Turnip28 Regiments Completed!

#Turnip28 chaff (skirmishers). The pavise shields make it easy to tell that these are Chaff.

I got very close to finishing painting these last summer/fall, but ended up setting them aside. Taking another look at them a few weeks ago, I realized that the various chaff (skirmishers), the bombard, the two rocket batteries, a unit of brutes (heavy infantry), and six commander figures, were all over 90% painted. Instead of getting them all back at the bench at once, I did a unit or two at a time, and was able to finish everything up.

Here's one possible regimental configuration: two rocket batteries, a unit of chaff and a unit of fodder (regular troops).

These are all Old Glory Napoleonic figures, with 3D printed resin heads from the Turnip28 patreon. I clip the the original metal head, glue on the resin head, and use a bit of tissue paper or paper towel to make a raggedy scarf or cloak to disguise any imperfections in the join.  I add bits of actual roots from yard weeds, or these very interesting textured stems from our horse chestnut tree, to make rooty growths coming out of the poor chaps' necks or backs or torsos. Tufts work well as well for fungal growths.

Two rocket batteries.

The bombard ("grand boombard") and rocket batteries are also from the patron. For the rocket battery, I added fuses using some thread that unraveled from a throw blanket one night while watching movies.

Fodder led by a "toady" (sub-commander). The toady's right arm is a plastic spare, and I used his cloak to cover up the join.

My painting scheme is muted browns or pastels for jackets and cloaks but trousers can be more interesting. The above unit of Fodder has green-and-white checked trousers, for example.

Here's another possible confirguration: a Fodder, a Chaff, and two units of Brutes (elites in units of six figs).

There's a fun/easy cult called the "Slug's Lament" that features "Grognard" Old Guard units that arrive late in the game. The below chaps with red trousers are part of that cult - I would want to add another unit though.

Really happy with the little turnips on the belt of the fella on the front left there.  Those are also 3d printed but I wasn't sold on them being worth the effort until they were painted.

These shields for this second unit of chaff are okay but could have used a little something more. Because of the way they are mounted, I can always go back and add something though.

The fodder here (painted quite earlier) have white trousers with blue stripes.

These Brutes are easily picked out by their large shields.

A third configuration: a grand bombard, two fodder units, and a chaff unit.

The grand bombard I've had for almost a year and it took almost that long to paint. I made a slightly elevated base with its own platform that I then glued the 3d printed bombard to. There was quite a bit of modification to the various crew, as well.  The gun swabs were completely replaced with steel wire and I topped them with actual cotton swab tips to get an exaggerated look.The fuse lighter guy also got a longer, steel wire fuse and I wrapped some of that blanket thread around it.

A "toff" (general) on his turnipy, rooty steed.

I still have a lot of figures that I can convert, but the above gives me enough to run a two player demo and/or loan figures to a player with a yet unfinished warband.

Napoleonic game with Black Powder

For probably far too long, Pete has been suggesting meeting at his farm to play a Black Powder game using his massive collection of vintage Minifigs Waterloo armies.  This is multi-generational started by his dad and then continued by his brother and him.  Realizing he had invited me many times and I had yet to accept, and thirsting for a larger non-competitive-framework game (so, not Saga, Oathmark, or some such), we finally set a Sunday aside to play out a six-player game he had devised to be run at last year's Enfilade.

After first French move.

We were aiming to start by about 10:00 a.m. but Pete had not been able to get his tables in his garage fully set up nor armies on the table, so we lost a little time doing that and probably did not get the game rolling until 11:00 or 11:30. I took the upstart French, and Pete the British with some Nassau and Brunswick allies.

French light infantry if I recall.

We didn't really agree as to whether to use division break points or not, but there was some rough agreement that the five buildings each constituted an objective marker. 

Nassau troops.

A big difference in playing this big of a game with just two people is that we each had six commanders plus an overall general. In Black Powder 2 the overall general can force a reroll of one failed order per turn, so between that and the sheer number of commanders, at least one or two divisions were liable to do something each turn, even if you were stricken with poor command rolls.

Allied center.

I spent the first few of my turns getting my the French battle line in order, and, once that was done (and noting the British were a little out of line), started pushing forward in well supported groups.

I also leaned into using the commander's "Follow Me" rule to get artillery pieces or certain cavalry units to where I wanted them.

