And again, Armati

We have been playing a lot of Armati to the detriment of other periods including colonials!  Fear not, I will be getting back to BFE soon.  Indeed, I am working on the WWI version and have French on the painting table right now.  In the meantime, here are a few more pictures of our last game: Byzantines vs. Carolingians meeting somewhere around the northern Mediterranean...

Some recent Armati action

When we are too busy to create scenarios (which we do for colonials, Napoleonics, WWII and other periods) we frequently end up playing Armati.  It is a delightful game, fast, clear, and we have dozens of armies to choose from, all in glorious 28mm.  Here are some pictures of the last couple of game evenings.

Back from Enfilade in Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia, Washington

A couple of weeks ago, a big Canadian contingent went to Enfilade, the US convention south of Seattle in Olympia, the state capital.  This was a really fantastic convention drawing people from the entire west coast.  We noticed that the quality of the terrain and figure collections was superb and there were some really fun participation games.  Of particular note was a huge 10mm Omaha beach game with homegrown rules, lots of action and all the vehicles, LCs and ships custom made on a 3D printer.  Impressive stuff.

It is alway gratifying to see some of the games that I have been involved in developing being presented.  Shako 2 and Armati 2 were being played (not just by us -- we did a couple of Armati games).  I was particularly impressed by the Shako game played on a large scale with 20mm figures. As 28mm figures get ever bigger, it is refreshing to see 20mm.  They look elegant, can be seen (15mm and smaller are too small although can be effective for certain kinds of rules and games) and therefore strike a very nice balance.  I note that John Ray (The military gentleman) is developing a range of SYW figures in 20mm.  I am tempted.

On the BFE front, we presented a WWI game representing part of Vimy Ridge.  My buddy Thomas Moore made a fantastic set of trench terrain boards and the game went really well.  We are still developing the BFE Great War rules and it has a way to go, but so far really good.

The only down side of the weekend was that I had a massive head cold that limited my will to live.  Thankfully the excitement of seeing such wonderful games and presenting a couple of them with enthusiastic players kept me going.

Cheers,
Chris

Battle of Lutzen, 1632

A few shots from last weeks game.

Ancients with Armati

We have played Armati since before it was published and never grow tired of it.  I am looking forward to trying To the Strongest! but Armati keeps us coming back to ancients through to the early modern period.  Here are a few pictures from our latest game, Palmyrans against Romans (early Imperial figures acting as 3rd century types).

A little more work on terrain for several projects

Like most of us, I assume, I work on several projects at once.  I suppose that is the pleasure and frustration with this hobby that there are so many possibilities but so little time to satisfy them all.  I know that some are good at ploughing through a single project at a time.  I am not. So, I am building windmills for a Lutzen 1632 scenario, the defences at Rorke's Drift, and also couldn't resist the Warbases Pegasus bridge model that turns out to work well for 20mm.  Suppose this is the very definition of unfocused.

Here are a few pictures

Still here

Yes, I am still here and gaming.  However, I am more in prep mode for colonials than actually pushing lead.  I sold much of my Imperial forces in order to expand and upgrade them.  I now have loads of unpainted Connoisseur (Bicorne) Sudan infantry.  They are prepped and based, but need to be 'dressed'.  This will take me  a while.

My Zulu War collection is more stable and I am finally finishing my defences for Rorke's Drift.  The Redoubt Miniatures set is very useful and the wagons are particularly nice.  This won't take me long and then I will post pictures of the finished set-up.  The image below is an old one....

In terms of other periods, I am doing a lot of Renaissance gaming and also prepping more WWII terrain for my D-Day and other amphibious operations using Rapid Fire.

Too many games and too little time!