The reasons for this are twofold:

• Ease of posting and maintenance. While Movable Type is a very powerful and capable blog platform, it takes quite some effort to maintain and keep up to date (e.g. I’m probably a few versions behind on the installation), which is something that is entirely taken care of by Blogger itself on the new platform. Additionally, posting to Blogger (without third part software - I recommend MarsEdit for those on a Mac platform) is a lot easier, especially when you want to include things like images, which given the subject of the blog is more or less a necessity. This should make it easier for the blog authors (two of us) to post new stuff.

• Exposure. Like it or not, the big boy in the club of blogging is Blogger - all of the buzz and action around wargaming blogs is in the fairly tight knit Blogger wargame blog community, and Tiny Tin Men fell completely outside that when on my own domain. Even though TTM has been around for a very long time, it gets only a fraction of page views of some of the other wargaming blogs. This is not so much an issue of ‘fame’ for me as much as one of forcing me to update the blog a bit more regularly. I figure that with more exposure, it will encourage us to post more.

So, as of this post (which goes out to both blogs), only the new Blogger Tiny Tin Men will get updated. The old (nirya.be) site will remain online as long as I have my domain (which I foresee to be pretty much as long as I’m alive :) ), but posting and commenting to it will be disabled as of now.

So everyone point your browsers towards and update your bookmarks to:

http://snv-ttm.blogspot.com

As an aside, I was looking at tinytinmen and ttm as host parts of the URL, but both are taken by blogs that have three posts and are inactive for months, reps. years. Oh well :)

Mad Oleg’s bunch:

Dashing Dmitro’s rabble:

The figures are again from The Assault Group, except for Mad Oleg who is from Foundry (where he is called Red Renko).

Again Warlord Games figures, which I must say are growing on me. These have a few bits from the British Celt box set on them (notably the leader and the spiky haired guy next to him).

(And yes, the peeling shield transfer on said spiky haired person has been fixed since taking this photograph :) ).

While I initially did not like these figures, and am still a bit doubtful about their poses (if you don’t pay attention to posing, you end up with a war band of figures in one of two poses: ‘I need to go to the toilet NOW’ and ‘I’m in the process of tripping over this bunch of grass here’) I must admit that all ranked up (so to speak) they do look better than expected.

Figures are from Wargames Foundry.

The figures are from good old Wargames Foundry.

For this game I painted up a number of extra vignette and scenery figures. First off, Foundry’s marvellous Bavarian looters with accompanying angry farmer (a Ral Partha Ravenloft ‘angry mob’ figure kindly donated by Phil). As an aside, the Bavarians were painted up as being from IR 11 Kinkel, inspired by the wonderful plate in Osprey MAA 106 featuring the soldier from that regiment dozing off on the job while holding a piglet (of unknown regimental lineage):

A vivandière (Warlord Games) and a fellow who has sampled too much of her wares (from the Foundry Blacksmith set):

And finally some French casualties (again Foundry):

Most of the figures are Citadel / Games Workshop, from their Bretonnia range, early nineties. I even discovered some plastic knights from the MB game Battlemasters, which serve just fine. A few figures are Wargames Foundry.

Medieval armies provide great opportunities for heraldic devices, so I designed a couple of heraldic motifs that were easy to paint, or for which I had transfers lying around. The flags are from www.warflag.com .

The King is a small conversion from a plastic GW Bretonnian knight. The horse is based only on itshind legs, the king’s head is repositioned, and his weapon arm is replaced to bear a mace rather than a lance. The standard bearer is an old GW figure. His horse is emblazoned with the heraldic device of our wargaming club ‘Schild & Vriend’.

The King leading a column of knights.

Knights ready to charge. Note that each knight has an individual heraldic design.

Another view of the knights. A couple of knights in the 2nd row are plastic figures from the Battlemasters game.

I painted the archery in various simple colors. The flags are printed on paper, and given their ‘wavy’ effect when glued together.

Knights on foot. Again, each knight has a unique shield. The more complex designs are painted with the help of transfers.

The ‘Leuvense Garde’. I like giving my units fake names, in this case they bear the arms of my hometow Leuven. Figures are not Games Workshop, but Grenadier. They are a bit out-of-period, being late-medieval, but who cares, really?

An old Citadel organ gun. The two looters in the back are Wargames Foundry.

The siegetrain. The trebuchet is a recent model from Citadel, the mantlet is from Wargames Foundry.

