Old format

Hmmm, back to the old format!


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New format

Things have changed a bit - is it better or worse?

I was trying for a bit of Mu'ugalavyá (the 'Red Hats' of Tékumel) but is it still readable?


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The 6mm Distraction, part 2

I'm slowly getting more done with these new minis. So far, I really like these new toys, a lot. So much, my thoughts are racing with new ideas and projects. Of course, most of those will never see the light of day - I need to get these first steps done first!

As a reminder, here is what I started with:


Macedonian phalangites.

Here is what they look like now:


I trimmed down the shields, making them much more oblong, and added long spears made from 0.5mm diameter plastic rod. My original post on making spears from plastic rod is here.

Another pic, with a different background:


Looking pretty nifty so far. I do still wonder if those plastic spears will hold up to rigorous handling...

I also added a plume to the back of the helmet:


The plumes are made from the same plastic rod as the spears, with the exception of the trooper on the far left - that plume was made with a small chunk of a Baccus ashigaru's yari. I think that I will save the metal pieces for the unit standards, which will need to be longer and more flexible.

Hopefully, these 6mm conversions will look something like this:


The paint will be the final arbiter in this, but so far they look remarkably similar.


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The 6mm Distraction...

Yes, yet another distraction! Now, I do have some history with 6mm/micro scale gaming. The first minis I ever purchased were GHQ, Soviet T-55 tanks if I recall. I also had a small collection of 5mm ACW minis, painted and based for Johnny Reb 2. Of course, this was 25 years ago, but the memories of battles with lots of small minis still linger on.

So, in a fit of manic inspiration, or maybe desperation, I placed an order for a small amount of 6mm Baccus minis from Scale Creep Miniatures. Absolutely no hassles in the ordering process - several e-mails on the order's progress, funds charged at time of shipment, and actual postage charged! Thanks Mark (proprietor of Scale Creep).

Here are the samples I ordered:


There are twenty-four strips, of 4 figures each, in each of these bags, 96 figures total. The phalangites are open-handed, which I kind of like, as I can place my own pikes on the minis, probably brass rod.

The key, in my opinion, for 6mm gaming is mass. You need to have quite a few of these guys in your units to get the right look. Here is an example of how the phalangites could look:


48 minis on that base! The strips are 20mm long, so it would not be too hard to fit several more strips onto that base. This pic fits into one of my manic thoughts for their use however; if I actually get these painted up and based you will see.

Here is a close-up:


(please note: the line in the foreground is actually straight - there seems to be some sort of aberration with my camera in Super-Macro mode)


And a shot of a single strip, with a scale in the background.



The ashigaru are a bit different - the strips are 30mm in length and are in ranks (the phalangites are in files). Still impressive:


Once again, 48 minis on the base outline.




Some good detail for such a small figure, and not much flash. These seem to be a bit bigger than their Macedonian cousins.


Yep, the ashigaru are a fraction taller and somewhat more beefy than the phalangites. The ashigaru are on a slightly thicker base.


Now, to paint these up!


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Slow posting

My apologies for the slow posting rate - I have not picked up a brush for weeks, and now the hobby area in our apartment is about to be used as storage as we move furniture around. Patience please - I will return!

I have been working on the naval side of my hobby lately. You can see some of that here: my other blog


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Base basics, part 2

I finally had a bit of time to experiment some more with my basing scheme. My typical base color, Apple Barrel 'Territorial Beige', is too dark in my opinion, so off to Michael's we went to find something more suitable. Feawin and I looked at several colors, and in the end we picked 2 - Americana 'Fawn' and FolkArt 'Camel'.


And, here they are - 'Camel' on the left, 'Fawn' in the center, and just for comparison 'Territorial Beige' on the right. To my eyes, 'Camel' is too yellow for my purposes, but 'Fawn' looks like a winner.



This side-by-side comparison confirms that opinion. I do like the comtrast between the 'Fawn' and the 'Territorial Beige', and I might use the 'Territorial Beige' and the base color for any rocky formations when I finally start making some terrain pieces.

One more comparison:


This is a heavily fooled-around-with but still poor pic of the test bases on the felt that will be the terrain cloth for my first games. 'Fawn' actually does look good on the felt, just not in that pic!

