"The Last Fifty Yards, Game 2" Topic

Kung Jack the Gig and Terror of Goats…sure I could live with calling him that too…

Do you realize that this is the 65th post of this AAR…remember the the AAR …no neither do I

Wow Blue that's kind of amazing…I struggled to read if the first time ;)
Only joking Jack always a great read…

Well youll be glad to hear that im heading home tomorrow and will be catching up on work so no more messages form me for a while
Takecare all

Talk to you later Blue…good luck with the ww1 stuff. Let us know how you're getting on with it

Kung Jack, eh? And I'm the special one?

You guys are killing me with the hills. Pure jealousy, I can see it in each of your beady little eyes!

I don't have vats of acid, so after I'm finished with you knuckleheads it looks like the pool will be getting filled in.

And Bacardi Breezers. I was wondering when Panda was going to come back on my comment about his wine coolers. And I didn't even mention his little game with Zima and Sudafed…

"…I struggled to read if the first time…" Well, judging by your spelling, it would appear you struggle with reading in general, but hang in there buddy, we'll get you through this! Ivan said you couldn't spell cat if we spotted you the 'C' and the 'A.' Just sayin'.

And yes, I'm reading you Kyote. More games has been my plan, the complicating factor has been this little diaper-filling machine I recently took possession of.

I can't believe you knuckleheads have driven the post count this high, having nothing to do with wargaming. You know, there are actually interesting conversations going on:

TMP link

TMP link

If you're pressed for time you can skip through the riff-raff and just read my supremely informative posts ;)

Have a safe trip Panda, and I'm waiting with bated breath for your FIRST batrep Kyote. And Ivan. And not the first, but a new one from Shaun.

Take care fellas.

V/R,
Jack

I'm not gone yet!
For the last few months I've been toying with the idea of entering into a different era with Nappy being the most desired but most unlikely ( because of several reasons) I don't know about the other members of the gang here but I believe Jack has some Napoleonic gaming experience. I've been asking here for some advice on starting up. I'm not a fan of small minis but I'm tempted to go 6mm or even. 3mm.
If you have any recommendations on rules you've tried that would be great too.

See I can be nice when I want something

TMP link

Holy crap, Panda, sorry, I didn't even see that one!

Okay, I'm certainly not an expert, but from trial and error I do have a bunch of stuff to talk to you about. I just can't do it now, it's time to hit the rack and try to salvage a few hours sleep.

I do want to talk to you though, 'cause I made some real mistakes due to not knowing what I was getting into, or even really understanding what I wanted out of Napoleonic gaming.

You're really gotta figure out what Napoleonic gaming means to you, just like we always talk about our WWII rules 'feeling right,' same concept. The problem, in my view, is that with WWII you have a lot more leeway: you can base your guys individually and play 1-1, group them together in teams of 4-5 to play platoon, and group them together in squads of 10 and play a company. More to the point, you can put four guys on a base and call it a team, a squad, a platoon, or even a company, depending on what scale of fight you feel like having. Napoleonics is not like that at all, and as you stumble through 'I want to play battalions/regiments/brigades/divisions it drastically changes what forces you need and how they get based. Which is why you constantly hear Napoleonic gamers moaning about re-basing.

In any case, we'll talk.

V/R,
Jack

I've been getting a bit of napoleonic bug as well, though I am just as clueless about rules which are fun to play. I'll follow that thread carefully.

It seems that some sort of pseudo RPG / skirmish gaming would be fun in that period. A few soldiers each. Something a bit more RPG-like than 5 Men, but still wargamey. Hmm

I have been trying to keep up with TMP threads, subscribed blogs etc to very little luck, spending most of my time with the wife catching up on various things. But tonight, I am afraid I lost the best I set us all and played a game of Warhammer Quest with my two children. I got photos this time, as Jack did mention he would be keen to see it written up as a post. It may take me a little while to get it up, but I apologise for detouring the topic, just as it got back to wargaming.

I also must say sorry for a few days ago under-remembering the number of kids/children (up to you what they really are) you have. Oops.

