The dreaded 20 questions post

Yep, seems like it has become a sweeping trend within the wargaming blogosphere to post 20 Questions and answers.

1.   Favourite Wargaming period and why?


Currently my favourite wargaming period is the 18th Century.  Tricorns = Fun Corns... yea that does not sound really good...  Be it ImagiNation, Seven Years War, War of Spanish Succession or French and Indians Wars, I like them all.  They are a bit different from the hordes of Napoleonic projects out there and still have a huge amount of quirkiness that I really enjoy in my projects.

2.   Next period, money no object?

French and Indian Wars Skirmish (Historical and ImagiNation based)... War of Spanish Succession... Jacobite rebellion... actual Seven Years War... Great Northern War.... uhhhh I'm a magpie gamer, I'm always attracted to the shiny new things.  But to be honest, I'm gonna say a French and Indians War ImagiNation Skirmish game (which actually, is my next planned project... if it manages to fight off my want of a ACW skirmish game...)

3.   Favourite 5 films?
A Bridge too Far
Kelly's Heroes
Star Wars (all of them...)*
Lord of the Rings*
Ocean's (the trilogy)*

*HA! I got around that awkward question.

4.   Favourite 5 TV series?


Hell on Wheels
Miami Vice
Lie to Me
Sons of Anarchy
Blackadder Goes Forth

"People in stucco houses shouldn't throw quiche."

Sonny Crockett

5.   Favourite book and author?

The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

6.   Greatest General? Can’t count yourself!!

Joachim Murat.  A rather rakish and dandy man.  Not the greatest of Napoleon's Generals, but was a fantastically dressed man.

7.   Favourite Wargames rules?

Ahhhhhhhhh, this is a hard question because the rules I usually play, I really like.  Top wargames rules are Maurice, Sharp Practice, Die Fighting and Through the Mud and the Blood.

8.   Favourite Sport and team?

I'm Canadian and I was born and lived a good chunk of my life in Toronto... so naturally I am a Toronto Maple Leafs super fan.

9.   If you had a only use once time machine, when and where would you go?

Hmmmm this is a hard one.  My answer has nothing to do with wargaming or historical stuff what-so-ever, but actually fits in rather well with the last question.  I would want to travel back somewhere in the mid 1950s when the Maple Leafs were a dominate hockey team and were winning the Stanley Cup on a regular basis.  Maybe even to 1967 to watch the last time they hoisted the cup...

10.   One meal to have before you die?

I changed the title on this question slightly.  Originally it was "Last meal on Death Row", but I don't really like the idea of thinking about it.  Starters would be Rum-Candied Bacon (a recipe I created..) followed by the most opulent sushi dinner and finished with a chocolate mouse cake.  Of course the entire meal should be accompanied by a truly biblical amount of fine wines and cognacs.

11.   Fantasy relationship and why?

Don't have one.  I've got all the relationship I need already with my better half.

12.   If your life were a movie, who would play you?

Sean Connery... I want James Bond to play me.

13.   Favourite Comic  Superhero?


Not a Superhero, but an anti-hero: Deadpool.  Without a question the most entertaining and troll like character ever created in comic book fiction.

14.   Favourite Military quote?


"NUTS!"

General Clement McAuliffe, 101st Airborne Division

15.   Historical destination to visit?

I would like to tour all of the major American Civil War sites.  To date I've been to Fredericksburg and Gettysburg, but I would very much like to see them all.

16.   Biggest Wargaming regret?


Not starting when I had the chance in the late 90s...

17.   Favourite Fantasy job?

If I did not have to worry about a steady income to help support two people, I would love to be a wargaming store owner / run my own wargaming company.  I would not say I could be a professional painter, as it would take me a year to fill out a single order, but that would be fun as well.

18.   Favourite Song, Top 5?


I don't really have a top 5 favourite songs, I listen to pretty much anything that is not country or gospel....

19.   Favourite Wargaming Moment?

I have two favourite moments.  First was back in 2010 when I participated in a New Years Day game at MIGS.  It was the recreation of the Battle of Borodino and featured over 2,000 figures.  Very impressive for a young wargamers mind.  The second was my first ever trip to HistoriCon this past summer.  While I've been told it was not nearly as good as in years past, I got a chance to meet some new wargaming friends, buy to much toys to expand my collections and enjoy a couple of games with likeminded individuals.

