Horses, but no bayonets

(Alright, I may have missed the window of relevancy on that joke by about a week.)

Anyway, the long-awaited second squadron of Wachovian hussars is now complete! By my reckoning, these are the first new Wachovian troops in more than a year, since I believe the last unit I finished was my second gun crew sometime prior to Historicon 2011. However, a couple of recent games inspired me to finally get these guys finished up. (And naturally, if all goes according to plan, the next NQSYW game will be a siege... where cavalry are kind of useless.)

All in all, this puts the total Wachovian contingent at two squadrons of light cavalry, a three-company regiment of line infantry, a company of light infantry, and a two-gun battery. The next unit I add will either be a squadron of heavy cavalry or a company of grenadiers--the former seems a little more likely at the moment, but we shall see where the inspiration takes me. (And I have one other little NQSYW-related project in the works, but more on that in due time...)

Hypothetical Hordes: Avatar: The Last Airbender

One of the great things about Hordes of the Things is that the troop categories are so loose that it's easy to generate army lists for just about any work of fiction--even ones that would be really difficult to actually find figures for. Since I haven't been getting a whole lot of painting done lately, (certainly not compared to last October) I thought I might have a bit of fun sketching out some Hordes of the Things armies that I will almost certainly never build anyway. First up on the list: the armies of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

(Alright, for anyone who's not familiar with Avatar and is too lazy to read either the Wikipedia page or the TVTropes entry, here's the quick version. Avatar is set in a heavily Asian-influenced fantasy world with a martial arts-like magic system based around the four classical elements of earth, water, air, and fire. The four main factions each use one of these elements. The Avatar, who is supposed to maintain the balance, can use them all, and is reincarnated into a different faction every generation. At the beginning of the story, the Avatar is a kid named Aang, who is the titular last airbender--the rest of the Air Nomads having been wiped out by the Fire Nation sometime prior. If you want to avoid spoilers for the show, you may want to stop reading at about this point.)

THE FIRE NATION
The show's main villains, the Fire Nation tends to be vaguely Japanese in style, but with a fairly unique "Asian-steampunk" aesthetic and a not particularly unique black/red/orange color scheme. Given their propensity for coming up with threatening new steam-powered war machines as the plot demands, their army list is a fairly flexible one. Possibilities include:

• Heroes (Zuko in bad-guy mode or any of the various Fire Nation Generals or Admirals.) *
• Magician (Fire Lord Ozai, possibly Iroh or Azula) *
• Behemoths (Sinister steam tanks)
• Airboats (Sinister steam zeppelins)
• Artillery (Catapults or primitive cannon)
• Sneakers (Another possibility for Azula and her gang)
• Blades (Regular foot troops) *
• Shooters (Low-level firebenders or conventional missile troops)
• Knights (Mounted on sort of rhino-lizard things)
• Hordes (A less charitable take on the average Fire Nation mook)

*Potential General options

Stronghold: Vaguely Japanese fortress and/or smoke-belching factory

THE EARTH KINGDOM

The Fire Nation's most militarily formidable opponent, and certainly the most populous of the major factions. Tend to appear vaguely Chinese in style, with a green/brown/yellow color scheme. Again, a fair number of possibilities as far as troop types go. Possibilities include:

• Heroes (Bumi or other powerful earthbenders) *
• Behemoths (Blocky centipede-like stone "tanks" controlled by earthbenders)
• Sneakers (Agents of the Dai Li)
• Spears (Regular foot troops) *
• Shooters (Low-level earthbenders or conventional missile troops)
• Riders (Mounted on sort of ostrich-horse things)
• Hordes (Conscript troops)
• Lurkers (Jet's guerillas)

*Potential General options

Stronghold: A section of the invincible walls of Ba Sing Se or other Earth Kingdom city

THE WATER TRIBES

Divided into the Northern and Southern Water tribes, they inhabit the polar regions. Vaguely Inuit in appearance, with a blue/violet/white color scheme. Of the major factions, they probably have the least variation displayed on the show and thus the fewest options as far as HotT troop types go. Possibilities include:

• Heroes (Chief Hakoda, arguably) *
• Magician (Master Pakku or other powerful waterbenders) *
• Warbands (Less disciplined than Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation soldiers.) *
• Shooters (You know the drill)

*Potential General options

Stronghold: Small village of igloos for the Southern Water Tribe, giant ice fortress for the Northern Water Tribe.

