Return to Jimland Prep.

Having now sorted my room out sufficiently to see the table and have a game, I've began preparation for my next excursion (incursion ?) into Jimland. Digging out the old files my expedition now consists of only three Explorers, having lost yet another Leader (Ned) but leaving a vast amount of cash ($470) to furnish a new Expedition.  
The new Leader will be Maximillian Sackville, scout - replacing both the late leader (Ned) and Scout (Ebor).
(Max is on the left in the photograph above).

The Planning Map

The next step was planning a direction for the Expedition to go in search of fame and fortune.
I've identified six areas that imo are viable.
Route one is to the west, with a river crossing and two days travel before a real start.
Routes twp and five have similar aspects as '1'.
Routes 3 an 4 require a single day's travel to their respective jump off points, with four having a vast expanse of the unknown.
Route 6 will take three days o get to, but has the advantage of a river to follow, which scores big ! 

Native cards. - square !

With the amount of cash available I can easily enlist another Explorer, have the full complement of bearers and the remainder personnel can all b  soldiers, which will leave a fair bit of cash in hand for interaction with any friendly locals that may be encountered.
As part of the preparation, along with my new Event cards which I'll be using I've also made cards for Native encounters, taken directly from my encounter chart.
Notice the differences and similarities of the cards/ I've altered a few to give a little more variation, but nothing game changing.
If I manage to finish off any pack animals, I'll be using them in this expedition too.
Pack animals cost the same as six bearers and carry the same number of loads and require another bearer to handle them- so where is their advantage ?
The advantage of course is that they don't add another six bearers to the maximum number of bearers allowed (20). So, two pack animals carrying 12 loads, with a handler (bearer) each, is the equivalent of 12 bearers counting only as two, leaving space for another 10 bearers.
 I've been spending a lot of time working on rules (of course), completely re-hashing my ammunition rules and coming up with a huge problem with canoes that needs some deep thought too.

In other News:

A while ago I posted about my card building that I've used for my 7YW games (and a single one for the ACW) and came across this site.
A dozen or so models similar (if not identical) to some of the ranges I used all those years ago !

All the models featured are Pdfs and are free to download too !










 
 I also came across this photograph I took a while ago (probably  for some rant about scale).
They are from L-R (as advertised at the time) 25mm figure (unknown origin)
25/28mm Hinchcliffe
25/28mm RSM (originally from Vandrad)
30mm (!) SAE (originally from Spencer Smith)
Unfortunately I couldn't find my Minifig figure (a 25S) which approximates well to the leftmost figure).
Goodness knows how the recent crop of huge figures compares to these, but the RSM figure is beautifully proportioned s is the rather bland SAE figure.

That's it then for this week, one in which I haven't been particularly busy, but still sufficiently motivated to prepare for another Jimland adventure.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, hopefully something here was of interest and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Return to Jimland

With an unprecedented burst of enthusiasm, I've
been doing a lot of preparation for more adventures into the wilds of "Jimland" ("where anything can happen").
The "Jimland" rules have been given most of my attention, even though there is nothing wrong with them to begin with. I've been heavily influenced by other, older, rules that went with into more variety for expeditions.
So what have I come up with?
Firstly I haven't substantially changed any of the original Jimland rules, but rather I have been adding to them , always with the thought that whatever I add must be simple and in a similar style.

An Old Glory figure that was repaired

A lot of the ideas come from the old Avalon Hill game "Source of the Nile" - an excellent game but overly complicated and not intended for miniatures.

The staff had broken off at the hand

Here's a few of the things I've expanded upon:

Several new Explorer Skills, Ethnologist, Reporter, Trader and a few new bearer types, a Guide, gun bearer, muleteer and teamster.
New things to purchase:
Medicines for Doctors to get a +1 to their skill.
Express rifles (Elephant guns and large calibre rifles)
Two and four and canoes
Ammunition.