20.   The miserable Git question, what upsets you?


Having to travel over 4,000 kilometres to visit with my better half.
Not being able to paint a figure to my standard on the first try.
Playing rulesets with to much math, I like feeling the flow of a game, not having to crunch the numbers for every movement.

ImagiNation: A new unit marches out from the depot

I've been able to pump out another battalion without having to paint a single figure.  Thank god I accidentally ordered some extra figures from Front Rank and painted them up as test models (actually, I think they got a better paint job then most of my batch painted ones).  Movement trays ordered from Warbases.co.uk today, so I will have to post up a quick review once I receive the epic amount that I ordered.

Primo Battaglione della Guardia della città di Campari

Figures: Crusader USA Hungarian Fusiliers

Originally I had designed this unit to be a militia regiment raised from towns around the fictitious capital of the Duchy of Libations and I am going to be continuing with this trend.  Before its restructuring, this unit was comprised of two "companies" of 10 figures, a command and a 8" siege mortar (completely useless in game, which is why I purchased one...).  The 10 figure groups are rather ungainly on the table, perfect for the only basically trained conscripts.  In gaming terms, the Gardia della città di Campari (translates in English to Guard of the City of Campari) will be a Conscript Regular Infantry regiment.

 As usual, broken down into the four different companies.

So much facial hair...

In other news, a large box arrived at my parents place (preferred shipping location due to the "accidental" loses that the military post office sustains in great numbers) from Battlefield Terrain Concepts.  I purchased a large number of trees from them at HistoriCon, but the number of trees in the package did not match what was listed on the label, so they kindly sent me some to make up the difference.  I will be posting up a quick review on them at a later date, still waiting on getting a Dremel so I can cut up some bases for them.

ImagiNation: Right of Line

Well, as promised here some pictures of the first of my reorganized units for the Duchy of Libations.

Primo Battaglione di Reggimento di Fanteria di Sambuca

Figures: Crusader USA Austrian Fusiliers

Shown in a closed ranks.  This will be what the battalion looks like when formed up on the table.

Broken into the four "Companies" that will each be on separate movement trays.

The right of line "company" contains the senior NCO model, one "company" is the command stand.

The third and four "companies" are just bog standard infantry models.

ImagiNation: Standing at a crossroad

It has now been a little over a year since I started my first ImagiNation army and after a lot of painting and thinking, I have reached a crossroad in my project.  Originally I based and structured my project for a modified version of Too Fat Lardies Sharp Practice ruleset.  Originally meant for the Napoleonic period of warfare, it was not the best ruleset to use with mid-18th Century style warfare (IE: Seven Years War).  What with the release of Sam Mustafa's Maurice ruleset and its adoption as my current one, I have been thinking hard on the best way to structure my project.  This is the crossroad I am speaking of.

I have taken the leap of faith and decided to completely restructure how each unit I field is organized.  Instead of fielding multiple "companies" of 6, 8 or 10 figures (each of these being represented as "unit" in Maurice), I am going to be fielding standard sized units of 16 figures, with command included in this number.  For the time being, I will be fielding regiments of two battalions, for a total of 32 figures a battalion.

I won't be rebasing my miniatures, as having them individually based on 25mm round bases allows me to restructure my army at any time in order to play with other ImagiNation gamers.  For ease of movement I will be getting custom made a LARGE number of 2x2 movement trays with again using a standard 60mm x 60mm size as Maurice uses Base Size to determine movement.  Only slight snag to this will be my Light Skirmish unit, which will have custom 2x2 skirmish movement trays.  I will count these as being 60mm x 60mm in any case to keep movement simple.

In my next post I will show off the first completed battalion for my ImagiNation project.

ImagiNation: Boom!

After finishing up another batch of figures for my ImagiNation project, I decided to switch gears slightly and start working on some terrain and other gaming items.  First of the painting desk is the prototype for some explosion markers.

Like some wargamers, I have a penchante to add lots of theatrics to my games and terrain.  While effectively useless other then looking cool, explosion markers add just that little "je ne sais quoi?" to a table that attracts the eye.

I'm not 100% satisfied with how it turned out and I learned some valuable lessons.  I most definitely need to spray them down with watered down PVC glue to harden them and make it easier to paint.

