Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Diplomacy Game Update: 1904 Build/Adjustment Phase Results

Here are the results of the 1904 Adjustments Phase for all you Diplomacy fans out there.  At the end of eight turns. Germany leads the game with 10 Supply Centres, while Turkey follows with 8, Austria with 6 and Italy with 5.
 
A new English player has replaced the original player, and Russia is now declared in Civil Unrest as the Russian player has dropped out.
 
Results for Fall, 1904 (Adjustment)

General Notices:
    
 Order resolution completed on 25-Apr-2016 at 14:08:39 EDT
    
Order Results:
    
Austria: Builds A tri

England:

France: Removes A bur France: Removes F mao

Germany: Builds F ber Germany: Builds A kie

Italy:

Russia: Removes F cly Russia: Removes A lvn Russia: Removes A ukr

Turkey: Builds F smy

Supply Center Ownership:

 Austria: Budapest, Greece, Serbia, Trieste, Vienna, Warsaw (6 total).

England: Brest, London, Portugal (3 total).

France:  Paris (1 total).

Germany: Belgium, Berlin, Denmark, Edinburgh, Holland, Kiel, Liverpool, Munich, Norway, Sweden (10 total)

.Italy: Marseilles, Naples, Rome, Spain, Venice (5 total).

Russia: St. Petersburg (1 total).

Turkey: Ankara, Bulgaria,  Constantinople, Moscow, Rumania, Sevastopol, Smyrna, Tunis (8 total).

Here are the results.   Russia’s last unit is an Army in St. Petersburg, and France’s last unit is a Fleet in the English Channel.   England holds grimly on to London, while the Royal Navy holds the Mid Atlantic coasts.

Will the war between Turkey and Italy heat up after Turkey’s capture of Tunisia?  Will German and Austria escalate their war over Silesia and Bohemia?   Find out more next weekend when the Spring 1905 orders are due!

 

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

An Epic Night of Longstreet

Four of us played a game of Longstreet at the wargames club last night.  It is quite a dark space, so I had to play with the exposure on these photos.

We used Len’s Cigar Box Battle Mat, which looked quite spiffy.  We put some styrofoam hills under the mat to create some elevations.    Stephen and I took the Union, while Len and Bruce took the Corn Fed Rats. We were both using the starting forces for a Longstreet Grand Campaign set in 1861

We are the attackers.  Our Union regiments go forward in column.   At the start of a Longstreet campaign, 10 stand units look quite impressive.

One of Len’s regiments awaits the onslaught.   All of Len’s units are Sash and Sabre figures, and looked quite fine.

The view from my position.  Two young ladies watch the battle in the foreground, obligingly serving as Objective Markers.   Both sides had artillery mounted on hills, but we found that the rule about Shooting Over Friendlies (Longstreet p. 41), which requires that there be 6BW or more between the artillery and the friendlies, and at least another 6BW between the friendlies and the target, meant that it was very for the artillery to support the infantry.  

The building in the foreground is one of Len’s - it looks very good.  Not sure what make it is.

In the centre you can see that I pushed one of my artillery bases forward to engage the enemy with canister, but they were shot down before they could get off a round.  I didn’t regret the move, as it took some pressure off the Irish moving up in column to the right of the gun section.  in retrospect, though it’s not clear in the rule (Longstreet p. 20) on artillery formations, this may have been an illegal move, as I am not aure that one can break up artillery formations.

It all comes down to the big face-off.   I moved my two surviving guns to the right, where they could engage Len’s infantry on the hill on his left wing.  He saw my clever move, and brought his fellows down to shelter from the guns behind my black hats.

The big climax.   Stephen and I played the Charge Bayonets card (I think that’s what it was called) which allows units to shoot and then charge in the same turn.    

 

All four of our units charged, even the dismounted cavalry which don’t do as well in Combat as infantry do.  We split the honours, winning two of the battles on our right and losing two on the left.   We had an advantage, since all of the units started out as Eager, and Eager units do better on the attack than the defence.  However, with over thirty bases in total charging, that qualified us for three Epic Points, which means that we totally won the battle.  

