Cartington at the Helm

The expedition at the start; Frederick centre-front .

I've used the last week to continue painting up my Sudanes Arab types and to fit in a another adventure into the wilds of Jimland with Cartington leading another expedition. Knowing I had a wedding event to attend (and very good it was too) plus a clinic visit, hobby-time was a bit limited, so I endeavoured to do two hours of painting a day and an hour's play of the Jimland Adventure (the whole adventure taking just over four hours to play out to a conclusion!).
With just over 120 photographs to  go through, crop, photoshop etc. this adventure will have to span over several posts.

From the Journal of Frederick Cartington, in Jimland:

The planned route

"With the success of my leadership in the last venture, I decided to lead the largest, most ambitious expedition that Jimland has ever seen. 
I scooped up the entire available bearers and the six Askari that were available.
Next I convinced Henry to accompany the expedition as Scout and of course Al and Bertie were keen to join us too. With 20 day's of rations, we set of in good mood. 
The plan was simple, we'd retrace our steps to where we first encountered the river  (the Mto Mweusi according to the bearers) and follow it westwards to wherever it took us and as always with an eye on our food supply for the return journey."

Column, ready for the attack (blue circle), 4 slavers bottom right and 5 top right

"Reaching the end of the trail we had forged previously, Bertie informed me he had found a new plant species, which I thought very familiar and in any event I was far more interested in the Slavers Henry had spotted trying to lay an ambush for us!". 
The action was swift and deadly, I devised a plan to form a firing line on the rough ground to our left whilst the bearers made a dash for cover. The Askari would immediately open up on the enemy as and when they could.
By concentrating fire on the larger group of five Slavers  we could demoralise them swiftly."

Four slavers with carefully concealed rifles, rushing through the undergrowth

The slightly larger group of slavers rushing for the cover of the jungle...

...and the Askari facing them

The firing line forms (bottom centre), whilst those that can move out of the stream, skedaddle

 

The Slavers open fire, dropping three Askari,

We return fire with deadly accuracy

The firing continues apace, with another Askari lost, whilst two more Slavers are dropped.

 "The firefight was swift but brutal, we lost three of our Askari, but gave as good as we got, bagging all five of the enemy which seemed to be enough for them as their friends disappeared into the undergrowth very swiftly.
Taking into account our losses we now had more food per man than we started - every cloud etc.
The next day, Henry stated he couldn't find a way through the jungle but I think he's a bit shook up by the experience of the first day.
We get on the move again, going SW then NW, blazing a trail as we arrived in the grasslands.
Over the next two days, Henry once more states he's a bit bewildered by the terrain and can't find a route North.
I now suspect he's definitely jittery and losing it."

"When we finally got going again we encountered another familiar sight of an ancient ruin of some sort, with a village of friendly Natives. The latter don't seem to understand bartering and made off with $3 (the entire cash I had on hand), probably thinking it a gift. Finally we encountered the river and followed it to the Northwest, incidentally encountering a rather bizarre new species of primate."

And if you're still with me at this point, that was the first week of the expedition with three cards indicating "lost", meaning we stayed put, munching away on our rations!
The battle with the was quite tense as they're about as good a shot as the Askari, but our first shots of two '1s' and and a '2 ' helped!

Thanks for taking the time to visit and I hope you've enjoyed this latest adventure into Jimland, even if it's just to look at the pics!
As always your comments, criticisms, questions, queries and anything else are always welcomed (I take brickbats as well as bouquets) are always welcomes and truly appreciated.
More next week folks !

Fuzzies Finished

Nine units of spear and sword.

After four one-hour sessions I managed to shade, touch up, highlight and varnish my Sudanese "Fuzzies". Whilst they're no where near exhibit standard they're at least good enough for my purposes. The final 'session' of giving them a coat of varnish (using a 'lacquer' spray from Wilkinson's) seemed to take forever, and had to happen between showers.

The  skirmish unit of rifles and stick throwers (?)

They're organised into units of twenty figures each with a flag, officer and some have a drummer.
The nine units are then organised further into three groups of three.
All of the above is to fit in with the rules "The Sword and the Flame".

Close up view.

Hard to spot, the dots on the base of  each of these.

I should point out that it's not just the crap photography (as usual) that makes these appear shiny, the varnish has given them a sheen, which I don't mind at all as my Boxers are also in a semi-gloss varnish too.
As these units look identical (save for the skirmishers) I identified each unit by adding one, two or three subtle dots on the rear of each figure as shown in the photograph to the right.
The three unit of each bigger unit also had their flags colour coordinated to the dots.
So that the three green flag units (Rayas) all had green dots; the black flags, black dots and the red flags brown dots as I thought red  would be too harsh.

Figures from the third unit of the green flags

In addition I also put Roman numerals on their bases corresponding to their flags and dots as shown
I did have to swap two flags.over (having glued the wrong ones on), I found two other figures that needed finishing which enabled me to have two foot Emirs.

