Dug in

A coat of paint, a spot of dry-brushing and the two trench sections are finished.

The beastly boys of the BUF man the trenches, ready to defend the position to the last man and the last bullet - or teatime, whichever comes first.

BUF command hunkers down in the trench where it's safe-ish.

Digging in

Right, it's been a busy week, but I've shaken off the cold and taken a break from work for a while to crack on with some wargames terrain pieces.

I intend to fight the final battle of the VBCW Bury St. Edmunds campaign, and looked over the army lists for this hypothetical period. One option defenders may chose are trenches for a team or section. They can be deployed as part of the scenario set-up or chosen as a support option from the lists. Either way, I realized I didn't have any trench pieces for this (or any other) scale - so I had jolly well better make some!

I began with a basic shallow box made from craft sticks and 'tongue depressors.' Gluing them to a card base, I made a series of triangular pieces from corrugated card and glued them close together to form the foundations for the sloping sides of the earthwork. Lengths of cartridge paper glued along this made the slope itself. I used craft glue for the most part, holding it in place with blobs of hot glue to save having to pin them whilst they dried. The slopes were then smeared with spackle, allowed to dry then smeared with PVA and scattered with sand. The photos show this stage just before and after.

Pretty simple, but effective and light weight. The next stage will be to fit some slim upright pieces of card at intervals to represent bracing along the wooden trench sides, then apply the paint.

Hors de combat

My wife and I had a great time at Cleveland Concoction SF/fantasy convention last weekend. We met old friends and made new, and the several panels we were on or attended were excellent. The trouble is, someone amongst the large crowd had a cold and 'shared the wealth.' I've had a stinker of a head cold for the past four days.

So, since my streaming eyes and nose prevents me from doing any close-up modeling work, I might just turn to a game tomorrow, perhaps the last in the VBCW mini-campaign. I'll see how I feel.

Have a great weekend.

Victory Without Quarter trial run

Having a bit of spare time this afternoon, I decided to try out the Victory Without Quarter ECW rules in a solo game to see how they run with my Pendraken 10mm figures.

Because it's a try-out there's not much finesse involved here. It's a case of lining up both sides and having at it. Lacking casualty markers and such I used poker chips, blue being hits, red being casualties, and yellow appropriately enough marking shaken units. So, on with the action, where fervent Royalist Sir George Mountebank challenges Puritan General Temperance-and-Prudence Knott.

Both sides square up to each other in mirror formations

The Royalist cavalry advance, to be met with fire from the trotting Ironsides

Both regiments of infantry advance, masking their artillery. The Royalist cavalry suffer a casualty from severe pistolling

Casualties mount, the Malignants become Shaken, and the Ironsides attempt a charge...

...which connects!

Musketry from both sides. Montagu's Regiment takes more hits than their opponents but shrugs them off

Break! In a reversal of the normal pattern, the Ironsides send the Royalists packing

With the Ironsides merrily dispatching their foe, the foot of both sides come to push of pike. The Royalist general feels lucky in spite of a casualty...

...but his luck turns sour and the foot break, carrying him off with them.

On the whole I like these rules. They offer a quick and easy game without much record keeping. In this run-through I covered everything from cavalry charges and firing and melee, to infantry and artillery action. Once I get some more units, I'll move on to run a mini-campaign. The world has not heard the last of Sir George Mountebank and Temperance-and-Prudence Knott...

Prospect of a Game

Since my injured thumb is healing (with the occasional curse as it hits/gets hit by something), I'm thinking of playing a solo game this weekend - the first game of the year. I'll give Victory Without Quarter a run-through, and possibly play out the last game of my AVBCW campaign where the Anglican League are assaulting the BUF main defenses on the outskirts of Bury St. Edmunds.