Back to (Basing) Basics

After the excitement of the Cavalier show, hobby activity has been somewhat limited. But I have made a start on what I suppose I must call  'The Great Re-Basing',  having come to the decision that my recently-acquired hoard (or horde?)  of vintage Minifigs 7YW / AWI figures are going to have to be re-based to a standard format. There are at least 3 different types of base painting/texturing in the collection, from simple cardboard to heavily-textured with household filler (and then sealed with gloss varnish!), and even aluminium machine-cut bases (someone had access to metalworking tools several decades ago..), and non-matching base colours too - sometimes in the same unit!  Here's the 'worst case',  Polyfilla and gloss varnish:

 

So I spent a bit of time thinking about what house standard I should use, and I think I am going to go with 40mm x 40mm MDF bases for line infantry, four figures per base,  with the bases simply painted 'old-school' green, just like those in the Charles Grant/Young and Lawford books. I've always liked that unfussy look, and the base size fits with both Black Powder and Honours of War rulebooks - and probably most other sensible rule sets!  Another consideration is of course, how many figures per unit?  After a further  bit of thought I am leaning towards 16-figure battalions, 4 bases per unit - the above-mentioned rulebooks would suggest 24 and 20 figures respectively, but I felt that would give rather large units for my expected table size (and those are also only suggestions, they don't seem to have any impact on the rules mechanisms).      

Having decided, I've had a trial run with one battalion, being from the French regiment Saintonge, and here is the result:  

I am pleased with them, I think they will do nicely. The basic musketeer figures are Minifigs AWI18 French Line Infantryman Advancing,  The original unit 'as bought' had 23 figures, 6 of which were in a different 'firing' pose, and on aluminium bases, so they didn't really fit with the rest anyway!  They can go to a 'spares' box and may join a different unit later, with possible adjustments to facing colours etc.  For any real details nerds out there, I can confirm the bases are painted with Valspar paint-matching shade X117, the splendidly-named Ribbett, available in the UK from the  B&Q  chain of DIY stores.  

 

Another reason to prefer 16-figure units is that they can be broken into two 8-figure units which fit nicely into my 100mm Hexon terrain hexes, and which therefore work fine with my existing Portable Wargame units.    

I also had a little trial with a few figures which are mounted on Polyfilla and gloss varnish bases, to whit these three fine officers. 

 

They have spent a couple of days soaking their horses' hooves in water: 

After which I'm glad to say, the filler could be mostly broken off and the figures released from their heavily-textured captivity - see below for how much material came off them! Rather a messy job, I admit, and may be hard work for a whole battalion, but I think well worth it. 

 

There is obviously a lot of work to be done to sort out this whole collection (over 1000 figures in all!), but I'm fairly happy that I've got the right approach, and a decent standard which will pull them all together.  Now I just need to get going on it! Meanwhile, I still hope to set up a simple game to get them on the table regardless of basing - watch this space. 

I've also been doing a spot of basing on a smaller scale, working on the 6mm 1859 Risorgimento armies. I've painted and flocked the bases for a couple of brigades of the future Austrian 2nd Divsion : 

 

I have a couple of Jager units painted and just needing basing, then I need to add a couple of artillery pieces and the division will be ready for action. Of course it will need some oppostion, so I will need to get started on further Piedmontese, and French.

Finally a couple of other things to 'plug' - first I attended  a very interesting talk at the National Army Museum last week - the subject being  The Imperial Training Network: The Armies of Britain, the Dominions and India, 1939-45.  Essentially a walk through a PhD thesis by its author ( so sorry I did not make a note of her name!), this covered the development of training for the 'DUKE' armies  in WW2, after the shocks of Blitzkrieg in 1940 and Singapore etc in  1942 - taking in Britain, the Middle East and the Far East commands, each of which developed training for their different theatres but always emphasised inter-operability between the different national contingents. Fascinating stuff, and it should eventually be available on the NAM Youtube channel, which of course has many other excellent talks. I also had the pleasure of meeting and having a chat over lunch in the museum cafe with  fellow gamer and blogger Chris aka Nundanket of Horse and Musket Gaming fame - always good to see you, Chris! 

