Friday, September 23, 2011

Next AWI Project? An Update....

STEVE!  Finish the project you're working on now for God's sake! 

Great visionaries don't think that way.  At least I like to tell myself that.

When I finally game the Battle of Hubbardton, I had originally planned on going right into the Battle of Saratoga and game Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights.  Then I realized I dont have anywhere near the amount of lead, pewter, or plastic to game that at the Tactical level with Guns of Liberty.  So I'm going to tackle a few more more projects -

The Battle of Princeton in 15mm using Guns of Liberty rules to play, and the Battle of Brandywine (Chadd's Ford) in 6mm using Volley & Bayonet.  That should use up literally ALL of my 6mm AWI troops and be a fun diversion from my planned other projects at this point.

The projects I am either working on now or starting within the next few months include:

20mm Vietnam "Force on Force" Project.  1:72 US GI's in Vietnam along with their Vietcong and NVA opponents.  I am also completing an ARVN and US Special Forces cadre to go along with them.  I would love to purchase an M48 Patton Tank with the 90mm gun, an M113 APC, and a Soviet PT-76 all in 1:72 scale for some larger, beefier Vietnam games.

15mm AWI Battle of Hubbardton Project.  I re-started the Battle of Hubbardton Project in 15mm.  I figured 15mm is my scale of choice for most projects, (6mm being the other most popular scale) so it amde good sense that I restart this hallowed and important project especially considering I had so many 15mm AWI guys!

15mm World War II CROSSFIRE Project.  I have completed a Soviet WWII Rifle Company in 15mm and plan on completing another one soon.  Right now I've got a batch of Germans (1 platoon and 1 support platoon) complete.  I need to finish the German Rifle Company, start a US Paratrooper Company, and re-start my British Para's for Market Garden games.

6mm Re-Basing Project.  Yes, yet again I am rebasing my 6mm figures to accomodate Volley & Bayonet games.  (i'll worry about how I'm going to store them AFTER I build them...) Since I love the operational level of war, it makes sense that since an entire Brigade is represented by 1 stand, it should LOOK like a Brigade.  6mm dudes allow me to get that look.  Also, pre Napoleonic wars stands are represented by sweet-looking "Regimental" Stands where one 3" X 1" stand represents a Regiment, making the Battles of Leuthen, Minden, and Lobositz perfectly do-able in an afternoon.  Genres include ACW, AWI, SYW, and Nappies.  Yeah I've got alot of 6mm guys.  That's why it's my Number 2 Scale!

Napoleonics Project.  I am a co-contributor over at A Bit of Colored Ribbon.  As such I will be occasionally dabbling into my 15mm and 20mm Napoleonics to product Shako and Age of Eagles Armies (respectively).  Shako is a tactical level game where formations are Battalions and Age of Eagles is a more operational level game where formations are Brigades.  I plan on using 15mm for Shako Napoleonics and Shako SYW Austrian and Prussian combat.  Age of Eagles will be played with 20mm HaT British, French, and Ykreol Portuguese troops.

MicroArmour Project.  After all of this other stuff I plan on re-basing my MicroArmour for Battlefront WWII.  Daunting task considering I will have to switch out literally all of my stands for 1 1/4 inch stands.  That's fine though because both Blitzkrieg Commander, Cold War Commander, Battlefront WWII, and GHQ's WWII MicroArmour the game are all Platoon Level games so the basing convention will be ok at that size.  I'm very excited about this project especially considering my infantry stands will look like real platoons and squads now!  Not fireteams that represent platoons.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Armoured Acorn

http://www.armouredacorn.com/index.html

Must remember to add this to the link list.  Thanks to the Battlefront WWII Site for their very extensive support.  I have never seen so much well laid out OOBs and gaming support for a rules set - even from the Blitzkrieg Commander/Cold War Commander site.

All you need is the rule book and cards - you can get everything else from the battlefront support site on fireandfury.com

Cannot wait to rebase my 6mm miniatures into section stands of 2 tanks each and squad stands.  I can still game GHQ and BKC with these stands - they'll just be 1/4 inch larger around.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Back in the Fight

Back from an extended vacation to Hawaii and I am hopped up to finish some projects, start some new ones, and game some small battles with my limited terrain here at the FOB.

During the extremely long plane ride and some extended stays on some beautiful beaches, I read "Force on Force" and am really pumped up to finish the Vietnam Project so I can game some battles in the Iron Triangle with the US Army's vaunted "Tropic Lightning" Division!  Especially after being on the current US Military stronghold of Hawaii.

Also got to hike around "buku" fortifications in preparation for a Japanese invasion during the late 30's early 40's.  It was amazing to see preparations on US Soil like that.  Pillboxes, fire control centers, and mortar pits were just some of the action I got to see.  Can't wait to start a Japanese WWII Project.

Expect to see me finally finish my AWI Highlanders and Light-Bobs as well as Seth Warner's Green Mountain Boys as well. All this and more - stay tuned.

PS I also expect to begin contributing to over at Dave F's excellent Napoleonic Blog  "A Bit of Colored Ribbon"   Go there and link to his site.  I cannot wait to begin painting up some test figures to try out my technique.

That being said, if anyone has any tips or advice regarding Force on Force, I'm all ears.  I am very much looking forward to gaming that system with my modern US, Brits, French, Chinese, Muhj Fighters, etc.  Huzzah! 

It's good to be back.