 

 

We had time to run the post-battle process.  All four of our units kept their élan as Eager, while two of the rebel infantry units fell from Eager to Seasoned as a result of casualties.  It must have been because they got roughly handled in our Epic charge.  We were doing well until Stephen rolled for Reduction.  Out of nine dice for one of our nine-stand infantry regiments, Stephen rolled five “1”s, which meant that we lost five stands from disease.   Wow, the brigade shouldn’t have stopped at that IHop on the way home, the food poisoning was brutal.  Should have listened to the Adjutant, he thought that buffet looked dodgy.

We did ok one our Campaign cards, gaining 2 artillery stands (Light Rifles), a company of Sharpshooters for one infantry regiment, and raising our hardest hit infantry unit to Veteran status.

Here’s the Union force after the post-battle phase:

7 stands Cavalry, Eager Recruits

4 stands Infantry, Eager Veterans (w Sharpshooter company)

7 stand infantry, Eager Recruits

8 stands Infantry, Eager Recruits

1 artillery formation:  2 stands Light Rifles, 1 artillery formation

1 artillery formation: 1 stand howitzer, 1 stand 6 pdr smoothbore

Replacements: 6 stands infantry, Eager Recruits 

Hopefully next week this force can seek it’s next battle, in 1862.

Blessings to your die rolls!

MP

Friday, April 22, 2016

On Newstands Now! The Daily Dissembler, Fall 1904 Edition


Your latest copy of the Daily Dissembler, containing essential news of a fictitious Europe in flames, may be found here.  Followers of the game will note that we have a replacement English player, hence the cover story.

Thanks to the Turkish and Italian players for content, and to the inestimable Ion Dowman for his play by play analysis as Sir Erasmus Blatt.

The online DD contains a somewhat imprecise rendering of the Turkish player's journalistic efforts, the Ankara What.   Readers may find their own Turkish delight in a clearer view of that fine journal, here.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

PBB Diplomacy Game Update: Fall 1904 Turn Results

Hello Diplomacy fans (all three of you).
It took a little time, but the results of the Fall 1904 turn are in and were sent out to the players some days ago.  Now it can be told to you, too.
 
This last turn was disappointing in that three players (France, England and Russia) missed the orders deadline and failed to submit moves.  Turkey, Germany and Austria profited thereby, while Italy held her own.
 
Here are the orders, as shown in the colourful and action-filled map below:
Results for Fall, 1904 (Movement)
   
Order resolution completed on 15-Apr-2016 at 20:23:54 EDT
Order Results:
   
Austria:
F alb - adr; A bud Supports A gal A gal Supports A war
A vie -  tyr  Bounced with mun (1 against 1).
A war Supports A mos
     
England:

No order for unit at Brest. Hold order assigned.
No order for unit at London. Hold order assigned.
No order for unit at Portugal. Hold order assigned.

France:
No order for unit at Burgundy. Hold order assigned.
No order for unit at English Channel. Hold order assigned.
No order for unit at Mid-Atlantic Ocean. Hold order assigned.

Germany:
A ber - sil;  F den - swe;
A lvp Supports A yor - edi; A mun -  tyr Bounced with vie (1 against 1).
F nth - nwy; A ruh - bel; A yor - edi
     
Italy:

F lyo - tys; A mar Supports A spa - gas
F nap Supports F lyo - tys; A spa - gas
A tun Holds - Dislodged from tys (2 against 1).
       
Russia:

No order for unit at Clyde. Hold order assigned.
No order for unit at Livonia. Hold order assigned.
No order for unit at St. Petersburg. Hold order assigned.
No order for unit at Ukraine. Hold order assigned.
   
Turkey:

 F bla - con; A bul Holds;  F ion Supports F tys - tun
A mos Supports A war; A rum - ukr Bounced with ukr (1 against 1).
A sev Supports A mos; F tys - tun

      
 
 
 
 
Results for Fall, 1904 (Retreat)
General Notices:
Order resolution completed on 15-Apr-2016 at 20:26:53 EDT
   
Order Results:
   
Austria:
Supply centers were gained. Units that may be built: 1.
     
England:

France: Supply centers were lost. Units that must be removed: 2.
     
