Leng Spider

A wonderful new resin model by Fenris games, in 28mm.  Equally at home in a Cultist lair as a summoned horror, or in the wilds of Skull Island!
http://fenrisgames.com/shop#!/FGCW37-Leng-Spider/p/45354373

The Great Game!

If you haven't seen the previous post on this game, check out the setup here: http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2015/03/a-game-of-global-conquest.html

The Battleboard set to go!

The teams were set, the strategies planned out and it was time to set them into motion - who would win? The teams played out 8, one hour turns in two 4 hour sessions.  It was well paced but busy throughout, with a large clock and a team of umpires keeping everyone on track:

The UN: Diplomats in action: coloured vests denote team allegiance

The first few turns the major powers focused on economic development and established free trade agreements. The smaller nations squabbled over the central canal and the non state actor Orange team became a tool of everyone to employ in their bid for their own state.  Machiavelli would have been proud at the amount of double dealing and backstabbing going on!

Then Team Yellow made a bid to garb the whole canal and attacked one of the Blue ships (my team). We then established a cunning plan to beat them down hard which was fun, but rather pointless from a VP perspective.  Once we had destroyed their offensive capability we backed off on them.  Of course, other countries sensed weakness and soon yellow was badly on the ropes having territory carved off everywhere.

VP graph for the second to last turn: Red was clearly going to go for broke against Blue here!

As time came of the last turn, all countries went for the classic 40k style objective rush.  Red was clearly looking to jump onto our island to reduce our VPs for holding it and pip us over the finishing line - this lead to a rapid escalation and the "Battle for the Two Islands"

Red moves into position

And lands a massive invasion party

 We clearly couldn't eliminate the incursion in a ingle turn so returned the favour with paratrooper drops onto their island in turn.  The resulting battle was an excellent demonstration of Mutually Assured Destruction as we wiped each other's Carrier Groups out, but both islands were contested at game end.  This losses chart shows the increase in blue and red losses in the final turn: Major powers wry are bloody!

This is the unit losses graph - as you can see, Yellow became the sick weak member of the herd...

So what was the end result?  The Red/Blue battle while devastating, kept Blue slightly in the lead in VPs at the end of turn 8

And so my Man Cave will now have a new trophy in a suitable place of honour!  I knew I had done well when the Lad said "You were totally Bismarck"

Yes...MORE Figures!

Who doesn't like coming home to such a package...

OK, we really should stop buying lead for a bit now...but I snagged a bulk deal from a nice chap at Bartertown (Hi Dave!) which included not only a full Army Pack but also more dragoons, heavy guns, some tumbrils and carts, and 10 old OOP Baccus buildings with thatched roofs and tudor style walls.

So many goodies...

This brings our collection to 5 full Army packs plus some extras - enough Alan thinks to do Marston Moor.  I may also take some of the foot figs and base them specifically to defend a city in ditches and so on, rather than in normal battlefield order.  Then we can play a siege game or two, maybe even recreate the Battles for Arnescote Castle from the series 'By the Sword Divided' :-)

The lead piles grows, the boys are happy and somewhere the God of Wargaming smiles!

Contemplating ECW Terrain

I've started to cast my eye about for appropriate 6mm terrain - another lovely excuse to spend Hobby money! So what do I think we need? Enough terrain for a 4 x 4 or so sized table, including a river, a few roads, some bridges, and a town or two. First up, Baccus (whose lovely figures we are using) is an easy starting place with this nice village set https://www.baccus6mm.com/catalogue/ScenicItems/BritishBuildings/

Here are some other manufacturers of 6mm Terrain that I've come across:
http://www.scalecreep.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=3723_1504_3289
http://www.levenminiatures.co.uk/general.htm   
Some painted up nicely here:
http://walladvantage2.blogspot.com.au/search/label/6mm%20ECWhttp://www.timecastmodels.co.uk/http://www.jrmini.com/shop/jrmini.phphttp://www.totalbattleminiatures.com/bigbattalions/6mm/pikeandshotte.html   
Curt's nicely painted up granary set here: http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.com/2013/03/product-review-total-battle-miniatures.html

Curt's lovely granary terrain set (Total Battle Miniatures)

While its listed in their Napoleonic rage, Leven Miniatures make a nice fortified Manor House that would do nicely as a Royalist stronghold

Leven's NAP06 - Fortified Manor House from here

Leven also make these fine Tudor Style buildings - can't have an English village without a pub now can we!

GEN11 - Tudor Style Public House

HOU14 - Detached Tudor style house

Dungeon Castings make this nice "House with Tower" as an alternative Manor House (DC-D0118)http://www.dungeoncastings.co.uk/shop/shop.php?action=full&id=531

Total Battle Miniatures also do this fantastic walled town set - very pretty but not sure if I need to drop 65 pounds on it at this stage and instead of buying more functional terrain.  Very shiny though!  Would make a great centrepiece for a Campaign.

The unpainted pics show what you get in better detail I think:

And finally, what kind of Royalist would I be without a good keep or castle to fall back on?  However, my quick look around didn't provide me with the ample options I expected.  I thought for sure there would be many examples of big '5 star' castles like Conwy, Raglan or Caernarfon.  What I'd really like is a nice tower like Donnington (where the battle of Newbury was fought in 1644). 

JR Miniatures' "European Siege Castle"

And finally, some inspiration for baggage/camp elements here (all made with Baccus figures): http://www.tinytintroops.co.uk/Galleries/New_Style/New_Page_02_camp&bag.htm

If you other suggestions or recommendations for us I'd love to hear them!