Tuesday 26 March 2024

1809 Project Update II




There is a link at the bottom of this post to an earlier post (Part I) that covered the aims and objectives of this limited project.


In summary I am aiming for 8 units per side in a project that will see some 1809 related actions fought out on a dining table. 


In the initial post, I had 6 units out of the needed 16 units already painted. In this update, a further 4 units and two commanders can be added to that tally, now painted, based and sent to barracks.





To help with project planning, I have made up two rosters to keep me true to preparing just the actual head count needed. The units highlighted with a peach coloured background have been completed.


The French Progress (click on the table for enlarging)





The scenario (by Neil Thomas) that I am following needs an allied satellite battalion for the French.


I was just going to paint some of my Warlord Games figures as Swiss, but at the recent Alumwell show, I picked up the newly released plastic Duchy of Warsaw - nice!


The Austrian Progress





The basic forces for each side needs 100 infantry, 16 cavalry, 2 guns with 6 crew, plus a generals base that will have two mounted commanders. Even as a ‘small’ project this still demands a respectable amount of painting for the two Pocket armies involved.







Above - I picked these (Polish 14th  Cuirassier) up off e-bay for the kids, for their Christmas gift to me. I want my cavalry in 8's on 2 bases of 4 horse, but these seem too nice to split up.





Above - Austrian 6th Dragoons. To give me a leg-up, I sent these to a painting service and then based them in the 4's that I want. I wasn't 100% sure what to do with them when they arrived as I felt they had less contrast in them than my own stuff, but I liked them enough to leave them. They had been dry-brushed to give a dusty campaign look.


Anyway after some deliberation, I spent another couple of hours on them, putting some highlights in that of course matched my colour palette. I am now very happy with them.





I have added a few bonus bases to the list that may increase the utility of the force, outside that first imagined. These may or may not get done in time. The target for completion is January 2025, when a game with everything painted can go ahead for the Battle of Auberge, inspired by Neil Thomas’ Leibnitz scenario in his napoleonic book (as outlined in the initial post).





The French infantry units have been fairly straight forward to paint, if a little time consuming, but it is the Austrians that I find to be the most daunting, trying to get all of the white right. 





My most recent approach (above - 4th Line Regiment with pale blue facings) started with Wraith Bone rattle can primer (Citadel) over the whole figure and then for all of the white uniform to be painted with Apothecary White, which is a GW Contrast paint and is a sort of very light grey. All the highlights are then painted with Vallejo’s Off White and finally the cross belts done with Vallejo white.


With contrast paint, to ensure fully mixed pigment, I find that you have to shake, shake and shake the paint and then when you think it has been shaken enough ….. shake some more! I have put two small steel ballbearings in each of my pots, to help break up the sediment on the bottom.





Compared to the first unit that I did (a couple of years ago now - above top right with red facing) with standard painting techniques and a dark tone wash (Army painter), I think the involvement of the contrast paint has made for an easier and perhaps kinder result - at least for the wargames table.






I was going to do the Commander bases last, but jumped the gun and have just painted up Napoleon and Mameluke Ali as a duo (above). These are Perry metal castings and the pairing of these two for the French command was inspired by Iain (Cavedsum1471 Blog) who last year did a similar pairing for his 1809 forces (Blog link in the Resource Section Below).





Above - French Light infantry in line, plastics from Warlord Games, come with tiny transfers for the cartridge cases. A small thing, but to the eye, especially on the white cases, they elevate the unit to something nicer.


Looking at the gaps in the project roster tables, there are still units that need to be taken from their boxes, built and added to temporary bases. I will likely wait for better weather to do that, so that I can glue outdoors in the fresh air, but once done and I have a ‘full’ order-of-battle, I will take the Battle of Auberge to the table with the mix of painted and unpainted units while I settle on rules.





This is not as straight forward as I initially suggested.  I had thought that Black Powder would win through, due to my commitment to streamlining my rules to the Warlord Games trio. 


However ‘The Shadow of the Eagles’ is one of the few sets that survived the great rule clear-out and deserves another look. I would also like to spend a little more time with Valour & Fortitude, if for no other reason than the author / Perry’s plan to push those rules to cover other periods (ACW just published).





Above - three French infantry battalions in mixed order.


Speaking of ‘Shadows’, lurking in the background, I have my own Eagles at Quatre Bras rules, which have recently been getting a tidy up as I try to keep the napoleonic version and the ACW versions closely aligned.


