Mexican Infantry #3

At long last I have finished all my units for the Ayton game in May. Now I can get back to my Napoleonics!

Again, these are individually based on pennies, good value you get 100 for a pound! Again I have created sabots  with magnetic material on the bottom and steel paper on the top. They can move around on the sabots or individually at pleasure. Above all it makes them safe-ish during transport.

I had a bit move fun with these, I gave this last regiment three different helmet patches: a skull and cross bones, red/white diagonals and a yellow flaming grenade on a green background. The smaller unit (six figures) is to bulk out the very first regiment to 36 figures.

Whitley Bay Wargames Club

This club was formed a few weeks ago and is a short drive from my house, we meet on a Tuesday from 6:30-10:00pm. There are usually a few games on offer, last night I played Sails of Glory with Lawrence and Steve who guided me through a couple of games.

The other games included a Samurai skirmish game, a Zombicide game, and a Seven Seas pirate skirmish game (which reminds me I really should paint up my 28mm smugglers and HM revenue men).

The game was reasonably fast and furious, similar in some respects to Wings of War in the sense that secret cards are used for movement. There the resemblance ends as there is a lot more book keeping involved as your ship takes hits on the hull and crew. Some very nice counters placed on boards are used to track damage control, each ship can do only so many actions and these drop off as you take hits. In addition you must also keep track of the wind in the age of sail! A couple of times I found my ship had lost the wind and was more or less dead in water for a couple of card moves.

Steve kindly acted as a coach for me as I captained a french ship while Lawrence commanded the British ship. We each managed a a couple of broadsides and some minor volleys, over the course of the game I lost a mast and towards the end I received a couple of leaks. This can be fixed but with losing so many crew I could not reload fast enough, so it was either quit the fight and sail away or sink! Very enjoyable but would take a few games for me to become familiar with the rules.

I took a couple of pictures at setup but was that engrossed in the game I forgot to take any more! The models come with the game are very elegant and there was a mixture of small nippy vessels to large ships of the line capable of devastating broadsides but lacking maneuverability.

Mexican Infantry #2

These are OG British Boer war figures (CBB03 advancing) 36 figures to a unit, the big difference between these and any other battalion I've painted is that they are individually based. I felt basing them in groups of six was maybe a bit too Napoleonic in style. However, as you can see further down I've left my options open and have made six bases each accommodating six figures - basically each base is a sandwich of metal on one side (for the figures to stick on) and magnetic material the other side so it fits safely in the storage box for transportation. I got the idea from World2Dave, who is using a similar scheme but he has added sand and other basing materials to his - I've just left mine painted plain brown. They are quite drab uniforms but that is the effect I was after - they are brightened up a bit by the flash/badge on the left side of the helmet. They all have the same badge but the next unit will have a mixture.

At least this way I can use these figures for Sharp Practice if I get the chance! Just one more battalion to do then I'm done!

More Mexican command bases

Finished off the last two command bases for my Mexican army. The chap with a lance and all by himself is for a special pre-game interlude. We are going pig sticking! the rules seem fairly simple and fun from a first read. Basically each player has a figure either mounted or on foot using either a lance or pistol. Several markers denote the presence of a pig. Once the players miniature is within close range a dice is thrown to reveal a piglet, sow or a boar. Rules then govern 'combat' with either the player or the piglet winning! Points are awarded for the number of pigs killed, collecting points is not much use if your chap is wounded or gored to death by an angry piggy.

The main command base of my character General Diaz.