Catch Up Post for the Weekend

Welcome

Two new folks have signed up since I last looked. Welcome chaps! It is great to have you here. First up is the Mad Tin Hatter. He runs a blog called Mad Tin Hatter!. I just started following his blog and he has some interesting WWII stuff going on.

Next up is The Lord of Excess. He is the author of no less than 5 blogs. How on earth do you have the time?

Then there is Giles Allison. I could not find any links to blogs you write. Let me know and I will post a link.

Thanks for following folks.

Zulus

I took the plunge into the Anglo-Zulu War a few months ago. I did a purchase of the offerings from Pendraken as a starting point. I immediately painted up a few figures then came to a screeching halt when I had no clue how i wanted to base them.

I want to play these as a one off of the TooFatLardies product Terrible Sharp Sword. My thought was that I really needed a feel of the scale of the combat and that is why I went for 10mm minis. I settled on the following as my basing method. (Excuse the mounted Romano-British mounted champion. He needed to be finished as well and while I was basing, he got done too.

Now, I had run out of pumice gel that I normally use for basing. i needed an alternative. Rummaging through the garage, I pulled out a tub of spackle. I thought about it for a minute and decided to give it a go. Using spare FOW small biscuit bases, away I went. Once that dried, I used some Woodland Scenics ground paint I painted over the base then flocked it once that was dry. With the pumice gel, I typically drybursh some lighter colors over the ground as well. I am not sure how well that would work with the much smoother spackle. I am thinking of trying to mix a bit of sand in the spackle to give it a bit of texture to it. Just not sure.

Here you see the front view of the two I just based as above and the extra 15mm mounted figure.

Again, the same figures from the side.

What I really want out of 10mm is to have big masses of troops to move around. So what would a Zulu Regiment start to look like with this project? Not sure yet. I have not painted enough. But anyway, here are three bases of Zulus together - two stands of unmarried and one of married.

I still have several more Zulus with knobkerries to paint (more married troops) and several skirmishers (not sure how I want to deal with those yet either). They paint quickly, even for me. Hopefully, I can get the rest of the pack done before ordering more metal. I am thinking of needing at least 5 bases per regiment. Each base with 3 to 4 figures per stand.

I also managed to paint up my Impi commander and one regimental commander as well. They still need basing.

Game Day

On March 22nd, I managed to run over to Alan's place in Minnesota and get in my first game of Savage Worlds. The game was set using the cast of Pirates of the Carribean but with others.

I was given command of a group of Pirates under the command of Captain Barbossa. The pirates had two pistols, a rifle and a nock volley gun.

Next up was a Royal Navy landing party (Alan's group) that had a naval officer and 8 marines. Next up was another group of pirates under the command of Jack Sparrow and ... oh, I forgot the female lead's name. They had a swivel gun and two other pirate goons. Next up to bat was a third pirate group. Lead by a generic captain and his six man crew. The next group was a surprise, Queen Elizabeth and five members of her guard. The last group was Solomon Kane and a monk and the carrier of the Holy Handgrenade of Antioch.

The game was great fun. The generic pirates managed to burn three buildings and nearly wiped out my leader. I left the game with only Captain Barbossa left. Solomon Kane is nearly impossible to kill. I did manage to wipe out the monk and the holder of the Holy Hand Grenade.

The Game started with my forces behind the bottom left building. Jack Sparrow & company began near my folks on the road and made a beeline towards the bridge. The Royal Navy contingent began at the top left. The Royal Navy headed straight for Sparrow's crew and formed up to engage them near the Church. They pinned the marines and Sparrow's swivel gun took out a bunch of them.

The Generic pirates entered from the top by the river and crossed it and entered the church. The broke into the church to begin looting it. The Royal Navy boys moved to the front door of the Church in time for the Pirate Leader to drop a grenadoe on top of them killing the remaining marines to a man. With only the Naval Captain left, they were ignorable for nearly the rest of the game.

The pirates investigated the basement and discovered a bunch of zombies and proptly set the church on fire as they abandoned it. They ran across the street and into a tavern. The burning zombies followed setting the tavern on fire. The pirates killed off most of the zombies before exiting.

In the mean time, Solomon Kane and the queen's forces pushed to the bridge. My forces managed to capture a drunk (mistaken for Will whats's his name). Will jumped out of the burning tavern with a barrel of rum. My boys tackled him as well when Solomon Kane arrived. thinking quickly and talking faster, I produced a document showing that I was aligned with the Royal Navy to arrest Will. The document fell from my hands and Solomon Kane's boys jumped me while Kane dispatched a pair of my pirates. (Unfair I tell you!) :)

The monk had knocked Barbossa to the ground. Barbossa responded by getting up and shooting the Monk in the face. Barbossa promptly ran for it. His remaining pirate in the brawl, shot the barrel of rum exploding it and knocking down everyone. Nearly got Kane, Will, Jack Sparrow. Did kill the man holding the Holy Hand Grenade and caught the body on fire. The grenade would later blow up and again injure Kane. My volley gun pirate then promptly shot Kane in the back with all barrels of the gun. AND MISSED! @#$%&^##$%!

Then the generic pirates captured Barbossa. Barbossa lied with a great story about the chest of gold he needed their help in fetching out of the nearby house. Instead they attempted to kill him and my remaining pirate. They failed and set another house on fire. All fled with my remaining pirate on fire. Barbossa got away clean. The Generic Pirate was the winner in my opinion. He burned 3 buildings and kept all of his people even though one managed to get caught on fire.

The queen's forces, somewhere in there, managed to fight off some deep ones that jumped out of the river and attacked. The chick from the Pirates movies had led Sparrow's crew across the river and discovered some folks from Bedlam. Then discovered more zombies. I think they all lived.

Solomon Kane, Myself and Alan's Naval personel were the big loosers. Potentially Jack Sparrow won as they had Will at the end. No one came away with any loot. Nothing was protected. Half the town was burned. But we all won in this six player game since we all had great fun.