Honorary Member of Postie's Rejects

Now that's a cool title to reopen this blog after the mini-break. Unfortunately the break took a bit longer then planned but I'm ready again to join the fun.

During my holiday I had the pleasure to have a game with internet celebraties Ray from Don't throw a 1, Fran The Angry Lurker, Surjit (does not read blogs as he is afraid he might be on them)  and the ultimate game master Postie. Together with a number of others they are known as Postie's Rejects.
Ray read on my blog I was  visiting relatives in Kent and invited me for a game with the Rejects and after a couple of emails my first internet date was a fact.
Since Ray and Fran both did two parts battle reports three weeks ago I will just share some pictures and thoughts on the day.



When I arrived at Postie's house a couple of surprises hit me. The guys were already waiting and having a cup of tea to get ready for the game. Well, they were all drinking tea except for Ray and maybe one other. He was drinking something else which looked somewhat weird to me. Was he really....When he then mentioned he went out with some friends the night before I decided not to ask. But now I've seen Ray in action I got to know. What is this magical drink that makes you throw 7 hits out of 7 dice at a deciding charge?

Jokes aside the Rejects made me feel very welcome from the moment I walked in. They come together to have a good time and succeeded to include me in all the fun. The game was very well organized by Postie who prepared the table including initial deployment, handed out copies of the rules, wrote a scenario with lots of surprises and ran the game with great enthusiasm and humor. Every club would want a Postie and it made me think that we need to prepare better for our games since it adds so much to a game.


The second surprise came when they took me to the garden to start the game. Ok, the weather was good and I like the sun but playing outside? No way, Postie transformed his garden into a wargaming temple. Unfortunately I do not have a better picture but the shed behind us gives you an idea. A permanent large table and lots of terrain and figures. And that's just the shed. During the 'Marry me' pasta break which was discussed on TheAngryLurker's blog Postie showed me some other rooms in his house where he stores lots ans lots of painted figures.

Ah, I do have a better picture of the shed:

Rejects clubhouse

On to the game. As said both Ray and Fran did the reports so just a couple of pictures with comments.
The Battle of Pisek 8th July 1809

Initial deployment at left flank. I played the Saxons with Fran on my right side playing the French. Opposing me was Ray commanding an Austrian army

Saxons on the attack. The guys were quite surprised I actually went in to charge mode asap.

 Hey, no guts no glory.

Initially, helped by highly professional dice rolling, the charging was successful. Only a couple of batallions left to finish off

In we go again!

Ouch another one on the left. And it can turn and charge my flank as I hear...

Fran finds out Ray saved his best dice for the important moments. Ray seems pretty happy with it. What was it again? 7 hits out of 7 dice, needing 5's or 6's?  Can't beat that. Well, actually we did. We did enough damage earlier to just win on total points. But who cares, it was close and exciting game.

Fran and Surjit had a huge fight over the hill at our right wing

After the battle Postie had another surprise in store. I was made Honorary Member of Postie's Rejects and he handed me a beautiful trophy as a memory for the day. He even painted the flag orange the night before. Very cool and it got a nice place in the cabinet. The rejects now have a proud Dutch chapter and I hope this blogging community will expand further and we have some more games together.

I had a really great day and the rejects are just the kind of people you want to game with. Lots of humor while playing a fine battle with little soldiers. Perfect. So when you are in Kent, get in touch with them, they are open to it and I know you will not regret it. Be prepared for some Dutch swear words though. The last surprise was they asking me to write down some Dutch swear words for them.
Why I don't know, maybe it was to comment on my blog?

Thanks again rejects! CU@Salute


Links to the proper battle reports:
http://theangrylurker.blogspot.com/2011/08/1809-napoleonic-battle-report-part-1.html
http://theangrylurker.blogspot.com/2011/08/1809-napoleonic-battle-report-part-2.html
http://onelover-ray.blogspot.com/2011/08/napoleonic-battle-of-pisek-1809.html
http://onelover-ray.blogspot.com/2011/08/battle-of-pisek-1809-part-2.html

Mini break

The next four weeks I will be travelling so I won't be able to make any posts here. First two weeks of travelling are work related but following that it's time for a holiday. This year we are visiting relatives in Kent and spend a couple of days in London. Unfortunately there are no shows in August in the area but I hope to visit Hastings for a day and I'm sure I'll find some other historically interesting things to see . I will take the iPad with the wargames killer app so I will have your blogs to read while on the road.

