Three is a crowd

This photo sums up my current problem. 

On the left are some Austrian Jagers and artillery. My Napoleonic Austrian force for Sharp Practice is coming along nicely. I'm half way through the core force but need to paint another 20 or so line infantry and some Leaders. I seem to have run into the sand on that one, partly because......

In the centre are some AWI Continental Light Dragoons - again for Sharp Practice. These are not part of any core force - in fact the whole project is almost wrapped up practically - just nine cavalrymen and a Deployment Point and I will have just about everything I need or even want. Having these guys around seems to be distracting me from the Austrians because theyre so close to getting the army "done". Should I just bite the bullet and get on with them, get them finished and out of the way?

And on the right are some Napoleonic Royal Navy and Marine Officers - again Sharp Practice. As I've mentioned before Andy Parkes is doing most of the heavy lifting on this one, leaving me with just some touching up, basing, and the Leaders to paint. The bulk of the landing party is now done - I'll post some pics later, I'm just waiting on the Marines. I've maybe eight figures and a Deployment point to paint. I do think I will enjoy these as theyre all nice dynamic poses as befits our Hearts of Oaks but again they're distracting me from the Austrians.

Dave Lambert has organised a Sharp Practice day at Pendraken Miniatures next month (the gaming room there is great btw) and I've committed to having the Austrians ready for that. It should not be a problem, at least as far as the core force goes, as long as I do not get too distracted.

So basically I need to come up with a "Cunning Plan". Do I park the Navy and AWI and grind the Austrians, or do I get the others "out of the way" first, with the endorphin buzz associated with getting a project done?

answers in the comments please!   

Dawns and Departures AWI Campaign

The redoubtable Andrew Parkes has volunteered to umpire a Sharp Practice campaign using the Dawns and Departures campaign rules. This is very welcome. Coincidentally the equally redoubtable David Lambert had organised a Sharp Practice day at Pendraken Miniatures on the outskirts of Middlesbrough, so it seemed a good idea to combine the two and get some campaign turns in 

Three (I think) days in and the Tyrannical British have attacked the brave freedom loving Americans at Hymer's Farm. There was a small force of Continentals there, augmented on the day by some irregular skirmishers. 

Initially the Continentals, with support from locals harassing from a nearby orchard caused some casualties to the British Light Infantry that were covering the main advance.

The Yankees made the Redcoats fight hard for the farm, but were eventually forced to withdraw by overwhelming numbers back along the road, leaving the farm to the depravations of the Brits. 

A good little fight and got us back into the rules. Thanks to Andy for umpiring, David for organising, and Paul for opposition. 

Not getting even a bit distracted honest.................

I'm still making progress on the Austrians for Sharp Practice, and in the next few days I'm going to be working on some sailors to help with the Naval Landing Party - Hornblower et al.

However I've got an invite to Pendraken Wargames on Saturday 24th February where there is going to be a Sharp Practice day. There is no real chance of the Austrians making it in time, nor the Royal Navy, so I'm taking my AWI Continentals to face off again against Paul's Redcoats. Checking the list it's clear I really need a Deployment Point - actually I need a DP and a mobile one for my Continental Light Infantry. The first will be this nice little camp scene I've just finished, the second will probably be a Light Infantry scouting party or similar assuming inspiration strikes.

Anyway here is my Deployment Point -  a camp scene complete with small dog. 

Dogs are of course essential and this one is based on my pet mongrel from my youth. It's a well travelled dog as it was rescued from an earlier camp that I painted many years ago and he's been hanging around waiting for a new role. 

Back to Austrians - only four rankers and two Leaders and the first unit will be ready.

Cheers 

Meeting one of my Wargaming Heroes

The highlight for me of the Battleground Show was meeting one of my wargaming heroes. As I've got older I've had the chance of meeting and on occasion working with (ok holding their pens) some wargaming folks who have made a mark on the hobby. The Fire and Fury guys, Dave Manly (Mr Naval Wargaming), Roger Gerrish and Andy Chambers (he prefers Evil Overfiend) to name drop a few.  

However I ran into this nice chap at Stockton and he was wearing a badge saying "Andy Callan". 

"Are you the real Andy Callan" says I - "you know, Loose Files and American Scramble Andy Callan?"

and it was. 

And I was very happy to meet him because I think he saved my wargaming life. Back in the late 1980s,  (September 1987 to be precise), Wargames Illustrated issue 1 was published, including a set of fast play American War of Independence rules called "Loose Files & American Scramble". At the time I was just out of University and living "Dahn Sarth" selling computers and software to Yuppies (look it up if you're younger than 50) and picked it up. I lost my job a little later and decided to come home "Up North" for a couple of weeks to catch up with friends and family (pre mobile phone & internet days) and then head back down to find another job.  Sadly my Mum's cooking and home life was far too attractive and decided to look for a job here, in the middle of one of the worse unemployment black spots in the nation during a depression (Doh!). I was broke, on my arse and without two quid to rub together. I really couldn't afford to spend my few ££ on toys and my gaming life was looking threatened. Then I remembered the WI and that set of rules. I managed to get a lift through with my mate Steve Irvin to Irregular Miniatures, who at the time were operating out of a series of ramshackle sheds in darkest Yorkshire. Armed with a tenner I had hoarded from my "Dole" and assisted by Ian Kay's generous throwing in of some freebies I managed to get enough 6mm AWI figures to field two small forces for both sides. I diligently painted them up, and they became my staple game army for the following months. Without them, I think I may have drifted out of wargaming. True story that. Thanks Andy!

Interesting fact  "Loose Files and American Scramble" is the only piece to be repeated in Wargames Illustrated, once in issue 1, and again in a later edition. They're an interesting, fast and dirty AWI set of rules with the added advantage of being fun. They look good in 6mm and thinking about it, if Warlord ever do AWI in "Epic" scale they would look even better. Hmmm  

Anyway I bought a copy of his new rules "Never Mind The Billhooks" which I hop to get on the table in the new year.

Cheers!

Yankee Doodle - gearing up for Sharpe Practice 2 Part 1

I'm a bit of a fan of the Two Fat Lardies at the moment. I got hooked on Chain of Command, loved Dux Brit and am now gleefully reading through the newly released Sharp Practice 2.

In the usual way we say down and discussed which period we would play, as SP2 covers just about everything in the black powder era, and we chose American War of Independence (AWI). Actually when I say we, what really happened is we let John pick as he has always valiantly gone along with our other choices so it seemed fair to let him choose.

I was pretty happy with AWI anyway as I figured I already had a fair chunk of toys painted for the French Indian Wars in 28mm that could do double duty. Thus emboldened I took the unusual step of choosing \ volunteering to do the Yankee side. I don't do Americans usually - nothing personal but their style never really appealed to me, but in this case I can always use the excuse that this is just the second English Civil War anyway :-)

Sharp Practice  takes a "literary" view of action, being based on the type of battles represented in popular fiction, so I charged into my research by "box-setting" my way through "Turn - Washington's Spies" on Amazon, which has the advantage of being quite entertaining, good for scenario ideas but also full of nicely uniformed Rebels, Loyalists, Continentals and Redcoats - plus the added bonus of Billy Elliot playing the main character and a Welshman playing Benedict Arnold.

I bolstered this with a reading of Bernard Cornwell's "The Fort" - which I have to admit I liked a lot too - he writes a good historical yarn does old Bernie :-)  

This emboldened I bought a box of Continental Infantry from Warlord Games and so it begins.....