Holy Smackmyforehead-anolly!

I just counted up and find there are a bit over 650 photographs on this blog!  No way I would have guessed that many - and I put every single one of them here.  I guess you just loose track when it's been over five years of posting.  Sure, lots of posts with no photos that probably not many bother to read but they are a record for me if for no one else.  A bit stunned, though.  650+.  Really?  Guess so.

And between 'main page' posts and all the pages above, there are a bit over 220 entries here (though I didn't count that as carefully).  That, too, is a bit of a surprise, but not quite as big since I do see the stats from the page from time to time.

A List of Boxers

High thee to the Boxer page above to see a list of the Boxers I've amassed - and it's quite a mass.  Legations to follow.

Blue Moon's German Legation arrives

It's 17" square and adapted from the Austrian Legation and walls, corners, gate, and gate house.  That means I now have the six legations needed - German, Russian, British, American, Japanese, and French.  I also have ruins and some other buildings for the Chinese.  Still need a bunch more Chinese buildings and more ruins.   Cool stuff.  Just got today so no photos yet.

Followers Reopened

A while back I shut down the followers feature on this blog because of some unwanted activity.  I've reopened it to see what happens.  Hopefully, I'll keep it up.  But if that inappropriate stuff pops up, well, I might shut it down again.  Meanwhile, for all legitimate visitors, enjoy!

A box flew in to my house yesterday

And it was full of Boxer rebellion figures and buildings.  Check out the page link above to see some photos with captions.

Updates and Codes

Okay, nothing fancy in the codes, just a reminder that - as long as I keep it up to date - the numbers associated with the various page links above report how many posts by different dates there are on that page and how many photo images.  More or less.  Most recent update, no pictures yet, is on the Scenery page.

In September, if all goes according to plan, I will be visiting a whole bunch of Old West sites in Montana and Wyoming, mostly the latter but including Little Bighorn and the Rosebud site.  This is part of a grand vacation my wife and I are taking.  She wants to see Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.  All good with me and the historical sites are a side benefit for me.

And, maybe, after the trip I might even have more hobby time.  Can only hope.

Linear or Square?

Not, perhaps, as simple as you might think.

I was contemplating the size of my AWI figure collection versus the size of my gaming table and was startled at how many linear feet just my infantry would fill up.  Came out to about 138 feet - 1/2 inch per figure and over 3,000 figures.  And my table is only 4' x 12' in size.  How in the world would I ever get them all on the table?!

Well, it turns out that is the wrong way to think of it.

Technically that is correct if all the figures were in one rank and all standing shoulder to shoulder.  But if formed into brigade size masses and counting the space all the figures would take up - not just the infantry but cavalry, artillery, command, and casualty figures take up a bit less than ten square feet.  Thus much less than one fourth of the table would be needed for the whole of my AWI figure table to be on the table all at once.  Which means I could run a game with all of them, albeit crowded.

Thankfully, my collection is meant to allow northern, central, and southern campaign games so there would rarely be any point to having all the figures on the table at the same time.  Unless it was Long Island!

The 7th

Not the date.  The cavalry regiment.  I've started prepping my 7th Cavalry regiment for my Old West/Plains Wars set-up.

Twelve companies at twelve mounted figures each plus twelve dismounts, a standing horse to represent point of dismount, and three dead horses and two dead men (that's 42 pieces x 12 or 504 pieces) and then there will be the high command, still a little minor adjusting but 6 more mounted men and six dismounts but only two dead horses and two dead men (harder to kill the high command).

I'm also hoping to get at least half of the army supply wagons prepped and primed this week, four wagons with drivers and four horses per wagon.  Part of the minor sorting is adjusting so that within the twelve companies there will be four battalion commands - each battalion to have three companies (or troops for those of you not aware that company was the proper name for a 'troop' at the time.

A bit of a distraction from the French and Indian War I'm supposed to be finishing and the American Revolution I've started and should be progressing with but at least the Old West is one of the KEY periods (AWI and Cracked Colonials being the other two key periods).  Enough for now.

A Modest Change of Direction

Exercising that well known prerogative - but in a masculine direction! - I've changed my mind about my gaming table.  Instead of adding two 2' x 4' extensions to each end to be able to go to a 16' total length instead of the current 4' x 12' size, I'm abandoning the extensions and converting them in to 'level changers'.  That means the table stays at 4' x 12' which is plenty of space for 15 mm gaming, at least within my new mindset.  I might still put together the occasional Extravaganza Game to run at a convention but I'm going to put more focus on games that max out at six players - and I'm well in to adjusting my varied figure collections for this new direction.  A couple of periods will stay on the massive side - the AWI and the Old West.  But most everything else will either hold steady where it is or reduce in size (if not done already) and maybe one or two periods get abandoned - or not.  Dang will power problem.

