The Volcano Queen sending a captive to certain death to appease the volcano gods
We had a nice relaxing Sunday, which gave me time to complete a few figures I purchased at Historicon. Except for the 10mm Napoleonic project, I don’t have a major painting project right now, so I’m picking away at my mountain of unpainted lead that built up over the Summer.
The advantage of these small projects is that I can finish them in a weekend; whereas, several battalions of 10mm Napoleonic troops take a whole weekend.
I have also been talking about writing a jousting / tournament game. One of the HAWKs, Greg, found these toys. I repainted them this weekend as well. I think they came out well.
As Reaper posted their second Bones Kickstarter project this week, I was reminded that I hadn’t painted any of the first batch. I really only wanted about half of what was in the Kickstarter deal, but half was enough to make the deal worthwhile. I traded some figures with others in the HAWKs and sold another batch at Historicon, retaining the ones I really wanted. I took advantage of being furloughed to take care of some needed “honey do’s” around the house and also work on some of the Reaper figures.
Thor
Some weeks back I posted that I was working on a Victorian version of the Marvel Avengers. The only Avenger I was missing was Thor. Someone online suggested a blacksmith. I converted one of the Reaper blacksmith figures to be Thor. He’s the one on the left in the picture below.
Blacksmiths
I considered making the apron red, like Thor’s cape, but that looked goofy, so I made his pants red instead.
Here is a view of the complete Avengers group in action against a giant crab. The front row, from left to right: Black Widow, Thor, Captain America, and Hawkeye. The back row, from left to right: the Hulk and Iron Man.
I’m not sure how this figure became part of the handful I pulled from the box, but since she was on the table, she got painted.
Grave Diggers
I tried to be a bit artistic with these. I wanted them to look as if they were being lit by the lanterns. The effect was not nearly as good as I had hoped.
Dungeon Explorers
I really like the two figures on the right. They depict the typical dungeon delver, heavily laden with weapons and treasure.
Why so many duplicates? You can never have too many townspeople, so one of my Kickstarter add-ons was a second set of civilians.
At this point, I have no planned use for these figures, but when I saw them at Historicon they called to me. I really like the look of these and can see them showing up in some games in the not-too-distant future.
At Historicon, these figures called to me. They are Eskimo cavalry riding polar bears and some sort of yak-like animal produced by Sergeant Major’s Miniatures. I just had to have them to add to my Northland Adventures collection.
The mounts were cast in two pieces. The rider’s right hands were separate and had to be glued onto the arms. I am looking forward to seeing them in a game.
Eight new battalions of Russian infantry in a "really useful box"
I recently finished eight more battalions of Russian infantry. To finish the VII and VIII corps, I just need to complete several regiments of cavalry and many leaders. It takes 30 figures to make an infantry battalion but only 10 for a cavalry regiment, so I suspect it won’t take long to complete the order of battle. I’ve figured out what I need to order from Old Glory and will probably place the order soon.
You can get a tray the 4-liter Really Useful Box
I have been storing my 10mm figures in cardboard, computer keyboard boxes. With 10mm WWII there are only 10 infantry figures on a base. The density of figures for Napoleonic bases is much higher, and the cardboard boxes are beginning to crush. I mentioned that I was looking for something better, and my buddy Mark turned me on to Really Useful Boxes. After perusing their Web page, I determined that the 4-liter box would be the right size. With the lipped tray, you get two roughly equal height storage levels that are perfect size for 10mm infantry, artillery, cavalry, or leaders.
The closed box with figures on the bottom, figures in the tray, and the top closed
Here is what the box looks like when it’s closed. One of these boxes is shorter, but slightly taller than the thin keyboard boxes I’ve been using. They also store a few more figures than the keyboard boxes. For 10mm WWII, I put two battalions in a cardboard box. It will be excellent to put two battalions in one of these, one on each level. Then I can just hand a player either a box without the tray or a tray without the box, and he will have his total command. Two players won’t have to fight for access to their keyboard box with another player, particularly when they enter the game on different table sides.
