Cold Wars 2012: Thursday, Friday

Another Cold Wars has come and gone. It was a lot of fun, as usual, and it has renewed my enthusiasm for going to conventions. My friendships with friends I rarely see grow stronger, and I look forward to seeing everyone in person again soon.

I did a lot of losing this past weekend, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time dwelling on it. There are other newer, more interesting things to talk about instead.

Thursday

JM and I rode out with Larry and Rich and set up camp in a second room the hotel accidentally reserved in Larry’s name. Thanks for the mistake, no other rooms were available!

On Thursday night was Larry’s element-based theme game: Horde Wars. Armies were required to contain at least one horde, so I took Post-Mongol Samurai with four hordes. As usual, despite being a “Horde Wars” event, the metagame turned it into “Horde Killers Wars.” I usually take advantage of the opportunity to try to learn how to use the themed element type, instead of trying to learn how to kill it. This time, I’m not sure it worked, because I don’t think Hordes are as useful in large numbers as in smaller numbers.

My losses were against Ron Giampapa’s Feudal English, 2-4; Mark Bumala’s medieval army (I forget which one, but it had more Knights), 6-0; and Jason Bostwick’s Sarmations, maybe 4g-0. Basically I was crushed, and the only elements I killed in the event were Ron’s psiloi rush.

Friday

I actually got sleep Thursday night.. no wait… no, I didn’t. I had Thai iced tea and a Kahlua drink and couldn’t get to sleep at all, but JM confirmed I was snoring so I must’ve slept a little bit.

Friday morning was the first Big Event: BBDBA Doubles. JM and I took Hittite Empire (I/24a) with a Mitanni ally (I/19). This is hopefully the last time this army will be a straight spear line. Starting with Historicon, we’ll be using the DBA 2.2+ rules for BBDBA, which will convert all the Hittite 3Sp into Light Spears. This will make them weaker, but more maneuverable. I’m not sure if I’d be as willing to take Hittites to BBDBA, but I’d be more willing to play a Hittite/Mitanni matched pair.

vs. Two Davids: New Kingdom Egyptians

In the first round, we faced Two Davids with their New Kingdom Egyptians. They placed a mandatory waterway on one edge, and marshes mucking up the deployment zone on the other edge. After protracted discussion, we chose the board edge behind the marshes, and they deployed half their army. They reserved not only their last command, but a landing party from their CinC command, giving them maximum flexibility in deploying their final forces. This won’t be legal in 2.2+.

We deployed defensively behind the marshes, with our mounted almost entirely on the right flank. This gave us a good size bad going force to fight in the marsh while our spears sat behind to prevent breakthroughs. JM refused their slowed left flank while we attacked aggressively on the right.

We won the bad going, and eventually broke one of their commands, but it wasn’t their CinC. Unfortunately, it went more slowly than we preferred, and Dave Schlanger was strictly enforcing 2.5 hour rounds this time. We couldn’t seal the deal in time, so we ended up with an unfinished game, 29-10 in our favor. This is as well as we’ve done against the Davids in person, which is good, but it is no fun to leave a game unfinished.

vs. Greek’s Greeks: Syracusan with Carthaginian ally

In fact, we disliked it so much that we decided to do it again in the next round. We faced “Greek” Alex and Mark Pozniak playing Syracusans with a Carthaginian ally. They defended again, but placed their mandatory waterway on the flank instead. Heavy bad going bogged up the other flank, so we were destined to stick to the coast on our right flank again.

This game went very similarly to the first one, at the start. We deployed on the right flank with the intent to attack heavily with chariots and support in adjacent bad going, while refusing the left. The two games were similar enough that they get mixed up in my head. In this game, we both broke one of the enemy’s commands before time was called, and the game ended 25-22 in their favor.

vs. Hans and Franz: Alex and the Classics

These two unfinished games pretty much spoiled the bracket and meant that someone could advance to the finals with only two wins. That turned out to be Hans and Franz, who we faced in our final round: Rich Gause and Jeff Franz playing Alexandrian Imperial with Classical Indian ally.

Oh boy, did we end up sucking this game. But at least we finished it. We placed terrain and deployed centrally and symmetrically. I deployed Mitanni on the right flank.

I really don’t like blaming the dice, and it felt like we made a lot of mistakes this game; but in some cases we really didn’t have the PIPs required to do what we knew we should have done. The first turn started with a PIP roll of 1, 1, 1, which just wasn’t enough; and it didn’t get better until it was too late. Rich was able to push his attack down the road on our left flank unopposed, and I wasn’t able to mount any coordinated attack on the right.

