The Men Who Would Be Kings Cunning Plan

I couldn't decide between 15mm and 28mm for my The Men Who Would Be Kings project, so I've decided to do both! I'll probably live to regret this but it seems like a good idea, given the fact that I have most of what I need in both scales and don't have to buy very much to start with. I have sent off for some additional metal Beja rifle armed skirmishers from Perry Miniatures but that's all for the moment, as the two boxes of plastic Mahdist Ansar figures will cover the rest in 28mm. This will give me up to 80 figures to make up the core of the force, with some left over for conversion into casualty markers, extra riflemen and other 'things'.

How cool is that!

The plan is to complete two 24 point forces in 15mm using the Peter Pig figures, one Beja and one opposing Field Force. This might be Egyptian, as the figures are really cool, or a British landing party with a Royal Marine detachment supported by Naval Brigade artillery and sailors, or a patrol of the 2nd Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. I'll do the Beja first, as they will be relatively quick to paint and base, using an overall brown basecoat, blocking in and a wash to speed things up. I'll base the foot figures all on 1p coins so that they can be grouped in skirmish trays and stored on mini-magnets (there are some very handy tray liners for Really Useful Boxes that I can use for this)

Arrghh!! Plastic Sprues

In 28mm, I will also concentrate on the Beja for the same reasons, with the aim to produce 4 units of 16 spear and sword armed Veteran Fierce Tribal infantry, together with a unit of 12 Irregular Veteran infantry, poor shots, as rifle armed skirmishers. This will replace the unit of irregular camelry from the Beja list in the rule book, which will keep the cost down to a sensible level and also will give me a unit of Shooters for playing solo games against Mr Babbage (I really could do with two of these!). The skirmishers will be the metal figures, leaving plenty of plastic Fuzzy Wuzzy's to make up the 64 spear and sword armed loonies that I need.

Huzzah!

Here Comes the Summer

I'm planning ahead for the summer with some ideas for projects to add to the ones I already haven't finished! I am still working my way through the What a Tanker! US and British models and also have the Sandbox Skirmish 15mm post-colonial project to be getting on with, but the lure of something new is hard to resist. At the moment, I'm about to start basing up some 28mm late war Germans for squad level skirmish games but the appeal of this has waned a bit after I realised that Chain of Command is just not feasible with what I've got in the lead pile. So, rather than start something that will hit a brick wall in a few weeks time, I think I might switch to a more realistic project for the next couple of months.

The current thinking is to assemble a couple of forces for The Men Who Would Be Kings, either in 15mm or possibly in 28mm using plastics, as they are much more affordable than lead. I have a couple of boxes of Perry Miniatures Mahdist Ansar that I can put together for a 'Fuzzy Wuzzy' army and a box of the plastic Sudan War British infantry that could be the core of a Field Force for the Suakin campaign. Alternatively, I have plenty of Peter Pig 15mm Sudan figures including Egyptians, Naval Brigade, Camel Corps and so on, not to mention lots of Hadendowah, so that's another approach I could take. It would also mean I could use my new 'bespoke' desert terrain for 15mm skirmishes. To add some further choices I have a whole Warlord Games 28mm Zulu starter army in plastic in the loft...but that's another story!

I will do some number crunching for this over the next few days to see if I can stretch what I already have into two 24 point forces for The Men Who Would Be Kings. I like the idea of 15mm, both for cost reasons and for the fact they would be quicker to base and paint, but I still have a hankering for 28mm having seen other people using the excellent Perry Miniatures plastic figures in action. The downside of plastic is that you have to glue the figures together, which can be fiddly and time consuming from my experience. You can't argue with the price tag, however, so it may well be 28mm that wins this particular battle, especially as I can start off with the Skirmish Kings option using half sized units. It does depends on the extras I'd need to buy from the metal figure range and the cost that this would add to any colonial project.

Tea and a Wad Wargaming

I'm on holiday at the moment so will be playing some board and paper wargames, with some posts about what I'm getting up to over on the other blog:

http://teaandawad.blogspot.com/

I'll be playing some more Tank on Tank: Westfront scenarios and will also be playing several games of Aquitaine by Paddy Griffiths from the Society of Ancients, originally published as one of the games in the Sandhurst Book of Wargames. I've also brought my Tiny Tin Troops Greek and Persian Wars card triremes for a try out of David Manley's Ad Mare Bellum ancient naval rules, amongst other things. Why not pop over and take a look?

Fistful of Lead Core Rules

I'm a big fan of the Fistful of Lead rules by Jaye Wiley, so I was very pleased to see the publication of a core set of the rules, adaptable to any historical setting. I've played a lot of the original western rules and was an enthusiastic backer of Galactic Heroes, the sci-fi variant, although I still haven't got round to playing a game yet. Now that I have some new Star Wars figures, that shouldn't be too after off, assuming I get round to painting them. 

I've also tinkered around in 20mm with the Viva la Revolucion! supplement for the Mexican Revolution, but that's still an on-going project and one that I've sidelined this year, which is a reminder for me to get on with it. Anyway, I'll get a .pdf copy of the new core rules to see if I can use them for the Back of Beyond or WW2 squad level skirmish scenarios, although I'm not sure if they can handle tanks or support weapons like AT guns?

Squad Level Skirmish Second World War Rules

I've been mulling over the way ahead for my 28mm WW2 project, with the inevitable suspicion that Chain of Command is more practicable in 15mm. It's not the core platoon sized force that's the issue but the need for support options, which pushes the price bracket even higher than it would be otherwise. It also means that the relative cost factor of 15mm makes 28mm just the other side of silly.

