In Her Majesty's Name II: Getting a game on!

Summer is finished, and with it, thoughts return back indoors of an evening, towards gaming and painting. As can be seen from my *cough* frequent posts over the summer, I have painted a grand total of zero miniatures over the last four months. I have built half of one warjack for Khador, and mostly put together the new warcaster unit for the same faction. An impressive tally, you must admit. I have also gamed twice in that time. Give or take a match that I've forgotten, as it has been a very long summer.

Do not feel sorry for me though, my time away from the gaming tables has been mostly due to travels, spending time with the family and other fun ways to experience life (with a bit of work some evenings, but I don't mind that so much now and again). So, I hear you all ask, what have I done that is worthy of posting here? The short answer is In Her Majesty's Name. I posted on this game recently here, so if you don't know what it is, go on over and look.


The long answer is a little more detailed. One of my oldest, and dearest friends was over in Montreal a week ago. S and I go way back to High School, and have been gaming together, on and off since then. Unfortunately, I now live in Montreal, and he in Brussels. However, we were in the same city as he was over here for work. I think he is having trouble finding gaming close to where he is, so he was keen to make sure we got a game in while he was in town, We had a quick look through what I had ready to go, and settled on IHMN. I of course have the almost a fully painted set of the Society of Thule, and S has a soft spot for Prussians, so it was an easy fit. For my part, I put together a British Rifle Company, pulling together my Dystopian Legions Britannians for the occasion.

The lay of the land

Neither of us had really read through the rules before, but we boh had a copy, and they really are quite simple (roll 1d10, add skill, take off mods, beat target number). We got together, set up the table, and rolled a scenario from those available in the book, as this is a game that really benefits from playing though a scenario. The rules are super simple, but the complexity and variation comes from the depth of personalisation and characterisation you give the members of your company. Wether its through straight forward character traits, super science of indeed magical abilities. All this makes it a game that borders closely on and benefits greatly from role-playing, hence, the scenario was required. We rolled the 'Bad Jack' scenario, but more on that later.


The game was rather slow to start, as we jockeyed for position on the table. We were both rather concentrated on the left flank of the board, with one or two models each on the right flank. Bad Jack, the mutated laboratory experiment stalking both sides that we had to hunt down, started in the centre of the table. One thing we noticed straight away, was that, as both sides were armed with military rifles fo the most part, we were shooting each other from turn one. We could have had more scenery on the table to make this less of an issue. The second thing was that we had both thought from reading the rules that we would be dropping like flies, as after each shot, everyone makes a Pluck roll. One fail and you're out of the game. In reality, it could be relatively easy to hit someone, but we also seemed to be making an inordinate amount of Pluck rolls, which led us to evolve our game play from one of being in cover and hiding, to getting out there and getting on with it. It did mean that what we thought would be a very quick game, took longer that we anticipated.


The making of the Pluck rolls brings me back to Bad Jack. In the rules, he is given a pluck of 2+, this means on an unmodified roll of 1d10, he is only failing on a 1. Indeed, he has talents that increase this even more, and this brings me to the issue that we had with this scenario in particular, and maybe the game in general. It was almost nigh on impossible to bring down Jack, and other minis in general.

Another slight issue we had was the interaction os S's flamethrower, and my armoured walker. However, this has been fixed in the errata, so no need to go on about it here.

One modification  would make to the rules would be with the volley fire rule. This states that models can club together their shooting to bring down heavily armoured targets, which it does. They give bonuses to hit, however, I could have had all my riflemen concentrate fire on Jack, and yes, they would have hit him every time, but they would have no greater chance of actually putting him down than one alone, as they do not actually modify his pluck roll by any more than one rifle would by itself. This goes for more than just the high Pluck models, anyone facing a volley fire, or for that matter an gang in hand-to-hand, should not only be easier to hit, but have a higher chance of taking more damage. Fortunately, this is a set of rules that encourages fiddling to make it work on your own gaming table, so that is what I will do.

In summary, we liked it. It was a lot of fun, and would benefit greatly from the players putting more effort into the scenario design. This time was just to get us to run through the rules, but if I planned another game (once I convince some of the locals to play) then I would sit down before hand and work through a scenario that fits the companies first. And if I were to replay Bad Jack, he would be very much nerfed!

As a final aside, S left me with a present in the form of the rules for Muskets and Tomahawks. A rules set  have been admiring from afar, but avoiding buying the minis for. Now, I really have no excuse not to. Do I? No, I didn't think so!

...off to buy Roger's Rangers and a bunch of Iroquois...

