Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Wooden Wars More

If a Stew-paint could paint wood,
how much wood could a Stew-paint paint?
A Stew-paint would paint as much wood as a stew-paint could paint,
if a Stew-paint could paint wood.


More Wooden Wars



Progress on the wooden Napoleonic soldiers continues.  It's somewhat embarrassing that others are painting actual Napoleonic miniatures, whole units in fact, faster than I am getting these done.  And I'm basically just coloring.  It's like Napoleonic shaming.  


The French


Marching onward:  I now have enough French miniatures 'painted' up for my planned introductory game with my two oldest kids. least I think so anyway.  I don't have much experience with this sort of game so it's kinda learn as I go as to what makes it fun.  

36 French Infantry are done. A unit can be between 10 and 24 figures, so I thought 3 units of 12.  But looking at it now 12 seems a little small.





Wait, where'd they go?
if flats were real soldiers, they would march sideways into battle.
Like an army of crabs.

Each infantry unit can fire with one ball.

Joining the infantry is some artillery support.

French Artillery Crew.
Got a flame dude, a bucket dude, a sword dude, and Q tip man.


from the rear.  



Each Cannon gets 4 crew members



Bam, bam, bam.
A 3-cannon battery.


The cannon barrels are not attached, so if a thrown rubber ball knocks it off the gun counts as destroyed.
Each cannon can fire with one ball, so this battery will throw 3 when it fires.  


Leading the French is this mounted officer.  He doesn't shoot.  His job to ride around the battlefield attaching to units to rally knocked over soldiers and increase movement.  



"Oui, Oui, Oui, mon ami,"

The officer is not attached to his horse, so he can be knocked off it, just like a real soldier.  

His job is also to look super suave.  Or as you say in in French "Suave-veh"  (that is not real French)

Beginning French force for Wooden Wars




The British are Coming!


(Wrong war, I know, but Paul Revere doesn't hold a patent) Not to be completely outdone by their cross channel rivals, the British have come a long way as well.  

British Foot soldier in the bare wood.
I'm trying to think of a 'bare wood' joke and failing.
Something about the size of his timber.


Painted up



rear view



More.


I actually have 30 of the British soldiers done but you don't need more pictures.  In hindsight these miniatures are actually being completed rather quickly.  So take that you Napoleonic shamers ya gosh dern dab nabbits!  



Plans



Peter F Drucker once said. "Unless commitment is made; there are only promises and hopes, but no plans."  Commitments have been made.  Soon I should be able to play a test game with my two oldest children this month.  And see if this whole exercise will be worth it.  
Working on stuff for use with your children is strange, because on days when they seriously misbehave, I'm like "why am I trying to spend MORE time with you?"  

Actually I am REALLY enjoying working on these wooden flats, it's easy, it's fun, and the result is very pleasing.  As a first foray into Naps it's going rather well.  I even got a book on Waterloo.  


THE BATTLE OF THE CUB SCOUTS is scheduled in March (which is just hosting a battle with kids in my son's Cub Scout den, but it gets capitalized because I kinda hyped it up (incidentally the Cub Scout den grew this month from 6 kids to 10, I might need more troops)). 




Lastly in April is The Intergalactic Conquest Convention.  I volunteered to run a game of Wooden Wars in the morning and some kid friendly board games in the afternoon (I have plenty), as part of the Young Players Program.  
So far I've been told by the convention management that I AM the young player program and they'll be sure to 'promote these games in future advertisements.'  
So, ah, I best deliver.  


Thanks for reading,
Double Thanks for writing a comment.
Till next time.

49 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Super thanks Ray. Hope you're in full recovery. 😁

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  2. I agree with Ray, Stew, your coloring in is excellent!

