As promised the other day I am posting some pictures of the new 1914 Russians in Fur Cap. These new figures help round out the Bloodaxe Miniatures offering of 1914 Russians (there are a few more Russian figures planned – a few more command figures, and an artillery crew; all in fur cap.
For figure listings visit the Bloodaxe Miniatures website. For a first look at the figures, see the pictures below.
Coming up next time: Resistant Roosters new Early War (39-41) Germans…
It has been a little bit since my last post, so I thought I’d fill the gap with a small batch of miscellaneous updates…
My article on Medieval War Games is almost done, a couple of misplaced files have been recovered, so I should have this one done by the end of the week.
Randy finished painting samples of the the new Early War Germans late last week. He mailed them out on Friday, so I should have them in hand today or tomorrow. I’ll shoot some photos as soon as I have these in hand. Look for an official release of the new Resistant Roosters Platoon Packs (team packs too) at Rock-Con later this month.
SPAM levels are increasing, and this is slowing down our email response times (if I crank up the filters too much we start loosing emails – slow response is better than no response).
Look For a new Blasted Planets release at Rock-Con – I have a few different things in mind, we will just have to see what gets molded before the convention.
On the Bloodaxe Miniatures front, I’ve finally finished the last of the molds for the 1914 Russians in Fur Cap. I’ll shoot photos of these figures when shooting photos of the Resistant Roosters WWII Germans. We migth be able to squeeze in one more Bloodaxe Minaitures release before the end of the year. The mold making shop is busy with custom work, but I’ll see if we can finish the Adowa (First Italo–Ethiopian War) molds before the end of December.
Completed a new mold for [Scruby Miniatures] NN-60: N-gauge, Napoleonic French Fusilier, Marching, Slung Musket (looks more like at the carry to me). I started with the original master figure and created a nice, clean new set of pattern figures for use in the new production mold. NN-60 has never looked better!
Alison is a bit backed up in the shop – a hard disk problem caused a few mixups in work orders, so she had to re-do a few orders. I think I have the problem sorted out, so we should be good going forward. Well, that should about do it for today. Look for at least one more post later this week…
20mm Miniatures of the Seven Years War
The so called “Tri-Corn” or “Cocked Hat” period of military history extended over more than two centuries form the lat 1600s to the Napoleonic wars. Uniforms of all armies of the world were almost identical during this phase of military dress, and even as they evolved from the cumbersome cuffs and coats to lighter apparel of Napoleon’s time, the Tri-corn hat remained of the same pattern…
The above is taken from Jack Scruby’s Catalouge of Military Miniatures (1963). The full, two page, section covering 20mm miniatures of the Seven Years War can be found here:
Click on the image above to download/view the catalog pages (format is PDF)
The 18th Century (SYW & AWI) has long been one of my favorite periods of military history, as such I have more than a few war game figures for this period. Two small 20mm AWI armies are a part of my collection. These armies were built using the Greenwood and Ball 20mm figures produced by Jack Scruby.
I’m not sure when I purchased my first 20mm miniatures of the Tricorne Era, but I do know that they have been among my favorite figures for many years.
I had originally planned to share several pictures of the original masters and patterns from my collection, but the photos did not come out as well as I would have liked, so for now I’ll just share the following two photos.
You will notice red lines drawn on the masters in the pictures above. These lines were used as a guide for part lines when cutting the original gravity molds (more about this in a future post).
The original gravity molds for these figures are long gone – they were used to cast figures until they would no longer produce usable figures. My collection of original masters and patterns is not quite complete. It is close but there are a few pieces missing (there is still hope that the missing pieces can be located, as many of the pattern figures have been stored in a not so organized manner for many years and I continue to uncover lost treasures).
Since we all know that “a picture is worth a thousand words“, the next few thousands words will be represented by these photos of figures in my collection.
Continentals:
Hessians:
Redcoats:
Some of my Scruby catalogs are a bit out of order; the 1963 catalog is my cleanest copy and has been taken apart for scanning, so I missed scanning and adding a page to Part I of this series. The page I forgot is the first page of Section Two – 20mm Military Miniatures.
Click the image to the left to view catalog page
That about wraps things up for Part II. I don’t yet have a time frame for the posting of Part III – there is still a bit of work remaining and I don’t want to promise a published date that I know I can’t keep. I can however share with you the topic of our next installment – Soldiers of the 20th Century – we will feature miniatures by Greenwood and Ball, Holger Ericsson and Joe Morschauser. Part IV will follow. In the fourth installment we will deeper into master figures and molds. We will also show a comparison between 20m and 25mm figures.
Coming up next time I’ll cover Medieval War Game rules; we will look at rules by Charles Sweet circa 1957 and the original Chainmail (Gygax and Perren)…
Mafrica, a mythical map – in ‘birds eye’ perspective – of the continent ‘Mafrica’ – a place where native tribes lurk to stop your colonial expansion. Perfect for war gaming in the African Colonial period of 1880.
We are pleased to announce that a 3rd print run (quantities are limited) of Mafrica maps will be in hand by the end of the week.
The 18” x 24” maps are printed on coated (not glossy) poster stock and are priced at $16.50 each (plus postage) and are shipped rolled in a sturdy mailing tube. Shipping to addresses in the United States is $2.50 – International shipping is $7.00 (for international customers, we can ship the map folded rather than rolled, shipping for folded maps is $3.50).