Lastly, Napoleonics. When I first started out in gaming, the local club had about 4-6 Nap gamers. Mostly they were large, sweaty, unhygienic and argued all the time about minutiae. They also seemed to play these all day games that never got to a resolution. And never played anything else. I could not approach it and went onto WW2 and Ancients and boardgames. I cannot bring myself to play Napoleonics, in fear that I may play it to the expense of everything else and it becomes my gaming life and I turn into one of them. It is slightly irrational, but it is there! I did talk about it with a friend earlier this year, that always did want to play Naps. I said I think I would prefer WSS or the 7YW. He said that may be similar to Napoleonics, and I replied that yes, but it isn't Napoleonics!

I don't have enough time to play what I love – WW2 and ancients and still stray into others projects. I still have it in the back of my mind to do 6mm Napoleonics on a small board using simple rules like 2x2 for the large battles. Maybe when I retire :-)

Shaun no apologies necessary about the number of children I have I make that mistake all the time ;)

What's Warhammer Quest?
I'm always on the lookout for Fastasy oriented games I can play with the little critters.
I bought Talisman when we passed through Calgary in this trip. They have the largest game store in the world (with a huge section/room just dedicated to historical minis wargames)
Anyway the kids are loving Taliman with my 18 year niece really. enjoying it too. Simple game but quite involving….takes ages to run a full game. I photo the board and character updates etc and continue at a later time.

Anyway your discription of the Nappy players was hilarious (sounds like Jack could slip right in there without any notice ;)

Napoleonics is definitely my first love of historical warfare….at a very young age maybe 11 or 12 I bought Empire and 600 Punts (Irish pounds $ my entire life savings) of 15mm minis to recreate Borodino and it with my obsessive nature with detail it almost killed me (I was extremely active in football and hunting and fishing and this required so much time)
I was left disillusioned with wargaming and started onto fantasy roleplaying where there was a very manageable. amount of mini painting required.
So I'll definitely take the plunge at some stage…my ambitious aim would be a overall commander but I guess I'll have to settle for leading an army corp
But looking at the surprising amount of detail available in 6mm and the volume of men you can have on the table it's a project I really want to put into action.

It would be an incentive to break the mould of nap stereotype: fat ,grumpy
Wine-cooler drinking Jack (you know the same ones who pretend they're an ex-marine)
Goto go

Shaun no apologies necessary about the number of children I have I make that mistake all the time ;)

What's Warhammer Quest?
I'm always on the lookout for Fastasy oriented games I can play with the little critters.
I bought Talisman when we passed through Calgary in this trip. They have the largest game store in the world (with a huge section/room just dedicated to historical minis wargames)
Anyway the kids are loving Taliman with my 18 year niece really. enjoying it too. Simple game but quite involving….takes ages to run a full game. I photo the board and character updates etc and continue at a later time.

Anyway your discription of the Nappy players was hilarious (sounds like Jack could slip right in there without any notice ;)

Napoleonics is definitely my first love of historical warfare….at a very young age maybe 11 or 12 I bought Empire and 600 Punts (Irish pounds $ my entire life savings) of 15mm minis to recreate Borodino and it with my obsessive nature with detail it almost killed me (I was extremely active in football and hunting and fishing and this required so much time)
I was left disillusioned with wargaming and started onto fantasy roleplaying where there was a very manageable. amount of mini painting required.
So I'll definitely take the plunge at some stage…my ambitious aim would be a overall commander but I guess I'll have to settle for leading an army corp
But looking at the surprising amount of detail available in 6mm and the volume of men you can have on the table is an immersive sight ; it's a worthy project and I really want to put into action, at least in the preparation Investigatory stages.

It would seem even a worthy incentive to break the mould of the napoleonic stereotype: fat ,grumpy goat loving, Bacardi breezer drinking Types ;you know the same ones who pretend they're an ex-marines)
Goto go

Started undercoating 10mm nazi's to be crushed by the red army… at least until my atrocious dice rolls come into play. I think my dice might be fascist-sympathizers.

Feels pretty good doesn't it? :)

My wife (who isn't a goat btw, don't get excited boys) bought a couple of Reaper fantasy figures to paint. Had her train a bit on some old plastic space marines first.

You're doing WW1 right?

Panda,

I have not played Talisman for about 30 years! I remember it was fun, but long. WarhammerQuest is OOP but is a bit like HeroQuest. Here is a link to the boardgame geek entry:

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Each player is a character and explote the dungeon a room at a time and encounter mostly monsters until reaching the final room that has lots of monsters and usually something you have to do. I don't really play the rules as they are, simplify it greatly and it takes about 1 hour to play. The kids love it!

