Napoleonic Battles with Sharpe Practice

I've a number of photos from a gaming session a month or so ago where my Brother and I worked our way through Sharpes Practice rules for the 1st time. No full batrep I'm afraid but I'll try and comment on the action at the time.

Italian Light Infantry cross open ground towards some British rifles holed up in a wood.

Same again from another angle

Italian Line infantry take and hold a small hillock.

Italian Light infantry unload at the Rifles with little effect.

Some British Line take up position behind some fencing.

 

The French and Italians Advance

Firefight between French and British forces

The French approach the British position in the Farm complex.

French and Italians paintind by my good self. British painted by my brother, buildings, roads and most of the woods provided by my brother. One of his first real terrain building efforts and it all seemed to work very well, I'm especially looking forward to the farm being added to more. It looks stunning on the tabletop and worthy of defending.

End of the year roundup

Well not the most productive year I've managed and I've certainly been slack with the Blog lately. 2011 is going to have to be better organised I think.

So Current Projects:

Pulp
All projects from 2010 were complete, I now have several sets of terrain including jungle, mountains and city. Didn't get around to the sewer system and the Library/Museum needs some more work.
Also managed to get a good number of miniatures painted for this so I've now also got a generic gang of thugs for our heroes to battle.
However this is all now on hold for the moment pending purchase of .45 adventure 2nd edition.

Napoleonics -
Good Progress on 28mm Naps, with units built for Sharpe Practice I now have, the following painted:

1 Unit Itallian Line Infantry
1 Unit Itallian Light Infantry
1 Unit French Line Inrantry
1 Unit French Voltegeurs
1 French Cannon
1 Unit French Grenadiers (almost done)

Still to paint:
1 Unit French Line Infantry
1 Unit French Dragoons
1 Unit Dismounted French Dragoons
1 Unit Polish Lancers

Next gaming session is in 2 weeks so I'm going to have to work hard to get some more models finished.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow hopefully.

Wild West

Bit of a failed project this, picked up some Mexicans and some more Outlaws back in April and managed to paint the outlaws however after cobbling together a number of buildings I have to say I was less than impressed with LoTOW rules.

So basically no real progress here.

WW2/WWW2

Absolutely no progress here, I have to be honest I can't get too enthused by this project. Just not feeling the vibe, I know my brothers interested and with the recent Bolt Action British plastics released I guess this will have to move forward soon. Some sort of pulp tie in may be needed for me to pick up some plastic warlord germans and get moving with this.

Clearout

Managed to clear out quite a bit this year and already have another box of unpainted miniatures to bang onto ebay. I've also decided to sell off my 20mm Napoleonics (seems little point in keeping them as I've 28mm ones), Painted Infinity miniatures (not played this in almost 2 years and it lead to arguements last time) Painted Confrontation miniatures (not sure of the market for these but they're 3rd ed and painted when I had the time to give these lovely models some attention)

Whats on the Horizon

Secret Project 1 - Some miniatures bought and partly based but I'm pondering on rules, Prolly going to have to build both sides myself to begin with as I doubt my Brothers missus will take kindly to me getting him into yet another scale and period. Least to say its all been inspired by Pillers of the Earth, a recent 3 part documentory on the Normans and visits to some historical sites)

Secret Project 2 - Well I've got my Bro interested in this one so it's not really secret, 10mm WW2 platoon plus support level gaming at 1:1. Planning on using Baptism of Fire 1 rules which from memory worked really well once you got your head around them.

More Naps - Prolly the major focus up until Triples will be Naps Naps and more Naps, till I'm sick of painting Blue and white.

Leatherworking - totally not gaming related but I've wanted to take up leatherworking for several years and so January is the month for me to really start. I've been purchasing tools over the last few months and have most of the basics now. This may end up taking up some of my otherwise limited painting time but well see.

Online Gaming - I really must stop jumping onto online games for hours at a time and not painting/modelling. Plan for 2011 is to do much less online gaming and hopefully focus on more wargaming.

