Trumpeter Salute 2014

Last weekend I attended the yearly game convention of the Trumpeter Society in Burnaby. I attended Friday night and all day Saturday, but skipped out on the Sunday session.

Attendance at the games I hosted was disappointing: I had one player for my Quar game on Friday, and none for my Clay Havoc game on Saturday. Even so, I was able to get in some fun games throughout the weekend.

Quar: Double Cross

We played the Double-Cross scenario from the book, which has the game start with an exchange of pigs for weapons, and ends up in a full-blown firefight.

The Partisans show up with a couple of pigs to trade

The Crusaders appear with a crate of guns. Let's hope nobody loses their nerve and starts something!

Shortly after someone starts something, the Crusader sniper climbs atop a rock promontory to trade shots with the Partisan sniper.

The Crusader Heavy Shotgun team sets up in the woods.

The Partisans escape off the board with their crate of guns while the Partisan Wagon sets up for some machine-gunning.

Crusaders advance down the right flank while one of their number takes off with a pig.

Escaping with the pig.

Crusaders advancing, shortly before getting torn up by Partisan rifle fire. I pushed the Crusaders pretty hard, which was probably unwise, but I also didn't want to play a whole game where we just sat and traded shots from across the board.

Prone (not injured) Partisans lurking in the woods.

The Crusader sniper, now in some cover, gets the only Crusader kill of the game when he takes out the Partisan sniper.

The Partisan wagon, happily decimating the Crusader HSG team.

The crusader assault on the left flank falls apart when the lead rhyflers are butchered.

A few right-flank Crusaders are forced into cover and never make it into the assault.

The Crusader assault on the right flank meets the same fate, and that's pretty much the end of the game.

Pulp Figures

The good chaps from Pulp Figures hosted a game  that started late on Saturday morning, which worked perfectly for me, since I arrived late. The scenario featured an archaeological party on Venus besieged by rampaging lizard people, and a detachment of British colonial troops and Canadian militia sent out to relieve them.

The archaeologists barricade themselves within their camp.

The Brits and Canadians arrive by boat.

The archaeologists hunker down under the fire from the lizard folk.

The Brit tank and limbered Gatling gun begin to make their way onshore, while my Canadians still flounder in the river.

The British troops disembark...

... and Lizard folk emerge from the undergrowth to meet them!

...while my Canadians still struggle to get ashore on their crappy boat.

Landed at last, the Canadians form a firing line.

The Lizards retreat back into the jungle under a hail of fire.

Brit troops pass behind the Canadians to secure the ford for their tank.

The Brits and their tank press on while the Canadians give covering fire.

The Lizards set up a bombard cannon to shell the archaeologists!

At that point I had to pack it in and get ready for the Clay Havoc game I was set to host, so I left the battle unresolved - but things were looking good for the humans.

Ran - Ronin Skirmish

Nobody (except my wife) had signed up for Clay Havoc, so after a few minutes of waiting I went looking for something else to do. David from Kingsford Miniatures was running games of Ronin, with miniatures from his company and a scenario based on the movie Ran, and I was able to jump in on that.

I was playing the defenders, and I had two groups of enemies to contend with. I played a fighting retreat and by the end of the game things were looking grim, but despite being outnumbered the enemy still hadn't made it into the castle.

My troops (with black bases) beat up on the elder son's attacking troops. I was outnumbered, but my men acquitted themselves well and caused a lot of damage.

On the other side, the younger son's troops surround my lone defender and kill him - but not before he takes one of them out.

My 2nd in command and arquebusier defending the castle staircase.

A small force holds the castle gate against more of the younger son's troops. I expected them all to die, but they slowed up the advance and went out covered in glory.

Cannae - White Rock Gamers

The White Rock Gamers always put on some amazing games, and I was excited to play in their version of Cannae, the famous one-sided slaughter of a Roman legion by Hannibal in the 2nd Punic War.

I played as the Romans, with the center of the line my area of responsibility.

After some maneuvering, we finally come to grips with the Carthaginians. My Triarii are stuck behind the line, and the unit on the left never actually sees battle.

On the right flank, and against all odds, the Roman cavalry actually holds off the Carthaginian cavalry and keeps that flank intact.

On the left flank things are much messier, but only one detachment of Carthaginian cavalry manages to sneak around our flank.

After a couple of rounds of fighting, the Carthaginian line is pretty much wrecked. The Carthaginian troops are not as tough as the Roman ones, and historically the Carthaginians fell back before the Roman advance, giving their cavalry wings time to sweep around and completely encircle the Romans. I was facing a young player in the center of the Carthaginian line, and he probably didn't know about that, so he got stuck in with his infantry and paid for it.

On the right side, the Romans are about to be flanked by a band of screaming Gauls, but those Gauls in turn are about to be smashed by my Triarii.

The end of the battle. My Roman legion has crunched through the Carthaginian front line and caught Hannibal, ending the game.

Quar Reinforcements and Terrain

It's just a few weeks until Trumpeter Salute, so I've been working my butt off to get some Quar ready for the scenario I have planned. I already had a few painted, but I needed more to fill out the forces of both sides.

I still love these little guys... every one has its own personality and they look great when painted up.

For the Partisans, I got the 2nd partisan squad, plus the very-quarrish Partisan Wagon. I was especially excited to have some Quar cavalry added to my forces. I have a full squad of Crusader cavalry as well, but they aren't going to be part of the Salute scenario I have planned, so they haven't been painted yet.

For the Crusaders, I added a few specialist teams: a Heavy Shotgun Team, a Cook, a Sniper, plus the (as yet unpainted) cavalry squad and Squirrel Handler.

Finally, I have been building some Quarrish terrain. The environment I have in mind is a pseudo-old-west, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath sort of area, with desert and rock outcroppings.

Since it's the Quar, I built some large hive-like structures, for a termite farm. These started life as coconut-shaped containers for coconut water drinks:

Also, the only trees and forest templates I have are temperate green, so I made some more Quarrish, desert-like tree clusters. I found some sheets of embossed felt that make for cool forest templates, and I painted up some bare pine armatures to go on them:

I also have a few rocky outcroppings, originally intended for aquariums, plus the latex desert mat I got for my Afghanistan games, and a few more bits to fill out my table. I'll take some more photos of the full table once it's set up!

LAV update: figures

You would think that with all the time I spend painting little figures, and ones much smaller than 1/35, that the soldiers I got to put in my LAV-III diorama would have been the easy part. And they were fairly easy to do, but I'm not all that happy with the result.

I had a lot of trouble with the camo, and even after redoing it several times, I think it looks like crap. Then, when it came to the detailing, I tried to get away without blacklining everything, which is my usual method for wargame miniatures, because while the result is flashy, I don't think it's very realistic. The figures look so drab without any blacklining, though, that I had to add some in, but then I think it looks bad in another way.

All that said, I think they are good enough for me to stop working on them finally. I now have all the parts, I just need to build the diorama base, which is something I'm actually looking forward to!

Fleamobile

I've finally managed to finish the Flea-Mobile I bought along with all the ladies for my Watling Street Benevolent Society. 

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to use this guy in IHMN yet. Do I just count him as having spring-boots, or do I build a whole proper Walker for him? I also don't yet know which of my teams he's going to join. I think he would suit Lord Curr's Company best, but those minis are still sitting on my painting table, wearing primer and nothing else.

The model itself is really nice, as you can see, though it's a bit fragile. The left rear leg and the right antenna/feeler thing both broke off in the course of painting, and now that they are held on only by super glue, they are even more prone to breakage. That aside, how can you help but like a proper gentleman riding around on a giant clockwork flea?