Jeff and Rich both played very well and definitely deserved their 100-0 victory. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it! They went on to the finals and won their final game, taking victory in BBDBA doubles. Congratulations!

In the end, we failed our goal of getting at least 100 points. Next time we’ll have to take a faster army… hopefully one that we can win with.

After BBDBA Doubles was the Pyramid Pyramid. This was a Two Davids pyramid format event using biblical era armies and the DBA 2.2+ modifications.

Dave Schlanger ran the pyramid format a bit differently than it’s done out in Ohio. Instead of carrying our losses each round, the losing players all lose 2 elements and the winners lose nothing. This provides some strategic attrition to reduce the size of the armies in play, while maintaining the same size army on both sides and rewarding winning instead of playing conservatively. It worked very well, I’d like to see this form of attrition used more widely.

I had Early Libyans, which looked quite fun in this era: Warband, Bow, Psiloi. I lost my first game to Jan Spoor’s Sea Peoples, 5-2. Playing together in the second round, Jan and I crushed Jeff Franz’s Hebrews and Larry Chaban’s New Kingdom Egyptians. In the third round, the four of us lost to Alex Bostwick, Mark Pozniak, Rich Gause, and JM Seman. The highlight of that game was my demoralized bow shooting Alex’s general (the CinC) and recoiling it to its death… but we only demoralized one of their commands before they crushed us under their unrelenting boot of progress.

Instead of playing the Midnight Madness event, which would have provided some chance of going to bed at a reasonable hour, 7 of us stayed up until 2:30am playing Arkham Horror. We had more devoured investigators than I’ve ever seen before, let alone all in the same game. In Soviet Russia, you don’t finish the game, the game finishes you. We quit while we were ahead and got some sleep… not enough, just “some.”

Stay tuned for Saturday…

DBA Army IV/59: Post-Mongol Samurai

I traded my Baueda Emishi army pack for a Post-Mongol Samurai army pack from Jeff Franz. I didn’t think I’d ever get around to painting the Samurai, but then the Stooges planned a Horde Wars event at Cold Wars 2012. Samurai were the only way I could get 4 elements of horde on one army, so I painted it quickly and brought it to the convention.

DBA IV/59: Post-Mongol Samurai; Essex Miniatures.

The figures are by Essex Miniatures. The Essex Samurai range is quite odd, I’ve found. They sell Ashigaru and horde/peasant figures that are only appropriate for the later (Post-Mongol) periods, but their mounted and foot Samurai seem to be using early Samurai armor and equipment. I’m not that happy with the accuracy of the figures for this period, based on my limited knowledge.

The sculpting is also a bit of a mixed bag. The armor has small details that are finely carved, which makes it difficult to paint effectively using either highlighting or ink washes. Jeff traded these away because they were a pain in the butt to paint, and I see what he means.

4 Hordes. Washed with Army Painter strong tone dip.

I did a bit of a rush job on the painting, but the figures really didn’t inspire me very much. The greatest inspiration I had was to get better Samurai figures to paint a second army with. Unfortunately this would force me to paint a third army for BBDBA, because what can you do with only 2 armies?

2x3Sp. These are Light Spear in DBA 2.2+.

This army has three optional sections: 4x3Sp, 4x5Wb, or 4x7Hd. 15 figures for each of 4 stands? Ugh! That’s like 2 armies worth of figures right there. Luckily, Jeff had already painted the warbands, so I was off the hook for those. The only reason I was painting the army was to get the hordes, so I decided on a very basic color scheme and technique for these four elements. I just flat painted them using a limited palette, and dipped them all using Army Painter strong tone. It’s a very utilitarian look, with any variety and visual interest coming from the large number of guys rather than their paint job.

I painted the one mandatory 3Sp element, and one additional element that I primed along with it. I like the way the back flags look. The Triforce symbol was used by the Late Hōjō Clan in the 15-16th century long before it was used by Nintendo in the Legend of Zelda series.

Cavalry and Cavalry general. Essex miniatures.

Although I like the way these flags look, I hate them! What a nuisance. They’re molded separately and need to be glued to the figures, with a tiny surface area for gluing and no room to add pins. Two of the flags came off before I even had a chance to photograph the elements, and two more fell off during the first tournament I used the elements in. Back flags are the one thing that would prevent me from getting a second PMS army, because an accurate later Samurai force would have far more flags than this army does.

6x4Bd, Essex Miniatures.