THE AIR NOMADS

Just kidding! These guys are all dead, and besides, they claimed to be pacifists, bearing a striking resemblance to modern Tibetan monks, and quite unlike historical Tibetans. An army of theirs would be a very chancy thing, given that it would have to consist almost entirely of Magicians, Flyers and Airboats--and to make matters worse, those "airboats" are actually six-legged flying yaks. Good luck finding models of those.

Stronghold: Mountaintop monastery.

TEAM AVATAR

Instead, let's take a look at our protagonists and a few of the miscellaneous people they meet on their travels. Note that this list could also draw from pretty much anything on the Earth Kingdom or Water Tribe lists as well.

• Heroes (I'd group the main cast together as a single hero stand. Upgrade to Aerial Hero if you can find a satisfactory Appa the sky bison...)
• God (Aang in the Avatar State.)
• Cleric (Guru Pathik)
• Sneakers (Wandering minstrels)
• Blades (Kyoshi warrior ladies armed with fans)
• Flyers (Gliders or the Mechanist's balloons)
• Lurkers (Foggy Swamp Tribe)

Stronghold: Random village, or any of the non-Fire Nation options

Unfortunately, despite the real-world influences, the visual appearance of the world of Avatar is pretty distinctive. I expect that putting these armies together could be difficult even in 25mm, and pretty much impossible in 20mm, as Asia is a chronically under-represented area of the world. Maybe in ten years, if Caesar Miniatures keeps issuing sets like these...

Anyway, I may do a few more "Hypothetical Hordes" entries at some point. If you have one you'd particularly like to see, feel free to leave a note in the comments...

A long-awaited map

Some of my gentle readers may at times have been bewildered by the various fictional countries featured in the battles of Not Quite The Seven Years' War. For their benefit (and to aid my fellow heads of state in planning their future campaigns) I present the following map:

Cities, mountains, rivers, etc. will hopefully be added at a later date...

Past battles and future purchases

Despite just having been home for Barrage, I made my way north again last weekend at the promise of waffles and a NQSYW battle--which turned out to be a great improvement over the previous one, at least from the Wachovian point of view. Since I arrived the evening of the 21st, Dad and I decided to celebrate the publication of The Hobbit and the semi-completion of my Orcish army with a quick game of Hordes of the Things. Rather quick, as it turned out--somehow our generals managed to get themselves into a situation where one of them would inevitably die, and I lost the crucial roll...

View from the Orcish center

Orcish archers and their buddy the bunyip.

Facing down the Elvish contingent in the woods.

No room to recoil--oops!

The next morning, after the promised waffles, we packed about four regiments of troops (not to mention cavalry and artillery) into the trunk of my car and headed down to Chris Palmer's place, where the Pragmatic Coalition would once again face off against North Polenburg. (North Polenburg's partner in crime, Rosmark, is apparently having some internal problems again...) This time, our objective was to drive the enemy out of a defensive position which they had taken up in two villages and which they had supplemented with some redoubts. Fortunately, we had numbers on our side, an advantage which we used to good effect.

I took command of my Wachovian troops, making up our left wing; a combined Schoeffen-Buschhagen and Wiegenburger force, with a significant cavalry component comprised our center, and a second Schoeffen-Buschhagen regiment with light infantry support took up the right. While much of the enemy's attention was drawn to the right and the center, the Wachovian infantry advanced across the field towards the western village, sustaining relatively light losses from the guns in the redoubts. And on the extreme left, I took advantage of the Wachovian hussars' mobility (and lack of opposing heavy cavalry, for once!) to work my way around the very edge of the table and behind the line of redoubts.

Between concentrated cannon fire from our own batteries and the advancing infantry, we were able to suppress one of the two opposing guns. This left an enemy company occupying the western village and another half-company and a gun in the second redoubt. Braving a hail of fire from another company that was being deployed to the scene, the Wachovian hussars charged the rear of the redoubt and engaged the troops there in melee, allowing the bulk of my infantry to advance on the village. There we managed to put the lessons of the previous battle to good use--the defenders were reduced by volleys of short-range musket fire and a few well-placed cannonballs, and we did not have to try the rather iffy business of storming buildings. Meanwhile, our compatriots on the right and in the center had also gained their objectives (though not without some heavy losses, particularly for the Adellman regiment). The enemy was forced to cut their losses and fall back, leaving the field in Pragmatic hands.