Plan - I'm actually going to make a plan for once, month by month on the 1st of the month I'll post my painting pledge and at the end of the month will take stock of it. Hopefully this may promote me to finish some plenty of miniatures.

Attack at the Professors Office.

Background:

England somewhere in the 1930s, Professor Hemmingway and some friends are gathered at his flat late in the evening to learn of the contents of a troubling telegram. The telegram is a stark warning to the Professor to stay clear of his investigations into a hidden Templar treasure.. As our heroes sit down to discuss what to do next the sound of breaking glass is heard followed by footsteps up the stairs. This doesn't bode well for our heroes...

Setup:

The board is a 2 foot square, the main building represents the professors office, outside it is dark with some illumination from streetlamps. There is a small bit of woodland outside along with another small building.The professors car is parked across the road from the entrance.

There are encounters spread around the professors office and these represent various items of the professors which may come in useful throughout the adventure.

Our heroes start within the office building and the villains anywhere outside the building.

Objective:

The Heroes objective is to escape to the Professors car, with or without the professors stuff.

The Villians must capture the Professor or his diary.

It starts with a bang, Mr Templeton and his gang of cronies storm into the building weapons blazing with little regard to the racket they make.

Outside the police have arrived to investigate the ruckus, after a poor attempt at arresting this dodgy character this bobby was quickly dispatched with a swift blow to the head by one of the notorious Finn Brothers.

The heroes take the back way out of the office, onto the ledge of the building and all make attempts to jump onto the handy bins below. Most of them fall and hurt themselves. It was lemmings in miniature form.

Hawkins the butler explains the situation to the Police Sergeant investigating his companions attack. The Bobby takes a shine to the smart well spoken butler and agrees to help them on their way.

As the heroes move out of the alley the other Finn brother makes a dastardly attempt to handbreak turn into the heroes, Hawkins makes a spritely leap out of the way whilst the Professor is thrown into the air. With time running out, his boss injured Paddy Finn makes one last attempt to grab the Professor and drag him into the car. Unfortunately the Professor resists and Paddy has to make a run for it without his prize.

Martin Brown the least effective enforcer in this town finally gets taken down, he spent most of the game spraying hit tommygun in every which direction and wildy missing all targets.

Outcome:

Escaped by the skin of their teeth, The Professers crew were a little bruised and battered and decided to take the time to switch around their crew a little on the way, Captain Jenkins was dropped off at the hospital to recover from his wounds and Squadron Leader Michaels was picked up.

The Villains came off worse, Mr Templeton suffered leg wounds, 2 of his crew were out of action and Martin was with the police, time to hire a new crew of ne'er-do-wells.

In light of this the Heroes would get a few turns head start at the next encounter as the villians gather their strength again. The heroes also managed to collect most of the professors kit which will come in use in later games.

New Pulp NPCs

With a week off staying in a hotel far from home on a course for work I found a little time in the evening to paint up some NPCs for my net pulp adventure.

Managed to get 3 Characters done in 3 nights (the others unfortunately were taken up with study) so I'm quite happy with that and a little ahead of schedule (the games are planned for the end of August)

So without further ado, let me introduce:

Mr Harries:

A suspicious character prone to an excess of alcohol and bad language, Mr Harries is an able seaman and will do almost anything for a little etra cash whilst the boats in port. Definately not a character to be trusted.

Norman Hardacre, Groundsman

A Grumpy old Yorkshireman with a strong dislike of trespassers. He sees little reason to discuss things civilly and will usually resort to yelling and a warning shot or too against anyone unlikely to be caught by him.

Mr Smythe

Little is known of this mysterious fella, he speaks a dozen languages, can often be found skulking in the shadows trying to get one over on the heroes. Most dangerously nobody appears to know his agenda.... He is rumoured to be a foreign agent.

With another delivery today I've more mooks, some british police and a couple of other NPCs to paint up and along with the scenery and vehicles the next adventure will begin.

I've also had some pictures from my brother of some of the heroes of our next adventure.

Sean Jenkins and Hawkins the Butler:

And Squadron Leader Michaels:

They will Join Professor Hemmingway and his Daughter in our next adventure.

