Hello all,


I am a friend of Colin, and I am writing to let you know of some sad news. Over the past year Colin has been struggling with brain cancer, and has lost his battle with it. I am not sure how many of you knew Colin personally, but he was one of the finest people I have ever met. I truly enjoyed knowing him, and sharing his passion for wargaming.
Colin was patient, kind, and extremely humorous. His impersonations from various movies always got a great laugh from the guys in our group in charlotte.
Colin and I did quite a few videos together where he taught many difficult games with ease. SOme of his favorites were DBA, Lion Rampant, Songs of Drums and Tomahawks, and Maurice.
He is missed terribly, but his faith in God was strong to the end.
I am sure he would want to thank you for your following his page, and if you ever want to hear his voice you can always go to the youtube channel below to enjoy a few minutes we shared together.


God bless you all, and take care.


Charles Cabell


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdgdNIyNKYY&t=10s

Musing about Dux Bellorum

So I have owned a nook copy of Daniel Mersey's excellent Dux Bellorum rules for battles in dark age Britain since they were published in 2012. I've even played a handful of games, using my figures based for DBA. It's a great game, and I'd like to play more of it!

But the aesthetics of the way I've played it leave something to be desired; a cohesion dice behind every 40mm DBA base, and those dice being 12mm size, means it doesn't look as clean and minimalist as DBA. The dice tend to over-power the figures on the bases, and detract from the look of the game. The number of figures per unit looks puny.

Dice show cohesion, glass beads for leadership points (LPs). Too much table clutter!

So I know this an example of an "ooh shiny" distraction, particularly as I am trying to focus on finishing my French division for Drums and Shakos Large Battles, but for years now I have thought about someday making armies specifically for Dux Bellorum, on 80mm x 40mm deep bases, with something called a dice frame on each base, for tracking cohesion. If you're not familiar with these, they are little mdf square frames, specially sized for dice in 5mm, 7mm, 10mm, and even 12mm sizes. You glue the frame onto the base, and it holds the dice in place while you move the unit. It seems like the ideal solution for a game like Dux Bellorum.

Aside from the dice frames though are the look of the units themselves. I have seen a lot of armies for this game on the 'web, and have found the 10mm armies most attractive: instead of a single, uniform rank of soldiers as in DBA, the warriors clump together in a wedge, some braver warriors charging ahead, spurred on by a lust for glory in single combat. Shield wall units have tight formations gathered around their standards. And cavalry ("riders" in the game) charge ahead, not in a neat orderly rank, but staggered. Impetus, a rival game to DBx, uses this style of diorama basing, and the examples I've seen have been quite impressive. I think it would make the game more enjoyable to have integral cohesion dice and more scenically attractive units.

So for the last 5 or 6 years I have window-shopped on the Internet for 10mm figures I could use to make this happen, with the Pendraken figures a leading contender, and recently the beautiful 6mm figures by Baccus Miniatures. Then there is the question of base size: for these smaller scales, my thought was 60mm x 40mm.

Frustrated with FoG

But lately, I have been considering that I should stick to 15mm, and make use of the figures and scenery I have. Several years back, my friends in California and I were playing Field of Glory, and I had collected and painted an early Visigoth army with Old Glory 15mm figures. I still have it, and it is a beautiful army to behold: I could run several 12 element battle groups, plus the maximum allowed cavalry.

Too bad the army turned out to be a loser though; the way combat worked in the game, it did not matter that my warbands (battle groups) were half again to twice the size of the Roman units. Only the first rank would fight in the impact phase, and the first two in the melee phases that followed. If the Romans could do well in the impact phase (likely) then they were certain to win in the following melee rounds, where they held two points of advantage (skilled swordsmen vs. swordsmen, armored vs. protected).

So when we moved to the east coast, I kept the figures because I could still use them for any DBx game, especially DBA. But as much as I enjoyed FoG for Hundred Years' War, crusades, and bronze age (1 game only-I won!), I hated playing late Romans vs. Visigoths. I was not going to bother painting a FoG sized Roman army to repeat the agony inflicted on me by my regular opponent.

Using the Visigoths for Dux Bellorum

So taking inventory of my barbarians, I have plenty of troops to make units with four times the number of foot bases (16 figures), and twice the number of mounted figures (6 figures). An example of this is portrayed in the rule book with Feudal Castings 15mm figures. Even though my barbarians are central European/Germanic and are probably not appropriate for dark age Britain (far too many redheads and blonds for Welsh, Britons, or Irish), I have enough stands to make 10 warrior units and five rider units, plus 2 mounted skirmishers and 5 foot skirmishers with bows.

