Sabot Bases

Massed Fantasy Battles. Those three words together in that order can bring about a wide variety of reactions from wargamers. For some, they hark too closely to the Marmite world of WFB, or the incomprehensible HotT.

Me, I used to love WFB when I were a kid. 3rd Edition. Bretonnians, when Bretonnians were basically HYW English/French with a wizard. Since those heady days, I've not played anything which required regiments of units, and the associated stuff that goes with it.

I've got some rules on the hard drive, including Pride of Lions. I've got some printed rules too, including WAB and WFB 3rd ed, and the aforementioned cryto-analyst's wet dream which is HotT. Closest I've come is my half-complete abandoned 10mm Napoleonic armies from Redline, and the now-sold 28mm early Saxon army from Musketeer.

Not played any of them though, mainly because I can't be bothered with painting several 'undred of basically the same miniature, to then spend an afternoon getting wound up over wheeling units, facings, charges, and so on.

However, I do miss the fun of pushing large armies around, and of course the visual aspect. So, on and off over the last few months, I've been hammering Song of Splintered Lands into something more suitable for mass battles. Rather than rebase everything, or buy a whole lot more SLM, I decided to utilise the large existing collection with sabot bases from warbases.co.uk (be prepared for a not very good website if you visit).

Dunno why they're called sabots. A sabot to me is a kinetic dart for use against armour, not a piece of laser cut wood. Anyway, bought 20 of the 3x2 for units of 6, for use in my cut-down SSL version.

Turned up to they did. Very nice, for the 80p each, and saves a lot of work. Just need to get the pumice gel out and get them to match the basing scheme. They'll also double for 15mm Dux Bellorum (or whatever it is Stuart bought).

Sharp, clean, cuts. Good price. Good services from warbases. Recommended.

Good Lord! It's the Tangent Sir!

The Tangent returns!

I went away, to a dark place called Cantbearsed where painting and playing with toy soldiers is very much verbotten. There I passed out of time, and probably space as well, until I became so bored, so demotivated, that I decided to ironically paint something.

Then I painted some more.

And a bit more.

Then, my latent wargamer reawakened, I bought some more shit I'll never finish painting.

Hurrah!

66 Splintered Lands animals arrive soon from the former colony (the one with the really big boats and guns), and some more resin steampunk stuff for Dystopian Wars.

Meanwhile, here's a pic of me around christmas time, consulting with my inner meh on the subject of wargaming.

Dystopian Wars Battle - loads of pics

So, having reviewed the fleet over the weekend, a 1000pt battle was organised with Pete for this evening. I debated at length what to put on the table, eventually deciding to leave the usual favourites (Mk.I Magenta, Marseilles) in the bag. Initially went with Tourbillon, Vauban, Couronne, Chevalier, Lyons, Ecuyers, and Voltaires. On a reflection I dropped the Tourbillon for the Mk.2 Magenta.

As it happened we timed out at the end of Turn 2 - neither myself or Pete play particularly quickly, and when throw in chatting, smoking, taking pics, and looking up rules we don't know, it's no surprise. I won, on points, because although Pete sunk the Couronne and a Chevalier, I'd stopped three of his destroyers, and a cruiser, and damaged one more. Both Pete and I are at an age now where finishing the game isn't that important - it's just nice to put our toys on the table and push them about.

Star of the show for me was the Ecuyers (again), and the Chevaliers (who throw out some serious firepower). The sheer number of TFTs gave me massive advantage, so I'll be doing that tactic again. Certainly going to get another squadron of Chevaliers - they're seriously good.

The bloody Time Dilation Orb of Pete's CoA proved a pain in the arse, as he teleported his carrier next to mine and absolutely hammered it. There's no way of combating it, just need to wait for the inevitable.

Anyway, here's the pics. Excuse the ones in portrait that aren't - using a different phone today, and it doesn't seem to auto-adjust

Republic of France Fleet Review (arms race)

A quiet day at Port du Tangent, so the Admiral de la Fleet Atlantique (moi) ordered Garlic, Cognac, and Baguettes stowed in their lockers and undertook a fleet review.

First past the bench are the Ecuyer class support cruisers. Despite only having been in combat once - against the British - they proved surprisingly tough.

Now we have the two Epaulard class submarines. Equipped with bombard mortar, they should be good, but have so far proven ineffective. They also have mine-laying capability, but the mines in question wouldn't sink a canoe, so they tend to stay in port.

Now the squadron of Lyon class frigates steam past. Cannon fodder basically.

Now the mighty Vauban class sky fortress. A sort of battleship/carrier/airship - packing huge firepower, huge amount of tiny flyers, and all sorts of gadgets. This ship's predecessor was famously shot down in action against the Covenant of Antartica. A magazine explosion ensured that she took almost everything else down with her too.

Tiny flyers. The Republique field huge numbers of these, but so far they've only proven to be a nuisance. A change in tactics beckons where they should be used against destroyers and corvettes.

