AAR: En Garde: En Garde Or Just Duck!

       Our gaming group went back to playing at hobby stores to share the Historical side of our hobby. It is no surprise that in our absence, it has been left up to Warhammer and Star Wars to fill the void. We have not been completely innocent, since our friend William, Kalissa, and I have been playing quite a few games of Star Wars: Imperial Assault. However, I decided to bring out the Musketeers. We had not played with them in a game yet and I had the painted how many posts back? This gave me an excuse to have a quick sword play with Osprey Publishing's En Garde! rules.
        Between my friend, Bill and I we made roughly around 80 points per side. This left me with D'Artagnan, Porthos, and a Servant. Bill had Rochfort, a hire sword, and five Cardinal Guards. With the inexperience of both of us playing this game, I came out with the following conclusions. One, the two Musketeers I ran might as well have been Steve Seagul and Chuck Norris. They were so overpowered that it was amazing. Two, I need more Cardinal Guards to make it a fair fight. I think that five or six per Musketeer would make a more balanced game. Three, the game plays very similar to Ronin, but just in a different culture and continent. Most of the game consisted of either Porthos or D'Artagnan slicing someone in half with a massive blow. I felt bad for Bill, but mentioned that at least the other two were not in play. The servant got killed, but that did not make up for the 100% that the Cardinal Guard experienced. They need to send more men!

The board.

Constance was our objective.

"Drinks anyone?"

Bill's men.

My men.

This seems more like a tickle fight for D'Artagnan and Porthos.

The Musketeers save the day!

All For One And One For All: 40mm Three Musketeers for En Garde!

    I am finally closing in on playing a game of "En Garde!" which my wife had bought at Historicon this last year. I have always been interested in the Three Musketeers, since I read the book and well as seen plenty of related movies. The 1973 version tends to be one of my favorite movie version. It has been no secret of my interest, since I accidentally came across them in 28mm by Redoubt Miniatures. However, some one mentioned them being in 40mm by Eureka Miniatures. I should have bought them when I saw them in person at the Eureka Miniatures booth at Historicon 2015. I did not, but decided I would get them the following Historicon. Of course, they tell me the one time they did not bring that line was at the last Historicon show. Blitzkrieg Miniatures was the same for that convention when I had a plan to buy. After all, it is best to go into a vendor hall of a convention armed with a list. That way, there is no "Oops, I tripped and bought an unplanned army that no one is currently playing. This has also done a good job of stemming me from buying tons of Samurai for Black Powder in 28mm.
     Either way, I ended up doing on online order for the Eureka Miniatures website in Australia. It turns out that the U.S. store does not carry them any more. It was not too bad for about a $130.00. And after all, if it took me over a year of waiting, I am sure I could have handled it for longer. So this was a rundown of what I painted early this morning. This was priming and painting to this point until about 1 PM. If it was so cold outside, I would have planted the trees we bought for the yard. The only thing left are some more highlights and sealing them. So here are the Musketeers and characters.

The whole crew minus two characters. I have some more painting with them.

(Left to Right) Constance, Rochfort, four Cardinal Guards, and a hired Swordsmen. 

(Left to right) Armais, Arthos, D'Artagnan, Porthos, a bartender, and a beer wench. 

Constance and Rochfort.

The bartender and beer wench. Every fight needs beer!

The Four Musketeers.

Porthos. I need a new camera.

Arthos.

D'Artagnan.

Aramis

Two of the Cardinal Guards.

The hired swordsmen.