The Achilles heel with this idea though, is that I do not have a corresponding number of shield wall army figures. So I have been thinking of following through on my dream of making a shield wall army for DB, instead of just adding more DBA stands. I have decided to stick with 15mm on this project, instead of going with 10mm or 6mm (nice as they are), for the following reasons:

• I only need to build one army to start with, while my FoG Visigoths play the part of the warrior army, until I can buy the appropriate figures for Welsh, Picts, or Irish.
• Old Glory 15s, from Nineteenth Century Miniatures, are the same brand as my Visigoths, and they have a wider array of dark ages armies appropriate for the game, when the time comes to build a warrior army.
• While I am decided on Romano-British, if I want to try the cataphract option for late romans, I can just put two Parthian cataphract stands side by side. That way, I don't have to buy those figures for just one unit. 
• The 80mm frontage makes it easy to use my existing figures, and I just so happen to have some 80mm x 40mm stands from Litko (bought when DBA War Wagons were mounted on that size). That way I can experiment with some basing ideas for DB.

Basing Experiments

The first thing I need to do, before buying any more figures, is to base up some figures on the 80mm x 40mm bases, and see how they look. Since I'll be basing the troops for this game in irregular formations, I will need fewer than the 16 figures that would normally fit in this space on DBx bases, especially when I'll need to leave room on the rear of each base for the dice frame. My estimate is that 10-11 warrior figures will be sufficient for one warrior unit, or a little less than 3 of my 41 stands of Visigoths. I can certainly spare those figures, or say 5-6 stands out of 41 to make 2 warrior units for DB.

I still need to remove the figures from the DBA bases to re-arrange the warriors and leave room for the dice frame, but on this 80mm x 40mm base, it looks like I could save 25% on figures, compared with the same base width in DBA. Not bad!  

I also scrounged from the lead pile 3 leftover barbarian cavalry figures (all Old Glory); painted, I could then put them together with 2 additional figures from among my "troop commanders" that I don't use with DBA. This would be 5 mounted figures, which  

is what I expect will look good for rider units (instead of six figures). I hope that I can stagger the horses a bit on the 40mm depth, otherwise I may need to go with deeper bases for the rider units. I'd like to avoid that though, as I want to keep basing as simple and uniform as possible.

And last but not least, I have some primed barbarian skirmishers with slings and bows. Enough that I can make at least 2-3 units of slingers for the Irish, and 2-3 bowmen units for other barbarians. 5-6 figures in skirmish formation on a big base will look better than a single pair on a 40mm wide base.

Personal Challenges

My first order of business is to attempt to paint the figures I have on hand, to see if I can still paint. I was recently diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer that has affected the motor skills in my right (dominant) side, and I have not attempted any painting since a few weeks before the diagnosis. I may have to wait until after chemotherapy and radiation to regain the sufficient motor skills to accomplish this.

Then if I can, I will base up those figures to see how they look, and re-base some of my Visigoths (5 DBA stands should be good) to get an idea how many figures will be good for each DB unit. My estimate is that 4-5 mounted figures for rider units, 5-6 for foot skirmishers, and 10-12 figures for warriors and shield wall should be sufficient.

Ordering new figures

So, if I can show to myself that I can still paint and enjoy it, I may order the parts for this project. The first would be the dice frames from minibits: 7mm dice frames with white dice for ordinary troops (2 sets), red dice for nobles (2 sets), and a set of frames only (20). This would give me 60 dice frames, enough for four DB armies, if not even a fifth, depending on how many units I paint for each one. Most battle reports and sample armies have 7-10 units, but building in some options for variety will keep it interesting. 

In the same order, I can also order more bases; 80mm x 40mm bases (2mm thick) are in packs of 8 for 1.04GBP each. If I buy 7 packs, that is 56 bases, and with the Litko bases I already own, that will be 60 bases. The dice frame packs are 1 pound each, so that is four pounds for all frames. I can even throw in 10 purple dice for 50p, so I can show the companion units with its own color.

So all these bits would be only 12.82 GBP, plus S&H. At today's rate, that is $16.58 plus shipping. This is "cheap as chips" as they say in the UK, and I might as well buy these items all at once.

