Hell, Hull & Halifax

Risked a journey to the Calder valley - fine going there but not so good coming back.  Of course I made a diversion to the Model Shop in Halifax.

Checked online for some info on these legendary creatures - various theories:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur

Seems that they were notorious, bad-tempered, drunkards.  Spent a lot of time fighting humans especially the Lapiths.

One exception, Chiron tutored heroes like Achilles. Firenze helped Harry Potter.  According to Nonnus Cyprian centaurs had horns.  Similar legends abound in India & Russia.

Some more for my stock.  Only 2 chariots is a bit mean - good job I had all those old Atlantic models..

A few odd items...

JHG3 - Static Grass No.3 Autumn Mix 2mm  (for my 'arab' bases)
K&S Brass Rod 51mm (for spears)
Model Color 70.985 Hull Red (just liked the shade of reddish-brown).

I think that there is a club meeting on Monday (before the xmas festivities) so will try to attend.  Having missed so many over recent weeks my game stats look like they have been attacked by moths.  Need to patch up what I can before putting the results on the website. 

Regular readers will know that I do not celebrate the annual commercial greedfest but I will wish you all a...

Happy New Year for 2020

More Books

Two more Dr Who books read:

The last from Al's collection.  This one features the Tom Baker version (one of my favourites).  Of no use for skirmishing as the opposition is an extremely powerful trans-dimensional creature.  Not a bad yarn though!

Interestingly this, and its companion books, were written prior to the launch of the latest Dr Who incarnation.  Set in Roman times it is about aliens fueling the carnage fire so that more victims are created.  An interesting premise but I don't entirely buy it. 

As it happened I  did see some Dr Who figures for sale on Black Friday but couldn't discover what scale they were.  My figures are around 35 to 40mm in height so 25/28 scale would not fit with them.  One of these years.....

Should have been at Recon on Saturday but I wasn't well enough.  I had wanted to purchase a few items.  Needs I wait for Vapnartak (February) now.

Squaring the Circle

After a discussion with Sonic I started thinking about my South & Central American figures.  So I ferreted about in the loft to dig out two plastic boxes marked 'Meso-Americans'.

Box 1 contained a full WRG 6th Edition Aztec army (all Tin Soldier figures).  When DBM came in the army was so emasculated it was not worth fielding.  Given that the 2016 army lists have made many changes I hoped that there was now a viable force to be had - such hopes were soon dashed. 

 Box 2 contained a mixture of figures and manufacturers.  Sorting that lot out will take time.

 As it was approaching the  'Black Friday' event I was tempted by the Lurkio advert and decided to order a few items:

 1 x     Mapuche Generals - MPBG01    £1.00       3 figs (gen pointing, gen mace,
                                                                                           gen spear)
1 x     Cañari General - CABG01          £0.60        2 figs (gen pointing, conch blower)
1 x     Moorish Prince LMBG01           £0.75        1 mtd figure
1 x     South American Camp Set - SACS01         £4.50        2 figs, 6 llamas,
                                                                                                6 saddle-packs
1 x     Moorish Subordinate General LMBG02     £0.75        1 mtd figure
1 x     Inca Slingers - VARIETY PACK - INBG06     £7.00        25 figs (3 varieties)

p&p = £3.73

Never having dealt with this manufacturer before (and the contact address is in South Africa) I was a little apprehensive.  Nevertheless I put in the order on Sat 30th Nov and it arrived on Wed 3rd Dec - pretty quick turnaround.

Under the previous owner Lurkio packs were £14 for 24 foot figures.  Now there are 'pack breakers' with only 4 figures @ £3.  This makes forming DBA armies a lot easier.

The figures are on the slim side and approx 18mm from head to toe.  Curiously the mounted duo are split at the waist with the legs molded onto the horse.  Unlike, say, Baueda there is no locating peg so it will be necessary to glue and probably fill the void.

