Monday, March 25, 2024

Onward Wooden Soldiers..

..marching as to war.


PBJ


Got Time to see some pictures of Wooden War flats?  Of course you do. It's the best thing since sliced bread with PeanutButter and Jelly. It's a good time for everyone.  It's a PBJ post, the most-est favorite-est  time on blogs.   


More Wooden Wars


I've been coloring and staying in-between the lines like a big boy (mostly). Trying to get everything done before the deadline.  Doesn't help that I fell victim to Project Creep. After the fairly successful inaugural game of Wooden Wars (featured in the last post), naturally I decided there had to be MORE.  

Not long after, another box of wood from Thomas at Skull and Crown Miniatures arrived.  

What project creep looks like.
Looks like a box of fun times ahead.


The success of my quest
rests with inventiveness,
precious freshness is stressed
as this chart will suggest...


The idea now is to have an 8 player game that looks like:
This chart is super fancy

My thoughts being that each player (be they either a child or an adult with youthful joy in their hearts) would get 1 bog-standard-boring infantry unit of 14 figures, and one unit of something COOL; Could be a 3-cannon battery (two available), or a 7 figure cavalry unit, or a 14 figure elite infantry unit.  


What does an elite infantry unit look like? They have fancy hats.  

Sampling of the elite British.
See the fancy hats?

Sampling of Elite French with even fancier hats
They also have fancy boots.
The French just love to be fancy

Elite infantry are better at melee and get a save when knocked over by shooting balls.

Since I am such a loyal Wooden Wars customer, Mr. TF threw in some fun extras like some command sprues and flags. These don't get any special rules, just spice up the overall appearance of infantry.

Sampling of the Command; flags and drums.
French left, British right.
Cummin and Turmeric

Everybody knows that Napoleonic infantry were terrible, lazy soldiers.  to help them out with some necessary leadership I've added two Officers on foot for each side.


Officers also have fancy uniforms

Officers lead from the front and provide a rally and melee bonus.
That also rounds out all the infantry needed.

And now to sprinkle in some more Artillery to add some needed kick..

British 3-gun battery
3 cannons and 12 figures.


French battery of the same make up



Going back to my freshness chart above, all the infantry and artillery are done.  grand totals of 72 foot soldiers, 6 cannons, 24 cannon crew, and 1 mounted Army leader PER SIDE.  Not bad.
Put like that, it sounds like a lot of miniature flats.  Luckily, storage has never been easier...

The flats are quite robust, being all wood and glue,
so just tossed into a tub.




Final Effort



It's 3 weeks to the convention and it's the final push to get everything done.  A few more things for Wooden Wars and not to mention the 3 other games that I'm running that weekend.  
The crucial thing for Wooden Wars is the actual battlefield.  While we could play on whatever floor / carpet is there at the place, I'm gonna go the extra mile and make a 8 x 10 foot -ish sized battlefield by getting a big canvas drop cloth and painting it various browns and greens.  As long as it doesn't come out looking too much like bad camouflage it'll be acceptable.  Lay it out like a giant rug.

Also I'd like complete all the cavalry if possible:

Here's a big pile of cav sprues.
Cav is always a pain, no matter the game system.
And it looks like they also have fancy uniforms and saddles.
Nap cav must be Primadonnas.  



Wooden Wars uses a 12 inch stick for all it's measuring.
In some circles that's called a ruler.
But I got these fancy 'Batons' for extra class.
Not needed, but fun.



3 weeks out is a pretty good spot to be in, but one never has as much time as one thinks.  There's also in that timeframe Son #2's birthday and Easter coming up, which means I also need to make the Easter Egg Racing track for the traditional Easter Egg race down the stairs.  
Stupid family traditions that bring joy and laughter to family, why'd we ever start that one I'll never know.


Thanks for reading,
Double thanks for writing a comment, fancy or otherwise.
Till Next time.

48 comments:

  1. Its peanuts marzipan jelly time! No wait......peanuts.....err yellow....eraser?....no.....wax....err....something yellow...jelly time! Wait! Peanut butter jelly time....funny we only have fruit flavoured jelly in the UK.....☺
    Only kidding Stew......knew all along it's a PBJ* post.....
    Project creep........the megalomania of wargamers! Keep on colouring in!
    *PBJ - Posting Boring Jobs
    Neil

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    1. thanks Neil. I like the Posting Boring Jobs. 😁

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  2. Stew, they just make me smile, so I’m sure that on the day, you will hit the nostalgia spot for a lot of punters ….. and there will be fun. Glad to see that you are now fully signed up to napoleonics, you know it is the right thing to do :-)

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    1. Over here, a punter is someone who drop kicks a football.

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    2. Technically a drop kick is where the ball hits the floor just before it is kicked (in both codes of rugby), whereas a punt is kicked straight from the hand. Divided by a common language;)!

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    3. And over here, colloquially, a "drop kick" is a dumb ass! (as well as the official rugby meaning - I assume at some point New Zealanders may have thought taking a drop kick was a stupid thing to do....)