The Furieux class scoutship. Used for ranging far ahead of the main fleet. Perhaps that's why they've been shot to ribbons in every battle without really hurting anything 

Voltaire class heavy interceptors - theoretically very good, but only two fielded so far. Expecting more results when used in bigger numbers (see Arms Race below)

Marseilles class cruisers. Stalwart ships of the line - have dished out some serious punishment in return for few losses. Almost always fitted with retardant armour, which usually helps longevity.

The ill-starred Magenta II class pocket battleship. She's been crippled twice, and boarded once. The heat lance is a powerful weapon, but also a powerful fire magnet. Nonetheless, her faithful crew struggle on, hoping one day to prove their worth.

Ah, the belle of the fleet; the Magenta I class pocket battleship. Unlike her later Mk.II cousin, the old girl leads a charmed life; having survived every encounter with nowt but a scratch here and the odd dent there. Repulsed and then counter-boarded the Convenant's battleship during the same engagement that saw the sky fortress explode.

Then the mighty Charlemagne class dreadnought. Slow, ponderous, and incredibly powerful. Sunk a lot of British ships in one encounter, but otherwise remained resolutely in port. 

Arms Race
Thanks to the dastardly machinations of the Convenant of Antarctica, and to a lesser extent the Kingdom of Britannia, the Republique has had to embark on a programme of ship building.

Although this is supposedly secret, some details have leaked out. A Tourbillion airship, a Couronne class battle carrier, another Magenta I, and some Chevalier Destroyers and Frelon small flyers.

More are in the works, and even more planned, especially on the airship front - the British preponderance of torpedoes will be thwarted by simply not being in the water. The Republique will know victory once more (eventually).

Scenario Bag The Hun II Cards

I've been following the alarmingly prolific Jim at Jim's Wargames Workbench for a while, and saw a post from him about gaming on Tuesday with a 1940 Battle of Britain scenario based on real events.

For want of a couple of hours distraction, and because I'm generally quite nice to fellow wargamers, I offered to tweak my card deck for him in return for the scenario he'd written.

Here's one of what I did done make for him;

Never ceases to amaze me the photos you can find on the internet without much searching. The chap asleep in the chair is actually the very man who led the flight into combat in the scenario. Chap looking moodily off into the middle distance is 56sqn, although unidentified.

More French floaty bang

Wargaming friends, who needs 'em eh?

Pete, owner of the highest lead mountain in all Hove, regular gaming opponent, irregular Northerner, and - to his eternal regret - one of the inner circle of Tangent, had to head North this weekend.

In the grim North there is a grim town called Sheffield, which is full of grim people and grim things. (Foreign readers please note that in Britain, anywhere North of a place called Luton is considered 'the North', and everything up there is grim). Anyway, Pete messaged me using the combined magic of 3G and Facebook and asked whether I would like a Dystopian Wars Republic land battle group boxed set.


 Does the Pope kiss runways?

Of course I did, even from the grim North, toys is toys. I also requested a Mk.1 Magenta pocket battleship. I've already got one, but two pocket battleships are better.

Suppose I best get my airbrush back from Pete, as the list of stuff I need to paint is getting quite long.

Dystopian Wars mega battle: planning

In a rare moment of coherency, my gaming group has decided unanimously (well, two of us) to stagger slowly towards an all-group mega battle of Dystopian Wars. Whether it'll ever happen is irrelevant - it was my idea, so I'll be planning it, and no doubt driving the reluctant collective to a) all appearing in one place simultaneously, b) sticking to the scenario without trying to deconstruct it and c) actually constructively assist with said project.

It should be said that in the seven or so years our group has been in effect, I don't think this has ever been achieved. Still, lost cause or not, I shall persist.

So, here's the idea; 12' x 4' board, in the middle a Panama or Suez canal type running across from left to right, covering 3 or 4 foot. In effect this will create an Atlantic side and a Pacific side. Land objectives to be some factory installations, some bridges, an airfield or two, and some other stuff. Rest of board to be sea with scattered islands.

At 2000 - 2500 points per side, this should give plenty of points for land forces as well as naval and aerial compliments. Limited to six turns only, it'll be Take & Hold objectives based, I should think. At this points level, with potentially five or six players at the table, it's easily an entire afternoon's gaming.

Scenery-wise we have enough bits of green tiles to make sufficient landmass to fight over, although the 2x2' tiles will present a problem for the making of the canal. I've got some 4 x 2 pink foam boards which were from an abandoned project now lurking in the loft. Think it might be time to press them back into service and get some bags of static grass.

Playable forces are fine for the most part - Covenant and Britannia are very comprehensive with land forces as well, whilst my French can easily field 2000pts of navy, but lack any land presence. There is a smallish Prussian contingent, and there's threat of a new player entering with a yet to be purchased Russian fleet.

So, first stage is to construct two opposite banks of canal (fairly simple), paint up some objectives, get a land force boxed set, and make some hills/mountains. Then I can start to think about objectives and scenario conditions.

Hope to get some progress during the week.