Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

As a bid to use the blog as my wargaming diary this year I'm going to try and do a weekly summary of what I've been doing.  I tend to only post completed items and then it doesn't look like I've done much.  So here we go for the first week of 2022. Gaming Got in a cracking game of Donnybrook set in The Old West - read about it here Painting/modelling Did all the prep for the last Newline Designs 20mm Sikh Wars unit which is a regiment of 24 EIC Sepoys. EIC Sepoys based, sand added and primed Managed to finish the fencing to go round my Old West farmhouse -read about it  here Research Had a good look through all my French wars of decolonisation books.   Organised some of my PDFs sorting out the Korean War titles particularly.  Had a brief look into Central and South American wars of the first half of the 20th Century (are we going down the rabbit hole?) A positive start to the year with plenty of hobby activity. 

The scenario The South, 1850s.  There’s been strange things going on in Ellis County.  Michael Harvey, tearaway son of the local Governor John P Harvey has disappeared.  The locals suspect the Lewis clan, local moonshining miscreants.   The enraged Governor is forced to act.  He hires Captain Tracey Pew and his band of hardened veterans from the Mexican and Seminole Wars to search the Lewis farmstead and get to the bottom of the mystery.   The truth is more complex.  Michael Harvey is in fact a willing guest of the Lewis clan, being the best friend of Lewis's son Conway.  He would be more than happy to live with the Lewis clan and learn the family business.  The 'shine has fierce hold on him. The forces (2 pts per side) The Lewis Clan – (based on the Outlaws and Highlanders factions from the Donnybrook rulebook) 23 figures William Lewis (Hero D12) with pistol and hand weapons  Big Herk (character Chief’s champion D12) with hand...

I find I work better if I have a couple of projects on the go.  Of my 2021 projects The First-Anglo Sikh Wars is one I'm still very enthused with and I'll be adding units into 2022. The 28mm WW1 project has been on the backburner waiting for the Wargames Atlantic French set to be released.  Alas, I have lost interest in this and may even sell the Germans I've done.  I fear this will end up as another Bolt Action style game which is kind of pointless and goes against the ethos I'm trying to stick to (outlined here and here ).  I'm thinking of doing a WW1 project in a smaller scale but with a bigger scope but that's for the future.  I've got some old stuff sorted this year and the lead hillock is still very small, so I've got capacity to start something new for Autumn and Winter. I wrote at the half year point that I wanted to do a pre-gunpowder project.  I've been working through my book collection and trawling the Web and had a couple of ideas but no...

The scenario The Essex countryside 1588.  Captain Gonzalo Hernández leads his detachment of Flanders veterans in a search for provisions. An  English force, (part regulars and part local militia) has been alerted and moves to intercept.  The forces Spanish - Captain Gonzalo Hernández - 1 hero (D12), Antonio de Vera -  character musician, 1pt unit of 3 Light Horse (Elite D10), Hector Bellendin - character sergeant, 1pt unit of 8 musketeers (all regulars D8). English - Captain Rowland Howard - 1 hero (D12), Matthew Baynton - character sergeant, 1 unit of 8 Pikemen (regular D8) Josiah Grundeye - poacher character, 1pt unit of 12 Militia calivermen (recruit D6). Victory conditions At the end of the turn (Turn Over card is drawn) check the status of the forces. When a force has been reduced to 50% of its starting strength, including characters, throw one Ability die equal to the highest surviving member of the force, If the result is 7+ the force may continue to fight....

The scenario and forces were covered in my previous post Little game with little men - 1ft, 1 pt Donnybrook French-Indian Wars . Turn One The deck is shuffled and the first card drawn is for the Wyandot Sachem Talks-Bull. He decides to move, throwing 2D6 due to the wooded terrain. He must be feeling clumsy as two 1s are thrown so he moves 1cm. Having moved, he can’t shoot so his turn ends. Captain Gallagher, the Ranger officer draws next. He also elects to move throwing a 2 and a 1, he moves 2cm dragging his wilful daughter with him. He also can’t shoot so his turn ends. Next card is the Wyandot war party. Their 2D6 movement die score better, a 5 and 6. They get to move a full 6cm. The lads are all fired up!  The Reload card is drawn – no one has fired so this doesn’t apply.  The unit of Roger’s Rangers finally draw their card. Their movement roll gets a paltry 1 and 2 so they move 2cm. They cautiously move forward.  The Turn End card is the final card to be drawn appropr...

I realise I'm well behind the times but I only got my copy of Donnybrook by  The League of Augsburg a couple of months ago.  I'd spent  Christmas and the New Year looking through all my rules and searching on line for a good skirmish set to do 17th Century Eastern Renaissance with. That eventually led me to Donnybrook. Taking advantage of my £5 off WI Prime subscription offer, I ordered one from NorthStar and it was duly delivered with their usual lightning response. It's a triumph of a book.  Beautifully produced and clearly written.  I wish I'd got it years ago. Anyway to my first game.  In my usual "tangent man" style I've postponed my forays into the East and dug out my QRF French-Indian Wars figures.  I can't remember which Salute I got these at, but I'm ashamed to say it's probably over 10 years ago and they've never been in battle.   The scenario The wilful Sarah Gallagher, daughter of ranger Captain Daniel Gallagher has run into th...