Thursday 31 July 2014

Flying under the radar

Evan and I were just talking about how we've been neglecting our blogging duties of late. To be fair, I've got loads going on with a Japanese exchange student in the house this week, plus a load of fire brigade activity too. Still... none of that is an excuse so by way of explanation of things I am doing here's a quick run down of what I'm doing right now.

1. Pulling together the next game in my ECW campaign with Adam and Curt. This installment will be some sort of all cavalry engagement which will be a good change of pace. I don't often do this sort of game so it should prove a challenge to both design and play.

2. Reading a cracking book about Australians in the First World War. It's as much about the families involved and aftermath as it is about the battle in question itself. I suspect the author started out to write one story and ended up writing another. Not necessarily a bad thing if done carefully. I'd seen mixed reviews but I got it super-cheap on sale I'm struggling to put it down. If you have the opportunity I highly recommend it.

3. Stripping a pile of miniatures for Warhammer Fantasy (more Savage Orcs) and a few odds and sods for other projects. Why some people paint with the seeming intent of filling up all the available detail on a miniature I don't know.


And finally...

4. Working on a super-secret project with a bunch of like-minded loonies [ahem!] talented individuals.
All will be revealed soon i.e. when we get our collective act together. :-)

Before I sign off, a quick welcome to r.a.e. gingerbhoy, Matthew Parmer, Sander, service ration distribution and quidamcorvus who have all joined us recently. I have no idea what half of your names mean but it's great to have you aboard!
Cheers,
Millsy

Sunday 20 July 2014

Thee Most Bloody Battle of Curmudgeon Moor

Upon this day, 27th day of March in the year of Our Lorde God 1642, thee forces of Parliament did most bloodily defeate thee forces of Kynge Charles I 'pon the field of Curmudgeon Moor. For all thee most valiant forces of the Kynge did defye thine enemy, they possessed nott thee strength of arms to prevayle. What now may save thee goodfolk of Nottyngham Town?

Today I fought out the second battle in our fledgling ECW campaign. This installment was the Battle of Curmudgeon Moor and after a most bloody contest the forces of Parliament broke through the Royalist blocking force and continued their march upon Nottingham. I played the part of the Royalist commander and Curt played the part of the Parliament commander by email via written orders. We used Victory Without Quarter by Clarence Harrison from Qunidia Studios. What follows is a quick battle report and photos of the action as it happened.

The Parliament left

The Royalists line the hedgerows
Turn One
Parliament foote advances towards the Royalists line in the hedges, with their horse hanging back to see what develops. The Royalists hold their line and their falconet fires, hitting a unit of enemy pike and shotte, forcing a morale test which the pass easily.

There's grisly work ahead for the surgeons in the safety of the churchyard

Turn Two
Parliament foote advances once again towards the Royalists line in the hedges with their still horse hanging back to see what develops. The Royalists stand firm, waiting for the most opportune moment to fire.

Turn Three
The Parliament foote and horse now both advance, the foote rapidly closing. Royalist artillery fires again, this time to no effect.

Parliament advance
Turn Four
With Parliament foote now within musket range the Royalist commanded shotte lining the hedges delivers a volley to little effect. Their falconet fires again forcing another morale test from the same unit of pike and shotte which they once again pass, continuing to advance despite the increasing danger.

Turn Five
Parliament foote is now within musket range too and stops to deliver an ineffective volley against the commanded shotte lining the hedges. In response the Royalist foote return fire with a devastating effect, inflicting serious damage and causing a morale test which is failed. The Parliament unit in question is shaken but continues to advance.

Parliament foote charge the falconet that has tormented them

Turn Six
Across the line the Parliament forces are now within touching distance of the hedges. The foote which have been targeted by the Royalist falconet all afternoon charge home with a cheer and overrun the gun, killing the crew. On the Parliament right flank their horse, bravely led by their commander charges through a hail of close range musket fire and crashes into the Royalist pikes. They do bloody work, killing many and driving the foote back. Concerned by his own right flank the Royalist commander in turn leads his sole unit of horse to head off the flanking enemy cavalry hoping all the while his foote can stand firm.

A devastating Royalist volley

Crunch! All six Parliament dice scores hits despite the best effort of the foote with a triple six
Turn Seven
The Royalist commanded shotte lining the hedges continues its horrible work, pouring volley after volley into the advancing Parliamentarians. Two units of Parliament foote are broken and flee the field whist the third crosses the hedge where the Royalist artillery once sat. Royalist foote now begins to give ground. The Parliament horse finishes off the Royalist foote, breaking them in a prolonged melee and running down the survivors. The way is now open to Nottingham! The Royalist horse are now beyond recall and with swords flashing counter-charge the flanking Parliament horse, smashing them to pieces and driving them from the field in a single turn. Rupert would be proud, yet like most Royalist cavalry in the war their wonderful efforts are in vain.

More murderous musketry from the Royalists

The broken Royalist foot turn to flee

Smashed! Royalist cavalry destroy their foes in a single turn

Turn Eight
As night draws ever closer the remaining foote of both sides are locked in a struggle for control of the hedgerows. The Royalist cavalry turn and attempt to cover the road to Nottingham despite their true nature but it is too late. The Parliament commander has reached the road ahead of them and the way is open for the advance South. Parliament has won the day as night falls but at a truly horrible cost.

The closing act

Yet the struggle continues amongst the hedges

Parliament reaches the road to Nottingham and win the day

A quick note on Victory Without Quarter...
I've not used the rules before despite having had a copy for some time. It played extremely well and produced a fast paced, most enjoyable game. The outcomes of the various actions reflected historical outcomes well and it worked brilliantly for solo play. I thoroughly recommend it and can't wait for another chance to play.

