Hell again.....

I have just got my grubby little paws on yet another "old skool" set of rules. This time i have managed to pick up Hell by Starlight, first written in 1993.
From my cursory glance it is yet another set of finely written rules for 15/25mm sci-fi skirmish games.It uses a very similar reaction system to Hellfire and the two interchangeable.

I will report more once I have fully read the rules.....

61-65 custom bases

Well with the little lead men and resin building arrived i turned my attention to basing.
61-65 requires figures to be individually based to allow for casualty removal and morale status.
With this in mind, i fired up my trusty seat of SolidWorks 2012 (soon to be 2013) and began modelling my base requirements.
I have decided to got for 12mm diameter bases made from either card or MDF to mount the figures on. I then began wondering about movement trays.

This is what i have come up with including all the variations i could think of.....

Eight man unit, seven man units, 4 man units, 3 man command stand, 1 man skirmish base and artillery bases.

All these options allow for great flexibility in playing the game at differing sizes.

World of Tanks!

Well due to not having lots of time to push the lead around, i got into playing World of Tanks.
Not the greatest tank commander but have managed to get into a clan - Fire Strom Commandos.
I also have a Tiger tank which i enjoy, but i just got myelf a KV-1S, its still stock but it rocks. Results of the first two games;

Defeat

Battle: South Coast 20 October 2012 20:59:24

Vehicle: KV-1S

Experience received: 393

Credits received: 13,806

Battle Achievements: Sharpshooter

Victory!

Battle: Airfield 20 October 2012 21:09:05

Vehicle: KV-1S

Experience received: 1,515 (x3 for the first victory each day)

Credits received: 11,191

Battle Achievements: Master Gunner, Sharpshooter

I guess i will keep on grinding, IS-3 and Tiger II to be had! :-)

Reinforcements have arrived!

My 61-65 Project is slowly coming together, my ACW miniatures and building arrived yesterday from The Baggage Train and Pendraken Miniatures. I can’t praise highly enough of both company’s products.
I even received a free wagon from The Baggage Train, which I am going to use as an objective for the time being. “Defend the pay chest boy’s scenario springs to mind!”

I will hopefully get some photos taken and up during this weekend. I will also then give a review of the items themselves. At first glance they both look really good, I will have to come up with a better basing idea, I didn’t realise how small the infantry were! J

61-65 Marching on - one step closer

A while ago I got hold of 61-65 ACW rules by Ganesha Games, based on the fact I really liked playing Song of Drums and Shakos and I have always wanted to do ACW after visiting Gettysburg and looking down the hill of Cemetery Ridge and thinking to myself that there wasn’t an awful lot of room to manoeuvre or take cover when I visited.

I decided that I would budget myself for this project on what I was going to spend. I normally buy loads of stuff and don’t get round to using it. Not this time, I have given myself £50 to get this project moving and the additional goal of playing at least a 3 game campaign before buying any further lead for the table.

The 61-65 rules are pitched at company strength engagements which for some may seem a little on the small side and not very ‘grand tactical’ , but for me it fits the bill perfectly as I don’t have the time or the space anymore for games much over skirmish level or platoon level.
The rules being based on company level organisations mean that a company is made up of about 90 figures for all ranks; this is very achievable especially since I wanted to do this in 10mm.

The figures:

I did a fair bit of research on the different figures that are available for this period in 10mm and can across this most excellent blog by Bt Sherman – “On Campaign With General Bt Sherman  A blog devoted to Miniature Wargaming, Battlefielding and Reenactments.”

This blog has lots and lots of ACW related articles and one of the best articles on the site I found was a comparison picture of the most common 10 / 12mm ACW miniatures out there.

I have borrowed this image from the blog, but I heartily recommend that you check it out for yourself if you like the ACW period.

Armed with my information I began looking at what miniatures to buy, my initial thoughts where to go with Blaze Away miniatures, they look very good and I could get both sides as a skirmish pack for about £12 each, however the international postage was quite high, so I decided to go with The Baggage Train, 10 High range of ACW. Mainly because they are UK based but their brigade packs have 98 figures including command and flags for £11.52.
I added a pack of Infantry in Slouch hats and some artillery which when mixed with the brigade pack will give me two forces of 5 units, plus command and artillery.

Choosing this option left me some of my budget that I decided to spend on Pendraken’s ACW building pack and their Antietam chapel.

I am pretty happy with the initial cost layout for this project with all the items coming in to less that £36, which means I can in future expand a little and add maybe some cavalry and snake fencing.

Once the figures and buildings arrive I will post some photos and I will also remember to so some progress blogs as this project moves forward.

New War band for SoBH - Green Dragon Clan

With the new version of Song of Blades and Heroes available and a bargain find on e-bay I thought I would create a new war band based on feudal Japan. These guys who only cost £1.00 will form my Green Dragon Clan.

They are 10mm Pendraken figures and the detail is very good. I really like the seated Warlord; I am looking forward to basing and painting these guys. I also have somewhere a small dragon which may or may not form part of this war band. It depends if I can squeeze it in to 500 points.

I am going to base the infantry figures on M6 washers backed with magnetic sheet and the mounted figure on a once pence piece.

The colour scheme will be green, obviously.

The war band lists:

300pts

Green Dragon Samurai Leader	3+	3	Leader	60	1	60
Ashigaru Teppo	4+	3	Shooter (M)	29	3	87
Ashigaru- spear	4+	3	Shield wall	24	2	48
Ashigura - Archer	4+	3	Shooter (L)	33	3	99
						294 pts

500 pts

Green Dragon Shogun	3+	4	Leader, Dashing, Fearless, Heavy Armour	88	1	88
Ashigaru Teppo	4+	3	Shooter (M)	29	3	87
Ashigaru- spear	4+	3	Shield wall	24	2	48
Ashigura - Archer	4+	3	Shooter (L)	33	3	99
Samurai	3+	4	Mounted, Heavy Armour	62	1	62
Green Dragon	3+	4	Top oFlying, Huge, Savage, Shooter: Short, Tailslap, ToughBottom of Form	116	1	116
						500

 

Small size skirmish packs

I was thinking the other day, why don't more manufactures make small size skirmish packs?
There are a lot of out there that don't have the  time, space or spare pocket change for huge armies and get our kicks for skirmish gaming.
I like the smaller scales but it is extremely difficult to find a good mix of troops in over a few packs without having loads of 'spare' lead afterwards.
Does anyone know of manufacturers who will do custom packs in 6mm, 10mm or 15mm?