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Thursday, 23 June 2022

Haitian Revolution buildings

 


I'm sure you've all seen at least some of the figures I've been painting up for my Donnybrook Haitian Revolution project. Well I've got loads of figures done to its time for a game soon (fingers crossed). I made loads of jungle terrain a year or so ago, so my thoughts turned to buildings.


Funnily enough there aren't that many pictures of Santo Domingo during the late 1700's and nobody makes building specifically for this period (why would they?) Being a colonial French and Spanish island logic tells me the buildings would have a Spanish/Mediterranean look to them


You can get a little bit of an idea in this picture.


So the search was on for suitable looking buildings......


I remembered seeing some buildings on the buildings on Ken's Yarkshire Gamer's blog a few years ago
They were from a company called Empires at War, I decided that these would/could fit the bill.

Now here's the problem, I went slightly overboard and bought nearly the whole range! 
I have been busy beavering away building them ever since the Challenge ended. I did plan on posting pics as I went on, but it never happened, so here's a pic of the buildings that are left. 
 

But I wasn't yet satisfied......

Mrs R and the kids all chipped in and bought me some 4Ground Pirate range buildings.
I did look at these before buying the Empires at War buildings, but they are so expensive.
So when 4Ground announced they were closing (boooo!) and were having a sale, 
I thought I'd get some.

I ordered them back in March a few weeks before my Birthday, hoping they'd arrive in time for the big day??
But 4Ground had different ideas.
These actually turned up last Friday! I know they were inundated with orders, but 3 months?
Really?

Anyway I will start posting up a few pics of what I've made so far soon, so look out for the posts.

 

Thursday, 16 June 2022

AHPC12 - Wrap up



Scrolling through my posts today and I found this in my drafts, seems I forgot to post it so here it is.
Better late than never!!

I do apologise for the dodgy picture, this was the best of a very bad bunch! I think my wife was waiting for me to blink or pull an even more stupid face than this one, and that's me being normal too!!!

Anyway enough with me, this post is about what I managed to get painted after all.
When I put all the figures out on the table they looked a lot, but not so in the photo?


Challenge XII was a first for me, it was the first challenge were I painted exclusively 25-28mm figures. Not s 15mm figure in sight this year?
I did participate in the bonus rounds in the Challenge Quadrant and even finished at the centre. It always helps knock your points total up. Luckily most of the bonus round figures can fit into my onging projects. There were only 9 figures that don't, they will live in the box of doom, never to be seen again, or maybe I'll give them away??


I concentrated on 2 projects this year, the Haitian Revolution above, were I painted up a Spanish unit, a Spanish Militia unit and some more dastardly rebels, as well as some Spanish commanders and Haitian Voodoo priests.


Last year it was the Ottomans, this year it was some of their foe for my Vienna 1683 project.
I painted up some Polish Winged Hussars, Pancerni, Polish Cossacks, three Haiduk regts and some commanders. Also for the Imperialists I painted up a unit of Militia, Cuirassiers and artillery.
The Ottomans did get in on the act receiving some extra commanders and their long awaited artillery.

My main aim like most challengers is to get as much painted as humanly possible, I set myself a goal of 1200 points and hoped for a top 20 finish. The 1200 mark was soon passed and changed up to 2000 points, thinking I might be able to get a top 10 finish this year round? 
I did manage to pass the 2k mark late on, but ran out of time and steam and reached a total of 2168, I did late on, try to beat my total last year of 2260, but it wasn't to be. But I did get my highest placing of 7th, since Challenge III in 2012/13 where I finished 4th. So I was well chuffed with that.

So all in all I painted up

227 x 25mm foot figures
57 x 25mm Cavalry figures
Total of 344 figures last year it was (231)
Various terrain pieces and buildings
5 Boxes
Torture Cage
5 Artillery pieces
a BBQ!
a Forge
a Table

Here's my performance so far in all the Challenges
Challenge II        4940 points 1st
Challenge III       2586 points 4th
Challenge IV       1227 points 17th
Challenge V          691 points 37th
Challenge VI        681 points 36th
Challenge VII      1093 points 24th
Challenge VIII      662 points 40th
Challenge IX       2274 points 8th
Challenge X        1687 points 11th
Challenge XI       2260 points 8th
Challenge XII      2168 points 7th

I've said it before and everyone's already said it, a massive thanks to Curt, Sarah, all the Minions and all the rest of you Challengers, for all their hard work it running the challenge,  putting it all together and for pulling me along in 3 months of madness! Its been a blast and I'm already looking forward to it all starting again in 9 months!
Cheers
Ray




Monday, 13 June 2022

Broadside - Posties Rejects - The Battle of Beau Hunks


As you may know, the Rejects were at Broadside Wargames Show last Saturday, we put on
a French Foreign Legion v Berber demo game called the Battle of Beau Hunks.
It was all the work of BigLee, from painting the figures and making the terrain to re-writing the rules, to make them more show friendly. And what a fine job he did, others thought the same, when at the end of the show Lee's game was voted "Best Show Game"


It was a very busy day, which we all enjoyed immensely. I did stupidly think that we might get two games in, but we only just managed, the one game. We do like to interact with the people coming to admire the game, so at various times the game completely stopped or carried on while some of us were chatting, which meant we all missed parts of the game. So this isn't so much as a battle report, rather than a post with some pictures.
I'd suggest popping over to Richard and Lee's blogs for their reports

Lee, Steve, Ricard and Surj, planning their attack.