This SF campaign uses houserules for skirmish SF gaming, and the setting is definitely not doom-and-gloom WH40K, but more a mix between the StarTrek-MosEisleyStarWars-2000ADComic styles. Figures are mainly old Citadel figures from the 80s and early 90s.

Anyway, below are some pictures … not of too high quality, I’m afraid.

Overview of the pirate compound.

StarMarines of Gamma squad (aka Von RattKopf's Jammers) storm the compound.

Beta squad (aka The Shadows) prepares to attack.

Delta squad (aka The Reds) has breached the defences and engages Krypton Venk in close combat.

As part of the campaign (this is the 2nd game), each player has to write up a mission report, from the point-of-view of his squad.

Beta squad report (written be player Bastiaan Proot)

Our continuing mission to restore order to the Galaxy has led us to Kalahari V, where space pirate Krypton Venk established a base and was pillaging the planet's valuable artifacts.
Long range scans showed the base to be a small group of primitive buildings, next to a narrow river, surrounded by rough terrain. We had few options to choose from for our approach. Landing the shuttles safely was precision work.
Immediately after disembarking we came under long range Q-Cannon fire originating from the base. Luckily the shots weren't very accurate and the terrain provided ample cover to give us the opportunity to organise our attack on the compound. They were obviously expecting us. Fighters were dug in deep and had every approach angle covered. Starfleet Counter Intelligence needs to look into this: information about our imminent arrival got leaked or these outlaws have access to more advanced detection technology than we think.
Long range rocket fire proved virtually useless against the defences so a direct assault was ordered. My squad had the right flank. Our attack would concentrate on the building where the Q-cannon was deployed. We started to move in closer, first from cover to cover and eventually crossing the open ground towards the buildings. Enemy fire was punishing. Several marines got heavily wounded right away while our return fire didn't have any obvious effect. Specialist Leiffson got shot in the face and died on the spot.
By that time the assumption that all enemy fighters were inside the compound turned out to be wrong. An unknown number of the enemy fighters were trying to get around us and attack us from the back. My squad had to be ordered to back out from the assault to counter this maneuver. It turned into an ugly brawl really fast. Enemy fighters jumped out of the bushes left and right. (And no, these were not them wimpy "Salad people" the Jammers reported about.) We threw everything we had at them at close range. Eventually running low on ammo, we had to take 'em down in hand to hand combat.
When the dust cleared, Grakl the Razide, wanted in numerous star systems, lay dead on the ground. His companions had retreated. Nelson and McGraw got severely wounded in that engagement. Then word came in from the other squads that they had overrun the base and that Venk had surrendered.
Together we then secured a large amount of stolen artifacts and proceeded to dismantle the base. Several other high profile outlaws were taken prisoner. We then returned to the fleet with our dead and wounded.

Gamma Squad report, written by player Bart Vetters

In the operation to apprehend pirate Krypton Venk on the planet of Kalahari V, Gamma Squad carried out a successful insertion in shuttle Werenfried. Gamma's mission in the plan was to advance up the left flank and attack the central compound suspected of housing the target from that flank.
Immediately upon landing, the shuttle came under ineffective fire from a Q-cannon situated on the roof of one of the compound buildings. As the shuttle had landed in an area devoid of cover, pilot Brand remained in the shuttle and piloted it to a safer position using the microhover mode. The rest of the squad exited the shuttle and commenced the flanking maneuver.
The flanking maneuver went unopposed until Gamma squad members entered a patch of native vegetation. Several members came under fire from the compound, while inside the vegetation, a native lifeform made threatening advances towards the squad. Star Marine Waldheim dispatched the native lifeform with accurate boltgun fire and proceeded to take samples for later investigation. Meanwhile, the rest of the squad was suffering from accurate fire from what appeared to be a small golden apparition in one of the compound buildings.
While the remaining two squads in the operation were still advancing towards the compound, Star Marines Waldheim and Packard were incapacitated by this fire. The remaining active members of the squad, Sergeant Schiffer and StarMarine Kretz, nevertheless bravely participated in the storming of the compound and left the protective cover of the vegetation in a charge befitting the long and rich tradition of Specops StarMarine operations.
Unfortunately, mere steps outside of the cover, Sergeant Schiffer was cut down by a hail of accurate fire and moments later, StarMarine Kretz fell under the claws of K'z'r'x the Termagant, still meters from the compound walls.
While this storming of the compound was ongoing, I, pilot Brand, moved the shuttle up to pick up the incapacitated members of Gamma Squad. I was just in the process of positioning the shuttle for eventual exfiltration when the signal came over battalion frequency that the pirates had surrendered and the mission was completed.

