Master Cavender

Whoo hooo, just completed my Master's Degree defense. I am now W. Jeffrey Cavender B.A. M.S. My thesis was a paper on Residual Human Health Risk Assessment of previous retail petroleum facility. Exciting stuff I know! With this complete I can now turn some much needed attention to painting 15mm Seven Years' War figures. My birthday is this month and I have put out a list to the friends and family of Brunswick, Hanoverian and British Highlanders. I am taking the remainder of the day off from work and going out to a wonderful dinner this evening. With an undergraduate degree in History, Master's in Environmental Science the obvious path forward is a PhD in Economics to be a well rounded renaissance man. Happy day in Cavenderia, Prinz Geoffrey may found a college of engineers for the occasion. I hope everyone is doing great!

ciao,

Back at home.

I have been Columbus on business the past two weeks and sorely missed our imagination groups. I am home now and am looking forward to building my coach and painting up some 15mm men this week. While out of town I picked up two (2) boxes of Zvezda plastic army men, the infantry of Peter the Great. I will be painting them up to play as an imagination in my friend Ray's campaign with his new generic soldier rules. They are very nice figs for 72nd scale plastic and at 48 figures for $8.00 USD very affordable. I look forward to posting more often and getting some pictures up. I really must get to painting up some more diplomats and sending Jean's ambassador to France. I have been reading several others blogs and looks as if things are going well for most of our band of imagination players. Look forward to posting more often in May.

ciao,

Hallmark Coach

My hallmark coach arrived from scalecreep miniatures yesterday. I have my camera this week but no way to download until next week, I will be in Columbus, Ohio for the week. Look forward to assembling and painting it prior to the Reich Dukes visit. Spent an enjoyable evening last night play testing a set of rules my friend Ray is writing. The rules will cover ancients to Colonial. Ray originally wrote the rules because he had so many 1/72nd sets of miniatures he would pick up on a whim and wanted to generate a system to use them all. It is a nice game, troops deteriorate throughout the game starting fresh and slowly become exhausted. There is no turn sequence with each side activating a couple of units then back to the other side. As you activate units they become fatigued, disordered, etc. Anyway, had a great time, good snacks and good friends to play with. I will try and get some pictures of the new coach and some of the anatolian sekhans and dellis I have been working on. Short post tonight as I am quite tired from working around the house all day. Hope everyone is doing well.

ciao

Do ask for Dukas...

Captain Greco sited down the barrel of the ivory handled pistol, the trigger cool and rigid. The mechanics of the pistol were as a jewel box lock, applying a gull’s breath of pressure the trigger snapped, the pistol belched out a roar and all the world was white smoke.

Greco took a breath, lingering in the smell of the powder. The crew let out a cheer and one poor powder monkey whispered a prayer thanking whatever gods, that his hand holding the shattered remnants of a water pitcher was whole.

The crew was a chorus of praise, “Fine shot keyptan! Do it again skipper! What a beautiful gun!” and it was a beautiful gun, ivory handle, etched barrel, embelished gold, the pistol and several like it had been given to the Venecian captains to entice them to rescue Dukas and today, at least this pistol would be put to that task.

“Enough yapping, get ready to earn your keep!” Greco rubbed the pistol with a tea cloth and reloaded the weapon. He moved to the forecastle and removed a spyglass from his coat.

The trap was set, his or the Moreans was to be determined. The Sagittario had rendezvoused with Captain Sanuto and the Zeffiro, as expected. What was not expected was the small flotilla of Barbary Xebecs that accompanied the Zeffiro.

When the two captains met briefly the evening before, a dismissive Captain Sanuto explained, “My curious captain, the Xebecs were hired to give us support and confuse the enemy, you needn’t worry about their loyalty, they are paid by me!”

“Paid to make sure you are the only captain to return Dukas”, Greco thought, but they would supply fodder if the Maria-Louisa was accompanied.

The small flotilla was in line with the Sanuto to the far left, one Xebec, the Sagittario and finally two more Xebecs. The line would run perpendicular to the Maria-Louisa’s course.

