Warwell's Wargames

As mentioned, I am moving toward genre-specific figures for my games.

The Byzantine Project

I ordered some O8 legionnaires from PicoArmor to build a Byzantine Army. I planed to use them to supplement some Magister Militum that I currently own.

Well, I got them. Here they are (left) next to some MM pikemen.

Very disappointing.

I took some measurements. O8 figures are approximately 3mm from top of the head to the base while MM figures are 3mm from the eyes to the base. Overall, the MM figures are closer to 5mm.

There is no way I can use these together, unless I create a hobbit army with the O8. After a bit of consideration, I decided to stick with MM for my Byzantines.

Operation Last Train

The Germy figures are a bit beefier, but they are actually about the same height as the O8. I think I can mix them.

 I went another week without a game so I wanted to provide an update on what's going on.

My mind has been focused on LARPing. We still cannot meet, but the time is drawing near. I get my second vaccination shot next Monday. The same day, our governor is opening up vaccine reservations to all 18+ residents. With the availability of vaccines, I foresee our LARP group returning to the battlefield sometime in May! I have been making preparations for that day, such as this new Byzantine garb (except the shoes; those are slippers)

I am also considering a new miniatures project - Byzantines, of course! My generic 3mm figures work for now, but I am tempted to get specific figures. I would probably start in 3mm, using Magister Militum's Late Romans. This way, my figures would have shields. I envision 3 armies - red Byzantines, blue Persians / Goths, and white Arabs. I know this violates my Lazy Gamer principles, but the temptation is strong. I don't plan on starting is any time soon, though. My paints are packed up for now. My brother-in-law is moving out of our spare room. Once he does, I plan to convert it to an office/game room. Once this happens, I can embark on new projects.

Stay tuned. I have next Monday and Tuesday off, so I hope to have a new Byzantine battle next week.

I did a little painting last weekend. Not much, mind you, but enough for my purposes. I present the Army of Darkness.


This is a really Lazy Gamer type of army. The troops are all black and are intended to stand in as generic minions of evil. Thus, I did not want to paint details that might limit their use. I may also use them as native tribesmen. I was going to use brown for the natives but I am trying to stay lean and avoid collecting too many armies.

Anyway, I hope to have them in service this weekend when I give another Dragon Rampant scenario a go.

My latest project is underway. I received the figures from Magister Militum and have begun to paint.

I decided to start with a slightly reduced army for the 2 main combatants - red and blue. The initial armies will consist of 4 heavy / line infantry, 2 light infantry, 2 heavy cavalry, 2 light cavalry, and 2 artillery.

Heavy / Line Infantry (left) and Light Infantry (right). I cut down the pikes on the heavy infantry; the finished product will be able to stand in as either pikemen or musketeers.

Heavy Cavalry (left) and Light Cavalry (right)

Artillery crew and gun

I have begun painting the red and blue armies. Infantry

and cavalry

The project has stalled a bit due to work but I hope to get it going again soon.

I know I'm crazy. In the midst of a miniatures purge I just ordered a big batch of 3mm miniatures from Magister Mililtum! Why would I do something that crazy?

It all stems from a concept that has been brewing in my mind. At the smaller miniature scales, general unit information (foot vs. horse, formation, and general uniform colors) is visible but uniform details are very difficult to discern. It dawned on me that I could use that same figures to represent units from ancients through the horse & musket eras. How is that so? With judicious selections I can build generic units of heavy infantry, light infantry, heavy cavalry, and light cavalry (although I'm also adding some artillery specifically for gunpowder eras).

Here is my plan for the generic armies:

• I ordered the minis from Magister Militum's 3mm line (I found that 2mm is a bit too small for decent photos)
• I plan to build 3 armies - red, blue, and white or brown (for natives)
• Each army will consist of 4 units each of heavy infantry, light infantry, heavy cavalry, and light cavalry plus 2 units of artillery
• Composition of the different categories of units:
• Heavy Infantry - Renaissance (i.e. ECW) pikemen in helmets. I plan to cut the pikes down to spear size. I chose to do this because they have helmets without shields. They can represent either spear-armed ancient/medieval infantry or helmeted musketeers.
• Light Infantry - Ancient skirmishing archers. At a distance the bow could be taken for a musket. Either way, they should be distinguishable as skirmishers.
• Heavy Cavalry - Age of Reason cuirassiers (because of their body armor without shields)
• Light Cavalry - Age of Reason hussars

What about my existing 3mm units? While I think they look good, they are obviously restricted in temporal scope. My fantasy armies are equipped with shields and my horse & musket armies wear tricorns. Thus, they are expendable. I'm holding onto the horse & musket figures for now but ultimately plan on replacing them when the new armies are ready.