I started on this post way back in March. This was about the same time as I started painting Civil War armies (in 54mm) for Liam. Somehow, I totally misplaced my scans and notes until late last week when I was working on some other rules project…
While Liam and I are having fun designing our own rules for Medieval & Fantasy I thought that playing with some true old school rules would be fun for American Civil War games. During one of my re-readings of the old Scruby publications I happened upon the March 1959 issue of War Game Digest. This issue focused on Musket Era war games and contains an article titled ‘The Civil War in Miniature‘ by Larry Brom. Larry’s organization fit perfectly with what I was looking for in an old school war game. I don’t expect Liam’s 54mm armies to be as large as Larry’s 30mm forces, but we should still have some fun with these rules. As soon as things slow down around here we hope to use my 40mm armies and give these rules a try while I’m working on painting the 54mm figures (If I’m lucky Liam’s first ACW units will be ready in time for Christmas).
Look for the next installment of our Classic 20mm series by the end of the week. In the meantime why not settle in and enjoy Larry Brom’s rules from 1959…
THE CIVIL WAR IN MINIATURE
By
Larry V. Brom
I shall endeavor to present in outline form my system and theories on the American Civil War in miniature with the hope that some small bit of information will be of use to one of you in your future war game projects. In this small way I might possibly be able to repay those dozens of worthy contributors to War Game Digest who have so inspired and enlightened me in the able art of table top combat.
Equipment
A) I have a 4ft by 8ft hard top table with movable paper mache’ hills and mountains, sponge trees and card board houses.
B) I have the usual range and movement sticks, dice and firing charts.
C) I use 1 inch by 2 inch blank cards for hidden troop movement on the field.
D) I use a 635 man 30mm SAE and Scruby army to fight with.
Organization
A) Ten men (1 officer included) equal a regiment
B) Three regiments and one Brigadier equal a Brigade (31 men)
C) Two Brigades and one Major General equal a Division (63 men)
D) Two Divisions and one Lt. General-equal a Corps (127 men)
E) Each Army has two infantry corps, a brigade of cavalry (32 men), four cannons with twenty artillerymen and a five man HQ group.
F) Each regiment has a flag designed with a number, state, and colors corresponding to the colors of the blanket rolls of that Regiment for easy identification on the field.
G) I have the usual picturesque units that appear on miniature Civil 1:’lar battleground s, such as: Louisiana Tigers, Hawkins Zouaves, Duryeas Zouaves, Berdans Sharpshooters, First Virginia Cavalry, Rockbridge Artillery and such.
Pre-Game Preparation
A) To prevent each opponent from knowing exactly what hers up against, I use a Point System to determine the composition of each force that takes the field in each battle. It works like this: Each infantryman is worth 1 point; each Sharpshooter is worth 2 points; each Cavalryman is worth 3 points; and each gun and crew is worth 10 points.
You then decide that you will have, say, a 150 point battle. Each player then builds up a 150 point army using any combination of forces according to their point value (see example armies below).
| Army “A” | Army “B” | ||
| 80 infantrymen | 80 points | 50 Infantrymen | 50 Points |
| 10 cavalry | 30 points | 30 Cavalrymen | 90 points |
| 10 sharpshooters | 20 points | 1 gun and crew | 10 points |
| 2 guns and crews | 20 points | ||
| TOTAL | 150 points | TOTAL | 150 points |
B) I always mask off the field with a curtain before setting up the forces to compensate for “pre- battle maneuver”.
C) I use a “card” system in my battles to introduce concealment and hidden troop movement on the field. It works like this: Each opponent has available blank cards on which he enters what that card represents on the field. Each card may have from one to thirty men on it, at the player’s discretion. Each side, by pre-game arrangement, limits the number of cards. These cards are then placed faced down in their starting positions on the field. The cards are moved as if they were troops, and of course neither player has any idea of what is actually moving towards him until the opponent’s cards are exposed. (Here is where skirmishers and shaprshooters come in). Cards can only be exposed as follows:
1) At a player’s discretion
2) When hit by rifle fire
3) When hit by artillery fire
Sequence of Play
A) I use the Alternate Move, Simultaneous volley system (the Combination Type War Game)
B) On each turn the player must follow this sequence – move, fire volleys, fire artillery, and then fight out melees.
C) I do not use the Continuous Combat Theory, but do give Bonus Moves to winners of hand to hand combat.
D) Hand to hand combat is fought on an individual basis man to man using dice to determine the winners. Player with-most men remaining in melee area wins
Special Rules
A) Sharpshooters: get extra range and more hitting power, but no extra move distance.
B) Light Infantry: in each game player designates a light infantry brigade, which gets longer moves.
C) Movement depending on Formation; I believe in keeping as much semblance of military formation as possible on the field, and these rules encourage it:
1) Infantry in line, cross country – move 6 inches
2) Infantry column, cross country – move 9 inches
3) Infantry column, on road – move 12 inches
4) Infantry stragglers – move 3 inches
I think this briefly touches on the high points of my Civil War games in miniature. I will close with a little ditty written by Pvt. Ezra J. Pettywick, late of the 5th Texas Infantry Regiment, CSA:
The Battle is not to them thats got,
The rules so neat and nice,
The battle is to the feller who
Rolls the hottest dice!