Congo

Studio Tomahawk have posted some further details of the new colonial skirmish rules that they are currently developing, which have a distinctly Darkest Africa theme. 

From the blurb it looks like you only need thirty or so figures, which means that my tribal villagers will easily make up the numbers, although I'll also need an expedition or some slavers to ambush. 

Now, I should finally get round to painting up the tribal villager army that I put together for In the Heart of Africa a couple of years ago, as they've been languishing in a box for far too long, all based up and ready to go.

http://blog.studio-tomahawk.com/2015/03/congo_31.html

Galleys and Galleons [2]

The weather wasn't all bad today so I used it as a background!

The weather took a turn for the worst today, after being absolutely fantastic for the whole week, so I got on with the assembly and basing for the 1/450th scale Peter Pig pirate ships. The privateers have been launched first with a top sail schooner, two sloops and a brig, along with three longboat bases for cutting out raids. They'll get an undercoat as soon as I can find some suitable matt white spray paint.

The Privateer fleet ready for painting

I'm thinking of substituting one of the sloops with a second schooner using  a conversion of the Peter Pig schooner kit into fore and aft rig, taking a leaf out of David Manley's book. The surplus sloop will then be re-assigned as a warship for the naval contingent, which I'm thinking of making 'La Royale'  rather than Royal Navy. This will include a frigate and a brig as well as the aforementioned sloop / cutter.

A room with a view

I'll start on the assembly and basing for this tomorrow, if the weather doesn't get any better. As I'm typing this, the sail training ship Belem has just anchored for the night in the bay, which is a bit of a coincidence but handy as reference material nonetheless. It's pretty cool to look out of the window and see this every day but, unfortunately, I can't retire here just yet....just another twenty one years of full time teaching to go!!

http://www.fondationbelem.com/ 

Army of Shadows

We went to the market in the local town this morning, which also has a very nice bookshop with a particularly comprehensive section for BD's. I was looking for the new book by Romain Hugault but found this instead, which is in a very similar graphic style and theme. 

 

It's the first volume in a quartet, following a landser in the 332nd infantry regiment on the Russian Front from winter 1942 onwards. The art work is excellent and, once I get my head around the French dialogue, I'm sure the storyline will be equally good.

Dragon Rampant Ramblings

Something else that grabbed my attention over on the Lion Rampant forum was a discussion about the fantasy variant of Lion Rampant, which I have yet to play in its original format but which I'm keen to try out, once I've got my act together with my 15mm WOTR retinue. This is on the 'to do' list later in the summer.

The fantasy option is featured as a couple of army lists in the rulebook, one for the forces of evil and one for the forces of good, in a nod to classic '80's style gaming. However, the next issue of WSS is going to feature a full article by Dan Mersey giving more ideas to convert the rules over to a fantasy setting.

I have a pretty good HOTT skeleton army that could be re-based for this and plenty of spare 15mm dwarves, elves and undead in the lead pile, so it looks like a good way to make use of them, especially as I really like the original rules. I'm looking forward to the Dragon Rampant article to see what the potential fantasy units look like?

Black Ops

I was having a look for details about the forthcoming Osprey Fighting Sail rules for Napoleonic fleet actions, which are out next month, when I spotted the next set of wargames rules in the pipeline. These look like a small scale, tactical level stealthy skirmish with a cyberpunk style theme, which sounds like it might be fun. I'll have to dig out my old Copplestone Future Wars figures and paint some up in advance of publication, which is scheduled for September this year.

AK47 Campaign Rules

I wanted to run an AK47 mini-campaign at the club this year and planned to kick it of in February, but all this went out of the window due to the meltdown at work. Now things are looking slightly less manic and my workload is, hopefully, going to be reduced a bit next term, so I'm looking to relaunch the mini-campaign idea in the next couple of months.

I have three or four players lined up and have two useable armies to deploy, give or take a unit or two to paint up, so there's no problem getting the factions equipped for the game. I also have enough terrain with some room for a few extra bits. With the old AK47 rules available in pdf format everyone has ready access to the mechanics, so all that I need is a decent campaign system to make it work.

Luckily, I have a tried and tested system up my sleeve which has been used for both Back of Beyond and Aeronef. This is the system devised by Chris Peers for simple, fast play campaigns requiring minimal paperwork and record keeping. With a few tweaks and the incorporation of some club rules for various things, which we've worked out over the last half a dozen games, it should be spot on for AK47. 

I'm going to write something up over the holidays and post it on the club forum, so that it gets the once over from the AK47 grognards. If there's still sufficient interest in a mini-campaign, I can then go ahead a set it up in June / July. It's been a long time in the making but, fingers crossed, it'll finally get up and running this year! 

Air War C21 Flashpoint Baltic [6]

I'll be off to the magasin de presse this morning in search of copy of Air Combat No.11, which thus far has been difficult to locate. It looks like an interesting source of ideas for the Baltic Flashpoint project. In the meantime, I'm going to get on with the pirate ships for the Galleys and Galleons project, as soon as I can find some superglue!

Happy Holidays

We're off on holiday now for a couple of weeks, so I'm packing Heroes of Normandie and Wings of War for the rainy days. In a typical U-turn I've also decided to take some Peter Pig 1/450th scale pirate ships to assemble and base, ready to paint up when I get back.

These are destined for Galleys and Galleons, which I'm going to get hold of once they're published. In the meantime, the models will be glued together and undercoated. I'm looking forward to having a crack at them, with a small flotilla of smuggler and pirate sloops and brigs versus the cutters and frigates of the Royal Navy.

Zone Interdite

That was a very, very long term but it's now over and we're off to Brittany tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to some decent sleep and a much deserved wind down. The very good value No Go Zone bundle arrived today and this set me off on another random line of enquiry, with some ideas for a 'continental' variant of the basic game, using the existing chaos and civilian figures with some 'yet to be sourced' figures for the forces of law and order.

The plan is to locate some 1/56th scale toy vehicles for the Police Nationale and, if possible, some 28mm metal figures for both the regular Police Nationale and scary CRS riot police. The vehicles should be relatively easy to track down but I'm not sure where to find the figures, although some conversions and headswaps using the Warmacre coppers might be an option. If you've seen La Haine, you'll get the idea. I'll see what I can come up with!

Heroes of Normandie

First the bad news. The company that I ordered Spy or Die Trying from have run out of stock, so I'm back to square one as far as 1960's Mission Impossible meets James Bond board gaming is concerned. I'll try re-ordering from a different supplier once we're back from the Easter break. It's a shame, as I was looking forward to trying out the game with the kids, but I'm sure we can wait a bit longer.

The good news is that my other belated birthday present board game has arrived. This is Heroes of Normandie by the French developer Devil Pig Games, which I read about in Vae Victis last year and thought looked really good, if you can get over the Warlord comic book graphics and the Kelly's Heroes style narrative. I had my doubts to be honest, but thought it would be a really good way to get the boys into some historical gaming, even if it's a bit 'tongue in cheek'.

Having said that, the quality of the rulebook, boards, dice, counters and cards is superb, probably the best I've seen in a long time. It's a bit pricey at £45 but still very good value for money given the heavy duty, full colour game components and the care with which it has been put together. The proof will be in the gameplay, so I'll be hoofing it over to Brittany for the holidays, with fingers crossed for some really crappy weather and plenty of lazy afternoons!