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    1. thanks Keith, I'm kinda an expert on coloring. 😁

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  3. The Stew-pot paints lots.......the Stew-paints lots paint......paints lots pots Stew.....
    Are you going to varnish them? Thinking children throwing balls at them....
    Sounds like purgatory to me, being a creche at a wargames show and using Nappys (hopefully not those kind!)....even worse you'll probably have someone come up and nitpick your uniform colouring saying they never had those facings and badges.....☺
    Neil

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    1. Thanks Neil. and good Dr. Sues impression.
      I had to look up creche; anyway I plan on saying in the beginning something like:
      "hello Kids, I'm Mr. Stewart, or you call me General. first a brief word to your parents. I am not a drop off service. While you don't have to hover just know that i won't stop your children from wandering off into traffic, or worse, a role playing game."

      I wasn't planning on varnish. guess we'll see how much damage is done.

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  4. Looking great! I too worry about the coloring surviving a few shots with rubber balls, so maybe a couple of cans of varnish are in order (if it ever warms and dries up enough here).

    How are you going to handle misses at the convention? Running after rubber balls that an enthusiastic kid (or the kid's adult) hurled across the room sounds not fun.

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    1. Thanks David. I might varnish them. We'll see how much hurt the kids can do.
      as for misses, if there is time, I'm going to construct some barriers out of foam core and hot glue. also make sure that we're not near any glass chandeliers or tables full of good looking miniatures and terrain. 😁

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  5. They look surprisingly superb (and I don’t mean that in the rude way it sounds - I mean Gosh!) the colours have stayed nice and vibrant, even accounting for wood soaking colour up. We often hope things are going to turn out as good as we imagined, I think with this project it will just get better, especially as the number of kids exposed to it grows ….. very rewarding.

    Your colours are spot on, did you buy a pack of special napoleonic coloured pens :-)

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    1. Thanks Norm, that's very encouraging. I think the color has stayed bright because I'm using good quality paint pens. but no, not specifically Naps, just a pack with a wide range of colors.

      If one out of two of my older children like this (I'm betting on the boy) then I can see this project growing. 😁

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    2. PS: I mean, I haven't even gotten any cavalry yet. might need to go for the full Nap experince.

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  6. The figures look very impressive Stew, and very professional. I think 12 figures for a unit looks fine. If the units are too large it will remove some of the challenge involved in hitting them.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence. The unit size will definitely be a balancing act. too big and too easy to hit but maybe can take a lot of hits. too small and could be really hard to hit but one hit knocks down half. Course, hitting ANYTHING on purpose with a rubber bouncy ball might be really hard. 😁

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  7. They do look great Stew and hope to see some in game photos soon:).

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    1. Thanks Steve. Of course there will be pics. maybe a video to see the throws. 😁

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  8. Looking great. I think you'll have to save the "bare wood" jokes for the highlanders. I don't know what they do to the enemy, but by God they frighten me, as the Duke said.

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    1. Thanks Dave. And useful advice about Highlanders. 😁

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  9. Congratulations on your promotion to the Young Players Program Manager, funny how the good work gets rewarded with more good work.

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    1. Thanks SD. As a veteran of state government employee, I'm well familiar with the term 'Performance Punishment." 😁
      but in truth I don't mind. Who knows if anyone is even going to bring their children besides me.

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  10. These figures look outstanding! Your coloring is vibrant and characterful but the figures look a bit wooden.

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    1. Thanks Jonathan, and a good one. They are a bit stiff....😁

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  11. Nicely done Stew certainly a different adventure, units of 36 may be a challenge ?

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    1. Thanks Matt. The max a unit is supposed to be 24 but I'll figure out the 'best average size' in awhile. 😁

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  12. Who wood of thought they wood turn out so good! 😁

    I think 12 is a good number per unit. Just thinking of how long they will take to be moved. Especially if the kid is making sure they are lined up perfectly.

    Good luck with the Scouts and the convention.

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    1. Thanks Ben. I hoped they wood. LOL
      time and experience will tell with the unit size, and of course how many actual miniatures that i have. 😁 I didn't think about the time kids would take to move them.

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  13. Seems to me that as the lead (and only) host of the Young Player Program, you need to work in some version of that fine rhyme that you opened this post with into the game. Oh, welcome to Napoleonics, by the way (beware, that way lies madness!).