Empire is the game the Napoleonic gamers were playing. Note I have met Empire Napoleonic players in the last few years and they are the exact opposite of my youthful contact. So they are not all like that! Still scarred though.

Blue (Bluer?), Congrats on the painting. I also did some for the fist time in ages. I am not fond of painting but at least I felt I had achieved something on my own. Don't let the blood rush to your head and actually post a report. I do not want you to faint with the pressure.

The truth is that even a basis. Paint job with basic bases and basic terrain will still look pretty decent in aggregate.

Blue, Shaun won't be the only one falling over if he sees an AAR from you…but please please do!

Never mind if they're not all finished.

Are you using FoW rules? Did you see the new Great War Vid on YouTube posted by Battlefront! I enjoyed watching it…best of luck with the painting.

Shaun sounds like something the kids would enjoy too. Talisman is very long but the kids love playing from where we last left off.

Ivan: So you're married huh….but 'not' to a goat hmmm…seems extremely unlikely but highly convenient for you…we're you ever a Marine or considered being a Marine?
I'm always suspicious of those who get 'married' but not to a goat…what are you hiding?

No Danish marines though we do have some Frogmen. In a measure of our exceptional military prowess, that's who we sent to Iraq, since the other 3 soldiers the country can muster were already in Afghanistan :)

As an aside, lets say I had some scrap notes for a modern day firefight game. Would either of you bozo's want to take a look and maybe even roll some dice and test it a bit?
I'd ask on the Modern board, but those people scare me.

Pop me a message at runequester@gmail.com and include a picture of yourself with your favourite goat.

Ivan: I'd love to but I can't promise how much time I could spend in it. I was meant to be back in my office yesterday and we're still on the way home (kid was too sick to travel) I'm on the road right (stopped for the kids to relieve themselves) but I'll shot you an email later…

No worries, any feedback would be helpful.

Hope you get home safe. I know the warning cry of "daddy, I don't feel good" going off in the car..

Sorry Ivan, not really my period for gaming,and I note you have posted a request anyway.

I just finished another game (the third one in the series but have only posted one batrep so far) in my 20mm ww2 skirmish on 2'x2'. I used my streamlined NUTS! rules as I was more familar with them. 15min setup and 1 hour play in total. that included some minor note-taking and taking about 100 photos, which is what is needed to turn it into a comic report (I don't use most of them but you need a selection to make the visual narrative work).

I was planning on using 5MiN and even have made for it a 1 page QRS covering just about everything, but went with the more familiar.

So that is 2 games in the last two weeks to everyone else's 0. Hah! I am just high-fiving myself over here!

Ivan, I'd love to give them a read-through, but I don't know when I'll get to playing.

Kyote's painting AND threatening to write a batrep? And they say you can't teach old dogs new tricks ;)

Shaun, stop it, your gaming gloating is unbecoming!

Panda – I don't really have anything. Try to turn over a new leaf, do something with your life.

V/R,
Jack

Shaun 2:0 win is always a satisfying result unless the standard of the opposition is questionable: so let's take a look at the opposition team:

In defence we have Blue whose better hippy days are behind him and nobody's quite sure if he's actually even held a real mini in his hand never mind playing a wargame….his reading of the game is quite good and his positional sense excellent , it's just every time he attempts to tackle someone he trips over his beard…

Weasel's a newcomer to the Midfield. Seen originally as a creative playmaker he's now more noted for how many pints he can guzzle down in the nearest local after the game

And Jack…(snigger)…the 'Special One' the Kung of the 18 yard box…creates plays, makes tackles, scores goals, leads the team from the front with passion and determination (or so he says…)
The reality is every game he warms the bench chatting the local goat talent pretending he's an ex-marine (can't he think if anything more impressive like say a plumber, or a circus clown)

Oh and me…well I have this really bad recurring shin splints problem that's kept me out and it's really…

Shaun that 2:0 all of a sudden doesn't look so hot…no high fives please

Someone's gotta warm the bench and make sure the beer is acceptable while all of the other lads are running around, lifting skirts (those are Scots, you aren't gonna find what you thought you were) and tripping over each other.

