Hail Caesar! a quick opinion.

I have been reading the rules since our HC Fantasy game last week. Like Black Powder. I really like the simple mechaincs and overall feel of the game. It's probably not everyones cup of tea. And it is lighter on the granularity some folks want in their wargamming, but for me, its a winner and we will get a lot of use out of these rules. Almost makes me want to paint an ancients army. Almost. I'll stick to 15mm fantasy for now.

I like it so much, it made me get out some more 15mm Demonworld wood elves and paint since last thursday. I finished 3 units of 4 stands( a full division) of Wood Elf Archers to help them withstand the Green Onslaught. Another unit of Wood Elf Hvy Cav is about half done. I will do another Hvy Cav after this one, and some Wood Elf Spears. Then its time for the greenskins to get some reinforcements.

Demonworld Wood Elf Archers (not mine, from Ral Partha Europe site)

Demonworld Wood Elf Cav (Not mine, from Ral Partha Europe site)

HAil Caesar! Fantasy?...yep

This thursday we are gonna play Hail Caesar Fantasy at the Barons abode. This is the fantasy mod of the Warlord Games Hail Caesar rules. We are gonna use my 15mm Demonworld figs. We were gonna ramp up to use 28mm fantasy for this, but honestly, if I can do this, I may not have to. Not sure what I would do with all these 28mm figs though.

One the phot front, I got a crazy deal on an RCA Small Wonder digital camcorder, one of the ones that are the size of a phone. I wanted to record vacations and stuff. well it has a picture mode too. Problem is no focus. So depth of field is depth of field, regardless of zoom (which is only 2x). I said cheap right. Well I wanted to try it out for blog photos. Not impressed. I'll go back to my wife's kodak for now.

Anyway here is a couple of shots of the two armies. Orcs VS. Woood Elves. 3 Brigades per side, Plus 1 Ally Brigade per side (for the Orcs its the Giantkin, for the Woodelves its the Creatures of the Forest)



Two BRigades of Wood Elves

 

Centaur Brigade (2 Units of Centaur Archers, 2 Units of Centaur Hvy

 

Elven Heavy Infantry and Archer Brigade(Wardancers, Spearmen, Woodsmen, and Archers)



Elven Cav Brigade(2 units of Pagasus Rider Bows 1 unit of Medium Cav, 1 unit of supporting Archers)

Ally Creatures of the Forest Brigade(2 Units of Treemen, 2 Units of Minotaurs)

Here are the Orc Brigades:

Orc Missle Brigade(3 Units Savage Orc Archers, 1 Roc Thrower, 1 Balista)

Orc Cav Brigade(1 Unit of Spider Riders, 2 Units of Medium Cav Wolf Riders, 1 Unit of Lt Cav Wolf Rider Archers)

Orc Infantry Brigade (3Units of Spearmen, 1 Catapult, 1 Rock Thrower)



Ally Giantkin Heavy Brigade (2 Units of Trolls, 2 Units of Ogres)



I got so excited I pulled out some more wood elves and started painting. I am wrapping up a woodland archer unit and are working on a hvy cav unit at the same time. Even though you are painting a smaller area, 15mm army painting is still a lot of work. But you can crank them a little faster and you can short cut some stuff and not degrade them much.

I spent a couple of hours highlighting armor for my 15mm Recon Rapid Reaction Force(bulit around Critical Mass Recon guys) army. The blurry walkers in the front are finished. And you can see a command vehicle behind them ready to be highlighted and then weathered. Walkers are DP9 CEF Frames, other vehicles are GZG.

And these guys are the current finished armor and support for the RRF. A couple of scouts, 3 heavy walkers, a command PIFV, a couple of unit support vehicles, a drone support vehicle, and a manned support vehicle. I have 2 Phalanx Tanks, and 3 IFV's to finish and they are done.

On the trading front, I may be getting 28mm French Nappy reinforcements sooner than expected. The reccruiting depot must be working overtime. I'll keep you posted.

The List - 2011 Fall 2012 winter Projects

OK so here we go:

1. EPIC - Well I muct say, painting some ultramarine on a sprue of original beaky Space Marines has been pretty fun and nostalgic. And the last few releases of models are just gorgeous. I had forgotten that. So I am gonna pick off EPIC as I go into the long night, to hopefully emerge from the shadows with a painted Space Marine, Orc and Eldar force. Imperial Guard may be too much to ask, but I have a bunch of it too. And that Damn Chaos and Squat stuff. Focus...Focus.

2. VIKINGS - I love my new collection of Vikings. I need to add some odds and ends to it, but its in really good shape. I will add some trolls (I have a nice selection of assorted old GW Trolls just for the job) Dire Wolves (I have a bunch of Plastics from GW kits), Valkyrie Leader (Maybe convert one of my unbuilt Bretonnian Pegasus Rider mounts), Hill Giant (Again GW plastic, beautiful), then probably figure out how to do some goblins, and press some Orcs into service as more trolls, ogres, and giant kin. Really going for a more Ragnaok-y kinda thing here.