After the break I continue to do some more ACW Regiments, start with Early French and maybe even do a small Dark ages project this year. I will also put my other collections online including ancients, my old west town and WWII.
A post needs a picture and while I almost finished the next ACW Regiment I did not make it before the break. I realize I never showed a full picture of the avatar I use so here it is. Maybe it's time for a new one after the break.

 It was good fun the first half year in the wargaming blogger world. I Learned a lot, got inspired daily and made lots of new (virtual) friends. While sometimes time consuming this blogging thing is well worth it.
So a big thanks to all the readers and commenters on this little blog!

Confederate casualties

Four casualty markers for the first (now completed) Brigade. As with the other casualty markers the number of tufts on each side will tell you how many casualties the unit has. I started painting the next Regiment but was distracted by the arrival of the miniatures for the next project later this year. Will blog about it later but I can tell you the Eureka French Revolutionary minis are among the finest on the market. I plan to use them for the Wars of the Third and Fourth coalition.
Casualties figures are from Perry Miniatures and Redoubt Enterprises.

Will do a Brigade shot soon Josiah, just need better weather as I want to do it outside.

Confederate skirmishers 2

With these skirmishers finished I only have to do a couple of casualty markers and the first Brigade with all the bells and whistles will be done. It'a group of eight for our Terrible Sharp Sword games and combined with the first group they form the skirmish screen for the Brigade in Guns at Gettysburg games.
Figures are from Redoubt Enterprises.
Added to the ACW Gallery

Confederate limber

As I'm getting near the end of the first and biggest part of the ACW project the laziness kicks in.
I needed to finish this model quickly so I took the most simple solution and got rid of two horses and a rider. Now I want to concentrate on some more regiments before another period takes over my main interest. The fact that I'm finalizing an order of mini's for a new project (why do you always start a new project with the only mini's you don't own) does not help with the focus unfortunately. It will be a real challenge to get the two Brigades done over the next three months or so but so far I'm still enjoying the painting and confident I can make it.
The limber is from Perry miniatures and more pictures can be found in the ACW Gallery.

Confederate dismounted cavalry

Finished another small distraction from my main goal of two reb brigades in Hood's division; dismounted cavalry. When I did a cavalry unit a couple of weeks back I soon realized it would be convenient if I could dismount them as well. So this is a generic unit to have some fun with in our TSS games. I don't think a unit of ten cav is very useful in Guns at Gettysburg so I might increase the unit size in the future as I think the foundry confederate cavalry are among the best figures money can buy.
Six of the figures are from the Perry dismounted cavalry pack. The officer is from Steve Barber and has a Foundry mini on the same base. Horse holder also from Perry miniatures.

I've added these pictures and a few more shots from different angles in the ACW Gallery

Confederate Command

Painting up Generals probably is the most enjoyable part of painting an army if you ask me. Picking your models, trying out vignettes and different compositions and make an effort to make them stand out a little.
This whole process took a while as I tried many combinations and compositions. In the end though I ended up with probably the most boring result. Just round bases to make them different from the rest of the army and no large large vignettes with a ministory that I had in mind originally. Good and handy for gaming is what I thought. And while they are just what I need for gaming they are not as handy as I would like. Due to the flagpoles you need to take careful attention when picking them up. Will probably lose them on the battlefield in a clumsy attempt to move them around. But anyway. They are finished and waiting for a first game now.

Since I'm painting the Georgians in Hood's division they could represent Hood, Benning, Anderson and Law but I did not pick the exact figures for them. They all have beards anyway so I might try to make some additional strap on fake beards as seen in the famous movie :-)
These will act as a Maj. General, two Brig. Generals and I already posted the Artillery commander seen in the picture.

Minis are a mix of Redoubt, Foundry and Perry. The standing flagbearer is a Redoubt ragged rebel with a Steve Barber head. So yes, you can mix them. Flags GMB with the exception of the first flagdude entering the army, the Georgia State flag.

More detailed pictures are in the slowly growing ACW Gallery