One of these 4-liter boxes will be just about right for most of my 28mm figures with the trays inside, but any figures that have their arms or anything else above their heads will only fit if you don’t use the second-story tray. They also make two more boxes that are slightly taller but have the same footprint at the 4-liter boxes. I was thinking that one of these with the tray would enable me to store the taller figures on the bottom level and the shorter figures on the top level.
On their Web page, these boxes are $15 each, but at Staples I can get the boxes for $8 each. The trays are an additional $4, but you must order them on line, as neither Staples, Office Depot, nor Office Max carry any of the inserts for the boxes. The boxes are much more sturdy than the cardboard ones, and after I fully convert — in several years — my shelves will have a pleasing, uniform appearance.
On 26 September 2013 I participated in my formal retirement ceremony conducted by the Old Guard at Conmy Hall at Ft. Myer, VA. More pictures can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/theoldguard/sets/72157635920974634/.
Marcel "Frenchy" Lettre, Tommy, and Candy before the ceremony began
Many family, friends, and co-workers attended, including Marcel “Frenchy” Lettre, who was my battalion commander when I was a company commander (above); my parents, mother-in-law, sister, and brother-in-law; a couple of folks I wargame with; and many of the people with whom I have been working.
The Old Guard color party
I was disappointed when I learned that the ceremony would be indoors, but with the lowered lights and spotlights, the ceremony was terrific.
The Old Guard fife and drum corpsThe US Army Band, "Pershing's Own"MG Greene providing comments on retirement from active duty
The presiding officer for these ceremonies is selected from the (many!) general officers stationed in the national capital region. I was pleasantly surprised to know the presiding officer for my ceremony. I had first worked with COL Greene when I was a PM at DARPA and he was PM Battle Command at Ft. Monmouth. Then, when I was Chief of Staff for Research, Development, and Engineering Command, BG Greene was our deputy commander. In fact, I attended his promotion ceremony to BG. Now he is a major general working for the chief of Army acquisition. He had nice comments to make to all us retiring soldiers and our families.
Thirty nine soldiers lined up to receive retirement certificates and flags
Thirty nine of us held our retirement ceremony Thursday morning. Each of us received a retirement certificate and a folded US flag individually. People asked why I opted for the ceremony at Ft. Myer rather than doing something at Ft. Meade. First, at Ft. Meade it can be difficult to get visitors through the gates. I think those who attended the ceremony would agree that it would be difficult to top the send off provided by the Old Guard.
The calm before the storm
The ceremony was in the middle of the day, so we scheduled a party for the evening when we thought more people would be able to attend. When the smoke cleared, we think we had about 80 people attend. Mark Ryan (right in the picture above) gets the award for having travelled the farthest to attend. He tarred his driveway in the morning on Long Island, drove almost six hours to the party, stayed until about 2100, and then drove four hours home.
Candy giving instructions to Hannah, who generally managed the food during the party so we could concentrate on our guests
When I was a PM, we used to host about three events this size each year. We quickly found that we spent so much time managing the food platters and drinks that we never got to spend time with our guests. We typically hire a girl we know who we think can keep up with everything to manage this part of the party for us. For this party, Hannah did a very good job helping us manage the party, keeping trays full, reheating food, taking out trash, etc.
While the guests initially broke into their “comfort” groups, we did try to encourage intermingling.
It was a nice day, despite my mixed feelings about taking off the uniform. I will have to adjust to being “just another guy.” Yesterday, I was in the mall and I was joking to my daughter that I didn’t want to go into a store with her that had “Navy” in the name. She said “you’re not in the Army any more.” That’s not exactly true. A retiree from the Army is subject to recall to active duty until age 60. More importantly, the Army isn’t just a job, or even a profession. It’s even more than the camaraderie based on shared suffering, experiences, and accomplishments — even if any two people have never actually served together. It’s a way of life, and there are many aspects of being a soldier and being a colonel that I will miss as I change my signature block from “Colonel, US Army” to “Colonel, US Army, Retired.” I’ve been wearing the uniform of this nation for 32 years, beginning as a cadet at West Point. While you can take the soldier out of the Army, I don’t think you can ever take the Army out of the soldier.
