Troop Dispositions

Today I was reading Malcolm Wanklyn's "Decisive Battles of the English Civil War" and he made a reference to a primary source that showed the planned deployment of troops a couple of days before the battle took place . . . with a comment that that didn't mean that was how the troops actually got deployed for the battle.

Anyway this made me think of all of the times . . . even with a "helicopter" view of the terrain . . . that my deployment sketch had to be adjusted because when I put the figures onto the table there wasn't room to fit the troops in "as sketched".

I can only surmise that this often happened in real life as well . . . particularly when commanders lacked our view/knowledge of the terrain.

Surely I am not the only wargamer that this has happened to . . . am I?

-- Jeff

(off-topic) -- My Solo D&D Blog

While it is neither historical nor involving figures on the table top, I have been running some pen & paper solo Dungeons & Dragons "dungeon delves" over on my "The Laughing Owl" blog.

I am now asking readers to suggest where they think the party should explore next . . . so if you are interested, you might want to take a look through the previous posts at The Laughing Owl and then offer your suggestions.

Here is a grand overview of the explored areas so far (try opening it in a separate window for closer look):

-- Jeff

Old West Terrain for Pulp Game

Well I'm getting ready for a game of "Pulp Alley" set in the "old west", because the western story was a staple of the pulp magazine era.

Can our Players save the lady in red from the Gallows?

More photos can be found on my "On Pulp Street" blog.

-- Jeff

Starting a New Project

The results of my most recent CATSCAN mean that I will soon be entering another cycle of chemotherapy . . . although apparently not as brutal a cycle as the first one.

Anyway since I know how fatiguing this will be I needed to find a project that I could complete and play quickly . . . which isn't painting up several hundred figures for my English Civil War project (although hopefully I will be able to paint while on chemo).

For some time I've been reading glowing things about the game "Pulp Alley" from numerous sources, so I decided to give it a whirl since it doesn't require much of an investment . . . the rules in .pdf form are less than $10 and most "Leagues" (what they call their gangs) are around a half-dozen figures (from whatever manufacturer you choose).

By the way, until early on Jan. 2, 2014, Wargame Vault is having a 25% off sale on many items including "Pulp Alley" . . . click here for link. 

Anyway I've ordered a number of figures from Bob Murch's "Pulp Figures" (very quick service, by the way) and painted up most of them . . . but I'm waiting on bases from Litko.

So I'm going to use some "Old West" figures that I have for a "training game".

The photo at left is one of three "gangs" that I've put together with the clever names of the "White Hat Gang", the "Black Hat Gang" and the "Brown Hat Gang". 

To view these cleverly-named Leagues as well as the unbased "pulp" figures I've painted, please check out my "On Pulp Street" blog:

On Pulp Street.

-- Jeff

Our Outside Tree

Normally about this time of year I post a photo of the Christmas Tree in our house . . . but I cannot do that this year because (due to water damage) the flooring is completely being re-done throughout the house . . . sometime over the next two weeks . . . (at least supposedly -- it keeps getting postponed).

So today my sweet wife and I got our "outside tree" set up on our front porch:

Above is a photo from a little before dusk.  The tree itself is an artificial one about 15-20 years old.  Ornaments are large inexpensive plastics that won't break if a strong wind knocks them off.

The lights in the tree are red and green; while the garland of lights around the porch are a mixture of red and white. 

Thus, no matter when the flooring finally gets done, at least we have one tree up and decorated for the holidays.

May your holidays be filled with the warm comfort of family and friends; and may joy be the over-riding feeling that fills you for the rest of the year (and well into the next one).

-- Jeff

Some Decisions to be Made

Beside my Warlord plastics and Perry lead for my English Civil War project, I acquired a fairly substantial number of lead figures from a fellow down island.  The price was great, however the figures had not been treated kindly.

One specific problem was with the cavalry.  There were lots of sword-waving troopers most of whom had broken off swords.  Now Murdock has kindly offered to come down with his dremel tool and help me replace them with pins . . . (this is something I've never done although I've read of folks who have done so).

Now one of my problems is how well this will look with the unbroken swords of my Warlord and Perry troops.  Will I have to replace them as well?  I will have to wait and see.

Another issue has to do with the muskets of the Warlord plastics and the Perry lead.  I had planned on mixing them up within each unit . . . but while the sculpting of the two lines matches very well, the musket lengths are noticeably different (with the plastic being much longer).  Now I have to decide whether to simply use them in separate units or to snip the ends of the barrels off from the plastics.  I'm currently leaning toward the former but might well change my mind.

On a positive note, I did manage to make a hundred 80mm pikes from the mild steel welding rod I picked up last week . . . and I have finally assembled the arms and hats for way too many plastic foot and glued all of my plastic horses together.  However I still have swords to glue on the foot and pistol holsters on the horses.

I am getting very tired of all of the fiddly little bitwork needed to assemble all of the Warlord plastics.  They look good and the price is great but I have to pay for it in time in putting them together.

Nothing is painted yet (nor will it be soon) but I do continue to get things prepped.

-- Jeff

A Blast from the Past -- Simple Campaign

I was delighted this morning when I was perusing various blogs to see a post that I wrote about seven years ago referenced by John over at Tabletop Diversions (click to go to John's post). 

My post that he referred to is one where I offered a simple campaign engine (with virtually no bookkeeping), which he apparently has used.  Take a look at John's  blog to get the link to the system.

-- Jeff