Once I work out what I have in Box 2 I can think about ordering more from Lurkio.  Watch this space.......

Fantasy & Sci-Fi

Two books finished recently:

A parody of heroic novels and sagas by re-interpreting such tropes in a more down-to-earth manner.  Terry Pratchett had the knack of applying an internal logic to his fantasy novels.  This tome is heavily illustrated and, for once, I wished that I owned the copy rather than having it on library loan. 

The penultimate book from Al's collection.  This one is about fighting vampires.  It features the annoying Adric and a substitute for the gorgeous Mary Tamm,

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday 12th October - Gt. Houghton

Two games of DBA-RRR:

        (1)  German Protestant v French - a narrow win 4:3

        (2)  Russian Traditional v Moldavian - the terrain fell in my favour.  4:1 win

Two games of DBA v3:

        (3)  3.52 West Frankish v 4.2 Early Crusader -  4:2 win

        (4)  3.19c North Welsh v 4.23 Feudal English - I managed to get my fast pikes 

               into the enemy.   Another 4:1 win

For game (3) I was throwing plenty of 2s in combat and Ian 5s or 6s.  Unfortunately the factors were so high that it was just a push-back in most cases.  Another session where the dice gods determined the outcomes.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Painting update - not a lot - 3 x Irr Cm(O) repaired/tarted-up.

I have far too  many part or unpainted figures on strips awaiting my attention.  These include:

15mm - Thracian peltasts, SW Indians (foot), Inuits (foot & reindeer) plus Carolingian/Dark Ages/Irish (horse & foot).

20mm - Jacobites (all arms), Incas (foot) plus Elves/Ratmen/Lizardmen (all foot).

I am trying not to think about the lead and plastic piles in the roof space.  Maybe, one day, I will stop buying new figures until I have finished the ones that I have already got......but don't hold your breath!

I'm Back !!!

To quote Freddie that is.  As well as taking a month-long break from Country Dancing I also did little on the wargaming front.  So this post is just a round-up of what I have done.

Another Target book courtesy of Al's cast offs.  Although this features UNIT it is not really suitable for a skirmish game.  The enemy outguns and out-classes the PBI and the Brig.  A good yarn but the famous lines are missing..."Chap with the wings, five rounds rapid".

Whilst scanning other blogs recently I came across this little gem:

"Day of the Daleks"

https://lordofwesternkeep.blogspot.com/2019/08/doctor-who-day-of-daleks-cangames-2016.html?fbclid=IwAR3MBEFTUcQ2hpLOp1S2St2voyoWjkNL9cMRKDTGf-Al4RLEm1tbA6wtreA#more

DBM...ing on a Monday has proven to be a bit of a failure.  I tried two versions of 3.71 Georgian (one with Cumans and one without).  Both ended up in defeat.

Painting.....well I was planning to chip away at the lead and plastic mountain over the break. Looking around I found a mass of partly painted figures so decided to try to finish them off.  Progress was made with the first project - Sea Peoples / Philistines.  The second - Dark Ages - was going well until I stretched too far and dropped a tray full of metal soldiers.  Retrieving the wet soldiers meant moving a load of boxes.  This somewhat disheartened me and production stopped.

The action of having to re-apply for my driving license has concentrated my mind somewhat so  I am looking at all my unfinished projects.  Many will have to face madame guillotine.  So many dreams that have come to naught! Oh well!

Halifax or Bust

Thursday 25th July 2019 - Halifax Modeller's World

Three purchases:

PSR has yet to review this box.  There are too many 'modern' weapons on display to use them in the colonial period but WW1 in Mesopotamia is a definite maybe.  Can't help feeling that they must have dismounted to shoot, unlike the Hollywood depictions.  Still....they may come into use at some later date.

 Napoleonic Early-Mid French Marching - HaT 8296
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=2089

Although these troops are only in a marching pose I can see them being of use fighting skirmishes in Egypt or Haiti. 

