The American Civil War – An Odyssey in 6mm – Part 3

Update on the Union troop movements time, although it’s a small to tiny update because I haven’t done a lot of work on them this month.  After the initial burst of energy I was sidetracked by football manager (who isn’t) returning to a computer screen near me for the first time in 6-7 years, and by trees falling.  I did receive my order of sand and flock from Baccus however, and this pushed me on to test-base one of my infantry regiments. 

The initial results weren’t promising, when I tried painting the base colour of Vallejo Hull Red over the sand (which had been stuck on with PVA glue) the sand rucked up (is that a word?) and I could barely get any paint to stay.  I consulted someone with experience (Andy) who suggested dabbing on the paint – letting a very wet horde of it flow off the brush rather than brush it on as I normally do with larger models bases.  This worked much better, although seemed extravagant in terms of time and quantity of paint it took.  Once this was on I drybrushed the base a lighter brown (Vallejo Kharki Brown) to give it depth, then applied flock and finally flags before giving it all a coat of Army Painted matt varnish spray.

Overall I’m happy with the effect, the flags in particular (another Baccus purchase while in Sheffield earlier in the year) really finish the model, and I’m looking forward to doing more.  For a next move I’ve decided I don’t need to match the opposition in numbers to have a game, luckily because they’ve already 13+ infantry regiments alone, so I’m looking to finish the part painted one I have on the table at the moment, then do several command bases before moving onto massed basing.  When this is finished hopefully I’ll have 5 infantry regiments and 3 troops of horse supported by 2 cannon batteries.  Unfortunately I still have lots of work to do to get any skirmishers or dismounted infantry done, I need a new/sharper craft knife to separate the men from their strips before I can start that.  

The first foot regiment - flags denote a unit from Wisconsin, mainly because I've actually been there!

The SmAshes 2013 – A Brief Report Of A Dreadball Tournament

 Devised by the indomitable and frankly daft Laurent Blom, and with the catchy name of the ‘SmAshes’, this one day Dreadball tournament was played in a small room behind the Deeside bar, which was less dingy and dodgy than it initially sounds.  There was plenty of room for the 10 participants to stretch their legs, put out their figures and boards, and rail against the world on varying subjects, including lunch, the method of balls returning to play, and how many millions of creds an upgrade cost before they settled down to play. 

The Players & Their Teams:

Pete – The Lost (Locusts)

James – Greenskin Clobbaz (Marauders)

Adrian – Orcland Raiders (Marauders)

Chris – simply :) (Marauders)

Mark – Plague Bearers (Veer-myn)

Laurent – Gromril Giants (Forge Fathers)

Paddy – Blue Bronzed Blitzers (Corporation)

Ian - Veer-myn Foundation (Veer-myn)

Andy – Hollywood All-Stars (Corporation)

Rick (yours truly) – Carbis Bay Buccaneers (Corporation)

The Teams.

The Rules:

The tournament consisted of four rounds in a league format, with the result to be decided within the day.  3 points were available for a 7-0 wipeout victory, 2 points for a run-of-the-mill victory, and 1 for a draw.  Nothing for a defeat, unsurprisingly.  In the event of a draw of points at the top some counting of the number of 3 and 4 point strikes would be required.  The matchups were drawn randomly from, in the absence of a decent hat, a glasses case (very rock and roll), with any reoccurring matchups redrawn to ensure players only met once.

Round 1:

The first round saw two draws, and shock victories for the Hollywood All-Stars (who had only learnt the rules on the previous Thursday) and the Veer-myn Foundation (who hadn’t actually learnt any rules, but didn’t let this put them off).  The remaining 3 games were very close.

The Lost Vs Carbis Bay Buccaneers (0-1)

Greenskin Clobbaz Vs J (0-0)

Blue Bronzed Blitzers Vs Gromril Giants (0-0)

Veery-myn Foundation Vs Orcland Raiders (3-0)

Hollywood All-Stars Vs Plague Bearers (6-0)

Round 2:

The first round had obviously broke the ice and scoring started in earnest, with no draws in round 2.  The ratmen of the Veer-myn Foundation were named for their tendency to provide the foundations for the league, but racked up another surprise victory against their marauder opponents.  Two teams very familiar with each other met in a grudge match as the Gromril Giants sought to put one over on their corporation rivals, but were heavily defeated.  Another grudge match saw the Plague Bearers defeat the Orcland Raiders, while, while the sole locust team went down to the other surprise package the Hollywood All-Stars. 