Otherwise, while both sides manouvered about, there was the usual early artillery fire exchanges.

The various guard cavalry units.

But then some Nassau troops got into the small wood facing the French right. Since it was a single unit I set up a supported attack and moved to clear the woods.

French artillery on the small hill at the center of their line.

Pete's beloved British rocket battery.

In the center the British heavy cavalry charged the French dragoons.  I opted to have the single unit counter-charge in order to gain the +1 charge bonus to hit rather than taking the +1 support to combat result.  Both dragoon units would end up falling back behind the safety of the French infantry but the British heavies were left milling around in the middle of the field.

Cavalry clash. French dragoons took worse of it.

Nassau on the move on Allied left flank.

British heavy cavalry and French Dragoons fight it out while Nassau infantry starts to give ground in the woods.

Nassau infantry under attack.

French Line infantry moves into the wood to push out the Nassau.

Having pushed the Nassau infantry out of the small wood, the French right forms up in line and advances.

The French right ends up breaking the Nassau in the wood, and moves up in line just past the woods and starts exchanging musket fire with the remaining Nassau in the building. On French left, mean while, three cavalry units are able to charge from the center of the table and break the lone British cavalry there.

The allied left (Nassau infantry) has fallen back to this house.

British center.

With this mass of French cavalry positioned to loop around to the British rear, the Brunswickers angle to protect the flank. Meanwhile, the infantry on French left leaves the shelter of the farm and woods and advances on the house also defended by the Brunswickers.

French cavalry on extreme British right flank.

As the French Guard infantry began to advance on the center and exchange musketry with the British, a good round of artillery and musket fire broke the stranded British heavy cavalry unit. The Nassau in the building on the British left found themselves littered with casaulties, and the assault on the Brunswick-defended house lasted two rounds but the French succeeded in carrying it. 

French left flank on the advance.

By now it was almost 4:00, and the chill was creeping through my boots, so we had to call the game for the French, who had successfully won over the majority of the objective buildings. Here's a video of the table at roughly end game point.

Overall a great time and a fun game. Some chatting about playing even bigger games (Pete has so many more units that could be added to play). Personally I think the games could benefit from my terrain card draw system to break up the collection of 6"-8" areas of woods or a hill or a house. A randomized deployment table would be fun as well to create unique initial set-ups, although I'm not sure how you take the divisional system into account with that.

The Long March

Round 1 underway, with me being dumb and threading my Brutes too far out by themselves where they could get shot to pieces.

I was able to meet Pete for our first in-person game since September of last year.  Because he had converted a figure or two in the Turnip28 style, we agreed to give the Version15a rules of Turnip28 a go.

The big aquarium stumps work very nicely with the 54mm scale figures.

Unlike the previous game, I had a better basic understanding of the rules, and we were also able to use suitable 'grimdark' terrain like the plastic Citadel woods and some aquarium decor, which really helped make the whole visual effect come together!

My Chaff (skirmishers) are trying to flank on the right.

I had also put together five objective markers in the form of little sacks of turnips, so we played the 'The Long March' scenario as written (actually, its the only scenario in the book at the moment). 

Pete's Chaff by contrast is right in the middle of it.

I took far more casualties but by turn 4 (of 4) each of us still controlled 2 objectives and the central objective was still up for grabs. My last two activations of the last round very nearly did succeed in (re)capturing that last objective, so the game was fun (and funny) and also challenging, which is always good.

My Brutes (elites) having been pushed back, my two Fodder units (in the backgrond) have attempted to press into the center.

Unlike my previous game, I did better making sure the special rules were actually used for Fodder and Brutes.  We also had "two scenario blunders," wherein each of us had a "Lost" unit blunder an activation and eat 1d3 of their own compatriots as a result!

My Brutes (with yellow kite shields), who have fallen back with two Panic markers. The Fodder up ahead however has taken three Panic markers.

There was quite a few laugh out loud moments at the absurdity of the game, with units losing figures at a constant clip.

My root-infected Toady (a subcommander) tries to direct my attempts to hold out in the middle.

As before, the four terrain pieces on a 4'x'4 board really clogs up available open spaces, and makes the resultant battle the sloppy mess which the game's aiming for anyways.

Pete's Toff (warlord).

