Fall of Fort Henrik

Battle 2 of the Sikamuki Campaign

As the survivors of the Griswold Massacre trickled in, Captain Hareld Havinger prepared to defend his hastily erected base, which he designated as Fort Henrik (after the Bluderian king). A company of infantry and a battery of guns manned the walls. Two more infantry companies, a squadron of cavalry, and some skirmishers operated outside the cramped confines of the fort.

Soon, the tribesmen emerged from the woods.

The Bluderian rifles and an infantry company advanced on the hill, hoping to use its defensive benefits to blunt the assault.

But they were quickly overwhelmed by the Sikamukan natives.

The cavalry squadron struck a band of natives.

It too was overrun. Then the fort's guns wiped out a native band.

The Sikamukans rushed the fort. The guns obliterated more natives.

Two warbands concentrated on the infantry company outside the walls of the fort.

Soon it was gone.

The guns were silenced by the deadly native archers and the warbands swarmed over the walls.

Havinger managed to escape to a waiting longboat, which whisked him back to his ships.

Having suffered two devastating defeats, Havinger realized he could not sail home without redeeming himself. If he returned without anything to show, he would be forced to resign, or worse. No, he had to accomplish something.

Realizing the effectiveness of his guns, Havinger plotted to lure the natives into a rash attack on multiple emplaced batteries. First, he would need a better defensive position. He sailed off, looking for a new place to establish a fort.

Notes

• This was the second battle of the Sikamuki campaign, where the Bluderians are attempting to conquer a new world empire. The natives are having none of it.
• The natives are leading 2-0. One more defeat will force Havinger to sail back to Bluderia in disgrace.
• By the way, Sikamuki is a play on Miccosukee, a tribe of Native Americans in South Florida (they branched off from the Seminoles).
• One of the main reasons I played this game was to try out my new terrain cards. In the past, I used dice to determine terrain randomly. It was a bit time-consuming so I ginned up a randomizer in Excel. However, that meant that I needed a computer to set up a game. I decided to take a new approach. I made up some cards to represent terrain features. I then dealt out 8 cards and then drew out the terrain accordingly.

Above you see cards for woods, clear, hills, and a river (which I turned into a bay). There are also fields, buildings, and rough ground. In all, I have 24 cards so there should be enough variability. It will be easy to modify the card mix to account for different geographies. For example, if the game is set in an area of hills, I can remove some of the clear cards. I thought the experiment worked quite well.

The Empty Tomb

 

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”

Mark 16: 1-7

The tomb is empty because He has risen!
Happy Easter!

The Lazy Gamer and Miniature "Scales"

Last time I talked about the advantage of choosing smaller scale miniatures. Today, I want to elaborate upon the different scales used in miniature gaming and the pros and cons of each.

Let me begin with a note about the term “scale.” Technically, “scale” refers to a ratio between a model and the actual object it is modelling. Thus, if I have a 1/72 scale miniature of a 6’ (72”) man, then the miniature would be 1” tall. While scale is used for some miniatures (e.g. I have mentioned 1/72 multiple times in the Guide), more often miniatures are identified by a nominal size, such as 2mm, 6mm, 10mm. Even though these are technically not scales, the term scale is often used – e.g. 2mm scale. In today’s discussion, I will use the common (albeit technically incorrect) term of scale.

Note that in the miniatures world, the definition of scale is rather lax. Some manufacturers measure it from the top of the head to ground while others go from eyes to ground. Thus, there can be some variation between miniature lines of the same nominal scale. If you buy from different manufacturers, you may have to buy samples to see if they match up.

2mm
First up is my current preferred scale. 2mm figures are available from Irregular Miniatures and are cast in blocks of around 20 infantry, 6-8 cavalry, or a gun and crew. If you do 3D printing, Forward March Studios offers printable files.

My old 2mm Irregular horse & musket armies on action

I also have some sci-fi miniatures from Germy, although they seem more like 3mm to my eye.

