Huvi Pen

Aelf considered the Huvi.

The Huvi considered Aelf. It's black eyes devoid of emotion. It opened and closed it's mandibles, sensing the grubs in the feed bucket Aelf held. With a burbling coo it scuttled sideways on it's four legs, long neck swaying. 

Aelf opened the gate, shoving another of the creatures out of the way. He quickly closed it behind him before any wandered out into the yard. He felt a pair of mandibles clamp onto the back of his trousers. "Ach! Git off ye wee daftie!" The Huvi scuttled out of range of his boot.

He stuck his hand into the feed bucket and drew out a handful of wiggling grubs and scattered them on the ground. The Huvis cooed with excitement and began jostling with each other to peck at their food. Once the bucket was empty he began looking for clutches of eggs.

His dyna, Dwfwyn, was baking moth cakes for the village fête. It was a bit of fun. Games for the kits. Baking and gardening and livestock competitions among the villagers. Trading gossip in the beer tent with the other farmers. Any money raised went to fix the roof on the Shrine to the Ancestors and support the local crippled veterans.

 

He saw a Huvi standing over a recently laid clutch of eggs. The green balls were in a blob of brown jelly that helped keep them warm and safe from smaller predators. The Huvi trilled at him, scuttling back and forth, it's crest flaring.

He reached into the blob of goo and scooped out a couple of the warm eggs, placing them carefully in his bucket. He reached down for another handful. The Huvi trilled again and crouched, claws pumping up and down. 

Just as it sprang at him, Aelf put his bucket in the way and the beast slammed into it headlong with a loud clunk. "Ach! Ye silly wee beastie!" The Huvi shook it's head and wobbled away. Aelf put more eggs in the bucket.

Close up of the Huvis. Some of them are guarding clutches of eggs.

When he got into the kitchen, he set the bucket on the sideboard. "Was thinkin' I might enter my fried Huvi tenders into the the cookery competition at fête this year. Ye know, tha ones wi' the red cricket batter."

Dwfwyn started breaking eggs into her batter. "Oh aye? wha's brought this on then?"

Aelf thought of the annoying Huvi. "Ach, no reason. Jus' thinking like."

******************************

Back to Quar with a bit of fun terrain. 

The pen is a pig sty 3d printed for me by the Mad Padre a few years ago when he was exploring resin printing. The gate had gone walk about so it's sat on my shelf for a few years while I got around to taking 30 minutes to make a new one out of coffee stirrers. It was printed in two pieces. The straw pile with the fork stuck into it, and then one big piece of hutch, fences and water trough all together.

The Huvis are from the MyMiniFactory Tribe and came in the latest box from Don.

Once I had a plan and everything primed it was completed very quickly, even with waiting for sand to set and gloss varnish in the water trough to dry. I've got some other Quar livestock I should work on too. A game featuring patrols foraging and partisans trying to stop them could be an amusing break from trenches and barbed wire.

Midgard

 

In my on going quest for some satisfying Middle Earth rules, I have purchased Midgard, the exciting new "heroic era" wargaming rules by James Morris (see his Midgard stuff HERE and his Middle Earth stuff HERE) and published by Too Fat Lardies. Find the Lard TV Midgard videos HERE.

I've watched the development of these rules with interest. The 20% off pre-order deal was just too good to pass up on so I jumped on it (especially with the current exchange rate with the Pound).

A nice value added with TFL products is getting the pdf when you purchase the physical book. Normally I am not overly bothered with the pdf. I dutifully save it to all my devices. I will open it to print the Player QRS. And then promptly ignore it. 

Canada Post going on strike while my copy is in transit was a bit annoying. But thanks to the pdf, I can load it onto Mrs. Rabbitman's tablet and get stuck in and start thinking about elves, dwarves, and orcs again. 

There will be a tiny bit of reorganization required, but nothing too onerous. Midgard doesn't use fixed unit sizes. But it does use a fixed unit frontage. Everything is based on the "spear throw". Nominally 120mm, but you can make 80mm a "spear throw" if that works for your armies.

My dwarves already fit nicely into 120mm x 40mm for a unit. Or I might make a spear throw equal to the nice movement trays Don designed and printed for me. I can cut different measuring sticks and see what I like.

Elves and orcs will need some trays. But with everyone being on washers, I can do that easily. 

