How I spent my weekend

My painting projects have come to a complete halt.  I don't have any brushes of note to finish my 28mm 1870 Prussian brigade.  I've destroyed the Winsor Newton Series No. 7 000 brushes I use for fine detail work.  I don't know when I'll get around to ordering them.  And the holidays are quickly approaching.  I don't know how much free time I'll have to complete any painting projects.  This has been a concern of mine throughout the fall.  Time is the one quantity I don't have a lock on.  As I shut down my painting drive, I did get a 28mm Copplestone German colonial officer done this week.  I also started a Reaper 25mm samurai lord.  That has been the extent of things...

However, I got side tracked with the Russo-Turkish War of 1877.  I googled it and read some articles online.  I need to get an Osprey for uniform guides of the different combatants.  This is another side project down the road of Victorian conflicts I game.  I pride myself as a late Victorian wargamer.  My various projects are intertwined with British colonial conflicts in Africa and other nefarious European colonization projects in the Congo and German East Africa.  When I look at the $1200.00 I've spent on GW figure cases, most of it is for Darkest Africa/British Colonials.  I thought about getting another British Colonial/Darkest Africa project going.  I've gaming interests in Egypt, South Africa, and now the Sudan.  I then started looking at the Russo-Turkish uniforms and especially the Turks. 

These uniforms look familiar...  So I put together a 25mm Russo-Turkish War of 1877 house rule system using The Sword and The Flame.  I just have modified off of some rules I'd worked on for the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.  I then played around with The Miniatures Page.com and looked up any posts for the Russo-Turkish War of 1877.  After finding the Yahoo Users Group for the conflict, I joined and was asked by the moderator to post my preliminary rules on their website.  I toyed around with it some more and then posted them there this afternoon. 

Now, I am at a quandry.  Do I spend the money I was going to buy my next miniatures project for the Trojan War?  Or do I switch over to buying 28mm Russians and Turkish forces?  Or do I see about getting some 28mm Sudanese Madhists?  Where do I spend my X-mas money for myself?  Decisions.  Decisions.  All the while, my 28mm FPW project flounders for lack of good brushes. 

Part of my problem is I'm too ambitious.  I have too many projects going on at once.  And my lack to time is now catching up to me.  At some point, I should say enough.  I've reached that point today.  I like history too much for my own good.  I'll get back to my 28mm FPW project in late December/early January 2013 once I've survived the holidays.  Even I play 40K, the latest antics of GW are causing not to buy any more figures.  If I didn't buy any more Citadel figures, I can easily spend another $400.00 on figure cases and foam for my remaining figures and vehicles that need to be painted.  I could also spend another $150.00 on GW vehicles.  I also need to spend another $50.00 a Chaos Space Marines codex.  The cost of this is literally killing my finances.  I really can't keep up with it.  It's getting more price effective to work on an obscure 19th century gaming project like the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 in 28mm than buy another space marine or xenos army.

And I'm curving back my ambition.  I'll paint whatever 40K armies I have.  I just won't add to them.  So I guess I'm done buying Games Workshop.  So that leaves me with what historical projects I want to undertake in the next several years.  I think I'll do 28mm Russo-Turkish War because its different and I can use The Sword and The Flame for gaming it.  I also think I'll get 28mm Trojan War figures from Old Glory in the spring of 2013 and have my final 28mm ancients project ready it time by 2014.  The 28mm Franco-Prussian War project can see me through for 2013.  Assuming the world doesn't end in December 2012 and I am not the victim of a zombie outbreak.  I'd hate to paint for brains!

40K Game, 28OCT12

I played a 40K Game using the new 6th edition rules with my friend Curtis Turner (Hostile Contact on The Miniatures Page).  We usually try to get together play at least once a month.  This time, we hadn't played since August 2012.   Curtis wanted to try out the new Chaos Space Marines codex.  Luck was not on his side.  When he rolled for special attributes for his chaos champions, Curtis got three Chaos Spawn results for his champions along with two eternal warrior results. 

However, I thought Curtis would win the game early on.  Most of his army was in reserve, I kept my terminators in their land raiders until I needed to disembark them for assaults.  My one squad of terminators I teleported on to the board held out for two turns until it was wiped out in hand to hand combat.  I attacked Curtis's command HQ squad with my assault terminators.  They engage his Chaos lord and Chaos terminator squad.  I managed to finally kill his Lord after several rounds of combat.  Curtis then engaged his raptor squad against my close combat terminators.

