New Toys

Two packages has arrived, one from from Baccus (my regular supplier of this addictive white metal drug called 6mm miniatures) and one from Angel Barracks (AB).

AB is a new acquaintance, selling all kinds of things for miniature gaming. Their scenery is what drew me to their webpage in the first place, Specifically, I was interested in a very smart little package they had, originally a product of Irregular Miniatures. See picture below!


For the next step in my project, 1st Newbury, I need houses. The kit I´ve ordered is made up of lots of little building components. According to AB: "A collection of windows, doors, stairs, roofs and more all designed to be pegged into balsa blocks to enable you to create your own bespoke dwellings." So now I just need to get some balsa wood and start building.

From Baccus I´ve ordered these babies below. Heavy siege guns to use as the 12 and 24 pounder guns that are part of the battle of 1st Newbury (and Edgehill for that matter). The siege guns are actually much too large for this use, neither army fielded such heavy artillery but I want the heavy guns to look different than the medium 4 and 8 pounders.

New Artillery Done

Some new guns I finished yesterday. 3 batteries of light 3 pounders and one battery of 4-8 pounders.

New Goal: The First Battle of Newbury

OK, Edgehill was planned, done and played. Some celebration and a few days of rest later I want to announce the start of the planning for the next goal.

It´s going to be 1st Newbury. Why? This battle is another half mapper, see the picture above. It also has relatively few troops. It´s also a favorite of mine, an exciting and balanced battle. The scenario has free setup which I usually enjoy. The players set up their troops (within limits) how they like and hidden from each other. This makes setup into a game of itself.

To play 1st Newbury I need:

• 10 double hex heavy infantry brigades. (I have 11 so this is already done)
• 2 single hex heavy infantry units. (Easy to do, I have the figs but unpainted.)
• 29 units of cavalry. (I have 20, so 9 left. Not bad at all.)
• Light infantry: 2 dragoons (check), 3 musketeers (check) and 3 large units of musketeers (have 1, need 2 more)
• Artillery: 2 culverins, 4 sakers, 4 falcons. I have ordered some Siege guns from Baccus to paint up as the heavy culverins. The other guns I have already.
  

So what is the challenge? As you can see from the map above, Newbury has quite a lot of terrain. There are several types of terrain that will cause me problems:

• The hill that covers a large part of the battle field. This need to be modeled somehow. I´m thinking about several options at the moment, which I will get back to shortly.
• The many hexes of hedge lined road. I did a long straight section for Edgehill, but this will be much more challenging.
• Woods, villages, houses, Roman burial mounds and a river....

More later on this. Wish me luck!

Goal Achieved: First Game of Edgehill played

My goal has been achieved! Last weekend, at the gaming convention in Helsingborg, the premier game of this project was played twice by me and my friends.

Everything went more or less according to plan. I´m still very tired from painting non-stop for the past two weeks and the weekend was also exhausting (explaining rules, talking to curious and friendly nerds, sleeping in the same motel room as infamous snorer Totte, all while under a serious case of dehydration).

I also lost both games and unfortunately I´m a very bad loser (but in the end I prefer to be, it´s a sign of passion and ambition).

I´m very happy with the way the project turned out. I also got lots of positive and kind comments from people at the convention. While usually not inclined to bragging, I would for once like to say to myself: good job.

I won´t talk more for now, but skip to the important stuff: the pictures! Even more pictures can be found here.

Why no update for a while?

Why haven´t I written anything on the blog for quite some time? Well, I´ve been very busy with the project lately, just painting all those cavalry, leaders and basing units. No time or energy left for blogging.

I also got lazy in the first part of November, thinking I had all the time in the world. Then suddenly it´s D day! This Friday actually. I still have almost half the cavalry left to paint... But almost everything else is done. The weekend turned into a crazed frenzy of work in a fog of paint, glue and coffee.

This is what remains to be done, a list for my own benefit and relief (it always helps to write things down)

• Paint all cavalry
• Base all cavalry
• Make more terrain: hedges and road sections. Not sure how many I need
• Base the last two heavy infantry brigades (Foppa has one, I the other)
• Iron out the folds on the game mat
• Print out the Edgehill map and setup (because the game mat has no hex numbers)
• Make little name tags for the units, such as "Byron 18-8" (Byron´s brigade, strenght 18, morale 8), or "4-8 lb 4-14" (Artillery, sakers, range)
• Paint and base all 14 leaders I need (6 of them are done)
• Pack all miniatures, rules, charts and counters I need for the game
• Pack sleeping bag and everything else I need to stay in Helsingborg for two nights

And much more I can´t remember right now that will probably pop up in my mind on Thursday evening, knowing myself.

Very Hot Mat by Hotz

Some more pictures of the game mat in action.

Big picture: A brigade of heavy infantry screened by dragoons and two batteries of artillery.

Overview picture: Shows the hedge lined road I need for Edgehill. Could be better but this will have to do for now. I wish I could have a more narrow hedge lined road, but at least this one fits in one hex.

