TTCombat Italian House

The annual madness that is the Painting Challenge is up and running.  First post for me is a BUA for my Italian Wars project in 28mm.  This piece is from TTCombat and I picked it up at Meeplemart during a trip to Toronto the Centre of the Universe last fall.  

This was my first kit from TTC and I was quite pleased with it.  TTC uses a heavy pdf than Sarissa or Warbases and it required a bit of work with the Xacto to trim the pieces from the frame and to make sure than Tab A fit in Slot B securely.  As such there are some gaps on this first effort that hopefully will be rectified on further efforts.  Paint work is very basic, I left the pdf and greyboard unprimed and used washes in various earth tones.

As can be seen TTC provide some interior details but I chose not to paint the interiors.  I glued the two floors together but left the roof as lift off, but the upper story could be left in lift off state as well.  This would be useful in skirmish gaming.

This kit (plus two other on the workbench) come from TTC' Streets of Venice range which is worth checking out.  The structures would be useful for many historical periods plus fantasy gaming.  Although labelled for Venice I think it will do for any Italian locale.  I was quite pleased when I showed this to my wife (who unlike me has been to Tuscany) who said it looked like Sienna.  

Points wise the building is 6" tall, 6"long and 3" wide.  That's a perfect demi-cube and an easy to calculate 10 points. 

Merry Christmas Everyone

Hope that the day brings you everything that you expect!  My exams are marked and grades recorded in the system.  My daughter is home and my mother in law is visiting and we’re as set as we’re going to be.

New posts after Boxing Day once I get rolling on the Painting Challenge X.

Challenge Time Again

The 10th Edition of the Painting Challenge has been announced and I've entered it again.  It will be my nth time in the challenge (n is a positive integer less than 10 and beyond my aging memory as I type).

There are  few twists this year including the mysterious challenge map below.  I've no idea what this involves but I'm up for a challenge and a mystery.

So what are in my plans this Winter?

• More 28mm SYW units, French and Hanoverian
• 28mm mdf buildings for the SYW and Italian Wars
• 1/2400 Chilean, Peruvian and British ironclads for the battle of Pacocha and the War of the Pacific
• 1/2400 Anglo-Dutch Wars squadrons
• What ever else my fevered imagination and  short attention span come up with.

Taking Time To Remember

My father who served in the Royal Navy in Korea
My great uncles who served in WW2, especially Peter killed in the fall of Singapore
My grandfather who fought on the Western Front in WW1
My great grandfather who served in the Tirah campaign on India’s north west frontier
And many others

Dutch Delights? A New Project

It’s been quiet on the blog over the last few months, because life has been busy other wise.  My daughter shifted Unis  across Canada, with most of August spent shipping her back to Halifax and most of September spent recovering from that while diving into the fall term.  October saw me on the road four times, Montreal, Banff, Prince Albert and Toronto.

There’s been gaming with the regular group including a WW2 naval and some General d’Armee and board games and much planning for the upcoming challenge.  Book purchases and blog readings (Barry Hilton being a particular bad influence)  lead me to the Anglo Dutch naval wars.  So to that end I’ve gone and bought two squadrons from TumblingDice 1/2400 range.  More on this to follow.

In the meantime I've been having a go at gaming by email using Barry Hilton's collection.  You can read an AAR of my first action here.  He gave several blog followers a point list and asked us to come up with small squadrons.  Mine is based on the squadron De Ruyter took to Africa and the New World just before the start of the Second Dutch War.  In the first action I sailed into a British trading post and recovered two Dutch Indiamen held by those perfidious Brits.  Pictures filched from Barry's site below - they make great eye candy and I hope I can do half as well.

I was given a photo of the game board with some details on the Brits and gave Barry a set of orders.  It all worked out rather nicely I think.

SYW Action - Battle for Windmill Hill

Last week I put on a SYW action using my 28mm toys and using Honours of War for the first time.  This featured mostly units that i had put together in the past two editions of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and the first action for a lot of the units on table.

The opposing forces were as follows
British-Allied
CinC General Mohr (Jeremy)
Infantry Brigade (dithering)

• Royal Welsh Fusiliers (superior), Keith's Highlanders, Hessian Erbprinz Regiment, Hessian Garrison  Regiment Kutzleben (small)
• Hessian light artillery battery

Cavalry Brigade (dashing)

• 15th Light Dragoons, Hanoverian Luckner's Hussars (inferior)

Detached unit Hessian Jaegers light infantry with rifles

French 
CinC General St-Andre (Stacey) 
 
Infantry Brigade (dithering)

• Grenadiers de France (superior), Touraine, Diesbach, Nassau Royal-Louis
• Light artillery battery

Advant-Garde (dashing)

• Orleans Dragoons (inferior), Bercheny Hussars (inferior)
• Chasseurs de Fischer light infantry

Detached unit Volontaires de 'lArmee light infantry 

Each side deployed 6" on the table with the objective of taking Windmill hill in the centre.  Terrain wise the hill was gentle,  I counted the windmill base as light cover but not as a BUA and there were some BUAs and woods and a stream on the flanks and back table edges.

The table after one move, Allies on the left and French on the right.

The French deployment with Curt looking on philosophically

Allied deployment

The start of the cavalry clash.  This ended up with the French routed and the Allies victorious in no state to continue without rallying

Infantry scrum with Diesbach fighting the highlanders with Grenadiers and Fusiliers in support.  On the right Touraine has force the Hessians back and captured the battery.  On the left the Voluntiares charged the Fusiliers in the flank to remove their support from the Highlanders.

Later in the action with both sides taking casualties, retreating and/or routing.  Fischer have occupied the windmill and force the Jaegers back.  On the far right the cavalry battle continues towards it's bloody conclusion

I'll put some thoughts together on the rules.  In general the gave the right result and were easy to pickup, but felt too mechanical.  

Gaming With Miles AAR Part Deux

More photos from my game with Miles.

One unit of defenders pushed back out of the position, with two others taking casualties and a fourth now moving in to counterattacks.

More horsey catastrophes!

Geekism in action!

And again!

Yes that's right Miles, put down the phone and smile!

Reinforcements at last, but alas too late.

I really enjoyed the GDA system and hope to play more games with it.  I like the uncertainty of the brigade activation, which hampered my assault on the monastery several turns running.  However, I sometimes wonder if our little tin brigadiers know better than I do.  A full all assault might have worked but at cost, while the slow but steady attrition definitely worked.