Friday, November 28, 2008

Some Figures I have Finished Painting Recently

15mm Napoleonic
French Light Cavalry - 12 Figures - 3rd Lancers a Cheval
French Light Cavalry - 12 Figures - 4th Lancers a Cheval
French 6# Artillery - 6 Stands - 6# Horse Batteries
Italian Light Cavalry - 8 Figures - 1st Dragoons
Italian Light Cavalry - 8 Figures - 2nd Dragoons
Italian Guard Infantry - 8 Figures - Chasseurs of the Guard
Saxon Line Infantry - 8 Figures - Prinz Anton Line Infantry Regiment

Hopefully I can get a bunch of stuff done fairly quickly.

Updated Project Priorities

After much discussion, primarily with Fitz but others were involved to, I have set my painting priorities for the winter. I have decided on focusing on two projects; the unending Napoleonics for Napoleon's Battles/1:30 and Seven Year's War in 15mm. Most of the other projects are just going to sit for now. My goal is to get a lot done between now and say Valentine's Day.

For the Seven Years War Project I will be working on my Swedish and some Austrian Allied, mostly the Swedes. And I have determined that I will paint all the figures for this project myself. I will use other resources for the Napoleonics projects I have going.

1) Drottningens Livregemente
Three battalions of figures are cleaned and primed black waiting for me to put paint to brush.
2) Blu Hussarenregiment
I own the figures and they are still in the bag.
3) Gul Hussarenregiment
I own the figures and they are still in the bag.
4) Nylands Dragoon Regiment
I own the figures and they are still in the bag.
5) Hästjägare
I own the figures and they are cleaned and on bases.

For the Napoleonic Period:

Off being painted in Sri Lanka:
· Austrian Cavalry - Archduke Ferdinand’s Hussars
· Austrian Cavalry – Stipsic Hussars
· French Cavalry – 1st Chasseurs a Cheval
· French Cavalry – 6th Dragoons
· French Cavalry – 10th Dragoons
· French Cavalry – 2nd Regiment Guard Lancers “Red Lancers”

Off being painted by Tom Zwirn
· Austrian Infantry – Archduke Karl’s Legion – Prague Students
· Austrian Infantry – Archduke Karl’s Legion – Mahrisch’s Volunteers
· Austrian Infantry – Croatian Inserrecto
· French Infantry – Sailors of the Guard
· French Infantry – Conscript Grenadiers of the Guard

Figures I am working on
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 1
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 2
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 3
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 4
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 5
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 6
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 7
· Italian Light Infantry Regiment 1
· Italian Light Infantry Regiment 2
· Italian Chasseurs a Cheval Regiment 1
· Saxon Line Infantry Regiment Maxmillian (1809)
· Saxon Line Infantry Regiment Frederick (1809)
· Saxon Cavalry – Prinz Clemons Chevauxlegere (1809)
· Saxon Cavalry – Herzog Albert Chevauxlegere (1809)
· Saxon 8# Horse battery (1809)
Many of these figures are primed and have many of the Initial colors painted on them. It is just about doing the detail work.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

More Figures sent to Tom Zwirn Painting Machine

I sent some more figures to Tom Zwirn to get painted.

1. Archduke Karl’s Legion – Prague Students (32 Figures)
2. Archduke Karl’s Legion – Mahrisch’s Volunteers (32 Figures)
3. Croatian Insurrecto (32 Figures)
4. French Sailor’s of the Guard (16 Figures)
5. French Conscript Grenadiers of the Guard (32 Figures)

The downpayment is a pack of Seven Year War Prussian Musketeers (48 Figures) with more packs being sent as soon as they are available.

Hopefully I can make a dent in my stacks of unpainted lead sometime this upcoming year.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Message to the Centurions Mail Group

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who attended Saturday’s Napoleon’s Battles Game at the Levee Café in Hastings. We had eight players (Fitz, Joe, BJ, Crow, Elliot, Dave, Jim and myself), I am fairly certain everyone who attended had a good time and there was a resounding request to do another game soon.

It has been a while since I have organized and run a larger game, we used to do it all the time, but I was too involved in running other events, so some things did not go as smoothly as I would have like. I have learned from it and will attempt to apply those things to the next game.

As I am a problem child when it comes to cameras, Fitz and Joe have provided some pictures of Friday and Saturday's action which once organized and notated will be added to my blog.

We have scheduled another Napoleon’s Battles game for the last weekend in February at the Levee Café. We will be using the 1813 stats and army organizations but instead of using a set scenario will be a little bit more dynamic using a system we talked about to build scenarios. Several of us are fleshing out the system and hope to have the final rules in place shortly.