To expand the distances into the vastness of my Jimland map Ive added the ability of Missionaries, Doctors and the new Trader  to establish posts, all of which have slightly different uses. So expeditions have the ability to establish friendly places in Jimland, namely a Mission, a Hospital and a Trading post.

I like him much more, now he's whole.

None of my changes and additions are game changing imho, as every benefit has a drawback, be though it slight.
It seemed strange to me that water wasn't considered in the rules, especially in deserts, so I added some very simple rules  for water consumption, but as they only apply in desert conditions then they would be enacted often.
Treasure is also mentioned in the rules, but never expanded upon so I've added rules for it.
Loot is considered as Treasure, but is a full load for a bearer, distinguishing Treasure as small items (10 to a full load), means an Explorer can carry more loot.
Caches are another simple rule I added (with most of the ideas coming from SotN), it's advantages are that bearer loads can be left in the wilds to be picked up later, but with a small chance that they won't be there on returning to it.

New Event cards and maps ready for new Expeditions.

The  work on the rules has been (and is still) ongoing for a few weeks but I've also made some new Event cards. There are 100 cards in the game, but mostly for my own amusement I've added another thirty and have another thirty ready to photocopy, laminate, cut and corner (with my excellent corner cutter).
The new cards have the usual good, bad and indifferent ideas that help hinder or just give the players a decision to make.
(You may be able to make out some of the cards' script if you click and enlarge the photograph)

The completed cards

So when is the next adventure then ?  My games room is almost ready for use, the table is almost clear of debris and I have little more to do in preparing for another Expedition into Jimland. The rules are good as they are and I don't have to use any of the new ones, so I reckon in the next week I'll be back on track for a game.

That's it then for this week, I hope you've found something of interest and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

ACW, Cavalry Wagons and more (FA#12)

   Hawkin's Zouaves (A NY regt. iirc)

This post concludes my ACW collection, revealing what was in the five trays that featured in last week's post. Beware it's photo-heavy, but I've parred it down as much as possible.
It's quite possibly not all my ACW collection, but it is all I can readily lay my hands on!
There was yet more Infantry, though none painted by me !

Nine more regiments of Infantry...

... and broken flags identify them as 1st Corps (maybe)

Divisional Co and three Brigadiers

Union casualties...

...lots of Union casualties

Union Cavalry Regt (unnamed)...

...with some dismounts too !

Horse holders are occasionally needed too

Here's the whole Brigade (only the one it seems) - note the broken guidons

More cannon, one with loose barrel.

A couple of pontoons, foreground Confederate, background Union

One of two trays of Confederate cavalry, before photographing.

Two regiments of Confederate cavalry, in surprising good condition after their 'fall from grace'

Cavalry dismounts...

...and their horse holders.

The rest of the Confederate cavalry - two brigades of four regiments each.

 Confederate brigade CO. and a couple more casualties

Wagons, mostly intact

The rest of the wagons, all with various damage

Bits and pieces, men carrying sacks, one with a shovel, a metal tent etc.

Two limbers, probably for "Pony Wars"

Some bits (mostly officers) that I'm pretty certain I didn't paint !

And of course the miscellaneous finds and misplaced bits

Indian mutiny deserter and another home-cast Pirate cannon.

Gorilla, very useful for "Jimland - probably an "Irregular"

And that, dear reader, concludes my ACW (though I'm pretty sure I should have more)
I was pretty gutted to find how devastated the Wagons were, but it's all pretty much superficial damage and would be easily fixed - if I could be arsed.

In other news....

I've been pretty busy hobby-wise (Shock, Horror), but nothing too drastic as I've mostly been tidying up my games room and re-writing my additional rules for Jimland, making cards etc. - Generally preparing for more expeditions into the wilds of Jimland once more (sadly though more than likely solo).  I'm also trying to add to my list of Tribal names and failing miserably, so suggestions are are still wanted.  Any names are welcomed, but along the lines of the "Umiguli" rather than "Axe Breakers" etc..