My Medieval armies are already on 40x40 bases, so 3x stands across will be a unit. Which is 12x heavy infantry or 6x skirmishers, which is how I organized them for Lion Rampant, so no rebasing required!

Midgard might even work with Samurai. The Age of War is starting to get away from the heroic leadership of earlier Samurai wars, but sub commanders still got stuck in.

Could these rules be the "magic bullet"?

We won't know until we try.

Watch this space!

Puddle Pity Party

I notice a lot of folks borrowing trouble over puddle bases.

Some people really get their girdles in a twist over them, going to all sorts of complicated lengths to hide them. 

• Plastic wood
• Spackle 
• Modge Podge 
• Glue and sand
• Miliput or Green Stuff (!$$)
• Sprue Goo (which I gather is plastic sprue dissolved in plastic cement, can you say "hazardous material"?)
• Clipping them off

Yeah, some old miniatures had pretty hefty bases on them, which required a bit of work to hide the cliff face. 

These 15mm 3d printed figures all have rather thick bases. But I think I hide most of them fairly well. 

Nowadays companies put pretty thin puddle bases on their figures. 

So why do the extra step? It seems to me to be a lot of fuss and bother for minimal return. 

And remember, I'm a proponent of "good basing really helps set the figures off."

Unless I'm going for a sandy base, in which case I'll use glue and sand. Otherwise, I just paint brown and use white glue and flock. Of course I like a coarse, multi-coloured flocking mix, because it's more natural. Tactical positioning of tufts or bits of lichen can hide any remaining edges. 

Glue, sand, paint

Extra faff with sand and flock. Is it worth it? 

I guess I'm just getting an unexpected dividend from my elaborate witch's brew of a flocking mixture?

Sure, sometimes you can still detect an edge. But most of the time? If you're staring that hard to see the puddle base, then the game isn't engaging enough. 

Battalions on Parade!

Full battalion with squadron of armoured support

King Raymond fidgeted, tugging at the high, stiff collar of his white dress tunic. Kony, his valet, brushed at his gold encrusted shoulder boards. "Goodness mein Herr! You fuss so! I haven't seen you like this since your wedding day." 

"This collar is very tight."

"That would be Frau Goldstein's strudel. Herr Doktor has advised you about your diet."

Three rifle companies, plus Support Company with Mortar, Anti-tank and MMG platoons. Squadron of Centurions and attached AVRE in the back.

"Doktor Thielmann is a thief of joy."

Kony set the bicorne on his head and carefully adjusted the fall of the magnificent horse hair plume. "Quite so, mein Herr. But your people love you and need you."

With one last look in the mirror and a final tug at the bottom of his tunic, King Raymond turned to the door. A guard dressed in the antique white tunic and bearskin of the Leibgard, but carrying a modern British supplied FN automatic rifle came to attention and opened the door for him.

In the hallway he met his daughter, Gretchen, resplendent in her dress uniform as the inhaber of the Queen's Leibgard Husaren regiment. "You look very dashing pappa!"

"As do you my dear."

Gretchen cocked her head. "Ready?"

"Would it matter if I wasn't? Our American and British benefactors are quite insistent on this show of readiness."

He began walking down the hallway. Uniformed guards taking position in front and behind. Servants opened the big doors and they stepped out onto the steps at the front of the castle. There was a throng of dignitaries, mostly foreign, and a large contingent of foreign press. He was acutely aware of non-descript men on the edges looking out at the crowds and the rooftops.

A voice bellowed "First Fusilier Regiment! Royal salute, preeee-sent ARMS!" Hundreds of feet crunched on the gravel, hands slapped new rifle stocks, swords swept up to the salute, flags unfurled, the band began playing the anthem. Camera flashes went off and film cameras began whirring, recording Mantovia's preparedness for the entire world. Perhaps a photo from the parade might make it into the back pages of Life or Time magazine.

82mm Mortar platoon

He took his time with the inspection, asking questions, looking down weapons tubes, inquiring about the landser's welfare. It was his only way to show he cared. Junior officers and senior NCOs had fretted and fussed for this moment, so the least he could do was to take notice of all their efforts.

The newly mobilized battalion was presented with colours, duly blessed by the bishop. Awards were given for exceptional training.  He had Gretchen help him pin some medals on veterans who had distinguished themselves in the earlier fighting.