After some thought, I decided that I would stick with a slight variation of my usual base decorating strategy, which is as follows:

1. After gluing down the minis, paint the base in the selected color - 'Fawn' in this case

2. Once the paint is dry, spread white (PVA) glue on the base

3. While the glue is still wet, sprinkle various types of basing materials on the glue, starting with the most coarse and ending with the finest grain material.

I considered using a different technique, where the base is coated with the rocks and sandy materials first and then inked/painted up to the desired colors - as exemplified on the Olicanalad's Games page - but I am not a very skilled drybrusher, therefore the old technique is the one that will be used.



Here is the array of material I am considering to use on the bases:

1. Crushed walnut shells - I found this stuff while wandering around the local pet store. It is normally used for bird cages, but it should make a great basing material. And, it is cheap - $10 for a 7 pound bag! The size and sharp edges might be better suited to 15mm rubble, but the color is perfect.

2. Woodland Scenics fine tan talus

3. ?

4. Woodland Scenics fine brown ballast

5. ?

6. ?


The ? materials, unfortunately, are just perfect for the job, but I need to hunt around here for some info on what they are! I purchased most of these items 12 years ago or so, and have held onto them ever since. Some were used on other projects, especially 40K minis, but never in a large scale. I do remember buying the ? materials from a now-closed train/hobby shop in Spokane... I should have the package labels here someplace (I'm a pack-rat for paperwork).



This is an example of what I'm trying to achieve. This is the 'Fawn' test piece from above, with various amounts of the 6 jars of materials as shown above. I like it so far; I might add some bits of light green foliage in the future.


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MMORPG, part 7

Quite a while back, last December actually, Feawin (my wife) and I switched from World of Warcraft back to EverQuest2 as our on-line computer game/time-sink. I have a couple of screenshots from EQ2:


My Ratonga berserker, Ratzenfric, in East Freeport.




Larousse, a Ratonga brigand, fighting undead orcs in The Commonlands




Buffing up, EQ2 style - my wife's Wood Elf wizard, Miraj




My Gnome conjuror, Gnisq, and his Tellurian Soldier pet, in the North Qeynos bank

(one thing about gnomes - I played a gnome mage in EQ, a gnome mage in WoW, and still play a gnome in EQ2!)




Larousse and my wife's warden Anashi in the Sinking Sands on Erollisi Day



Grinding away and having fun still!


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Base basics

My initial order of Impetus-sized bases from Litko arrived recently:


These three bags will be enough for 45 Impetus units! These are very nice bases.

I do have another worry - what sort of adhesive should I use? Having 7 to 10 metal minis on one base will get a bit weighty; I can not hope that, even with the 3mm base, the units will always be handled by the base - some one (probably me!) will pick up the unit by one mini and I would prefer that it not break off. I might need to use the hot-glue gun that is hiding around here, somewhere.

The base color is another item to consider. I typically use craft paints for bulk area painting, but my usual base color - Territorial Beige from Apple Barrel - is too dark from the dry scrub look that I want to portray (it works great for a more temperate area), so some new paints will be on the shopping list.


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Wargaming Tekumel, part 5

I am going to try for 'many topics one post' with this post...

There are some great comments to one of my previous posts, and it is easier to comment and expand on them here instead of in the Comments section. It does require me to explain the Impetus rules a bit more closely.

Units have 7 basic characteristics: class, base size, move rating, VBU, Impetus, point value, and any special notes.

CLASS: There are several classes for the troops - heavy infantry (FP), light infantry (FL), missile troops (T), skirmishers (S), artillery (ART), elephants (EL, but will represent Serudla, Sro, etc), and a variety of mounted troops which I am not going to worry about until I start up the historical counterpart.

(the abbreviations might not seem appropriate, but are taken directly from the Impetus rules and are a holdover from the original version of the rules which are written in Italian)

BASE SIZE: The size of the base for each individual unit is typically based on the Class of the troops. In Impetus, the base width is most important. 120mm is the standard base width when using 25/28mm miniatures. The base depth varies per class: heavy infantry use a 40mm depth; light infantry and missile units use 60mm; skirmishers use 30mm. Artillery and large creatures can have a base depth that fits with the minis being used; this can be 80mm or more if necessary. I like the different base sizes for the different troops, as it is a subtle mnemonic device to remind players of their troop's capabilities.

