19th Century Imaginations - Sausage Wars (new entry from Chuckipedia)

Sausage Wars - (see also Brazilnutti Uprising) - a minor conflict, now often relegated to the underside of the dustbin of history, that involved the minor states of Balkania. The main cause of the disagreement seems to be whether or not to include Sausage in the canonical listing of Balkanian cuisine. The XIVth peace talks, held in Gaspacia (Kingdom of the Three Sicilies), famously broke down when visiting dignitaries from Vulgaria began a chorus of "Wassamatta wi' me?" to be answered by their Hostian rivals with "Wassamatta for you!" across the room. This led quickly to a tossed sausage, and finally to musketry volleys.


Tags: Sausage Wars, Balkania, Brazilnutti, Gaspacia, Kingdom of Three Sicilies, Furstenberg, Vulgaria,

Russian Civil War Equipment Series (2) - 1902 Putilov 76.2mm gun

While not as famous of a piece during WWI as the French 75, this field gun is quite a successful model, and in addition to being used in the Imperial Army during the RJW and also in WWI, it was used by both sides during the Civil War.

The gun proved so successful, that it was used by the Polish and Romanians, and continued in use by the Russians up through the Great Patriotic War. Of note, the Romanians retooled the gun to take the French 75mm round, and the resulting field piece was named the Schneider-Putilov 1902 75mm.


A modernized version of the gun (shortened from L26 to L24 in 1930 by the Finns to use as a gun in some tank models. Notably, it was found in the Finn versions of the BT-8 and the T28-B.

Polish Armored Train number 54, the Grozny, had a couple of Putilov's as main armament. It was used in the Russo-Polish War.

It is a good workhorse field gun, and received several upgrades and mods. The basic form has a range of about 6000 meters, and a ROF of 10 rounds per minute. Not bad as an infantry support gun. It was finally replaced, in service, by the ZIS 1941 gun.


Tags: Russian Civil War, miniatures, wargames

Clubmen for the ECW

Wargames Factory just announced the Liberty and Union League - basically something sort of like the 100 club of Eureka Miniatures.

Someone submits a Sprue idea, for figures to be produced in hard plastic. Gamers then sign on to order figures, by committing (with no money down) for a number of sprues. Once the orders reach 500 sprues, photos of the in-progress sculpts are made available. Once 1000 orders are made, each pre-order person then kicks in $1 per sprue, to pay the cost of tooling up. Once finished, they sprues are shipped and the remainder of the cost per sprue (about $4-6 per sprue?) is charged.

Great idea! It works for Columbia Games, GMT Games, Eureka Miniatures and a bunch of other companies.

I put in a sprue description for something that I've wanted for some time (and in a decent quantity), and I can only assume that other ECW gamers would want too. That is a nice, affordable, 17th century armed civilian that would be suitable for peasant mob or armed Clubmen. These would fit into a number of wargaming army lists for ECW, as they fought on their own vs. a number of armies (see Dorset and Wiltshire). Similar armed figures fought for Fairfax against the Royalist army in Yorkshire in 1643.

This figure could also serve very nice as armed mob in the Monmouth Rebellion, or as armed peasants for a Thirty Years War game.

This is not even addressing the usefulness such figures would fill for civilians in a typical Musketeers or Pirates or ECW skirmish game.

So, support the cause! Defend ye homesteads, ye Godly men! Take up the Cudgel and Bible and say Nay! to tyrants and blasphemers! Go to Wargames Factory and put in your order, with the Liberty and Union Leage for Renaissance 17th Century Armed Civilians!

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Russo Japanese War at Fall In a success

The running of a Russo-Japanese War game at Fall In was a great success. It was sponsored by ODMS and will be repeated at the Williamsburg Muster.

The game had six players (three per side), and was a test of my mods to the great set of rules for Russian Civil War by the Jackson Gamers, Forward Comrades. The mods are becoming more and more extensive, and the rules (nicknamed "Forward for the Tsar") will be published here in the near future.

At the convention, the scenario was a contested river crossing. We played it two times, once with just ODMS lads (with the Russians attempting to force the crossing) and once as the convention event (with the Japanese attempting to force the crossing). The Russians won (but not neatly) both games.

The only differences between the armies was a slight difference in command, a slight initiative benefit to the Japanese army, and a difference in the organization of the artillery batteries. The Russian army was slightly bigger (10 battalions to 8 battalions of infantry), but the Japanese had a few Elite units to balance it out. The artillery difference was three batteries of two guns for the Japanese, and two batteries of three guns for the Russians - this gave the Russians more dice per battery, but one fewer battery (the number of dice is per gun, so the total for each side was balanced.

I have to say that I am looking forward to more RJW, but also the slightly connected RCW.

Tags: Russo Japanese War, miniatures, wargames

Russian Civil War Equipment Series (1) - Rolls Royce Armored Car

This is a new series on the equipment of the Russian Civil War that is part of my 15mm modeling project for that conflict. The first piece to be covered is the Rolls Royce Armored Car.