To paint the Samurai armor, I decided on another simple but somewhat effective technique. I flat painted the armor, added a few contrasting stripes on the lacing, and then used a thin, black ink (Didi’s Magic Ink) to darken the armor between the raised lacing pattern. Unfortunately, the carving is shallow enough that it didn’t work as well as I had hoped. It looks better than flat colors without shading, and it’s far easier than painting highlights, but it didn’t turn out as well as I think it would with more deeply carved figures. It’s good enough, but not great.

The cloth was all painted with brushed-on highlights. I didn’t use any patterns on the cloth except on one figure, though I expect technically there should be more.

This is not one of my better painted armies, but at least it’s not in the “unpainted” pile anymore. I still have 3x3Sp to paint, as well as a camp, but those will have to wait until I have another opportunity to play with the army again. Maybe next year at Cold Wars?

I really like the look of Samurai and their armies, but DBA just isn’t very nice to them. It’s a difficult army use out of its historical period.

A Few Dwarfs

Here are a few Dwarfs that Martine painted. It’s a fine job for an 8 year old just learning to paint. They’re comparable quality to some I bought already painted at Legions. It was a good lesson in dry brushing. The fact that she got them done in one night is a bonus.

Eventually I’ll base them for Hordes of the Things. Maybe she’ll want to paint the rest of the army as well.

GW Dwarfs painted by Martine

Endor Bunker

I needed a stronghold for my Battle of Endor matched pair of armies for Hordes of the Things, so I made the obvious choice: the bunker that the rebels assaulted and then defended from an Imperial counterattack. With a bit of imagination it’s usable by both sides, and it’s pretty much the only thing attached to the surface of Endor that isn’t a tree.

Here’s a Work in Progress shot showing the basic construction. The main building is cut on the band saw from white foam. I cut three pieces at the right angles, and glued them back together. The roof is two pieces of foam core, and it’s on a masonite base.

Next, I cut the door and vent-like shapes out of cardstock and glued them to the foam. On the roof I added some details made of some washers and bases I had lying around.

I measured a toy playset to get the dimensions of this, which may have been a bit of a mistake. The actual bunker had side walls that angled back into the hillside instead of a 90 degree angle. So, this isn’t perfect, but it’s easier to transport.

Also of note: stacking heavy books on foam squishes it. Who knew. It’s a bit lopsided because of this, but the more obvious defects problems where the cardstock details buckled.

DBA III/78: Early Russians; German Knights

German knights for III/78: Early Russians; Essex Miniatures, 15mm

When I first painted my Early Russian DBA army, I didn’t finish the knight element. This is a “3/6Kn” which represents German knights fighting for the Russians. 3Kn would be a bit earlier, and 6Kn a bit later.

I came so very close to basing a 6Kn element, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, when 2x3Kn elements are so much more useful.

For heraldry or shield designs, I looked in the Zurich Roll for some authentic German heraldic designs that caught my eye as looking at home in the East. They are totally anachronistic for knights of this period; I’d hardly expect heraldry on kite shields. And I have no evidence that these particular people were ever in Russia, let alone in the 12-13th century.

However, they look really good and fit with the rest of the Russian army, which are my main goals.

These are Essex figures from the III/78 army pack.

DBA 2.2+: Playtest Animations

JM and I have been playing some play-by-email games using the DBA 2.2+ rules modifications found on the WADBAG site. The play by e-mail board is available on the Fanaticus forums and JM’s blog. It’s intended for use with Inkscape, a free, open-source vector drawing application.

Since each game results in a series of .svg files representing each turn, it’s easy to automatically turn them into an animation. I know that some people don’t prefer to see the turns go by so quickly without being able to pause the animation to look at the details, but I just think they look cool. They also give an overall feel of the pace and flow of a battle, without diving down into the individual combats.

Here are the two animations I’ve done so far. Click on the thumbnails to view the animated full scale versions.

Georgians (bottom) vs Konstantinian Byzantines (top).

Tibetans (bottom) vs. Hindu Indian c, other (top).

DBA Army IV/61: Italian Condotta

Here is my most recently completed DBA army: Italian Condotta, IV/61.

The army arrayed: DBA IV/61: Italian Condotta. Mirliton Figures.

The figures are Mirliton, 15mm. Most are from the DBA army box, but I supplemented this with extra packs for dismounted knights and gunners. The flags are also from Mirliton.

Condotta Knight general and four other knights.

25 stands for only one army, and I still don’t have the 3Bd and 4Ax stands done? Crazy talk.

JM and I decided the halberdiers provided by Mirliton weren’t appropriate for the Bd/Ax, so we bought sword-and-buckler men by Essex. However, they arrived after most of the rest of my figures were painted, so I haven’t started them yet.