In Her Majesty's Name

One of the things I have always promised myself is that if I were to take a break from blogging, for whatever reason, I would not apologise and make an 'I ain't dead yet" type of post So this post is definitely not one of those. What it is, however, is a draft that has been sitting in my folder for almost a year, waiting to be posted. Well, recent events have conspired for me to finally have a game of In Her Majesty's Name, so I am putting this up here as a prelude, to the post match report of that game. This is not a review of IHMN, there are plenty of those about elsewhere, but it is some of the reasons why I bought the game system. So without further ado, I'll get back to blogging...

Ooh, look!  Shiny!

Whilst I have been very clearly in a steampunk phase of gaming over the last year and a half, what with all these Dystopian Legions models, I was taken by the newest set of rules from Osprey books, In Her Majesy's Name. One of the reasons I bought it was that it is available on amazon.ca, therefore, however much I like and support my FLGS, I don't have to wait any time at all before the book is delivered to my door. It does help that I was ordering another Osprey title, and the fact that this is published in the same size and format to Osprey's other titles was just the icing on the cake for me.

It is 1895, and the world is in turmoil. The Great Powers compete for resources and the latest technology, and an undeclared and secret war rages between them all. This is the battleground of the Adventuring Companies. These clandestine agents of the Great Powers operate in the shadows, matching skills and wits in pursuit of the newest scientific formulae or powerful occult artifacts.

In Her Majesty's Name sets these Adventuring Companies against each other in one-off encounters and in longer narrative campaigns. Companies are usually comprised of 4-15 figures, and two players could easily play three games in an evening. The rules have been designed to allow maximum versatility for the player – if you can imagine it, the system will help you build it. There is, however, a wealth of ready-prepared material covering weird science, mystical powers, and a range of pre-generated Adventuring Companies, including the British Explorers' Club, the Prussian Society of Thule, the U.S. Marine Corps, the Légion Étrangère, the revolutionaries of the Brick Lane Commune, ancient Egyptian cults, and the mysterious Black Dragon Tong.

There are a few things I like about this system. Firstly, it is a skirmish game. I like me some skirmish games me! One of the other things I like is that, although there are a wide range of pre-made factions and builds to choose from, all the points costs for building your own are included (indeed, there's a free pdf here to help with this). This makes it very easy to make new factions, or modify existing ones to match the models already in your collection. To which end, I think it will be relatively easy to make and Adventuring Company to work with my Dystopian legion models, and equally well with the other steampunk minis in my collection, who were, until now gathering dust on the shelf.  Additionally, since the level of steampunk detailing on the minis that are supplied for the game by North Star Minis is relatively low, there is also the opportunity to use historical minis with no problems at all. This opens the door to my Zulu band making the table.

The addition of the horror element to the game, through Prussian zombies, Egyptian mummies and great white apes, is also a fun way to go.

For more information, you can go to the author's blog, where there are pages with bonus material, and IHMN fiction.

In addition, if you are looking for miniature suppliers to go to for steampunk minis, you need go no further than this post on the Dulce et Decorum Est blog, where all the manufacturers are listed.

Trip back to the old Country, Part II

Earlier this month, I had a second trip back to the UK in almost as many months, this time for a happier occasion (more weddings, less funerals, but you'll have to look elsewhere for the pics of all the kilts).

I will however use this picture from my visit. It will of course be clear to you all why this Glaswegian relic of a former age has geek cred.

This time, a much shorter time spent in my parents attic, but with more space in my suitcase. Fortunately I had put things in order on the previous visit, so only had to pick up a couple of boxes and stash them. I also found out that there's a new games cafe opened in Edinburgh, right next door to the flat I sold there not a year ago! Why couldn't that have been there at the same time as me? Anyway, on with the haul.

First off, the things I picked up from storage:

Urban War rules (in magazine form). These were too heavy for the last trip, but with all the UW minis I have brought over, I figured it was time to have the rules to hand. Of course, I have access to pdfs (downloads here), but I do prefer paper versions, despite the space they take up.

Void TAV MKIII resin kit. This is more for Void than for UW, but I do so love the mini, and I intend to use it in some fashion for UW even though I don't think vehicle rules for the game exist (I'm sure it won't be too hard to house rule something). The kit i have differs slightly from the one pictured in the link.

Empire Army. Lastly I picked up 2 boxes of old school WFB minis, mostly metal, with a few plastic pikemen in there for good measure. These will be used for my Bretonnians, and/or Empire, in the case of any local WFB gaming. I say army, but really it's all infantry, as I left my few knights and artillery pieces. There will surely be more pictures of these in the near future, especially as there are some nice oldhammer minis amongst them.

