in a row. 

Phil, with his Romans, looking for trouble...

I did not take pictures, as I should have, because I was quite keen to learn from Phil about how to maneuver Cataphracts and Camels and he was looking to try a couple of different things with his Romans. 

The overall game saw my left flank (Cataphracts) go rushing forward to play crunch and munch against his Legions, whilst my middle line of bows held firm, until they decided to advance a bit too early and took a pasting, but ultimately held, against more Legionnaires. On the right, a couple of Light Cavalry Bow and my Camels whacked away at Phil's Heavy Cavalry and Light Cavalry with pool noodles for several turns until finally, they broke and I was able to raid Phil's camp. (located in the picture near his left hand)

It was an interesting game, where we had three or four back and forth rounds. My Cataphracts disengaged at one point to draw back and reload for another run at Phil's Legions and eventually they  managed to break enough units that my Mediocre Camels were able to cause the coup de grace by capturing Phil's camp. 

Mediocre Camels for the win. All two stands of the buggers. 

Whodathunk it? 

An excellent game and I did like the way this army handles. Some interesting terrain choices, a different mix of forces from Mongols, so I'm hooked. 

I don't have enough time to get them ready for Fall-In and the 15mm Open Tournament on Saturday. I'd need another couple of games and I'd like to paint up separate General stands. But I like these guys. 

Now I need to find a Queen Zenobia figure on a Camel. 

Perhaps Herself's camel is not so Mediocre. 

 

 

Weekend Update - First of November!

This weekend sees not only the National Holiday in the Duchy of Halloween but also clocks falling back. 

Needless to say, things are a bit wonky hereabouts.  

Pumpkin carving is considered High Art here in the Duchy

Because of work commitments there has been very little hobby activity lately, although I did manage some minor tidying of the Game Room and attended the VWC on Saturday. 

I did pick up the latest issue (at least the latest one for sale in Barnes & Noble) of Wargames Illustrated, mostly because there were a few articles on the Sea Fencibles, the early French Revolutionary War uniforms, and ideas for gaming the early part of the War of 1812. 

Vive la Liberte!

I highly doubt I'll be amassing a collection of hairy French peasants anytime soon. But I do enjoy looking at the uniforms and I love my 1798 Irish Rebellion collection, which probably needs to come out of their boxes for a game. 

What I have been spending time thinking about is making up some "top down" counters for a very portable DBA game to take with me on my next Gub'mint Vacation. 

The Junior General site has quite a collection of top down views that are already set up for DBA. I've downloaded several sheets, including the Parthians seen here. I'm thinking about a couple of sets of armies, much like a league tournament, where eight armies would play each other X number of times, with the highest scoring four moving on to a "championship" schedule.

More anon. 

Happy November, everyone!  

Weekend Update

Last night I trekked up to the wilds of Luzerne County to play in another game using Neil Thomas' Ancients Rules with the PAWM crew. Mike S. was our host and he and his wife Cathy not only provided a great place to play, but fed us Swedish meatballs, noodles, and vegetables for supper. 

Our game was Vikings versus Saxons AND Normans...and some Generic Rabble milling about smartly around and about the church. 

The Church of St. Joseph of Cupertino...the Viking objective

In this episode, the Vikings were played by myself, Bernie, Jim B., James, and John the OFM starring as Ulf The OFM. Darrell and Mark took the roles of Saxon and Norman. Mike was our GM, as well as our host, and perpetrated numerous shabby GM tricks on us poor Vikings. Harrumph! 

We were supposed to take the church and capture the treasure inside and then head back to the boats. However there were a LOT of guys named Norman there and an equal large number of hairy, smelly Saxon Fyrd blocking our way. The uncouth buggers even refused to take a bribe... we even said we share halfsies with them. Harrumph! 

My "band" of Vikings. No woodwinds, but a pretty good "heavy metal" section....

Not a Shieldwall....thankfully. But still not an easy target for my Bondi

Typically shabby GM trick, allowing a bunch of mounted Normans attacking Jim's Vikings

That big open space was where my Bondi Boys were a moment ago... Turn 2, and I'm out of Vikings...

James and Mark play Crunch and Munch

And then I was "reinforced" by Ulric the Uf Da and I went right back at them!

And then ANOTHER shabby GM trick had Norman cavalry come in behind us...

well, specifically, John...

Darrell (on the right) wondering why we didn't bring more Vikings...

Suffice to say that despite our best attempts to surge forward and close with the guys named Norman and their Saxon buddies, there were just WAAAAAYYYYYY to many of the up-armoured buggers for us to kill. 

But Mike has a such lovely collection of plastic Vikings, so I enjoyed being a Viking even if I did come out on the short end of the stabby-stabby contest. And being a pin cushion for the Norman crossbows, to boot. 

No matter what the result, it was a wonderful game and a great time with friends. 

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.