(Note: you can read a couple of other accounts of this battle, free of pro-Wachovian bias, here and here.)

The North Polenburg general deploys his forces.

My fellow Pragmatic commanders.

Hussars begin their outflanking maneuver.

I wasn't the only one taking pictures...

Our forces advance.

Cavalry melee ensues.

Wachovian infantry approach the western village.

Wachovian hussars charge the redoubt.

Another Wachovian contingent takes a gun!

A broader view of the action.

Resolving another melee in the center.

We did get in one more game, but I didn't really take any pictures--not that there's a whole lot to see when it comes to 6mm WWII anyway...

In other news, it's an exciting time to be me as far as new miniatures releases go: as though reading my mind, Orion has put out a couple of sets of Byzantine infantry, so I will not be forced to use converted medieval Russians when it comes to expand that army. Finally, Caesar has released a whole boatload of new sets... including the long-awaited (long awaited) Mycenaean chariots, which look pretty darn spiffy, so I may have to get some work in on the Bronze Age again. And of course, I still have a few more orcs to paint, and the next unit of Byzantine lancers, and some Wachovian hussars, and a couple more NQSYW units beyond that... well, I guess I'll find something to keep myself busy. (And everyone seems to want a map for the NQSYW all of a sudden--I guess I should work on that too...)

Barrage 2012

Each year, the Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers (of which I am a member of sorts) hold a one-day convention called Barrage. For the past couple of years, the convention has been held sometime in January or February, but this year the convention featured both a new, less blizzard-prone date of September 15, and a new location in the Havre de Grace Community Center. So Friday evening I made my way up from Germantown to join my dad and my brother in attending this year's Barrage.

(My attempt to record this event for posterity was almost foiled by my camera's SD card--I got home only to find that all the pictures I had taken were gone! The good news is, a bit of poking around on the internet was able to turn up a free program capable of recovering them, called TestDisk, which worked OK on my slightly antiquated MacBook. The bad news is that the recovered photos are a bit grainier than usual. Still, better than nothing!)

We showed up at about 8:30, in time for Dad to unload a pile of stuff onto one of the flea market tables.  At about 9:00, I got drafted into a game of Fireball Forward; WWII North Africa in 15mm. The Germans needed to get their armor units past the British defenses and off the table; the British goal was to hold them off for seven turns. WWII is not my usual forte, but the game went pretty smoothly at first, as we (the British defenders) laid out a selection of concealed trenches and minefields and waited for the German attack. We did a number on their infantry before being forced out of our first trenchline, but as the game wore on it became apparent that our anti-armor capabilities would not be sufficient to prevent them from simply plowing through our lines with their tanks. Even our generous supply of off-table artillery was unable to dent their armor, and by about turn six, the majority of their armor had exited the table.

One of our unfortunate anti-tank guns. Apparently I'm bad at not running out of ammo...

That one stand held the forward trench for a good while, despite the forces arrayed against it.

Enemy commanders plotting their moves.

Our infantry shake their fists impotently as the panzers roll through.

While that was going on, Dad was running his one game of the convention--"Hannibal at the Gates," a re-fight of the Second Punic War battle of Trebbia, with simple rules intended for kids. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention, but I think the good old Roman legions managed to stand off Hannibal and his elephants this time.

Carthaginians on the left, Romans on the right.

After lunch, my brother and I both ended up on the German side in Richard Heffner's WWI Aerodrome game--always a lot of fun. William managed to make it to Ace over the course of four rounds; I managed not to get shot down, which can be an accomplishment too--I credit the green and orange camouflage on my plane, which blended in nicely with the battle mat. (Although in the last round I did suffer a critical hit on the very first turn, which compelled me to head for home. Doesn't count, though!)

My plane in the foreground.

Dogfight!

Two of our deadliest pilots. (And Dad, who is just kibitzing.)

I did end up in one more game--a WWII air action featuring P-40 Tomahawks and Brewster Buffaloes against Japanese "Sally" bombers, which was mostly an exercise in how not to attack a bomber formation--we only managed to take a couple of them with us before getting shot down.

Buffaloes prepare for their attack run.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable day of gaming--I think the new space is an improvement, and it seemed like there were plenty of games and plenty of people. Hopefully next year's Barrage is just as good!

