Tag Archives: 15mm

15’s, Xyston Miniatures and return to DBA

I am a 28mm guy. I made the move to a larger scale years ago. I started out with 15mm Napoleonics and ancients. I admired 28’s but 15’s were smaller took up less space and most importantly were cheaper and that was my preferred scale well into the 90’s. I did play DBA and had lots of armies that I ultimately gave away to a friend. Though I did paint a bunch of 12mm WWI figures five or six years ago, the rules were a loser and they are sitting unloved (but painted) on a shelf in my garage. But in the spring after a podcast with Chris Leach I decided to challenge myself by taking on a massed battle project.

I’ve decided a set of rules to shoot for are Chris’ Control to Catastrophe rules. There is some prep for just leaping in to these. i need a gridded game board which should not be a big deal. Of course I need figures too. I’m doing 15mm figures rather than 28’s. I just didn’t want to deal with the larger figures and the larger space that would be required.

In order to get started, I decided I would start with a somewhat smaller project and those would be DBA armies. I played a lot of DBA 2.3 in the early 2000’s and enjoyed it. We’re really fortunate that there is a very active DBA community in the Seattle area led by Paul Hannah and Andy Hooper. I’ll just speak for myself here. DBA is not a super exciting game. Although the 3.0 version is more interesting than earlier versions. But Paul and Andy always keep it fun and positive. They help anyone new or experienced become a better player and I really like that. They also compile statistics on every DBA game played in the area, and keep track of the performance, not of the players, but the various armies. As a baseball person, I think that’s really fun.

I had many (like 30) DBA armies some time ago. They were all mounted for version 2.3. At some point I just stopped playing. I think I was moving on to other 28mm projects. DBA stopped being a thing in Tacoma, and they just took up space. I passed them along to Mark Wensnahan and he’s used them for a variety of different things, including DBA. At our monthly gatherings at Wizard’s Keep, DBA is a regular thing. DBA goes on all day,and often players will finish the bigger games they’ve opted for and march right over to the DBA table for a game or two. Without wanting to step back and do the DBA thing again, I just kept on keeping on.

Then Steve and I interviewed Chris Leach on the Pod and I vowed to do a massed battle game using his Control to Catastrophe rules. I decided to focus on armies from the Peloponnesian War, so hoplite armies. At Enfilade, I asked my friends working the Bring and Buy to keep their eye out for any of the Xyston Hoplite armies and lo and behold I ended up with Spartans and Thebans. I ordered the Xyston spears to go with the little men and the Little Big Man shield transfers and around the middle of July made the time to paint some DBA armies.

The Spartans ready themselves for their first game!!!!

I wish there was lots to report on. The figures are smaller than I’m used to but relatively easy to paint. I like the detail on the minis but there is the extra hassle of the separate spears and shields. The first batch of hoplites I tried to paint with the shields glued on. Mistake. I struggle a bit with the shield transfers. They’re easy to use but difficult for me to center. I bought the Spartan Lamda and Theban club transfers but decided it was just a lot easier to paint those on. The Xyston figures will always offer their own challenges. I think the spears will be fine–and damn they’re pointy. The shields are another matter. My three games of play meant re-attaching two shields. Even painting them is a bit of a struggle. I would like to get an Athenian army too, and I might actually try epoxy.

Spartans vs. Achaemenid Persians.

I completed the Spartans first and was able to get them into a few games in August. I played a couple of games with Andy and one with Paul. It was fun. The 3.0 rules are just a lot different. The Spartans don’t offer a lot of options and they aren’t very maneuverable. But if they can get hold of you they are unpleasant. But they’re mostly just guys with spears.

Getting ready to unleash the Spartans on Paul’s Persians. The best part of playing games is spending time with good friends.

Last week I finished the Thebans. So the first two DBA armies are done. I have the Alans, a dark ages steppe army that has the virtue of playing across lists 2, 3, and 4. I’m not in a hurry to paint them up, and expect I’ll work on them in November.

These is my Theban army, again Xyston figures with some Little Big Man shield transfers, though I hand painted the Club of Herakles on the Theban figures. Some other shield pattern signifies hoplites from an allied city-state.

