The Men Who Would Be Kings

Always a sucker for new Colonial rules…
I recently picked up (OK, downloaded the Kindle version)  the rules book:
The Men Who Would Be Kings (Amazon Link)  TMWWBK

UPDATED: Need an army to go with TMWWBK?
Checkout Our new Skirmish Pack offering. See HistoriFigs website for more information.

While I don’t think it will replace my long time favorite, The Sword and The Flame it does offer some good guidelines for skirmish games. I have yet to take ’em for a spin, but for sure I’ll be getting my money’s worth out of this purchase.

And speaking of The Sword and The Flame, Sergents 3 is now offering a PDF version of the the 20th Anniversary edition.

More thoughts on PW Army Packs

On the subject of Portable Wargame Army Packs…
Assuming these are starter sets, what do you feel is a good SP value to shoot for?
 
My initial thoughts are shooting for about 40 SP
 
Does this seem reasonable?
Too much?
Not enough?

Army Packs for The Portable Wargame

A duplicate post from HistoriFigs website, for those of you not reading our news page…


Question for fans of Bob Cordery‘s The Portable Wargame… (Amazon link)

I’ve been thinking that our Classic (Scruby) 25mm figures are a very nice size for use with this game. As such, my thoughts have revolved around putting together some [25mm] Army Packs specifically for this game. The obvious choices are:

  • American Civil War
  • Franco-Prussian War
  • Crimean War
  • the African Colonial wars
The idea would be to make new molds (so we get crisp, clean castings) and package the figures in groups appropriate for use with The Portable Wargame. Target price would be as low as we could go and not loose money. For sure we should be able to do something under $40 USD shipped in the US (packs with larger cavalry forces might run slightly more). Even with international postage prices I think we can keep it pretty reasonable.
 
This should be do-able for some themes in 30mm and possibly (a more limited set) in 40mm and 54mm (at a higher price point).
 
What say you?

Amazon Links:

Possibly even some packs to go along with: When Empires Clash (Amazon Link) also by Bob Cordery. Selection not as wide, but some are do-able in 25mm and some in 15mm (Bloodaxe).

Recent Adventures in Painting…

I just realized it has been a while since I made a Post here, more posts have been to the Facebook group…

Gotta be better about posting here and then pointing posts on Facebook to here.

Late November and most of December were a quiet time in the shop, so I took a bit of time to try and catch up on my painting backlog. Made a bunch of headway, but also started several new projects.

I’ve painted a bit of this and a bit of that. Highlights include:

  • Blasted Planets
    • Pachydon
    • Human Infantry in Greatcoats
    • New, project covering a Swords & Sorcery version of the Blasted Planets universe Blasted Planets 100 …
      • Orc Swordsmen
      • Orc Axe-men
      • Human Swordsmen
      • Dino Beasts
  • Colonial
    • 30mm Scruby Zulu
    • 40mm Scruby (Arabs)
    • 25/28mm Bloodaxe (misc.)
  • 15mm Hawaiians
    These will be re-molded as I go (likely completed in February)
  • Misc. 40K figures
  • 54mm Scruby American Civil War
  • Misc. Terrain pieces

Plenty more on the table right now, just in various stages of incompleteness…

Here are a few pictures (sorry, if they are a bit blurry – still having camera problems)



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Test Drive: The Portable Wargame


I’ve been wanting to take The Portable Wargame out for a spins for some time now, but just never could figure out what I wanted to do. What figures did I already have that would fit the bill, what playing surface did I have…

Suddenly it hit me; right in front of my nose, 40mm Scruby American Ciivil War and my Hotz Command Mat! Bonus in that they were already out and on the table. Hex grid runs wrong way, but that was easy enough to remedy (ignore).

Nothing fancy for the scenario. Just went with balanced forces: 4 x Infantry, 1 x Cavalry, 1 x Artillery and a Commander for each side. For terrain went with a mirrored layout; clear and some wooded areas (grid was 9 x 8).

Game was played Solo, using Sudden Death rules; grid was 6″ hexagons.
PIPS, rather than cards for activation. I do think I’ll need to devise a simple activation system for solo games; the cards seem nice, but more hassle (matching card decks, etc.) that I want. PIPs were ‘ok’, but still think I need a better solution.

pre-game setup

    • CSA wins Initiative and activates a single unit, Artillery moves up
    • USA activates 4 units; Artillery and Infantry move to forward positions
    • USA wins initiative and activates 4 units: Cavalry moves up and some more Infantry maneuvering.
    • CSA activates 5 units, with advances across the field

      end turn two

    • USA activates 4 units, maneuvering across the field
    • CSA activates 6 units. Advances and fires, but with no effect
    • USA activates 6 units. Attacks and Destroys the Rebel Cavalry and pushes CSA Infantry back on the left; further fire is ineffective
    • CSA activates 4 untis; Artillery fire has no effect

      end turn 4

    • USA activates 4; combat results in the Destruction of Infantry unit & Rebel commander. Further fighting dislodges CSA infantry for position in woods on the Right
    • CSA activates 5; fighting pushes back USA on right, while CSA on left must retreat
    • CSA activates1. Close Combat results in the loss of another Rebel unit. CSA reaches Exhaustion Point! Given the state of remaining troops, this effectively ends the game…

      end of game

      Had this I not been using the Sudden Death rules, the game could have continued.

After some reflection, I think hex grid was a bad choice for ACW; I will need to make up a square grid board and try again. Initial impressions are that, as Bob suggests square grid prior to 1900 and hex grid 1900 and later. My next game will feature British vs. Zulu on a 3″ square grid; might be a week or two, as I need to make up a terrain board with the 3″ grid.

Overall I like the game, I can see many uses for quick games. Will be trying this again soon.