We're down in South Devon for a long weekend and today visited Salcombe which, despite the imminent arrival of Storm Austen, was actually quite sunny. After some local advice we took a walk along the coast road and passed the remains of the Civil War fortifications covering the entrance to the estuary. There's not a lot left after the fort was sleighted and exposed to the elements for four hundred years but it's still pretty impressive.
In the past I've used Foundry Bay Brown Shade and Bay Brown for African skin, which I think gives a really good effect and is easy to use as a basecoat and highlight layer. Unfortunately, my very old pots of paint are now on their last legs, so I've been looking for an alternative. A trio of Foundry paints would put me back sixteen quid including postage, which means other options might be better value. I ordered some Vallejo Game Colour paints that are supposed to be equivalent but they are not quite right, so I'm now thinking of trying one of the Army Painter sets. The front runner is the set based on Obsidian Skin, which is the closest to Bay Brown by the looks of it, although you can never tell just from the photo....worth a try out anyway and a better bang for your buck!
Here's the army I have based up and will be painting next month for Death in the Dark Continent, based on List 1: Generic Villagers.
1. Skirmishers with Spears (6 bases) @ 24
2. Skirmishers with Spears (6 bases) @ 24
3. Skirmishers with Spears (6 bases) @ 24
4. Skirmishers, Untrained with muskets (6 bases) @ 30
5. Skirmishers, Untrained with muskets (6 bases) @ 30
6. Skirmishers, with bows (4 bases) @ 16
7. Skirmishers, with bows (4 bases) @ 16
8. Arab nobles, Skirmishers,Elite,Untrained with breechloaders (4 bases) @ 48.
9. Swahili Wangwana, Skirmishers, Untrained with muskets (4 bases) @ 20.
Stratagem: Witchdoctor @ 50 points
Total Points: 298
It's a bit light on close combat capability but does have some decent short range firepower and should be useful when there's plenty of cover to flit in and out of. If it turns out to be a bit fragile, I can replace the last two units with warriors or just swap out the Arab Noble skirmishers for their soldier equivalent.
.... especially to all my Royal Naval friends and relatives and, of course, the French side of the family 😜
I've made some tweaks to the rules for the latest scenario featuring the Brisfit and RE8. I would be interested in any feedback you might have.
1. Observer Lewis guns fire in Left, Right and Rear arcs, not just Rear. This brings it into line with the German aircraft in the data lists.
2.Twin Lewis gun mounting has a FF of 4 instead of 3 (equivalent to a scout with 2 forwards firing guns)
3. Ammo is expended in exactly the same way as if a single gun i.e. treat twin guns as equal firing bursts from both drums and don't track each drum separately.
4. When reloading or unjamming, both drums are reloaded or a gun unjammed at the same time. No single weapon firing or unjamming.
5. A -1 penalty on the reload / unjam roll as two drums are more work than one.
6. Six spare drums carried giving three reloads per game (the Brisfits actually had a seven drum rack, so seems reasonable..other aircraft might only have four drums / two reloads)
All this is designed to avoid book keeping and speed up the game.
Incidentally, the Aussie Brisfit twin mounts were a game changer in Palestine and twin mounts were widely adopted by the RAF in 1918, so a FF of 4 seems justified, I think.
Feedback very much appreciated 👍🏻
Incidentally...some quick googling and a bit of an AI search reveals that RE8 observers could fire to the side quite easily:
'While they couldn't fire straight ahead over the wing in standard level flight, observers could fire broadly to the front-left or front-right (obliquely) past the wingtips if an enemy aircraft pulled up alongside them'.
An observer in a Brisfit, however...
'...could elevate the Lewis gun high enough to shoot forward over the upper wing, nearly horizontally. The Scarff ring allowed the observer to manually swing and rotate the machine gun a full 360 degrees, covering the entire rear hemisphere as well as wide lateral (sideways) and elevated angles'.
I'm on holiday next week and want to start painting the Death in the Dark Continent army, or at least a test unit or two, so I've decided to leave the Tuta Warrior unit aside for the moment to get the army finished this week. Instead of the Tuta, I'm going to add four more bases of archers to fill up the last space on the workbench shelves and to bring the whole army up to a total of 298 points, just shy of the 300 required for some of the scenarios in the rules. I'll set out the army list and points another time. The plan now is to paint up the Nyamwezi / Generic Villagers by Xmas, which I think is probably a good target to aim for, assuming I don't get side tracked!
I have now drafted the third scenario for the Algy Flies Down Under project, aptly titled 'A Sting in the Tail' as it features the first successful claim by the No.1 Squadron Bristol Fighter in January 1918. In this dogfight an RE8 under escort by an F2B was bounced by a pair of Albatros scouts of Jasta 1F but both of the German pilots got the worst of it, with one shot down and the other forced to break off the attack. A key feature of the action was the defense fire from the observers, who both put fifty round bursts into their targets at close range.
At the time, the Australians were up-gunning the Brisfits and RE8 two seaters with twin Scarff ring mounted Lewis guns, giving them a real sting in the tail and the opposition a nasty surprise. I've factored this into the scenario by including a bonus card for the observers, which allows one or other of them and extra chance to fire, in addition to their Fire card, which I've allocated for each observer. I've done something similar before and it does make for a more dynamic game.
That splendid chap Mr.David Manley sent me an advanced draft of some solo rules for use with Broadside and Salvo yesterday, which was a very pleasant surprise. These allow you to play against an opponent whose fleet is deployed, manoeuvres and engaged in gunnery controlled by means of an ingenious reaction system, with varying levels of response determined by the 'stance' of the commanding admiral.
It's a very neat system and I think will make it easier for solo players to set up fleet actions with a degree of uncertainty and an element of autonomy for the opposing side. I only made one slight suggestion for a tweak to the rules as they are clearly written and well thought through in their current iteration. Hopefully, these will appear relatively soon as a result and I'm looking forward to trying then out with my Chilean and Argentinian fleets, which haven't seen much action for quite a while.
The task this weekend, aided by the absence of the other half who's in Paris and the spring whose gone off scuba diving in Bali, is to get the last unit of my Nyamwezi army based up. These are the fantastic Ngoni figures sculpted by Mark Copplestone, which are absolutely brilliant but need quite a lot of filing, sanding, sticking and sorting before they are ready to undercoat. I've cut down the number of bases to six, or three if two units, so that I can get them assembled over the next day or so.
As bog standard warriors each base in worth a measly six points, so a grand total of only thirty six points in total, but better than nothing and I can always add more bases to fill up the quota. The only other thing I need to do is undercoat two or three bases of baggage and then I'm ready to start painting, which I'm actually quite excited about for a change....blimey!
I've been planning ahead for the opposition in my Death in the Dark Continent project and have a number of interesting options including an explorer expedition, German Colonial column, a Zanzibari force or a Naval Landing Party, I have figures set aside for all of these but quite fancy the last one, especially as I could have a gunboat, which would be a cracking force multiplier and would look pretty nifty too.
To fill out the ranks I spotted this lot of Wargames Foundry naval ratings in Sennet hats, which were a good price and would be sufficient for three bases of elite soldiers. I do have some British sailors in naval chaos already but these look much more appropriate for the climate and geography. I can also add a command base of officers and NCO's to make a four base unit, which would give me a good core for a naval landing party army.
Hoorah!