Carbis Bay Buccaneers Vs Gromril Giants (7-0)

The Lost Vs Hollywood All-Stars (0-3)

Greenskin Clobbaz Vs Veer-myn Foundation (0-7)

Orcland Raiders Vs Plague Bearers (0-2)

Blue Bronzed Blitzers Vs J  (5-0)

Round 3:

A spot of lunch later and it was now or never time for those who’d had a poor morning.  The Carbis Bay Buccaneers and Hollywood All-Stars picked up where they had left off with 7-0 wipe outs, although the 'Buccaneers were lucky to do so before their opponents destroyed their entire team.  Elsewhere The Lost and the Gromril Giants both gained their first wins, and the Blue Bronzed Blitzers stepped away from the tanning booths long enough to hold Veer-myn Foundation to a draw.

Carbis Bay Buccaneers Vs Plague Bearers (7-0)

Hollywood All-Stars Vs J (7-0)

Greenskin Clobbaz Vs The Lost (0-1)

Gromril Giants Vs Orcland Raiders (7-0)

Veer-myn Foundation Vs Blue Bronzed Blitzers (0-0)

Round 4:

With the results from round 3 in the possibilities were anything but clear, with the only certainty being that one of three teams would win the title.  The Carbis Bay Buccaneers led the table on 8 points, and played the Hollywood All-Stars (on 7 points) in a grandstand and voluntarily orchestrated finish.  The Veer-myn Foundation, on 6 points, waited in the wings hoping that a draw would enable them to sweep past.

In the event the ratmen lost to a Gromril Giants side grinding out the result.  Elsewhere The Lost fought hard to avoid defeat to the Blue Bronzed Blitzers but a final 4-point strike finished them off and the ‘Blitzers moved up to finish 3^rd.  The marauder team known simply as J lost a close game 1-0 to fellow maurauder side Orcland Raiders, and the Plague Bearers rounded off a forgettable tournament for the Greenskin Clobbaz with a 7-0 wipeout.

The title deciding game lasted longer than the rest in this final round, and after the Hollywood All-Stars capitalised on an early mistake by the Corporation side they rarely looked back.  A trading of 3-point strikes took the score swiftly to 6-0, but the Carbis Bay Buccaneers fought back three times (from 6-0, 6-0 and 5-0), with their star striker Dirk Pitt scoring two 4-point strikes and a 3-point strike to bring it back to 1-0, before another unforced error on the last turn yielded the game, and the title to the Hollywood All-Stars.

Greenskin Clobbaz Vs Plague Bearers (0-7)

Orcland Raiders Vs J (1-0)

Blue Bronzed Blitzers Vs The Lost (7-0)

Veery-myn Foundation Vs Gromril Giants (0-1)

Carbis Bay Buccaneers Vs Hollywood All-Stars (4-0)

The Final League Table:

Pos	Team	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Points
1.	Hollywood All-Stars	2	2	3	2	9
2.	Carbis Bay Buccaneers	2	3	3	0	8
3.	Blue Bronzed Blitzers	1	2	1	3	7
4.	Veer-myn Foundation	2	3	1	0	6
-	Gromril Giants	1	0	3	2	6
6.	Plague Bearers	0	2	0	3	5
7.	Orcland Raiders	0	0	0	2	2
-	The Lost	0	0	2	0	2
8.	J	1	0	0	0	1
-	Greenskin Clobbaz	1	0	0	0	1

The Awards:

Tournament Champions – Andy Canham with his Hollywood All-Stars

Best Painted – Adrian with his Orcland Raiders

The Carbis Bay Buccaneers.

The Gromril Giants.

A CoSHH nightmare - The Plague Bearers.

The Champions - The Hollywood All-Stars (Brad Pitt included!)

The clear winners of the Best Painted Award - The Orcland Raiders.

Three of the Greenskin Clobbaz menacing a veer-myn.  

One of the surprise packages - the Veer-myn Foundation.  

A rare shot of a guard from the famously publicity shy Blue Bronzed Blitzers.