3. SAMURAI - Love my sammies. Not painted great. From my old days when I was learning, but they look good together. and look even better now on group bases. Going to play Commands and Colors and Commands and Colors Fantasy and Hail Caesar with them. Need to do ground work, flock, static grass, etc. Then decide if I want to paint more of my Old Glory and L5R sammies, or go for it and do the Perry's stuff and stay historical. I am leaing toward the Perry's. I also have a nice selection of the L5R Goblins to add to the mix, so they are perfect for C&CF, beautifully sculpted too. And if you can get the Bob Ollie samurai orcs and goblins sculpts then you have added a pretty colorful army to the collection.

4. 15mm FANTASY - This is the ongoing project. Really need to do basing and flock for these guys to get them finished. Undead are on paint sticks already, and I have a great selection of Thain from Demonworld, so kinda anxious to get them painted as well.

5. 15mm NAPOLEONICS - A rebasing project. They look good rebased. And since I will never use them the way they are based, they need to be converted. Once rebased I can play Commands & Colors Napoleonics and Black Powder. This is a big project, just because of the sheer vilume of my exsting collection. But it will look good when done.

Gonna keep the list to 5 this time. But you all know me. I will certainly add to it. I am pretty sure I will come back to Post Aocalyptic when I am suffering some general malaise, I always do. And I have all my 15mm Sci Fi to do as well. And I have been thinking about doing some 15mm scale 2'x2' game boards for me and the boys to play on. Be fun to have some pull out boards to skirmish on in 15mm. Now I can get back to painting. Finally. 

Black Powder - continued playtesting

Had a go again with Black Powder on Father's Day. The Baron http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/ and I played at his house. Just the two of us. BEen a long time since we did that. It was great fun. We used our ECW/TYW figs. I know mine have never seen a battle, but now they will for sure using Black Powder.

I am terrible about Battle Reports. Suffice it to say, we had 8 units of cav, 8 units of Infantry, and a cannon each. 4 brigades each. We finished in 2.5 hours including set up and take down. I love these rules. I never feel like I have gotten screwed after playing them. I have lost 2 out of the 3 times I played. I never feel like the guy who knows them the best or knows the intricacies of how to manipulate them will win. As simple and elegant as they seem, so far, the winning side, always has been the one with the best tactical set up and execution. and a little luck never helps. This and Hail Caesar opens up a whole new possibilities for during periods that we can still game, have fun, and enjoy great looking tables covered with minis.

They are a winner. I would encourage anyone who likes this style of gaming to pick up a set.

 Hail indeed. Late Roman/Arthurian/Viking/Saxons here I come! 

Sneak Peek

OK so gamer ADD and eye candy always seems to make me change dirrection.

This post http://tinysolitarysoldiers.blogspot.com/ and a few others at this great blog got me interested in doing some cheap tile terrain. So, I put the WWWII guys and the GZG Hi-Mobility force to the side and dove right into the dungeon time making.

So I had stacks of 3" mdf bases from an old project lying around. and I had pink foam. A quick visit to Home Depot at lunch to get the cheapest sheet tile I could, and Voila. Dungeon tiles for $.20 a tile.

I did 40 in the last week. Tiles are 14 tiles/foot. cheap glass tiles. Perfect for 15mm, which I have tons of. Its portable and compact and I can really do some great thematic stuff with it. So It should be fun. About 2 dozen more tiles should finish the construction of the first batch. Should be good for some dungeon bashing with the kids. OR the Generals.

Overall tiles so far. 36 3" tiles and a large 6" tile room.

Blow up of the materials.

Scale shot with some Demonworld 15mm fantasy figs(yeah they are avalable again)

Broken out tile examples

Single corridor tile.

All the walls are hand carved with a very sharp xacto #11. I have gone through 3 blades so far. Alene's tacky glue for adhesive. Best glue for terrain ever.

I will be doing some 6" tile for rooms and themes. Painting is next. I will hand paint the tiles black first, then decide on the overall color of the dungeon (probably traditional grey or brown, then do colored theme rooms, tile color patterns, etc. All in all a nice and productive diversion.

and speaking of diversions...

We are now dabbling with Black Powder, and soon Hail Caesar! The BAsement Genrals play a SYW game on thursday of Black Powder (enjoyed it a lot) then played it again Saturday witha different group with 15mm Civil War. Played great both times. VEry fun. Its quick, decisive,a nd requires you to think a little different from other games. I have realy enjoyed it. So I ordered the rules. Hopefully here soon.

May start painting Nappies again. Sure would be nice to get Phase II done. And would like to play Hail Caesar with Late Romans/Arthurians I think. and Rome is always fun. We'll see...