I should also mention another blogger - that being Elenderil (another David, I think!) of the Small But Perfectly Formed blog, who has posted a really fascinating series of discussions on the  tactical formations used by 17th Century  ( 'Pike and Shot') armies, the latest covering the Catholic League, Bavarians and other Germans in the 30 Years War. He's clearly done some serious research, and the result is a great resource, I think - I suspect that many Pike and Shot period gamers are not so well-informed about how the troops actually deployed and fought (I am very sceptical myself about the formations that seem to be suggested by the Warlord 'Epic Pike & Shotte' system, for example!). Many thanks to Elenderil for this series, a really good example of how useful blogs can be. 

Upcoming hobby activities will include more painting of 6mm 1859 troops, and fairly obviously I need to get into a regular habit of re-basing the vintage Minifigs collectiom - 'little and often' should be the watchword. Also a bit of actual gaming is long, long overdue: I have an idea for a quick and easy  Dominion Of.. solo game which I might be able to do next week. If that works, you'll see it here in the near future.  Until then, keep well everyone.. 

 

Cavalier 2026 Show

On Sunday I had the pleasure of attending 'Cavalier 2026' Wargames Show, presented by the Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society, at the Angel Leisure Centre, Tonbridge.  The show was dedicated to the TWWS founder George Gush, who passed away (aged nearly 90) last year. There was a nice little giveaway leaflet in his memory, with a picture on the front which I suspect was a self-portrait, as it seems George was a talented artist. 

 

The leaflet also contained short essays in memory of George by his long-time fellow gamers Malcolm Dove, Andrew Finch and Tim Freeman; a nice little tribute to an inspirational wargamer and author. 

As for the show itself,  I like Richard of My Wargaming Habit's description of it as 'a small but nicely formed event'.  There were 18 games listed in the show program, though I think there were a couple of no-shows on the day, and I  think I managed to look at and photograph just about all of those present. So without further ado here they are, in roughly the order I saw them: 

(1)  Gravesend Gamers Guild presented Hildisvini Crossing,  a  fictional 'Cold War gone Hot' game in 15mm using Team Yankee rules.  The setting was Denmark, 1985, with Soviet Airborne and East German ground forces attempting to capture a canal crossing, opposed by Danish, Swedish and American units.  These games always seem to be a bit 'wall to wall tanks', but the models and scenery looked great - particularly good to see the Swedish Strv 103 'S-tank' turretless main battle tanks. 

 and an airstrike in progress by a group of (DDR?) Sukhoi strike aircraft

 while the East German  assault forces advanced!

(2) Central London Wargames Club brought a 15mm Napoloenic game using  Emperor of the Battlefield rules, written by their member Ian Godwin. The rules look interesting, and Ian is a very enthusiastic promoter of them - good for him!  The game portrayed the cavalry combat of Liebertwolkwitz - which Wikipedia describes as the biggest cavalry battle in history.  It did look rather good! 

 

 

Now Ian was most disappointed when his initial question to me 'do you play Napoleonics?' was met with a 'No' - but in the course of our chat it transpired that before these rules, he had also produced a  set, on the same general principles, for the Eighteenth Century - 'King of the Battlefield' . To cut a long chat short, I went away with a copy of those! 

Having recently acquired lots of vintage  Seven Years War / AWI figures to add to my existing forces,  I am currently 'interviewing' rules for the period, and these look interesting - they are shortlisted with Black Powder and Honours of War.  Looks like some test games are in prospect..

(3) Shepway Wargamers showed their game An Englishman's Castle, a fictional Wars of the Roses battle set in 1483, with a Lancastrian castle under attack by Yorkist forces.  The scale was 28mm and the rules in use were Andy Callan's Never Mind the Billhooks. 

Really nice terrain and figures, and interesting that figures were based singly, which gave a nice 'irregular' look to the units rather than regimented straight lines.  Moving them may have been a little slow, but they guys playing the game were not worried! 

 

(4) Real Time Wargames were there, demonstrating their 1745 rules:

with a nice table and  10mm  figures.  
 

  

(5) The Konfederacy of Eastbourne Gamers presented their   Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro –May 1811, Peninsular War battle in 10mm using Blucher rules. 