The other 'problem' was that each unit needed a distinctive leader figure and as I had very few - I gave the figures I used for leaders a distinctive red border to the lower part of their 'dress'. All that remains now is to find a suitable storage space for them, pack them away and forget about them !

The finished mass !

I never manged to get a game in this lass week, something I will redress this week (yes Jimland and yes solo - still no opponent, despite my best efforts to get one.) and in the meantime my paint tray has the one hundred or so Arab types on it, awaiting attention.

So that's it then for this week I hope you've found something of interest in my endeavours to finish off the 200 plus figures (I know that it seems to have gone on forever)\ and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

I've Got Nothing

Boringly sitting on the new carpet

It had to happen, I've had a week where it seems I've got nothing new to  post about.  I haven't got the usual excuses of ill-health, boredom or lack of enthusiasm, as I have been beavering away  painting to my usual regime of at least an hour a day and even the grief shopping trip didn't detract from hobby time.
I saw on Eric-the -shed's blog that 'Lidl' once more have the green carpets in store this last week. The carpets are £6.99 for a very nice chunk of green mat 1m x 2m (about 39" x 78")- so I bought two !
The close up photograph on the right shows a close up with Upsidaisi on his bullock, on the grass mat.
The reverse of the mat has little rubber bubbles for drainage purposes (?) or some such reason, but it does make them very anti-slip.

Obligatory boring picture, showing the whole thing

Two of these would give an excellent 6 foot square (approx) gaming surface and of course one cut in half would be ample for most skirmish games imo.

The 'Arabs on the sorting tray (five units words and spears + unit of rifles - off to the far right)

Ten units of fuzzies 95% done - plus hangers on in the top left

As can probably be guessed, most of my time has been utilised painting my Sudanese Fuzzies and just as I thought they were just about ready for varnishing and having their flags added I spotted quite a few who still needed a few things finished on them. A lot of them still have their necklaces to paint, a few of the Perry minis I have just noticed have small pouches and sack to paint and the few drummers I have need their detailing finished too. 

Close up view to pad out the blog

I also come remembered a few 'new' (second hand) vehicles that I've haven't posted about, so here they are:

A tipper truck

Tipper truck tipping (*yawn)

Tipper truck no tipping ( boring huh?)

Fire truck, slightly more interesting as it's a model I haven't got a version of

Fire truck again (bit boring really)

Police command trailer (with opening door! - but still boring)

Really boring rear view.

Well, that's it then for another week, hopefully next week may seem an improvement in content as I aim to make a big effort to get the Fuzzies finished and maybe an adventure into Jimland fitted in somehow.
If you haven't fallen asleep thus far as always your views and comments are always welcomed and appreciated. 

Cartington takes Charge.

   The explorers - L to R, Fred, Henry, Doc, Al and Bertie.

After the turmoil of having the plumbing done and engineers fixing the central heating my wargaming endeavours have just about returned to what passes as normality.
It was of course time to return to another adventure in Jimland.
After the very successful previous Warton-Cartington expedition, the party was able to afford to outfit the largest expedition to date.

The 'large' starting expedition

Warton and Cartington were both able to expend a point each on one of their 'stats; I chose to bring up each of their save rolls to '15'.
The expedition would have five explorers, five Askari and ten bearers, all of the latter carrying food,
Joining  the expedition were three new Explorers, each with identical stats, a '10' in their respective field; a save roll of '12'; a shoot of '6' and a fight skill of '5'.
 New explorers cost a base $23 (giving 23 points to be spent on the three skills above), plus the cost of their respective field (normally $25), so losing an explorer is an expensive business.

Setting up the terrain for the first acton

One of the 'joys' (read drudgery) of gaming is setting up the game,  terrain figures, etc. in the first place, as I'd had the recent disruption to my gaming activities,this would take longer than I'd normally like - almost as long as the game itself !
So, onto the game itself:

From the journal of Frederick Carrington:

"After a brief sojourn at Jim's Landing I opted to lead our second expedition into Jimland noting that the abbreviation C/W expedition was far more pleasing than the W/C expedition!"

Adding the expedition and terrain

"We were joined by Jonathon Stannington MD, (a medical chap) Professor Alyosius Addycombe (a botanist of note) and  Bertand Balmoral , a Fellow at the Royal Institue of Biology.
My plan was to follow the trail SW to the coast, then follow it along until our food supplies forced us to return by a similar, parallel, slightly  more Northerly route".

"We reached the end of the trail on day one and were set upon by some rather rude Natives that tried ambushing us, but Henry had scouted their position well and we were ready for them!"

The column, rearranged to recieve the the Natives

" Of course we soon aw them off, having formed a firing line on the far bank We did lose an Askari, foolish chap, caught stuck in the mud and unable to free himself."
One of our bearers though also stuck even manged to kill one of our assailants."
"Our firing line took toll on the natives and they ran off. 
The furore of the Melee disturbed one of those large vicious arachnids that seem so prevalent in Jimland, but he took little interest in us and soon scuttled off."