Jack, pop me an email and i'll send you the rough draft. No rush, even just reading through it would be helpful.

Shaun – mind sharing that QRS? The one I have is kinda crap.

there goes the aerodynamics

And this amazing thread has reached a century!!!!
Jack is unable to be here tonight but he wanted to thank those who made this moment possible especially his herds of fans (and that's not a typo I don't mean hoards I mean herds)

Are you calling me a goat?

Yes, well, welcome to the herd I suppose. What a bunch of perverts! ;)

Blue – Did you really just make a post that says you have a batrep to follow, but no pictures!? If there are no pictures, that means you just made it up, and you need to keel-hauled. We beg, nay, demand photographs as documentary evidence taht you did, indeed, play a game.

Shaun – If the shoe fits… ;)

Ivan – I'll shoot you an e-mail shortly.

Panda – OK, might as well do this here. "Napoleons," an essay in Six Volumes, by Jack. I could probably write about six pages of stuff that I screwed up, but I'll do my best to distill it down to a few salient points, though I'm already known to be long-winded so it probably won't work (see this sentence for reference).

Welcome to Napoleonics! Now, before you do anything else, STOP! Do not go out on the double and order a rash of troops only to find out you made a mistake because you didn't know enough about it. I spent about $2,000 USD in two ridiculously rash decisions to hop into Napoleonics without knowing enough about Napoleonics to really even know what I wanted to accomplish. And so I sit with Napoleons in 10mm and Napoleons in 6mm, and I finally understand what I want and I need to scrap all the old stuff and start over with Pendraken 10mm. (So, if anyone wants to buy a boatload of 10mm and/or 6mm, for pennies on the dollar, please let me know; lots of pics of them on the blog).

1. If you don't have an understanding of Naps, you need to get one. Panda, you probably already have an understanding, but I didn't know what a Cuirassier, Carabinier, or Chausseur was, what column, line, and square meant, much less what they were used for, etc… So, if necessary, do some reading; you can go spend thousands of dollars on books, or use Google, which is what I do/did (after making my mistakes). And I highly recommend:
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2. Once you have your understanding, you need to figure out what you want. There's the obvious stuff like "are you going to play skirmish or are you going to be Napoleon/Wellington?" Throwing out the skirmish, anything bigger than skirmish requires some real thought and reflection on what you want to do, because, unlike WWII gaming, it has a huge impact on what you buy in terms of rules and figures. Rather than try to walk you through 8 million questions (and still miss some) to figure out what you want, I'll walk you through what I eventually came up with:

-I want to play Napoleonic games that feature the tactical decisions required by the base unit operating in different formations (column/line/square), and I wanted to 'see' that on the tabletop (as opposed to using markers to delineate formation). This means my infantry will be four bases (in order to pull off square, have a decent depth in column, and to be somewhat thin in line; I've tried using only two bases, but it doesn't look right to me), my cavalry will be three bases (again, to have depth in column and be thin in line), and my arty will have two bases (to show limbered/unlimbered). For me, this ruled out all the games that use the base unit as one stand, which is the mistake I made when I bought my 10mm…

I also would like to play large battles without too much abstraction (i.e., 1 base=1 brigade) and without having a million units on the table, so I don't mind doing some old-fashioned 'bath-tubbing.' This fits with my rules and level of granularity.

2. Buy a few sets of rules to have a look at how they model the stuff you want to model in your games, decide if you're going to use one or you're going to 'tinker/mix your own.' For what I want to do, my three favorites are Drums and Shakos Large Battles (an off-shoot of Ganesha Games' skirmish rules, 'Drums and Shakos'), LaSalle, and Black Powder. The issue is that the scale of engagement really matters (how large a battle, how many units, what is the base unit) in Napoleonic gaming more so than in our WWII games. While there are some rules that are basing 'agnostic,' it does seem to matter quite a bit with different rules regarding base size and base removal (of casualties).

I saw you picked up Napoleon's Battles, which I'm not familiar with. From what I've read, they are a bit more on the complicated side, and you know I'm a fan of simple.

