A productive weekend!

My forces try to hold off Chris while Greg takes his sweet time turning Chris’ flank.

My daughter and CINC Domicile (my wife) our away this weekend on a girl road trip, so I have had the house to myself.  I started with the HAWKs club night on Friday where Chris and I ran a Feudal Patrol(TM) game while Eric ran a play test of his Fall In Napoleonic game. The Feudal Patrol game went pretty well, but I’ll be making another couple of changes to the Action Deck cards and the unit record sheets as a result.

Then Saturday morning a couple of us continues with another play test of the rules I am developing for a miniatures company but cannot discuss.  We are using ersatz figures for these play tests to disguise the project for the time being.

Using ersatz figures has given me a chance to put some troops on the table that haven’t seen battle in a few years, including my Rooman warriors.  (There is some rumor that there may be more Roomans in production soon.)

The play test went well.  I think the basic mechanics are flowing well.  Now I have to bolt on some chrome to give it more period flavor.

Winston Churchill and his body guard.

I also had a chance on Sunday to do a little painting.  I purchased this iconic figure of Winston Churchill with tommy gun some months ago, and I finally got around to painting it after looking on the Internet to learn that the suit was pinstriped.

At the same time I ordered Churchill, I also ordered Hitler and his bodyguard.  Look for a Combat Patrol(TM) game that is The Eagle Has Landed and The Eagle Has Landed in the Other Direction soon.

Bad Squiddo slingers.

I also painted some peasant ladies with slings and stones that I will work into my Viking games — when I start to run Viking games.  Greg has volunteered to write the Viking supplement for Feudal Patrol(TM), so watch for those announcements.  (By they way, my intent is turn Feudal Patrol(TM) over to the publisher in December, with an eye toward Cold Wars and Salute release.)

Bad Squiddo peasant ladies with improvised weapons and a vignette they call “My Heroine.”

Ever since I saw these figures in an announcement on TMP, I knew they were calling to me.  While my paint job is not as good as the ones on the package I think they turned out respectably.  Watch for these in a Feudal Patrol game soon.  I have been running Sea Lion games with the Bad Squiddo British ladies with similarly improvised weapons and the Land Girls.  My plan is to represent the same town as a dark ages costal village and run similar scenarios with Viking Raids instead of German Fifth Columnists.    Hopefully I’ll be ready by Cold Wars, but I am short Vikings and longboats.

What’s on the painting table now?  Some Border Reivers that Zeb picked up for me at Salute this year and a US WWII .50 cal. machine-gun crew.  Then I think some Hydra Valkyrie riding some odd creatures.  I have painted everything I purchased at Historicon plus a bunch, so I am still trending in the right direction with my lead pile.