I have gotten way behind on painting posts, the last one was late last year and here we are almost through the first quarter of 2024. This stuff I am posting was painting from last year, Hopefully, once I get caught up with basing I'll have some some more current items to post. But here we go, pic intense this time around.

First off we have some additional Spanish Civil War troops in 20mm. These are all HPC/Bandera

Four pics above are all Assault Guards

The six pics above are all Republican militia

These last four pics are all anarchist militia.

Almost coming to an end of my SCW project. I do have a bunch of painted minis I bought that I need to sort through, finish basing my heavy weapons, and get all my vehicles done.

Next up is some 20mm WW2 Japanese

These are a small batch of Sgt Major Minis I picked up off of ebay. I was lacking in weapons teams so these were nice to get.

Lastly we have some Greeks in 28mm for SAGA

The peltasts are all Victrix with Little Big Men Studios shield transfers, the cavalry are Warlord Games. I started using the Geek Gamer Scenics flock a while back. I really like the look it gives the base, and I don't have to mix it. I used it on all these figures in this post. 

That is all I have for now, I'll post more in a week or two!

2024 Thus Far and March to Victory

I had planned on being a more regular poster on my blog this year, but I did fall behind, and then off the map. We had a tragedy in the family where my 43 yo son-in-law, unexpectedly passed away the first week of March. My daughter, a fairly recent immigrant from China, does not speak English well, nor does she know the ins, and outs of our systems here so she has leaned on me for help, which I have done to the best of my ability.  And while I have continued to paint, to keep my sanity, I haven't had time for much else like basing, picture taking, blogging, etc. But, I did manage to get out last Saturday to attend the annual March to Victory event put on by Wiley Games at the Game Cafe in Independence, MO.

I did not attend on Friday however I heard the were some great games played. Along with the new Wiley Games rules Arena of Blood, there was some What a Tanker, Boxer Rebellion, Blood and Plunder, and a chariot race as well. The Boxer game was still set up Saturday, here are a few pics

Saturday was a packed house

There was lots of fun gaming going on

A Victorian Sci-fi game using Wiley Games Bigger Battles

Battle of Cape Matapan using Ocean Thunder rules

A Post Apocalypse game using Wiley Games Wasteland Warriors

Last Action Heroes game using Wiley Games FFOL

A couple shots of Byrams Ford using Johnny Reb 3

An 1863 ACW battle using Live Free or Die Rules

There were a couple other cool games I did not get shots of, Jaye Wiley ran the great Goblin games, which looked like Goblin Olympics kinda, and a 54mm Hue game. I also ran a game. A refight of the Mexican American War Battle of Palo Alto. Given my circumstances I was not as prepared as I would like to have been, but, it went pretty well none the less.

The American setup

The Mexican lines, yes, the Americans are outnumbered

Mexican advance on their left across the resaca and into the scrub

Showing the general Mexican advance

Mexican cavalry charges a square and breaks it! The American right is in trouble

The Mexicans push toward the US wagon train

On the US left the 8th Infantry form square in the face of the Lt Cavalry of Mexico and the US 1st Artillery (inf) fight off the Mexicans coming through the swamp.

The 8th Infantry's square is assailed by the Lt Cavalry and the Zappadores but to no avail, they hold and beat back their attackers

The end of the game. The American lines hold off and beat back the Mexican attackers.  Mexican Generals Torrejon and Vega paid the ultimate price.

Overall a really good game, and a big thanks to those who played, I was not as prepared as I would have like but you all helped out and it was appreciated. I played the ponds as marshy ground, though I think they are supposed to be played as actual ponds. I think that may be a tough sell for the Mexicans to get enough troops to bear that way. I'll have to play around with it and see.  Anyway it went well, and I even got in a turn because the American players had to leave.  Definitely a fun time! I did play this out using Regimental Fire and Fury. I am going to rebase/upgrade my AWI stuff for use with these rules as well. 