My Germy 2mm sci-fi forces in action

There are a number of benefits to this size:

• They are quick to paint if you just go for main colors
• They create a mass army look. Instead of a few figures on a base you have a whole block of troops. En masse they look like an actual army (check out this TMP post for an example)
• They are inexpensive
• They take up very little room for storage
• You can buy individual blocks  so you can order the exact number you need

There are some drawbacks, however:

• They can be fiddly to paint if you want more detail on your miniatures
• Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish troop types
• They can be hard to see in photographs (somewhat important to me)

3mm
A step up in size, 3mm miniatures are available from Magister Militum or Osmial 8 (I ordered from PicoArmor although Magister Militum now carries the line).

A 3mm bathtub Waterloo

Note that 3mm figures are 50% bigger than 2mm, so it is not possible to mix them together.

A comparison of 2mm vs 3mm

Benefits:

• Like 2mm, they can be quick to paint
• They can also create a mass army look
• Still affordable
• Easy to store
• Easier to distinguish troop types than 2mm

Drawbacks:

• More detail so there is the temptation to paint more
• The blocks are single ranked but bases look better with 2 ranks. This means more painting
• Magister Militum’s figures come in large packs. You may have to buy more than you need
• I had trouble fitting them into the slim Tuff boxes I bought for storage.

I prefer the MM over the PicoArmor. The individual soldiers are closer together, which makes it easier to speed paint.

5-6mm
There are a variety of manufacturers of 5 to 6mm miniatures. I have had experience with Heroics & Ros and Baccus.

Baccus 6mm ancients in action.

I haven’t done a side by side comparison, but my impression is that Baccus is somewhat larger than Heroics & Ros, to the extent that they are not usable together. Please correct me if I am wrong

Benefits:

• Individual soldiers are more distinguishable than 2mm/3mm

Drawbacks:

• Even more detail to paint
• Fewer men in the same space; less of a massed army look than small scales
• Requires more storage space

10mm
My experience with 10mm is limited, although I have a few figures (from Pendraken and Irregular) for dungeon crawls.

A dungeon crawl fight

Another option for horse & musket armies is to get replacement armies for the Risk board game. Check e-bay or Amazon for deals (search for Risk replacement pieces).

Risk figures in action

Benefits:

• Better for skirmish gaming than smaller scales
• Most distinguishable individuals
• Risk figures are easy and cheap to obtain
• If using Risk figures, they are already in different colors (if you don’t mind colorful horses)

Drawbacks:

• Battles look more like a skirmish than a massed battle (assuming a unit still occupies the same amount of space)
• Most detail to paint
• Most storage space required

I recently went big into 2mm, driven mostly by storage concerns. I was using slim Tiger brand Tuff Boxes, with the armies in small tins. My 3mm troops were too tall for the tins and the Tuff Boxes were too narrow for the Altoid tins that contained my 3mm.

If I had to start from scratch and choose one scale, I would go with 3mm and get deeper boxes for storage. The 3mm still have a massed army look and are quick and easy to build up, but I find that the troop types are easier to distinguish from a distance. If I wanted to do skirmishes with individually mounted soldiers I would go with 10mm instead. However, most of my gaming is with larger sized forces.

NEXT
Another option for the lazy gamer – block armies!

Enchanted Preparations

The next installment of the Lazy Gamer's Guide, indeed any wargaming stuff in general, has been on hiatus because I've gone all out on the LARP I am creating.

Recently, I finally finished the first draft rule book. I like how it turned out; there will be tweaks of course, but for now it seems like it will work.

I have also been making preparations for the first adventure. First, I need some games for the tavern. I'm going to move the board and pieces into a wooden box.

I also made a tablut board. There are some cards for those who don't care for board games.

Some stuff for the adventurers. Spell balls.

The wooden egg will represent a hearthstone. I made potion "bottles" out of wooden people (cheaper than using real bottles and less chance of breakage). All stored in some nice bags from Michael's. The number puzzle will be used to represent lock-picking. Finally, all these items rest on a yellow cloak that I will wear while game-mastering.

An urn, which will hold some treasure.

My simple, impressionistic representation of a basilisk.

Looking forward to the first event at the end of the month!