Oodles of orcs

Yes, I'm still alive, never fear. Strangely, this whole "being employed" business doesn't seem to me as much time for either painting or blogging as I had before... also, at some point I seem to have crept over the 10,000 views mark!

Anyway, employment not withstanding, I have managed to get a painting desk set up and a certain number of miniatures painted. Lately I've been on an orc binge--the Caesar orcs are a lot of fun to paint, even if I am getting a little tired of some of the poses by this point. Also, with my latest few units I'm almost up to the 24 AP necessary to field a Hordes of the Things army, which was my goal in all of this.

My new painting space.

My other current project, not proceeding very fast.

A stand of Blades or possibly Warband, depending on the situation.

Shooters.

Warband, still lacking some sand and flock.

I also did a flag for one of our NQSYW mercenary contingents when I was home over Labor Day; hopefully Dad will post a picture at some point.

Next weekend is Barrage, our club's annual convention, so I'll be home for that--should be able to get my orcs all based up, while I'm at it. Beyond that, my goal is to get these orcs out of my system by the end of the month; after that maybe I can get some work done on Not Quite The Seven Years' War. (Then again, I hear Orion may be putting out some Byzantine infantry in 20mm soon...)

Not Quite A Victory

...in fact, rather clearly a defeat.

To back up a step or two--it's been a busy couple of weeks since my last post (still getting settled into my new job and such; haven't had much time to paint) but this weekend I made the trek back up to my old stomping-grounds to take part in a Not Quite the Seven Years' War game Dad was putting on at another club member's place.

Dad's take on the game can be found on his blog here, but I figured I'd offer my own perspective, along with the customary selection of pictures. The scenario involved the capture of a bridge placed roughly in the center of the table--as it happens, it's one of the same ones Dad ran at Historicon a few weeks ago in which I ended up helping referee, and one which we did at Barrage a couple of years back.

For whatever reason, the Wachovians have ended up in the same position all three times--entering from one table edge and advancing along the river bank. While terrain naturally changes a bit from game to game, one of the key features on this side of the board is always a cluster of buildings or walled farmhouse across the river from the entry point and about halfway between the entry point and the bridge. For some reason, I have an inflated notion of the value of occupying buildings in Charge! and so my plan for the battle involved crossing the river and seizing the farm compound while seeing how things developed in the center.

Unfortunately, today's running of the scenario involved my allies in the center arriving on the third turn, which is a twist I had not recalled from previous play-throughs. In any case, the opposition had plenty of time to occupy the center of the board, including the bridge, while my allies had to fight their way on from the edge of the board. A couple of lost melees kept them pinned in place while trying to rally; my cavalry, while somewhat more effective, were basically unable to affect the outcome in the center. (Is seems that in the postgame, while I was out on a pizza-foraging mission, I got tagged as the scapegoat--apparently I should have brought my cavalry on first. How I was supposed to know this when choosing my march order at the beginning, I'm not sure--especially since I was not aware of the delays in the center when writing my orders.)

Not that my part of the battle went much better--the river-crossing part of my plan was a disaster, and one company basically vanished under short range musket fire just as it reached the far bank. This put my regiment pretty close to breaking, and while we successfully stormed the buildings on only our second try, we were quickly reduced below half strength from more volley fire. Note to self: houses are basically deathtraps in Charge!

The cavalry under my command acquitted themselves somewhat better (though the hussars still got mauled) but it wasn't really enough to turn the tide. All in all, while it's always nice to see the figures on the table, I found this game to be kind of disappointing, since between poor deployment and poor die-rolling we were in trouble from about turn 2 onwards. Between this mess, the loss of Adelheim fortress at Historicon 2011, and the abortive invasion of Stanzbach-Anwatsch at Historicon 2012, the Wachovian Prince-Palatine is starting to wonder whether it might not be time to make a separate peace with the Northern Alliance...

Anyway, pictures:

The Northern Alliance plots strategy. It's been speculated that Chris Palmer's magnificent hat was key to their eventual victory.

Wachovian infantry enters the table even as the enemy cavalry crosses the bridge.

Cavalry melee ensues on my right as I begin fording the river.

Enemy muskets take a heavy toll.

Schoeffen-Buschhagen dragoons finish what the hussars started.

More S-B dragoons attempt to pull our chestnuts out of the fire--to no avail.

The assault on the Fatal Farmhouse.

North Polenburg's commander watches his infantry cross the bridge.