Germany: Supply centers were gained. Units that may be built: 3.
      
Russia: Supply centers were lost. Units that must be removed: 3.
     
Turkey: Supply centers were gained. Units that may be built: 1.
     
Italy: A tun - naf   (Italian Army Tun has no other retreat route than NAF)

 
 
England has missed two turns now and the player is thus removed from the game.  England is declared to be in a state of Civil Disorder as per page 18 of the official rules.  If anyone would like to take over as the English player, pray send an email to madpadre (at) gmail (dot) com.   While Germany occupies two of England's three Supply Centers, England still has skin in the game.  France and Russia however are in dire straits.
 
The deadline for all players to get their builds and removals to me is no later than this Sunday at 23:00 EST.  Before then, watch for another issue of the Daily Dissembler.
 
 

Monday, April 18, 2016

Spring Brings Some Dangerous Dames

Internet access is a little spotty at the present, thanks to leaving my MacBook at Casa Rabbit after OP THUNDERING DICE, necessitating the planning of OP MAC BACK.

In the meantime, here are some figures I've been working on through March, off and on, as spring draws near.  They are both Wargames Foundry figures, from their sadly OOP Realms of Faery series.

 
I love an elf with a big ... bow.   I gave the young lady with the booty a yellow dress, only to find that it is a tricky color to work with, and turned out rather muddy from the wash, even after repeated attempts to blend in lighter tones of yellow.
I also gave her a silver bow, because it seemed more fantasy-ish.
 
 
The five figures from the blister, making what I think could be the nucleus of a very fine Dragon Rampant war band.   I am delighted to say that the lovely Dianne Ansell at Foundry discovered more figures from the Faery range for me, and I am looking forward to getting them.
 
 
If this noisy fellow leads his orc host into the wood where these ladies are, he will find himself missing a drumstick.  Among the figures I completed this last weekend is a 28mm GW Orc musician from their LOTR range.
 
 
Finally, while this lady may not look dangerous, I wouldn't let the posh Bryn Mawr New England accent fool you.  This is Amelia Roosevelt, America's Girl Reporter, who will be well known to readers of the Daily Dissembler.
 
 
This figure is from Canadian company RAFM, an investigator from their Call of Cthullu series.  She was part of a very kind gift of figures I received two Christmases ago from PatG, one of the most eclectic and interesting people I know in the hobby.   Pat was a player in my 2014 online Diplomacy game, and sent the figures as a thank you for that experience.  I am sorry it's taken me so long to paint her, and I hope this goes out to Pat as a big thank you.
 

 
I used to think RAFM figures were rather clunky, but they have come a long way.  This figure is full of detail, and the face came to life under the brush, with a pert and somewhat playful expression.   With her binoculars and writing satchel, she could indeed be a reporter of travelling investigator, though her clothes are a few decades too late for Miss Amelia of the Gilded Age.  Perhaps Amelia's daughter?  I may be able to use her in my Weird War Two project.
 
These figures bring my 2016 totals to:
28mm:  Foot Figures: 38; Mounted Figures: 3; Buildings: 1
6mm:  Mounted figures:  36;  Buildings:  2

Friday, April 15, 2016

OP THUNDERING DICE PART TWO: Infiltrate, Exfitrate, Eliminate, Fullplate


 Picking up on my account of last weekend's war games slumber party Chez James, here are some more thrilling accounts of small scale derring do and (increasingly for the weekend) my tactical misadventures.  Again, you can read Rabbitman's take on it here, with different pictures.

During OP TD1 I got a chance to play with James' modern Afghan kit, and I certainly wanted another crack at it.  In a recent post here, I commented on how some gamers inspire me with their determination to assemble a large project, and with their perseverance to get it right over time.  James' Afghan project is an excellent example of what you can do with a vision, some determination, and some spare cash.   He also made a very interesting and, I think, wise decision to do it in 20mm, to be able to represent platoon scale actions and to take of the variety of metal, resin, and plastic kits out there.

We decided to try Black Ops from Osprey, using their rules for sneaky covert stuff in the dark.  I was quite interested in evaluating the utility of these rules for my own Weird War project, which will also involve lots of dark sneaking and frights in the dark.  We decided that we would send a small team of Canadian JTF special forces operators into a remote village to neutralize (good) or capture (better) a high value target.

