Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Wednesday 10 June 2020

Sieges - Vauban Makeover

I'm very excited about the imminent publication of Eric Burgess's Vauban's Wars rules, which should be appearing very shortly. It's appropriate that I should make some effort to prepare for this momentous event by getting on with some smartening-up work that's been in the queue since the end of last year. That's what I was doing yesterday.

Last night - just the final dry-brushing with my house "dust" colour to go, and then some heavy-duty matt varnish.
I've now arranged that the Vauban-period walls should be a similar colour to the medieval walls I have, so that I can build hybrid fortresses as necessary (I had already taken this step with the 3-D printed pieces I obtained recently), I've repainted the glacis sections so that they match the house baseboard colour and I've smartened things up generally. One of the shades of brown paint which had been used by the Terrain Warehouse people on the walls (10 years ago? More?) had reacted badly to one of my previous attempts to varnish them, and had become a strange, mottled grey-brown, so I fixed that, and cleaned up the rest of the paintwork where required.

They are now sitting while the varnish cures, then they can go back in their boxes.

Finished; today, waiting for the varnish to cure a bit before packing away.

13 comments:

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    1. Thanks Jon - there must be some mileage in the theory that the besiegers might be frightened off by the smart turn-out of the fort - "Gee, look at all that whitewash, these guys must fight like demons..."

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  2. Looking spick and span Tony.

    Are Vauban’s War rules really close to publication or was that drollery on your part?

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    1. Nay, verily - the final checking of the cards etc was proceeding at the end of April, I understand, so - allowing for a little Covid-slippage, publication is still expected "this quarter". That will be most welcome, it's been very difficult sustaining fever-pitch for 9 years (or whatever it's been), but the game certainly looks as if it will ready to go very soon, and far quicker (ahem) than my own.

      My drollery gland seems to have atrophied over the last couple of months, alas.

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    2. Late correction - I understand the publication was expected "first quarter", but I refuse to be downhearted.

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  3. Looking very tidy from here.

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    1. Thank you Matt - to be on the safe side, I shall attach a post-it note to the outside of the fortress box - "Now Repainted" - in case I forget and do it again.

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  4. Very impressive Tony. Paddy Griffith did an Osprey book on Vauban fortifications with some great illustrations by Peter Dennis, of paper soldiers fame. Cheers Greg

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    1. Thanks Greg - in theory, I have a copy of this same Osprey book, but alas it has been misfiled, and I can't find the accursed thing! I was looking for it last week - thank you for reminding me, I'll have another look in the morning!

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  5. The pieces look great, very impressive. You have reminded me that I have not been to a fort since October - curse this virus..

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    1. Suggest you phrase this carefully when discussing with your GP the mental effects of the pandemic, or he may tell you about his room full of Mars Bars!

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  6. I'd be concerned about the morale of the fortifications. Once again they have been taken out, spitted and polished(sic) as for a parade if not action, only to be marched back to barracks without so much as a review and march past.

    They may not believe when the call to action comes and may not stand as firm as expected!

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    1. This is a very good point. My view on the psychology of command was affected more than a little by the first few episodes of Band of Brothers - keep them on edge, get them hardened to disappointment, all that - send them for a surprise run halfway through the spaghetti. If I tell the fortifications that Eric's rules are about to appear then they won't believe me anyway - I've nursed them through years of believing that's why I bought them in the first place. Tricky.

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