That Dreadnought Moment....

The first of the all big gun battleships - H.M.S. Dreadnought 

On the 10th of February 1906 H.M.S. Dreadnought was launched and in one fell swoop rendered all other battleships currently in service obsolete. Although not quite as historically significant I enjoyed my own personal H.M.S. Dreadnought moment yesterday. The arrival of my WoFun 28mm ECW starter set has been the the most significant thing in my personal Wargames journey since I first set foot in the New Model Army Limited way back in the 1970s. For me it has rendered all my conventional figure based gaming aspirations obsolete.

How is that for over the top dramatic impact?

Seriously though, it has really given me much to think about and has served to hasten a decision I had more or less already made and have been obliquely mentioning in the last few blog posts. 

My decision is more evolutionary than revolutionary and involves what is for me the ongoing issue I have with painting Wargame figures. Therefore, and this point on, I am not going to bother, unless it is for something very low level - man to man skirmishes or something like Space Hulk or Heroquest. Naturally ships or anything non organic is exempt from this as I enjoy both basic scratch building and painting the results thereof. 

Simply put then, no more painted wargames armies will be produced by me (no great loss there since the last ‘army’ I painted was a 15mm DBA Ancient Numidian army using Essex figures roughly 20 years ago, give or take!) so Elvis has well and truly left the building!

No more time spent on trying to justify calling a collection of three dozen figures an army, no more time spent looking through figure catalogues or ruing the one key figure missing from x companies range, no more poring down long lists of paints and wondering about the merits of gloss/matt/satin/acrylic/enamel/oil or anything else. No more worrying about flocking, filling, shading, washing, highlighting and varnishing and spending hours painting bases etc.

For those that enjoy the collection and painting of figures I have nothing but respect and admiration but simply put, I do not.

From now on if I want a visually appealing spectacle of a game I will use Wofun - pure and simple. The block armies will have their place as will the board games but for a tabletop battle with massed armies it will be WoFun. Personally fielding an army painted by Peter Dennis is no bad thing - he can do it far better than I ever could!

Levity aside, this is a really big deal for me because, to be frank, I have been wedded to the idea of using figures for as long as I can remember so cutting them out entirely, despite really not enjoying that part of the gaming process, has been a surprisingly difficult call to make.

Wofun has given me a really viable alternative to the use of figures and it is one that I intend to embrace as fully as I am able.

On the face of it it probably seems expensive and for sure, a look on the website shows some fairly hefty looking price tags. However, consider this, The 28mm ECW starter set is Euro 117 plus Euro 32 for the bases. Call it Euro 150 for convenience. For that you get 4 x 48 figures infantry regiments, 2 x 54 figure cavalry regiments, 8 x guns, 32 x gunners and 16 assorted mounted command, 17 if you include Prince Rupert’s dog....

A stirring scene indeed. Fifteen sprues worth of 28mm Landsknechts. These are from the collection of Andy Callan and the picture is used with his permission for which my grateful thanks are given. Andy assembled this lot over the course of yesterday afternoon....

Taking an average box of 28mm plastic infantry with 40 figures as an example one would expect to pay around GBP 20 a box. So £100 would get you 200 infantry. So far so good. Add, say 10 boxes of cavalry to give you some mounted commanders and a couple of boxes of artillery and you could easily get to getting on for some GBP 300 not including bases (unless you used those provided) and you still have to paint them. Allow for the paints, scenic materials and the time to ready them for action and then think about just how much that army has really cost. Naturally this is offset by the enjoyment factor which varies from person to person. The essential thing is, however you slice and dice it, WoFun is actually not that expensive overall but obviously is still a sizeable investment for anyone. It is also ready to use on the table top in an incredibly short time.

You could say that I am comparing apples with oranges and up to a point I would agree but the essential truth is that this is a viable way of fielding meaningful looking armies on a table top - in a way that would add bulk and substance to such things as Command and Colours or Portable Wargame style battles. Representing a C and C block or a Portable Wargame strength point with a single figure or a base of figures is not a new idea and is certainly effective. A WoFun base typically has 8 foot or 6 mounted figures which really adds substance if you are using them on a ‘one base equals one block/point’ basis.

