Real world motivation....

whats next?

With the current fighting in Fallujah and consequential significant problems for civilians my thoughts are drawn back to the Middle East. Here is a snapshot from the Daily Mail on line (sorry, the story is fine but the Mail is just total crap otherwise!).

Action now required to sort out my Ramadi game....

Test print of counters, nice but far too big!

Better......

These are modified counters from ISIS Crisis by Tom Mouat and will do fine for play testing. The state of my notes leaves something to be desired so I may have a bit of a headache tomorrow after trying to figure them out.

I have been thinking about.....

what stuff looks like!

In fact, what do I want my stuff to look like? The cause of this unusual navel gazing is the quantity of unfinished things on my desk. Do I really have a clear vision of the appearance of the toys that I want to play with? Fortunately, the answer is yes, its just that I have not expressed it nor codified it. 

So, over the past couple of weeks I have been collecting examples of things that I like the look of so that I can get a better feel for the direction I want to go in. What do I really like then.....

I like shiny

Here are some great pictures of shiny troops on a hex grid. Not any just any old troops but Bavarians!

These are from the Douglas Miniatures blog which features lots of old figures. These are Minifigs and Garrison. I especially like the simple bases. The pictures show a hex grid conversion of the Neil Thomas Napoleonic rules, how cool is that.

I like grids

Here is a nice square grid conversion of the CnC Napoleonics game with nice toys.

I really like the way this looks, very picturesque from the air!

And equally nice at ground level. These are from the blog by Epicetus.

I also like this irregular grid, just used as scenery, from the Toy Soldiers and Dining Room Battles blog.

I like non-shiny bases

More from Douglas Miniatures.....

Shiny troops and non-shiny bases. The latter issue is one of my current problems. I quite like these!

Dragoon Rampant....

First go!

Where's that Sharpe bloke when you need him!

Here it is, my first attempt at a Peninsular specific interpretation of Lion Rampant with hexes. I really enjoyed putting this together and have now bought some Hat Guerillas to paint up for it.

Let me know what you think!

Hats, Horses and Hexes.....

the photos!

Paul's Prince Rupert with Boye!

Paul Leeson has been giving these rules a spin:

I have had a quick go with these rules using my 6mm H&R armies which have not been used for, gulp, about 28 years !!!! I used my 75mm hex board but still kept within the 6x6 hex limit and it worked fine. No problems with the rules, I will certainly use them again in place of my 52 page ‘Wargames Research Group – 2nd Edition 1979’ set. I think I will create a simple record card for future games to keep track of troop types and hits etc.

I'm really pleased to get some feedback on these rules and its also great that someone is playing them and enjoying them! 

What is more, Paul has sent me some photos.There are 2 sets of photos from 2 games. One a vanguard clash at a cross roads and the other the attack on a convoy based on that at Haford Bridge 3rd March 1645. My favourite is the one above featuring a 6mm poodle, cut down I believe from a 2mm Cuirassier!

Here is the cross roads clash......

And here is the convoy ambush....

I love the way these games are presented, very nice houses and cool forests. I'll have to get mine finished properly now!