The headless Reject!


In our practice game, the Berbers moved a little too close to the fort, they didn't make that mistake in this game.


Looks like they're heading for the centre?


In the practice game, our best performing unit was our Cavalry. (T'was a bit like a Tiger tank) so for this game boring Lee downgraded them to mounted infantry.
So instead of attacking we defended the rough ground.


Dave finally got our artillery out of the gates, the first 2 turns he threw snake eyes for them, which denied them a move. We wanted to put the artillery on the walls, but Lee wouldn't ley us?


Here's where they attacked in the first game, not this one.


Long range fire


We get knocked out of the rough ground.


We're holding our own......just!


Lee worked hard on the game and on the display as well.
Answer a question and win a lolipop!



The push through the middle's going well for them.



The walls gave us a little protection.


Poor goats and goat herder getting caught up in the battle!


Another winning melee for the Berbers. This time they push us off table. But we might return?


History meets Hollywood
Stan & Ollie


Stan & Ollie could win the game, if they manage to pick up 8 Jeanie Weanie cards.
At the end of each turn Stan & Ollie have to move and attach themselves to a Legion unit commander, then pick up two cards. It could be a Jeanie Weanie or an event or even better a Slapstick cars!


One of the event cards was The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
Postie sang the song and I did the dance!!!
But we received two casualties back for making fools out of ourselves, in public!!!


There's hordes of 'um!


I think the flag should be flying at half maste?


Time was running out and so was our luck!


Some great dice from the Berbers on the last turn, smashed the FFL to a pulp!


A well deserved victory was handed to the Berbers and to BigLee for a great game!

Wednesday, 8 June 2022

Broadside Games Show 2022

 


Last Saturday the 4th June, the Rejects drove the 12 minutes it takes to get to Medway Park Sports Centre, to take part in a demo game at Broadside Games Show, run by those very nice chaps at Milton Hundred Wargames Club.


We arrived just in time for the hall to open up for traders and clubs to set up.


As you may already be aware BigLee has spent the last few months painting up figures, buildings and terrain for us to put on a game. 


The game in question was "The Battle of Beau Hunks" a fictional game set in the early 1900's
Using Bluemoon's range of French Foreign Legion and Berbers.


We were using the rules The Men who would be Kings on a 6x4 table


We played 1 practise game, where the French Foreign Legion claimed victory.
Surj, Richard and Steve all wanted revenge and plotted and schemed how best to do it on the day.
They were joined by Oliver.


Me and Postie claimed victory in the first game, for the show we were joined by Smiffy and Dave, which was a bit of a worry as Dave can't throw dice for toffee!!!!


And we're all set, which is where I'm gonna leave our game and concentrate the rest of the post on other games and the show itself.


The Hall


Its quite a size to be honest and it was great that each table had a lot of room around them, so its easy to get all around the tables to take photos.
I've been to countless shows all over the country and I've got to say that this is a great venue (not just because its 12 minutes from my house!) The lighting is brilliant, everything is so clear, which really helps when taking photos. Also for a busy hall its also very quiet, apparently its got excellent sound proofing built into the walls.














ECW Skirmish - Gravesend Gamers Guild










  • Emperor Toad's Emporium - Bespoke Terrain & figures.

  • It was great seeing some more French Revolution action after Richard's game at last years Broadside.






Two games really stood out for me, this being one of them, from Deal Wargames Society.
It doesn't look much like Luxembourg to me, I guess they had to change their plans at the last minute?



I want one of these!!!














A superb game, well done Deal Wargames Society!!!











Mesopotamia 1916 - Skirmish Wargames







Flea Market



Not seen Clint (centre) for a while, nice to see him!


Blotz
They came and took some photos of Lee's Desert Fort, to show on the site and forum, it was one of their models!


Col Bills
Stuart and Scotty


And mysterious lady!!!


Battletech



Debris of War


There were a few smaller games at the other end of the show

.



Dead Man's Hand





Simon from Parkfield Miniatures selling Posties more figures!!


Its looking dodgy in the desert!


The second and I think my favourite game at the show was from 
Shepway Wargames Club - Viva la Revolucion! - Krush the Kaiser

Just a great looking game, with so mush going on all over the table.
10/10!
















So there you have it, Broadside 2022!

All the Rejects thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we even won Best at Show game!!!!

Thanks to all the Milton Hundred guys for all the hard work and will definitely see you again next year.
We even know what the games gonna be????