Getting ready for work my last day in the Army Combat Uniform
On a side note, I had lost my dog tags in an airport screening machine at BWI airport and didn’t notice it until the next day. I’ve had that same set of dog tags for more than 20 years, and I wear them every day, including my time in Iraq, Korea, and Italy, through jump school and Ranger school, during hundreds of days in the field, so I was sad to lose them two days before my retirement. Yesterday, I got a hold of TSA lost and found at BWI and learned that they found my dog tags, so I will be able to pick them up today. After almost 30 years I have an emotional attachment to them, and I was sad that I might have lost them. I guess that’s what comes of clean living.
Tomorrow is my official retirement ceremony; although, I don’t become a civilian until 1 October. Today I had a last “official” type photo taken in uniform. Tomorrow I’ll take it off for the last time. I have mixed emotions over all this.
If you have been following this series of posts, you’ll recall that I am developing some concepts for a new skirmish-level World War II game. In previous posts, I’ve provided examples of some of the action cards as they’ve evolved. Above is a sample unit record sheet for a player. Note that each player is supposed to lead a squad, consisting of two half squads for most countries. (Marines, on the contrary, divided their squads into three teams. One might also argue that a US Army squad was divided into three teams as well.)
Below is an example of a vehicle record. This is very early in development of a vehicle record, as I haven’t thought through all the vehicle rules yet. I am also desperately in need of another play test of the basic infantry rules.
Note that the layout of the “back” of the vehicle card. This is designed to give the players guidance on how to resolve the various results of hit location from the action deck. I would guess that after a game or two most of the back of this card will be no longer needed. I am hoping to develop some fun items for the non-penetrating hit table. Also, I think that any penetrating hit will also include a roll on the non-penetratin hit chart. I’m not artist, but I’m trying to lay out the back of the card in a way that is intuitive. What do you think?
To this point in development, the only need for a die has been to roll for movement distance each turn. To resolve these kinds of combat effects, I think I will put a 1 through 10 in the top right corner of each card. You could then flip a card to “roll” a d10. If players prefer, they could also use a d10 already sitting on the table for movement instead of flipping a card.
Today I completed my final out-processing from the Army and began what is ominously called “terminal leave.” I will be on “terminal leave” the remainder of the week and then return to work on Monday as the deputy of the technology development program in which I was one of several project managers. It’s interesting and important work. Most importantly it will allow me to keep my kinds in one school throughout high school. Today I wore my Army Combat Uniform (ACU’s) for the last time, which made me sad. Thursday I wear the Army Service Uniform (ASU) (the dress blue uniform) for the last time during my formal retirement ceremony.
For the first time since May I had a chance to do some painting. Sam Fuson has made sheets of labels for Fate of Battle that reflect real orders of battle. For my Russian force, I am building out Bagration’s VII and VIII corps. My current Russian force was an ad hoc mixture of things I was able to find on ebay. That was enough to get me started and do all the needed play testing for the rules. Now I am building out the missing bits to create those two corps.
Eight battalions of Russian jaegers
At Historicon, I had pre-ordered several bags of Russians. Two bags of infantry and a command bag make eight battalions with two color parties extra. I’ll eventually mount the color parties on the bases for the corps commanders and Bagration. I couldn’t sleep this morning, so I wrapped up these eight battalions of Russian jaegers. The uniforms are just about the same as Russian infantry, except they have white plumes and green pants.
The light artillery
I also knocked out several batteries of artillery. Of course the Russians in the Napoleonic Wars are known for their masses of guns. Looking at the order of battle for these two corps, I’m not sure I want to face them on the table. This picture just shows the light artillery in the VII and VIII corps as well as some attached directly to Bagration.
The heavy artillery
This is the heavy artillery. As a comparison, the two French corps that I have painted have a total of 8 artillery batteries, mostly 8-lb ones. Later in the wars, the French began to compensate for lack of well-trained infantry by adding artillery batteries to their corps — in many cases supplied by the enemy.