MOVE RATING: This is how far a unit can move on the tabletop each turn. This is often related to the unit's class. In the historical unit ratings, a unit of heavy infantry typically has a move of 5U (U is a generic Unit of measure which is different for the minis used, i.e. 1U = 1cm for 15mm minis, 1U = 2cm for 25/28mm minis). Light infantry and skirmishers typically have a Move of 8U. Thus, a unit's CLASS, BASE SIZE, and MOVE are all interconnected.

VBU: Ah, now for the good stuff. VBU is a unit's Basic Combat Value. This is the number of D6 dice that a unit has for melee and/or missile combat. This can be increased due to charging or reduced due to losses, among other things. When looking through the unit stats for the historical armies on the Impetus site, the highest VBU for foot troops is 6 (16th century samurai). I intend to use this as the 'top end' of the scale for human troops on Tékumel, so the first cohort of the First Legion of Ever Present Glory will have a VBU of 6.

IMPETUS: Another important number. The Impetus rating of a unit is the number of bonus D6 that can be thrown when a unit charges. This number ranges from 0 to 4 for foot troops. If a unit has an Impetus rating of 0, it can not charge. Skirmishers and most missile and light troops have an Impetus of 0. There are, of course, exceptions and this number, along with the VBU, will be one of the more 'interesting' parts of my project as I come up with combat values for all of my troops.

POINT VALUE: Listed as VD (Demoralisation Value) in the Impetus rules, each unit has a value or cost in the army. This can range from 1 to 3. When a unit is routed (destroyed), the Point Value is subtracted from the army total, and when the army loses 50% of its points, the army is routed and the game has ended.

SPECIAL NOTES: This can be as simple as listing the missile weapon used - slings, javelins, long bows, etc. to noting any special detail a unit might have. Some troops are Impetuous - they must pursue a retreating enemy unit. Others might have special movement allowances. It is just a small patch of chrome to help differentiate special units.



There are several points that I will need to re-align for the conversion of the historical Impetus rules into the Tékumeli Impetus version. The most obvious is the VBU + Impetus values for the individual legions. This is where my friends Kagesh and Chirine make some very useful insights. The missile-equipped cohorts of the heavy infantry legions should be quite capable of melee combat, if not so well-equipped as their specialized counterparts in the legion. By giving these cohorts an Impetus score, it makes them much more useful for combat and it gives the player a choice - melee or missile fire (you can not do both in Impetus). I do not think that a specialized missile unit, say the Legion of the Clan of the Broken Bough, should have an Impetus score, therefore they are unable to charge the enemy (a unit without an Impetus score can defend itself if charged, however).

In relation to this, I am thinking that there needs to be an addition to a unit's characteristics. A Missile score, I think, will be very useful to help differentiate between special missile units - like the Broken Bough troops - and the bow-armed heavy infantry troops. A cohort of Broken Bough troops should be able to outshoot the Ever Present Glory cohorts in my opinion, but as Impetus is written, they could not unless the Broken Bough unit has a large VBU, which would then make the lightly-armored and armed missile troops very good in melee. Hmmm, more calculations!

I am also not a big fan of unit point values. I might not use this at all, or I might alter the army's break point value from 50%. A scenario could change that to, say, 40% for troops or leaders that are not that interested in fighting or are exhausted. The army break point could go up - 60% or more if the army is suitably desperate.

I'm also starting to rethink the base sizes. Maybe the bow-armed cohorts of a heavy infantry legion should be on the heavy infantry bases (120mm x 40mm) instead of the light infantry/missile bases (120mm x 60mm). All of the cohorts of the heavy infantry legion should have the same move rating, yes? ... hmmmmmm





Wow, lots of words there - I hope you made it through without a headache!


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Another Tékumel unit formation

Since I am almost done with the first of my Tékumel units for Impetus (just need the bases from Litko), I decided to start to work on the next set - archers from the Legion of Ever Present Glory. This legion has six cohorts of archers; in the scale of Impetus, I have enough minis for two. The little question of the moment is the formation on the base.



'Two Moons' (base dimensions in red)

The original unit formation calls for two concentric half circles of troops. The Impetus base is not quite big enough to convey the proper image of the formation but it is close. I'm not certain if I want to use 9 minis for the unit, especially since I will only use one of the leader minis in the units.

Here is the alternate style for the unit:


Only eight minis on this base. It should look good and it should be different enough from the unit styles of the heavy infantry cohorts. These archers definitely do not have the same combat qualities as the close combat troops, even though they are in the same legion.


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