What's driving this decision is two things.  First, it was a game I recently ran at a local convention using a table roughly the same size with six players, three per side.  Worked just fine and allowed plenty of room to play our game, a French and Indian War event.  Second, when deciding to dismantle my passes in favor of just using the 'deep profile hills' I realized I would still need some height for games, either for a 'drop' to a seaport or a 'rise' to other heights.  The simplest way to get there was to convert the already assembled 2' x 4' extension into one rise and match that with the second 2' x 4' extension not yet assembled because it was going to be on a hinge.

As soon as realized this meant the ends were more open and the gaming 'flanks' more accessible, that sealed the deal.  So, now I need to assemble the second extension into a riser (need a couple sticks of 1 x 2 and or 1 x 3) and then build some 'step up' pieces using 1/2" plywood cut with a jigsaw and bull nosed with a belt sander and then base painted.  And eventually all this gets textured and painted to match my 8 color paint system for terrain.

I'll need to make a couple of sub-risers as well so that I can use one of the risers at one level and the other riser at a second and higher level.  That means I'll need two 4' 'step ups' - and with two of those I can, if a game calls for it, have a 4' x 4' riser with a 'step up' (or step down) on either side of the rise.  For another option, I'll also build four side 'step ups' so that I can use the risers lengthwise as either one 2' x 4' piece (and if I have two of those, I need the four side 'step ups') or as one 2' x 8' riser using just two of the side 'step ups'.  I suppose, it just occurred to me, that if I build two extra 4' and a little more 'step ups' so they match properly with the side risers, I can put the riser in the center of the board longwise (and I'll need two small corner 'rise ups' in case I want to put two lengthwise center riser pieces for some reason.  So, all told, that will be 10 'step ups' to build.

Since those risers will have a flat and flush surface, I can put buildings or any of my other terrain pieces on top to add even more versatility.

Diverging away from that topic but sticking with the terrain area, I've decided I will add another 72 evergreens to match the ones I've already bought as far numbers of trees and types of bases - but I will color 36 of them lighter with spray paint and the other 36 darker, basically adding pines and spruces to my gaming evergreens.

Now, back to those passes to be dismantled, I'm going to convert them to three rather long deep profile hills, one each at 31", 29",  and 24", roughly.  Will lose some length when I jig saw and bull nose the newly sawn elements.  Should be able to re-use the majority of the wood without too much extra effort.

I'm also going to reduce the number of cliffs I build - just too much too store.  I also realized I need to make a shorter straight cliff to maximize versatility - and I will make a couple of options of the standard length and the new shorter length, such as at least one waterfall.

That's it for the moment.  Off to other things.  And, yes, photographs eventually.

Redux de reasonable

Or, reduction towards reasonableness.

Been working to reduce the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and the French Foreign Legion figures and the 'enemies'.  Well, success on several fronts but the Anglo-Egyptian army has been stubborn - though some reduction.  Natives, except for the Emirs and the Sultan, reduced by a full third - though still need to sort out the casualty figures.  For the French, I need one figure per stand for the native side of things to effectively double my native force of Bedouin and Touareg.

For the Fuzzie-Wuzzie (Hadendowah?) and the Ansar (?) I may need two casualties per figure - thanks to that aforementioned stubbornness.

French worked out at 12 foot units and 8 cavalry units plus the heavy weapons and train and leadership.  Oh, and a band and heliograph unit.  The British worked out to 12 foot units and 6 cavalry and 2 camelry units and the other associated units, band and heliograph included.  And a good dose of leaders for both.  Doesn't sound so bad, right?  Hold up.  Then there is the Egyptian army, more or less, with 6 units of Egyptian foot, 3 units of Sudanese foot, and 3 units Indian troops.  Then the cavalry - two Egyptian plus Egyptian lancers (did they have?  don't know.  but mine do.)  A mounted gendarme unit (sort of trash in battle) and two more horse mounted units (Egyptian?  tired and late), and one Egyptian and one Sudanese camel mounted units.  For both sides, all mounted have dismounts.

Foot units are 18 figures, mounted are 12 figures.

The native forces have 6 24 figure infantry units, 4 15 figure cavalry units, and 2 12 figure cameleers units.  I have a total of six of those groupings with some associated other bits but two of them have been deemed excess for a swap meet one day.

All in all, probably reduced the painting load by well over 1,000 figures.

The "European" troops rate 2 casualties per unit for foot and mounted, all else (leaders, heavy weapons, train elements) 1 casualty per.

Progress.

Centrifugal Force?

I hope my progress this past week shows promise for this year.  I've made significant progress on the AWI, back working on the FIW, and doing a little bit with the zoologicals for the Scramble - or Steeplechase - for something sort of like Africa.  Check out those tabs above for more information.