Anyway, everything feels like it is moving forwards and getting sufficiently serviced. There was a small loss of wargaming traction in January because we had a couple of weeks of builders working in my usual gaming area, but suffice to say, that area of life / home has now returned to normal.


The building work combined with the Christmas period meant that I lost around a month of momentum, but the goal of having a year to complete the project and it having a relatively small objective, should make all of this still quite do-able as a January 2025 target. 


I’m glad I set the goal, it has kept the brushes working, perhaps more consistently than they have been for a couple of years - though they are caressing Wars of the Roses figures at the moment ..... on behalf of Lord Stanley and a Piggy Longton battle that is long overdue.


Resource Section.


Part 1 of the 1809 Napoleonic project - LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2023/12/kicking-off-1809-project.html


Iain’s Blog (Cavedsum 1471) LINK

http://caveadsum1471.blogspot.com


My sister webspace ‘COMMANDERS’  showcases the various figure and boardgame systems that I am enjoying and gives a flavour of where current projects are up to. Link.


https://commanders.simdif.com


Friday 22 March 2024

A message to all bloggers re spam



Daily, I go into my dashboard, to see who has posted a comment and on which post, because I get a variety of comments left on legacy posts and this is the only way to do a quick sweep to be able to find them all and to respond, as I do to all who comment.

It is also a good way to pick up spammers, who like to tag onto legacy posts in the hope that they pass the blogger undetected.

Anyway, I have just done my daily check and have 2 legitimate comments on my last post (thank you) and TWENTY NINE! Spam comments by someone (or a bot?) called Dramacool, sitting on my Christmas 2023 post.

I am only posting this, so that bloggers are minded to check back into their own blogs;

Just go into DESIGN on your dashboard at the top right of your blog and then click on COMMENTS.

You can deal with the spam by clicking on the comment BUT NOT ON THE LINK IN THE COMMENT and then marking it as spam.

I am surprised that the Google software, which seems to have been quite good recently has allowed so many repeat episodes from a single spammer that has links embedded on every entry.

I am not keen on moderation and I don’t even know if moderation deters a spammer or whether they still post anyway and you still have to manually clear it all out (can anyone tell me?).

I am minded to treat this as a one-off occurrence and just see how we go, but I am close to being minded to turn to moderation, which I think is like having a bath with ‘yer wellies on’ or just turning comments off altogether, if I am still left with having to clear the stuff, though the latter does leave something of a soulless blog.

I also note that my viewing figures from one part of the world, who have never really been significant in my viewing list, has gone through the roof, so maybe there is a link between the two matters ….. or perhaps I have a whole new wargame fan base that just wants to read every legacy post I have ever made :-)

Anyway, I am only posting this to alert other bloggers who may want to check that their earlier posts have not been targeted. We all get a bit of spam, that is just part of what we do, but 29 spam hits in one straight go is exceptional and this poster / bot may prove to become a menace.

Fortunately, I am playing a face-to-face section of the Austerlitz battle tonight … so calm has already  been restored :-)

EDIT - Another 29 spam posts from the same spammer, but on a different post (25th March).

Resource Section.


My sister webspace ‘COMMANDERS’  showcases the various figure and boardgame systems that I am enjoying and gives a flavour of where current projects are up to. Link.


https://commanders.simdif.com


Thursday 21 March 2024

Self printing home brew rules




I recently bought a PDF download supplement for some commercial rules and had them printed by an internet Print on Demand service (POD) and was surprised both by the commercial quality of the product and the accessible price.


This got me to thinking about having a single copy of my own ACW rules printed, so that at the very least, I would have a rather nice looking ‘proper’ rulebook to play from.


Up until now, I have kept my rules in one of those presentation files that has clear plastic sleeves that you slip the individual pages into. During play, if I need to make notes, I pull the sheets out and write on them and then every now and then, I do a complete re-read, edit and re-print and so it goes on while things get fine tuned, changed and then changed again!


The rules are now at a stage of being quite tight and certainly a lot of hours have gone into them. That is not to say they are good rules or that they model the subject well, but simply that I like them - obviously!


They have always had some colour artwork in them (maps and photo’s), but on the most recent edit, and to get ready for a PoD copy, I decided to take some better pictures.