I’m expecting to play some more and build on toward Control to Catastrophe, maybe by the end of the year. I did order lots of extra hoplites that I’m not in a hurry to paint, but we’ll see.

DBA is not the only 15mm project I’m working on. I actually don’t have many 15’s. I have some pretty 15mm Hallmark Jacobites and British for the First Jacobite War in 1688. They are finished, though I confess I have a lot of leftovers I probably won’t do anything with. I also have a significant number of 15mm fantasy figures I’ll continue working on to complete a Lord of the Rings project. This is a home-grown massed battle project and I’d like to try to play a game of my rules called “The Third Age” before the end of the year.

Burning Hesselberg and What Comes Next

Owen gives me the “Not another project!!” look

About six weeks ago I agreed to host a game at our Drumbeat South gathering at the Chehalis Veterans Museum. It’s a wonderful venue if you happen to be in central Washington heading up or down I-5 to or from Portland. Kind of tucked away, I highly recommend a visit. It’s also a great, affordable venue for a game gathering. NHMGS has taken to sponsoring an event there twice a year and I really like it. Roomy enough, affordable. Food close by. It’s a yes from me.

A few pics I didn’t take of the Chehalis Veterans Museum. It’s an easy venue to like and the meeting space upstairs is first rate for a regional gathering.

The game I’ll be running at the Vets Mu on August 15th is another Take Action game. I guess I know longer think of these as playtests because I’ve sort or adopted them as my rules of choice for semi-skirmishy horse and musket rules. If Chris was to throw up his hands and abandon them tomorrow, I think I’d still play them just because of the options it gives to the players. Simple, easy to run, fun stuff.

I’m running a game I’ll call Burning Hesselberg, and it is another game rooted in the 1777 and beyond “Forage Wars” in New Jersey. These little struggles to control supplies, led to wanton destruction that drove New Jersey firmly into the Patriot camp. The British failed to bring Washington’s forces to a decisive battle and the alienation of the locals led General Howe to pack up and head for Philadelphia via a long voyage into Chesapeake Bay.

New Jersey Loyalists and Connecticut regulars under construction. Hoping the lot is done in the next couple of days.

My scenario is a five player game with three British players running eight units and some wagons. Their goal is to sack a farming village and saw mill that has supported Washington’s forces. They have an interesting mix of troops with quality British dragoons and Hessian jaegers, some Loyalist regulars and Loyalist not-very-good militia. Their job is to torch as many buildings as possible and forage some useful resources for the troops back in Brunswick. The Americans forces, comprised of a mixed force of Continentals and militia is to make their job that much more difficult.

There is stuff to do to get ready. I needed to paint some figures–that I have of course. There were mounted and dismounted British dragoons. I needed more Loyalist regulars. And then there was the matter of some more fairly ratty looking Continentals. Lots of time to accomplish this, except that I volunteered to play test the game on July 25th at Wizard’s Keep, cutting three weeks off my timeline. Even so, things seem to be coming together. I’ve even added a couple more buildings to my meager collection including an Etsy 3D print of a water powered saw mill, I’m calling Sylvester’s mill. Things should be ready for the WK game. The scenario is written and I’m excited to give it a try. I’ll be sure to include a post with photos to fill you in.

This is Sylvester’s

I will be giving the American War of Independence a bit of a rest to pick up something different. I wrote earlier about doing something with the Peloponnesian War. Yes, Greeks, hoplites, spears, those guys. At Enfilade I bought a pair Xyston 15mm DBA armies for Sparta and Thebes. Though I parted with my many DBA armies a few years ago, there is a part of me that’s interested in playing again, and these armies offer an entry point to something larger. But nothing is ever quite as simple as it should be. I need bases and I’m going to avoid painting symbology on those wee, small 15mm shields. The Xyston figures need spears. So all that stuff must be ordered, and I have now done that.

My hope is that I can go ahead and do the 15mm thing without a lot of difficulty and the DBA’s can come together quickly. Then I’d like to move on to something a little more intense and that is using these same DBA figures to play the Control to Catastrophe rules. This game is played on a gridded game board. Of course, I don’t have a gridded game board so I’ll have to come up with one. I think I have something I can use and create a board. Because I’m playing with 15mm figures mounted on DBA bases, I don’t need a big space.

