Back from Huzzah!

Well, Huzzah 2019 is over and, as in years past, it was both exhilarating and exhausting. I picked up Tom my good friend of many decades about 1030 Friday morning. Arriving in south Portland about two hours later, we enjoyed lunch at a local brew pub (a favorite), and later checked in to the hotel.
I was not scheduled for any games on Friday, so most of the remaining afternoon and evening was spent catching up with old friends, both in the main hall and the bar. I've often said this was the most enjoyable part of any convention. I've yet to be proven wrong.

Saturday was a busy day. I had volunteered to help at the registration table from 0900 to 1200 which took up the morning. Afterwards I helped Tom set up his Northwest Frontier game scheduled for the 1400 to 1800 time block. A couple of pictures are shown below:

The photos show the fort held by the British near Chitral. Although it was a near run thing, I think Lt. Hartley and the Brits held.

These photos are various views of the British cantonment at Chitral, and under siege by local tribesmen.

My afternoon was spent with Ross, my Canadian friend, and several others using Ross' Mac Duff rules as we tried to capture a strategic village and wagon train from the forces of Rosmark. We were not quite successful, but it was a lot of fun!

 The above picture shows the opening as we attempted to pull off a surprise attack on the camps of the Rosmark cavalry as they slept. Alas the alertness of the light infantry prevented us from pulling it off. Driving them back, we advanced, but they were quicker and got away!

Tomorrow, I'll finish up with my contribution: The Battle of St. Croix, using the Charge! rules. Stay tuned!

Off to Huzzah!

Off to Huzzah!

The last few days have been a bit hectic. In my last post I mentioned how I had tested the scenario I'm running at Huzzah! this coming Saturday evening. The scenario was good, but the modifications I had tried threw the balance off considerably. Someday I will learn (once again) that tinkering with rules, especially those with a long history, will more likely than not, lead to unintended consequences and usually not for the better. So, it's back to pretty much the original Charge! rules, with only a couple of modifications, none of which should affect the overall game.

The Baron pondering still another instance of his realization that the obvious is all too often so obvious as to be overlooked.

I did mention hectic. One of my other changes had to do with the organization of forces and units. Originally when I started this 54 mm project back in 2015, I organized my troops in the manner outlined in Ken Cliffe's rules, All The King's Men. Those not familiar with these should know that line units were twelve rankers, and two others: a commander and an ensign (or drummer). Lights had six rankers, and two others. While this worked for Charge!, I wanted to get closer to the original organization, which was a command element, and three companies. Depending on the addition, companies were anywhere from 6 to 16 figures, plus command. Size was determined by the type of company. In my version, I've settled on 6-8 men, along with an officer and drummer. But, since most of the units in the American Revolution were comparatively smaller than most European armies of the day, I felt I was on solid ground. It also meant that I was painting up additional officers and drummers, along with a few rankers.

Well, come Saturday, "we'll see..." as my father used to say. My next post will be after Huzzah, along with some pictures. Will the Royalists or the United Province be victorious?

We'll see...

Getting Ready for Huzzah!

Getting Ready For Huzzah!

Here in New England, perhaps the premiere (at least in my opinion) regular convention is Huzzah!, put on by the Maine Historical Wargames Association (MHWA) in mid-May. It's coming up in about three weeks in South Portland, ME. From May 17-19, gamers from both the northeast and nearby Canadian provinces will get together, play games, and renew old friendships (and even make a few new ones!). There will be vendors, raffles, and even a flea market, so you might just pick up a bargain, or better still, find those figures you wanted, but waited too late to get.

This year my contribution is a slightly modified Charge! game, using most of the 54's you've seen in earlier posts. Recent experience, that being a scenario I set up on one of my group's (OCW) regular Thursday evening get together, showed a few things that needed to be changed. Likewise, one rule I hoped to use had to be discarded as it badly unbalanced the game. Others may yet be modified but overall, the concept was sound. 

So, if you go to Huzzah!, stop by and say hello. My game is Saturday evening, starting about 7:00, as the Federated and United Provinces defend against the aggressions of the Royalist Coalition. (Or, the Royalist Coalition, fights a defensive action against the land grabbing provincials who fancy themselves a nation).

Old Guy's Scale!?

"Old Guy's Scale"?

Recently in a tongue-in-cheek response to a comment from an old friend who referred to 54's as an "old guy scale", I pointed out not only the advantages of being an old guy (Dave is probably 20 years younger than I am, and I'm heading for the big 70 in a less than acouple of years). Chief among them is to be fully comfortable in your own persona. It's not likely you'll have to impress others, and it's unlikely you would anyway. Better still is that if you are fortunate enough, and many of us are, you can indulge (somewhat anyway) in most of the things you wanted to do as a kid, but couldn't afford or were legally unable.