3. Figures. For what it's worth, of the various rulesets I've looked at, it generally doesn't seem to matter what size figures you use, or how many you put on a base, the important thing in the rules is usually the base size. Some of those rules will give a lip-service to '1 fig to 20/50/70 real men," but it doesn't affect game mechanics. Having said that, there are some very complicated rules out there where it actually does matter. I stay away from those, and just caution you to be on the lookout. It's fine if you want to do that, you just need to take it into account for your figure purchase, and keep in mind this may have a very deleterious affect on your changing rules in the future (which we all do quite too often). Thus the constant Napoleonic groans regarding re-basing.

-Which size should you use? I dunno man, this is purely in the eye of the beholder. If I had Bill Gates/Sparker-style wealth, I'd do like Sparker and play on a 9' x 15' table with 30-man units in 28mm. However, most mortals end up in the 6-10-15mm range. As I've mentioned, I've got 6mm AND 10mm, but I plan to completely start over in 10mm at some point. You need to look at your rules first, to decide what your basing will be, then decide what will look best to you on those bases (i.e., I can get 'x' amount of 6, 10, or 15mm on that base, and I think 'x'mm looks the part).

-My current 10mm is a disaster because I didn't know anything about Naps and hopped in with one base=1 brigade, for titles such as Volley and Bayonet, Snappy Napppy, FPGA, La Petite Armee, Polemos, and DBAN. When I learned more about Naps I realized I wanted more granularity than 1 stand=1 brigade allowed, so I pulled all my troops off their bases and put them on new bases. Then I realized I didn't have enough troops to do what I wanted to, i.e., the units didn't 'look right.' These are the only troops in my inventory that I had painted by someone else. They are beautiful, but I learned that, as much pain as it saved me painting, it didn't save a lot of time (it takes your painter time to paint them too), and it cost me way to much money (I don't mean that as a shot at the painter I used, he gave me a very fair rate, it's just that it's obviously much more expensive than bare metal).

-So, then I bought 6mm. I still didn't understand completely what I wanted, but I knew I wanted to model formations, have some 'mass' to it, and do it relatively cheaply after all the money I'd sunk into 10mm. So I sunk a bunch more money into 6mm and it doesn't work for me either, not the way I'm doing it at least. I went for basing infantry on two stands; when I realized this wasn't going to cut it, I ordered more 6mm so I could go to 4-base infantry units. Then it still didn't look right to me, and I decided I needed bigger bases and needed to put more men on each base. So I bought some more, but still not enough to complete the project, and that's when I realized that I'd never get them done.

-The primary reason I'll never get them done is this: while I'm no artist

I'm somewhat handy with a paintbrush. These are 6mm, and painting to that standard, it would take me roughly 10,000 years to complete my forces (I was using Baccus, 60mm x 30mm basing with six strips per base, and wanted to use four bases per unit). If I were to start over in 6mm (or be committed to going with 6mm instead of 10mm), I swear to the Good Lord that I would grossly simplify the painting, worrying only about block colors as that is all you're going to see on the table anyway. Which is easier said than done; I actually started out with that line of thinking, but once I started painting I just found myself painting everything I could see at the painting table, even knowing it wouldn't show on the gaming table…

Picoarmor/08 has some really amazing stuff in 3mm; they keep tempting me, but I have so far withstood this solely on the basis that I would feel like an even bigger if I had Naps in 3mm, 6mm, and 10mm… Again, be wary. I do think you'd make up time on painting, so long as you exercised the discipline to not paint everything you can see (look, I can get gold on their Shako plates!), but I could see where it might not be a lot cheaper than 6 or 10mm because of the temptation to put so many of them on a base/unit, as the mass would look amazing.

I guess that's the big stuff; it's a lot of painting, a lot of troops, and a lot of money, depending on what you're trying to do (certainly what I'm trying to do): don't make it worse by making big mistakes like I did. I just got so excited and eager to jump in…

Let me know if you've got questions.

V/R,
Jack

Even with a lot of guys on each base, I wonder if it wouldn't still be pretty cheap.

I guess it does depend on how many dudes you pile on there of course :) With nappy's it'd be tempting to make those bases full of ranked soldiers which might not be so cheap

Kyote – I'd love to, and someday I will, but the wife wouldn't appreciate me taking off for 9 hours (6 driving) to go play a game, leaving her with the baby. Someday though.