I’ve painted this army for the Two Davids campaign event at Cold Wars 2012: Condotta Chaos. I’ll be playing Verona in a series of battles stretching across Italy and beyond. The red flag with white cross is Verona’s (among others), and the rest are Condotta banners.

Light Horse: mounted crossbows and light cavalry.

The DBA army list has many options: 1x3Kn (Gen), 4x3Kn, 1x2LH, 2x8Cb or 2Ps, 2x4Sp or 4Pk, 1x4Cb or 4Ax or 3Bd or 2LH, 1x2Ps or Art. In addition, the campaign allows all knights to dismount, requiring another 5x4Bd. But there’s also a DBA-RRR event at Cold Wars, which I didn’t have a good army for, so I picked up 2x4Sh for that as well.

These are very nice figures, but they did require a bit more cleaning than I’m used to doing. Some of the crossbowmen and hand gunners ended up with unsightly blemishes on their faces, but I’ll just blame the rats.

Pavisiers.

I chose red and white or red and yellow for militia forces, and green and yellow for Condotta troops (if they needed any color at all). The army has color, but it doesn’t dominate over the neutral colored armor. I much prefer the look of this period over earlier gaudy tabards and caparisons.

Before the campaign was announced, I knew nothing about the Condotta, and wasn’t very interested in the period. The first thing that triggered my interest was an opportunity to play with the new Pavisier rules the Davids came up with. In DBA 2.2, these are treated identically to other bows, so it never seemed worth painting 6-8 figures when 3-4 would do. But with different rules, I’d have to paint the larger element to try the rules, so why not now?

Condotta Artillery, manned by Curly, Larry, and Moe.

In playtesting play by e-mail games, I have enjoyed Pavisiers. Their combat factors and combat results make them very different than other bows. They’re more resilient in close combat, and actively want to close the ground when in a shoot out with ordinary bows. They are also quite large and a bit cumbersome: they advance slowly if they’ve been forced to recoil in a previous combat.

Crossbowmen and gunners.

As usual, as I started to learn more about the Condotta in order to paint them, I became more interested in them. During the 14-16th centuries, Italy was in a very interesting military situation. They disarmed the civilian population to reduce violence, and instead, every city-state hired its own mercenary army to supplement the local militias. “Condotta” means “contract,” and refers to the complex binding contracts these mercenary forces engaged in when providing services.

Armies are expensive to hire and require a lot of food to maintain. They also have a tendency to bother the local population. All of the economic and social incentives at the time pushed Lords to keep their armies on campaign in enemy territory, so they ate the enemy’s food and fathered the enemy’s children. This made for a long period of fighting between the Italian city states.

Psiloi: gunners and archers.

The colors aren’t based on any particular historical evidence, but choosing colors ahead of time was crucial to allowing me to finish the project at all. Paints are all my standard selection: primarily Vallejo, with some GW for metals and Snakebite Leather, along with a few craft paints.

I’m glad I’ve finished with this army. It was fun to paint, but the sense of accomplishment that comes from completing a project definitely helps start the next one. At this point, all the rest of my armies look small and easy, so I’m hoping to tackle Post-Mongol Samurai without butchering them too badly.

Italian Militia Pikes

Italian Militia Spears

Condotta Dismounted Knights (Blades)

DBA v2.2+ Movement Gauges

Here are the movement gauges I had made in support of the DBA 2.2+ rules effort. They were custom laser cut by Laser Lab Studio in Pittsburgh for a very reasonable rate.

In the upper left is transparent acrylic, 1/16″ thick. The engraving on the surface is much more visible in real life, but it can be emphasized by applying a very thin wash of acrylic paint and then wiping off the excess. This is what I did for the tool in the lower left, which is black 1/16″ acrylic.

On the right is a 1/8″ plywood tool. The engraving is much more visible, and this tool has the improved cutout shape to fit around some figures more easily.

DBA v2.2+ movement gauges

DBA Army III/78: Early Russians

Here is my most recently completed DBA army: Early Russians, III/78. This is an Essex army pack. I haven’t finished the Knight option yet, and may not paint the Horde at all.

Essex Early Russians: 3Cv(gen), 3Cv

Inspiration for shield patterns and clothing colors came primarily from Osprey titles and some creativity. My goal was to use a variety of bold colors without looking too bright or gaudy. I’ve also tried to keep trying new colors instead of getting stuck in a rut.

Essex Early Russians: 2x3Cv

The figures are quite nice. Not all Essex figures are sculpted very well, but these have nice sculpting and a good variety of poses.

Essex Early Russians: 3Cv

Unfortunately, there is a bit of hazing from CA glue on the horses from gluing the grass onto the bases. This has cleared up a bit after I took the pictures, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem in the long run.