A project is resurrected!

Having read and liked the mechanics of the Sam Mustafa rule set, Maurice and in keeping with my resolution to reduce Mt Neverpaint, whilst not buying any more lead, I have immersed myself in resurrecting a stalled project.

Back in the 1990s, I played a lot of war-games set in the Seven Year War with a friend’s 28mm figures, using the Warfare in the Age of Reason (‘WAR’) rule set. 

WAR is a set of rules written by Tod Kershner and Dale Wood and originally published in 1992 by Emperor’s Press Ltd.  It was a creditable attempt to cover an expansive period of history, which could arguably be described as the World’s ‘first world war'.

I do remember having to roll lots of dice during these games.

About this time, I had the opportunity to purchase some 15mm Old Glory figures at an excellent price.  Given my megalomaniac tendencies, I amassed forces for four fractions those of Austria, Prussia, French and Russia, plus the beginnings of an army for my Imagi nation – more on that in another post.

I had the talented sculptor, Mike Broadbent, a long time friend, paint my Austrians and I based them to the WAR requirements.  Unfortunately, that was as far as the project progressed for various reasons.

Matching what I had painted to the Maurice rules resulted in a requirement for me to paint two more cavalry regiments (ie 24 mounted figures), four artillery pieces and three crew (ie 12 figures) to be able to field a 100 point Austrian army.  

These are currently being cleaned and placed on tongue depressors for painting.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I also had to re-base nine infantry regiments (ie 216 infantry) and one regiment of cavalry, as well as some markers.  After two sessions over last weekend I managed to complete stage one.  Stage two will be the flocking and will be completed next weekend.

I reviewed my available terrain and located a great unpainted, resin chateau and some nice period resin buildings. 

The chateau was purchased from Battlefront back when they had a stand at MOAB about ten years ago. I have never seen another since so I am uncertain who manufactured it.

The other resin buildings I bought off Nic at Eureka, around the same time.  They required a bit of work to fill air bubbles and mould faults, but given the age of the moulds which were used they are quite good.  Unfortunately they are closer to 20mm, so these will not be used for this project but will no doubt find table time when I get around to painting my 20mm WWII AB Germans for use with the Chain of Command rules I recently downloaded.  

Last week I bought two 15mm 4ground buildings from War and Peace Games.  As usual the service was great and the end result is what I want on my table!

Once the Austrians are complete, I will be able to move on to painting another force as an opponent.  At this point, I am leaning towards either a Russian or French force, as the tricorne wearing, Old Glory Prussians are poorly casted figures in my view.  There is something disconcerting when a figure's head is attached to its left shoulder!   

So, this project means I will be gaming with rules I purchased at Cancon 2014, I will need to base all of my trees using resin bases purchased from Battlefield Accessories, again a purchase from Cancon 2014, whilst reducing my current lead surplus and I don’t have to purchase any more lead – right?  Hmm, I forgot about how I dislike the Old Glory cavalry mounts! 

Okay, so perhaps I will have to place an order with Nic for 36 AB cavalry remounts.  A small addition to the mountain if it means in excess of 200 15mm figures are painted.  Time will tell my wife says!

Finally, my wife gave me this interesting model for Valentine's Day.