2 Days 2 Posts... Let me introduce...

The 8 Amigos....

First up the Bandit chief, "The Riviera Kidd"

Followed by his 2 Toughs who are as yet nameless...

One of the bosses mounted roudies and dismounted version of the same.

And finally 4 other Rowdies to cap off the gang (though one will likely become a kid for the purposes of LotOW)

Thats it for this week, I hope to get as couple of games over the weekend and I'll try and remember to take some pictures of the action.

Gah 2 months and no updates!

What have I been doing with myself...

Well aside from it being one of the hottest Summers the UK has had in recent times I have actually had some time for some modelling.

At our trip to Salute back in April my Bro and I decided to give LoTOW another run as we rather enjoyed it a few years ago when we first tried it. It was another of those projects that got put to one side and never picked up again. However after passing by the Black Scorpion Stand at Salute it became clear that the next project was to be Cowboys or Pirates... As we already had LoTOW rules and some minis we went for the Western Theme and picked up Blood on the Plains as well.

I went for the fantastic Mexicans from Black Scorpion (which are almost painted so I'll post em soon.)

With a lack of terrain and a plan to meet in early July for a game we had little time to prep. Splitting it up we decided to both build 5 buildings and some extras... My Brother managed a building or two when I last spoke to him but did have a load of street debris type terrain, I on the other hand had the 5 buildings done but nowt else.

Even so we should have enought terrain for some decent shootouts.

"Stop ya blathering and show us some pics!" I hear you cry. Ok then I will....

These are fairly basic builds with an even more basic paintjob and no detailing yet, the games are planned for this weekend so I was running very short on time.

Not overly happy with the paint job but it will suffice. Just got some signs

to do for the front and thats them finished.

Final Game - Into The Temple

Slight delay in posting this, I've had a busy few weeks and only now had time to sit down and pit finger to keyboard.

Background:

The heroes descend a flight of moss covered steps into the cool underground tomb. From deep within the cavern the heroes can make out an ominous roar. Perhaps it is just wind rushing through the tunnels, the heroes unperturbed push onwards, keep to discover the tombs secrets.

The first 100 paces or so goes well, the heroes stumble across an abandoned camp and rooting around in the leftovers manage to find some medical supplies to patch up their wounds.

Jasper always keen to get our heroes into trouble takes the lead and begins to sniff around an old doorway...

Out of the shadows beyond the doorway steps a sole jungle warrior, possibly one of the tombs guardians. The warrior was clearly far from dangerous and was dispatched with little effort by our heroes.

Onwards they push until the captain stumbles across not one but two problems, several mighty sections of masonry fall from the roof, narrowly avoiding the Captain, who in his haste to leap free caught the trigger for a lethal spike trap.

Not only was the Captain injured by the spikes but he also now appears to be trapped behind the rest of the heroes.

Dirk searches around for something to help his old companion out with only to stumble upon two deadly giant centipedes. This time they are not so easily dealt with and the centipedes chew rather large holes in both Dirk and Jasper. Eventually the good Doctor deals with the situation but not before poor Jasper of heavily wounded, the poor dog falls to the floor blood gushing from a dozen bites.

Dirk pushes on, knowing that it could all be for nowt if he fails to find anything of value.

As Dirk rounds the corner the source of the ominous roaring presents itself. The Heroes appeared to have triggered an ancient trap and the temple is beginning to fill with water. With 2 Pedestals with ceremonial ornaments in sight Dirk throws caution to the wind and rushed over, dangerously close to the water.

Filling every pocket with these valuable items Dirk waits for the last possible second before escaping.

The Captain, freed from his situation makes his way down to Dirk, on the way he spots several tunnels Dirk failed to notice in his haste. Giving several of them the once over he feels a slight breeze coming from one tunnel, yelling to Dirk to head this way our two heroes make their way out of the temple. Poor Jasper was left to his fate.

Post Game Report:

Considering this was the least planned game, that I forgot to introduce 2 more villains half way through and that the water filling the tomb was made up the day before the game was ran I feel that it went fairly well.

