Fred’s 2025 Painting and Gaming Diary

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

V cool Forbes

[fred.]

Rivers

Spent some time today adding banks to the MDF rivers I picked up at Phalanx 



The whole lot - these have had a number of coats of gloss varnish but they don't look that shiny in the photos



The island


Y junction



Narrowing section - this has been lightly customised to narrow from the 75mm width down to 30mm

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Very nice work Forbes! 

[paulr]

    

[Techno 3]

[fred.]

Thanks chaps

[fred.]

Magnetic Basing

Productive day yesterday - probably due to the not very summery weather.

Got magnetic sheet stuck on the bottom of many bases of Sengoku Jidai era Japenese figures - the figures were painted a while ago - but as they were all out, its an opportunity for a quick photo!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Very 😎 cool

[Techno 3]

Very nice, Forbes !

[Steve J]

Nice work and I'm in the process of painting up some rivers too, but much narrower ones for me.

[fred.]

Daimyo Playtest Rules

I've now played these rules twice, and have enjoyed both games.

First game was 1v1 with 3 sonae a side. The second was 2v2 players, but still with 3 sonae a side, I 'umpired' the second game.

The rules are very well put together - considering they are a play test version, we had fewer questions than with many published sets of rules. The latest version (3.3) tidies up a number of bits and adds loads of scenarios and siege rules.

The core of the game is the order tokens - these work very well as a mechanism as you start with lots so have lots of flexibility, then as the battle progresses you never have enough to hand to do what you want to do! They also let each sonae do clever things if you want to try to replicate historical tactics.

Some photos - using 10mm Pendraken figures, but with the footprint of 28mm units in the game. Unfortunately only have 1 army's worth of Japanese figures so far.










Game two




Order tokens

[fred.]

Harlem Heights - Live Free or Die

We played another AWI game with Live Free or Die rules this week - as a couple of our gaming group wanted to try the rules.

It's been a few months since we last played - so need a quick refresh of the rules ahead of the game. Harlem Heights is a smaller scenario with around 50 bases per side - which nicely fitted with what we have painted.

The game is a 10 turn, escalating meeting engagement, with both sides adding in troops from turns 3 to 6.


Starting positions American formed troops to the right (NE) with skirmishers nearest the camera. The British have 2 large regiments of Light troops in skirmish formation between the woods, and a regiment of highlanders way off camera to the left.


Turn 3 - on the right the British skirmishers have infiltrated around the woods - but then were rudely met by American reinforcements. In the centre the Americans have advanced against the other Regt of Light troops. The American skirmishers have advanced to the wood to engage the Highlanders. And more American troops come on at the bottom of the picture - this brigade is under Nathaneal Greene.

The Americans had tried to charge the Light Infantry to drive them off - but due to the low quality of Hitchock's RI infantry - they failed in the charge and ended up suffering casualties and retreating!


Battle lines have formed. The Light infantry using their mobility have pulled back to the second wood, whilst that second Regt has moved into the centre of the table. The Americans were struggling to cause meaningful casualties on the Light troops in skirmish formation [6s where needed to hit them, and due to their mobility and high quality they were able to rally off quite a lot the hits caused] And whilst they weren't putting out that much firepower it kept adding up, and the Americans were less able to rally it off.


A continuous line of Light Infantry screen the British. As their reinforcements start to arrive both from the left, and Hessian's at the bottom.


Nearest the camera Maj General Greene is getting stuck into the action - but his Regt is facing 3 Britsh ones - the weight of fire tells, they loose 2 stands, and Greene is lightly wounded.


The Americans continue to suffer casualties - with units retreating and causing further disruption to friendly units.

Overall a decisive British victory as they caused 11 stands loss on the Americans, and only suffered 1. The historical result was about 4 stands each.

The two British Light regiments where a major problem for the Americans - they couldn't cause meaningful casualties to them, and their mobility allowed them to dance around the battlefield, and combined with their quality allowed them to rally off disruptions fairly easily.

The Hessians arriving on the bottom edge of the table was historically plausible - and did perhaps tip things the British way, as the rest of their reinforcements didn't get into the game - mainly as they spent a lot of time traversing terrain rather than marching around it.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

It's a good scenario, good write up
We found the light infantry really powerful too. Our losses definitely weren't that one-sided!

[fred.]

I think some dice rolling came into it too. The British seemed to roll generally a bit better and the Americans a bit worse than expected results 

[paulr]