Ordering the first army

For the figures however, I only want to buy what I can reasonably paint in a few month's time. So if I go ahead with this project, I will start with the Romano-British army, as they are a good shield wall army to face off against any of the warrior armies. This match-up highlights the beauty of these rules. 

The plan is not to have an all-options army, but enough to make some interesting choices. For example, it is conceivable to have mounted companions, noble and ordinary riders that one could field an all-mounted force. But it will be enough to choose between some mounted and foot. 

Old Glory 15s (Nineteenth Century Miniatures) still sell the old 15mm line from Old Glory, and are an excellent value. So if I order the following figures, the order will be:

• Command. Contains both foot command for the shield wall units and mounted command for the companion units. If memory serves, there are six foot command groups (18 figures) and 1-2 mounted command groups (6-12 figures)
• Heavy Cavalry x 2. These packs are 9 figures each, so 18 figures, plus mounted command figures gives me enough for mounted companions, plus 3 more riders (which can be noble or ordinary, depending on the dice color I use for them.
• Heavy Infantry x2. These are 24 figures each, so I could make six shield wall units of eight, plus 3 command figures, making each unit 11 figures, which I should determine after my basing experiment is sufficient mass to make a convincing unit. This then would give me 18 points of ordinary shield wall, or 3 noble units for 15 points, and another 3 ordinary units at 9 points.
• I notice that the archers for the Romano-British (Arthurian Britons in the catalogue) look exactly the same figures as the archers I painted for my Visigoth army. Since I already have 22 DBA elements of these bowmen, I can use some of them for the two foot skirmisher units and the massed bow unit available to the army. So I don't need to purchase new figures for that. I estimate I will have to sacrifice 11-12 DBA elements for this, out of 22. Not bad!

So for $50.00, plus S&H, I could start on a new army for Dux Bellorum. We shall see what I can accomplish in the next few months, and this project gives me something to look forward too.

Book Review: The Revolutionary War by Bart McDowell

A few months back, I acquired a new book through Amazon concerning the American War for Independence (AWI for us wargamers): The Revolutionary War, by Bart McDowell (The National Geographic Society, (c) 1967).

My desire to obtain this volume began with being exposed through social media to a three of the four panoramic battlefield illustrations in the book. These are reminiscent of the David Greenspan battle maps found in the American Heritage history of the American Civil War, but drawn by a different artist (Richard Schlecht). I bought my copy of the McDowell book through a used book dealer, and as it was not a rare volume, it was very reasonably priced at $12.29, $5.09 S&H.

The Battle of Trenton, December 26th 1776

When it arrived, there was a note from the seller, apologizing for the book's condition, with an offer to take it back, or return half the asking price as a refund. I thought the book's condition quite acceptable, so I decided to keep it. Thanks to the refund, it was an incredible bargain. Shop around though, lest you get scalped like Jane McCrea (some sellers are asking prices in the $100s).

Detail from the Battle of Trenton

After a brief look through the volume, especially the maps, I put the book on the shelf, consigning it to being read "one of these days". But then my wife and I began binge-watching Turn: Washington's Spies on Netflix. I wouldn't claim that it is historically accurate, as it is based on a novelized history, and most of the main characters appear to be fictional. However, the show features enough historical figures, and weaves actual events into the story lines, thereby using both fact and fiction to create a gripping narrative that makes for an addicting program. I would also contend that the production team has done a masterful job of dressing both sets and performers with historically convincing uniforms, civilian dress, furnishings, and props. Even my wife was impressed with how accurate the jewelry is for the period (check out her professional blog here).

So, inspired by the show, I picked up the book again, and began to read...

The book is 200 pages in length, the last 5 pages containing the index, references, and information about the NG Society. After a very brief foreword and a table of contents, the narrative begins in earnest on page 8. From the very first page, the book is lavishly illustrated with paintings, maps, and photographs of the places where the battles and campaigns took place. Even the frontispiece is graced with a gorgeous full color image of John Trumbull's Battle of Princeton.  

The format of the book is in eight chapters organizing the narrative by year, beginning with the prelude to war (1774). This seems a very reasonable structure, as it provides for an understanding of why the war broke out, and touches on all the major campaigns and battles, leaving plenty of room for the personal stories that bring the events to life.

A sample two-page spread containing a print, reenactment photo, and map covering the battle of Long Island.