 

The teams once more, this time with trophys next to the winning sides.

The winners once again - the Hollywood All-Stars during the final presentation.

The sole Locust team; The Lost.

A team known only as a symbol -   :-)

The Tournament In Numbers

• ·         Out of 20 matches a total of 7 ended in 7-0 wipeouts, three of which came in round 2.
• ·         Only 2 teams avoided defeat; the winners Hollywood All-Stars, and the tough men of the Blue Bronzed Blitzers.
• ·         The Corporation teams won the most points, with their three gaining 24, the two rat sides scoring 11, the single forge father getting 6, and the Locusts only just dropping below the three marauder teams; 2 vs 4.
• ·         The Carbis Bay Buccaneers claimed the most 7-0 wipeouts with 2.
• ·         If the tournament had been worked out on the post-lunch results the Gromril Giants would have come joint top; food obviously a factor.

Dreadball - The Carbis Bay Buccaneers!

I had a short and frank word with myself earlier this week, and decided that the name I had given my Dreadball Corporation team was, frankly, pants.  So pants I'm not even going to mention it.  So I’ve come up with one with much more originality, that sounds more interesting, and used the opportunity to plunder a couple of favourite pieces of fiction, although if anyone can guess BOTH I will be impressed….The owner remains the same, and with no further ado or guiding the lily, and with a colour photograph of the finished team and participants in this weeks Dreadball tournament, I give you……..

The Carbis Bay Buccaneers!

Their club owner is an eccentric mysterious individual of which little is known but much is rumoured, and is simply called Tiberius by his friends and team.  There is little record of his existence beyond 6 years ago, and he himself attributes his wealth to “a bit of adventuring”.

The Strikers: Dirk Pitt, ‘Mad Jack’ Dahlgren, Hector Barbossa, Jack Sparrow

The Jacks: Rudi Gunn, Will Turner, James Norrington, Joshamee Gibbs

The Guards: Al Giordino, ‘The Admiral’ James Sandecker

(Disclamer - This is a shocking photo which does not display the brilliance of my failings as a painter.  It will be replaced in due course).

Work In Progress......August 2013

August has been a very slow month for painting.   As in shockingly slow.  I blame football manager, and football in general.  I finally got the push I needed to finish my Dreadball team, which included making the last two corporation models (nasty mould lines) and all 10 are now painted to go with my referee and ball.  The push came courtesy of the Dreadball tournament which will be played out this Saturday; I’m aiming for non-humiliation and a mid-table position, any higher and I’ll be ecstatic.  The sand and flock order from Baccus arrived for use with my ACW 6mm troops, and I put it too use test-basing an infantry regiment to reasonably good results.  I'm working on two short posts about my ACW and about my Dreadball team.

Coming up this month – there is currently nothing blocking my work on my 6mm Union regiments, so I suppose I’ll have to have a bash at getting them based for an actual small game on a table somewhere.  Managing that by the end of the month will be a good target.  Sold the final remains of the Wood Elves, some Dwarfs and some Khemri skeletons, but misjudged the postage to devastating effect so I may as well have paid the ebayer to take them off my hands.  Sad face.

Other questions that dominate life include; why am I getting so many views on this blog?  Confused.   Painted section includes 6 Dreadball players and a regiment of Union 6mm infantry, which I’m counting as ‘1’ per strip of 4 mini-men, I’m over 300!

Painted: 309

Purchased:  441

Average Joes 2013 - Match Day 4

Average Joes 0 – 2 Orc Knees

Another day to forget for Average Joes as they lost back-to-back games for the first time in four years, and failed to register on the scoreboard in five years and five tournaments.  The two victories gained earlier in the campaign mean they should still qualify for the upper knockout rounds, but may now face meeting the winner of group 1 unless they gain an impressive victory over their match day 5 (last group game) human opponents.

