Who Will Save Them?

As part of the discussion of my new 28mm Pulp Dinosaur-Hunting project I was wondering who might be able to save the hapless civilians and adventurers from the dreaded monsters.

Some standard pulp saviours suggested themselves - but I'm leaving this completely up to you guys! There's a poll on the blog (top right-hand corner) where you can cast your vote.

The Royal Navy

by Pulp Figures

I realise that these figures are actually Americans but the line is very nice and includes unarmed deck hands too...

The United States Marine Corps

by Pulp Figures

The Germans

by Pulp Figures

Native Warriors

by Dixon Miniatures

Now I'm not 100% that these would be the native warriors concerned - I might go for something in the Ngoni/Zulu line, or maybe switch to Central/South America and go for something along lost Mayan or Amazon tribe lines.

Mobsters

by Pulp Figures

Now I admit it, I was looking for a fifth option here and rather than go for French Foreign Legion or something I though I'd offer something a bit odd - while The Mob doesn't have exclusive rights on trench-coats, tommy-guns or cigars - the prospect of seeing Joey 'Two-Fingers' Salvato turn his Chicago typewriter on Raptors is immensely appealing to many.

You will note that the vote (open to Trinity Gamers for a week now) currently shows that their appetite for such cheesy incongruity cannot be restrained!

Going Old School

You may have gathered that I'm not an Old School wargamer as such. Though my initial forays into the hobby were buttressed by readings of Charge! by Peter Young and Practical Wargaming by Charles Wesencraft.

While I was famliar with Charles Grant's Battle I never realised it was a serialised publication in Meccano Magazine (which to be fair, I was never aware of either!).

Apparently there were chapters published there which did not appear in the book. Head over to the Wargaming Info site for details. If you just want to cut to the chase and download the full scanned pdf (with a big dose of admiration for the efforts of Mal Spence in collating all the articles), here you go.

Returning you to your non-Vintage fare now...

Platoon Forward!

I was quite pleased to see this new system by Joe Legan announced last week.

See an in-depth discussion over on the Too Fat Lardies blog. They're available in pdf format for £7.00 here

Platoon Forward! aims to provide flavour and context for tactical games. Rather than being a type of map-driven campaign system, it does three things (and on first scan, appears to do them quite well):
1. Characterisation of major personalities in the unit
2. Scenario generation - including enemy strength
3. Random events - both during and after battles
With further kudos for mentioning En Garde! as an influencing system!

Interestingly the author is a fan of Piquet and an inveterate solo gamer. He's been testing the rules for over four years in a variety of 20th century conflicts. These combinations are a powerful incentive for me to devour these rules in more detail. I imagine they will fit very easily into a contemporary assymetric context as well.

I'm quite a fan of well-constructed campaign systems - in my opinion there aren't enough of them. Campaigns and sieges are the two ugly step-sisters of wargaming (and to a lesser extent military history) with far more attention paid to 'Cinderella' - tactical battles.

On that front I passed along the second draft of my siege rules: provisionally entitled "With Cold Iron" - for use with Command & Colours: Napoleonics - to Mr. Kinch last week, and hopefully we'll get to playtest the hell out of them next month...

The American Mission

Deep in the highlands of West Africa a new American Mission is under threat...

Porters move through jungle, led by a trusty native guide


Nkunda hears rustling in the undergrowth and investigates


Two Achillobators stalk past a small ridge


Meanwhile, at the Johnston farmstead


Three Raptors rush in towards the farmhouse


Mr. Chandler eyes up his dinner


Two Raptors move through the high grass


The explorers spring into action


Captain Lewis and his men take stock of the sitution


A lookout on the water tower takes careful aim on Raptors


On the Trinity Gamers forum recently the touted creation* of a giant 3D Space Crusade/Hulk game following a quasi-drunken challenge prompted me to promise dinosaur hunting in 28mm (the gaming equivalent of eating my hat, since I've already done it in 10mm!). And so my fate was sealed, not to mention my game for Gaelcon in October...

*More correctly a resurrection, given it was first created in 2002 after a quasi-drunken challenge.

The Zeppelin Menace!

The Zeppelin Menace!

 

Zeppelins manufactured by Kinchstein GmbH.

The German Zeppelin is a treacherous weapon of terror. These stealthy behemoths prowl the night sky to bomb London in (vain!) hope to bring England to the peace table.

With altitude and darkness on their side, the cowardly Hun has been able to escape with impunity. However salvation is at hand from our brave Royal Flying Corps.

Redoubtable Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson has shown the way by shooting down the Zeppelin on the night of 2nd September, 1916.

(We are assured by sources at the Palace that His Majesty the King will be awarding Lt. Robinson with the Victoria Cross in honour of the daring sortie).

With the new Brock and Pomeroy incendiary ammunition the Zeppelins are now vulnerable to a fiery (and all too-deserved) death.

No. 39 Squadron of the formidable Royal Flying Corps stands ready to defend these shores from more dastardly Zeppelin raids.

Leprecon will be held from the 4th to 6th of March in Trinity College Dublin.

Forlorn Hope

Picked up this storming party recently

A party of dragoons rushes forward to prepare a breach



A dragoon provides covering fire with his carbine



Two men struggle with the petard itself



These are from Redoubt's range, and doubtless they'll take centre-stage in some siege scenario...

New Scenery for a New Project

With my order from Redoubt arriving yesterday, I'm getting ready for my Thirty Years War project for 2011.

An encampment for a raiding party is necessary



With a close-up of the campfire and some open tents



Another piece from long-term storage. I picked this up almost ten years ago from a wargamer dumping most of his collection. Like any gaming magpie I was immediately interested!

Gate House - useful for coup de mains or some internal skullduggery



Close-up of the Tower



Of course both of these lots can be used for other periods, but that's not a bad thing!