The book is an easy to read popular history, rather than a scholarly treatment as is David McCullough's 1776. Unusual for a book of this type is that the author explains from the very first page that he, his wife, and their four children, lived in Fairfax County, VA; and had made regular road trips to the locations covering the main events of the war. There are occasional travelogue bits in which he and his family describe what they saw, heard from their tour guides and park rangers, or read from primary sources related to their visits. 

Detail from the Battle of Saratoga

I was concerned that these personal bits would be distracting, but they are not overdone. If anything, they inspire me to plan road trips of our own. Now that my wife and I live on the east coast of the U.S., it is a more realistic prospect to visit all the important locations. We have already taken advantage of this to visit Camden during a full-scale reenactment, Cowpens, and King's Mountain, all here in South Carolina. And we have also had the great pleasure to visit Colonial Williamsburg and the Yorktown battlefield in Virginia. 

Any domestic or foreign visitor to this country with even the slightest interest in the 18th century simply must plan a visit to Colonial Williamsburg. The admission price is a significant sum, but definitely worth every penny. If you have been watching Turn, you will recognize many of the town locations. We recognized Benedict Arnold's "Penn Mansion" as the House of Burgesses, where Patrick Henry gave his "Give me Liberty..." speech. Any wargamer who visits the park will be unable to resist painting little tricorn-wearing Patriots and Redcoats as fast as he can buy them.

Speaking of painting figures...

Continuing my Napoleonic project (and resisting for now the siren song of AWI), I have on my painting table four battalions (48 figures) of French line infantry and one artillery battery (2 guns with crew), plus the brigade commanders and my divisional commanders for Drums and Shakos Large Battles. The infantry and artillery are all Battle Honours figures that were a birthday present, and the generals are Old Glory and Battle Honours figures from the lead mountain. One of the standard bearers has lost his eagle due to a weakly cast pole, and is undergoing repairs.

With so many figures on the table at one time, I have mounted the figures to simple tongue depressors rather than the hashtag (#) arrangement I described a few posts ago. The officers are mounted individually to wine corks for ease of handling. Eagle-eyed readers will identify the officers as being French marshals Soult, Ney, and Massena. It might seem unfair to demote them to command of brigades and divisions, but they are among the most beautiful general figures in the lead mountain, and it would be a travesty to leave them unpainted and unused.

More pics to come as the project continues!

A Slight Diversion - A New Board Game

A New Discovery

As the title of my blog suggests, the main activity of mine which I discuss in this blog is miniature wargaming. However, my wife and I recently picked up a new board game while visiting The Mighty Meeple in Concord, NC. We had just driven up there to get out and do some window shopping, and because my wife wanted to add some new, pretty d6s to her collection.

While we were browsing the shelves, we came across the store's demo tables. One of the games on display was Deep Sea Adventure, by Jun Sasaki and Goro Sasaki. As we stood there looking over the game components, I took a moment to read the rules, and took a few rolls of the dice to make sure I understood what the game was trying to achieve. For some strange reason, it also reminded me of The Life Aquatic, With Steve Zissou, starring Bill Murray. This added to the game's charm for me.

So, after such a brief introduction by the store staff member on duty, we decided to buy it and take it home. At $23 retail, the price seemed just a tad high for what you get, but I had used their game room in the past for our miniatures day, so I felt it was just as well to support the store.

What you get

The game comes in a very compact 2.5"x4.25"x1". This would seem to make it ideal for taking on travel. Inside this diminutive package, we found:

• Game instructions in English, Spanish, and German (we kept the English booklet and threw away the other two).
• A submarine board with a number track and a small, round marker to keep track of available oxygen.
• Six "diver" meeples in different colors.
• 32 chips representing undersea "ruins" containing "treasure" which each diver competes to bring back to the submarine. 
• 16 blank chips which take the place of ruins picked up in each round.
• 2 very nice wooden d3 dice; that is, the dice only have numbers 1-3 on them. Two sides with a 1, two sides with a 2, and two sides with a 3. These are rolled together for movement, yielding totals between 2 and 6.

Gameplay

The 32 ruins chips are separated into four groups, representing four levels of depth, with the deepest level worth the most points (12-15). The shallow level is safer, but worth only 0-3 points. Each set of chips is shuffled apart from the others, and then arranged in a single line in any desired arrangement, with level 1 chips closest to the sub, then level 2, and so on.

The diver meeples begin at the submarine, with the oxygen marker at a maximum level of 26. After everyone rolling to see who goes first, the first player takes his or her turn by rolling the two dice, and then moving the diver along the track towards the deeper treasures. What is unique about the diver meeples is that each piece has a facing, showing which direction the diver is swimming.

