The Priest

I picked this fellow up at the Huzzah "yard sale. "  I do not know who made him but the paint job is quite good (if not my style) I did some highlights on his face and hands but other wise left him as is. 

He'll find himself in various armies from the Dark ages through the 18th Century... perhaps beyond one nice thing about monks robs they never go out of style.

En Garde! at Sea (2)

So gamers see stuff and we get ideas some times those ideas are great and other times they needs some work.  My friends and I love En Garde! and Swashbuckling movies make us think "pirates" so naturally we want to take the game to sea.  We did this once before  and it was a lot of fun so went bigger taking ship to ship combat form On the Seven Seas and grafting it on to En Garde! With out further adiue here is last nights game (Don't worry I'll tell you what sort of an idea this was latter).

My Galley was manned for the first time and wow it looked cool and crowded!

 I had Will with me and Mike and Dave were.  Dave and Mike (the English) had to break through out blockade to bring vital supplies to a port (off board).  I told will to go after Dave (his Dad) since I knew that was what he would do any way.  My Job was to stop Mike and his scurvy crew of English pirates.

 Mike tries a ranging shot that flies wide.  I hold my fire the first turn waiting for the ships to close.

 Turn 2 I try a shot so I can reload with grape for close action!

 Dave and Will are closing and sniping at each other with muskets and bows (Will has a Native American crew

 Dave maneuvers to the middle, Will pull along side and then throws grappling hooks. Dave takes a shot at my Galley but the shot flies high as my surgeon priest, gives thanks to god for our deliverance.

 Mike tries to cut the grapples on Dave's ships with a musket shot but misses (we improvised some rules for this Hollywood move).

 Will has gotten one boarder across...

 then a second and hand to hand fighting commences

 Dave managed to overwhelm the initial boarders and then cut the grapples

 I successfully ram/grappl

e Mike lets go with a blunder buss but cover and armor prevent him doing much damage.

  My men open up with a volley of fire and a hot of gape.  I only killed one man but Grievously wounded several others. My retaliates with grenades that stun several of my men but armor save me from grater damage.

 Then Alatriste and the pike men move down the ram/boarding ramp.  My responds with a furry of pistol and Musket shots. Alatriste falls into the sea having been the target of 5 or more shooters! Meanwhile Dave and will have broken off into a separate game as Dave breaks the grapples and maneuvers for the table edge

 My Pike men surge forward!... as Dave makes his escape after Will's last cannon shot fails to sink him.

With more troops moving in to board Mike decides to strike his colors.   We had fun but the number of figures was too tedious.  Also En Garde!'s each man move a figure in priority sequence got awkward with ships, I think we need a simpler method  we can use until the ships grapple or get very close. Back to the drawing board regarding the rules.

War Galley for En Garde! (10) Sail

Just a brief up date.  I have finished the mast and Sail for the Venganza De Montoya

 Got to use my reenactor sewing skills on this one... not the best job but fairly functional

I used string to lash the masts together, hopefully this combined with super glue will holdup to the riggers of gaming. The thread down the center lets me "furl" the sail if I am moving strictly with oars. I may not do actual oars as they would seem problematic on the gaming table. Any thoughts on a good way to do oars?

War Galley for En Garde! (9)

So last time you saw I had added some paint.  Well several additional coats have gone on here and it really is starting to look battle ready.

 The business end of the Galley with its cannon and fighting platform red seemed the prefect color and was used in a number of historical images.  The "decals" were created by Michas Figuren A great blog with lots of images of heraldry.  Michas was nice enough to let me use his images and a few minutes with the cut and past tool and I had plenty of ornamentation for the pavisade (row of shields) of the galley.

 These aren't really shield they are bulwark of the ship but I understand this is the term that was used.  I had a minor mishap were the spar of my main sale broke off.  I think I have a solution that will make it stronger in the future.

I am thinking the  la Venganza De Montoya will see action for the first time Thursday.  I'm not quite done yet.  I need to do some decoration around the quarter deck windows and I want to build some sort of awning to shelter the officers back there... Rank has it privileges 

Mr. Mac

Charles McNamee (Mr Mac to us kids) was the best teacher I never had.  That is I never had him in the class room.  I got to know him as a freshman riding his bus and that meant hes was an obvious man to turn to in the Math/Science study hall when I needed help.

 I really got to know him my Sophomore year when the Xavarian Astronomy club was founded.  He was our Faculty leader and I spent many afternoons watching documentaries on the big bang, space exploration, and astrophysics.  It was perfect for me as someone who a great interest in the subject but for whom higher math was a challenge. He also took us to lectures as MIT and the Boston Museum of Science.  This included a memorable night where we met Jim Lovell... I can still remember Mr Mac's over the moon (see what I did there) excitement when he hear Lovell's voice form off stage.  "That's him! I know his voice I heard it on my TV as a Kid, from Space! You don't understand what heroes these guys were to us!!!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm any rock band groupie might have echoed.  I think Mr Mac loved astronomy because it combined all three of his great passion God, Science and the students at Xavarian Brothers High School.  Mr. Mac was a monk a theologian, a scientist. He taught Math, theology and science.  He also coached Basket ball for a while.