Ivan – It's not bad money-wise, but it's not as cheap as you'd hope. The pics show my initial style of 6mm basing, two bases of three cav per unit. I quickly realized that was a bit 'sparse' for what I was looking for, so the new basing is 9 cav on a 60mm x 30mm base, 3 bases per cavalry unit. So, the money goes up, but the thing that will keep me from ever finishing is not the money, it's the painting time at that level of detail.

To further complicate the money issues, it's $10 USD a pack (not including postage), and a pack has 45 cavalry, but I need 54 cav for two units. Not a showstopper, call it ~6.67 per unit, which is about the same for a pack of Pendraken cavalry, which would be fifteen figures on three bases of the same size. I'm just getting at, with my unit sizes there is no cost benefit to 6mm, it's only neutral. Then you're left with painting time and 'feel/look' on the table.

I'd probably be best served by repainting all the Baccus I have, in very simple block colors. It would look like crap up close, but should look good en masse on the table. Like I said, I'm not artist, but putting silver, gold, black, and red just on the helmet, doing saddlecloths (shabraques) with outlines, cuffs and collars, etc…, took me a LONG time.

V/R,
Jack

Jack thank you very much for all the info. It certainly has given me a lot to consider. Let me tell you where I'm at:

The historical background is not so much a problem but integrating it into a game that satisfies my brilliant understanding of simulating authentically the era's grand-battle strategies and employing perfect company tactics while providing a spectacular visual panorama of masses of elaborately detailed uniforms marching across the beautiful green countrysides of Europe…no problem :)

My desire for this kind of perfection is one of the main reasons I've held out so long despite my love for the era … I have an outrageous perfectionistic expectation of certain things that interest me and unless I'm satisfied that its achievable then I'd a soon hold out. I had always imagined I would hold out for some future time when I'd be able to invest more time and money into 15mm but I think I'm almost ready to go 6mm Alder for non economic reasons; I'll explain why I think I've decided on this particular mini.

Rather ironically I am much more interested in the actual tactical side of the game than I would be with WWII. The gaming rather than the emphasis on modelling that you might see with my WW2 AAR's. The origins of my interest in the Napoleonic Wars were at a young age and I my reading materials were often the exploits of the Beast's Marshals. This is the area at least initially in which I'd be most interested. Hence I'm most interested in the decision making of Corp/Army commander in which I don't have to wear too many hats and being bogged down by IMO superfluous decision making that would be inappropriate to that level of command. I also wanted to have the abilities of some of my favourite General's and personalities represented…IMO from what I've read "Napoleons Battles" (NB) provides a really good balance of this. (There's a really good review and Battle Report on YouTube)
NB doesn't deal with tactical lower command-level and small unit tactics are built-in and abstracted in the mechanics. As I mentioned I'm more interested in basic deployments, unit mixes cavalry/infantry/line/grenadier etc and directing the flow of attacks and moving units to plug or exploit gaps.etc etc….
The NB player is intended to be a corps commander with brigades being the main combat units.The player is exempt from most decisions below brigade. Exceptions to this are movement directions and formation with unit formation represented by the physical formed deployment of your minis. Its reasonable to me to assume that the commanders below this are competent enough to assume responsibilities at that level (and if they're not well then a hopeless dice roll will simulate that. Area's of strategic priority may require the presence of more capable leaders.

Which brings me to my present stance on minis:

For the moment my thinking on this (influenced not necessarily by financial considerations but more by the effect I want to produce in the future with my table top games; an enormous collected mass of uniformed bodies moving in unison across the vast green of the battlefield. For this era I'd never be interested in the individual 28mm…for me 15mm is the largest I'd even contemplate. I think 10mm is almost perfect but I'm almost definite about Alders 6mm. I'm pretty specific about the manufacturer as I believe its an excellent compromise between producing the mass troop effect on the battlefield that I'm really after but with the visual detail of 10mm. I'm not normally a fan of characature type minis but at this scale I think it provide the "blocks" of massed troops a more distinctive identifiable presence:

Here's a comparison of the some of the most popular 6mm's:

I believe the same measure amount of minis is achievable with all the above but the IMO Alder has much more distinctive presence.

Basing with NB at 15mm is 2minis :

But it doesn't effect the rules if they're based with more minis if you have a smaller scale: 6mm Alder based for NB

So I'm not sure if this all makes sense to you. Let me know your concerns if there's something I'm missing. I'm just running right now but I want to get back to you…

Thanks again Jack for all your advise and help.