Well that is all I have this time around. There were a couple other games that I did not get pictures of , I'm sorry, but, after my game I was, in Fire and Fury terms, spent. Anyway, There should be more posts forthcoming, things have settled down around here so I can get back to my usual routines.

Thanks everyone for taking a look!

Progress on Pavia 2025 a Review of Wargames Scenarios The Italian Wars, and Some Painting

 I have been making some progress, though it was slow, and I was really struggling with how I wanted to portray the battle. I had a preliminary OOB set up based off the Osprey Campaign book for this battle, but, I was struggling with the map, and how best to set it up. I belong to a Facebook group on Wargaming th Italian Wars and a few weeks ago someone posted their scenario for Pavia. Now theirs was set up for the Old School Gush rules, and while I like that, they are not really suitable for a convention game, which is what I am doing. I did like the map set up and the fact the armies were completely deployed and ready for battle. That will be one feature I use in my game, though some forces will be behind others as they are still deploying. My OOB, based off the Osprey is as follows,

French

One pike block of swiss with one unit of supporting arquebusiers

One landsknecht pike block with one unit of supporting arquebusiers

One French pike block (smaller) and two units of arquebusier

Three units of Italian arquebusier

Four units of French and Italian Light Cavalry

Three units of Gendarmes

Artillery (as many or few needed for balance)

Baggage Camps ( there was the main camp and one by the Mirabello

Spanish/Imperialist

Four units of Italian arquebusiers

Two Spanish pike blocks

One Italian pike block

Two landsknecht pike blocks with one supporting unit of arquebus each

Two units  of Spanish gendarmes

One unit of Jinetes

Three medium guns

I was pretty happy with this and I placed orders with various companies (Essex for Mikes Models, and Alternative Armies for the old TTG line, to match what I already have) to fill in the missing figures. If you remember, I am using Impetus for the rules, and the diorama style basing should look cool once it is all done. I have already rebased some of my existing minis, and I need to paint a few to flesh out all the units. I'll post those later this year as I get them complete. 

In the last couple weeks I saw in the Facebook group, that there was to be an Italian Wars scenario book coming out, and it was available on Amazon in the US right away. Despite it being pricey ($40 usd) I nabbed it right off, based solely on the fact it had a Pavia scenario. More about that later. The scenario book comes with all the info you need to refight 20 Italian War era battles. from Seminara to Scanagallo a time span of almost 60 years. Here are shots of the covers.

The best part for me, was that all scenarios come with orders of battle set up for Furioso, Impetvs, and Pike and Shotte. As you can see from the front cover there was at least some collaboration of some sort with Warlord, Alternative Armies, and Dadi & Piombo, the publishers of the rules in question. I was happy to see the OOB for Pavia, and while it differs from mine a bit, I am looking forward to playing around with both OOBs to see what I want to do with it. I do plan on building all the units for both, so I will need to go back to the well to buy a few more figures, most notably another swiss pike block. Here is the OOB sample from the front of the book so you can see it laid out. In the book each scenario has a brief description of the battle, the OOB with mods for the three rules sets, two maps, one a gridded terrain map, the other a deployment map, and a few special rules regarding terrain. 

I was also happy that the map and deployments were more or less what I was looking to do. If you are looking for a books with inspirational pictures etc, this is not it. However, it does fill a glaring need for scenarios in the Italian Wars. I may be a bit more forgiving than others but I am pleased with it despite the price point. Now I need to dig in and get those minis painted and  then find a Mirabello, and some park wall, like 6 feet of it, in 15mm!

And yes, I have been painting, just not for the Italian Wars.

I have really been plowing through my Spanish Civil War project

Assaultos

A Whole Lot of Republican Militia

A few 20mm Japanese I picked up

These were all Sgt Major minis I picked up from eBay.

And then I finished a handful of Greeks for my SAGA Greek City States

The peltasts are Victrix with Little Big Men shields, and the cavalry are Warlord games.

That is all I have this time around. I hope you found it interesting.

Until next time! Happy Gaming.