Greco snapped open the spyglass as a sailer shouted, “Ship to starboard!”

....

“Three Xebecs and a couple of gun ships?, this can not be beneficial to our cause,” thought his lordship, La Chevalier De’Corfu

“Captain Valieri, I have a confidence in your ability to protect us and our cargo should this rag-tag flotilla prove hostile”

Captain Valieri answered, “I have faith in our guns and crew also, my lord, the ships are not moving to intercept and have struck colors of truce, we could ignore them and try to sail around but I feel with this mediocre breeze and there smaller size they could close to engage if they wish.”

“Well I suppose we should prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

“Agreed, my Lord, all hands full alert!”

“One of the ships is leaving the line and approaching, her name is il Sagittario!”

...

Captain Greco had won the “honor” of submitting the demands to the Morean Captain. As the two (2) ships neared Greco was impressed with the glistening guns and spotless hull.

“This ship looks new but I’d wager she’s seen her share”, he thought

Captain Greco was greeted on the deck of the Maria-Louisa, it had taken about half an hour to make his way from the Sagittario into a dingy and on board.

“I am Captain Valieri of her majesty’s ship Maria-Louisa bound for Morea, what business do you have to blockade our course?”

“I am Captain Greco and interested parties would relieve you of your cargo, one fellow named Dukas I believe.”

La Chevalier could not contain his anger at the arrogance of the statement, “you dog, you are unworthy to step your grimey boots on our nations ship yet you would challenge the will of her majesty, we carry a known traitor and thief to the royal court of Morea!! You should be murdered where you stand for such demands!!”

“Try and murder me you fop! I’ll wear your guts to supper!", Greco said with a smile.

Members of each party restrained the antagonists. Greco practically beamed when stating, “We will return to my ship with Dukas now yes? or would you prefer we come get him later?”

Captain Valieri spoke before La Chevalier could answer, “Captain Greco, return to your ship unmolested and give us some time to retrieve Dukas from the brig, I would not sacrifice my crew for an outlaw.”

La Chevalier could not believe his ears, had the world gone mad, Captain Valieri would surely be tried upon their return to Morea.

“One hour, Captain to fetch Dukas after that we come take him.”, Greco said with a bow.

The Venecians departed the ship.

“Do not worry my lord we shall not give up Dukas, this ploy has bought us some time to prepare, we may die but we will die fighting.”

Someone shouted, “Ships to port!!”

Captain Valieri looked to the North and on the horizon two ships with the burgundy and gold cross of Morea. “God be praised!! We will see how brave you jackals are now!”

Captain Greco stepped onto the Sagittario “another Morean ship well this will certainly inspire them to fight, and I thought this day might be boring.”

...

The stage is set and we now leave the fighting of the battle for the Buccaneer Dukas in the capable hands of our esteemed colleague Captain Bill, who will play out this scenario in minaiture and detail the outcome in a future blog.

Short Update

I have not posted in a while so I thought I would give a quick update. I have ordered a coach from http://www.scalecreep.com/catalog/ but it has not arrived yet. Since the SYW Convention I have not had time to paint anything except a few Anatolian Djellis skin tones. I have had a bit of free time to read over Biles and Pengel and Hurts volumes on the Reichsarmee a.k.a. Imperial Army a.k.a. Army of the Circles. Having chosen 15mm for my Cavenderians I have quite a few 10mm Infantry and Cavalry laying around I may paint these up as the Reichsarmee Upper and Lower Rhine Circles. After the way my Bavarians fled the battle field in my first Big Battalions game I also thought a Reichsarmee battalion or two might be my project for next years SYW convention. Finally, I have to get some painting done on my diplomat figures and get Jean-Louis Diplomat sent out, sorry have not been to the post office yet. Most of my time now is being spent on house improvement projects but I hope to get a few minis painted next week while holed up in a hotel room in Columbus.

ciao,

SYW Convention, a roller-coaster of emotions

Well the Seven Year's War Convention is over and I have returned to Huntington after an exciting and excellent adventure. Let me start by saying I had a great time and enjoyed meeting all of my fellow gamers.