Anti-tank platoon

After the parade there was beer and bratwurst for all ranks in the castle gardens. Early tomorrow they'd be heading to the front.

Centurion of Queen's Liebgard Kampfgruppe moves to the frontier

Tartarian Motor Rifles skirmishing

A few hundred kilometers to the east, a non-descript man watched a cobbled square from behind the dingy curtains in the fourth story window of a drab apartment.

Several hundred field grey clad soldiers, with new AK47 rifles across their chests goose stepped past a dais, followed by dozens of new round turreted T-54 tanks.

Battalion of T-54s, Battalion of Motor Rifles

BTR armoured personnel carriers rolled past as well. Some towing heavy mortars.

Three companies of Motor Rifles

"Hmmm... those are new." He focused the telephoto lens on some tanks rolling past sporting long barreled anti-aircraft guns.

120mm Mortar Company

He quickly changed film as another battalion crunched past on the cobbles. He photographed everything he could. Even the most innocent looking truck displayed a change in Tartarian capabilities. 

He would have to get these rolls of film to the dead letter drop this afternoon. A display of military might like this hadn't been seen outside of Red Square and western intelligence services would want to pour over the photos of the new gear. Thank God there weren't any rockets.

Brigade HQ including BTR-152 artillery command post

T-54 battalion and BTR transport behind

While waiting on more Quar I reached a milestone this week and have enough infantry stands completed for each side to field a battalion of three rifle companies, plus supports in O Group or Seven Days to the River Rhine. Or a full company in I Ain't Been Shot, Mum.

The Mantovian battalion is organized like a British or Canadian infantry battalion, with an organic 82mm mortar, anti-tank, and machine gun platoons. For now the AT Platoon is dedicated Carl Gustav teams with some Landrovers. I might get them some metal BAT L1 recoilless rifles after Christmas. But I kind of like trying to keep everything 3d printed too.

To celebrate, Scott ran a game of Seven Days for Patrick, Dan, Brett and myself. I was too busy having fun to take any pictures except these of the table before the boys arrived. Scott brough some allies for each side, so that we had enough for 4 players. My Mantovians ended up facing off against Scott's T-64s, while Patrick command the T-54s against Scott's Canadians with Leopard 1s. I lost 5 Centurions, but we chewed up the Tartarian and Soviet armoured thrusts enough that they lost on Command chits.

 

Marching in Threes to the Crucifixion

Carrying their crosses by the numbers 

they advance by sections, bayonets fixed,

to their muddy Calvary.  

All the shining beautiful youths, 

a perfect innocent holocaust 

offered upon the altar of our sins.

More Troops Mobilized!

Tartarian Motor Rifle Company/Platoon

Mantovian Rifle Company/Platoon

While waiting for more Quar to arrive from Don's 3d printers, I cracked on with another batch of infantry for my Mantovia Cold War project.

Dedicated Anti-tank teams/sections

To keep some balance I did a unit of Tartarian Motor Rifles and a unit of Mantovian infantry. I also did the Mantovian Support Weapons; 3x 81mm mortars, 4x MMG teams, and a couple of Carl Gustav stands for the AT Platoon.

Look closely and you can see the Observer's and the No.2's FNs lying beside them.

Machine Gun Platoon

For the Mantovians, and to retrofit the first unit, I did stands with either a rifleman and a machine gun, or a soldier with a Sterling SMG and Carl Gustav, just for variety and a reminder that the rifle sections/platoons have some organic AT capability.

Rather fast and dirty paint job. But from a couple feet away they look the business

Mortar Platoon with transport

If I go really low scale like Chain of Command, then their presence and exact location will be important.

A section in IABSM, or a Platoon in O Group

The Mantovian Support Weapons didn't make the first shipment. They were in production when Don's resin printer died. This second lot arrived with their supports still attached, which trying to clip off was interesting to say the least. I think the pile of discarded supports was as big as the pile of figures. And I inadvertently clipped off some MG bipods. Oops. I doubt anyone will notice. But more FN and AK barrels survived the trip.

Whether these are sections or platoons or companies depends upon the rules I'm using. Honestly I'm not sure what a stand of infantry in Seven Days to the River Rhine equals.

Another unit of Mantovians, and another unit of Tartarians plus the Tartarian's 120mm mortars, are up next.

Then I'll have 3x units and supports for each side and can maybe try a game.

Of something....