Cheers,
Millsy

Tuesday 15 July 2014

Help me find a Necromunda Delaque Leader please


OK, I give up! For months I've been trying to get the one miniature I need to complete my collection of first edition Necromunda Delaque gangers.

I've watched a few sell on eBay for frankly stupid sums and I'm neither inclined nor sufficiently wealthy to pay upwards of $40 plus postage for one 28mm miniature.

If anyone has this miniature in their collection and is willing to part with it for a sensible price / trade please let me know.

Cheers,
Millsy

Monday 14 July 2014

German Ostfront Grenadiers Complete

This is officially the Year of Finishing Unfinished Projects here at Chez Millsy. Thus far things are well and truly on track and the following is proof - my completed Flames of War 2000pt Eastern Front German Grenadier army for Mid/Late War.

Over the last few weeks I've finished the following:

Full grenadier platoon one

Full grenadier platoon two

120mm heavy mortars

Machine guns
That gives me a really solid force when combined with all the completed support and weapons platoons. All up the force consists of the following:
  • HQ plus attachments
  • Full grenadiers
  • Full grenadiers
  • MGs
  • 120mm heavy mortars
  • Light infantry guns
  • Heavy infantry guns
  • PaK 36s (4)
  • PaK 36(r)s (4)
  • 1/2 battery of nebelwefers (3)
  • Full black pioneers with goliath
  • StuG Gs (3)
  • Marder Is (2)
I've gone for a sort of Spring/Summer woodland theme on the bases with plenty of exposed earth and some weeds/flowers/grass tufts amongst all the rock and broken trees.

When laid out it takes up a fair bit of space as you can see from the following (which is sans armour and a few transports as well).




I'm well chuffed to have this finished. The grenadiers were horribly miscast to the tune of about one in five miniatures and required significant work to get them up to something like usable. They are the main reason it took so long to get this army complete. They're quite nice sculpts but the end product was of such inferior quality I won't be buying Forged in Battle miniatures again. A shame really as they are much better value than Battlefront.

Cheers,
Millsy

Savage Orc Army Update

I've been putting off basing work for some time now. I find it really tedious and will do most anything to avoid it. The inevitable consequence is that when I DO get round to it I have a pile to do and that was the case with the Savage Orcs.

So anyway, over the last couple of evenings I've knuckled down and completed everything that has been painted to date. And here they are, photographed in the lovely afternoon sunshine yesterday...

Da Red Arrerz. Dakka dakka!

Da Bloo Skullz. Big 'Uns with extra hand weapons and Da Idol of Gork. Or maybe Mork.

Da (Not So) Big Waaagh


Next up I need to paint some vanilla boyz...

Cheers,
Millsy

100K Giveaway winners

Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments on our 100K milestone. Now that the cut-off date for entries into the giveaway has passed we can announce the results thanks to good old random.org.

If your name appears below please use the contact form on the right-hand side of the blog to forward your full name and address so we can get your loot into the post.

Prize ONE
Won by..... Johnny Rosbif!

Prize TWO
Won by..... Natholeon!

Prize THREE
Won by..... Pat G!

Prize FOUR
Won by..... Robert Hingley!

Winners have 7 days to claim their prizes or we'll pass to the next individual in each draw.

Thanks again to everyone who took part and congratulations to the winners!

Cheers,
Millsy

Saturday 12 July 2014

100K Giveaway - Now in the Home Stretch!


The C&G lads are celebrating 100,000 page views, and there are only seven and a half hours to go before the Canister & Grape 100K Giveaway closes at midnight, Australian Eastern Standard Time!

Get your entries in here and you could win your choice of one of the four great prizes up for grabs - don't delay, enter now!

Cheers,

Ev



Saturday 5 July 2014

100K and a giveaway



Right then, so sometime over the last 24 hours we coasted through the 100K page views mark on the blog.
As you'd expect the increasing number of followers (now 175) and the increasing number of posts (282, with Evan more than doing his share) is helping that along significantly. That aside, we are immensely grateful for all our wonderful blogging mates who pop by and leave comments and participate in our madness.

Having hit the milestone it's time for the bit of the old giveaway madness that we all love so much.
We're going to stick with the tried ans tested rules for getting yourself into the prize draw.

The rules
Do each of the following for one entry in the draw and up to three if you do the lot.
  1. Leave a comment on this post telling us which prizes you would like in order of preference.
  2. Provide a link back to this post from your own wonderful blog.
  3. Become a new follower of the blog.
The draw
The compo closes at midnight AEST Saturday 12 July (one week from now). We'll use a suitably random method for working our the lucky winners and post the results on Sunday morning.

Prizes
Prizes will be allocated based on people's preferences. Once you have won something you'll be out of the running for any remaining prizes i.e. one prize per person only. The first winner gets to choose from the lot, the second winner the two remaining prizes, etc.

Here's the loot...

Prize ONE
The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates,
Rome's Deadliest Enemy

By Adrienne Mayor
New papaerback





Prize TWO
War At Sea In The Ironclad Age
By Richard Hill
New hardback






Prize THREE
1/72 US WWII Plastic Miniatures
1 x box of Valiant Miniatures American GIs 1942/44
New in box


Prize FOUR
1/72 US WWII Plastic Miniatures
2 x boxes of Armourfast Sherman M4A3 75mm
New in box
Armourfast link




So thanks once again for getting involved and get cracking with your entries! Let the craziness begin...

Cheers,
Millsy and Evan
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...