As the title denotes this trip truly was a roller-coaster of emotions. My wife and I finished packing things up on Thursday. We found a room rate on-line that saved us $20 so Huzzah. We left Friday morning and headed for South Bend. Around Kokomo, Indiana we ran into a detour that added an hour to our trip, Boo, but that is ok, the Duchess Scenario was scheduled for the evening game so I was pretty certain we would make it. We checked into the hotel at about 5:30 p.m. and were given free parking for signing up for Holiday Inn Rewards, Hurrah, I did a quick change grabbed my Duchess figure and headed for the hall. I was informed that the Duchess game had been moved and played earlier in the day, Boo.

I got to meet Randy Frye, Der Alte Fritz and Bill Protz Huzzah, and they told me it had been a fun game. The pictures to the left are of the Black Scorpion Miniature the Governor's daughter who was to be the duchess but will now fulfill her primary role as Cavenderian ambassador to Monte-Cristo. Jean-Louis email me your physical address and I will send her to you ASAP. I also hand-delivered our ambassador to Hesse-Seewald but forgot to take his picture prior to giving him to Der Alte Fritz. I did take one (1) picture of the ambassador during the bring your own battalion (BYOB) game but as you can see from the picture a British bayonet got in the way, Boo.




You can make out most of the Cavenderian diplomat to Hesse-Seewald he is in the gray coat and yellow small cloth, behind the nicely painted British.

I met some really nice guys from Iowa who were running a 15mm game with modified Napoleonic rules, I was the Prussian far right flank and demonstrated and attacked to draw the Russian defenses. Our commander's plan worked perfectly and we won the game, Hurrah. The picture to the left show my orderly final position.

This convention is quite different, the median age appears to be about 50 and alcohol was drank freely by the players, a gentlemanly atmosphere indeed, Huzzah. When I arrived I noted several gentlemen in coat and tie and so the following day I wore my Sunday's best.

I returned to my room and was greeted by my lovely wife and a couple cans of Fosters. The room was clean and neat but the temperature was a bit warm for our taste and the air conditioner could not overcome the warmth, Boo, however the view was nice, photo left.

Next morning I got dressed, tie and coat, collected my 28mm Bavarian battalion and headed down to the convention floor to play the BYOB game. I stopped by the vendors tables and saw a bag of 15mm Jacobite Scots and a book on the 1745 Rebellion and decided I would pick those up later after the game, I met some more folks and took some photos of the games.

Here is a photo of some beautifully painted 54mm Hussars included in a skirmish game ran by a fellow named Paul, I believe if wrong sorry. He told me they were using the Brother vs. Brother rules-set. I later found out he was a founding member of Venture Miniatures and is currently working on a set of rules with Brent Nosworthy author of Anatomy of Victory.

This is a picture of a gun emplacement in the 54mm game it was very inspiring to watch. I wish Paul and his group success and look forward to reading his rules.

The photo on the left is a skirmish game using Game's Workshop's Old West Rules. I have used their Lord of the Rings rules for skirmish and if you have played any GW skirmish rules you can understand the flavor. This was my favorite story line for a game all weekend. Seth and Chad from the Chicago area told me the story of Von Hanky, a funny little general figure that they had purchased a few years ago at the convention. While riding the elevator up to the 14th floor Chad had dropped Von Hanky and he plummeted 25,000 feet (to scale) down the elevator shaft, Boo, however they bought another Von Hanky figure and he has been showing up all of the globe in different scenarios ever since, Huzzah. Is he immortal or does one Von Hanky pass his name to the next sans, the Dread Pirate Roberts. This scenario had Von Hanky arriving to take command of the British army in North America and his carriage is being attacked by native Americans who fear the mystic warrior.

Photo of a naval battle fought using the Warfare in the Age of Reason second supplement naval rules. I picked up a copy myself. Very nice display of ships in line here.

Lovely siege game. Did not get much info on it. However, I have learned from reviewing these pictures that I need a tripod.

