Tweaking some old buildings ...

1. An old HO plastic kit house

It didn't really fit in when used as bottom part is way out of scale for 28mm figures - it was usually relegated to the background.

The roof surface smoothed and covered with thin cardboard, new ground floor shell was made from thicker cardboard. Tile plus stone effect paper sheets used along with some printed doors and windows - it now looks the biz :)

2. A pottery building - 

Never have been satisfied with the chimney, repainted it grey and added some chimney pots to the top. Also to spruce it up a bit I put some stone effect paper on the sides and back.

Adding a new building .....

I thought I'd have a go at an item from the from the Petite Properties 1/48th range ; I picked a smaller one called Tinkers Alley, I made it up but didn't use all the detailing pieces - I added some timbering to the front and back to fit in with my other buildings

Zinzendorf - Dragoons (40mm)

The re-equipped Dragoon regiment - they have been brought back up to full strength after the rigours of the last Begovian campaign.

[figures - my own 40mm home-casts, Kettle drummer is a conversion of a home-cast Creartec figure]

Over the border ....

General Waldebeck has organised an intelligence gathering information on the current positions of the Begovian army; they appear to be in camp across the border about 20 miles or so south west of the border town of Darkur.  A number of small units of scouts have been sent across the border ...

One of these heads towards the border with Begovia ..

they crossed the border and about five miles ducked into a copse to keep out of sight of a Begovian patrol..

taking care they headed further into enemy territory after another 15 miles they could see a group of Begovian encampments in the distance ; they approached carefully and found some cover to observe one of them ..

they circled round and through a wood to get a bit closer ...

after that they headed back to Wittenberg territory, passing by another camp and avoiding another patrol

a bit further on, they saw a body of horsemen approaching and took cover; they watched as a large group of Tartars passed by...

They hurried back across to the border and then on to the army HQ to make their report; the positions of the camps were noted and placed on the maps, but the presence of Tatars allied with the Begovians was important information ...

Camp for the Begovians (WIP)

 I've been making tents for the Begovians to be used to represent a camp; made up a template.. Initial prototype build...

The template, to print on A4 160g paper.

I used the template to make up a number of tents. To make a commanders tent I used a tent template cut in half and with fill in-between; using a cardboard internal frame for rigidity

Have enough tents for a good size camp ...

will get these painted; I have cast a few figures up to convert to add some interest to the camp scene as well

Making the large chamber for Under Wittenberg....

I needed a large chamber for the Under Wittenberg game. I decided to use a box folder and make it as adaptable as possible.

I removed one side of the box folder to make photography easier during games. I cut some coffee stirrers to size and fixed them near the corners to provide a groove at each end to fit swappable wall effect pieces.

The cardboard inserts for the wall sides cut, covered in stone paper and checked for a good fit

Onto flooring - some pavement effect paper sheet, cut to fit (future option of swap out floor piece)

Flooring paper stuck down and wall inserts in position - rather empty, perhaps a bit larger than was needed. I can add internal walls for a later game, along with different wall pieces.

A little bit of dressing to check on how pictures would look..

In use as part of the Under Wittenberg game....

the two doorways and the bell came from a free sprue with a Warhammer Age of Sigmar magazine  that I spotted in a newsagent (not my usual purchase to read, but the free sprue had some really useful bits on it).

Rules and Stuff...

Rules for Games 

[post amended 5/11/2020, to add link to Weight of File Ruleset and associated quick reference sheets]

Basically I have a selection to choose from depending on the size and content of the scenario.  I always tailor rules to a scenario if needed. Apart from the main rules set I use below,  I make up scenario specific rules and borrow bits from other rulesets as appropriate.

Big Battles - I use Weight of Fire ruleset (a free set I downloaded some years back) with a few of my own tweaks (rules PDF here, quick ref sheet here side 1 and side 2)

Skirmish Games - Skirmish Rules Lite  (home-baked). (PDF here)

Adventure Games - A general set useable for 17C onwards.  (PDF here) It was derived from the rules included in Battlegames Zulu Special (BG14), I made a few basic adaptations (and a few more minor ones) main changes to the published rules as follows

• The Shooting Table was extended to add SMG, LMG, Sling and Bow. With a generic musket/rifle entry. Rolling 2D6 when firing a SMG and 4D6 when firing a LMG.

	Range
Weapon	Short	Medium	Long
Field Artillery	0-6"	6-24"	24-36"
Battalion Gun	0-6"	6-12"	12-18"
Musket/Rifle	0-6"	6-12"	12-18"
Pistol	0-2"	2-6"	n/a
SMG	0-6"	6-12"	12-18"
LMG	0-6"	6-12"	12-18"
Throwing Spear	0-4"	n/a	n/a
Sling	0-6"	n/a	n/a
Bow	0-6"	n/a	6-12"

• A saving throw for all combatants - 1D6 1,2,3 disabled/dead; 4,5,6 OK

The Skirmish Riles Lite and the general Adventure game set are sort of close in content and I ought to converge them to make one set. (one day 😉 ).

Optional Bits

• Combat with 'to and fro' - Simple Combat (home-baked) (PDF here); this has skill, attack, defense attributes for character figures; with 3 wounds per character maximum.

• Combat no weapons - Fisticuffs 
• winner of combat decided by rock paper scissors dice.
• loser is downed for next move, lays prone; to get up throw 1D6: 1 stays prone.
• opposition figure in base contact with prone figure, holds him down.

• Animal Herding, derived from some I found online (PDF here)

The Under Wittenberg Game

This was the last solo game played.  Very ad-hoc game. Basically a test of the concept of splitting the game table into two halves, one being the above ground and the other underground. The passageways and chambers were added as I went along and the story developed. Some new pieces were made - steps, the pit, the large chamber along with some doorways and 'treasure pieces'.

• Movement nominal 6" max per move.
• Actions controlled by dice what happens next 1,2,3 for x otherwise ....
• When contact occurred I used  'Combat no weapons - Fisticuffs' .