A fantasy battle report is in the works. Until then, here is a little update on my sci-fi minis. I completed both base armies.

Here us a sample of the Federation army:

From left to right there is a unit of armor, a unit of infantry, and a unit of artillery (missile launchers). The complete army consists of 5 infantry, 3 armor, and 3 artillery.

I did a minimalist paint job - a base coat of a lighter blue with a few highlights in white or dark blue.

And here are the robot enemies:
Likewise, the picture shows 1 armor, 1 infantry, and 1 artillery, with the same number of units as the Federation army. They are simply silver and black.

Both are pictured on my completed arid battle board.

My now departed 2mm ancients

More infantry nearing completion. This time it's the good guys.


In back are 4 units (8 stands) of local levies. It is a little hard to see in this photo but they are unarmored (painted in white tunics) with blue shields.

In front are 2 units (4 stands) of rangers. They are in light green tunics with brown shields. Although the figures themselves are armed with spear and shield, I will be treating them as archers. I'm doing this because I have not yet ordered proper archers so I'll have to pretend. When I finally do get archers, I'll add another strip to each base and convert them to infantry.

I still need to finish the Royal Men at Arms (armored infantry) then I can proceed to the cavalry.

I suspect that every wargamer is searching for this:


The Holy Grail - their own version of the perfect game. It will be composed of the perfect rules, table, terrain, and figures.

Ever since I got back into miniature wargaming and started blogging about it over 2 years ago,I have been on a quest to find my own personal wargaming Holy Grail. I have made progress. While I am still tweaking them, my rules for a gridded wargame are stabilizing. I have embraced the One Hour Wargames scenarios and army lists. Unfortunately, I have struggled to find figures that met my criteria of being cheap and easy to paint, yet providing an impression of a body of troops. I have experimented with a variety of options - 15mm, 10mm, 6mm, 2mm, and even block armies. I was never completely satisfied - until now.

3mm may be my Holy Grail!
Of course, I've gotten all enthused over miniatures before, only to lose interest over time. However, I have to say that so far I have been extremely pleased with the 3mm figures from Magister Militum. I did a minimal paint job on them yet they don't look horrible when I put them on my battle board. The best thing is that the painting is progressing rapidly (at least for me). Artillery is complete, the Bluderian infantry is done and the Redgravians are almost ready. I started the cavalry but still have a little bit of work. Two armies are almost complete, and it hasn't been 2 weeks yet!

Anyway, enough babbling. I snapped a few shots using some of my 2mm terrain (which should work OK).

View from the Bluderian lines Redgravian artillery and skirmishers on the hill

Note: MM does not offer skirmishers so I simply used 1 strip of infantry on a base (line infantry uses 2). It is easy to distinguish. I mounted the strip near the front of the base. If I ever get proper skirmishers (I may use some PicoArmor Napoleonics) then I can add a strip to convert them to line infantry).

View along the line

 I mounted infantry on 20mm x 15mm bases while artillery (and eventually cavalry) will go on 20mm square bases.

From the Redgravian side

Ultimately, I plan to double the number of bases in an infantry unit, which should provide a decent amount of mass on the board.

Now I am considering picking up figures from Magister Militum's ancient line to use for my medieval Francesia games.

It's been a hectic week.

The first order of business was to find a home for a poor little waif that ended up on our doorstep. Unfortunately, our 2 cats HATED him so we had to move him out. Right now he is in the care of my mother-in-law.

Oliver, the poor little waif.

 I have found some time for painting. I am working on my 3mm project. I'm painting enough strips to field 2 One Hour Wargames armies using the organization I discussed earlier this week.

The strips lined up for painting

A closer look at the Bluderian infantry

I am just painting for effect and am ignoring most details. I just paint the uniform (in a single color), face, hat, and tips of the muskets. I think they'll look satisfactory once based and placed on the battle board.

So far, I really like these figures and am thinking of expanding my 3mm project. I may pick up some ancient Celts and paint them as Zamundan natives for my proposed Lumbago campaign. I'm also planning a campaign on mainland Francesia between Bluderia and Redgrave.

3mm, that is.

I just received my order of 3mm Magister Militum horse & musket figures today. So far, I am very enthusiastic!