Whilst there, on a quick visit to Static, I also bought:

MacBeth. I have had one eye on SAGA for a while, even going so far as to painting up some Vikings, but the release of a Scots faction, with a leader as infamous as MacBeth at the fore could not be passed up. Of course the real MacBeth and the Shakespearean version are not to be confused, as it seems the original version was actually quite good at the king thing.

Napoleonic British Peninsular war Officers. There's always room for more Napoleonics. I'm sure these can be used to back up various of the rank and file figures I already have, be they riflemen or highlanders. Planned for use in Drums and Shakoes or Sharp Practice.

Highlander Missile Troops (bow and musket). From Warlord, these are kind of multi use,

I also bought and had posted to my parents house, some Prussians from the war of 1866, when North Star were selling off their old stock to make way for new sculpts I think. I'm sure I can put them to good use in something Victoriana, for example, as troops for IHMN. The Jaegers from this batch are already prepped and primed and in the process of being painted, so more on them soon.

A visit to WH Smith's meant I picked up the trio of magazines (Wargames Illustrated, WSS and Miniature Wargames). The first two I can get here, eventually, but the third is not an option. I was less impressed with Minature Wargames this issue (I have only read two issues), as it held less of direct interest to me.

To round out the wargaming related purchases, I picked up another book on Churchill at a discount book store (there's not enough of those over here), this time more on his political career than his military career, but it fit with my other current reading. Be on the lookout for a review of Young Titan soon.

My my, the summer just got a whole lot busier with all this stuff to work through!

Kingdon of Britannia: 91st Highlanders, the Plan!

I finally recieved my two Osprey Men-at-arms books I had ordered from Amazon. I am looking forward to reading through them, and inspiration has already struck on two fronts. Firstly, I have found the scheme I wish to use for my Rocket-Hussars who have been patinenly awaiting a coat of paint, and secondly I have found the scheme I wish to use for my third section of Rifleman. I have decided to go with the 91st Highlanders, as shown on the left hand image on the cover of the book (as well as on the plate inside of course).

Whilst this means I can use the figures supplied by Spartan games without too much modification (no need to go all in for the leg swaps to get kilts) to make Highlanders, I will still need to practice my green-stuff skills in making the fancier pockets on the jacket, and I'll have to modify the cuffs slightly. And yes, this does mean I will have to paint the trews tartan, but that was inevitable. At least I can get away without the head swaps I had initially thought I would have to do, although I am not saying never on this, as the odd glengarry in the unit really makes a difference in feel for the unit, and is another way to set them apart (and get round duplicate miniatures), along with a kilted musician to help the unit out, they really should look the part.

I guess this means the South Essex has been put further down the list, as it'll be a long time before I think I'll need to field three units of Line infantry in a game, unless they get recruited to help out my Gun Section. Afterall, I have already used their colours on my first HMG section, and a sergeant. Seems a bit of a demotion for the mighty South Essex, but what can you do?

Bretonnian Army I

As a side project, I have been raking bits boxes and bothering friends across the city to pull together a 500 point Bretonnian army. The basis of this army, is of course the bag o' archers, with the addition of a bunch of knights, and billmen. Of course GW is evil, and therefore I have no intention of giving them any money at all. To this end, I have ordered and received a box of Perry plastics, and am awaiting a Reaper Sorceress to fill things out.

I have also decided to make my own stakes for my archers, which, let's face it, is hardly the hardest of modelling to do. Literally, take some wooden sticks bought in the dollar store, and attack them with a craft knife. Child play (not that children these days are allowed to play with craft knives). All that remains is some polyfilla mud and a lick of paint and away we go!


Spikey!

I've also put together my first couple of units. The first unit of archers I based on round bases, so I could field them as skirmishers, and use the movement tray I have that fits round bases. The scheme for this unit, and likely the second unit (for whom the stakes will be used) is taken from the uniform of the Burgundians. This also allows me to use them in historical battles, if I ever manage that. I had initially planned for the skirmish unit to be painted in Sherwood green, and consist of a certain English terrorist and his happy compatriots, but that plan may have to await a further unit (which obviously would never fit in a 500 point army, would it?). Anyway, I'm going to burn through the Delvan Mud at this rate, and will have to buy into another wash system soon.

The finished product. Well, Table-top quality anyway. An appropriate leader has yet to be found and painted.

The mascot

Then on to the Men-at-Arms. Unit of 10, ready to be painted. There will be a movement tray of some kind made for these guys before too long, as there will for the second unit of archers. I really like these minis, they're full of character and possibilities. Perry' plastics really are great value for money, and will of course fill the bits box with all the extras included.

Lastly, a command group for the second unit of archers. Including a musician rather than a standard bearer I think, it fits better with a unit of archers.

