Plans for 2024

 I have had the really bad cold/flu thing that is going round so haven't done much for the last two weeks but I finally had the energy today to tidy and sort out the Painting Bureau.

I've thrown away all the dried up paints, sorted out all the excess figures that don't need to be there, thrown away a few test figures I am never going to use.

 

 

Also sorted through all the flags, banners and decals and put them in the middle thin drawer so I can actually find them!

 

Sorted out the bottom cupboard which holds the part painted but not finished projects.

 

 

I  have a few plans for 2024:

1) Concentrate on the 18th century for painting.

So, finish the 36 40mm AWI continentals that are on the painting table and then I should be able to play  a game.  Aim at adding a 12 figure unit each month to build up the forces.

Paint a 24 figure 25mm Minifigs Marlburian unit each month - I have 2 french on painting sticks, 1 british and 1 austrian in stock.

Finish the design for the Ravelin that is nearly done, get it laser cut and built, then work on the walls and the bastions.

2) Finish the scenery for Frostgrave (it really just needs "snowing up" and finally get it on the table and play a game.

3) Put all other partial projects away for now so I don't get distracted (20mm Sudan, 54mm Punic Wars, etc).

4) Paint some of the hundreds of Reaper Bones figures in between historical units so I can play some dungeon exploring games.

That is pretty much it.  I have a bad tendency to butterfly and not actually finish anything so I am hoping that I can get Frostgrave AWI and the Marlburians on the table this year.

I also want to play some more 20mm ACW and get the 25mm FPW collection on the table more often.

I have a large collection of early war 20mm WW2 that I bought very cheaply that I need to sort out and keep what I need and sell the rest (noone needs a division of German paratroopers!)

Apart from Marlburians I can't see me buying much this year  - I am more likely to sell stuff off excess figures from the 54mm Napoleonics and 20mm WW2.

With Hot Lead and Cold Steel - 2nd ACW Game

 

 

 Anthony and I played our second game with these new Osprey rules last week.  In our first game we got a lot of rules wrong ad misunderstood how the unit sizes worked but felt they were worth another try.

The second game went much better and we only got a few small things incorrect (Tiny units failing a morale test are removed, morale tests for units nearby if a unit runs, etc).

The rules seem to me to combine the best bits of Pickett's Charge and Black Powder while allowing you to play much larger games than Pickett's charge with several brigades a side.

They use a similar order system to Black Powder, but if you fail to roll enough for 3 moves, but pass the 2 move roll you can still move 2 moves with a brigade.  This makes the game move along as you don't fail to do anything that often.

Firepower is VERY bloody once you get close and units remove a base for every 6 hits which drops them down a size, so Large->Average->Small->Tiny with a similar drop in their abilities.

This means that the game moves quickly and you get a result with Brigades breaking at 50% losses.

Units can be rallied and come back to the fight but they don't regain bases (something that the Neil Thomas ACW rules have which means the game never ends!).

I like the use of ADCs to let you bid for the initiative roll and to help with brigade orders and I like the fact that units can return fire when fired on during the opponent's turn.  This stops the problem with initiative based games where one side can potentially fire twice before the other side returns fire.

Like most of the Osprey Blue Books they need several read throughs to make sure you have understood all the rules and found the exceptions, etc in the places they are mentioned.

I have typed up a QRS which steps through the stages of a turn in order which should stop us forgetting things next time.

So far they seem a very promising set.