Unlike 2mm, they are more than tiny blobs; even my bad eyes can clearly make out the individual soldiers. However, a single strip provides a greater mass than 6mm. I also like that the Magister Militum's infantry are shoulder to shoulder instead of with gaps like the ones from PicoArmor. The cavalry are based in pairs, nose to tail, which is convenient. I'll be able to base them as is to the stands. The Lead Doesn't Bleed blog criticizes the artillery and the guns are truly weak castings. Nevertheless, I can't really tell from table distance so they should work fine. I do appreciate that guns and crew are cast together (another difference from PicoArmor)

My plan is create 2 armies suitable for the One Hour Wargames army lists. That means that I will need 4 infantry units, 2 skirmisher units, 2 cavalry units, and 2 artillery units per army if I want to cover all possible permutations. My plan is to base them on 20mm square stands as follows:

Infantry - 2 strips per stand. 2 stands per unit.

• a single bag gives me more than enough for 2 armies.
• Ultimately, I would like to expand to 4 stands per unit.

Grayrock
The last battle of the Grayrock Revolution was a little anti-climatic so I've been wanting to do a final pitched battle to decide the fate of the nation. Last weekend I had a little time on my hands waiting for my wife to wake up so I decided to play it out. However, I was at Disney and did not have any minis with me. Instead, I found a site that had a virtual Portable Wargame board so I used that. Here is a screenshot:


Due to the campaign situation, I decided to handicap the Bluderians with only 4 units. They do have a general on their side. The Grayrockians (represented by the red army) have 6 units, but 2 are militia.

Unfortunately, there was just something lacking about the game.so I did not do a write-up. Instead, I replayed it with my 2mm minis this morning. A battle report will be forthcoming this weekend.

Zamunda
My experiment with block armies is continuing. I have nearly completed enough units for the first battle of the Lumbago Expedition. Here are some pictures:

From left to right: 2 units of spears and 3 stands of skirmishers.

They are not the most artistic but to my eye they do the trick. From a distance they do look like blocks of troops.

Three
However, my progress has slowed on my block armies because I am waiting for more figures. I mentioned earlier that I was interested in Magister Militum's 3mm horse & musket range. Well, I placed an order and am anxiously awaiting their arrival.

My block armies are progressing. For Redgrave, I currently have 4 units of infantry, 1 of skirmishers, and 1 of artillery. I just need 1 more of skirmishers and artillery plus 2 units of cavalry. I have a method in mind. I just need to experiment with it. For Zamunda, I have 4 units of spearmen and 2 of skirmishers. I plan to add 2 more skirmishers (they won't have artillery of cavalry).

I painted and based the 3mm Napoleonic infantry blocks ordered from Pico Armor and they look rather decent. Here is a shot next to some 2mm bases. The first thing you can notice (other than my horrible photography) is the size discrepancy. At this scale, 1mm is a huge difference. With the 3mm blocks, each soldier is distinct, rather than being all lumped together. This is a blessing (it looks nicer) and a curse (it seems harder to paint, although they still paint up pretty quickly). This will


Note that I still have some work on these stands. The base of the figure blocks and the edges of the cardboard stands need to be painted green to blend in with the ground.

This picture shows my 3mm infantry next to handmade 2mm terrain. The figures look OK compared to the hill (right) but seem a bit large for the wood (left) or farm (middle).

Yes, GADD strikes again.

I recently got the bug to re-start my horse and musket Francesia project, but in a new scale.  I've read about the Oddzial Osmy 3mm figures before but recently my interest was piqued to the point that I ordered a sample pack from Pico Armor.

Here is the sample pack. Sorry about the poor quality photo, however these guys are small!

Cannons with limbers (top row) Artillery crew (2nd row) Infantry (3rd-4th rows, with command stand on bottom row) Cavalry (right hand column)

If you look at the photos on the Pico site, you can discern the distinct headgear. Well, those are super close ups. With the naked eye, I could not tell the difference. Nevertheless, they can look very nice en masse, as these pictures attest. I think I will order some more and build up some Francesian armies. I plan to mount 2 blocks of infantry to a 20mm x 10mm base. I hoped to distinguish between elite and regulars with their different headgear but I don't think that will be possible. I'll have to find another way. Anyway, before I place an order, I will test paint the sample figs to see what they are like to paint. I have them primed now and will paint them soon. More pics then.

Because I had my paints out, I worked a bit on my sci fi figures. Here are my space marines.

And here are the black widows. They still need their faces and hair painted (yes, one has blue hair - she'll be the punk one).