First Cavalry Finished and Game Mat Has Landed

This hobby is like having Christmas every few weeks. With regular intervals orders arrive by mail and make your day. Today for instance my long awaited game mat arrived.



The game mat by Hotz Artworks looks good. 2 inch hexes on one side, 1,5 inch hexes on the other. To my surprise the mat I got was square, 117 by 117 centimeters.

I had ordered a 117 by 86 cm mat. But the one I got actually works much better for my needs, it matches the Edgehill map I´m using which is is 24 by 24 hexes. The 2 hex inch mat I ordered was only available in 23 by 21 hexes.

But I somehow received a 25 by 23 hex mat so once again I´m happy like a kid in some kind of a store.



Some photos of my first painted cavalry, on top of the new terrain mat. I´m playing around with different base sizes and how many horses I should have per base. These photos are dedicated to Asko (regular commentator of my blog posts) :-)

Goal for October Done: All Infantry Finished

Today I finished my first set goal for this project. October was infantry month and now they are all done. So this evening I´m celebrating by, appropriately, going to an Oktoberfest at Burres place (my regular gaming buddy who also enjoys German kitsch and horrible folkmusic).

OK, all the little guys are done (except the bases, I´ll do all of those at one time, later when the game mat arrives, which should be next week).

Also, Foppa has borrowed a brigade to paint, I´ll get those from him soon I hope. Here´s some pictures of the (almost) complete army. Heavy infantry, artillery, dragoons and commanded muskets, it´s all there.

Now the next phase begins: Cavalry. I have already started experimenting with them, trying painting techniques and so on. Bought a new Vallejo color today for the horses; "Marron Bichos", or Beasty Brown.



Check out the video as well! Imagine yourself doing a muster, riding by the waiting army. Just ignore the scraping sound of the camera against the table and the illusion will be total ;-)

Nice

My latest order from Baccus, consisting of cavalry, arrived today... It´s a lot of figures!
The first photo shows the entire order. Armoured Cuirassiers, leaders and two big blocks of cavalry.

It´s more cavalry than I need but I´d like to have a surplus. I haven´t yet decided on how much cavalry I will have per base.

It´s leaning towards 8, but could end up at 10. It´s a balance between getting that massed appearance that I want and reducing time to paint. As you might remember, November is cavalry month.

I need 20 units of horse to play Edgehill. The cuirassiers are to portray the elite units in the game, such as Essex lifeguard, Bedford or the King´s lifeguard. (Edit: More importantly, in later battles, Haselrigges famous "Lobsters")

The mounted leaders will, with some cuirassier as bodyguards, be used as the various leaders in the game. I´m toying with the idea of using circular bases for the leaders, to set them apart.

Light Infantry

In M&P Edgehill there are lots of light infantry and commanded musketeers running around on the battlefield. Most of it is small units with 1 or 2 strength points. But on the Royalist Right wing a nice strength 3, morale 6 unit of musketeers is lurking in the hedgerows.

I have failed to find information what regiment(s) these guys were picked from. (I have info for the commanded musketeers on the Rebel side and the dragoons on both sides).

So I opted to paint them in a civilian fashion, with all kinds of colors. I´ve read that much of the Royal army looked like that at Edgehill. Parliament had seized all the stores that would supply the imminent expedition to Ireland and the King's attempt to gain the depot at Hull had failed. Painting the Heavy infantry brigades in this manner would have taken much too long but for this lone unit I could take it.

Heavy Infantry

This is four of the six infantry brigades I have

finished so far. I need 11 of these. Also, my gaming buddy Foppa has gotten figures to paint a brigade of his own. I have started to attach the flags as well, I like the result!

Dragoons

I painted some dragoons yesterday evening, with horses on the base. At first I planned to skip the horses but it looks good, sets the dragoons apart and is historical (every tenth man was detached to hold the horses). Here´s a picture. Obviously, the bases are not done - I´m still waiting for my game mat to arrive.

Guns and Crew

I haven´t yet figured out how to take good closeups of my artillery, but here´s a shot anyway, until I can do better.

I´ve painted the crew in a civilian style, with mixed colors on clothes and equipment. On some of them, I painted sleeveless buffcoats, on which Devlan Mud (see below) performed very well.

I have two guns per base as I want to have an impression of batteries, not single guns. The crew is too small of course, but more figures would crowd the base and hide the beautiful guns from view.

It was fun to paint the artillery crew as I put a lot more effort on detail compared to the infantry brigades. Next up is basing the guns. I´m still waiting for my game mat to arrive. I want it before I decide on a definitive style of basing.

Devlan Mud

After reading the blog of Ruarigh I today purchased a bottle of Devlan Mud wash by GW. Already tested it a little and like the results. More on that later. Oh, I got a new job today, 6 months as web editor up in Helsingborg. More money to buy Baccus :-)

A Weekend in the Country

I got lots of painting done in the weekend, up at my parents house in the country. I did all six musketeer units I need for Edgehill, some guns and another brigade of heavy infantry. I was very impressed with the Field guns, they looked great. I was less thrilled by the smaller Light guns, I don´t think they look very good at all. Here´s a picture of the guns, sans crew that will be painted next.



