Further Update from April

I realized today that I had not made any postings lately - last one was over two weeks ago! So let's bring things up to date.

Almost all my hobby time these past weeks has been concentrated in getting ready for the first of a series of loosely linked games that will culminate in a convention game at our regional Bayou Wars convention (see link for more details). This mini-campaign involves an Anglo-Indian expeditionary force advancing into the vale of Swat in the north central frontier area to punish the Haddabiera tribe for its more recent depredations. We will be using the venerable The Sword and the Flame (TSatF) rules for these games.

I finished the fourth and final 20-figure Pathan infantry unit for the Haddabiera tribe, the three mounted leaders, including Emir Tubeir himself, the eight gunners, and the 12-figure cavalry unit. So all of the Pathan forces I had planned for my game on May 16, are completed. Now to the Imperials - the thirteen British gunners have been completed except for a few splashes of paint on the rammers, etc. and putting the terrain effects on the bases. I've begun the 12-figure mounted/9-figure dismounted troop of British cavalry but haven't completely decided if they will be hussars or lancers. They will probably be hussars as I have a troop of Indian Bengal lancers already primed and waiting in the painting queue. Now I just have to figure out how to do the swords.

I've also done four hill masses for part of the terrain. They will match up with some hills I did earlier to make the battlefield look like the rolling foothills common in the southern part of the Vale of Swat.

I've also been doing a little gaming with our local group. We've fought the Assyrians versus the Egyptians in ancient times (and that is a game I would like to forget - my die rolling was abysmal!), the Carlists versus the Isabelistas in sunny Spain in the 1830s, and the Germans and their askaris versus the British and their askaris in German East Africa in the Great War. The ancient games were played with Jay Stribling's 20mm figures using a set of rules he developed. The Carlist games were played with Mark Steven's exquisitely painted Perry figures using Larry Brom's To the Sound of the Guns Napoleonic rules (slightly modified), and th eGerman East Africa game was played with Jay Stribling's 20mm figures using a set of rules by Tom Dye of Game Figures, Inc., which Jay slightly modified. Even though I was soundly beaten in the ancient game, on the defeated side with the Isabelistas, and was the one success in a German defeat in East Africa, the gaming was enjoyable and, most importantly, FUN! Battle reports will be available for all these games on our group's web site - The Jackson Gamers .

Well, back to the work grindstone!