That's it then for another week, next week's post will be equally boring as I'll probably post more specifically about what I've been doing for Jimland!

Thanks for taking the time to visit and  your comments, as always are both welcomed and appreciated.

ACW - The Union VI Corps (FA#12)

   1st Division, 1st Brigade's 1st New Jersey.

To face my Confederate Corps, I have the Union Army of the Potomac's VI Corps, chosen simply because their 3rd Division Commander was my surname's namesake - Newton!
Little did I know at the time that it turned out to be the largest Corps in said Army, consisting of 3 Divisions, rather than the usual two to a Corp, with each Division having three brigades, each of four Regiments, making a force of some 36 regiments.

The entire 1st Brigade, of the st Division

As per my Confederates, the entire Corps is a mix of figures from many manufacturers including Irregular, Skytrex, Stone Mountain and Old Glory. All are 15mms and at this 'scale' differences in sizes are minimal.
Unlike the  Confederates, my Union force has two figures to represent the Brigade command as well as the Divisional Command.

Divisional flag (3rd iirc) with a Brigade pennant.

The Union Forces had flags for each Brigade, coloured according to the Division and Brigade, with the Corp emblem. Sadly only a few of my Brigade pennants have survived the many years of play, their flimsy lead flagstaff proving inadequate. There are a few that did survive though and if iirc they're all "Irregular Minis" that have more robust casts.
Divisional flags are square standards, whilst the Brigade  flags are triangular pennants.
The photograph on the right shows many of the pennant now awol from their bearers.

Again, Corps command with Swallow tailed guidon.

Corps command

Again, Corps command with Swallow tailed guidon.

Like the Confederate forces, the Union gunners are individually based  and many could easily be used as civilians too (note the chap in the front centre right of the photograph to the left.
The Union Corps generally have 1 artillery battery to a brigade plus reserve artillery.

62NY (Iirc)

As the Union artillery is identical in most respects to the Confederate ones, artillery is inter-changeable and I reckon most of the Union artillery has been mixed with my Confederate forces.
Unlike a lot of gamers I didn't "cherry-pick" the more interesting Union (or confederate) units, eg. Berdan's Sharpshooters, Rush's Lancers etc. Though my Corps did have a few welcome diversions from the Dark blue tunic and sky-blue trousers of the majority., namely two Zouave regiments, the 95th PA and the 62nd NY.

95thPA, with two of my broken Colours (I don;t know which their's is)

Another "interesting" unit - it has dark blue trousers ! (I'm easily pleased)

All the Union casualty figures that were in the drawer !

Possibly a Cavalry Brigade Commander

With only two casualty figures present, the Union casualties must be elsewhere, but there was a random commander figure, probably someone well-known that I have now completely forgotten to the passage of time.

Here's the whole drawer of my Union Forces

The five remaining trays of my ACW forces !

 I still have five trays that afaik contain more of my ACW collection, Cavalry (almost certainly), the union casualties (hopefully) and all the many wagons  that have to be somewhere !

 In other News:

I seemed to have found some enthusiasm for the hobby once more (had to happen sometime) , but I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for a battle or aar report anytime soon.
I've simply been re-visiting my rules for Adventuring in Jimland, trying to finish off the various rule ideas that I thought were either missing, needed or I think would add to the game. 
 I've added a couple of new Explorer skill types - Trader and Ethnologist and I'm still working on a third (Journalist and/or Photographer); rules for Wagons, canoes, water, ammunition (still to be finalised) and new posts - Trading, Mission and Hospital. Any suggestions for Native tribe names would also be appreciated - I have over two dozen - mostly very silly and juvenile - and would like to double that number ! As I've written in my new rules "Who wouldn't like to discover the Umiguli tribe of Pygmies ?"
If this newly found enthusiasm keeps going then it may be that I'll be returning to Jimland !

That's it then for this week, thanks for visiting and I hope that there was something of interest and of course your comments, as always, are both welcomed and appreciated.