I experimented with basing units, starting with some musketeers. I realize it can be done much better, but I´m OK with this look. Perhaps someone reading this blog can offer some advice on how to improve the bases. Take a look at this close up and criticize away!



While waiting for the big order to arrive, which it did last week, I took the opportunity to make a lot of terrain. Hedges and roads are my primary concern, as these are the dominant terrain features for Edgehill. Below is a picture of the roads. They are made of strips of pine wood. I made the wheel tracks by putting Scotch tape over the road and then cutting away what would be the center and sides of the road. Some wood glue, small stones and paint later they looked like this:

Preparations

Another photo of the new figures, all glued to wooden sticks and ready to be sprayed black.



This took all of my evening and the early hours of the night to do. But I managed to paint a new brigade as well, this time some greycoats.

Why Edgehill?

I wanted to write something about why I´ve decided to do Edgehill as the first step of my project. At first my plan was to acquire enough miniatures and terrain to be able to play both Edgehill and 1st Newbury. Later I had to reduce my goal to just Edgehill. The reasons are:

1) Musket & Pike: TACW has five battles, of these only Edgehill and 1st Newbury are half mappers. To be able to play the larger maps I would require a larger game mat, more table space, or use smaller hexes.

2) Terrain. Edgehill is the battle with the least amount of terrain. The field is also flat. This is why 1st Newbury has to wait a while, to do the terrain required for that battle will be a lot trickier.

3) Numbers. Edgehill has relatively few units, especially cavalry is not so plentiful as in later battles. To play Edgehill I need a total of 11 Heavy Infantry Brigades (the double hexers), 7 units of Dragoons, 6 units of Commanded Musketeers, 1 Light Infantry unit, 20 units of Horse and at least 12 mounted Leaders (three Wing Commanders per side, one Army Commander per side, and their replacements). I almost forgot Artillery, of this I need 1 battery of Falcons, 2 batteriers of Sakers and 1 battery of Culverins.

4) Edgehill for Musket & Pike is well known as a fun, balanced scenario that can be played in a reasonable amount of time.

New Baccus figs arrived

I´m happy like a kid in some kind of a store! Yesterday my big order from Baccus arrived. All the infantry, dragoons and artillery I need. Plus some flags. These are just some of the figures, after they´ve been cleared of cast.



I have declared October to be infantry painting month, November is cavalry month. As I said before, in the last weekend of November I need to be finished for the gaming convention in Helsingborg (just opposite the Sound from Elsenore, of Hamlet fame).

Yesterday I also finished a game of Edgehill versus one of my gaming friends, Peter aka Foppa. It was one of the most exciting games of M&P I´ve ever had. I was on the way of winning when I made a terrible mistake and lost King Charles! Here is a picture of the situation in the center, late in the game:

New Brigade Painted

After the first experimental unit I started painting a new one, this time in blue uniform. It went a lot faster and the result was also better, so I am quite happy with them. To play Edgehill I need 11 of these units, 6 for Parliament and 5 for the Royalists. For the next brigade I´m considering removing the two drummers from the first line and replace them with pikemen. Here´s a photo:

First painted figs

(This and previous posts are backlogged history, the project has moved forward since. I want to document my steps for my own benefit. Soon my posts will catch up with my actual progress and the blog will see more "live updates". I also want to take this opportunity to apologize for bad language, English is not my native language)

After I had settled on a map solution I went ahead with the actual painting of the miniatures. Apart from Epic 10 or 15 years ago I have never painted any 6mm at all. Here is the result of my first experimental brigade.



I made many mistakes, I painted slow and quite clumsily. Lessons learned:
1) Glue figures to wooden sticks
2) Paint a whole brigade at one time. (In my case 8 Musketeer stands, 3 Pikemen stands and 1 command stand).
3) Use bright colors and paint adjacent fields in contrasting colors (these I also picked up on forums, but their wisdom only became apparent to me when I started to paint myself).

The Map

The first issue was the map, so that I had something to put my new 6mm figures on and play. This is how the Edgehill map looks like in TACW (picture above from Vassal-module) with the opposing forces setup. Click the picture for a larger version.

My initial plan was to simply scan and print out the regular game map at 200 percent and play on that. But this felt a bit silly and I do want some terrain so some other way had to be found. I then turned my attention to terrain maker systems such as GHQ:s. But their hexes are too big, 10 cm across. I would need hundreds of them to play even small battles such as Edgehill above. Too costly.

Then I found, through a forum, Hotz Mats. They produce felt game mats with preprinted hexes. Perfect for my needs. I quickly ordered a mat with 1,5 inch hexes. After a while I realized that 2 inch hexes would be better and changed my order to a mat with 1,5 inch hexes on side and 2 inch hexes on the other.

As you can see on the picture above, the heavy infantry is formed into double hex counters. These big formations are my favorites. Here´s a closer look at them (picture from BGG):
















My project will be centered around the requirements of these big units. The space these occupy will determine how everything else will look.