This A/C was not used extensively in the Russian Civil War, but there are some photos, so they were present at some level. The vehicle is almost iconic as a WWI era Armored car and was used in many other conflicts (Ireland, 1920s, Gobi Desert, WWI, and even WWII). There is a photo in the excellent "Armored Units of the Russian Civil War: Reds" Osprey book.

I am using the QRF model, of which I have two, and they will be painted generic enough to be serviceable for both sides (Red and White).

note: image used from gunpoint-3d with permission.

Tags: Rolls Royce Armored Car, Russian Civil War, miniatures, wargames

RCW Project - Russian Sailors

I am working on some Bolshevik Sailors in 15mm for the Russian Civil War. The figures I am using are a mixture of some Peter Pig's, and also the new Russian Sailor pack from Battlefront for Flames of War. That pack comes with 46 figures. In the pack I got there were 5 command figures, 4 lewis gunners (I might do MG stands with them), 10 figures with drum fed SMGs (more on them later), and the remainder were riflemen. Despite these figures being intended for WWII, the uniforms are so similar, and the rifles indistinguishable, that I decided to use them.

The one problem, of course, is the SMG in the hands of 10 of the figures. I did some research, and apparently the Bergman MP18 was used in Russia, and captured from German sources. The figures have a drum fed SMG with an air-cooled (with the small holes) barrel. If I trim off the drums, they will look very much like MP18's. So that is the course I will take. I will post pictures as they are finished.

Tags: Russian Civil War, sailors

Lunar Empire Resources

The best online resource for any HOTT gaming is of course The Stronghold.

There are some other online resources that would be good for Glorantha wargaming in general, and the Lunar Empire in particular. Here are the links.

The Army of the Lunar Empire - an essay by Sandy Peterson

The Genertelan Art of War - an essay by Sandy Peterson

Gloranthan Army Lists for HOTT - by the Bashi Bouzouk Band

Gloranthan Army Lists for HOTT - by David Pulver
Alternative Version

Wargaming in Glorantha - pictures, rules, cool stuff

Lunar Empire Map


Tags: runequest

Recent Wargaming Activities in the Land of Chuck

[Find out more about the Williamsburg Muster]

Since the last time I posted "what have I been doing in wargaming" a lot has gone on.


First, the ODMS club launched the Williamsburg Muster convention, and a lot of time has gone into planning and advertising that event.

Second, I completed enough of the Russo-Japanese war project to run my game at Fall In. There are still over 200 infantry in a semi-finished state, but it is to the point of having two playable armies, new terrain, and modified rules. I would like to run it over the holidays for the ODMS crowd. The terrain completed for this were eight new hills (I wasn't completely happy with them, so I donated them to "John Snelling's Home for Wayward Hills and other Earthly Protuberances"), and four Manchurian villages. I am not completely happy with the villages, but I got a LOT of compliments on them at the convention, so I will probably post the files for download.

Third, I have been working on two articles for HMG magazine. Details to be released later.

Fourth, I have been working on a historical article about the development of the Rifle from 1860-1960 - as a theme essay to support the Theme of the 2009 Williamsburg Muster.

Fifth - I have been doing some painting on 15mm Sudan figures. I got 100 Dervish finished, another 100 half finished, and some Camel riders are in the works.

Sixth - I painted some of the Krigbaum collection of fine miniatures.

Seventh - I have been working on some colonial Orbats for Eric Burgess.

Not bad.

Looking ahead over the holiday months (second half of Nov, Dec, first half of Jan) I will probably concentrate on:
1. Russian Civil War (new armored cars and tanks from Fall In, plus Red Infantry)
2. Russo-Japanese War (finish it)
3. Vikings (25mm)
4. More Terrain
5. HOTT army (Lunar Empire, from Glorantha)

Could be a busy two months.

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Russian Civil War posters and flags

Free download and print from Gauntlet International

This is (I believe) the company that Craig Martelle started to import loads of really nice Russian military history and gaming resources, which (when necessary) get translated into English.

Tags: RCW

Terriffic looking wargame pictures!

These pictures from the 2008 Bovington Wargames Convention are really spectacular. Those are some great looking games.

Tags: Bovington

Hardcore History Podcast

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is a Podcast on some very interesting topics in (mostly) military history.

Take a listen, you won't be disappointed, even if you disagree with Dan and his well documented list of authors.

Tags: history

Getting Ready For Fall In

Getting ready for Fall In!

I've been putting the finishing touches on my Russo-Japanese set up. This has included miniatures (18 battalions, split 10 Russian, 8 Japanese; 4 regiments of cavalry; 6 batteries of guns), and terrain (9 new hills, 4 new villages). Also modified rules and playtesting. The official game is Friday Night at the convention, but look for one last dress rehearsal (playtest) on Thursday Night in open gaming.

I'm also putting on a TSATF game on Saturday Morning. This will be Brits and Egyptians taking on the worst that the Mahdi can throw at them.

pictures of the Hill Building Project





Tags: Fall In