Pony Wars: The Homestead, Turns 25 - Conclusion

 Turn 25

An overview after movement and before firing.

Virtually all warparties are now circling or heading towards the central homestead including those on the high ground to the left.

The General decided that it would be suicidal to charge the great mass of hostiles chasing the stagecoach and, having ensured the stagecoach had arrived at the homestead, quickly formed a firing line on the western side of the farm.

The 2 remaining occupants of the stagecoach and the 2 ammo wagon drivers took position behind their respective wagons and began firing on the Indians.

In the exchange of carbine, cannon and arrows the final tally was 7 Indians killed and 3 troopers.

Continued -

Pony Wars: The Homestead, Turns 17 - 24

 

An overview at the end of turn 16 looking north.

Turn 17

An overview of the situation around the central homestead.

Zooming in on the action. The hunters decide that survival is more important than continuing the buffalo hunt and quickly join the US Cavalry at the central homestead. There are simply too many Indian warparties on the prowl!

Continued -

Pony Wars: The Homestead, Turns 9 - 16

The situation at the end of turn 8.

 Turn 9

The turn began with the arrival of the buffalo close to the north east homestead.

Hunters arrived to the south of the south east homestead and will seek out the buffalo.

Continued -

Pony Wars: The Homestead Turns 1 - 8.

The first outing for Pony Wars rules which has been languishing for a couple of years now having completed all the figure painting required.

The rules were originally written in 1980 and recently updated. They are firmly aimed at the earlier Hollywood version of the Wild West rather than historical accuracy. Written primarily for 15mm figures, Baccus now have a range of 6mm tailor-made for these rules. 

A table size of 8' x 6' was recommended for 15mm figures with all measurements in inches. I have selected a 6' x 3'9" table for my 6mm collection with measurements reduced to two thirds. A suitably sized 2/3 ruler can be downloaded from the Pony Wars website which I have printed off for use.  

4 scenarios are included with the rules, the first being 'The Homestead'. It seemed as good a place to start as any and should allow for a decent test of the rules.

In this scenario, there are 5 homesteads scattered across the board, each with 5 civilians occupying them. 4 of the 5 are situated near passes which provide shortcuts but with the risk of an Indian ambush.

For ease of reference, looking towards the fort is north, left west, right east with south in the foreground.

Fort Laramie is situated at one end of the board. They have received word from scouts that Indian war parties are on the loose placing the homesteads at risk. It is the task of the US to round up all civilians, including any that appear as a result of cards drawn, and to escort them safely to the fort.

The appearance of Indians, civilians and US reinforcements will be determined by drawn cards and dice rolls will indicate where on the board they enter. 

Victory points will determine how well the US did with the game ending when there are no civilians left to save.

Dice rolls are made to ascertain the US cavalry strength at the start. The garrison consists of 10 infantry, 2 x 6pdr cannon with 4 crew each, and 9 cavalry with the General commanding. The cavalry and General are a reserve and may be deployed from the fort but at a victory point cost. 

It was my original intention to break the segments down reporting on turns 1 - 12, 13 - 24 and 25+. This neatly aligned with level 1 and level 2 relating to the relevant card details on reinforcements etc. with turns 25+ being no further cards drawn unless the drums were beating. 

It was also my intention to be more brief on the action report. On that I failed and with wargaming time in short supply over the past month have decided to limit this first segment to 8 turns which should be more digestable. 

Continued -

On The Workbench: Pony Wars Terrain

More terrain pieces have been completed for Pony Wars. My first use of cork bark was used to make rocky terrain pieces which will also form rocky passes.

My terrain modelling skills are basic to put it mildly and much of this was trial and error together with guidance from various Youtube videos.

One side is sheer rock face with the rear sloped to allow access for the ambushers!

Continued -

On The Workbench: Pony Wars

A few weeks ago, prior to my splurge on painting ships, I completed all the figures for Pony Wars with the exception of 4 cannon and crew awaiting a new Baccus order. In the meantime I will use artillery from my ACW collection to plug the gap. There are a total of 1,150 figures in the collection.

What follows covers the entire figure collection:

Mounted Braves. 480 have been completed, 120 short of the number recommended in the rules. 

Mounted Braves

Continued -

On the Workbench: Pony Wars - Natives completed

The compliment of Native Americans has been completed, albeit 120 short of the 600 mounted figures recommended in the rules. Having seen advice that 480, or even 360, should be enough I have decided to leave it at that. There will be tepees and Bison to be painted up in due course.

The completed Natives. On the left is a pack of dismounted Braves and a pack of villagers. 

The most recent figures just completed. A pack of 120 mounted Braves.

Prior to the Natives, a pack of Settlers and Civilians was completed. The wagons had been done previously.

This is the bulk of figures finished with just a few odds and ends to complete the figure painting aspect. There is still a fair amount of terrain to finish so a little way off yet before I can get this on the table.

In the meantime it is back to Napoleonics with Portuguese for Bussaco. On the subject of Napoleonics, the butterfly has taken effect once again and figures have been purchased for Austerlitz. My interest in this battle originated from a game on my old Commodore 64 in the 80's and is one I always intended to play. I had considered 2mm (see my posts on this scale) but now reverted to 6mm. The plan will be to use General de Brigade rules but a unit will be a brigade rather than battalion at a figure ratio of 1:40. It will require some adjustments to the rules which I shall be working on soon.  