A great way to dive back into in-person games! Not sure where I'm going with this Turnip28 stuff, really, but it a nice small game that's easy to transport and fun to look at.

Final melee of the game.

Trying Out Turnip28

Last summer, my attention was drawn to the Turnip28 project, which primarily involves hacking together and modifying Napoleonic miniatures to be wearing high medieval period helmets, plus a hearty helping of a mutated turnips which have over grown everything and lend everything a dark sci-fi fantasy tone. Because I had dozens of 54mm plastic Napoleonic figures in the basement, which I knew I would never use in a game and also knew had little resale value, I set about converting a few, then a lot, of those figures to helm-wearing, gaiter-sporting post-apocalyptic Napoleonic soldiers.  At the time there were also some very beta-version rules available (just a page or two, as I recall), but they were a little two rough around the edges for me to use at the time, so the Turnip54 army proceeded to sit on top my miniatures cabinet for about a year.

First try-out game, midway into first round.

Fast forward to a month or two ago, and Version 15a of the drafted rules comes out (further revisions are certain to follow, so I'll try to avoid getting into details too much), and in the intervening year they had evolved into a ruleset quite unlike anything else I have ever read or played.  The Version 15a rules has just one scenario, with both sides trying to capture the majority of 5 objective markers.  For this first try-out game, I did not have objective markers yet, and had to quickly make some terrain, but just  happy to get the figures on the table and slug away at each other for 4 turns to get a feel for things.

The figure with the red token is a Toady (a subordinate officer) who has taken a wound. Snobs can take two wounds instead of of one.

The length of the game is only 4 turns, and four "deadly terrain" (if a figure ends up in a deadly terrain piece, roll a die: on a 1 the figure is "brutally murdered" by the terrain and removed) pieces do a lot to clog up the available open space.

Lots of musketry and counter-musketry fire. You have to be careful in your target selection, as fire is simultaneous and a careless pot-shot by one unit can end up replied to with a mighty volley!

The rules follow a basic underlying premise: all of these troops are pathetic.  These are scavengers not soldiers, so they are lousy shots, lousy in a hand-to-hand fight, and huge cowards. Needing a six to do anything is the norm, and occasionally you even need a "7+" (you need to roll a 6, then roll again and score a 4 5 or 6).

My Toff (a warlord) on his sickly steed ordering his Brutes (elite ('elite') troops) to advance, probably.

To this pathetic-ness, add the following interesting and clever mechanics: 

• Every order (march, move-and-shoot, volley fire, or charge) can be blundered, where the action can still be carried out but at lesser effect.
• You have three Snobs (the collective name for Warlord and his two subordinates) to each give one order per round, but have four units, so one unit must give itself an order, and if it blunders, it carries out the lesser action but also loses 1d3 figures as it "gives into its ravenous hunger" (snicker).
• Units retreating through other units (be friend or foe) take a dangerous terrain test (loss a figure on a 1).
• When you fire at a unit, they must shoot back (if they have not shot yet this turn) and this is considered simultaneous - however, in hand-to-hand, the attacker attacks first and defenders casualties are removed, then defender generates dice and counter-attacks.
• Units acquire a panic token every time they take a casualty in shooting or participate in a melee, and panic tokens cause you to be more likely to turn tail when charged.

Powder markers are essential since you can only shot once per turn and being fired at will cause you to return fire.

All of this adds up to a game with remarkable thematic consistency - troops are pathetic, but you also lose models at a brutal pace.  There are many opportunities to lose figures to circumstances beyond your control (falling victim to the environment, being eaten by your fellows) but none of them feel unfair, and I never had that dreaded "roll dice, stuff happens" lack-of-control feeling during the game.  

So, somehow, you still feel remarkably in control of the game despite all the thematic stuff going on and removing your figures randomly.  

Turnip28 is a good excuse to make banners.

There's still good tactical opacity, I guess - Chaff are hard to target, so have them shoot at a unit and force them to counter-fire, and then charge that unit with your Brutes, because the target unit can't offer closing fire because they already discharged their weapons at the Chaff (there's that pathetic-ness again).

In our try-out game, figures died in great numbers. We forgot to use certain special rules for Fodder and Brutes.  The rules are short and quite succinct, so you don't have flip through pages and pages of photos and long paragraphs to find what you are looking for.

The rules are fun (and funny), and well worth the effort of converting figures (in whatever scale).