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    1. Thanks Ed. Oh, I'm well aware of the madness of Napoleonics. After all, I read your blog. And I've seen all the conversions you've done to get some doodad or doohickey on some uniform to be more correct. 😁

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  14. They are looking quite splendid. Good luck with your game.

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  15. Great progress Stewart, and look forward to hearing how the first battle goes with your children, hopefully you can get everything done in time for the conventions, but as I recall deadlines are a pretty good motivator for you (your ACW boards last year)

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    1. Thanks Dave. So far the project is moving along at an acceptable pace but I'm sure they'll be a last minute panic somewhere. 😁

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  16. You're making plenty of progress (well compared to what I would manage anyway)! Does the repetition in subject bother you at all? That is the part that I'd really struggle with. I have a feeling your games will go really well and the kids will appreciate your hard work too!

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    1. Thanks Jeff. The repetition doesn’t really bother me though it does get to be something of a slog; but then again all painting is kinda like that to me. It’s pick your poison. I choose boring repetition but it gets the job done (batch painting is great for uniform armies) but I don’t think I could spend hours doing pain staking detail work on one miniature. That be worse for me and beyond my skill as well. 😀

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  17. Excellent looking Napoleonics! Clearly no good deed goes unpunished! Enjoy the young gamers program!
    Best Iain caveadsum1471

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    1. Thanks Iain. I’m hoping for the best. 😀

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  18. Well, this is pretty cool Stew, even for you! They look way better than I would have expected for wooden flats. I'm sure the will have fun (by now most likely have already). When I was a kid, we knocked our soldiers down with our homemade rubber band guns. And blew them up with the firecrackers we hoarded away from the 4th of July holiday. 😇

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    1. thanks Vol. but Whaddya mean cool even for me?! I'll have you know that I am the E-pit-toe-me of wargaming coolness. I tell my friends so every day. 😁

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  19. Back when I was a kid, all we had to knock over our green army men was Sally - our Golden Retriever. Her tail was something akin to an H-bomb! Mind you we did have Crossbows and Catapults which would be a bit closer to this.
    This looks a really fun project and the flats look really good all coloured in - disappointed you didn't individually photograph each one though ;)
    Hats off to you for braving the Cub Scouts too. I was a Cub Leader (UK) as well as an Explorer Leader (14-18 years old) - great fun but you definitely need ear defenders! The whole gaming with kids thing takes me back to some excellent posts an old blogging mate of mine did some years ago. He made up a great little game called Goblinquest - I only mention it really because your wooden miniatures really reminded me of the design of the dungeon tiles he used. Just in case Naps don't do it for the kids, here's the link! https://geeklydigest.blogspot.com/2013/02/goblinquest-ready-for-playtesting.html
    Oh and I may have missed this in an earlier post but is the game in any way related to HG Wells' Little Wars? Chucking rubber balls at ranks of miniature soldiers, as well as sounding like immense fun, kind of reminded me of it.

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    1. Hi Than. Thanks a lot, I appreciate you writing a comment.
      Yes, the author of the rules for Wooden Wars (and the seller of the flats) states the game is in the spirit of HG Wells.
      It idea does remind us all of games we played while we were younger.
      this whole idea is just my selfish attempt to get my kids into miniature gaming so that I’ll have opponents in my old age. Time will tell.
      Looking forward to us writing more often to each other. 😀

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    2. My pleasure and same here! I tried the same thing with the same motives with the Goblinquest thing (and Heroquest), although I think my kids were a bit young at the time - kind of missed the boat with them since then, although I did get my son to paint some Cybermen the other year...

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  20. How did I miss this post? These look fabulous...when do you expect the first battle?

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    1. Thanks Mark. Don’t sweat it. Everyone misses a post once in awhile.
      Hopefully the first battle is today actually. 😀

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  21. You down-play your efforts too much; these look superb! Flats in 54 mm, that is sensational!
    Regards, James

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    1. thanks James. They look kinda cool all together like that. 😁

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