Prussian Empire Takes to the Sea

The Whiz, on Rte 9 East in Westborough, is moving two miles closer to Rte 495. To lessen their move burden they are discounting everything in store from 15-50%. My friend Murf and I went to the store to see what we could buy. I purchased a lot of Dystopian Wars products including the Prussian Empire Battle Group.

Wasting no time I began to paint one Reiver Class Cruiser and one Arminius Class Frigate. Since it was late at night and with the recent craziness it wasn’t possible for me to spray prime the models (it won’t be possible for a few weeks). This resulted in an aggravating problem.

Applying Chaos Black onto the resin models, by hand, saw the models drinking the paint like a dehydrated man coming out of the Sahara. I simply could not believe my eyes. After awhile, their thirst quenched, the paint went on more or less normally. Perhaps spray priming will solve the problem. But, maybe someone has a suggestion?

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The Battle of Abington

Brigadier General Nathaniel Hawkinsworth was absorbed in the latest dispatches. The 22nd Massachusetts Brigade assembled at their camp where supplies trickled in. The civilian leaders were slow to dispense the necessary funds to equip his brigade with the armaments, clothing, food, baggage, and gun powder he needed to get the men ready for battle.

One of the dispatches warned of a British probe south of his position at a small town named Abington. It was mostly farm country but a small cadre of stores was hidden in the town along with an artillery battery promised to his brigade. The artillery must not fall into enemy hands!

Once he finished reading, a plan began to formulate. Colonel Abraham Turner would force march the 43rd Volunteers. With luck and some help from Providence they would secretly arrive before the British, meet up with the 132nd Continental Artillery, and defend the town. The detailed orders were drawn up immediately. Colonel Turner, blowing his nose on his handkerchief, entered the General’s tent to receive the orders. Immediately after he gathered his men and set off.

Only through the intercession of friends at the state house did General Washington even allow the 132nd to remain in Massachusetts. With a little more help they would be permanently detached to his brigade along with the already promised Continental infantry. Turner may not be the best for the job but he is certainly courageous and smart enough to adapt to the changing battle conditions. If only his men liked him better they’d march off a cliff at his order. General Hawkinsworth mused they would, in time, grow from merely respecting Turner to something more. War changes men….yes it certainly does, he thought.

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22nd Massachusetts Brigade Reporting

Brigadier General Nathaniel Hawkinsworth, commander, of the 22nd Massachusetts Brigade is prepared to devise a cunning plan that will push the Redcoats back into the ocean and, hopefully, send them packing to their mad King George. If only he could get his men to follow the plan it will be a smashing success.

As you may guess by that horrible attempt at fiction I made progress today to create a hybrid historical/fictional setting for my AWI army. This was first described in War of American Independence – Black Powder Style. Many thanks need to go to Tilman who recently prodded me to design support for my fictitious paint scheme. Thanks also need to be given to Henry Hyde for sharing the secrets to injecting personality into a campaign like he did with The Wars of the Faltenian Succession.

The 22nd Massachusetts Brigade

Why 22nd? Why not 91st or 43rd? I like the number 22. No other reason than that. I chose Massachusetts because I live there and my army is a militia army. What that means for army composition is a majority of the units will be militia with some Continental Army units tossed into the mix.

Composition

I decided to create a predominantly infantry brigade. There will be four infantry regiments, mainly militia but with some Continental Army, plus two artillery batteries of one gun apiece, and one cavalry regiment.

Breathing Life into Pewter

Each regiment and battery needs leadership. In Part VII and Part VIII of The Wars of the Faltenian Succession (see early issues of Battlegames Magazine for details) the topic of adding personality to an army is covered. The way this is handled in that campaign is by naming the commanders and creating ratings for each commander in certain attributes. Intelligence, Initiative, Courage, Charisma, Strength, and Health are produced by rolling a percentage die (d100) and writing down the result.

For my purposes the result is below (many thanks to my wife for helping to name the commanders):

Commander Int Init Cour Cha Str Hlth Role # of Men
Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Hawkinsworth 99 13 87 1 68 54 General Himself
Col. Thomas Bradford 84 5 12 53 95 55 Infantry 16
Cpt. Roger Ayer 61 99 62 68 98 63 Artillery 4 & gun
Cpt. Thaddeus Glockenspiel 55 83 26 96 74 42 Artillery 4 & gun
Col. Abraham Turner 55 64 74 12 89 20 Infantry 16
Col. Samuel Hitchins 27 58 87 9 28 97 Cavalry 12
Col. William Tinselbrock 21 45 8 79 8 99 Infantry 16
Col. Enoch Smith 15 3 84 46 86 43 Infantry 16