On my left flank, my Land Raider Crusader got blown up by squad of obliterators.  My second command HQ squad and close assault terminitors came out and attacked his Chaos defiler.  I managed to blow it up in the first round of combat.  Curtis then charged his obliterators into my close assault terminators.  I lost a couple of terminators.  But I managed to wipe out an obliterator.  Curtis also lost a Chaos dreadnought to las-cannon fire on my remaining land raider.  The game was over by turn 6.  There were still two squads of chaos marines on the board with a Chaos predator.  But I won on victory points.  It was not a good day for the Chaos gods...

Anyway, here are some photos of the Chaos Space Marines vs. Dark Angel Deathwing Terminator Company at a 1500 point battle:

                                         Squad of regular Chaos Space Marines.

                                 My squad of Deathwing Terminators teleporting onto the board.

                                         Surviving squad of Terminators about be attacked.

                                         Remaining Chaos Space Marines backed up with a Nurgle Predator.

                                          Nurgle Chaos Demon possessed Defiler.

                                         Survivors staring at each other at the end of Turn 6.

Imjin War Game, 25OCT12

I played a 28mm Imjin War game on Thursday, October 25th with a friend of mine.  My samurai engaged his Korean cavalry.  But the game went downhill from there.  I got a unit of samurai cavalry to rout off the table before I could engage them in combat with some of Don Cox's Korean bow cavalry.  On my other flank, my four samurai cavalry routed another unit of Korean cavalry off the board.  I also lost a unit of samurai infantry before I blew an army morale roll into the fifth turn. 

However, the rules play well for the period.  I usually lose with my own house rules.  They don't treat me well.  I can say about other rule systems I've written, too.  Here are some photos from the game this past Thursday:

                                         Beginning of the battle.

                                          Both sides engaging in battle.

End of the battle with me losing.

28mm Darkest Africa Game

Today was an interesting day.  I was supposed to game with Joe Collins (Sapper Joe) and Steve Hood (Combat Colours) at Wargames Cave in Granite City, IL.  Alas, that didn't happen.  So Don Cox and I played a 28mm Darkest Africa game using The Sword in Africa.  I also forgot to bring my camera.  So I have no photos of the game. 

Don ran a platoon of German colonial Marines and a platoon of German Schutze truppe askaris.  I had a company of Belgian Force Publique askaris backed up by one 10 man squad of native allied musket armed natives.  We both had one mountain Krupp gun field piece and crews for each side. 

I got the first movement cards and advanced my Belgian askaris up.  Don brought his German troops into range.  He then got the first fire cards.  And more fire cards.  My artillery was decimated as the one surviving Belgian askari gunner routed off the table.  I also lost my allied tribal musket squad in the rout with the one remaining askari gunner.  A third Belgian askari squad was cut in half by German mauser fire.  The survivors then fell back to the table edge.  I was able concentrate my remaining Belgian askari units and fire at two of the German squads.  I was able to reduce one squad of German askaris done to four men and shoot up another German marine squad to half strength.  Don responded by shooting up two of my remaining Belgian askari squads to one figure and another to half stength.  One survivor fell back towards the table edge the other unit routed off the table.  At this point, I was left with one effective unit out of six units total.  I conceded the game to Don. 

By this time, it had only taken one hour to finish our game.  I spent more time driving to and from Granite City, IL than I did gaming today.  However, 1-1.5 hours is pretty standard for a 28mm Darkest Africa game using small unit tactics.  They usually resolve themselves pretty quickly...

In the Middle of my 28mm 1870 Prussian Infantry

I'm making slow progress on my 28mm 1870 Prussian infantry brigade.  I need to have everything in time for a local gaming convention called Command Con 2012 that will be held at the Suburban Leasure Center in Chesterfield, MO.  I bought the 40K Dark Vengeance box set early this month.  I went ahead and assembled the Dark Angels and some of the Chaos Space Marine models.  After wasting several days working on those figures, I put them away and went back to base coating 28mm 1870 Prussian.  I'll be working on them this morning.  I'm doing the pants and rolled up dark grey coats on my second regiment of 1870 Prussians. 

I haven't even gotten around to painting leather equipment, flesh, or rifles.  I need to focus on painting the rest of the figures and get them ready for Command Con, November 9-11, 2012.  That doesn't give me much time to get things done.  I might be able just to get the base coats done.  I've squandered enough time not painting.  Much of my free time was taken up with writing, editing, and revising manuscripts.  Now, onto painting!