I started off with 50mm lazer cut wooden bases, fixed cut pieces of sprues with some modeling clay and then glued on Woodland Scenics clump-foliage.  Now here is where I should have sprayed the whole marker down in PVC glue, but I skipped it to just hit it with black paint.  A quick dry-brushing and some fire painted in and bobs your uncle.

Does not look all that bad in photo.  On the next run of these markers I'm going to have to beef up the bottom section as its a little bit sparse.

Next to a 28mm Crusader figure for scale.  I might look a little small, but its the angle and these markers are built to represent a 3pdr.  I understand that historically the canon balls were solid shot during this period, but this is ImagiNation, so I can do what I want!

Rapid Fire Review: All The King's Men 18th Century Playing Cards

"Annnd coming out from the left wing, a strange and what would appear to be out of place review of non-wargaming material..."

Ah, but you see, that would be completely incorrect.  Yes, a slightly out of the blue sort of blog post, but I need to get back into the swing of things somehow.

Last weekend I drove the 1,800 kms down to Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA to attend HistoriCon 2012 and came back across the border with a lot less money and a lot more toys.  One of the items I purchased was a deck of playing cards.  Playing cards? What kind of connection do they have with wargaming?  Well, its a rather simple answer, not all rulesets employ a IgoUgo system or even dice for that matter (read: Malifaux).

So, wandering around the dealer hall at HistoriCon, I dropped by Ken Cliffe's booth All the King's Men.  Ken is a friend of a friend and I had not meet him until the event itself.  My "mentor and patron" Dave Hoyt of much ado about nothing blogging fame is a good friend of Ken and usually helps him out with running his booth at the major historical wargaming conventions (Cold Wars, Fall-In and HistoriCon).  Ken is a transplanted Canadian and was born in my hometown of the GTA.  Anyway, All The King's Men produces a line of drop-dead fantastic 54mm War of 1812 figures and terrain.  He is actually expanding into the Napoleonic range.  Not that I need another scale or project... but very tempting is his wares.

His ruleset (All the King's Men) uses a card deck system to activate units and while he has another FANTASTIC set of War of 1812 themed playing cards that include historical tidbits and interesting facts, I think the real jewel in the rough are these 18th Century replica cards.

Anyway, on to the rapid fire review of the cards themselves.  They cost 10$ a set and come in a nice canvas bag.  Printed on what I would imagine to be paper that would have been used in the 18th Century, they are very high quality and very professionally done.

I'm not exactly sure what I can use these for (other then Ken's ruleset of course), but its a nice little addition to my collection and lets face it, Cons are terrible for spur of the moment purchases...

These cards will fit in quite nicely with my 18th Century ImagiNation project and are just darn cool to have.

Would I buy these cards again if I had to order them online from ATKM?  You are damn sure I would do such a thing.  Not only is it supporting a small company, but they are also just plan neat.

If you want to order yourself a set, they can be purchased from All the King's Men and if you have any interest at all in historical things or know someone who does, they make perfect stocking stuffers. 

Summer Update #1: Back in Action

Well, it has been a long time since my last blog post and prior to dropping off the face of the wargaming blog world, I had quite a good run of posts going.  Cause of my disappearance? I was posted since the 5th of June to a Head Quarters unit within the Canadian Forces as a Signals (communications) Officer.  After two months of sitting in front of a computer for seven hours a day, five days a week, I had some trouble summoning the willpower to do anything other then rest my eyes, read and enjoy the company of my better half.  I guess it does not help that the temperature in Kingston has be rather nasty from May onward, humidity standing in the mid-70s to 90% and the lowest its has been in terms of temperature is 23*C.

The high humidity and heat has not made it easy for painting as well.  Even with over-soaking my wet palette with to much water, the paint was drying to fast to effectively use.  My bottle of flow improver is almost empty as I have had to save most of my paint collection from drying out in bottle (fuck you GW and your crappy designs).

Anyway, I plan on posting at a more regular pace and maybe increasing my follower count past the seven that have added me to their reading list.  In the next week or so I will be posting up pictures from my trip last week to HistoriCon in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

To end this report, I shall add in some pictures of my current paint station layout and the models I have managed to finish over the last calendar year!

The set of cards for the Maurice ruleset can be seen at the bottom of the picture, I hope to get some games and battle reports done over the next month.

Duchy of Libations in the back, Malifaux in the middle-front and some newly completed models for my line infantry regiment can be seen unbased (I can't find my wood filler :-/ )