Here's the view of the recce team from their mountain perch.  Just waiting for night and the insertion of the grab team.




First team makes it move in the pitch darkness.  Two more teams approach through the dry creek bed on the far side of the village.

 
Sniper team lies in overwatch.   I was very nervous about using these fellows, as missing a shot and having a wounded, loud guard on a rooftop could have been bad,  However, they did prove very useful once the op started.


 
Case in point.  'Hey, Achmed, you want to go get a falafel after our shift? Achmed?'  At this point I had used the sniper to take out the guard closest to Alpha Team's infiltration route and had gotten lucky.  However, a random movement roll brought the sentry's partner over to his colleague's direction.   I committed my sniper a second team and, fortunately, took down this fellow before he could give a warning.

 
Both rooftop sentries down, Alpha Team moves past a ruined wall.  In a small orchard nearby, another sentry was patrolling.  Alpha team leader snuck through the trees and came up from behind, dispatching a third sentry.

Alpha team stealthily clears rooms, killing the sleeping Talib fighters.  None of this is heard or noticed by the sentry above them, who, inexplicably, never looks down.  It must be very dark in the wilds of Afghanistan.

 
On the other side of the compound, Bravo Team is not so fortunate.  The roof sentry above them notices figures moving in the dark and challenges them with a burst from his Kalashnikov.  One round hits the Bravo leader, but his chest armour saves his life.   The rest of Bravo team, and the sniper, unleash a hail of rounds on the guard, who amazingly passes five saves before he goes down.   The blue tiles are noise markers.

 
I would have thought that the whole warband (minus the half dozen killed in their beds) would have poured out of their huts, but that wasn't how the rules seemed to work.  Instead, the leader came out to see what was going on.   Alpha Team, hiding behind a Hilux pickup, watched through their NVG incredulously as Mr. High Value Target stauntered out in front of them..   Two operators dashed forward and bested HVT in a quick struggle.

 
Mr. HVT is bundled into the second truck, which has luckily was left with the keys in the ignition.  Alpha Team throws HVT in the back, none too gently, and  drives off into the night, singing BTO's Taking Care of Business loudly.  Bravo and Charlie (Charlie never fired a shot, was never needed) melt back into the dry creek, where Alpha abandons the truck, rigging it with a block of C4 just because.    A good night's work, and another Black Ops story that will never appear in the Globe and Mail.
 
 
In the afternoon we shifted to a game of Chain of Command in 15mm, pitting my Soviets against James' Jerries.   A can of beer seemed the perfect accompaniment to a Too Fat Lardies game.
 

 
A randomly determined scenario had me on the attack, using a somewhat compressed games table. My objective, the village of Turnipograd. With 12 support points, I bought an elite squad of scouts, a 5-man Maxim MG team, and an opening barrage to hinder James' opening deployment. With our jump off points quite close to one another, I thought I might have a chance early on to grab at least one of his.

 
Turn one and my elite scouts grab part of the town and hope to press on. Thanks to my opening barrage, James doesn't get to put a lot fo troops down for Turn One, but diastrously for me, he rolls two sixes, meaning that he gets two turns in a row.

 
Turn one and my elite scouts grab part of the town and hope to press on.  Thanks to my opening barrage, James doesn't get to put a lot fo troops down for Turn One, but diastrously for me, he rolls two sixes, meaning that he gets two turns in a row.  Because James took two green squads with his support points, he gets two eztra LMG teams, and he has a lot of firepower and bodies to put in the way.  I get held up on the right.

 
And on the left, my poor scouts are hammered by the Germans, waiting for them with an LMG in the cottage and the rifle team on the far side of the farmyard.

 
A third German squad deploys by its jump off point and while it can't move, it can shoot.  They shred the squad supporting my scouts.   I discovered that in a game of CoC where the Junp Off points are close to one another, the battle becomes a knife fight where you can be cut up quickly and fatally. 

