British Grenadier Deluxe Edition by Eclaireur

I've finally got my hands on it and to say I'm impressed with the new deluxe edition of  British Grenadier would be a huge understatement! In my opinion it's the most beautifully made wargames book I've seen to date and the one I just bought isn't even the gentlemen's edition! I felt I didn't deserve that as I tend to not treat my wargames books with the best of care. However, had I known just how nice this was going to be I might have reconsidered and gone for the gentlemen's edition in spite of my dodgy handling of books.

On to a little description. The cover is hardback made in a lovely glossy deep brown with a fine cursive script featuring the now famous British Grenadier of the previous rule set. The inside jacket and  pages use an aged Betsy Ross Star Spangled banner as the background rather then just plain white. The pages are of high quality and superb binding from what I can observe.

The book is lavishly illustrated with inspiring full coloured pictures of figures, battle scenes, drawing and painting. Many fine figure painters work is featured in the book , but a large percentage of them are by Giles Allison whom I consider to be the foremost figure painter of this period and who's body of work in terms of scope and standard of excellence sets the bar. He's the main reason I started the period and blogging a few years back and I strongly recommend visiting his blog at
 http://gilesallison.blogspot.com/
Basically, the format and presentation of the entire book just exudes period feel like nothing I've seen and makes you feel like humming Yankee Doodle as you read it!

British Grenadier is set in the American War of Independence and can be played in several scales from 6mm to 40mm with 28mm and 15mm being the most common.  Basing is generally multi-figure with an average of 4-6 infantry per base and 2 cavalry if at all present as this war was dominated by infantry with cavalry being a pretty small percentage.

The rules themselves are simulation in nature and quite sophisticated where the author tries to present you with the difficulties of commanding troops in North America and does an excellent job of doing so. They deny you full command of each troop forcing you to use well thought out battle plans and making you judge when to use your limited command options to achieve the best effect. Moving formed bodies of troops was difficult in this theatre and the rules reflect this very well indeed.

This isn't a beer and pretzel type of game as it takes time to develop, but still isn't overly burdensome in record keeping and charts either where a few tokens will cover most of what you need, because of this the game flows very nicely once you have the feel for the rules. It's also not a tournament type of game and is best suited for club play and Demo's as it's mainly centred around historical engagements where scenario conditions decide the victor. British Grenadier already has 3 published scenario books and includes 4 scenario's in the rules themselves to keep you busy a plenty, however if there is something you wish to do not already covered the author gives a guideline on how to do so.

If your looking to get into AWI wargaming then I can think of no other rule set better for this period and I strongly recommend that you should pick up a copy. You can get a copy from Caliver Books http://www.caliverbooks.com/

British Grenadier has a forum that is well supported by a great bunch of  knowledgeable and nice group of gentlemen that will answer most any question you have. They helped me a great deal when I got started(and still do!). The forum can be found here http://generaldebrigade.greatboard.com/viewforum.php?f=13

For those who already own a copy of the previous British Grenadier and don't think they need the deluxe version then think again!! The new version has some new rule changes that reduce arty effect and improve the chance of a successful bayonet assault and a few others, but mainly it's just so well done it's worth it!!!!

I wish I had time to work on some more AWI as I'm now chomping at the bit to do so, but I have a priority project I must complete first. Five star inspiring stuff folks! 





  

Added a page to my blog

I've added a new page to my blog which can be found underneath the heading picture titled Project status for 2011.
I added this so that interested viewers can see what my various projects are that I'm doing for the year and how far along I am in each one which is usually in over my head!!
I think these page additions are pretty nice and quite useful useful. I'll probably add a few more in the future.
Still working on my next unit so no pics yet.

Since posting some have asked after the link to do this. For those interested it can be found here:


http://buzz.blogger.com/2010/02/create-pages-in-blogger.html

Thank you for checking in.:-)

Jinetes

Finally was able to finish this unit as the deadline of mid September is getting closer. It's been hard to keep on track as I keep wanting to drift back into my ACW and start my Arabs for Impetus, but I'm trying to keep focused as time is getting short!
This is a unit of Jinetes who were arguably some of the best light cavalry in Europe during their time in history.
Since the nobles tended to join units of Caballeros I tried to place an emphasis on their status as less wealthy common men who either through preference or lack of monetary means served in the Jinetes. For this reason I left off adding flowing garments that were not modelled on and kept the shields plain and mostly unadorned. Like the rest of the army I kept a Moorish and Christian mix with them.
Even with the faster style I've found it's still difficult to paint cavalry in large amounts, but hey, only 3 more units to go.........gulp!
Miniature Company-Crusader, Artizan, Conquest Miniatures

Impetus Magazine

Lorenzo at Impetus is thinking of doing an Impetus magazine probably in full color pdf to PC format and I would very much like to see this happen.
He is thinking of including in it historical background information which will include army lists, tactics, painting/assembling of Units, event reports, tutorials, clarifications plus probably more.
If like me you would also like to see this happen then visit the forum underneath this topic and voice your support!

http://impetus.forumsland.com/impetus-about2744.html

For me Angus McBrides Vikings celebrating comes to mind at this possibility!:-)

Saladin and the Ayyubid dynasty for Impetus

I've recently purchased a large amount of Legio Heroica's fantastic Muslim range for the Crusades. All the miniatures from this company are superb and probably the best 15mm I've ever seen. This is my first planned Impetus based army and I'm looking forward to doing it in between my El Cid and ACW projects.