This is not an aim for a final version, they still need continued playtesting and will have update and edit notes written in them (as painful as writing in / defacing a proper book will be!), but perhaps at this stage, the red ink does not need to flow as freely as was once the case!


I had designed a front cover, but had trouble inserting it without all of my tables and photographs slipping around (since getting my printed copy, this has now been fixed so will appear in my next printing).


The rules have been a living document in the ‘Pages’ app on the iPad for some years. I exported the file as a PDF and then uploaded it to a POD company. I used Doxdirect.com.


This PoD company makes uploading and buying really easy to do and there are a number of presentation configurations to choose from. You click the ‘Calculate’ button when you have listed what you want and get an instant quote. You can then go back in and change things and get another quote. This can be done as often as you like.


What I found interesting was my first selection gave a cost of £14.60 for a single unit.


I then tweaked a few things, mainly getting rid of saddle stitch and 120gm paper and the cost dropped to £10.64 (post free over £10).


Then I changed the print volume to 20 copies and this basically dropped the price to just over £5 per copy. My thinking is that once the rules are finalised, I might get a small print run done and this would make the items cheap enough to either gift and / or make a ‘not for profit’ charge.


This would essentially allow me to present the rules the way I want, with a goodly number of colour photos and maps etc, without someone asking can I create a ‘print friendly’ version etc. 


I know there are good social arguments for doing that, but I have spent a lot of time on these rules and it seems reasonable that I should expect the final presentation to fit with my vision of how it should all look.


It would also allow me to put on a presentation game at a show that are supported by some cheap rules for anyone particularly wanting a closer look - something that might have to be negotiated with show hosts of course and be something that the traders are happy with.


So, what did I get for my £10.64





A4 Wire Bound (cheaper than saddle stitch and more practical to using at the table - the above photo shows the rules folded to one of the Quick reference pages).


A 40 page document


80gm paper (the next option is 120gm, which is somewhat overkill, I wish there was an option between the two, say 100gm, but having ordered from them before, I knew 80gm is fine even for colour).


Double sides (so the booklet has 20 sheets, each printed front and back).


Full Colour (you only get two options, colour and B&W, so even though several pages are just text, if you want any colour, then it is the full colour option).


Front and Back on card (you can opt out of this, but it does protect the publication).


Note … Protective Covers (you can have additional protection, such as a clear plastic cover, but I did not take this option).


This doesn’t deal with the play aids, which I can do myself separately - though the three pages used for play aids are also in the rule book and the wire binding makes them easy to keep at hand.


The booklet has arrived and I am pleased with the production. Any failings are down to my non-professionalised approach to rule lay-out and presentation etc.





Since getting this, I have included a front cover in my text file. As the number of pages in the book must be divisible by 4, the cover puts me at 41 pages, so I have had to create another 3 pages. One is taken up by an inside front cover and the other two are at the rear of the book with a detailed example of play that I am working on.


At a recent wargame show, I picked up a napoleonic scenario book on the Leipzig campaign by Steve Shann. It is rather glorious and gave me some ideas on how to improve the presentation of my own rules.


His paper weight is clearly heavy and that seems to give sharper photos, so for my next printing, I will have a go at the 120gm paper. 


He also does all of the order of battles for each scenario on coloured backgrounds. It looks lovely …. but I also quite like the clinical and clean look of my black and white orders of battle, so I have decided to add what is best described as spot colour, with all headings done in the appropriate army colour, but keep it down at the pastel end of the vibrancy spectrum.


The photographs have all been given a shadow cast to lift them a bit.


I am tempted to re-order now, but it makes more sense to play a few more games to see whether the body of rules need changes and then do it, plus some more presentation tinkering is a certainty as I explore the idea more.


Anyway, I am only putting this post up simply because I know a ton of gamers have their own rules or adaptions knocking around somewhere and that formalising them into a coherent and nicely presented format might just be a fun aspect to pursue and you may feel that this sort of price is an acceptable deduction from your wargaming budget.


I am happy enough with this to now be looking at some of my other rules sets for similar treatment and of course the Chronicles of Piggy Longton might beg for a spot in the limelight and given the ‘brochure’ look :-)


Resource Section.


My sister webspace ‘COMMANDERS’  showcases the various figure and boardgame systems that I am enjoying and gives a flavour of where current projects are up to. Link.


https://commanders.simdif.com