The on-rushing natives (bottom right in case you hadn't noticed)

 "There was a village in the area,  , that the natives had emerged from and Al, even found time to find some new boring plant."

Natives still on-rushing but losing a man

Quite a first day!"









"The next day we discovered that the, by now, usual "Drums in the Night" still managed to scare one of our Askari off - superstitious whatnots."

The melee - Natives lose one man and an Askari falls victim to a club whilst a large spider makes an appearance

Losing another two men to rifle fire, the Natives runaway (top right)

"By day four one of our bearers was found to have been struck down by a fever.  It was decided not to touch any of the ten rations he carried"

And the spider runs off too.

"The next few days, saw Al, being particularly boring, finding another new plant species and Doc Stannington finding a Native snare, much to his chagrin, as he died from the strangulatory effects.
We shall have to see if we can find another Doc."

"There was evidence of an attempt at pilfering one night, but they were probably looking for trade good, of which we had none. The very next day a brush fire erupted in camp, with yet another Askari loses his life
. What is wrong with these chaps ?"

"With food supplies (and Askari) being very diminished, I decided to head for Jim's Landing arriving there 11 days after we had left."

The C-W expedition route.

Playing the game (bar the prep) only took about an hour as there was only the single engagement and overall the expedition achieved abut the same as the previous one, point-wise. (275 point this one; 297 the previous one). The loss of the Doc was a blow, but the other two newbie survivours won't have to be 'paid' for again, so overall a profit was made!
I've  also tried a new format for the write-up - input always welcome.
I still enjoyed the game, but look forward to the time when I have another party (player) for my native forces to pick on!

That's it then for this week, the painting of my Dervish forces goes on unabated and at the rate I'm going, all the 'fuzzies' should be just about finished by next week.

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

Umpoba/Ignosis ?

Umpoba/Ignosis ?

The bathroom and little boy's room are both completed, the central heating is at a very pleasant
temperature throughout the house, we have a new kettle and the stars are once more in the correct alignment.
All of which means that whilst I haven't manged to do a lot this last week, I feel that I have still made significant progress hobby-wise.
Here's a brief resume of what I've currently been up to.
First off I've finished another figure for my adventures  into Jimland (shown right), an Old Glory figure that has finally been finished (after fifteen or so years). I'll probably use him as a special character in a mission in Jimland.

Frontal view

Another view (getting bored yet ?

Rear view (for those that like this sort of thing)

I sorted my Fuzzies into nine units of twenty figures each,trying not to get any duplicate figures in any single unit.

Sorting table -showing six units

The units missing from the above are back on the paint tray, awaiting either, shading highlights or general touch-ups .

Paint-tray (the unit in the top left corner is complete, save for its flag)

Finished unit, except for its flag.

Another view of the unit

Bravely running away (aka boring rear view)

I'm also declaring the single British cavalry unit finished (I could probably do more with it , but I'm bored shitless to death with it.

Horse from Effingham

The horses are all greys (white) because I read that some regiment or other wanted these distinctive mounts in-theatre (even though they turned out to be crap_useless).

The same Effing horse

Obligatory boring rear view.

The Mahidist horse, whom I thought finished, are 99% done as I found when photographing them that I'd missed some bloody bless-ed tassels, but here's a photograph of them anyway

Spot the errors (no prizes)

All the 'completed' units require varnishing and the Mahdists need flags added, which is an easy job as luckily I found the ones I downloaded and printed off from Warflags  (a great site) many, many years ago.

On the Jumland front, now that I have access to my wargame room, I'll be taking another Warton- -Cartington expedition to their doom fame and fortune..

So that's it then from me this week, I hope you've found something of interest on your visit here and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated!

WIPs

    Mahdist cavalry

Since my last post I have managed to do very little other than some painting and even then not finishing the unit of Sudanese that I thought I would have. I've continued painting up bases for figures and painted a lot of detail on the few cavalry that I have for this project.

British Cavalry

I bit the bullet and started painting the few cavalry that I have, then remembered why I dislike painting horses (and cavalry) so much. I keep finding extra bits that need painting, harness, blankets, etc. as well as tiny detail on the riders such as stirrups! The Brits have been almost completed for several weeks (and still are) whilst the Mahdist cavalry have been underway for a mere two weeks and are still not finished!.
All the infantry had taken a back seat for the moment as I really need space (which is unavailable currently due to the continuing work being done in the house) to organise them into units before the next stage of completion.

Camelry - worse than cavalry!

More camels for baggage ffs!

Whilst I haven't lost all interest in my Sudan project (I've even planned the 'final' purchases I need), I have realised the futility of it all, in that I'll probably never get to play a game!
With that in mind I have also returned to a project a started last November, so here's a teaser of wip that had to be put on hold for Xmas.

Obviously it's a building!

I think I've got too used to paying games and I'm having withdrawal symptoms, which, coupled with the kettle blowing up, it hasn't been a good week.
Over the next week, I'll be continuing with trying to get at least one unit finished for the Sudan.

That's it then for this week's offering.