(Int=Intelligence, Init=Initiative, Cour=Courage, Cha=Charisma, Str=Strength, Hlth=Health)

The more I treated these names as real people the more they actually came alive.  Brigadier General Nathaniel Hawkinsworth is a military tactician and strategist of the highest order.  Massachusetts Bay is lucky to have him creating military strategy for the 22nd.  But, once the plan is planned he’s more likely to sit still perfecting his plan than actually enacting it.  Nathaniel isn’t afraid to lead from the front but his men hate him for it.  They think he’s nothing more than a pencil pusher who has no place in the front lines.  Everything he tries explodes in his face.  He’s can handle the rigors of warfare, the training, the marching, the tireless activity.  But, he doesn’t like to do any of that.

Each commander has his own story to tell.  Colonel Thomas Bradford is liked by his men for his willingness to debate ethics day after day after day after day.  Captain Roger Ayer has the strength of eight oxen and routinely pushes his 6pdr into place all on his own instead of waiting for help from the crew.  Captain Thaddeus Glockenspiel is beloved by all in the brigade but is secretly afraid of combat.  He joined the artillery corp in the hopes of killing all the redcoats before they get too close.  Colonel Abraham Turner is always sick.  He wheezes, coughs, sputters, sneezes, and exudes disease.  His men hate him for his stupidity and his illness.  Colonel William Tinselbrock is a weakling that turns tail at the slightest breeze.  Lastly, Colonel Enoch Smith.  He’s dumber than a brick, needing tons of time to understand the simplest order.  As soon as he knows what needs doing he’ll fight to the death with his brute strength and glass jaw.

The 22nd Massachusetts is nobody’s idea of the ideal fighting machine.  They’re inept, prone to idleness, arrogant, and timid.  Their faults are many.  Can they overcome these faults and give freedom to everyone in the 13 colonies?  Let’s hope so.

Artillery Crew at the Ready

At last it was time for my reward. I painted another group of six militia (article coming soon) finishing off my first militia regiment (excluding command). Now my 6pdr cannon would be given to its crew. The four crew members are Perry Miniatures AW101 Continental Artillery firing 6 pounder as is the 6pdr from the Artillery Barrage at the Ready article.

The artillerymen are the first non-militia models I painted for my army. Painting Continental soldiers require a different tact than the militia. For starters they have a uniform. Using Tarleton’s Quarter as inspiration I devised a plan. Cohesiveness is very important to make the army look like it belongs together. Joining the disparate militia and regular soldiers in a unified appearance was made easy with a standard color palette. Blue, Brown, and Green are the primary three colors that appear on all of the figures. Some models have blue coats and green pants. Others have Brown coats and blue pants. But all of them have blue, brown, and green on each model.

The Continental soldiers would have a modified uniform. Their coats, shirts, etc would be blue. The trousers are brown and accessories will be green unless another color is more accurate. For example, obviously wooden accessories will be painted in brown instead of green. My standard base coat, ink wash, and drybrush hi light method was also used. All paints are GW.

Brown
Khemri Brown-Gryphonne Sepia-Graveyard Earth
-Used on Pants

Calthan Brown-Gryphonne Sepia-Dessert Yellow
-Used on wooden pole to swab the gun

Blue
Mordian Blue-Asurmen Blue-Ice Blue
-Used on Coat/Shirt

Green
Knarloc Green-Thraka Green-Goblin Green
-Used on all accessories

Flesh
Tallarn Flesh-Ogryn Flesh-Elf FLesh
-Hands and faces

White
Skull White-Badab Black-Skull White
-Used on chest straps

Grey
Codex Grey
-Drybrushed onto hats and boots to provide shading.

The models were finally protected with a coat of gloss varnish followed by Testor’s Dullcote. You can see pictures below of the pre-varnished models followed by the completed battery. My apologies for the poor quality.

CWF Game Cast Episode 61: Bailey Records Music to Game By

CWF #61: Bailey Records Music to Game By Download (741)

Host Jonathan J. Reinhart and guest host Drew McCarthy begin with the usual week in gaming. Drew mentions dropping from a weekly RPG he was participating in. Jonathan announces dropping from the the monthly Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition he played with Drew McCarthy and his friends. Additionally, he discussed the many painting projects he is completing.

The duo talk about the informal Saturday gaming social Jonathan set up at Battleground Games & Hobbies in Plainville. At it Drew learned how to play War at Sea using the 2010 Starter. Cort N. stopped by the event, showed his 25mm Old Glory AWI Redcoats and numerous 15mm Napoleonics and 6mm GHQ WWII models. Plus, he showed off the Napoleon’s Triumph board game. Thoughts are bantered as to why the event was sparsely attended. Jonathan mentions wanting to do another one of these and promises to better research what other events will be taking place at the same time. A Magic: The Gathering release took up most of the space in the store. Drew highlights an upcoming Warhammer 40k Singles Tournament held by BG.