The upside to those Adler fig's is that they can use their gigantic hats as cover during a musket fight :)

If / when I dive into this, it'll likely be 6mm, though I see Pendraken does 10mm Napoleonics as well. Tempting.

I have some basic ideas written down for some black powder skirmishing with percentile tables but the era is all about the big battalions.

LoL yes some can resemble a "Cat in the Hat" Halloween costume but in that scale its for that very reason I think it works to distinguish units. and I notice I'm getting into trouble on another thread from Mr Alder himself for calling them "close to 10mm"…Geez…anyway was very confusing and badly worded, hanging around these Goat lovers too long does that to a guy :)

I'd always be interested in skirmish rules too Ivan…especially if I ever watch Sean Beans Sharpe Series…amazingly I never did watch it…

And someone put this poor thread out of its misery and post another ARR …ahem…meaning no one in particular cough…anyone…cough…Blue with a camera "…Jack with no goats please" cough…

Nice one Blue! I doubt it will satisfy Jack though…better get em photos up
Sorry Kay Kay didn't make it with you, I know you wanted to have a test run for if Jack might make it some time…At least Kay Kay is probably potty trained which is more than can be said about Jack…
BTW your short but sweet description of the game beats most of Jacks long winded AAR's any day…(I'm just bitter that I haven't read one in a while…)

Must not have brought along enough of those dog-cart machine guns. That'll show Fritz right up!

Brilliant AAR Blue…loved it…
What Class of solider were the Germans…confident, elite etc…

Will I try and post some of the photos for this who don't have access to Facebook (I think Shaun's been banned ;)

The calm before the storm, looking west across the table.

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The view of the village from the south east.

View of the village from a passing Zeppelin.

The Brave Princess Cameron, leader of the Belgians. And her faithful dog

Belgian Army yes I know it's not painted…oh the shame I feel.

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The whole Belgian Army 2 inf paltoons 2 MGs 2 Guns and I Cav. And Princess Cameron on her white horse and her dog Stella.

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Princess Cameron her white horse and dog.

The German army 4 platoons of Inf, 3 MGs 3 paltoons of two guns and I Cav.

At least some of the Germans are painted….I know the horror…

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Belgian 1st Platoon and MG to the north of the village

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To be cont…

No probs my friend…Looked like a great game! Many differences from FoW WW2 apart from weapons etc?.

Bluer! An AAR! Woo-hoo! You win!

I am an intermittent Facebook user (my wife uses it far more than me) but never got a friend request in the flurry of FB amongst you lot a few months ago. So not banned, just left out :-)

I am still with Blue on this one – Getting into Napoleonics is a trap! But if I did do it…it would be 6mm with tons of figures to recreate the big battles.

I started playing ancients in 25mm and ww2 (20mm) on table tennis tables and to me that is the standard size to play. I only started on 2'x2' as I could hide the games from very small children in map drawers. That was over 4 years ago. The largest I have got since than is 1/2 a table tennis table. One day I will be back to the "real" size, but until then I am loving 2'x2' gaming and cannot get enough of it!

Kay Kay is the same age as my daughter! Try not to feel old – we were late to the whole "having children" thing.

No problem Blue

Here's the link

Man, at 34, I feel like a kid here.

Well Weasel both Jack and myself are 40, although Jack has been scored with a mental age of 3. Shaun is the oldest here. Having fought in the Australian Frontier Wars and both world wars it's rather amazing that with just some assistance from his youngest grandson he is still able to post his messages here. But Blue is actually the youngest of the group; his real age is actually 14. He suffers from a rare condition called Hypertrichosis (or Werewolf syndrome) and so to avoid embarrassment he understandably pretends to be 60.

Ha! I am 49. I did realise Kay Kayh was your granddaughter, what i meant is don't feel old that you have a 7 yo granddaughter and I have a 7 yo daugther. I can imagine grandchildren would be great fun. They certainly wpould not take up as much time as children!