 
My Maxim team opens up and punishes James, landers in return, but on the right, my rifle squad is getting bashed about by its jump off point.   Just before this shot was taken, my Maxim team got ten hits on ten dice, an amazing throw.

 
And in their second turn of firing, the Maxim team rolls ten misses on ten dice, and is now suffering from incoming fire.  Meanwhile, James uses his infantry advantage to swing wide, taking my first JO point and threatening my second.  My Force Morale is plumetting.   The only good thing about my effort is how nice my Jump Off points look.  They are painted resin objective markers from a ompany called Army Group North miniatures.
 
 
My scout squad has been wiped out, and I an now down to one intact squad.   Time to call it a day.
 
 
After filling me full of lead, James filled me full of excellent Indian takeway.   It seemed a fair compensation.
 
 
It was good to playChain of Command again but sobering to realize how unforgiving it is to poor tactics.  My plan was very poorly thought out.   I led with my best asset and had no way to support them.   I put two JOs on the right axis of my attack but committed almost all of my attacking elements to the left axis of attack, leaving these JOs to be tempting prizes just asking to be grabbed, which they were.   While it was unlucky for me when James got two turns in a row, these things happen and a plan which depends on luck is not much of a plan.
 
Black Ops was a lot of fun to play, probably more fun for me than for James, who bore his sentries' incompetence with good humour.   I like the mechanisms in Black Ops, especially those for covert actions, and think it would be quite easy to modify them to my own Weird War Two project, which has lots of sneaking and skulking and frights in the dark.
 
Op Thundering Dice concluded with us playing the Lord of the Rings boardgame I have described here previously.   It took us a good four hours, but I watched in increasing frustration as Sauron while the nasty hobits got into Mordor and kind of ambled their way to Mount Doom.  Actually it was tense.  I had several good chances to stop them but several supporting characters (Gandalf the Grey, Boromir and Legolas) all sacrificed themselves willingly and allowed the Ringbearer to achieve his mission.   It was terrific fun, particularly as we imagined the Nazgul advisors leaving the council meeting where Sauron declared war, shaking their heads.  'Now my irrigation project for Nurn will never go forward.  Always war, war, war.'  'Yeah, and my Mordor Tourism Board budget is getting totally slashed now.  I had this great idea for aerial tours of Mt. Doom by Fell Beast.'  'Always war, never trade.  My free trade agreement with Gondor was almost ready to sign.  Years of work wasted.'  Such is the sad lot of an evil counsellor.
 
Blessings to your die rolls and may all your games be as much fun!  MP+















Monday, April 11, 2016

OP THUNDERING DICE PART 1: My Bidower Blues

There was some epic wargaming this weekend when I travelled three hours west to Stratford, where James (Rabbitman) Manto and I staged the second of our Wargames Sleepovers, also known as OP THUNDERIN|G DICE (T-shirts to come).

James tells the story thrillingly here. I thought I would tell the story in several parts, as time permits.  While we gamed from Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon, I'll start the story on Saturday night, when we gathered in James' basement.   I've been making the pilgrimage to this basement for at least fifteen years, off and on, as the vagaries of time and distance permit.  It has hardly changed a whit, and the while the cast of characters has changed somewhat, the ones that remain are as dear as brothers.

 
Mike, Patrick and James gather over a game of Lion Rampant.  My orcs bottom left.  Click, as Kinch says, to embiggen.

The game was Lion Rampant, which suited me just fine, as it has become a staple of my little gaming group in Barrie, and I like it more and more each outing.  It was a splendid chance to see James' stellar medievals collection.  Mike and I got the evil dudes.  Fulk the Bastard (with his pet vulture on his arm and his dreaded Black Company) had hired some orc mercenaries from the hills) while James took the eco-friendly and bad-guy unfriendly Forest Guys, suspiciously resembling a Welsh warband.  Patrick marched in from a nearby CityState with a medieval Italian host.   Historically accurate we were not.

 
Fulk's bastards and some Ork spearmen (classed as Foot Sergeants) advance on the innocent village, intent on putting it to fire and, of course, the sword.
 
 
 
My leader, Gothmog, leads the cream of his Wolf Boy cavalry to ride down the pathetic and lightly armed human archers.  He doesn't realize what he's doing, poor monster.
 