Another good looking skirmish game. Finally it was time for the BYOB game. Bill Protz had me set up my Bavarian battalion on the far left of the French lines with a Austrian battalion provided by Mike of Seattle, Washington (fantastic guy, very outgoing and excellent gamer) and a battalion of French. I requested that my Bavarians be rated as Green not Veteran as I had never played before and Bill granted me the rating of "Trained" This would prove to be an excellent rating as I have played linear warfare for a while with some training but definitely learned a lesson at this game. People stopped by before the battle and gave me compliments on the Bavarians, much appreciated. Finally it was time to begin. My wing commander, Seth, suggested I wheel my Bavarians right to allow the Austrians to move into line beside them before advancing on the British position. I obliged very carefully aligning my newly painted troops into a perfect line. My battalion gunners loaded some round shot and fired.

The picture to the left shows my Bavarian and Mike's Austrians moving into position. What pageantry what fun, Huzzah.

Then the beginning of turn 2.

A thunderous noise and a cloud of dust and, "behold the dreaded black Hussars". The Hussars smashed into the Bavarian battalion gun killing the crew and overturning the gun and then rolled up the Bavarian flank hacking and slashing, Boo. Bill had me roll for my officer's command ability, I rolled a "6" Hurray!!! Colonel Franz Richard Gatterman would be exceptional. I rolled for moral and it was over. The picture to the left is the last thing the Bavarians saw that day as they fled and were ridden down by the Black Hussars, Whimper. Another glorious page in the Black Hussar history an ostentatious beginning for IR-Kurprinz. I am already plotting to raise Taxis Cuirassiers to protect my Bavarians next year. After the routing someone should me how to refuse the flank, Huzzah! The remaining two (2) battalions would spend the rest of the afternoon fighting with the British. The British player was a great guy and I am ashamed that I do not remember his name.

Left, a picture of the British occupied town.

As I had not eaten all day and my battalions were not in a crucial position for the scenario we ducked out a little early for dinner and went to a great Irish pub for Shepard's pie, Huzzah. Before we left though I stopped by the main room to pick up the Jacobites and the 1745 book and the vendor had left, Boo. Almost forgot I got to meet Travlos in person from the Morea blog. Really nice guy and I look forward to doing battle with him in the future. Final thoughts, the convention is a really unique and fun experience and I would highly recommend any of you that can attend try to do so next year. Back to painting 15mm Ottomans for now.

Off to South Bend

I am preparing to depart for the SYW Convention this weekend in South Bend, Indiana. Putting the final touches on my Bring Your Own Battalion (BYOB) regiment. Having seen the scenario for the battle (English vs. French) I suppose the Bavarians will end up on the side of the French. Although my battalion IR-Kurprinz 1/2 was in the Austrian Axillary Army contingents of Bavaria fought in the Reichs Army that supported the French vs. Hanoverian in the SYW so would make sense. I am also finishing the Duchess figure for the mysterious lady scenario DAF is running Friday night. She is the black scorpion miniature (the governor's daughter) and after the convention will be shipped to Jean-Louis as my Cavenderian diplomat to Monte-Cristo. She is wearing a fairly bright pinkish-violet dress which is out of character for the duchess in her highwayman's garb, however the scenario takes place in the middle of the night and I am assuming this will be her night time attire. I will also have some Cavenderian diplomats with me to hand out to various imagination rulers. The wife is going with me and will be visiting friends in the area so it should be a nice time for both of us. I finished submitting photographs to Dadi @ Piambo and my article should be published sometime after May in their spring edition, I am interested in seeing my article translated into Italian. Mark from Scale Creep called and said that my Hallmark chariot miniature has not arrived yet so may still be a couple of weeks before it will arrive and I can run my first official Cavenderia scenario. Scale Creep is in Cincinnati, Ohio and we are going to be travelling through there on our return trip so I may stop by the store. I am taking my camera and planning on posting many pictures of the convention when I return. I will not have a lap top with me on the trip so the earliest pictures will be next Tuesday. I only hope that my Bavarians maintain a modicum of bravery in their initial outing. Finally here is a picture of me during the Hurricane Katrina response, if you see this guy at the convention please introduce yourself.

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