Painted GHQ 10mm Civil War Confederate Stonewall Brigade Regiments

I recently finished the last two regiments I needed to complete my 10mm Confederate Stonewall Brigade. These will represent the 5th Virginia and 27th Virginia Infantry Regiments. Those designations are basically arbitrary, though. I haven't labelled the units in any way, so they could really be any Confederate regiments, except that one of them has a Virginia state flag. The pictures are below. As always, click the pictures for larger versions.

Painted Mantic Games Skeleton Warriors

I have finished painting another unit of Mantic Games Skeleton Warriors. I actually bought three boxes of 20 skeletons each, and used them to make two units of 30 each for Warhammer Fantasy. Having just recently played my first game with the new Vampire Counts army book, I'm now thinking that 30 skeletons is not going to be a very effective unit. I was losing 10 to 20 skeletons each combat phase, so a unit of 30 isn't going to last a single turn. I guess I'll have to get more to add to each of my units and try to paint them to match. In any case, below are some pictures of the finished (for now) unit. Click on them to see larger versions.

Gale Force Nine Extra Large Rocky Hill

A while ago I picked up the Extra Large Rocky Hill, from the Gale Force Nine "Battlefield in a Box" range. It is large enough to be useful for 28mm games, but could also be used for 10mm, and it is likely intended for 15mm gaming. It came pre-painted and with some static grass and flock to decorate it with. To get it ready for the table, I just glued on the flock and static grass where it seemed to look good, and did a quick black wash over some of the areas of small rocks. I thought this helped add a little depth to those areas that otherwise looked to monotone. I then did a quick spray varnish, and it was ready for gaming. It's a nice, quick piece of terrain. The only problem I have with it, which would prevent me from getting any of the other Battlefield in a Box pieces, is that it doesn't sit quite level on the table. The edges come up off the table in many places, which I don't really like, since it ruins the illusion that the hill is part of the surrounding terrain, rather than plopped on top of it. See below for some pictures, including one with my Warhammer 40,000 Imperial Guard Lieutenant for a size comparison.

Chaos Space Marine Apothecary Conversion

I had an old Space Marine Apothecary model that I've converted for use in my Chaos Space Marine army. My Chaos Marines have gone renegade relatively recently, so would probably still have things like apothecaries and techmarines. For the same reason, I didn't do much to make the model look very Chaos influenced, but I do like the sinister implication of the giant meat cleaver, and painting some blood stains on his loin cloth should add to the butcher-like appearance.

Beyond the Gates of Antares Outline Rules Solo Playtest

I played through a quick solo playtest game of Beyond the Gates of Antares, using the outline rules that have been provided to backers of their Kickstarter project. I decided to take some pictures and write up a battle report of the game, along with my observations on how this early draft of the core rules plays.

The Story
There are no official scenario rules, so I went for a pretty straightforward and typical gaming scenario. Basically, both sides are trying to either rescue or capture a wounded downed pilot. The pilot's aircraft has crashed in the wilderness, and both sides are trying to get to him and carry him off first.

Black Powder American Civil War Battle Report

The Confederate Division under Major General James Longstreet has successfully held their position on the battlefield, while unfortunately the rest of the Confederate army has fallen back. The swift but somewhat disorganized Union pursuit of the fleeing Confederates has put Longstreet's division in danger of being cut off from the rest of the army. They currently find themselves surrounded by Union forces, and must attempt to break out and re-join their retreating army. The game was played using the Breakout Scenario I have previously posted on this blog.

Black Powder Scenario - Breakout

This scenario for Black Powder was designed for my American Civil War armies, but I'm sure it could be generalized to other periods easily. We play using all distances in centimeters instead of inches, so playing this scenario in the normal scale of Black Powder would require a larger table. I've played it once and it worked out pretty well, though it might work out better to give the Union player the first turn. In our game, I think if the Confederate player had rolled better command rolls on his first turn, the game might have been over very quickly. I will write up and post a battle report of the game in the near future, but for now have a look at the scenario rules.