So, what's this got to do with 54's? How many of us played with plastic army guys in our childhood? I'm not talking about the GI Joe stuff, but rather the bags you could get at most every toy and Woolworth's in America (and even unlikely ones like some general pharmacies, and news agents). They were all pretty much 54's. The cool ones even had detachable equipment. A lot of stuff wasn't "scale" but our imaginations made up for most of that shortcoming.

(Yes, I know all about Britains, but on this side of the pond, they were expensive and found only in upscale toy stores. In the Boston suburb where I grew up, only the F. A. O. Schwartz in Boston and one or two of the major downtown department stores stocked them with regularity. For me, they were a rare Christmas gift.) 

Now, they're still made of plastic, but the detail is excellent, and they paint up nicely. For those of us whose arms are no longer long enough to read a printed page in normal type without a pair of glasses, this has been a great development

It's all come full circle: from Airfix and Roco Minitanks, to Scruby's, Minifigs, Hinchcliffe, and a slew of others; from 15's and 20's, 25's and 30's, and now finescale 28's.

So I say, let us rejoice in 54's and may their great deeds on the tabletop long continue.

The British Are Coming!

In my last post, I showed some of the Hessians that I had painted up for the AWI. Today we have some British. The units are organized based on troop type and to a somewhat lesser degree, nationality. They have been used with rules such as a modified version of Charge!, All the Kings Men, and Honours of War.
 Of the three, Charge! is my favorite--it just seems right for use with 54's.
Organization is very generic. Regular line are generally 16 figures, consisting of 12 rank and file, an officer commanding, drummer, standard bearer, and the RSM (he's the gentleman "counseling" the fellows in the second rank)
Grenadiers are somewhat smaller, with fewer command figures, and usually no standard bearer. Lights and militia are 6-8 figures with an officer and one other (a musician/NCO).
Guns generally have 4-6 crew depending on the size of the gun, i. e. light, medium, or heavy.

4th Regiment of Foot

Grenadier Battalion

Troops in line, Lights out front.

Another shot of the line along with the artillery

.

The Brigadier, and his aide, Bluebottle.

Random Musings and Bridge Building

Years ago, when I was young and foolish (some would say I still possess one of those traits, and at 68, it's not "young"), there was a commercial radio station in Boston, WCRB, that had a 24 hour classical music format. My tastes in music at that time were, and as they are now, somewhat eclectic. One of the announcers, actually the general manager, presented a program called "WCRB Saturday Night". Much of the material used was from BBC comedy programs. My favorite was a long-running program called "The Goon Show", presented by several master British comedians: Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, and Spike Milligan. This was, to me anyway, radio comedy at its best.

 So what does that have to do with war gaming or playing with toy soldiers? Nothing really.

But it did inspire me to give persona to several plastic generals, aides-de-camp, and faithful servants to those august albeit imaginary characters that haunt my games and in the future, this blog.

Since the last couple of entries have dealt with the Hessians, we'll begin here with their commander, "Graf Ernst von Bloodnoch". The Graf's character was inspired by Peter Sellers character on The Goon Show, Sir Denis Bloodnok, a dashing, somewhat bumbling, and perhaps prototypical Harry Flashman.

The Graf

Finally, I was asked about the bridge. It's made of wooden coffee stirrers, basswood strips, a few twigs from a white pine tree in my yard, and brass nails.

The Hessians are Coming, or, Reinforcements Part 2

As one who has reached that point in life when the 7-Day Weekend becomes reality, I have been able to enjoy spending several hours on any given day pursuing one or more of my hobbies, at least in the winter (golf becomes far too important after that). So, when I am not gaming with my friends, I'm usually painting figures, or running my model railroad. In defense, if any be necessary, I will always quote Mr. Spock from the original Star Trek, who said: "...the more complex the mind, the greater the need for play."  One might try that response the next time one's spouse or significant other comments on one's hobbies. Mine just gently shakes her head or slightly rolls her eyes...but I suppose after 44 years, she's use to my idiosyncrasies.
So, here's a couple of photos of the Hessian Horde, currently occupying Neu Braunsweig. I will be publishing more as the month goes on. The above figures represent the Erbprinz Regiment, post 1780, when they lost their fusilier caps, darkened their facings, and became musketeers. The figures are from ATKM, although the drummer is a modification from the IMEX British Infantry Series, #3208.
This next one is also from ATKM and represents the Hessian Artillery. The gun is from another IMEX set, British Artillery set, #710. I would add here that the AIP artillery would work equally well and is somewhat more extensive.

Next time, we'll look at more Hessians, and the organization of the units.