AAR: Star Wars Imperial Assault: Continuing Our Campaign.

      It was another festive night of Star Wars: Imperial Assault. Our friend, William and I started a campaign a while back with my wife, Kalissa as the Imperials. This fits with her, because she seems to be a master as being ruthless. Such examples as having Darth Vader show up first thing on our first mission seemed a little harsh. I guess what makes this game more interesting is that Kalissa is willing to play the bad guys. She never does in our historical games.
    Either way, William and I have been told numerous times that we cannot read. Mainly, the whiskey seems to say this. This is the only game I drink playing at night. Neither of us are drunk playing this game, but it is a good excuse to use rather than admitting that are by rolling and bad decisions we would have had anyway.
   In this mission, we were suppose to find two communication terminals that were yellow inside the Imperial base. Like the rest of the campaign missions, there are always extra surprises awaiting us after certain thins happen. Such as this game, where I entered the corridor and a bunch of Red Guards were just in the way. No problem! We had seven turns to complete our mission. We did not. We were only able to find on of the two terminals, thus getting ourselves captured. How outstanding! So when we play our next mission, it will be a jail break! I will have to play that AC/DC song at the beginning.

Olustee Project: Researching the Battlefield in Person.

      Even though, it does not often happen with me and researching a battlefield, it is always nicer to get the perspective on the grounds themselves. Kalissa and I were returning home after I took my father out to sea for his final resting place. Along with my brother, we had actually a great weekend of fishing out on Tampa Bay. Usually, our father out fished us there. Maybe, we were not as threatening as our dad was to the fish. Who knows. Since Kalissa and I do not really have much of a reason to return to Florida for a while, we took a slight detour on the way home.
   Our destination was the Battlefield of Olustee, Fl. off of I-10. It actually did not make much of a difference on the way home back to Fayetteville, NC. We had left two hours earlier than I normally would have and the whole battlefield walk was about an hour and a half. It was really nice to see it in person, though, I was a little disappointed that the museum part did not hold to many relics of the battle. I was hoping for a few battle flag references and such to help modelling my miniatures. Also, as a surprise, they have the battlefield and then, the re-enactment battlefield next to it. This works as a benefit to my project as well as a problem. The benefit is that I can have a little more artistic freedom for the terrain. The problem might be giving away some accuracy to the battle. I might be looking too deep into this, since I plan on trying to out-do any previous attempts to model this battlefield for a convention game. Anyway, here were the photos we took of the battlefield. Enjoy!

Kalissa had mentioned Spanish moss in southern pine trees. My assumption was that they had it further south in Florida.

I thought this was interesting for modelling the ends of a snake rail fence.

This was before you hiked the trail. I am sure this was designed for pic-nicks and such.

The wet area of the field.

This is what the re-enactment field looks like.

Then, this is more like they would have found through during most of the battle.

I read nothing about this until the park.

Mission Commission Success: El Guettar. 1943

     This was a fun project I did for Tyler Wallace who wanted to have an epic game at Millenniumcon that is a convention based in Texas.  He wanted to run a Bolt Action game for El Guettar for WWII. Of course, I had no problem with this. I, even, added some extra stuff for fun. The hills and the troops are his stuff. I just did the base board. I was told that the battle came out historically as the battle with exception of American tank destroyers surviving the whole game. Either way, here are the photos he posted.

Olustee Project: Troops in their Field of Battle.

      This was just a post for the troops I have recently painted up for this project. I decided to showcase them on the one part the of the board I have started a while back, but have yet to finish. I have two more sections to do as well. Plus, I did a random tree experiment for modelling Southern pines. I might have to lighten the needles, but I think it is a good start to looking like them. Anyway, enjoy as usual.

Olustee Project Update: Some Recent Painting.

   I came to the realization that I was not upholding my time table for my Olustee Project and it was time to fix that situation. For one, the plan was to paint at least a regiment a week just to get my project done early. I realize that this was not completely realistic, since there are things bound to come up, which it has. But this post is to show that this project is going forward.
    Here are a few things that have been done.

1.  I have gained 760 figures from Sash & Saber that is about roughly half of what I plan to paint. 
2.   I have gained all of the necessary pieces I need for making and modelling Southern pine trees with exception of the static grass I am using for the needles.
3. I have another 140 bases cut out for the next bunch of figures.
4.  I am finishing off three more infantry regiments with final touches. This is all, of course, minus the flags I need.
5. We have tested some different rule sets for our future game.
6.  And the results are strongly heading towards "This Hallowed Ground." I had downloaded the reference sheet for Jay's Wargaming Madness a while back, but had recently looked at them. Kalissa brought the rules up to our friend, Hugh, who was helping us play test rules with his 15 mm figures. It is a special moment when Hugh says that these rules are worth looking into! I've heard him utter these words, maybe, two times in the last six years.

     Anyway, I only took a sample of the recent figures I painted. Five regiments and three more to go. Plus, I painted the Union commanders. I might paint some artillery and the Confederate commanders. I have to cure a river for a comission project for at least 48 hours, so I should have some time to spare. Either way, do not mind the figures not matching the board. They are matched up to the actually board. These figures are just placed a mat for Aspern-Essling: different country and season. Enjoy!