The main comments that came out of our after game chat was about more RP elements, and multiple solutions, much like the fast lane/slow lane from the previous game.

In this instance, a broken bridge to jump across, some vines for our heroes to clamber up etc.

Personally I was mostly disappointed I'd not done something more with the temple guardian concept and put together some other warriors who could have been the boss characters for our heroes to beat. Thus is the problem with planning these games, there's always something you come up with either when it's too late to do anything about it or more usually mid game.

Going forward the squared terrain worked wonderfully, it's  handle traps easily, works with ranges well and takes away pesky tape measures meaning you can just get on with the action.

All this new terrain is multi-use and much of it will see action again in future games.

Game 3 - Hunt in the Mountains

Background:

With time to recover after their flights through the swamp our heroes entered the mountains fully rested and took their time to scout the area a little. The route into the mountains appeared to loop around a deep canyon, although not noticed on their first look at the pass there is a dangerous looking rope bridge spanning the canyon. On the far side of the canyon several warriors could be seen patrolling the mountainside.

The heroes must cross the canyon deal with the warriors on the other side and search the mountains for the entrance to the tomb mentioned in Dirk's notebook.

An early test set up of the board, modified for the actual game to give more choice to the heroes.

The Game begins:

Dirk and Jasper take the long route on solid ground, the Captain however feels daring and moves slowly across the bridge, cunningly timing his arrival to be between 2 patrolling warriors.

Dirk and Jasper however run straight into trouble, stumbling upon 2 Native warriors who charge at them from the long grass.

Jasper is spooked by the sudden encounter but Dirk makes short work of the first warrior with his revolver as the second warrior bears down on him.

Jasper continues his run of bad luck leaping past the good doctor and straight into a rather nasty spike trap.

The trap appears to finish off poor Jasper and so Dirk steps forward to investigate a possible entrance to the tomb. As Dirk tries the get a closer look a huge shadow falls over him and the largest savage he's ever laid eyes on steps out of the shadows and forces him back into a perilous duel in an area infested with deadly spike traps.

The combat swayed backwards and forwards several times but finally Dirk gained the upper hand, tired and bloody he finishes off the chief and meeting up with the captain the two set out to uncover the tomb entrance.

Aftermath:

Poor jasper is a mess, but the loyal companion manages to hang on for just one more advanture. The captain was relatively unscaithed and Dirk only had minor cuts and bruises to contend with as they stumbled into a darkened tomb...

Post Game Report:

Another strong game, the use of a fast but dangerous route verses a slower but less dangerous one appeared to work well and has given me plenty of ideas for the future.

The Jungle Warriors were getting a little dull by now, being grade 1/2 characters they didn't really put up much of a fight and only scored a few wounds on the heroes.

The Grade 2 Tribal Chieftain did put up a decent fight and his poisoned weapon almost caused a problem for Dirk. In the future I think I'll try and use more grades of enemy, perhaps some grade 1 elite warriors and several grade 2 character enemies.

Game 2 - Chase Through the Swamps

Background:
Our heroes try grab a little breathing space and a shelter from the incoming storm, but it is cut short by the sound of approaching feet, the Jungle natives appear to have caught up and the heroes must go on the run once again. Barely a few steps into the thick jungle the heroes stumble pon a stagnent swamp criss crossed with dangerous looking causeways. With little time to think they push on forward.

Special Rules:
Woah Slippery - The wooden Causeways are covered in slime and jungle detritus and are dangerous underfoot. If the heroes try to move more than 3 squares on the causeways they must take an immediate dodge roll or fall over.

Goal:

The heroes must escape the swamp and head into the mountains.

Initial Set up:

The Game Begins, our heroes only have a slight headstart on the Jungle warriors, they must make best their escape.

The heroes quickly get ahead after carefully navigating the first set of causeways. Jasper proves difficult to control and dashes off to take on the Jungle Warriors crossing the causeway behind the heroes. In the distance several bow armed jungle warriors take pot shots at our heroes across the fetid swamp.