As you swim to or from the submarine, if you are not carrying any treasure, you will not use up any of the sub's oxygen, and will move the full distance on the sum of the two dice. What is unusual for a game of this type is that if any other player's piece is in your way, you skip over that piece without counting that piece against the dice roll. In this way, you can move even further than six spaces.

At the end of your move, you may elect to pick up the ruins chip on which your diver has landed, replacing it with a blank one. The blank chip is a place holder, so that all divers will still need to count the space for movement (unless someone is still sitting on the chip). You may not look at the ruins chip to see how many points it's worth until you return to the sub. 

There is no practical limit to the number of such chips you may pick up along your swim. However, every subsequent turn you must reduce the submarine's oxygen by one point for every ruins chip you hold on this round, and the total rolled for movement is reduced by one for each ruins chip you hold. And here is the challenge: all divers share the same oxygen tank! 

At some point in the game, divers will decide to turn back to the sub, to return before the oxygen runs out. This decision must be made before the player rolls the dice. Once the decision to turn back is made, the diver must continue on the path back to the sub for the rest of that round, and cannot return to the depths that round after returning to the sub. Along the way, you may pick up additional ruins, but beware: the sub's oxygen will run out faster, and you will move slower (which in turn drains the oxygen tank even faster, as it will likely take more turns to get back). As an example, if you are holding three chips, you must roll at least a 4 or more to move at all (a 66.7% chance on the two dice).

For each player that makes it back to the submarine, the ruins chips are turned over and become "treasure", and the player gets to keep those points. For any players who fail to make it back to the sub before the oxygen runs out, they lose all of the chips they are carrying, which fall to the bottom of the ocean in stacks of 3 chips, and the diver is returned immediately to the sub (no one dies of asphyxiation in this game). 

All blank chips are removed for the next round, and the deeper ruins chips are moved closer to the submarine by closing up the gaps. All players flip over their ruins chips to reveal their points value, and also to show that these chips will not affect the diver's movement or oxygen usage in the next two rounds which comprise a full game. 

What I think of the game

My first impression, even before we bought it, is how charming the minimalist artwork and components are. For example, the ruins chips are progressively darker shades of blue as you dive deeper, and each ruins chip has a number of white dots (one for each level it belongs to), which look to me like air bubbles a diver would leave behind. I also don't know of too many other games with a one-dimensional "board", and I was at first skeptical at how a game so simple would hold my interest. For a game with such simple and straightforward rules, there are some critical decisions to make. My wife and I did not appreciate how fast the oxygen would run out, once we began to pick up treasures. 

Also fascinating is how each player's choice of how much treasure to carry affects the chances of any player getting back in time, as an exceptionally greedy player can use up all the oxygen. As we played our first game, we failed to bring back any treasure until the third round. Each round lasted 10 minutes or so, making a standard game of three rounds about half an hour in duration. We had so much fun that we played another 2 or 3 games (6-9 rounds), and plan to play again soon.

The only criticism I could make is that the diagram in the rules showing how chips are shifted at the end of each round was not very clear. But watching a playthrough posted on boardgamegeek sorted that out. My final verdict is that the game might become stale if we play it too frequently, but at 30 minutes per game, it would make a nice addition to a night playing Catan. 

We can't wait to play it with our neighbors!

June Gaming Activities

Maurice

Well, here it is, nearly the end of June, and I almost  missed writing a post. I don't want to let down my dear readers, so I wanted to share what's been going on in my gaming life. Most of my hobby activity this month has been painting (more about that later), but just this past week, my good friend Charles came over to my home to play Maurice, by Sam Mustafa. We played about 3 hours on  Tuesday night, but hadn't played all the way through the second deck. So we agreed to resume the game on Thursday night. How it took us six hours to play a game rated to take only 2-3 hours I don't know, but it was the most fun I have had playing a wargame in ages, and confirms my feeling that Maurice belongs firmly in my top 3 favorite wargames of all time.

We made a lot of errors while playing, most notably my charges on his cavalry at the end of the game. I took away his last morale point on the last turn I could play, as we had no more cards left after that. It was an epic victory for me, achieved by forgetting the rule that infantry cannot charge cavalry, unless the target unit is in a town. But it was still great fun, for my opponent as well me! I didn't get any pictures of the game in progress, but my recorded the second session, which I will link to as soon as it is posted.