It all starts going wrong.  James has a wicked combination of six figure bidower archers, who generate (as far as we could tell, this was right) 12 dice of shooting death as long as they are above half strength, can skirmish (move and shoot with -1 off the firing dice) and are hard to hit.  Those fellows, backed up by the javelin armed light infantry in the woods, see off my Ork beserkers (Fierce Foot) who broke and ran under the arrow storm.  The berserkers can be seen dead top right, poor things.  My Orc heavy foot (Expert Foot Sergeants) advance, but the lights retreat into the woods, where they fight at an advantage.  This is how fighting Wood Elves must feel.

 
Speaking of Elves, a mysterious group of dangerous young ladies hung around in the woods - Galadriel's Grrrlz, maybe?  They took no part in the fighting, but they copped a lot of attitude, and no-one dared go near them.
 
 
Orcs up to mischief.  One of James' splendid medieval houses goes up in smoke, having been put to fire and, of course, the sword.  This was the evil high water mark.   Note more detested bidower archers behind the house to the rear.
 
 
My Expert Orc Sergeants prove that experts are just over-priced help who don't know how to really do anything.  They are being shredded by javelins and, of course, by bidower archers.  They will shortly break and run.
 
 
Having swept my right wing away, James puts his whole line into motion.   You can see the ruins of my (shockingly underpainted) WolfBoys on the right.   Gothmog led the remnants in a death ride which at least had the satisfaction of catching two units of the hated bidowers who failed their evasion rolls and got torn up, before javelins from the chaps in the woods at centre took Gothmog down.   He died, choking out words of hate - I think it was "Curse you, nasty tricksy shootsy army of James" or some such, but no one was really listening.
 
On the right wing, Mikey B had the advantage of sweeping his side of the table.  The Italians seemed to melt, one unit after another, under the Fury of the Bastard, but as the remnants of Mike's army savoured their victory, James was redeploying towards them.  Fulk recalled his pet vulture to his arm and rode off, vowing to raise another army, but ruing the money he had spent on Orks.
 
Final verdict - great game.   I need to develop some way of countering light shooty troops, seeing as my ork force is pretty heavy foot.   I do have some Isengard tracker types, the ones seen in the SPJ TT film, who might fit the bill.     If Lion Rampant is this much fun, I predict I will enjoy Dragon Rampant all the more when I finally give it a try.
 
Thank you James for a great weekend, even if I hate your nasty shooty bidowers.
 
 
Blessings to your die rolls!
 
MP+
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Diplomacy Game Update and Tuesday Night Wargame

Two-part post tonight.  

The first part gives an update on the PBB Diplomacy game which now begins Turn 8 (F 1904). 

The three retreats from the S1904 Orders Resolution are as follows:

England:  F MAO to BRE
Russia: A WAR - LIV
France: A MAR - BUR 

The deadline for the F1904 Orders is Wednesday, April 13, at 23:00hrs EST.  Things to watch:

Russia is down but not out, and could retake Moscow unless the Austro-Turkish alliance holds firm.

Germany is poised to take London and give England the coup de grace.

Italy is prevented from really exploiting the advantage of a weakened France, as it has to much of its forces guarding against the Turkish expansion.  What will the Sultan do?

Second, and reviving an occasional Mad Padre Wargames practice, it’s Tuesday and that means a Tuesday boardgame.  Here’s the map of a micro-game designed by Paul Koenig from his D-Day series of operational level games on the first few days of D-Day, published by Victory Point Games.  Paul had two other games in this series, one on the British beaches and the other on the American landings.   I bought this copy and another PK game, on Operation Veritable, when VPG discontinued many of its small games.  This game, Juno: The Canadian Beach, is a one-map game, maybe 50 counters, pitting the Canadian 3rd Division against the German 716th Regiment, from June 6-8.  The Canadians have to get off their four beaches, capture the four villages near the coast and the town of Douvres, while exiting as many units as possible off the far edge of the map.  

