Bears 28 Packers 33; Triple Face Palm.

On the last play of the game, it is 4th down and 8 yards to go for a first down. The Packers decide to go for it because there is less than a minute left in the game. It is all or nothing now. Aaron Rogers rolls out of the pocket to avoid the pass rush. He rolls to the left and spies a totally wide open Randall Cobb and throws a 48 yard bomb to Cobb for the game winning touch down.

Where was the safety? He was 40 yards up field instead of back near the goal line to defend against the long bomb. It is a no brainier keeping one defender back near the goal line during the final seconds of the game. Doh!

Frederick the Great's Coach

I found these images of Frederick's coach on the Berlin Zinnfiguren store. These are 30mm flats. I get lots of good ideas for future SYW era additions to the Minden Miniatures range by looking at some of the German flats that are currently in production.

Von Knyphausen & Francis Marion - Painted Figures

Von Knyphausen (Left) with a Minden Prussian officer on foot; and Francis Marion (Right). Click pix to enlarge.

I finally found some time over the holiday to finish painting the von Knyphausen and Francis Marion personality figures from Fife & Drum Miniatures. The Francis Marion figure obviously needs to have its base finished off -- the spackel compound dipped in fine grit needs to dry overnight and then I can ink the base and start applying the static grass and tufts.

I added one of the Prussian senior general staff on foot figures from the Minden range to create a mini diorama on the Von Knyphausen stand. The foot figure is holding a map and showing it to the mounted figure. He would make for a fine SYW Prussian general, with removal of the small epaulette on the left shoulder to convert him into a Prussian general.

In other Minden-related news, I have boosted the Bayreuth Dragoons from 32 figures to 50 figures over the past several weeks. I might stop at 50 figures, but eventually I could increase the regiment to 60 figures, which at a 1:20 ratio, would represent 1,200 cavalry in 10 squadrons.

Merry Christmas From Hesse Seewald

I want to wish all of my blog followers a Merry Christmas full of family, wonderful presents and a joyous day of celebration. I have posted a picture of our Christmas tree prior to the ransacking of the presents. :)

There is not much to report on the wargaming front, other than to report that we had to cancel our game on December 14th due to the snow storm that hit the Midwest. The silver lining in that cloud though was that the prospect of a game had me painting more Minden Austrians and Prussians for the game. In other words, I made a nice dent in the To Do list.

In a few more days I will start pondering on my plans for the new year and look back on the events of 2013, but for now, I will enjoy some holiday family time.

A Recent ACW Game

The Players: Earl ( back to the camera), and moving clockwise  -- Randy, Keith and Bill ( on the right).

Last month four of our regular group assembled at Earl K's house for an enjoyable day of gaming the American Civil War.  The game featured armies of 20mm Airfix plastic figures on some beautifully rendered terrain in Earl's basement Wargame room. You can see from the pictures what a cozy and delightful Man Cave Earl has put together with the game table surrounded by scores of books on military history. It is really designed to get you in the mood to game.

Earl umpired the game and paired us off into two two-man teams. Bill P. and I drew the Confederate forces out of a hat, while Randy F. and Keith L. drew the Union forces. Each of us commanded a division of two brigades, with each brigade having approximately 4 regiments and a battery of artillery. This seemed to be just the right amount of figures for everyone to handle without getting overwhelmed by having too many figures to maneuver. 

I apologize for not remembering the name of the rules; they are a set developed by one of Earl's friends. I should have taken some notes or posted the report last month when things were still fresh in my brain. I know that Earl is one of my regular viewers so perhaps he will post a comment or two about the game on this page's comments section to provide some of the missing details.

Suffice it to say that the four old codgers shown in the pictures were able to grasp the game mechanics fairly quickly: that is the hallmark of a good set of rules. Earl had the game terrain set up head of time, covering about half of his table. The other half contained some extra regiments that were set up in various formations or tactical position and Earl used these to explain the rules and mechanics prior to the start of the game. It helped to have this visual aid to help u understand the rules.

The scenario did not particularly matter as we were there for the bonhomie and compatibility more than anything else. The scenario was sort of a mini Stones River, what with each side attacking the other side' left flank. None of really knew what we were doing so we just started moving plastic forward as fast as we could. 

A creek bisected the battlefield and I think that thenConfederate objective was to control the road leading off of the Union back table edge ( or roughly where you see Keith L. sitting in the picture). You can see Bill P. sitting at the Confederate starting position on the right hand side of the table. By luck of the draw, I had the Confederate division that were the toughest veterans on the table, which allowed me to move faster than the other troops. So our plan was for me to pitch into the Union brigade opposite me and Bill would cover my left flank from the second Union brigade.

Things seemed to be working to plan and soon Randy and I were engaged in a death grip firefight on my side of the creek. It actually appeared that Randy was gaining the upper hand when one of his regiments fell into a state of disorder. At about the same time, Bill moved one of his brigades up to my left, while his second brigade held the other Union division at bay to his left. This move gave us  considerable firepower advantage all of a sudden and as a result, the tide began to turn in the Confederate's favor.

Eventually we were able to rout off Randy's whole division, but our forces were too depleted to try to carry on across the creek. A standstill was the result.

All in all, it was a good day of gaming, eating and socializing. I don't get many chances to play in somebody else's game, so it was a nice change of pace to be a player participant. I want to thank Earl for being a wonderful host and for providing us with such a fun game.

Troiani's Battle of Trenton

This is a wonderful picture from the talented artist, Don Troiani, depicting the death of Colonel von Rall at the Battle of Trenton on Christmas of 1776.

This picture really has me thinking about our future releases of AWI Hessians in 2014.

1st Continental Light Dragoons from Fife & Drum

1st Continental Light Dragoons: loading (L) and Firing (R). Click all pictures to enlarge the view.

Here are some pictures of the eight poses that Richard Ansell created for the Fife & Drum range of AWI figures. As with the British dragoons in the range, this set is primarily in skirmish or vedette poses, although you can create a formal looking regiment of troopers all with shouldered swords, along with the appropriate command figures. The Continental dragoons are at Griffin Moulds right now and I expect that we will have them in production in January 2014.

Continentals firing pistol (L) and resting carbine (R)

Continetal Command: trumpeter (L) and officer (R)

Continental standard bearer (L) and trooper with rested sword (R)

I could envision two squadrons of the 1st Continental Light Dragoons on the table top. The first squadron would be posted out front in open skirmish order and might include a mix of the Officer pointing, the carbine at rest, a pair of firing carbine and loading carbine, and shooting pistol and carbine at rest. Then you would have the second squadron deployed further back, with the officer, standard bearer and the trumpeter, plus 9 of the troopers with shouldered swords, ready to support the skirmish line.

The next batch of AWI cavalry will include the British Legion cavalry (8 poses) and the 3rd Continental Light Dragoons. These two sets of figures will be in a more energetic series of charging and hacking poses. This way, one regiment can be used for skirmishing and the second regiment could be used for charging and melee.