All that remains is to paint this lot, and put together the knights. I'll be going through my historicals to pull out a Paladin to lead the unit of knights, and the army. I'm sure there are some options there I can use.

Colore ton Monde: April

First off, a few WIP shots of the Samurai I have chosen for this month's Colore ton Monde. I was initially lacking inspiration for this, but the muted/darker base coat with brighter (really bright) highlights seems to be working out better than I imagined.

In the end, it was a rather simple job of watered down base coat, light inking, then highlights.

Then, the final mini. I have not finished the base, as I don't know how I want to base him yet, as along with the other Samurai and oriental figures I own, i have no gaming use for them. As yet. I suppose for him to be 100% complete, I'd have to paint his spear, but I think I'll leave that off for now, for ease of packing.

Colore ton Monde: Avril/April Cleaning up the Clutter.

The results from March's painting challenge are now online (post of my entry here), and can be found here.  Also, this is a call out to anyone who wants to participate. The Club Chaos blog and Colore ton Monde challenge may be based in Montreal, but they are open to anyone who wants to enter. So, if you want to join in, please do!

This month's Colore ton Monde is a play on the spring clean from a year ago:

C'est le printemps, on fait le ménage dans nos vieilles traîneries

Pour le mois d'avril, nous vous invitons à peindre un VIEUX modèle. Fouillez vos tiroirs pour la figurine la plus ancienne de votre collection, ou à défaut, au moins celle que vous possédez depuis le plus longtemps.

It's spring time, time to clean out the clutter.

For the month of April, we invite you to paint an OLD model. Rake around in your drawers for the oldest figure in your collection, or at least one you have had for a long time.

The oldest figures I have in my current collection would be those I brought over with me. These include the starter box for Khador, and Eiryss, which I bought at Claymore a long time ago. Of those, Sorcsha and Eiryss are only half painted. Otherwise, on the same outing, I bought these Samurai. Don't ask me why, I have no gaming use for them, and I didn't the either. It's just an era I'm interested in.

They came as a box of 6, and I don't remember what company made them, but of the 6, 3 are undercoated, and at least one will be painted this month.

So, here we go...

One Year Ago Today

Over on his imaginatively titled blog, 'The Wargaming Site', Phil has started a little meme, by posting a little look back at his blog posts from one year ago. As my blog has now been running for over a year, I too can join in on this little retrospective journey. I have chosen today, as 1 year ago today, I posted not one, not two, but four separate posts. What a binge!

The first was a sneak peak, posted in the morning, as I was in a great rush to post some pics of the minis I had painted the evening before (ah youth!)

Then there was a WIP of my Napoleon vignette. This one has at least been pushed a bit further forward since last year, but is by no means finished. This may indeed be the kick in the pants I need to complete him. Napoleon is all but done (a little finishing on the face), and Roustrum Raza needs quite a bit of work, then on with the base and tidying things up. I could really complete this in an evening if I was motivated.

Later in the day, I posted my painting scheme for the 95th Rifles, partly as a memory aid for myself, partly as information to others. Quite luckily too, as I have never gone back to finish these guys, they are in exactly the same state as they were after this post (with one mini half finished, still stuck to a cork). Coincidentally, this post has also been my top read post. The title may be the reason, as I'm sure it gets much traffic from google searches for that exact phrase. Although I never know of anyone has followed it, as no bugger has ever commented on it in that regard (well, except one Irish Bugger).

Lastly, I posted the actual minis, of the 95th Rifles, along with a little retrospective of why I am invested in the unit, which goes along the same lines as every other gamer's attachment to these guys I'm sure.

So there we have it, another little retrospective look at past blog posts. I'm sure some of which will be new to my more recent followers. Enjoy!

Old Stuff Day

I really like the idea of Old Stuff Day.  Originally the idea of Warhammer 39,999, March the 2nd is a chance to go through the back catalogue of your blog, find a post you feel is under appreciated, for what ever reason, brush it off, and bring it to the attention of your current readership.

Unfortunately, I was not able to blog yesterday, so I'm 1 day out, so sue me!

Ideas for posts that could be used are:

• Posts that you considered special that didn’t receive as much attention as you thought they deserved
• Content that people liked in the past, but haven’t seen recently
• Posts you might have created before your site received much traffic, and now deserve to be reshown
• Or any content you’re particularly proud of!

I think this year, I'll bring to the fore a collection of posts, on the free army I received from a very generous gamer in town. A 25mm army for the Italian Wars. If there are any of the readers who have joined since I first posted these, I'd be very happy if you had any information on the figures or the army.

