Dice Towers

For years we have been using dice towers.  They keep things tidy, consistent and civil.  The latter is not really an issue, but it just heads off at the pass any disagreements.

Some of the guys use natural wood box-shaped dice towers.  I have made my own using carpet cardboard tubes.  I cut slots into them at opposing angles, stick art board card into the slots to create the agitation I then finished them as castle ruins.  These have served me for years.  I would, however, like to make period specific ones that fit into the terrain of each game.  This might be particular ruined buildings or disguising the towers as rocky hills....not sure yet.

Here are some of my towers:

The move is done and I hosted my first game in the new 'bunker'.  Alas, not BFE but rather Armati Renaissance (which is an ongoing project).  I was delighted with how well the game played and am looking forward to having Arty Conliffe give the go-ahead to have other play test groups have a go.  Needless to say, many will object to the rules but having too many chefs in the kitchen can be a disaster for a set of rules.  The revision that we have developed is a good balance between being familiar as Armati, respecting the first version of the Renaissance rules as published in the original book, but having enough differences to make the game feel distinct.

Here are a couple of shots:

My family is in the process of moving, so little time for toy soldiers, BFE and blogging.  The last game we played was the Rorke's Drift scenario.  I have played loads of variations of this battle but never with the new terrain I made (as yet incomplete but playable).  The scenario in the free supplement worked really well and it literally came down to the Zulus needing one solitary hit/kill to win the game.  Alas, they didn't make it.  We made a couple of rule changes and clarifications on the fly and I have added these to the scenario.  I will send along the updated version of the scenario to Eric to update the one available to you.

Back again.  Managed to play a quick game using one of the scenarios from the scenario supplement. This is one that was written and played many years ago but hadn't had an outing in a long time.  Intombe or Meyer's Drift.  This was a riot.  The British player was completely caught flat footed.  In fact, asleep!  Somehow, the Zulus just couldn't finish off the last British unit getting across the drift.  In fairness, the British player threw in his supports to save the fleeing redcoats really effectively.  Lots of fun.  There is also a picture of my basic Rorke's Drift buildings.  Still lots to do on them, but the basic buildings are coming along.  I decided to start by painting them in a colour that I think represents local materials - reddish mud.  I might paint the hospital in a white wash.  Not sure.

Hope that you are having fun with toy soldiers using Battles for Empire.  Please do remember that the  scenario supplement is free at the link to BFE at Hotz.

Cheers,
Chris

Hello all,
Again a long time between postings.  Work and family and Christmas blah, blah, blah....

I have not done much gaming, but have started a couple of new modelling projects.  After years of using old buildings of faking it with incorrect models, I am in the process of making and up-grading my collection of colonial buildings.  First are some proper Rorke's drift buildings.  I have fought this battle loads of times or at least variations on the theme, but never with representations of the buildings and position correctly modelled -- or at least close to it.  So, I have started by creating the basic shapes, one of which you can see below - this is the hospital.  As noted in the BFE scenario, it is more important to make the buildings fit your unit basing than getting them totally correct historically.

In addition, I got a bunch of basic ME wall sections from Warbases.  These are quite cheap and provide a great start for my modular wall system for the new ME buildings I have designed.  They will need quite a lot of work to bring them to life, but I like these basic shapes and they work well with my colonial basing (sorry about the Zulu War redcoats).

Finally there is a shot of something that I have been chipping on for a decade: Omaha Beach for Rapid Fire.   These German positions have been done for a couple of years, but I am still working on the US forces and the landing craft.  Getting close, but this project reminds me that the journey in wargaming is often more important than playing the game -- indeed, I really can't imagine that the game could possible live up to the effort gone into preparing for it.  Alas, that is OK.

Back to BFE II.  Last Thursday we played the "Fighting Withdrawal" Sudan scenario which was developed by Matt Irsik of Warning Order fame.  It is a fictional scenario but quite clearly inspired by a certain debacle for the imperial forces...  I slightly amended the OOB to suit my collection - more camels.

This proved to be a real cracker of a game with swings of fortune dramatically shifting from the Dervishes to the Egyptians.  Initially the Dervishes crushed the Egyptian speed-bump force ordered to hold while the balance of the retreating Egyptians made for the village and fort.  Without the loss of a single unit the Dervishes destroyed several Egyptian units.  However, the rear guard did their job and the Egyptian column made it the buildings and hunkered down just in time.

Now the Dervishes started losing units at an alarming rate.  By the end of the game the Dervishes had taken the fort but were no where near taking the village leaving the victory to the initially demoralized Egyptians.  It was a fun evening.

The pictures are random but give  a sense of the action and how I base my miniatures.  I have a fairly pragmatic approach to painting and this collection is a combination of very old figures and newer ones.  The old ones are glossy still.  I love the old Connoisseur figures and just ordered some more.  However, I think the Old Glory range is excellent and many of my Dervishes are OG.  I have some Perry figures too that are quite nice.  Still love the old classics from Gilder, however.

Hi All,
The scenario supplement is finally here!  10 free scenarios.  Some are old, but rejigged for the new rules, and others are new both from my hand and others.  Please have a look at the following site and see the button at the top left for the free supplement:

http://www.hotzartworks.com/bfe.html