Some more monkey business with Chat GPT today to tart up the aircraft record sheets for the Digger Dogfight' game. I've added a bit of technical blurb to the sheets after some excellent feedback from one of the chaps at the club, but otherwise the format remains the same as the original WORD version. I'm not sure it's worth all the melting glaciers and burning rainforests to be honest, so will probably stick with the vanilla option.
I was down in Chichester at the weekend for the rugby but had a spare hour or so to pop into town to browse the local bookshops. In one of the charity shops I was lucky enough to find two paperbacks for £1.50 each, which were obviously donated by the same person with an interest in C.S.Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels. These are both in good nick and I'll enjoy reading them, especially the Hornblower Companion as it has some rather splendid sketch maps, ideal material for some wargaming scenarios!
I've made good progress with preparing and basing the units for my Generic Villager / Nyamwezi army over the last week or two. The core of the army is now completed, with three units of spear armed skirmishers (6 bases each), two units of musket armed skirmishers (6 bases each) and one unit of archer skirmishers (6 bases each), which will allow me to play around with unit sizes later on. I also have a chief and a witchdoctor base for added points, although it remains to be seen if he's worth it. I've ditched a second unit of archers for the moment, so it's onto the allied units.
I've changed my mind about the warrior units and am going to use Copplestone Watuta figures from my Ngoni lead pile, rather than the Zulu style figures, as the Tuta were allies of the Nyamwezi and have distinctive head gear. I plan to have two units (six bases each) for the Tuta, which should add a bit of punch to the army.
The alternative option is four bases of musket armed Swahili Wangwana skirmishers using Ruga Ruga figures, which are very cool, and four bases of elite Arab nobles, skirmishers upgraded to be armed with breech loading rifles. I may well base up both the Tuta and the Wangwana / Arabs, as it will give me lots of flexibility and should be a lot of fun to paint.
I've been playing around with Chat GPT this weekend to see how I can use it for Algernon Pulls It Off! resources, including a new cover for the rules and an enhanced card deck for the Digger Dogfight Lard Day game. This has been an uphill struggle at times, principally to stop the robot doing its own thing with the card deck formatting, text and images, but I'm getting there in fits and starts. The cards above are based on my own WORD versions with enhanced graphics, but they contain a few glitches and the deck is missing a sheet that the AI decided to edit for no particularly logical reason. I'm not a fan of AI to be honest and can't stand all those AI generated posters and pictures that are everywhere these days, but it has its uses and definitely can be deployed to soup things up a bit.
For the Lard Day Algy participation game in January, I really should get myself a new hex mat, my old blue fleece one having seen better days. I do already have a Deep Cut Studios tundra themed hex mat in mouse pad material, which would do the job, but something more appropriate would be a good idea. The current options are a European Fields design or a First World War Battlefield design, the latter probably being the front runner. They're not cheap, however, and I'm strapped for cash at the moment, so this will be an early Xmas present, if and when I can persuade the other half it's a really good idea?
I have ordered another pack of very nice but very expensive Copplestone AFU4 Ngoni Warriors from Northstar today, to build a larger nine base unit of 'more warlike' allies for the Generic Villagers army. I have an identical set of figures, filled out with some old Black Tree Designs Zulus, so this pack will supplement it with an additional three bases. I put together a test base a while ago which shows how the two ranges mix quite well. I was a bit concerned that the skirmisher heavy villagers wouldn't have any roughty, toughty back up, so nine bases of warriors will be much better than just a measly six. I can also break it down into two units of four or five for added flexibility l. This unit represent Ngoni mercenaries from one of the neighbouring tribal people of what is now Western Tanzania.
I've offered to run a game or two of Algernon Pulls It Off! at the local Lard Day in January next year, so will dig out Digger Dogfight from the Jasta 18 collection, as it's a tried and tested scenario with a time limit. I've run Bag the Hun games at three previous Cone and Have a Go days, so know how things work and what should be feasible in the time available for four to six players.
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| Sabotag3d Sopwith Cameks |
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| Sabotag3d Albatros DVa |
To jazz it up a bit, I'll paint up some 1/300th scale aircraft, rather than using 1/600th scale models, and may well invest in a new, full colour mouse mat hex cloth as my tatty old blue fleece one really has seen better days. The aircraft record sheets and card deck will also get a polish, perhaps with the help of AI if I can find a suitable but of software. Time to Bung on a Blue!
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| Capt.Ross Smith / Lt. 'Pard' Mustard |
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| Vfw.Gustav Schniedewind |
A bonus scenario for the Algy Flies Down Under article includes some balloon busting by Albatros DVa pilots of Jasta 1F over the West Bank of the River Jordan in early May 1918.
Two balloons were claimed by two different pilots at this time but the exact location and details are sketchy. As the main activity at the time was the successful withdrawal from a raid over the Jordan by British and ANZAC forces, I've located the action there, just after the retreat across the river had been completed.
To make things interesting I'm going to throw in a pair of Australian Brisfits to intercept the raiders, although there's no historical evidence to back this up. I'm still working out the crews for these but Capt. Smith / Lt. 'Pard' Mustard and Lt.Tonkin / Lt. Camm are likely contenders, as they were in action at the time, clashing with three Albatros scouts a few days earlier.
The Jasta 1F pilots were Vfw.Georg Weiner and Vfw.Gustav Schniedewind, the latter an experienced Western Front veteran and seven victory ace who was actually shot down by Lt.Paul and his observer Lt.Weir on the 23rd May, surviving the crash with serious wounds.
Tally Ho!
I've been going over the Generic Villagers army list (List 1) in the Death in the Dark Continent rulebook again, to see how I can find a good balance between points and painting load.
Here's what I'm thinking of now after revising down and rounding up my previous workings out.
Nyamwezi (Generic Villagers)
3 units of spearman skirmishers (6 bases per unit) @ 4 points / 24 x 3 = 72
2 units of archer skirmishers (6 bases per unit) @ 4 points / 24 x 2 = 48
2 units of musketeers (6 bases per unit) @ 5 points / 30 x 2 = 60
Option A
1 unit of allied warriors (6 bases per unit) @ 6 points / 36 x 1 = 36
Stratagem
Witchcraft (Witchdoctor) @ 50 points
Total = 266 points
or
Option B
1 unit of allied Swahili 'Wangwana' musket armed skirmishers (4 bases per unit) @ 5 points / 20 x 1 = 20
1 unit of Arab Nobles, elite untrained skirmishers with muskets (4 bases per unit) @ 9 points / 36 x 1 = 36
Stratagem
Witchcraft (Witchdoctor) @ 50 points
Total = 286 points
At a push, I could put together a second unit of allied warriors but that would require an order for a pack of AFU4 Ngoni Warriors from Copplestone Castings which aren't exactly cheap at £18 a poo these days. I do have some old Black Tree Designs Zulus to mix in to lighten the load, but there are limits to how far this might work.
Although the figures I've used for the Nyamwezi aren't quite right and the shields should be more like Masai designs, I think this mix of spearmen, archers, muskets and warriors should be a good basis for a force that looks and fights in a realistic style. It's also just about manageable for painting purposes if I keep things simple?
A big multiplayer game of the Wessex Wargamers Winchester house rules for World War One air warfare, Knights of the Sky, at the club this evening organised by Ian. This was a tactical bombing set up with both sides attempting to knock out fuel and ammunition dumps at either end of the table. I was flying for La France in a Breguet XIV but didn't have much luck in either the bombing department or shooting things down. It was good fun as always and reminded me of some of the games I have Ru in the past, albeit quite a while ago and when I had more time to get up to the club on a regular basis.