Infantry 1
Infantry 2
Mounted
Personalities
 
I hope you enjoy this little blast from the past.

As an update to these minis from my end, no, I have not yet managed to game with them, but I have been in touch with some local historical gamers, so it's not impossible that it will come to pass.

Bag o' archers

An impulse buy at my FLGS, and nothing more, but for $5, you really can't go wrong with a bag of 21 plastic archers. I'm pretty certain they're GW Bretonnians although I'm not certain of what vintage. I doubt I'll use them as such, but they would make great longbowmen, for historic use (maybe War of the Roses archers?). Three have been (badly) painted, but I'm sure I can clean that up easily enough. Two of the bows are broken, but again, that should be easily remedied.

Suggestions for what to use them for on a postcard to the usual address.

French & Indian War: Alternative Quebec

Major General James Wolfe

Warlord games have posted an article on wargaming the battle of Quebec, specifically with their supplement for Black Powder, Last Argument of Kings. It includes a historical background for the battle as well as an order of battle and Black Powder stats for both sides. There are then some alternatives for gaming the battle, just to keep things interesting. Lots of options and lots of inspiration. One day I will game this, one day...

Check out the article here.

And for those of you that want a real alternative, Zombie Indians!

Valkyrie I

I get easliy distracted. I am almost finished one project, but a 2 week break from the brushes, a box through the post from Heresy miniatures and oops! Shinybloodyitis is a royal pain in the buttocks.

I went with the 2nd from the left

But when this mini arrived from Heresy, I knew it had to be made into a little vignette. The head on a stick just cries out to be placed on a scenic base. I immediately though of the metal dead trees I bought back in June, and a bunch of little crows I have collected from the Old Witch and my Menoth Wracks. I found a tree that was suitably dead, stuck it on a base and covered it with crows. I had initially though to give the tree some Autumn foliage, and go with an autumnal paint scheme on the Valkyrie, but I don't think I have enough branches on the stump to make this so. I may have to sculpt a small branch or two before going any further. 

Heidi Sigrsdotter, with exrta head

What use is she as a gaming model? That's a good question. To be fair, my actual gaming is so limited recently, an excersise in modelling and painting is enough of an excuse to go with, but let's play the 'what if' game. I have based her on a large (40mm) base, and as such she can be used as a hero/warlord in SAGA. This would of course take my miniature count for SAGA to 2, both of whom are worlords, but I feel this is a moot point, as I think both models are nice little vignettes, and both were a joy to work on. This does mean I will be looking out for some regular viking models to complete the warband to a playable state.

The other day, I posted a bunch of links by accident (I have draft posts of links for various subjects). As this post, sparse as it was, garnered at least 1 comment, I shall repost the links I have collected for my hypothetical viking/Saga force here:

CP models Viking Berserkers

CP models Anglo Danes

CP models Skraelings

Bronze Age Miniatures, have a small but perfectly formed range of Vikings and Picts. Including some nice historical (i.e. not half naked) female Vikings.

Colore ton Monde, July: Fin

So, as I thought, this month's plan was cut short due to visiting family, but a rush finish on the Russian Priest meant that at least I have something to enter. He certainly fits the criteria of a miniature I have never played with (mainly since he was chosen without any particular game in mind).

The base could do with a coat of black round the edge to neaten it up, but I didn't have time to get my brushes out this evening, and I need to send off the pics (I was playing with the camera, more details below).

Not one but two sets of pictures of this guy below the cut. As always, click to enlarge.

Colore ton Monde, July: Backup Plan

Just in case I don't get the Viking vignette completed by the end of the month, I rattled this one up in an evening. The pictures show a couple of points that I'll need to touch up before basing and varnishing, but he pretty much painted himself. Another excuse to use my new method for painting black. I think it comes out well. A dullcote after the varnish should really work to dull down the shinyness of the ink wash. I did try using the new GW medium, but maybe I'm not adding enough. More experimentation required there.

If you hadn't already noticed, this is the Russian Priest free mini I got from The Assault Group.

Colore ton Monde, July: Saga Vikings II

Polyfila and sand, with a bit of water to make the base. Freydis was originally just placed there to make sure the correct size and shape of hole was left for her, with the plan being to remove her for painting. However, the basing agent seems to have stuck her tight, so I waited for it to dry, then gave the whole base a good coating of PVA. The standard bearer still comes off easily, so the two can be separated for undercoating and painting.

As I mentioned previously, the going is slower this month, so I don't know if I'll get this finished in time (we're half way through the month already). I may have to undercoat some of the other single minis I spoke of to make sure I have an entry for July's challenge. A burst of an evening or two should get this one going on the paint though, so fingers crossed.