This was ‘Joes third consecutive matchup against an Orc side, and it showed with a rating difference of 20, thanks to more injuries – this time it was rat Ogre Shirley and gutter runner The Rat who were unavailable.  The orcs won the toss and chose to receive in the midst of a first half snow blizzard.  The blizzard abated at half time, but only after the ‘Knees had scored and ‘Joes had lost two players seriously injured, of which they felt the loss of storm vermin Tank the keenest.  Luckily a couple of dodgy looking (and fairly masculine) bloodwiser ‘Babes’ convinced the several knocked out rats that the pitch was the safest place to be in the second half.  The Orcs had sportingly scored relatively early in the first half – turn 6 – and the rats had a chance at stealing a touchdown back immediately, but a combination of poor planning and a comical failed leap attempt by Pepper Brooks kept the score at 1-0.

The second half saw ‘Joes carry on where they left off, with an inept cage, followed by a gutter runner (Cotton McKnight this time) failing a simple dodge to leave the ball loose when it was easier to score.  They managed to fashion a third chance at equalising, but most of the 19,000 crowd were unsurprised by this time to see linerat ‘Dive’ fall over in the Orc endzone, and gift the Orcs the ball.  At this point the majority of ‘Joes 10,000 fans left the stadium.  The rats delaying tactics were dogged by more incompetence in the dodging department, and the orcs went on to score their second late on and put the seal on a solid victory.

Post-Game

In terms of tactics Average Joes improved on their previous two appearances verses Orc sides, choosing to stand off and let the opposition do the running while the rats took few casualties, whereas in previous matches they had got too close and suffered for it.  The lack of injuries could also be attributed to the Orcs failure to remove their kid cloves before kickoff.  A significant number of dodges were failed, along with 3 easy critical rolls which would have given an equaliser – by the third it became clear it simply wasn’t ‘Joes day.  On the up side however the two injured rats both recovered enough to return on match day 5 against the humans in the rats last attempt at gaining some points to boost them up the table and away from the big guns.  A full team of 15 players will be available.

Layout and the Mold Cape

Yes, your still in the right place, I've just tinkered with the layout for something to do while I wait for an iPhone to update and restore - the joys of modern life!

Thought I'd also add in something extra, rather than just have this as a 'I've changed the layout' post, so here goes:

I currently work with the Wrexham museum at the nearby Bersham Heritage Centre (good stuff, very interesting and thoroughly under-appreciated), but in the museum itself they currently have the Mold Cape until the 14th of September.  Well worth a visit even if your area of interest isn't the ealry bronze age, it just has a presence of its own, and is rated in the top ten of the British Museums treasures.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_prb/t/the_mold_gold_cape.aspx
http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/heritage/events.cfm

Work In Progress….July 2013

It’s a bit late for a July work in progress, but I’ve just realised I haven’t done one.  Too busy being distracted by a number of things (birthdays, work, unsuccessful job applications etc) to get my act together.  So onto a brief recap of the month;

Gauntlet has been and gone, and with it my English Civil War army which is now fully painted, and sitting in a set of foam trays upstairs desperately begging to be used again, something which hopefully won’t take too long.  Playing time has been split between a number of games, and I’ve had a bash at Saga with my Welsh, American Civil War with Will’s fantastic 20mm plastics, and Dreadball, as well as losing a Deeside league game of Bloodbowl.  Having finished the Royalists I decided to start painting a few of the 6mm American Civil War, and was pleasantly surprised in that not only did they look ok, they also painted up fairly swiftly.  I couldn’t decide, however, how to base them, apart from sticking them to 2mm thick MDF bases from Warbases.  After wandering in and out of the garage indecisively looking for a colour of flock I simply didn’t have I placed an order with Baccus for theirs, and a bag of their fine sand, and await the arrival of it. 

In terms of numbers for my painted ratio I am counting the strips of 4 infantry or 3 cavalry as 1 figure (to make the comparison to 28mm painting time etc).  I have now painted and stuck to their bases a total  of 36 strips of infantry, and 8 cavalry, and I’m working on another 14 strips at the moment.  They are sadly unfinished until I get the basing materials and add the varnish and flags!  They do make up a total of 3 infantry regiments (with 1 and 2 cannon on the painting table) and 2 cavalry troops however.  I have also painted up 4 members of my Dreadball team, having plumbed for a light blue colour for the strip, and gone with using the army painter dip system again.  It makes them a bit darker, but they look fine.

Scores on the doors time, and the last 32 from June are included because they weren’t last time out, plus the 4 Dreadball players and the referee.  The 6mm ACW will have to wait:

Painted: 293

Purchased:  441