Should I mention it is a holiday in Brisbane today and that that the 9 year old I have played a couple of ww2 games stayed over last night and will be here all day? And that last night the first thing he asked me is if it was possible to fit in a game today? How could I say no? I think I am going to try and play on the entire table tennis table today, after whinging earlier I had not done it for a very long time.

lucky man Shaun…what did you play with her. My seven year old daughter is always asking me to play a wargame and I just roll a few d6's anything more complex she begins to lose interest

Shaun this is a question I've wanted to ask you for a while but keep forgetting:

(This is not another poor attempt at a joke)

What is your icon call sign

Every time I see it it reminds me of half a white terrier (two legs on the left) with the rear end wearing a black leather thong with its tail poking up in the air… the forward end missing on the right…….

I'm presuming that can't be right (can it?!?)

So what exactly is it?

Again I'm not joking…

It is a picture of a 15mm model of Alexander on a horse, taken from about 4 o'clock (rear right). I just made it when I first joined, new it looked poor but have never been bothered to move it to something else…

I am not playing with my 7 yo daughter, I will be playing (as it is still morning over here) with a 9 yo son of a friend. Although I did play Song of Blades and Heroes a few months ago with him and she looked interested but have not got around to that yet. I have found with my daughter that is I use female single figures in a game, she will play. It has been Warhammer Quest, Herosscape and just some made up games. So I think SoBH would be good. We usually use female Mage Knight figures I friend game me. I have tried d6's but as soon as there are modifiers, I find it gets confusing. Rolling a certain number of d6s dice and a 5 or 6 hits seems to work. I've tried ancients with bases. Not interested. ww2 single figures…not interested. I am going to try simple RPGs (old school as that is all I know) soon-ish – I think she may like that.

Good Lord, I'm so ashamed. It's bad enough that Shaun's outdoing me, but at least he's a pretty dependable gamer, unlike the rest of you scruff. But when Wolfman Blue played a game… And wrote it up… And posted pics… On my batrep thread!!! You've succeeded in shaming me, this cannot stand, I vow that there will be gaming in the next 96 hours, with evidence posted here not long thereafter!

Weasel, Panda didn't mention he and I are actually inverse of each other: I'm 40 physically, 3 mentally, he's 40 mentally, but still waiting on his testicles to descend. Though I must say, I always thought Shaun's icon was actually a photo of Panda 'caught in the act.' Oh well…

Crap, I just noticed our Dear Ivan has landed himself in the klink. Hang in there buddy, it'll be over before you know it. Sure is frustrating though. I've been twice now; must work on my meditation exercises ;)

Panda – On a serious note, those Adlers are pretty damned attractive, aren't they? I didn't realize they were that big (which is a plus, in my book), and relatively inexpensive to boot. I need to get my hands on a few, see'em in the flesh. They could be my answer, though I still need to offload all my current 10mm and 6mm stuff… It's funny that I'd never looked at Adler, I figured they were the same size as Baccus.

V/R,
Jack

She she 7 and has been obsessed with horsed since she was 2…but the obsession has lessened a little in the last year. Only a little but enough so I do not think she will be the girl that wants to own and ride horses all weekend. But I will try thew horses. Now that I think on it, the ancient cavalry she was more interested in pushing around than anything else. Both my son and daughter talk about vampires and zombies all the time. I have zero interest in zombie games but I had not thought of them before – I will look into buying a pack of zombies from a toy store and try out a simple zombie games.

Oh, and I finished the game with the 9 yo visitor. I won this time but it was a close game. Playing on a 9'x5' table is bizarre after playing the same scale (20mm WW2) on a 2'x2' board for the last few months. So much space!

I now have 4 games to writeup (2 WW2 skirmish, 1 Warhammer Quest and today's game). I am half way through the first one.

But as Jack is fond of saying, if there is no pictures, it did not happen!

Jack I like them. There's a little argument started on another thread about whether Alder or Baccus are more of a presence on the battle field and consensus is Alder.

I'm taking your advice and taking my time with deciding though. I honestly look at 15 mm every now and then and think I'd enjoy painting them more but I think in the end I'll go Alder.

I do believe I'll get some commissioned painted first as I think I'll make the whole thing a Christmas present (for my wife obviously) and so I'm in no hurry. I'd enjoy painting some if I knew I wasn't starting from scratch.

Good to hear that you'll be back soon look what happens when youre gone for a few days. Ivan's got himself in trouble with the law and old Blue beard goes all crazy on Facebook.

We need some hard core marine discipline…no Jack I didn't mean that…put that goat away PLEASE!!!