In a way I am very fortunate in that I am not heavily invested in any particular scale of figure so making the leap into a new style of gaming representation is probably easier for me than for many. Certainly if I had sizeable collections of traditional figures I may not be quite so gung ho.

For now there are many things for me to consider. I want to add to the ECW collection for completeness and so am getting an order together. I will look at another period to use WoFun for and I am also looking at adding to the block armies. I also need to think about disposing of those figures that I do have in order to finance the new additions. Terrain will need to be addressed so I will have a think about that along with the rules I will be using for the ECW.

On a separate note work has resumed on the two Confederate ironclads and so the build of these should be completed tomorrow. Whilst they are being painted I will be building the Union Monitors and in the meantime a new order has gone into Warbases for the next phase.

It has been an eventful couple of days for sure but I finally feel as though I have found my particular niche.

Let the games commence!

Oh WoFun we had!

In all its glory - 4 x 48 figure foot regiments (using one pike to two shot), 2 x 18 figure cavalry units, 6 guns and crews and a selection of 8 command style bases/personalities. 

The centre of the formation - the guns will work for either side and I need to assemble them a little more securely as currently they are a little on the flimsy side (MDF)

Prince Rupert (yes, he has his dog with him!) and the Cavaliers

A red regiment or New Model Army foot in the background and a mass of Cuirassiers (they should have been Ironsides but were in the box by mistake)

This was definitely not the post I thought I would be writing but in a way it is relevant to it! Aside from sealing the sole Confederate casemate ironclad I had built today has been taken up with work and some time with a new arrival to the collection. This particular new arrival is something of profound significance for me - mainly due to its relevance with the content of the as yet to published other blog post!

Today I took delivery of a 28mm scale WoFun English Civil war starter set - the entire contents of the box you see in the rather glorious series of pictures at the head of this post.

It probably took me around an hour to get this lot assembled and posed for the pictures. That is from the box to the table. Let that sink in for a moment.

The figures are die cut so all one has to do is to pop them out and place them in a base - it really is that simple. The artillery needs a little work and needs to be glued together really as they are a little on the flimsy side. A couple of the figures had cracked but Lucian at Wofun (actually Mr WoFun himself) will happily replace then as well as the incorrect cavalry I received. I learned early on that it is possible to break the sprue around the figure which makes it even easier to get them out (not that it is had in any event) and when placing the figure in a base to lightly sand the locating lug at the figure base for an easier fit and apply the pressure only on the figure where the jug is. It is really easy though.

A really important consideration with these is that the table footprint is very small. The 28mm range uses a base of 40mm by 30mm and typically has two rows of figures - 8 foot and 6 mounted. You really get a good mass effect using this system and for me it means that you can fit four bases of figures in a 4” hex.

For rules I have a number of options and I know that there are a couple of good Portable Wargame variants, Neil Thomas and his One Hour Wargames, Andy Callan’s rules that come with the set or indeed, many others that I will need to explore - which will be fun.

The first time I saw the paper soldier range by Peter Dennis at Salute a few years ago (Andy Callan was in the chair running a very nice looking WSS game using them) - which are the descendants and contemporaries of the WoFun range I was really intrigued but never really fancied cutting them out and, to be honest, was concerned about the longevity of them. When WoFun starting producing essentially the same thing except on acrylic I was even more intrigued.

Andy Callan very kindly sent me a few Jacobite samples that have appeared previously on the blog and this served to raise my interest to infinity and beyond! I will not bore you with how this acquisition came about but suffice it to say I am extremely pleased with this entry level set up.

This concept is an absolute game changer for me. I do not have to think about painting figures and all of the associated mental baggage I seem to have with that particular facet of our hobby. Now I can plan, research and game in a visually impressive way - with Peter Dennis artwork as well!

Why the ECW? Well, this is a period of history that is one of those I have always liked the look of but had no inclination to raise any armies for it - the painting issue once again. I have kept a small selection of books about the period for many years and of course, Nick Lipscombe’s latest atlas has served to bring the  whole thing to a head of steam. To be honest, it is the difference that attracted me - the difference from anything else I have been gaming over recent years.

Will I expand the collection? Absolutely! Will I look at other periods from the same manufacturer (the Spanish Armada is coming as well as the War of the Roses)? Hell yes! Will I ever buy anymore figures to torment myself and bore the life out of you when I go on about hating painting? Nope, not anymore!