This became painfully apparent when I was costing up a Soviet platoon using Crusader Miniatures, which levelled off at about £75 to £100, once I'd factored in a handful of heavy weapons, tanks and extras. This is just not feasible for me at the moment, even if I used plastics rather than my prefered metal figures. On the flipside, 15mm is a fraction of the cost and I already have the figures, so it's not rocket science to do Chain of Command using these smaller scale models.

However, I'm now revising the scope of my 28mm project to focus on squad level skirmish, with no more than a platoon as the default unit strength. This is more like Bolt Action, which I'm not a fan of, so an alternative set of rules is up for selection. At the moment, this will be Iron Cross from Great Escape Games, as the guys at the club think it's a really good set of rules. I'm also going to have another look at Five Men at Kursk by Nordic Weasel and as an outside third place option, Rate of Fire from Crusader Publishing.

One new set of rules that caught my eye, while browsing Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy in WHSmiths the other day, is Ultracombat Normandy by Dish Dash Games. These are the guys who produced the popular Skirmish Sangin modern rules, although the WW2 system is different. I really like the look of the rules from what I've read online and the price of the rule book too, as it's available in .pdf format, with the element cards as a free download. I also really like card based systems!

I may download the rules for a closer look?

Magazine de Presse

Here we are in France once again for a couple of weeks holiday, so a trip to the newsagent is required for some reading material and a bonus hex and counter wargame, just in case it chucks it down with rain. As usual, it's a bit grey and gloomy here, so some military magazines are an essential asset.

The latest edition of Vae Victis includes a strategic level game of the 1809 campaign, which looks like it might be fun to play through, especially as the counters are lovely and the rules can be downloaded in English. I may play this over the next week or so, if I get some free time.

I've also got my hands on the latest edition of Batailles & Blindes, which is always really good from a wargaming point of view, as it has excellent colour art work and an interesting mix of articles. This one, for example, has a whole section on the Korsun Pocket, which fits in nicely with my What a Tanker! project.

Ad Mare Bellum

I'm off on holiday at the weekend so, as usual, I'll be taking some simple 'beer and pretzels' wargames with me to play solo and with the kids. These are usually card and paper based, as it's nice and portable and doesn't take up much space, so I do the write ups on my other blog rather than here:

http://teaandawad.blogspot.com/

This Easter I'm going to have a play around with David Manley's fast play ancient naval rules, Ad Mare Bellum, using some lovely card counters of Greek and Persian galleys from Tiny Tin Troops. I bought these to use with the Osprey ancient naval rules. Poseidon's Warriors, but Ad Mare Belllum has been published subsequently, so I have decided to go with those having enjoyed David's other naval rules. I'll post some reports once I've had a go!

Bloody Bucket

I thought I'd take a closer look at one of the Pint Sized mini-campaign supplements for Chain of Command, to see what the typical forces looked like before I tackle my Artizan Germans. The one that stood out as being most relevant was 'Bloody Bucket', set as it is during the Ardennes Offensive. 

It's already given me some pointers, shifting my platoon away from a Volksgrenadier unit and toward a bog standard regular infantry platoon, based on the figures I have available. I'll also be packing two Panzerfausts per squad, as this seems to be the usual set up by late 1944 - early 1945. 

I'm still in two minds whether to go down the 15mm route again for Chain of Command but I think I'll stick with the 28mm approach first, as it is a better fit with what I've already painted up. It also complements the winter terrain I've assembled, which is an added bonus!

It's also set me off on a tangent, thinking about writing something similar for the 5th DCLI in Holland or Normandy, something that I think would make an excellent sequence of scenarios for a 'Pint Sized' campaign. I think I'll have to re-read 'Infantry Colonel' again to see if I can find a theme?

https://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2018/06/infantry-colonel.html

Winter Platoon Hetzer Support

I knew that I had a couple of Tamiya 1/48th scale kits in the loft that I could use as armoured support for the Winter German Platoon, so after a rummage and some colourful language, I extracted a Hetzer and a StuG III G from the plastic kit pile. I prefer 1/48th scale with 28mm and usually use Corgi diecast models or Blitzkrieg Miniatures resin ones but these Tamiya kits are cheaper and still suitable for wargaming.

They have a hefty diecast metal chassis as well, which adds some much needed weight and rigidity to the finished models. The only real issue are the tracks, which are link and length so a bit fiddly. I am going to take the Hetzer on holiday with me to build while I'm away, leaving the StuG for a rainy day, so at least the platoon will have some armour support.

Easter Holiday Project

I've been thinking through some ideas for a clean up and base project that I can take on holiday next week. I've done this before, with mixed success, as it almost always ends up with a box of assembled and based figures or models, which then go back in a box and are never seen again! However, it's a useful wargamey thing to do and keeps me busy, when otherwise I'd just be sitting around enjoying the sunshine but achieving nothing at all. Nothing wrong with that but it's fun to have something to do in the evenings and I quite enjoy assembling and basing too.

This time, I'm going to base up a core platoon of late war winter equipped German infantry for Chain of Command, to use against my existing late war US platoon which I painted a long time ago for Bolt Action! The thinking behind this is that it will enable me to pay solo games with the figures I already have and will make use of the Cigar Box Battle snow cloth that I has been under-employed but for which I have some nice woodland and river terrain. I can easily add more terrain pieces to this including ruined buildings, roads and scatter, so it's killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.

The figures are all Artizan Designs which I've had for ages, so I don't need to buy any new ones, and I also have a couple of Britzkrieg Miniatures resin half tracks to go with them. I have a PaK 40 too, so that's a good reason to assemble the Sdkfz 251 Hanomag as a tow, while the Sdkfz 250 that I also have will be a command or scout vehicle. However, I'm not going to repeat the mistake I made with my stalled Japanese platoon and glue together all the numerous support options under the sun, as this just put me off painting the buggers last time!