It’s not clear how many more figures I’ll need to do both DBA and C to C, so I’ll have to figure it out. However, I do have enough to start, plus bases, plus spears, plus shield transfers-or at least I will have enough when it all arrives from Mr. Litko, Mr. Xyston, and Mr. Victrix.

Hey I have been doing stuff!!!

Yeow, it’s been a while since my last post.  Mostly it’s because I haven’t had a lot to share, but I have been doing stuff.  Knowing when to post and when not to is always a tough decision to make, but I think it’s important to have something valuable to say.

But I’ve been painting stuff.  I wrapped up the two companies for the Hibernia Regiment from my Louisiana project.  I like them a lot, and they’re fairly easy to paint.  They are RSM figures from the Dayton Painting Consortium, single poses, a unit of fusiliers and a unit of grenadiers.  Unlike most Spanish units they are red, red, red.  Red jackets, red waistcoats, red trousers, red cockades. They have green cuffs but no collars or facings.  Maybe it’s because they are Irish “wild geese.”

15mm Byzantine heavy horse-no horse armor so Belisarian. I think they're Essex figures due to the bendy kontos.

15mm Byzantine heavy horse-no horse armor so Belisarian. I think they’re Essex figures due to the bendy kontos.

I also dragged out some figures from the distant past-or at least it seems that way.  I used to play a lot of DBA.  It’s a game I still enjoy when I’m playing with the right folks, and the guys who play a lot of DBA in the Puget Sound area are a lot of fun.  One of my favorite ancient armies are the Early Byzantines and I’ve owned them several different times.  My very first ancient army was an Early Byzantine army from strip Minifigs 15mm figures and played with the Milgamex Ancient Warfare rules.  I have the earliest of the Byzantine armies (III 4a for those of you playing at home,) but without enough figures for all the CV options.  I also knew I had all the lance armed heavy cavalry figures festering in my garage for about a decade, so I dragged ’em in the house and painted them.  Nothing special, but that’s 21 Byzantine cavalry figures I know longer have to worry about not painting.

I also have a whole bunch of unpainted 54mm figures.  I began this hobby by painting 54mm figures when I was 12 years old.  Not well mind you, but that’s how I started.  Over the years I’ve accumulated a lot of these figures and even larger pieces I hope to spend some time painting.

54mm Abraham Lincoln figure by Imrie Risley.

54mm Abraham Lincoln figure by Imrie Risley.

The first figure I took on was an Imrie Risley figure of Abraham Lincoln.  IR figures are pretty simple and straightforward, though they can be ill-fitting with arms not quite meeting shoulders properly.  The Lincoln figure is simple and straightforward, and the separate arm holding the stovepipe hat fit well with a little filing. The real challenge was making Lincoln a little interesting.  No fancy uniforms with gold braid or outrageous equipage for the Railsplitter.  He wore black.  His hat was black, his hair was black, so the challenge is to give enough shading so there is some contrast. I used a craft (Delta Cermcoat) black and mixed it with gray for shading, though I probably could have just used a commercial charcoal gray.  Just enough to get a contrast in the large, raised areas and the wrinkles.  I used a gloss varnish on his silk hat and didn’t like it.  I may have to look for a semi-gloss. He was known for his tanned face, so I used the Reaper tanned skin and highlights, which worked well.  Just could not seem to get the large, dark eyes, that are deep set.  Don’t think the miniature has these quite right, and I couldn’t quite pick them out.

My next adventure in 54’s will be the old Monogram miniature of an American Civil War Berdan’s Sharpshooter.  I actually painted this figure once upon a time, when I was 14. Painting the figure was fun, and with little extra to do, was fairly easy and fast.

I’ve managed to make it out to a couple of miniatures games.  I played an evening of DBA at the Game Matrix in early January and hope to make it back soon.  Chris Ewick is hosting the games every Tuesday night.  I’m going to try to get out for weeknight gaming a couple of times per month.  I also made it over to Gig Harbor for one of Bruce’s WWII skirmish games.  It was much fun, and I really enjoyed the game and the company.  My goal is to get out more.  Next scheduled game is a walk through of a pair of War of 1812 games on Saturday the 15th.