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    4. LOL, thanks Norm. I'm sure that after the kid games are out of the way, some grownups (with good knees still) might want a turn or two. I know I do.😁

      And by Football, we don't mean a soccer ball. divided by a common language indeed. 😁

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  3. I'm looking forward to seeing how the cavalry turns out. It all looks great Stew. Are they difficult to punch out, or do they come out fairly easily?

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    1. Thanks Lawrence. Easily enough, You have to take a sharp knife or chisel to break the last remaining tabs that connect the flat to the sprue. minor effort really.
      The Artillery is the hardest actually, as none of the tabs slide well into the slots so they all have to be shaved down to fit in order to come together. 😁

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  4. These look fantastic. Looking forward to seeing them all ranked up together.

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    1. Thanks Bill. everything looks better in a parade. 😁

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  5. Looking forward to seeing them into battle Stew👍

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  6. I like your stylish coloring. The figure drawings seem a cross between cartoons and caricatures. I like them!

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    1. Thanks JF. They are kinda cartoony in a fun way. 😁

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  7. They look great Stew and project creep is a common occurance for all of us! How does Cavalry combat work out of interest?

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    1. Thanks Steve. It's full name is Eventual Project Creep because it always strikes! Though my son's cubscout den went from 6 kids to 10, so OBVIOUSLY I needed more anyway. 😁

      Cav can move once and still shoot or move twice. Cav can charge anything else and automatically knocks down 1 enemy per cav figure before the melee starts; unless infantry is in square in which case they get a saving throw of 4+.

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  8. Fantastic looking Stew! An excellent sandwich/post 😊
    For those cannons - could you fire rubber bands from them? Just a suggestion. 😁

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    1. Thanks Ben. Rubber bands are totally possible. the guns have the right shape. 😁

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  9. Very nice colouring in there Another interesting articles what rules are you using

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    1. Thanks Nick. Coloring is much easier than painting, this is the fastest I've ever made two opposing armies. 😁
      The rules are called Wooden Wars and are available from the Skull and Crown Miniatures website. I think the PDF is like $5. They're pretty simple.

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  10. I thought exactly the same as Ben about the cannons firing rubber bands - the barrels look like that is what they are designed for, to be honest!

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    1. Thanks Kieth. They do look like they'd take a rubber band pretty well. 😁

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  11. Awesome. How about some flat trees bushes or houses to make it harder to hit the blighters?

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    1. Thanks Mark. I lack the skill to make such things but I bet the owner of the company has some. for terrain, I'm gonna use kids blocks (like those kinds with the alphabet on them) and such like that. 😁

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  12. Great progress Stewart, with only 3 weeks and other distractions, I'm sure you have a plan to get everything completed in time, that or just avoiding sleep for a while ! LOL Hope you get it all done in time.

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    1. Thanks Dave. Losing sleep is always the number 1 plan. 😁

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  13. Look like fun. The spectacle will be worth the effort, eh?

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  14. Well that escalated quickly! When do the Prussians arrive? ;)
    All looking marvellous - fancy hats and boots especially!

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    1. Thanks Thantsants. yes it did, didn't it. and Prussians always arrive in the nick of time. 😁

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  15. Well, ramping up for a convention is always a good "prompt" (never say "excuse") to expand a collection!

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  16. Fabulous stuff Stew. It's the sort of game you could play on a summer evening with a beer or three...might even improve the aim.

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    1. Thanks Mark. Or it can be played on a Sunday morning with noisy complaining children.
      Bit probably still 3 beers. 🤩

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  17. Excellent looking progress and expansion and hussar! Good to see the hussars have arrived!
    Best Iain caveadsum1471

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    1. Thanks Iain. Everyone likes a Hussar. 😀

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  18. That's a lot of wood, scope creep is always fun though, excited to see how it all turns out!

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  19. Some very pretty figures you have there. Are they colored with markers?

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    1. Thanks Jennifer. They’re colored with Posca paint pens.

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  20. Great work on the latest batch of troops, Stew! It sounds like they're coming together at the right time as well. I don't know if we'll get another update between now and the convention but I hope it goes well and great times are had by all! :)

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    1. Thanks Jeff. I hope it all goes well as well. 😀

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  21. Now here's a project that is getting bigger and bigger by the moment. It's the wargamer's disease I tell you and we all catch it!

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    1. Thanks TP. Too true. There needs to be a vaccine. 😁

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  22. Hey Stew, sorry for the late comment, but I was on vacation, spending all the miniature money (sob!).

    As always these look fantastic, and the extras should really put you over the edge. I mean, measuring with marshal batons? Fantastic.

    Also, and unrelated to the above, did you see that MJ12 put out a new version of Starmada? Revised and better, etc. etc.

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    1. Thanks David, no problem about 'late,' I don't think there is such a thing as late with blogs.
      anyway, when all is said and done I'll have to have you over with the boy and play a game of wooden wars just to check it out.

      No, I did not know about the Starmada. I see they changed the name again too. I'll give it a look and likely buy it. probably 100% likely I'll buy the PDF at least. thanks for the heads up.
      I won't have time to upgrade before the convention in two weeks, but from there...
      thanks for the heads up. 😁

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