On Friday Evening, February 27, we will be setting up the Terrain, pulling figures and hopefully doing the first few moves. Than on Saturday the 28th we will be doing the big games. Yes I said games.

Another change is that we hope to be using the Third Edition of Napoleon’s Battles; we have been informed that they should be available starting next week.

Several individuals have asked what they can do to help for the next game. As always painting figures is a big help. If you’d like to volunteer to paint something up and need some help choosing drop me a line and I can point you at several interesting choices.

As always everyone is welcome to come down and play all figures will be provided. However for the event in February there will be a hat for donations to cover the rental cost.

Jeff

Sunday, November 23, 2008

We have a date for the Next Game at the Levee.

Feburary 27th and 28th.

I have an interesting plan for a larger game.

Jeff

Short Post about the Nov 22nd Game

Okay it is late and I want to get a quick post out there.

I want to thank everyone who showed up we had 8 players (Fitz, Crow, BJ, Joe K, Elliot, Jim, Dave, and Myself) and unless everyone is lying to me we all seemed to have a great time.

Of course the batteries in my camera were dead so I am dependant on the pictures from everyone else :(.

By unanimous voice vote we all agreed to host another game at the Levee Cafe in the late winter early spring time frame. I'll talk to Brian about dates.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Leipzig Game - Friday

I made my way to the Levee Cafe at 4PM yesterday. Meet with my younger brother Brian who helped me arrange the tables.

I was caught a little off guard as the tables were not what I was expecting. The tables were divided into two sizes. Six 8' x 36" and 8 8' x 30" rather than the 6' x 30" I was anticapating. So I had to rearrange my layout.

I screwed up the green cloths I had purchased earlier in the week. I though I bought two 6' x 12' and one 6' x 9' table coverings but it turns out all three were 6' x 9'. Again more rearranging.

I had purchased brown electrical tape to lay out the roads as I could not find the brown masking tape. The electrical tape was difficult to work with as it had a tendany to stretch and contract at in oppertue times. So it took a couple hours to do the lay out.

For the rivers I left the 1 inch wide blue masking tape at home so I had to cut the 1 1/2" tape in half to do the streams.

Afterwards I began pulling troops. I got through the French Guard and three French Infantry Corps when my head began to hurt. So I went off to pull the Austrians and paint their bases.

Just as I got started painting bases Crow showed up. I never look a gift horse in the mouth so we put him to work putting labels on the French Bases.

So as Crow work hard on the base labels, Fitz painted his bases green and I flocked mine we listened to electorica trance and busted hump for several hours.

Jim had to drive back to his place to pick up the Russians he left at home.

Crow left at midnight and I was kicked out closer to 1.

I have to remember 4 stands of Austrian Landwehr and 1 stand of Austrian Heavy Cavalry.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Figures from Tom Zwirn

Today Fitz handed me a nice little gift box, my painted figures back from Tom Zwirn.

Included were:
30 Peasant mounted Cossacks
16 Infantry with Rifle at the Ready
16 Infantry firing Musket with Bayonet
56 Militia with Musket at the Ready including 8 Command
16 Infantry with Halbreds

In addition Fitz handed me
6 Austrian 12# Batteries
2 Austrian 12# Canons.

it was almost my birthday.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Figure Count

Below is my letter to Fitz with my figure count.

My Counts as of Tonight
French
1 4 Figure Command Base
3 3 Figure Command Base
5 2 Figure Command Base
18 1 Figure Command Base
8 1 Figure Command Base (Detail Work Needed)

Old Guard Cavalry
5 Grenadiers-a-Cheval
5 Empress Dragoons
2 Gendarmes
5 Chasseurs-a-Cheval
6 1eme Lancers
1 Mamlukes

Young Guard Cavalry
2 Grenadiers-a-Cheval
2 Empress Dragoons
2 Chasseurs-a-Cheval
2 1eme Lancers
7 Guards d’Honneur

Guard Infantry
6 Grenadiers a Pied
6 Chasseurs a Pied
5 Middle Guard
11 Young Guard

Guard Artillery
4 12#
5 6#

Cavalry
15 Cuirassier
2 Carabineers
4 Light Cavalry
4 Light Cavalry (Detail Work Needed)

Line Infantry
210 Line
37 Light

Artillery
14 12#
4 12# Detail Work Needed
4 6#

Italian
1 2 Figure Command
1 1 Figure Command
4 Guard Infantry
9 Line Infantry

Confederation of the Rhine
15 Line Infantry

Saxon (1809)
5 Heavy Cavalry
1 Light Cavalry
4 Grenadier
7 Line Infantry
2 Line Infantry (Detail work needed)
1 12#
1 12# Detail work needed