Gamma Squad roster after operation Venk:

• Sgt Schiffer - killed by fire storming the compound. Unfortunately, his wounds were too severe to revive him.

• Private Packard - incapacitated by fire

• Private Waldheim - incapacitated by fire
• Private Kretz - killed in close combat by K'z'r'x the Termagant. Medical technology however sufficed to heal him and bring him back to operational status by next mission
• Star Marine Pilot Brand - piloted shuttle Werenfried in a succesful insertion, intramission maneuvring and post mission exfiltration. No wounds received.
  

Recommendations for Specops HQ

• Cross train squad members in the use of heavy weaponry.
• Invest in unarmed recon drones.
• Investigate the samples of native lifeform.
  

No report received yet from Delta Squad ... (should be written by Koen Devroey)

Comrade sgt. Moss reporting the actions of The Reds on Kalahari V, where the mission involved the arrest of space pirate Krypton Venk.

In the pre-mission briefing we were instructed to take up reserve positions, guarding the rear, including the shuttle we landed in.

After a succesfull dust-off, Beta squad took to the right flank and Gamma squad took the left in a classical pincer approach to the suspected hideout.

Gamma squad came under heavy fire very soon by something - or someone - rather shiny. It must have been polished hard armour, for the shots fired by Gamma squad couldn’t even distract it.

When we saw that Gamma squad was under heavy fire and was taking casualties and that also Beta squad was getting bogged down, we knew there was no time for subtleties. I gave the order to private Le Clerc, a veteran from the ill-fated Alpha squad, to lay down heavy covering fire with some missiles while we charged in. Le Clerc was able to incapacitate the gunner of a Q-Cannon. That couln’t prevent however that our pilot Vranitsky, boldly leading the way in, took three bullets from a western-movie-looking-guy and went down, buying enough time for me and private Cohen to jump over the defence works, inside the compound and in to hand-to-hand combat with the western guy and Venk himself. Private Ilnitch and private Le Clerc followed suite, covering our rear. While I was in combat with Venk, Cohen took care of the western guy. Venk, seeing that the number of minions around hem getting slim, tried to escape the combat. However, I was able to persuade him to surrender with some convincing boltgun bursts through his legs. He soon ordered his minions to stand down. Just in time, as it turned out, for privates Ilnitch and Le Clerc, who were both incapacitated by a hellhound.

I was wounded twice during this action, private Cohen once. Private Vranitsky somehow managed to survive the action, some say because of the attentions of a skillfull female medic in medical bay.

We strongly recommend basic medical training for all squad members or the inclusion of a medic for future actions.

When I moved to a new house about 4 years ago, I decided I wanted to keep a journal, making an entry for every wargame played in the wargaming facilities. As I already was a fan of Moleskine notebooks, I bought myself a new one, and started to make battle reports.

The reports are interspersed with photographs, briefing sheets, some memorabilia from times long gone. In essence, it is becoming a bit of a wargaming scrapbook. Just the way I like it.

These are Cossacks from The Assault Group and were painted to fulfill the role of light cavalry for either side in my Great Northern War armies. More are to follow. This particular lot I named the Siniĭ Cossacks. If you know Russian and Google Translate was correct, you’ll see why :).

The basing might seem a bit funny - they’re on 60x20mm bases which look a bit too long and narrow. But that’s intentional, as the unit of 6 figures will have the same footprint as a regular cavalry unit (which I base on two 60x60 stands) when closed up.

They are all Redoubt ACW engineers, but with a number of the heads replaced by Victrix French Napoleonic heads. They were painted up as 9 generic pontooneers or engineers and three barge- / boatmen. Useful figures!

Nyland Horse:

Figures are from Reiver, with the squadron leader’s horse (the falling one) from Front Rank.

And the 6 pounder battery:

The gun and bucket man figures are from Foundry, the other two figures are Reiver.

The flag is of course totally ahistorical (I don’t think the cavalry units tended to take their standards along on campaign and this flag is obviously seriously over dimensioned), but that’s a bit of wargamer’s license I’m totally comfortable with :).

Figures are Wargames Foundry, painted in two layers.

Since last post, I’ve constructed two extra powder carts and an extra one horse cart. Some have been primed (I’m using black gesso these days — I’ve given up on finding a good matt black spray paint at the local DIY shop), and painting is underway on two of them. I’ve decided to use a full two-layer paint job on them (which is as high as I go these days, painting quality wise) instead of a quick dry brush job which I usually do for equipment and scenery. So all this will take me a bit longer to paint up :)