Some cool stuff

Here is a cool thing that I found in the National Archives while doing my research. Its a schematic for some sort of still. I don't know what its for. there doesn't seem to be any documents around it that describe its function. It looks like its for distilling some substance that is stored in a tank under ground. I found this in a box of treasury documents. Judging by the age of the documents around it, its from 1770.

Anyone out there have any guesses as to what it is or what its for? I'm not using it in my dissertation, but I am curious about it.

Some Naked Capitalism

This isn't this weeks main blog post, but I have decided to sell me painted wab ancient German army. Don't worry, I'm still heavily invested in barbarians. Back in the US I have 12lbs. of unpainted ancient German figures. I'm getting rid of these in the interest of space and that they are more useful to me as cash rather than sitting in my case. I cant say I'm terribly fond of the WAB rules either. Warhammer isn't as much fun without the dragons and magic. Also I figured out that I will never paint enough Germans to have a decent army. This collection here represents around two years of work and only comes to around a 1000 points. Onward and upward. Its time for some new projects.

Here's a picture of the whole army.

Here is a link to the ad on the miniatures page. I would like £450 but I will accept all reasonable offers. you can see the full details in the ad.

This type of post will not happen often. This is just a big sale and I want to make sure I get all the offers I can.

In Medieval Russia, figures paint you!

Here are two units from my new 10mm Medieval Russian army for the Warmaster Medieval campaign that's starting up at the club. These figures are Kallistra with a few leftover Irregular and Pendraken mixed in for flavour. I really like the Kalistra Medievals, but they are huge! They are much taller than Pendraken and dwarf Irregular.

I tried to paint these a little brighter than usual. I think it went a little overboard on the blue. I'll have to tone it down on the next batch.

Over all, I have 7 units finished with another 8 to go to make 1000 points.

The Horsemen are Coming Nearer...

Here is a shot of my newly completed 10mm Arab cavalry. The figures are by Iregular miniatures and are based for Warmaster ancients. I'm going count these as Bedouin cavalry.

These have been painted using the technique already mentioned in my previous post on this army. I broke from tradition a little by basing them three figures to a stand. Usually, cavalry are based four to a base. I did this for two reasons. First is that I am a poor student, and I need to get as many points per dollar/pound as possible. Second, I think it looks better to have my Bedouin cavalry in a more “Irregular” formation. I think this basing better reflects their fighting style, as well as adding two more units than I would not have had if I had based them four to a base.

Stay tuned for a few shots of a Warmaster game I played this Thurday.

10mm Jihad

Here's a picture of my new project, a 10mm Warmaster ancients army. These are the first five units of what hopefully will be a 200 point army. The miniatures are made by Irregular miniatures and are some of the best 10mm ancients that I have had the pleasure of painting. I was somewhat apprehensive of ordering the from irregular, since the painted pictures of tehr miniatures are all pretty bad. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the figures. The pictures on irregulars website truly don't do them justice. The details are crisp and the cats are very clean. I really appreciate that irregulars 10mm figures are so well proportioned. From my experience 10mm historicals tend to be a bit big-headed for my tastes.

These figures are a departure from my normal painting technique. I'm usually a die hard black primer guy, but this time I primed these figures white and used thinned down paints that acted as semi washes. I finished them all off with a half thinned coat of GW Devlan Mud. I'm rather pleased with the effect. I'm especially happy with how fast it was. I finished these units in a short afternoon. Next up is a large block of Arab cavalry.

Two Countries Separated by a Common Hobby

My French line troopers just before they were gunned down.

A crusades DBM game. I wish I would have gotten more closeup pictures.

I finally remembered to bring my camera to club night. Here are a few highlights of last weeks meeting of the Durham Wargames Group. I was really pleased that Durham had such a robust gaming community. All the club members are a great bunch of guys and the clubhouse is packed to the gills with terrain.

I played (technically I'm still plaing it) a game of Sharp's Practice(SP). SP is a blackpowder skirmish game that is about the same number of figures that an average game of 40k. There were three players a side, each getting about two units of troops. Our objective was to take the fort pictured above. I was playing the French. I failed.

I'm not sure how I feel about the rules. On one hand I'm a big fan of rules that use card driven activation and random movement such as the Sword and the Flame. On the other hand, it just doesn't feel right when Sharp's Practice does it. I think the difference lies in how SP does its unit activation. TSATF uses a simple mechanic where black cards are natives, red cards are British. It doesn't matter what unit a player moves, so long a unit doesn't move twice before every other unit moves. SP assigns a specific card to each unit. The deck is shuffled and units act as they are drawn. In addition there is a 'tiffin' card that immediately ends the turn and reshuffles the deck. Units that have not acted when the tiffin is drawn can select from a limited list of actions, but may not move. I feel that this mechanic puts too much randomness in the game and makes it a bit too hard to plan for my taste. It also make multiplayer games a bit dull, since a player can go a few turns without doing any meaningful actions, particularly at the beginning of the game. The rest of the mechanics are pretty standard and really are not not worth mentioning. I was really excited to play a Two Fat Lardies game. Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed.

Id like to take the time now to share some of my observation on the differences between American and British wargming. I have noticed that there are some definite cultural differences between the two countries. Not that I cannot speak for both countries as a whole. I'm mearly stating my observations, having gamed in Durham and Pennsylvania. I feel that I am reasonably qualified to comment, since I have gamed in several clubs, groups, and stores on both sides of the pond.

1. Game size: I have noticed that the British tend to like bigger multiplayer games. I credit this it the fact that the centre of British gaming culture is the private club , rather than the FLGS. The British love to have loads of lead on the table, while Americans want a smaller relatively quick game that they can set up, play and pack up in an evening because their main gaming venues have a definite closing time. Even when Americans play in a club, where they could keep something setup from week to week, they choose to play a one evening game.

2. Rulesets: It seems like Americans prefer lighter, faster rulesets that are a little less detailed, whereas the British prefer slower more detailed and accurate historical reulsets. Of course, the major, rulesets like DBM and WAB are common in both countries.

3. Genre: It seems to me that a lot more adult gamers in America play Sci-fi and Fantasy rulesets. The historical rulesets that Americans play tend to be lighter ones closer to fantasy rulesets than serious simulation. The British, on the other hand, play rulesets that are more 'granular' and by extension, slower.

Note that these are my opinions, and like a certain part of the human anatomy, everone has one. I may revise these as I game more in the UK. I just thought people might be interested in the viewpoint of someone who has lived and gamed in both countries.

Stay tuned for WIP progress pictures of my girlfriend's super secret valentines day gift.