American Civil War, home brew rules

On Sunday afternoon, I was graciously invited to join another friend, Glenn, at his man-cave gaming shed, to play  Glenn's home brew version of Battle Cry along with Charles and Nick. 

Glenn has been working on this game for awhile now, and was testing the rules with a historical scenario, Gaines' Mill. This was one of the Seven Days' battles that concluded George McClellan's peninsular campaign in 1862.

If the dice in the second picture look familiar, they are straight from Battle Cry/Command and Colors series of games. What was different about this variant were the cards used to activate units in the game. 

Before the game, I was concerned that in a multiplayer game, I would spend a lot of time waiting for my turn. Indeed, that is exactly what happened the one time I played in a 6 player epic scale C&C Ancients game. Instead, this version had each player on a side draw 5 cards, and each round, each player would secretly select one card from his hand. 

The order of activation is determined by the number next to the clock symbol at the bottom center of each card, with more aggressive actions taking place later in the round (higher numbers). The occasions where both sides have the same activation number were resolved by taking turns exchanging the initiative.

At the end of five rounds (when all the players' cards were exhausted), all the players drew five new cards, and a new turn began. This format worked extremely well for a miniatures game with more than one player per side. Indeed, it could easily be scaled up as large as you wished, so long as your table space and miniatures collection permits. 

While the rules worked extremely well, our host determined that the Union army should start with fewer troops on the table at start, to give the Confederate army the opportunity to attack sooner than historically, and make the scenario a closer contest. The number of CSA units destroyed was overwhelmingly higher than the number of Union units lost.

That's all the miniatures gaming I for this month of June. In addition to miniatures, my wife and I have played at least one game of Catan with our next door neighbors on my birthday. But euro games are not the focus of this blog, so I won't dwell on that. 

How I accumulated my wargaming library, and how I minimized it

Getting started, with Avalon Hill


When I started wargaming in the late 70’s with Avalon Hill board games, there was absolutely no need for me to have any knowledge of uniform details in order to play Tobruk or War and Peace, or any other board game. The history behind each game was certainly of interest, but for the WW2 games, we had Saturday morning war movies and documentaries, Kelly’s Heroes (cue laughter), and my Dad’s Life picture history of World War II to inspire us. And the model displays at the local hobby shop gave us a clear image of what our cardboard counters represented. 




As for Napoleonic history, the potted historical summaries at the beginning of each scenario in War & Peace (above), or on the back of the box, were all we had. And as I recall, the only game with an ancient theme I played before miniatures was Caesar at Alesia. But I would not have been able to distinguish between an Austrian jaeger and a grenzer, a Hittite and a Babylonian, or a cuirassier and a chasseur.


But in the fall of 1989, I picked up Napoleon’s Battles off the shelf at a game store in Orlando FL, and my fate was sealed. This was my gateway to miniature wargaming! The only color photo on the entire box was a small, maybe 3”x4” scene, depicting Prussian landwehr defending a walled farmhouse against a French assault. Now, I could command an army of life-like soldiers instead of chips of cardboard with a silhouette and a numeral on them.


Collecting my first figures and military history books

So I bought the game, and ordered some figures from Modeler’s Mart in Clearwater FL. Later on, I would drive out there to visit their warehouse to buy even more figures. Alongside my first order, I bought the two volume Funcken guides to Napoleonic uniforms. The guides is are incomplete, and likely inaccurate in places, but I love the illustrations.

Even more books


It wasn’t long however, before I was introduced to the Osprey guides, and began to collect them. And then Napoleonic history volumes. And then ancient history. And Civil War history. My library expanded faster than I could read them all. The uniform guides were necessary, because I wanted my troops to be painted as accurately as possible. How disappointed I was to find that many of the guides I had were incomplete, or even inaccurate.

Purging the library

By the time my wife and I left San Diego for the Carolinas, it had been 24 years since I began Miniatures. In that time, we have seen a wealth of information being made available on the internet for free. So my library of Osprey guides was no longer necessary, and I was able to free up 3’ of shelf space by giving them away. I also let go of many other books before I left, books I had already read, and no longer wanted in my life. I did keep a few references, like the Funcken guides, and the Mollo guide to uniforms of the American Revolution, plus 2-3 more. I also still have my Campaigns of Napoleon, by Chandler. But otherwise, my collection had included far too many redundant volumes.


