Category Archives: Skirmish

Always The Last To Know?

Aircraft & Vehicles, Miniatures, Skirmish, World War II

The good news is that this isn’t another relationship situation.  The bad news is that it looks like the Tanks! franchise has been discontinued.    No posts in quite a while and no merchandise in the store.

While I use the less expensive Zvezda models, I did enjoy checking out the site for scenarios and information.  I guess I will go over to Flames of War for news updates.

Meanwhile, I continue to build up my late war Germans in anticipation of creating some urban combat scenarios.  Here’s the latest additions.  One more traunch of kits to finish up for a representative set of both German and Soviet AFVs.

 

 

And Another…..

Colonials, Miniatures, Skirmish

Finally got on it and finished up my four remaining The Sword and The Flame (TSATF) figures.

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The quality of today’s sculpting is so much better than these Minifigs from the early ’80s.  No comparison.  And, the newer figures are so much easier to paint acceptably.  With these old guys, it’s fairly grim work for a pedestrian painter like myself.

The problem now is whether or not I buy some more Boxers.  I have too many Europeans, and TSATF rules call for fairly large units.  If unit size is reduced, the CRT results distort, and I’d rather not make even a simply adjustment to it.  But, even though old and poorly sculpted, 25mm Minifigs are not cheap.

I’ll keep scouring E-Bay and The Miniatures Page for cheap recruits.

 

Skirmish Games

Skirmish,

Somehow became enamored with skirmish games while finishing up my TSATF miniatures.

What ensued can only be described as a “frenzy” of rules purchases.  Learned a lot.  First off, what the hell is a skirmish game.  Here is one thread that, I guess, covers the bases.

Played Fistful of Lead and enjoyed it.  But I wanted something different than Wild West gunfights.

I already had one other set of rules, and it is supposedly the first set of skirmish rules published…. OK, maybe the Wild West rules came first.   I bought the Featherstone rules a long time ago, but played only a couple of times.

After playing one session – more on that in another post – I decided to explore other options.  The next thing I knew, I was falling into the vortex of the Wargame Vault.

Just click, pay, and download……it’s painless.  With that, and some research, I accumulated a number of titles in a very short time.

As the BGG thread indicated, there is variety out there.  I’ve concluded the rules break down into either individual figure or small unit games, with the accompanying amount of character development varying by scale.  The individual figures have capabilities and special skills.  These attributes cost points to help create a balanced game.  Also, some rules are for the pre or early gunpowder periods, with others following the evolution of firearms.

A listing of early rule sets, but with an emphasis on board games, can be found here.

That being said, I’m to start working through my early period rules, using my Warhammer skirmish figures and “combat town”.  I’ll post up the sessions.