On the Workbench: Pony Wars Settlers and Civilians

I am acutely aware that my blog posts are becoming a little rare of late! A combination of real world commitments and, dare I say it, a lack of wargaming mojo. I have the Roman invasion of Britain battle on the board but it is progressing at a snails pace. I do though try and maintain some sort of momentum in painting and modelling. Even if it is only half an hour during the morning.

To that end, here is an update on what I have been working on. Since January it has all been terrain, ships and planes. This is probably just about the longest spell where I have not painted any figures. A couple of weeks ago I decided it was high time that I made some progress on other projects. First up was Pony Wars. 

A complete pack of Baccus "Settlers and Civilians" beckoned and here is the completed figures prior to basing. They have received a gloss coat so a little shiny! My aversion to large bases means that basing will be a rather protracted affair, especially as they will, for the most part, be in singles or doubles. 

Continued - 

On the Workbench: More Pony Wars

There I was, table laid and all ready to go with the 'O' Group scenario 'Cristot'. Deployment phase completed and........ nothing! Equivalent to a screen freeze. I put it down to the wargamers version of the 'writers block'. A combination of interruptions, mostly real life, but partially the desire to get more figures painted stalled the game. 

Normally this would not be a problem but my aging brain was also wrestling with learning new rules and 'O' Group has plenty in there to get your head around. Gradually my motivation to play the game drained up to the point I finally surrendered and packed it away. This is not normally something I would do and at least have a go but with all enthusiasm gone I felt the need to get some Napoleonics on the tabletop with rules that I was familiar with.

As I write this the table is almost ready for the next game in my Peninsular War project, Tamames. An unusual battle in that the Spanish beat the French.

It is my intention to return to Cristot but the larger BKC4 version. I have a few figures and vehicles to paint first.

Now to the point of this blog post, the source of my distraction from the tabletop:

Another batch of 60 mounted braves completed and here is the collection to date, 360 of them. Just 240 to go!

Continued -

On the Workbench: Pony Wars Dismounted US Cavalry

The first batch of figures have been completed this year which consists of all I need of the dismounted US Cavalry for the Pony Wars project.

This is the entire pack supplied by Baccus and consists of 80 dismounted cavalry in 4 troops of 20 each and 20 horse holders with 60 horses.

The dismounted cavalry are based in a mix of pairs and plenty of singles to allow for casualty removal, a breakdown into sections of 5 figures each, and ease of placement within terrain features.

Continued -

On The Workbench: Pony Wars US Cavalry & Dismounted Braves

An absolute barnstormer of a cold has disrupted my wargaming! Any thought of putting something on the table was out although I did manage to keep some semblance of figure painting ongoing. 

200 more Zulus were completed before I ran out of steam - my goodness do I find them boring to paint! Pony Wars though pulled me back and very much looking forward to getting some games played. 

I have been getting in the mood watching old John Wayne films such as 'Fort Apache' and 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' along with the more recent non-Wayne 1967 film 'Custer of the West'. The latter film I first saw as an 11 or 12 year old soon after it was released at our boys school cinema club. At the time I thought it was fantastic although a little dated now. 

First up was a batch of 96 dismounted braves:

Continued -

On the Workbench: Pony Wars Indians

The first batch of Baccus' Pony Wars Indians have been completed. 42 down 558 to go! The base frontage at 10mm per figure as as recommended in the rules. I have gone for a slightly narrower depth though at 15mm rather than 20mm. It is purely down to my aversion for overly large bases.

Judging by comments on social media, I was not alone agonising over the skin tone. Scouring photos online of painted figures in larger scales it would appear most have gone for a rather dark tone. Scaled down to 6mm dark can quickly appear almost black or make the figure look very dull. In the end I settled on the Foundry mid-tone flesh which was then given a nutbrown ink wash. They are probably a little too light but overall I am happy with the results. When sat next to the pale flesh of my European figures there is a clear difference.

Another factor I had trouble with was the base edge. I wanted their bases to be equally at home on the plains as in the desert, or at least acceptable to each. I settled on a sandy finish to the edge but now having completed the figures I have had a change of mind! It is not quite so obvious in the raw as in the photos but I aim to find a shade that blends in more with the base topside. I will experiment on the next batch and when happy will repaint these.

  Continued -

Pony Wars

 A new project!

It's probably not healthy starting another project when I have so many others on the go, but when Pete Berry at Baccus announced the release of the rejuvenated Pony Wars rules along with a new 6mm range it was too much to resist.

Even better, the rules are based on the films and TV show depictions of the US Cavalry v the Red Indians from days gone by rather than historical reality. As a child in the 60's my imagination was fired by the westerns of these presentations and many a happy time was had playing on the floor with my collection of Airfix figures along with the 'Fort Apache'. 

I have always had a soft spot for gaming the wild west but aside from my Airfix days, have only ever dabbled with 28mm and 15mm. This though is an opportunity to properly game the period with my favourite scale! Although described as 'skirmish' rules, up to 600 mounted braves will be required. A considerable task for the 15mm scale the rules were originally designed for.

Continued -