He was also a Blogger I wish I had know this before yesterday... 

Mr. Mac died Friday, the last time I saw him was in 01 or 02 I can't really say for sure. I wish I had kept in touch but I won't dwell on that except perhaps to learn form it as he would have wanted. There is a line that always made me think of Mr Mac "Faith and Reason are the shoes on your feet you'll get further with both than you can with just one."  The line is from Babylon 5 and I think it fits Mr Mac perfectly.

Sudbury Faire 2016

An annual right of fall is the Regiment Saintonge's participation in the Sudbury Companies of Minute and Militia's annual Fife and Drum muster called the "Sudbury Fair"

I brought my collection of 18th century sword and with a couple borrowed form Dana(an officers Eppe) and Jess(a Briquet) I had more than enough shiny pointy object to take about. You can also see an Eppe Soldat, two examples of small swords, a cup hilt rapier a plug bayonet and two socket bayonets.

Jess did her Soldat on a blanket display all the personal gear an individual solider would carry in addition to his musket.

My Friend Dean who you might remember made the bottle openers for my grooms men was across form us pounding on the forge. 

We picked up some new tent stakes for the regiment. Check out Deans website if you need iron goods. Rock Village Forge

Here we see the men of Sudbury just before the tussle with the visiting redcoats (normally there is a battle but we had too few men available on both sides for it this year).

Dana has been working on one of the French Backpacks we have become know for.

Jess Entertains and educates a young fellow on the subject of French uniforms.

War Galley for En Garde! (8) Finally some paint

As you can see I have started adding paint the dexs and ram are a reddish brown and the defensive walls are red, don't want to show the blood

As you can see a few areas are going to need multiple layers but that is expected.  The wood absorbs paint more than the lead and resin I normally use but it seems to be working well so far.

I'm very happy with how the cannon is looking.

Saga Dawn Attack Norse-Gaels vs Skraelings

John Set up another great game of Saga for us.  Once again he used the Skraelings and I was running my Norse-Gaels.  We did the Dawn attack scenario on here you can see the situation just after the first clash of arms.  Some units are represented as markers creating a semi hidden movement system that worked really well (So well I may steal it for other games).  My Javelin armed warriors got in a good shot on John and then a set of Great Ax armed Heathguard hit them and drove them back.

A fairly good start to the game.

John however has been stealing/blocking my abilities Slaughter and Howling axes are gone.

More natives are unmasked...

as my Warlord and Heathguard advance.

John uses his battle board to buff the unit and allow them to charge out of the woods at full speed! The exchange is bloody  4 of my Heathguard go down and ten of Johns warriors fall.. then the second force of warriors and the enemy war lord charge in...

Only the War lord and one Heathguard still stand.

So Naturally I charge issuing the "Who's Next" challenge I will the first one then john decides to sacrifice three men to get to the real combat.  I kill another in that battle getting 5 men for my own (and making an end worthy of a song).  

After John had a bad time with shooting I launch two attacks.

I eliminate one 4 warriors unit and kill two in another.. losing two warriors myself.  John could probably have rushed my warlord but doesn't.

My Heathguard launch a final attack I lose one many but kill three

My Javelin armed men focus on the warlord taking two shots but fail to get enough hits for a kill though they do take down a few additional warriors.  In the end I killed 19 points worth of Johns men (14 warriors and three levies plus 4 for two hidden movement markers).  I lost 26 points 11 Heathguard and 4 warriors.  John thought he was losing most of the game but when we added up the points he had a clear victory over me.  The higher quality of my men is a two edged sword.

Alatriste's Hidalgos: The Grandee

This is a fine 17th Century officer from one of the Warlord command packs.  its a gret figure but the stance made me think of a man striking a pose... perhaps to dispatch an enemy who is tied to a stake or something.  The helmet in his hand lead me to think that despite the pistol in his hand he was not in danger. So I added a shield to the base to increase the impression that he is unconcerned with his safety, rightly or wrongly.

I bought him to be Alvaro de la Marca from the Alatrieste books. Alvaro is the second Count of Guadalmedina, Grandee of Spain. A former soldier who had is life saved by Alatrieste at one point they have since developed friendship to the extent their very different social classes allow. Alvaro uses Alatrieste to take care of difficulties that require direct action and Alatrieste views Alvaro as the last ace up his sleeve when his work get him in political situations above his head.  Alvaro and Altrieste eventually find themselves in conflict over the affair with the Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet. Alvaro is also know for his poetry, his skill at cards, his pursuit  of ladies both high and low and connections with the very highest of society.

In addition to standing for Alvaro it could work for any number of higher rank figures that find themselves nominally in command over the brave captain and his band.  I haven't worked out game stats for him yet and will post those when I have