The Weekly Grind

Well, this week I continue my journey through a Sargasso Sea of butternut and greys.

I’ve finished half of another regiment of Confederates for Regimental Fire and Fury, and made a good start on the remainder. In other words, 15 down, 15 to go. It’s my goal to have a brigade of four regiments by the end of November, but I’m feeling like I’m going to need to reward myself after finishing this second regiment by painting some 12 pounder Napoleons. Then I can add brass and olive green to my palette! The joy!

I exaggerate when I complain.

These ACW regiments are actually pretty fun to paint, though I’m still not ecstatic with the look I’m getting. I think I’ve gone a bit dark in my tones this time around, and, perhaps more importantly, the paint jobs are lacking in contrast. Or maybe the spread of contrast is too much. I don’t know. Something ain’t right. 15mm is proving to be a real challenge to paint, and that’s not even taking into account the concentration and dexterity it takes to keep from doing everything twice!

Never fear, I’m determined to beat the scale into painterly submission.

The unbased marching types are new…

My brigadier general is something of a disaster. Black horse at 15mm? Waste of effort. Blacklining with an 001 pen? Way out of scale. I think I see a visit to the tub of shame (that means a plastic bowl filled with paint stripping Simple Green) in this general’s future.

My brigadier hasn’t been banished to the frozen north, he’s just trotting around in a dollop of Vallejo pumice, which is excellent basing material. Seriously, just buy some. You’ll thank me.

This right here is a damned fine game. Rommel in the Desert by Columbia Games.

I did get to play a game of Rommel in the Desert this week. My buddy Ron has been learning it with me (ok, he’s been learning it and teaching me, but whatever), and we’re starting to figure out how some of the complex mechanical parts of the game work together. RitD is highly concerned with supply and fog of war, which sounds relatively boring, but makes for a very tense and engaging game.

I think the main thing I learned in this particular session was that the game isn’t really about killing units through combat nor is it about holding/defending territory, but rather the idea is to maneuver, isolate, and lop off large portions of your opponent’s army. And you have to take risks. Which is good, because that’s how the historical campaign worked. I’m horrible at talking about games (which leads to the question “why are you writing this blog?), so you should probably head over to Board Game Geek for more information. The reviews are mostly raves, which is pretty rare on that site for a wargame. Especially one from 1982.

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That’s all for now-next post should see the end of this second regiment of Confederates  and the eve of a full day of large scale Napoleonic miniatures wargaming as the HOGS (Historically Oriented Gaming Society) play out Friedland using “Napoleon’s Battles.”