Block armies, board games and Wofun are the way forward for me now - that and scratch built warships, which I shall be back with tomorrow.

All in all then, it has been a very good day!

My grateful thanks to Andy Callan for ‘showing me the way’.

The First of a Dozen or So

Pretty much at the final pre painting stage the flagship of the Confederate Blackwater River Fleet

This was not the post I had intended writing but I was feeling so chuffed with myself I thought I would share the feeling with you all!

Pictured above is the first of a dozen models I am looking to build for the ACW project. This is the large Confederate casemate ironclad and she will be accompanied by a pair of smaller versions which will be next. I used the large MDF hull template - 5” x 1 1/4” - with the casemate made from craft sticks over a Jenga block former. The gunports are plastic card and the funnel is a piece of dowel rod. I have used a circular 10mm MDF base (3mm thick) for the cupola/pilot house.  Both the funnel and the cupola are not fixed in place yet to help with the painting. The next step will be to seal the model and then I can get to work on the painting.

I had forgotten just how much fun ship building is but it did take me a while to get back into the groove and to remember some forgotten tricks from yesteryear.

As it stands at the moment I plan to build a dozen ships in all for this project before moving on to the next lot which will be more ocean going in its outlook.

MDeFinitely Tackling the ACW - Again!

The tools of the trade and yes, the model you see under construction really is 5” long....

 As you would have seen in my previous post I have had a play around with some further designs which are now with Warbases. The version posted yesterday had a couple of changes applied to it - the central battery portion was rather too central so I moved it along a 1/4” and it made a lot of difference. The one thing that I have a found a real challenge is avoiding following a particular design too closely. There are many variations of this type of warship so I wanted to strike an average. I have really enjoyed the process and am looking forward to tackling them for some large scale ironclads action.

A very useful Osprey hardback by the prolific Angus Konstam. The title includes the Vanguard titles Union Monitor and Confederate Ironclad as well as the Campaign title on Hampton Roads.

In the meantime though, there is the ACW. Again, this will not be strictly accurate but I wanted to field representative forces for both sides and now that I have the turret issue tackled first up would be Monitors. Actually I decided to tackle the Confederate casemate ironclads first of all, mainly because they are rather more work to build than the Monitors will be.

For this stage I shall be building six ships. The Union will get a double turreted Monitor and two smaller single turreted versions. The Confederates will be getting a large Casemate Ironclad and two smaller versions. I will then build another half a dozen models that can serve for both sides as required - generic looking vessels based on whatever takes my fancy and is easy enough to build!

The ACW games I am planning will be hex based and I have a copy of the playing mat sold by Peter Pig for their very successful Hammerin’ Iron ACW naval system. I don’t why but I got into my head that the hexes were 5.5” across the flat sides - hence my opting to a 5” hull size - when in actual fact they are 4.5”!

It measles there will be a little overhang on the hex but it will not be too serious. When I start making ships with a bowsprit it may be a different matter but I will fall off that particular bridge when I get to it.

By way of some advance warning my next post will be fairly significant - well for me anyway - as I have decided on a course of action that I really should have addressed years ago.

More to follow next time....

Naval Plans? MDeFinitely!

“I have a cunning plan....” 

It has been a fairly productive day although not quite in the way that I would have chosen! I was hoping to get a game in but a combination of circumstances put paid to that but I have managed to make some progress with my naval plans as well moving the block armies along.

I rather like the idea of building some assorted ironclad types that could be used on an ‘imagi-navy’ basis so not following a specific historical fleet. The ships I am planning will be based on the templates you see in the picture above but I would draw your attention to the next shapes I shall be looking to get cut out - if possible - from Warbases. Although not showing on the diagram above I am also looking to get versions of the full length hull section (A above) with holes pre drilled for masts.

Drawing around the hull shapes that I have - specifically the large one in this case that is 5” x 1 1/4” - I have carefully marked out the shapes that I am after. The naval gamers amongst you will no doubt recognise the hull form (the shapes I want are in bold print) and so with a couple of layers of this on top of a plain hull will give the appropriate look for a central battery style ship.