Austrian
1 4 Figure Command Base
4 2 Figure Command Base
14 1 Figure Command Base
14 Cuirassier
29 Light Cavalry
12 Grenadiers
86 Line
16 Grenzer
10 Jager
4 landwehr
12 12#
10 6#

Russian 1798
4 Cossack
9 12#
6 12# Need Detail Work
4 6# Need Detail Work


Russian 1810
TBD

Russian 1813
TBD
11 Cossack

Prussian
22 Landwehr
4 12#
11 6#


I have far more Austrian Figures; however as that is the Maximum we need for this Scenario that is as much as I listed.

For the Russians I have a large number of Figures for the Russo-Swedish War of 1810. All these figures would need to be mounted.
Additionally I have a large number of Figures for 1813 that need to be mounted again (originally mounted on card stock that is falling apart).

If you can send me a final list of what w are short I will focus on completing the detail work on that.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Unexpected Package

I arrived at work today to discover I had a package. Seems that Fernando Enterprises was better than there word and my latest order arrived unexpectedly early. It is another sign of their great service.

Arrived:
Napoleonic Cavalry
French 1st Regiment Gardes d’ Honneur - 10 Figures
French 2nd Regiment Gardes d’ Honneur - 8 Figures
French 3rd Regiment Gardes d’ Honneur - 6 Figures
French 4th Regiment Gardes d’ Honneur - 6 Figures
French 3rd Chasseurs-a-chevel - 15 Figures
Austrian 1st Dragoon Regiment - 12 Figures
Austrian 2nd Dragoon Regiment - 12 Figures
Austrian 3rd Dragoon Regiment - 12 Figures

Napoleonic Infantry
Austrian Jager - 48 Figures
Austrian Line Regiment Mittrowsky - 24 Figures
Austrian Line Regiment Rayniers - 24 Figures
Austrian Line Regiment Ruess-Plauens -24 Figures

American Civil War
Union Mounted Command - 3 Figures
Union Infantry Command - 36 Figures
Union Infantry - 51 Figures

Sunday, November 16, 2008

We are down to one Week

Too many people who don’t understand my fanatical behavior when it comes to whatever I do or in this specific case my almost obsessive behavior towards miniature gaming they really have no clue what kind of an undertaking it is to put on a big game. When Jim and I decided to put on a large Napoleon’s Battles game because we had already schedule the weekend off for MGCon I really thought we were a lot closer than we are.

We won’t be able to do exactly Leipzig and I am okay with that. Rather we are going to do a close approximation of the first day with some substitutions of some units. I am fairly certain that both Jim and I will have a very good time setting up and playing the game. There will be great stories to tell after the game no matter what the outcome.

Today I started doing a troop pull and final counts. I may need to paint a few figures over the next week so this pull helps me get everything in order.

What I discovered:
- I actually have enough Austrians to do all Four Corps and the Two Reserve Corps, in Shako even.
- I have a large number of French Stands that need to be flocked
- I wonder where the Italians went.
- I know I have more painted Saxons

I also hope that my order from Fernando ships early this week. Knowing my luck it will arrive next Monday. Not that we really need anything from the order since it is primarily Austrian and French Light Cavalry.

I’ll have to call Tom Zwirn this week and see if the Cossacks I sent to him for painting are done. Be nice to get the Cossacks since I believe they will really help determine how the game will turn out. Yes Schwarzenberg (aka Me) has a plain for the Southern Front. Strange after hours of looking at it, it all comes down to about a half-a-dozen dice rolls.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Blog Update

I have taken the time to redo the templates and layout of the blog. Part of the changes is adding a Photobucket Slide Show showing images of recent games.
Let me know what you think.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Too Many Projects.

I spent several hours over the weekend looking at projects I have started and not got around to finish and wondering what the heck I had to do to get them to a playable state. While I have literally dozens of projects I was really looking at the projects that I currently own figures for, have started painting figures and basically walked away. So projects that I have playable armies for and not the need to paint, even though I may own more unpainted lead, are not included (with one exception).

Here is the list in Historical Order (from Ancients to Modern) with comments:
Bronze Age Greeks (IE the Trojan Wars)
Several years ago I was convinced to buy figures for a Chariot Wars supplement of Warhammer Ancient Battles. I bought figures for a Greek Army and basically completed painting the chariots using an Ink only painting plan. A number of spearmen are started as well. The problem here is I only have one side and there is not much interest locally to do the period anymore. It is too expensive with all the chariots and other such figures that are needed. While I like the paint job it was very time consuming way to paint.

