Monday, March 14, 2016

Peter Laings by the Numbers: 5

Samurai series.  F 9008 Warrior monk; F 9003 Ashigaru spearman; F 9001 Ashigaru archer; F 9005 Ashigaru arquebusier with jingasa; F 9006 Ashigaru spearman with jingasa

Back of the above figures.

F 9009 Dismounted Samurai; F 9002 Ashigaru arquebusier; M9001 Mounted Samurai

Back of the above figures.


Renaissance range. F 5031 Aztec spearman; F 5030 Aztec archer; F5040 Chimor warrior; F 5038 Inca warrior.

Back of the above.

F 5017 English arquebusier; F 5025 Spanish sword & buckler man; F 5026 Spanish crossbowman; F 5029 Aztec jaguar warrior; F 5033 Aztec eagle captain.

Back of the above figures.

I have little knowledge of these periods so I had to do some research to try to match the numbers on the envelopes to the figures. For me the true prize of this lot was the Samurai figures, of which I had none of.  In total this lot of figures gave me 24 new Peter Laing figures that I did not have before; so it was worth the money spent on it.









Sunday, March 13, 2016

NAVWARs Pre Dreadnoughts

    Last month I was in a naval mood. I found three models of Pre-dreadnoughts I bought over 20 years ago. It took a little research for me to realize they are NAVWAR miniatures. I would love to get more, unfortunately while they have a website, you can only order them through the regular post, and most provide either a check or give your credit card. Living in the USA, this is more work than I will go through.  I will continue to check Ebay for them.

      I did play a quick game using two of them.
Devastation (in background) vs. Camperdown



In the end the Devastation won the game. The game wasn't too exciting and wasn't worth a blow by blow report.

I have had a bad cold the last couple of days. I want to finish the" Peter Laing by the Numbers" series in the next few days. I also received my copy of DISCOVERING WARGAMES by John Tunstill. I am waiting until I'm feeling better before enjoying this book. Now that I have it I can decide which way to go building my Napoleonic armies.

Monday, March 7, 2016

An Answer to a Question and a New Regiment

          Last post I questioned about the rules used in "CALLAN; ACT OF KINDNESS". Bob Cordery of Wargaming Miscellany fame, found the answer. His answer is DISCOVERING WARGAMES by John Tunstill. As I don't have a copy of this book, a quick visit to Amazon solved that problem.

         I decided to try out a sample regiment with 18 figures, as mentioned in the last post. While happy with the looks of it, I think I might wait for my new book before taking the plunge of basing more.

The regiment in line. 



The regiment forms square. 

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Thoughts on Napoleonics

This last week I have watched on Youtube 'Callan; Act of Kindness' and 'Battleground; Waterloo' twice. It has me thinking of basing my 1st generation Minifigs for wargames. My plan is for six base units. The dilemma is should infantry units consist of 12 men or 18 men per unit. And should cavalry units consist of six, single figure stands or six, two figure stands?  By having six base units, I can use them with several sets of rules without the need for rebasing. Although I have a fairly large collection  of Minifigs, I'm not sure I'll have enough figures for my armies if I make 18 figure regiments.



Sorting through different boxes of Minifigs.

I have also been going through some of the rule sets I have, especially form the 70s & 80s. I do wonder what rules were used in 'Act of Kindness'.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Peter Laing by the Numbers 4

This is the second to last of these posting. The last figures I still need to do a little more research on.
A715; Rolls Royce armored car.

I didn't want to open the package with all the small parts; this is an example that I already have in my  collection.

Medievals

F 901 longbowman shooting; F 902 longbowman marching; F 904  Man at arms standing, spear;  A 904 kneeling gunner (the envelope says A 905, which is Standing gunner).

Back of the above figures.

F 907 dismounted knight with sword; F 910 dismounted knight with axe; A 902 cannon on elevating mount.

The back of the above figures.

American Civil War and US/ Indian Wars

F 3001 Dismounted cavalry adv (hat); F 3010 Infantry adv (hat); F 3007 Indian with bow, firing; F 3009 infantry adv (kepi); F 3012 'butternut" adv.

Back of the above.


M 3008 Indian with rifle, charging; F 3008 Indian, war bonnet with tomahawk; M 3001 cavalry (hat) horse walking. 

Back of the above.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

If it's Napoleonic, it must be Spring

The last couple of weeks we have had springlike weather; it seems when winter turns to spring, I get a sudden interest in the Napoleonic wars.

While at a craft store I saw some nice felt in a package, 2 yards of green felt for $8.99. I had a large piece of felt that I had used for wargaming years ago, but threw it out during one of my rare cleaning of the junk room. I bought it, then cut it into two 3'x3' sections. One I have marked off into 2" squares. While photographing my last installment of "Peter Laings by the Numbers" I played a quick game on it. I left items that were in the desk under the felt, to give it some contours.
The field of battle. Landscape pieces were randomly put down.

The French line.

The British line. It's hard to see but they were on a ridge line.





The main purpose of the game was to see how the pictures would come out. I still prefer the foam squares I used in earlier games as the figures seemed to stand out better. In the photos the contours of the hills don't show up too well.