It is worth mentioning that these models will not be super detailed and historically accurate per se; rather I am looking to model the type of ship so that on the tabletop it will be recognisable as such.

I have several ideas along similar lines and will share them as I get them on paper.

Blocks and Counters with Lashings of MDF

Ready to go....

....as is this!

 Although I had the day off on Monday for my birthday the days since then have been busy, busy, busy! Work has been pretty demanding although working from home has saved me a huge amount of time and money with the commute. Working in what is essentially a sales role means that although technically I am part time the reality is a little different.

I have to say though, given the way things are at present still being in a job is preferable to the alternative!

I have managed to get some things done though as well as the inevitable thinking that I seem to get as much fun out of as anything in the real world. Two of my recent acquisitions - Jacobite Rising and Conflict of Heroes: Guadalcanal are ready for action. For the former it meant punching out terrain tiles and counters, sorting the cards into three decks - command, Jacobite and Government - and lost of labelling of blocks. It was all easy to do but it did take a while. Conflict of Heroes was very easy indeed as there are only 175 large counters - all of which were individually die cut - and they fairly fell out of the card surround. I reckon that took me around ten minutes in total.

It did strike me though at much better production values are for board games these days compared to back in the late 1970s. 

With both the above games ready to roll I will try and get one played over the weekend - it is about time I got a game in after all the hours spent sorting and packing I have spent recently.

The latest title from Nick Lipscombe - his Peninsular War atlas is also a cracking good tome!

A sample of one of the battle maps contained therein

The book you see above came about as the result of part of the Amazon gift cards I received for my birthday. It is unbelievably good and for a variety of reasons will be being used rather a lot in the coming months - I will say no more but suffice it to say NO plastic or metal figures will be involved....

The Rayleigh shipyard just waiting for the creative juices to spawn forth a winning idea or two!

I sat down and had a play around with various pieces of wood and the new MDF pieces I acquired - just to experiment really - and I already have in mind some ideas for my first few ships for the ACW. Naturally as I now have turrets some monitors will appear! Aside from the ACW I really like the idea of messing about with some assorted ironclads and am even looking at the potential of the Pacific War as well as something ‘imagi-navy’ ish.

A great campaign to tackle from the naval perspective as the numbers involved are modest. Besides, there is always the Huascar....

I have also been looking long and hard at my block armies that have sat idle for some time now. I really want to use them again as I seem to be in one of my periodic ‘anti-figure’ modes at present. I keep looking at various battle maps and transplanting them into 3D affairs with model terrain and blocks on a grid. It works for me and has the attraction of being easy to set up and put down again very easily. Significantly though, my rather belated discovery of the virtues of bespoke MDF has given me a lot to think about in respect of supporting the block armies.

Great thoughts continue to be thunked.....

Rising with the Jacobites

Not from the game but an example of the WoFun range of acrylic pre coloured 2D figures in 28mm

With my mortal aversion to figure painting being legendary the following will probably come as no surprise! For many years I have had a guilty pleasure in the shape of the Jacobite rebellions. I can offer no reason for this - I suppose it appeals to the romantic in me although the era in question was anything but by all accounts. I don’t know why it should have the appeal that it does but, it is what it is and so when I saw that a standalone Command and Colours: Tricorne game covering the rebellions was in the offing I knew I would be very hard pushed to resist it.

So I didn’t - and it arrived today!

I have wanted to game the rebellions for many years but had resigned myself to never doing it using figures simply because painting all that kilted and lace wearing foot was not something I would ever do. 

Not at all.

“There can be only one....

....or maybe not!

The Command and Colours system needs little introduction from me and as such is very straightforward to play. The Tricorne series introduces some army specific cards as well as the usual command cards to that the respective forces are more representative of their historical counterparts. With a game such as this there will be many I am sure that will opt to substitute figures for the blocks but that is not something I am even remotely considering!

To support this self contained standalone project I have a small library of relevant tomes which I shall now be dipping into for some inspiration.

I have only ever been to Scotland on two occasions - both times it was business and based in Edinburgh. In fact one of those visits did not go beyond the airport business park! The other I stayed in the city itself but with no time for sightseeing. Given the way foreign travel is at present it may well be that next year will see me heading north of the border.

No metal figures were harmed during the writing of this post....