Warfare 2024 Game

Just recovering from a long weekend spent at Warfare 2024 playing 'A Rum Do'. This was Prince Rupert's Gaming club's participation game and was this time set at sea.

It involved Prince Rupert's ship trying to pick up a spy from the isle of White. To do this the captain had to work out passwords so as not to alert the two parliamentarian ships in harbour. If he failed, the guard ships would stand to, if he failed again they would open fire.

The really clever bit I thought were the ship templates where the captains of the ships could allocate resources. This took the form of moving guns from port to starboard etc, controlling speed, manning fires and keeping a record of the ships hit points. These game elements were done by the use of pegs in a silhouette of the ship.

I had missed a lot of the games play testing so was none the wiser on the first day of the event. I soon picked it up though as it was nice and simple. It was really interesting to see the different tactics used by players in the game. I think the best games are when children play it as you can see just how much fun they are having.

The spy makes her way to the dock with valuable information of the location of the king. It's not good news for Rupert as it reveals the castle is too heavily protected for a rescue attempt.

A Parliamentarian captain runs to his ship.

The club also sported it's new shirts for the first time. It was nice to look more professional and tied us together more as a group.

A clever cribbage style system was used for keeping tabs of the state of the vessels.

It wasn't just the enemy ships Rupert had to worry about, a shore battery too stood guard over the bay.

The game played really well and the ship template idea was pure genius I thought. Unfortunately we didn't win any prizes this year as there were some truly amazing games in the competition. I think the first prize went to a mega Starlingrad game. As most of the other games were on the other side of the hall, we missed the giving out of prizes. They had been given out long before we realised we had missed it all. 

Regardless of this disappointing oversight, we all had a great couple of days laughing together and spending way too much.

Logo designed by Richard Brown. I was telling him how clever it was to use dice in the Rupert's standard. That's when he pointed out their numbering...1,6,4,5. Very nice.
 

War of the Roses Basing

The men of Lord Hastings' Retinue struggle through the mud of Tewkesbury.

Vallejo thick mud was the perfect solution for the grim battle conditions of the war. Adding snow to this layer would look fantastic but would rather limit the battles. I think a generic muddy field is a good all rounder for this brutal conflict.

I broke my usual 69x60mm basing after seeing a friend's and decided to copy it. Partly because the cheapness of plastics allows for bigger units. I also have quite a few old Perry miniatures from the old days of Foundry. These old lead figures are great for sprinkling amongst the ranks to add character. The above photo shows the effect of these old sculpts. They have to be mounted on plastic bases etc to bring them up to the height of the newer plastics. The mud is great for covering these and making everyone level.

As the Vallejo mud was drying, I cut up some thin brush bristles and pushed them into the mixture. These make for great arrows and really helps to give the bases a War of the Roses look and feel.

The mud is also great for splashing up the legs and clothes of the soldiers. It's quite subtle but helps to  set them in the scene.

The mud isn't quite dry yet and there are a couple more things to do before they are finished. Layers of 'Rutted field' from Luke's APS should look good over the mud, as well as patches of static grass. Also the arrows will need some white goose fletching on them.

 These new bases are 80x60mm and give a more realistic look to a unit. I got a bit carried away with these bases and they grew to 10 men per base.

The figures In these units are a mix of old Foundry, Perry's plastics and Forlorn Hope metal figures. They all mix together well and make for characterful formations.

Update: The bases are now flocked with the odd tuft added. It was a hard call, knowing where to leave the flocking and not over do it. The Vallejo mud is so good you kind of don't want to cover it. So finding the right balance is important to keep the muddy look. I found less is more and that small tufts gave a good effect dotted around in the mud.

The brush bristle arrows look good when finished with the fletching painted.

Canadian Basing

Here are my test bases for the French and Indian wars, using the Bonnie Blue Flag rules.

I quite like these bases, they have more character than the single ones for me. Hopefully, these few test bases will inspire me to do a few more and finish the unit.

Galloping Major figures are so nice that you want to do them justice.

These have just been flocked and need a bit of a dusting off.

Mixed herbs make great leaf litter that is a classic look for the ancient Canadian forests.

When painting these figures I used a few coloured fine tip pens to detail the belts and pouches. I also gave them a coat of Dark tone dip from the tin. I was trying to think of a way of speeding up the painting process.

The Huron, allied to the French.

I love the long muskets and rifles.

 Twigs from the garden make for great moss covered logs.