I still have quite a few books, and may likely let even more go, but I probably gave away a full third of my books before we left. It was a relief to feel a weight taken off my shoulders, and I don’t regret my choice to let go of them.

Song of Drums and Shakos AAR

So last weekend, my wife and I decided to break out "Song of Drums and Shakos" from Ganesha Games. She has shown a keen interest in my "little guys", and SDS is an easy game to get into. Since I already have the scenery, especially the farmhouse, for the "Take the farmhouse" scenario in the basic rule book, that is the scenario we chose to play.

Setup

I took the French, at 520 points, and the Mrs. took the British, defending the farmhouse with 400 points. In my merry little band, I had 4 grenadiers, an officer, drummer, eagle-bearer, and a half-dozen line company infantry with an NCO, in case the officer were to be rendered hors d' combat.

For the British, I gave them an officer, NCO (love the halberd!), drummer, 6 grenadier company, and 4 line company soldiers. After playing the scenario, I don't think the drummer is useful for the defenders holed up in the farmhouse; you aren't likely to be making group activations while spread out over defensive positions. Maybe there's a chance for a 'regroup' order, but that's about it.

Le Rosbifs

To battle!

So, coming on from my deployment position, having no voltigeurs or legere, I decided to go straight up the road and ignore the woods. I lead off with a column of line infantry under orders from the officer, with the NCO tagging along for support. The grenadiers were meant to follow immediately, but they would have to wait until the following turn (I failed my next activation).

The British meanwhile, seeing the French heading for the bridge, began pouring out of the farmhouse, leaving only a pair of their mates to man the window closest to the bridge. The French line company troops charged with a great cheer towards the bridge, with the NCO cheering them on. However, the British fire was withering; several of the French soldiers fell instantly, while others tried to return fire, but they were so rattled that their shots missed widely.

This bridge is too steep, as the soldiers kept sliding off and falling over; I need to scratch build a new bridge out of wood.

Two brave men of Gascony charged across the bridge to cross bayonets with le rosbifs, but were set upon by two British soldier's each, and were also quickly put down.

The white pom-poms indicate unloaded muskets; I like them better than cotton balls, because they don't get all over the place.

Finally, lieutenant Deja Vu ordered the grenadiers forward, trying to pour his best men into the fray with a group order. Ponderously (getting only one success out of two rolled), it took at least two turns for them to get within range. The officer followed along behind, to command his best troops to setup a firing line across the creek, but they too were quickly brought down by deadly fire from the British muskets. The drummer and eagle bearer never moved the entire game!

Denoument

Finally, the numbers began to tell, and the French morale broke, with even the standard bearer dropping his precious eagle and running for camp. His sweet Amelie waited there to console him. The British cheered as they saw the backs of Johnny frog (as usual), and the captain ordered a ration of gin all around!

The French NCO runs away into the woods. (Woodland Scenics ready-made trees on wooden discs). The wooden disc bases look awful here, but at the time of this writing, I have rectified that with wood glue, sand, paint, and reindeer moss and Spanish moss.

Comments about the game

 This is not the first time I have played this game, not even the first time I have played this scenario. But this is the first time I have been able to put my thoughts about the game in this blog. It is not likely to appeal to grognards who seek strict realism, as it is not meant as such a game. Rather, it is an adaptation of the popular "Song of Blades and Heroes" to a Napoleonic setting. Furthermore, there is no strict ground scale; everything is measured in the very abstract short/medium/long lengths that were introduced in SoB&H. But if you want a fun and exciting game you can play with your Napoleonic miniatures, this is a game for you.

Some critics like to point out, quite smugly, that there was no such thing as a "squad" in Napoleonic times, and that the rules allow an unrealistic mis-match of troop types in the same force that would never have fought together. For example, you could take a pair of dragoons on horseback with your legere squad and a handful of grenadiers. However, I never expect to use this set to create historically accurate or realistic battles; rather, I expect to have fun with some painted 28mm figures in interesting scenarios.

Some of the special rules are unrealistic though. One of them is the "light" special rule, which allows light infantry like jaegers, grenzers, and legere to move through rough terrain or woods at the normal movement rate. In larger scale games, like Drums and Shakos Large Battles, these faster movement rates make sense; units of light troops do not have to dress lines and maintain cohesion, since they are moving in looser formations. While moving around individual soldiers however, everyone on the table is capable of moving in loose formations. That being said, I accept the rule, as it makes such troops distinctive.

Anyways, that's my take on the game, one of my favorites!