There’s not a lot of chrome here.  PK describes himself as a war games designer in the mould of Jim Dunnigan, with a Keep It Simple philosophy. I like PK as a designer, because he has a flair for neat and elegant game mechanics.  Juno has a simple combat mechanic, but with three different ways of attacking, it offers a lot of options for clever playing.  The chit-pull activation system is ideal for solitaire play, and it’s small size means that I can set it up in a quiet corner of my workplace and spend 20-30 minutes a day on my lunch break  pondering my strategy. 

Situation at the end of 6 June.  The Canadians have gotten off their beaches and captured Courcelles, but have a ways to go as German defence firms up in the bocage.   Each unit is a battalion, and parent units are brigades (Canadian) and regiments (German).  The round counters under the unit counters indicate hit markers.  A unit can take one hit and is still fully effective, and two hits and be partially effective, but three hits removes a unit from the map.  

Most of the comments I’ve seen on BGG suggest that the Canadians have a tough haul to get a win in this game.  I’ll keep you posted.

Blessings to your die rolls!

MP+

 

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Some Artizan Weird War Two Heroes and Heroines

My Weird War Two project has been slowly growing over the years, even if I’ve never actually played a game with any of these figures - yet.

Hopefully that will change soon.  Here are some heroes and heroines who will struggle to prevent unspeakable dark forces from being unleaded on the world by the occult and ancient evils which the Reich has awakened and made its faustian bargain with.

These figures are all 28mm Artizan sculpts, from their wonderful Thrilling Tales range.  From left to right, the Artizan product codes are PLP165 General Clearwell, PLP133 Sgt Milsom, PLP132 Inspector Dawlish, PLP146 ATS Driver Sally Haines and PLP055 Ivette.

When Mademoiselle is not waitressing at a well known Cafe frequented by high ranking Germans, she is part of a special Resistance network that assists Project Alice’s agents as they learn the scope of the Nazi’s occult projects.

Her undeniable charms have distracted more than a few would be suitors, until too late they see the business end of her Sten gun.

I am a huge fan of the TV show these three characters are clearly inspired by.  Any guesses which show it is?

Oh for goodness sake, it’s easy.

I’ve tried to capture Foyle’s wonderful camelhair overcoat and his blue fedora, and usually Millner wears a grey overcoat with a brown suit and hat.  The Milner/Milsom figure is curiously cast as if he has a slight limp, which fits the character seeing as Milner lost a leg while fighting in Norway before returning to the CID.   In the TV shows, after a while it’s as if he grows his leg back, because Milner gets quite spry in the later seasons.

The police, Detective Inspector Barnaby (couldn’t resist, lots of talk of late about Midsomer Murders) and his assistant, Sergeant Jones, will have top-secret clearance to work with Project Alice on occult incidents manifesting themselves in Britain.   The ATS driver (is there any actress lovelier than Honeysuckle Weeks?) captures the pluck of Sam Stewart’s character, and even has her red hair.  When she’s not driving the detectives around, she might act as the assistant, Katherine Putnam, for Brigadier Kenneth McAllister, commander of Project Alice and it’s military arm, S Commando - some of you with long memories may remember meeting her and the Brigadier here.

Putnam don’t take no crap from Nazi bad girls.  No other excise for this photo than to show how well Artizan figures mixl with Bob Murch’s Pulp Figures.

Don’t let his rotund appearance fool you.   As a young subaltern in the Midsomer Regiment, he won the MC for taking command of a decimated battalion as the sole surviving officer during the Retreat from Mons and led his men back to safety.   As a staff officer assigned to the Canadian Corps, he was involved in the incident (officially denied by the War Office) of the Werewolf of the Trenches, the backstory for the Rockies Ablaze, which is the backstory to my Weird War 2 project.  But I digress.    Because of his experience of the occult, McCallister was picked to head Project Alice, and his network of contacts, including DI Barnaby (a CSM in the Midsomer Regt during the Great War), has proved invaluable as he put his team together.

Painting this figure makes me want to watch the Life and Death of Colonel Blimp again.

OK, lots of fluff for just five figures.  Thanks for being patient if you got this far.

 

These figures bring my 2016 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 34; Mounted Figures: 3; Buildings: 1

6mm:  Mounted figures:  36;  Buildings:  2

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