More savages appear, the heroes appear to be surrounded. However all it not lost, after a frantic melee several of the Jungle warriors flee blindly into their own poisoned dart trap and suffer painful deaths (the statue markers on the right hand side of the above picture marked the area)

With the Jungle warriors dispatched Dirk makes a run for solid ground only to stumble into a Giant Centipede nest. Two of the huge beasts rear their heads to attack but without dropping a heartbeat Dirk fired off two shots from his shotgun at close range, turning the creatures into little more than goo.

With no hostiles in sight our heroes made their get away into the mountains taking some time to rest and patch up their injuries.

Whilst Camp was made Dirk took the time to look back through the note book found amongst the recovered equipment, the book holds notes speaking of an underground tomb with untold riches hidden within these very mountains, when morning comes our heroes will investigate further...

To Be Continued...

Post Game report:

This game played out at qite a pace and from the lack of photos we were clearly distracted by the action. overall everything worked quite well. The heroes took several injuries, whilst none were truely life threatening they would start the next adventure with some wounds (they were allowed to remove 1 level of wound from each location). The Giant Centipedes appeared to be the most ineffective creatures encountered. It was truely a bit of an anti-climax when they appeared only to be instantly blown away (this was their first outing too)

We both felt this scenario played out a little better than the first one, and it was all round a little more fun. The heroes had a harder time, at one point they were surrounded by 8 1/2 Grade enemies which looked like it may have been a little too much to handle, handily all the heroes involved had fairly good combat skills and managed to fight them all off.

Game 1 - Shipwrecked!

Well after 5 months of building and painting I finally got to put all the new terrain to use. The last month has been massively hectic with work and finishing terrain and miniatures off so I've been a little slack with the updates. However for the next week you're in for a treat, I'll be posting the commentary for the 4 games my brother and I played over the bank holiday weekend.

First Up Shipwrecked.

Our heroes:
Dr Dirk Savage: Our favourite treasure hunter returns once again bringing his brains and brawn to the fight.
Captain Wells-Robinson: A trusted companion to the doctor, the Captain brings some much needed fire power.
Jasper: The Captains loyal mutt, willing to follow him through thick and thin.

(unfortunately I've no individual pictures of the heroes as the Captain and Jasper belong to my brother and I forgot to take the shots before I left.)

The adventure starts with our poor heroes being washed ashore after their boat is shipwrecked in a tropical storm somewhere off the coast of South America.

I did a test set up about a week before we played this game and grabbed an overhead shot of the board to remind me of the layout. On the day a few bits changed but not much.

Test Set up

Final set up on the day.

Back to the adventure, our heroes awaken on the rocky shores of this unknown land with wreckage all around and a storm heading in. They much first gather up much needed equipment and head into the jungle to find cover from the coming storm. However they are not along...

The Savages Investigate

As our Heroes make their way across the rocky shoreline a number of painted skinned natives appear to investigate, they appear to be less than friendly and the captain lets them feel a little lead.

With ever increasing number of jungle warriors approaching our heroes make a dash for it. On their way they managed to uncover several of the missing crates, additional ammo, medical supplies and a shotgun were now all in hand for their adventure.

Dirk makes a run for it.

Eat Lead!

With the Dirk well out of harms way the Captain takes the opportunity to gun a few more the the jungle warriors down.

Spiked!

Jasper, excited by the new sights and smells of this foreign shore stumbles upon a dangerous spike trap. This was not to be the first time his canine instincts would let him down.

Escape...

With the natives left trailing and everyone still on their feet our heroes make their escape past some ancient ruins and into the jungle.

To be continued...

Post Game Blurb:

For the first game of the weekend this seemed to go rather well, we of course forgot a few rules and tweeked the planned game as we went along, overall the native warriors did not do a lot of damage to the heroes but with ever growing numbers it became easier to run than fight.

The only additions to the scenario I would make if run again would be a strict time limit for the heroes to reach the safety of the jungle and the the jungle warriors should have gone for capturing the heroes rather than straight out attacking them.