Don Featherstone Memorial Battle

Yesterday, saturday October 12th, 11 members of the Dutch Miniature Wargaming Facebook page got together in Zutphen and staged a spectacular battle. 

Two traditions of recent origin got together on this day. First, this was to be an evolution of the Wargame Beer Fests the members had staged on a smaller scale the previous year. Expanding from beer to wargaming would surely be a great improvement? The number of attendees proved us right! 

Secondly, we felt that honouring the recently deceased Donald Featherstone with a dedicated memorial  game would be a fitting way to pay homage to this grand- and godfather of tabletop wargaming, as have done many other wargamers all over the world in the past months. To add some formalities we played a Horse & Musket game, with 1/72 plastic figures while the players dressed in (at least) shirts-and-ties (All wore more clothes as well, fortunately....) 

Here the group assembles for a full dress group photograph overlooking the battlefield of 1st Saratoga: the battle of Freeman's Farm. Many thanks to Christy for taking the picture!

British (left) and Americans (right) ponder plans and gauge eachother's readiness....

General Arvid makes a forceful argument for the British battleplan.

The Americans look a little sceptical. What can they expect? Their historical counterparts dealt the British a heavy blow, so the bar is placed high in this game. The world is watching....

Doubt seems to haunt the British....

Dismissing any doubts, British columns march unto the field. On the opposite side, Continentals and militia scramble to take their positions. Light infantry and marksmen occupy the ground between the armies.

Frantic actvity on the American side.

General Jasper explains to General Hans Burgoyne why the Americans have just sealed their fate...

We played the game using the Black Powder rules and used the Freeman's Farm scenario as written, only with different rules for the British reinforcements in the person of Von Riedesel's column. Von Riedesel would be marching alongside Burgoyne in the distance and would only start marching towards the sound of the guns as soon as he heard them. Unbeknowst to both parties, it would take Von Riedesel (a Generalship 8 officer) at least 10 actions to reach the uper table edge. He might reach the table in as little as 4 turns, or many more....

Here British units on the right wing advance towards the American line, executing the hammer part of the British hammer-and-anvil battleplan. Swinging their right wing and center full force against the Americans and pinning the American right against the Farm, they hope to overwhelm the strongest American Brigade of general Poor.

"Oh my god..." thinks General Peter Arnold on the right: "Gates just might have been right after all...."

General Joop explains to Reinout that all options are nevertheless still open. 

An impressive Continental battle line faces some remarkably tenacious Indians and marksmen who held on to their ground despite being completely exposed and in the open. Shaken, but never stirred!

The British center comes to grips with their American counterparts. The British gun in the middle does its bloody work. The militia melts away...


It makes you proud to be British! 

The American side starts exchanging increasingly worried looks. Poor's Brigade starts looking poorer by the minute...

Heated debating. General Arvid has even lost his tie, most likely carried away by a stray bullet....

Here the British grenadiers, having brushed away the first American units with cold steel and some hot charging prepare to deal the final blow to the American center. Poor's brigade crumbles completely, leaving Morgan's handful to defend the farm with the help of Learned's wandering Brigade. 

And then came The End....

Just as General Rene Learned's troops have finally rallied (after about 8 missed command rolls and at least one blunder) and advance on the British left Von Riedesel arrives in his rear and shatters his brigade with deadly Hessian musketry! This seals the fate of the American army. Liberty may yet be a little further away than anticipated. Who likes tea that much anyway....?

General Burgoyne ponders his latest victory with soothing thoughts of brandy and that fox hunt he has promised himself.

The afternoon was suitably concluded with dinner and Christy's incomparable chili and bread pudding; more than enough for everyone! 

Many many thanks to Jasper who made the location possible, Christy for photos, inviting us all for dinner and your charming company and everyone for their impeccable sportsmanlike behaviour and good spirit, all of which made this a completely succesful day! And to Jack the Labrador for not eating one single soldier! 

Witch hunters and samurai

This weekend's painting yielded a very varied crop. First two magnificent new figures made for the to-be-released official line for the WitchFinder General Game by Dashing Dice Games. Bearing some resemblance to a pair of recent movie witchhunters these pair will grace your table and will put fear in the earts of evildoers everywhere!

The girl witchhunter comes with an alternative pistol-equipped right hand. I nevertheless opted for the repeater crossbow. I modified the left hand holding the shortsword by turning it at angles with her body to achieve a slightly more natural pose. Both figures were perfect two-piece castings, no flash and the barest minimum of casting lines.

Next, first in line of the Ronin figures made by North Star that came into my possession through their Ronin Deal at the time of the release of that ruleset here are a sneaky ninja (the limited edition figure coming free with the set) and a taunting samurai (from the Bandit buntai set).

North Star has done a fine job on these figures. Most are one-piece castings. Some flash was present, but nothing dramatic and easily cleaned away.

British Legion Cavalry!

Below my ersatz cavalry for the British Legion in the AWI. Figures are British Light Cavalry from the Egyptian Campaign made by Strelets in 1/72 scale (obviously!)

Strelets does not always get the best reviews and do use a singular sculpting style you either love or hate. They did however produce a very nice set here, for a unique theatre of war and IMO eminently suitable for the AWI, in itself a rare period.

Redbox Jacobite Highlanders

I have been painting the first of the Redbox 1/72 Jacobite Highlanders for Blackpowder. Not being a purist I plan to field them in my AWI armies and Imaginations games. 