Defending British on right, attacking French the left

French columns advance

 

Fuentes town

Each base represented a Brigade, so a 'big battle' game. The figures were really nice, but I thought it a slight shame that each unit had a laminated paper marker propped up on it - these allowed disruption/damage to be marked off, but rather spoiled the visual effect. Still a nice game, though! 

(6) Tonbridge Wargames Club showed  Port Arthur or bust!   Naval conflict in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, using 1/1200th scale ships, and GM Boardgames  Gods of War: Togo rules 

   

(7) Friday Night Firefight Club brought their Launch All The Fighters -  Star Wars spaceship combat. Not really my thing, I'll admit, but on an impressive scale:

(8) Crawley Wargames Club displayed Normandy Axis & Allies using 10mm scale figures, which looked rather lovely - something about the vibrant colours and clarity of the map, I think. I don't know anything about Axis & Allies, but assume this game was using the rules from the board game in some way? Sadly I didn't think to ask more!  

I noticed that each of the invasion beaches was just one small map area, which gives an idea of the large scale of the map.    

The figures were nicely painted and based - I am guessing each base represented a regiment or two

(9) And now for the most impressive table of the day, which would be my choice for 'best in show': Hailsham Wargames Club's  The Battle of Malplaquet 1709,  War of the Spanish Succession game in 20mm scale.  The game certainly did justice to the biggest and bloodiest battle of that period - we are told there were around 3,500 figures on the table! These are the life's work of club member Bill Hendley.   Rules were the club's own, and I'll let the pictures do the talking :

view from the Allied left..

French defenders in the woods..

...and Allied assault 

just masses of cavalry!

 

 

and not forgetting the foot 

You might say that the table looked very crowded with massess of units and maybe not much room for manouevre,  but I suspect that wasn't far off the truth of this huge battle (with around 200,000 participants) - here's a  contemporary image, notice the massed formations in the background.   

 

(10) Kent and Sussex D&D and RPG Club  ran a great-looking participation game:   Down at the Docktors there's something fishy going on at the docks in the small port of Pudding's End. The beer at the "Elf in the Safety Tavern" is off, the pies in the bakery be wrigglin' and as for the sewers......  This was 28mm scale, using D&D (5th Edition) . A good time was clearly being had by the players! 

 

(11)  Milton Hundred Wargames Club brought  a small game The Mogaisciou 1993 : Task Force Ranger in Somalia. Modern (28mm).

 

(12) Maidstone Wargames Society showed  The Labyrinths of Mars,  a Fantasy game in 32mm scale ( 'Journey to Barsoom and rescue Princes and Princesses' ) with a rather spectacular and suitably Labyrinthine terrain :

 

(13) Rainham Wargames Club ran a participation game  Smoke on the Water , 1/600th scale ACW river action with Hammerin' Iron rules, and I had my usual conversation with them where I tell them I was a member of their club as a teenager - in the 70s! I'm sure they're getting bored of my geriatrically repeated story by now.. 

(14)  Deal Wargames Society presented their Polish Blitzkrieg 1939 game, which I'd seen before, but it's still well up to their usual high standard and always worth a look. 

I liked the exotic Polish 'kit' , such as the aircraft and the tiny tankettes

 

 

and it's worth noting that the Deal club consistently produce superb explanatory leaflets for their games - an example for all to follow! 

 

(15) The Society of Ancients brought their re-fight of Pharsalus, 48BC, in 28mm scale with Impetus 2nd Edition rules 

The Society always has a nice spread of publications for sale, and this time a bonus of a free copy of their magazine 'Slingshot' as a taster for prospective members, so I took one of those  (a 2023 issue), but there was no-one doing 'meet and greet', the players were occupied with the game, so I just took the freebie and wandered off. I can't help feeling they are missing an opportunity, slightly. 

