The Man Cave

10 December 2017

Fighting Sail action ahoy!

A squadron of Royal Navy 6th Rates

A fun night last week playing Fighting Sail with Comrade James, Colonel Bish and the Canberra boys.

Admiral Comrade James in action!

I enjoyed the rules, which are quite abstracted when compared to most other Napoleonic naval games. All the usual chain vs grape vs shot options and tracking of hull and crew points etc are all missing. Instead, they are abstracted to enable players to take charge of multiple ships easily without bogging down play.

As a result, I felt like a Commodore fighting a squadron, letting the ship Captains fight their ships. We managed to play a 3 v 3 and a 2 v 2 game all in an evening. Great fun!

Fire as she bears!

A lovely Langton ship under French colours with ratlines and rigging

British Squadron of 3rd Rate Ships of the Line deploy smartly in formation

All these lovely ships belong to the other players, but they have given me some inspiration to break these out during the upcoming painting challenge. Long have they daunted me..

Other inspiration from around the www:

http://furphy1914.blogspot.com.au/search/label/1%2F1200%20Langton%20Miniatures%20Napoleonic%20Sailing%20Ships%20.

http://volsminiatures.blogspot.com.au/search/label/1%3A1200
http://volsminiatures.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/rory-mccreadies-step-by-step-guide-to.html

http://jwhitegallery.blogspot.com.au/search/label/1%2F1200

http://squadpainter.blogspot.com.au/search/label/1%3A1200

http://www.sweetwater-forum.de/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=3263

30 November 2017

The Fighting Retreat to Dusters' Drift

Our Colonial game this week was a LOT of fun! It saw a British Column, led by the 3rd Foot & Mouth Regiment (Major Backsight commanding) conducting a fighting retreat to the small logistics base at Dusters' Drift. Opposing them were the Impis of Zulu noble Oomagooglies (the Zulu King's cousin twice removed, on his mother' side)

I've done something a bit different and stitched together a video BatRep:

27 November 2017

"We come on the Orders of the Great White Queen!"

My Imperial Force

As promised, here is the British and Boer forces for the Zulu war. The British Cavalry bore the worst of the damage to their lances and swords but otherwise this whole thing is a testament to the wonderful Testors' dullcoat - and always use two coats!

The lad helped me build this - my first wargaming video. Its a but self indulgent but it was fun to make

For those who prefer stills, here are the key ones.

24th Foot: The Thin Red Line

The 60th Rifles

Stout lads of the Naval Brigade - with Gatling Gun!

Fire support of the Royal Artillery

Breach loading 9pdr - note the VC on the right most figure (painted on during a game in which this gun, down to the last man, held off and then broke the last Zulu Regiment to claim the day!)

British Cavalry - 17th Lancers and Hussars

Boer Irregulars

Hoping to get them onto a table for some action shortly!

Lord Chelmsford and the senior staff

25 November 2017

"Why do you come to the Land of the Zulu?"

Massed warriors (around 350 of them)- how a Zulu Impi should look!

This is a post some 24 years in the making! Some time ago I quite enjoyed Colonial gaming and the Zulu War was my conflict of choice. Some mates and I put together armies in 15mm and had a great time. Early in 1994 I had a major life change and the figs were packed away. I've since moved house some 18 times and the figs have remained unopened; the awful noises that came from the box made me shy away. Then last week when there was interest at the club abut doing some Colonial gaming and I realised I (might) have all the figures. Depending on how they fared at least.

Here is what greeted me once I plucked up the courage to open the Zulu Box...