Redbox has an interesting reputation for producing extremely interesting sets (Boxer Rebellion, Samurai) of atrocious quality. This time however, they have rehabilitated themselves in a spectacular way with their Jacobite Rebellion figures. Below are figures of the Highlander and Militia sets. I cheated some kilts on the long coats of some of the militia to get enough marching figures for a regiment of 24 figures. 

They are lovely figures to paint, a tad big but finely detailed with a bit of flash but nowhere near the blobs of plastic I have come to expect from Redbox. PlasticSoldierreview.com has some things to say about historical accuracy but as I said, I am no purist. The review is here. 

Officer and piper

NonCom and elderly Laird  (from the militia set)

The 42nd Regiment of Foote in Line

And in column.

NB: I added better pictures to my blog on september 25th. 

It came from beyond the still: game report

A short after action report of the three participation games I ran today using the ruleset "It came from beyond the still" by Dastardly Designed Games. As it turned out I managed three games in a day with 4, 6 and 6 players respectively. 

As I expected the ruleset is perfect for participation games. I made team handouts with a QRS on the back and was able to start the game after a 5-minute intro of the rules and missions and it ran practically flawlessly (after me ironing out some minor details after the first game). The players played teams of Hillbilly clans, Gray and Blob aliens, Men-in-Black and policemen. Missions varied from taking DNA, eating MiB, shooting Hatfields and blowing up the McCoy moonshine still. 

It was great, violent, chaotic fun. The Blobs dragged in two games and the Sheriff one. Some athmospheric pictures below (as usual I was way too busy to take more than a few pictures on the fly): 

The table

I forgot my customary clock, so I enlisted a Giant Robot to draw attention to the games. 

The McCoys

The MiB

Sheriff R.P. Coltrane & Co

The Blobs just oozing from their travelling meteorite

The Hatfields

The Grays

A quick snapshot of the second game in full swing

A dramatic moment that incredibly enough occurred in TWO games: McCoys and Hatfields race toward eachother in a deadly Chicken Standoff and both made heir Courage Checks (and therefore did not take any evasive action). Major crashes ensued! 

It Came From Beyond The Still. If you have $10 to burn, you could do a lot worse than buying and downloading this one! 

Sneak peek for the new participation game

In september I'm hoping to host a new participation game based on It Came From Beyond The Still. 

Close encounter....

The Truth really IS out there! 

Did you hear that, Ma? 

Mars Attacks!

The John Carter Project Pt 3: Of Tharks and Men

A few weeks of painting have passed. Allthough the light wasn't perfect, I could not resist taking some pictures. First my scratchbuilt skiffs in hot pursuit!

Trying to shake off some pursuers.  

John, Dejah and Woolla: the three main figure brands combined: Bronze Age, Tin Man and Parroom respectively. 

Group shot of JC and some Red Martians.

Trying out which Dejah looks best. Two VERY different styles to be sure...

Tharks on the prowl

Take that! You brute you! 

A combined shot showing the large differences in style between the Tin Man Tharks (left) and the Bronze Age. Both splendid figures but very dissimilar. I am doubting whether to use them both. Perhaps as a young? 

 More Tharks

JC, Dejah and some Tharks. JC is handling it....

Bronze Age magnificent mounted Tharks. I magnetized the riders to be able to dismount them. 

And thanks to Peter who lighted up my pictures! 

MacDonald of the 42nd

Last week I received, as a late birthday present, "MacDonald of the 42nd" by Donald Featherstone. It is a remarkable if nowadays apparently little known book. 

In 1895 a grizzled old Scottish dock worker sat down to write a letter to his employer pleading for a better job. To bolster his case, he recounts the story of his life to stress the nessecity to give him a break, so to speak, and give him better pay and more reliable hours The letter, for all its lack of grammatic style, reads like an abbreviated Flashman novel. 

Hector MacDonald and his brother run away from home at age 14 and join the 42nd Regiment of Foot, the "Black Watch". Three of his brothers already serve in the same regiment. In the years to follow, Hector receives his training, becomes a bugler, serves in the thin red line in the Crimean War and a few years later in the Great Mutiny, leaves the army after India and moves to the US, where he serves in the Union army at both Bull Runs and a number of other battles, only to wander home to Bristol to become a dock worker. 

Featherstone has extrapolated from this letter, based on a lot of research, a lively story of Hector's life that runs from his leaving home up until he leaves India. It shows in shocking detail the often incredible hardships a Victorian soldier had to deal with. If you as a wargamer ever worried that your tables are less realistic because you never paint supply wagons, tents, porters and other supporting personnel, stop worrying. When arriving in the Crimea the 42nd had neither and slept in the open on the ground!

The book is filled with vivid first-hand tales of famous and less famous actions. You see the Russian cavalry thundering towards Hector. You see him, kilted and all, advancing through the Indian jungle, engaging rebels with the bayonet, worrying about the safety of his brothers after a battle and marching for days and weeks on end through the Empire that Britian once was.

Hector MacDonald was a real person, his existence proven not only by his letter but by his death certificate as well. The letter shows, unfortunately, that Hector's plea was in vain and that he died some years later still a dock worker at the Bristol docks.

A fascinating book and a gift all the more touching since the friend who selected the book for me died a week before I received it as a gift from his wife. Thanks pal, one more good thing to remember you by. 

It has begun.....

Reports come in of strange sightings around Utrecht, NL. Contact with the area is momentarily lost....