Jonathan then mentions the monthly Painting Social at BG Plainville along with similar events held by Adler Hobby in Hollis, New Hampshire and The Whiz on Rte 9 East in Westborough. A short discussion ensues covering the hobby side of gaming, i.e. assembly and painting. The co-hosts both declare their dislike for assembling models and Jonathan shares that he nows enjoys painting. He lists his pile of painting projects for Black Powder and what he hopes to work on at the Painting Social. Thankfully most historical figures require no assembly. Dystopian Wars is also mentioned and weighed in regards to assembling and painting the models.

The two discuss painting and painting setups. Jonathan mentions his Ott craft light and using cork to affix models that he is painting. Drew discusses how different lights alter how models look whether one uses sunlight/Ott lights, fluorescent, etc.

The show moves on to reviewing Bailey Records and their gaming soundtracks. Bryan K. “Stratos” Borgman generously donated the albums: Autumnal Slumber, Warlands The Soundtrack, and Cybernet Official Roleplaying Soundtrack.

Drew disliked the heavy Jazz influence that permeates throughout the Cybernet album. At first listen the Warlands album was something that Drew would like but then it turned into more techno, which Autumnal Slumber also did. Drew felt they were good albums but not his favored genre. Technically speaking he felt they were beautifully crafted and he enjoyed the Eastern feel in some of the titles.

Jonathan counters saying how much he enjoyed the albums. Both agree that the albums would be perfect for the right setting and right type of game as a means to set the mood for gamers. Autumnal Slumber is cited as Jonathan’s favorite and it was the one Drew “disliked the least.” In Jonathan’s opinion Warlands was his least favorite. It has a purposefully disjointed feel to reflect the post-apocalyptic setting it depicts. Many apologies for the loud drinking noises from Jonathan’s bunnies during this review.

Both agree that they want to listen to more music by Stratos. To quote Drew, “I want to listen to everything he has.” Concluding the music discussion Drew gives the albums 3 out of 5 stars and Jonathan gives them 4 out of 5 stars citing the low purchase cost as increasing the value. There will be an album to accompany Bryan’s forthcoming miniatures game titled Kaiju Kaos.

The Name The Podcast Contest Deux is mentioned. Submissions are coming in but it is still possible to enter your ideas! Please e-mail them to cwfgamecast@wargamingforums.com, leave a comment on Facebook or on this blog. One person will win a prize basket that includes a 1 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION TO BATTLEGAMES MAGAZINE (courtesy of Henry Hyde, Editor of Battlegames Magazine), plus other prizes. Please check out Name the Podcast Deux for full details and information.

The Huzzah Con T-Shirt Giveaway, shirts courtesy of Dean Emmerson and the Maine Historical Wargamers Association, lasts until the last shirt is given away. The first 5 people to e-mail cwfgamecast@wargamingforums.com win a FREE Huzzah 2011 Viking Dawn T-shirt. The available sizes are 1 XXL and 4 Larges. Include your t-shirt size and mailing address in the e-mail. Take a peek at this picture of Jonathan wearing the con t-shirt.

The show’s remainder is devoted to the Mailbag. Listener feedback, mostly focusing on painting, is shared. Giles Allison’s Tarleton’s Quarter blog is cited as an inspiration for painting AWI figures. Jonathan talks about how the podcast is connecting local gamers. Both Cort N. and new listener Aonghus have given feedback on this subject. Drew and Jonathan compare and contrast the GW metric with historical gaming. Each has its benefits and their faults. One makes it easy to find an opponent whereas the other offers freedom to use any rule set. This is the iPhone vs. Droid debate of gaming.

The show winds down with the the Music to Game By segment with Bailey Records’ “Prelude To Armageddon” from Stratos’ album Warlands The Soundtrack along with the Battlegames Magazine promo.

As always we conclude with a message from our sponsor, 12-7-Games.com, contest sponsor Battlegames Magazine, our Creative Commons license and contact information (find us on Facebook and Twitter).

We hope you enjoy this episode of the CWF Game Cast and are eager for your feedback (both positive remarks and constructive criticism). Send it all to cwfgamecast at wargamingforums dot com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, or Xbox Live with gamertag cwfgamecast.

Our intro song is “Downtown” by Matthew Ebel. Please give his other music a listen at www.matthewebel.com.