English Pirates - Orion 72001
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=283

 DBA-RRR 1.42 Buccaneer - a short, limited and generic list
 In the Files section of  Yahoo Group DBRlist (not DBR_List) is a much more comprehensive (Alternative) Buccaneer list covering English, Dutch & French privateers.
 It should be easy enough to convert.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday 27th July 2019 - Gt. Houghton

(1)  We started off playing the colonial version of DBN.  This time it was Mahdists v British/Egyptian.  In a game of pure skill I annihilated the imperialist scum.

Three games of DBA v3 followed:

(2)  3.53 East Franks v 3.76 Konstantinian Byzantine - a 4:2 win
(3)  2.66 Early Vandal v 2.64a Middle Imperial Roman - a 5:1 win
(4)  2.11 Gallic v 2.33 Polybian Roman - a 6:2 win

In each of these games my fat was in the fire at one point or another but my superb skills got me out of trouble every time.  These victories had nothing to do with Ian's uncanny ability to throw ones at vital times; the charmed life of certain surrounded elements (including a general) or my, far more than average, 6:1 results.

Sometimes life is just like that!

Monsters! Monsters!

In my search for behemoths and creatures for my 20mm HotT armies I happened to look in the kids section of Asda.  For the princely sum of £3......

 .....you get 6 dinosaurs of a suitable size.

For comparison I provided some Caesar Orcs:

Now I have to check what colours these dinos should be.  "Walking With Dinosaurs" put forward the idea that these creatures were far more colourful than previously thought.  Alas yet more research to do!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On another matter......I was sorting out the unpainted pile within my Khmer/Cham 15mm box when I discover these:

The Khmer are all Irregular - these are clearly not.  Does anyone have any idea what these strays are?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Round-Up

Saturday 22nd June 2019 - Gt. Houghton

4 games of DBA v3.0:

(1)  2.3a Classical Indian v 2.10b Tamil Indian - 4:1 win
(2)  2.23a Pre-Islamic Arab v 2.22c Parthian - 4:1 win
(3)  2.64b Middle Imperial Roman v 2.22c Arabo-Aramaean - 4:3 win
(4)  2.2 Mountain Indian v 1.43c Massagetae - 5:2 loss

Monday 25th June 2019 - WDW

Sparse attendance today with only 2 games going on:

Rapid Fire (WW2) - Germans v Americans
DBM - Patrician Roman v Early Ostrogoth - a close run thing.  The Roman right broke first followed by their opponents on the same flank.  Roman losses mounted until half the army was gone. 

Maipo 1818

On Saturday 8th June I played out Maipo 1818 using "Liberated Hordes".


The rules have been recently updated to match DBA v3.0 so, not surprisingly, they very much have that vibe.  They also have much in common with DBN.

The battle went pretty much according to historical precedent with the Patriots winning 7:6 after a sharp left hook by their superior horse.

Liberated Hordes:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7jivXekpX0LaWxWQV9YWm9FNVU/edit

This post has the OOB reduced to Hott/DBA proportions: 

http://hordesofthethings.blogspot.com/2012/02/maipo-in-miniature.html

Maybe next time I will try the "Libertadores" rules for more flavor!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We continued with 3 games of DBA v3:

3.52 West Franks v 3.65 Nikephorian Byzantine - a 4:2 win
2.58 Alan v 4.50 Paleogian Byzantine - 5:0 loss
1.43a Kimmerian v 1.52h Aitolian Greek - 4:3 loss

Not a shining example of generalship on my part  with only one win from 4 games - Oh Well!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finished a couple of Dr Who books.

(1) "The Christmas Invasion" - an adaptation of an xmas special that I never saw.  Although UNIT troops are present there is no scope for skirmish play.  Wallpaper really.

(2) "The Taking of Chelsea 426" - a better yarn about two alien races fighting regardless of collateral damage - sounds familiar!  Some skirmishing but horribly one-sided.