Ancient Greeks (The City State of Lesbos)
Another Ancients project that got started and lost traction as soon as people bought figures; at least in this case I don’t have a huge investment in figures. I am thinking these figures will go up on ebay shortly. There are a few primed but literally no paint on any figure other than primer. I doubt you’ll see interest restart in this scale anytime soon.

Seleucid
I bought a starter army several years ago at a RockCon. The army was never complete for anything and for years I have debated on what to do for it. Fitz has given (loaned) me the needed Essex figures to complete a Seleucid Army so I can fight his Carthaginian Army using Field of Glory. But I got to put paint to brush. I probably will send these figures to Sri Lanka to get painted.

Wars of the Triumvirate (Roman Civil War 55 BCE to 49 BCE)
Another ancients project I was convinced that HAD to be done. The Roman World during the Fall of the Republic. I should have known better than when I had been convinced to buy figures this period was going nowhere. Problem is I have continued to buy figures for this period, good money after bad I believe the saying is. Anyways I own enough figures to almost have three playable armies, yet I still need to purchase more figures to fill out the individual armies and make it playable. I have a Two Roman Armies (Caesar and Pompey) and a good start on a Gallic Army. The Figures I own for Caesar (Roughly six of the 10 legions) are painted as the legions for Pompey have a good start. The issue is the figures I don’t own. I would need to get those figures.

Fall of the West
Reoccurring them in the Ancients period. I was convinced there was interest in a period I invested money and then as I got started the project fell completely apart. Here I own 95% of the figures need to make a playable army, but I am not sure who I would fight as a historical enemy. The only painted army I know of is Jim’s Saxons that are 400 years to far into the future. I have good start on the painting with four “legions” painted.

Third Crusade
Okay, here at least I can almost blame myself. I was interested in doing First Crusade but was later convinced to Third Crusade (by a player no painting first crusade) and so I have two half painted Armies I really have no clue what to do with. I am currently planning to complete a Third Crusade Army for both the Crusader States and Arab States. But I will be honest it is not high on my painting list. I am still pissy about the fact I was dragged kicking and screaming to the Third Crusade and then they went back to the first crusade.

Seven Years War – Swedish Pomerania

Seven Years War – Quebec Campaign 1759
I own a painted French Army for this campaign I probably won’t have to paint another figure for the period, all I need is a set of rules. “Wilderness Wars” which is the de facto set for the period around here doesn’t handle the larger campaign that I am interested in. I suppose if I wanted to do the Mohawk Valley or Louisburg or Louisiana or Mississippi Valley Campaigns “Wilderness Wars” would work out okay. I just not sure how interesting that will be considering we are using “Wilderness Wars” for a similar projects in the Southern Campaigns….

Napoleonic Period
This will need to be it's own post.

American Civil War – Fire and Fury - Gettysburg Campaign
I think I am just doing this period to piss off other people and I am not sure i care it is such a poor reason, at least I have one.

American Civil War – Fields of Honor - Gettysburg Campaign
I am not sure why i list this project as I will have in about three weeks playable forces on both sides when my latest batch of Union gets back from Sri Lanka.

Franco-Prussian War
I suppose we just need to settle on a rule set "Field of honor" being the current favorite and move forward. I have a good number of French done and a good start on some Prussians. Maybe I hand Tom some figures here.

World War II - Russians
Painted for Broadsword, being converted to Spearhead basing. Jus the rebasing is all that is left, I suppose this will be a weekend project.

World War II - German (Hermann Goering Panzer Korps)
This unit fights in North Africa, Sciliy, Italy and the Eastern Front. So i figure a good generic unti that with trading out a few pieces of armor I can use from 1940 to 1945. Most of the Armor is painted I just need to finish the Infantry.

World War II - Japanese and US Marines (Island Hoping)
Need to choose a rule set. I have about three hundred painted Japanese and equally that number of Marines, but I have not chosen a rule set yet. I am leaning toward a modified Broadsword, but I am not sure I can stand the screaming I'll get from Kevin.

World War II - Operation MarketGarden (A Bridge too Far)
I just need to finish painting a few figures.

Modern Czechoslovakia and Modern French
Need a rule set. I suppose I will need to go over to "Modern Spearhead" i just wish it was as interesting as a set as "Corps Commander" which is a better system except for combat. I have talked for years about combining the two and going with it.