This project idea started when two of my friends(Mixer and Jadwig) started collecting this range with Mixer collecting The Kingdom of Jerusalem Crusader army and Jadwig Fatamid Muslims. I was very interested in the miniatures, but not the rules they planned to use which was Fields of Glory which I personally find to be as much fun as watching paint dry on a damp day. So, I declined to start any armies for it until..............IMPETUS came along! These rules I found to be very exciting and this was the motivation I needed and so I set about convincing my friends to change the rules from FOG to Impetus.

Since I already own a Viking/Saxon and Norman armies for FOG(hence my experience at FOG) I blew the dust off them and invited my friends into giving Basic Impetus a try using these armies that only required a few very easy modifications to use. After two games Jadwig is on the fence and Mixer likes it and I'm very, very happy with the rules. This weekend we have a planned 300pts normal Impetus game on the blocks and with the additional rules I believe there is a good chance to swing Jadwig the rest of the way over the fence and further grab Mixer's enthusiasm.

The catch is that when they give a FOG a try I agreed to also participate so they can decide between the two systems. My fingers are crossed that they won't like FOG(Really, really hoping they don't!) and decide to remain with Impetus.

I really like Legio Herico's Crusader Kingdom range, but since I already have a Norman army that can easily be used as Crusaders I thought it more prudent to collect Saladin's Muslims first which is hardly a chore as these are just as equally superbly done and I'm also going to have fun with all the color and not to mention they can fight either of my friends armies or join Jadwigs Fatamid's and battle the Crusaders!

My approach will be to emphasize strong colors, clean painting and keep the intricate designs on clothes and such under raps as the effort doesn't pay out at 15mm. I want the army to look very vibrant and colorful on the wargames table and so I'm hoping to pull it off.

Not surprising I'm a huge fan of the film Kingdom of Heaven!

Thanks for reading

Caballeros

Here is my next unit for my El Cid project that's due for an event in September. A unit of Christian Caballeros(includes both nobles and common knights).
Once again AP with highlights added afterwards. All shields and banners are completely hand painted. Like the Caballeros Hidalgos I modelled on some following robes to really emphasize their Spanish/Moorish background and mixed in Moorish figures to take it a step further.
These Caballeros use the over arm attacking technique and therefore are more suited for exploiting gaps in enemy lines unlike the Caballeros Hidalgos which use force of direct assault to break enemy lines. To reflect this I kept the unit standard a small banner in keeping with their need for quick assaults when a gap opens.
I also included the Crusader El Cid figure that I painted up as a bishop to give the unit some inspiration. He of course is the one with a cross on his shield.
Thank you for viewing.
Miniature Company-Perry,Artizan,Crusader,Conquest Miniatures

Hail Caesar

I gave this opinion on the WAB forum and thought I would share it on my blog.
I've been reading HC and so far my opinion is.......I'm impressed! I like the mechanics of the game, orders and blunders mechanism, and the ability to design battles and armies as you see them reflected in history. It does require an emphasis on game building which I find very nice.
While I do enjoy points driven gaming(WAB, Impetus etc.), I equally enjoy the freedom to design armies and battles free from points limitations to better reflect a more historical gaming experience(simulation gaming in other words HC ,F&F BG etc.)where battles were seldom fair and therefore requires one to design scenario goals and objectives to level the field rather then abstract points.
An interesting point about HC is it's geared towards multiple players that can be played with just 2 players while most other systems are designed for 2 players that can be played with multiples. This should not be over looked as large battles will run very smoothly with HC as that's it's comfort zone and requires very little adjustment.
This type of gaming is ideal for club/group gaming or demo games. If your a little weary of the tournaments and want to try a change of pace then Hail Caesar is something to try.
Generally it's designed for large games due to the high figure count, but will still work with moderate sized armies.
If your a small sized collector say in 10mm or 15mm this system will actually give you the rule set to take advantage of large collections that you otherwise couldn't fully use them all and for the 28mm gamer a chance to really pool a lot of miniatures together with friends and not worry if you have too much as the rules allow for adjustments in scenario's and unit capabilities to help off set any large disadvantage to one side or the other.
If your looking for absolute fair then this isn't for you, but if your looking to just play your miniatures with some freedom and let history design your armies then I really recommend HC.
Another point is I really like Impetus and HC easily accommodates the basing which is nice. I'm a huge fan of Impetus basing, but was always concerned it made playing other systems difficult, but not so with HC thus any army I base for Impetus I can use with HC as well which avoids any army becoming to narrow in possibilities.
Also, I heard Rick has published some lists in the yahoo group. I personally hope that's as far as it goes and no more lists are added or ever published. Lists will eventually replace players freedom and in the case of HC I think that's not a good thing. Many games have lists and that's good, but I also like games without them and so I hope HC avoids this.