 

(16) Much more chatty were the guys from East Kent Wargames Group,  with their Vietnam Jungle War!  in 28mm. This was a participation game introducing Pazoot.com's  Battle Chronicle rules system - I was aware of this project thanks to Ray Rousell's   'Don't Throw a One' blog posts recently reporting on playtesting of the upcoming 1812: Retreat from Moscow  game. For this Vietnam setup, they had the great idea of setting up the same game on several different 'tables', ranging from a simple  2 foot square board with printed tokens mounted on card - which would be a great option for beginners with  the game/hobby - to a 4 foot square scratch-built board with 'show-level' scenery.  

 

Printed card board left, posh terrain right - same game.. 

  .  

4 x 4 version with nice terrain

Phew! Sixteen games in all - the show program listed eighteen, so I think there were sadly two 'no-shows',   from SEEMS ( Tanks in Normandy, 28mm ) and The Shed Wargames club ( Epic Battles form Westeros,  28mm Song of Ice and Fire )  - or did I just miss them in a corner somewhere? I was pretty sure I'd got round all the games! 

 

Of course there was a little shopping, always an important part of shows. There were well  over 20 traders, a really good number for a relatively small show.  As already mentioned I picked up the King of the Battlefield Rules.  I added some more 20mm Ancient Indians ( swordsmen, bowmen and spearmen ) from New Line Designs - sadly they didn't have any elephants available on the day, I should have emailed to ask in advance! I just need a couple of elephants to complete a DBA Indian army to oppose Alexander's Macedonians.   I bought some bags of MDF bases from Products for Wargamers - 20x30mm bases for my 1859 Risorgimento 6mm armies, and 40x40mm which I have decided to plump for with my Seven Years' War forces. A major re-basing project awaits for those.. 

 

And a nice find on the excellent Bring and Buy stalls - Charles Grant's 1975 book on wargaming Fontenoy, which I look forward to reading quite soon! Slightly tatty dustjacket, but a very good price, and I'm always happy to read the late Mr Grant's elegant prose. 

 

There's always the social side, too.  I was pleased to meet and chat with some  familiar faces - bloggers David Crook ( A Wargaming Odyssey ),  Richard ( My Wargaming Habit ) and Ray (Don't Throw a One ) - great to see all of you!  Also great to catch up with my old friend Tony Toms, who has recently become chair of Milton Hundred Wargames Club and is relishing the challenge of organising the club's Broadside show in June - which I very much look forward to attending.  Tony was using the opportunity to chat to several traders and clubs who will also be a Broadside - as well as finding the time to buy a lovely collection of 15mm Western Desert armour and transport at the Bring and Buy.  Tony and I also had a really interesting chat in the cafeteria  with Colin Stone, who is head of finance at Warlord Games, and also Treasurer of the Cavalier host club TWWS - quite handy for the club, as Warlord Games were thus one of the traders at the show.. Colin seemed a thoroughly nice guy, it was fascinating to meet him - but sadly he's not allowed to give any information about any upcoming releases from Warlord, sorry folks! 

 

As I think you can tell, I had a thoroughly pleasant day at Cavalier; it's a really nice 'season opener' for those of us in the South East, a very manageable size show with  high quality games, a pretty good spread of traders and a very good 'Bring and Buy'.   Maybe it was a bit quiet in the afternoon ( I left about 3.30, closing time was 4pm ),  and the demographic of visitors was distinctly 'mature' ( grey hair or no hair, like me! ) - it's noticeable that the Fantasy and Sci-Fi games bring in a younger and more mixed crowd, so it's great to have a good number of those games, and I wonder if a few of the young players of those might be impressed and intrigued  by the games from the  'historical' side of the hobby?   Meanwhile if you'd like to see more of this show, I would heartily recommend Big Lee's report on his Miniature Adventures blog and Youtube channel - Lee is clearly a huge fan of this show and is postively poetic, nay perhaps lyrical, in his appreciation of it in his report - top man, Lee!

 

I hope you've enjoyed this report, I certainly enjoyed the show; many thanks to the organisers, all those who put on games and all the traders who attended, and of course to the late George Gush, who started it all, more than 50 years ago.

 

Now I need to get back to painting 6mm 1859 units, and maybe some Ancient Indians too, and re-basing figures for 7YW/AWI, and reading books and rules. Not much to be getting on with, then! I'll hopefully have some progress to report next time. Until then, keep well everyone.