Peterborough Wargames Club

I'd like to switch hats for a moment (to the Club Committee Member one) and briefly usurp my blog to draw folks' attention to the new
Peterborough Wargames Club website.

As we have plans for two or three events this year that will be open to folks from outside the club, and are intending to put in appearances at several shows, you might want to keep an eye on the site for updates :D

We've been meaning to get rid of the old one for quite a while, as it's past its prime and a bit of a headache to maintain, even after we moved it to my new shiny server. The new one runs under WordPress (which has been somewhat educational) but does allow multiple people to manage and update it without requiring them all to have mad HTML skills or Unix wizardry.

Photographing miniatures part 2 - Controlling light

[Leaving today's post a little late due to visitors :D However, definitely not going to break the streak, so....]

Photography. The word comes from two Greek roots:

photo- of or related to light; 

-graphy [...] a process or form of drawing, writing, representing, recording, describing, etc.,or an art or science concerned with such a process.

If you like, what we're talking about, then, is drawing or recording with light. And indeed, the key thing about taking a photo is controlling how much light reaches the film (or in this day and age, the camera sensor), in order for it to receive the amount of light it needs to record an image. Point and shoot cameras make this surprisingly easy by virtue of making some clever compromises, but it helps to understand the nature of the problem to use a point and shoot, or a (D)SLR to best effect. There are four major parameters you can control to a greater or lesser extent while taking a picture, depending on your camera. The art lies in working out which ones you can compromise on and still get what you want.

At a very simple level, a camera consists of a lens and a shutter that opens for a set amount of time to a given width of opening to allow light on to a film or film equivalent. The things you get to control within the camera are the time the shutter is open for (the shutter speed), the size of the opening (the aperture) and how responsive the film is to light (the film speed or ISO rating). The first two together are called the exposure.

Shutter speed

The longer the shutter is open, obviously, the more light will reach the film. [Oh, screw this. It's a digital world. You know I mean sensor, so let's use the word!] Easy enough, but the compromise is that the longer you leave the shutter open, the more prone you are to camera shake. However... we're not photographing something that moves, so there are some easy solutions to this (like, say, tripods!) which I'll cover in a later post.

Aperture

This one's a bit cleverer: the bigger the opening, the more light gets through, obviously enough: equally obviously, I hope, you can trade off aperture against shutter speed - the bigger the opening, the more light, so you can get away with a shorter shutter for the same effective exposure (amount of light).

However, it's not that simple. Precisely why I'll leave for another post, but in a nutshell, the wider the aperture, the narrower the range of distance that's in focus (the depth of field). So your trade off is wide aperture, lots of light, half your ranks of figures (in extreme cases, half your figure!) is out of focus (in extreme cases, half your figure!); narrow aperture, less light, but your ranks of figures are all in focus.

ISO Rating

This is pretty simple. Back in the days of film, some films were more sensitive to light than others, by design, so you could go for a 'faster' film, one more sensitive to light, to shoot in darker environments. In these days of digital cameras, the sensor itself can be set to a different ISO rating for each shot. The tradeoff is that the higher the ISO rating, the more sensitive the film is, but the more prone the image is to appear 'noisy' or 'grainy'.

Next time, we'll put some numbers on these, and explain how they interact, and maybe a little of how point and shoot and phone cameras get round the problems.

Oh... the fourth thing you can change? The actual amount of light on the scene you're photographing! :D But that's a whole other story.

Battle Report - 28 Jan 2013 - Dux Britanniarum

Andy's gorgeous wagon train.

You know how it goes by now - place terrain, roll for the scenario. I won the roll off, and got to place two big woods and a hill down the middle of the table, rather hoping I'd roll for something that made them an impendiment to Andy's forces. It sort of worked: the wagon train scenario puts the British levy in a fort at one end of the table and the rest escorting wagons from the other end of the table. The Saxons get to start on one side, but the Britons get d3 moves first, before they find out which side the Saxons come on.

"If you go down to the woods today..."

I worried a bit, because it seemed I could lose out quite badly, as there was a tempting gap between the trees for Andy to duck through if he rolled well enough and then I had a 50/50 chance of winding up the wrong side. As it turned out, he only got two turns, and I wound up on the 2' of table edge to the right of his starting position, with some of his force the wrong side of the slow moving wagon train.

Next roll, how many groups come on in my first move. 

One. Phooey.

My hearthguard (wolf banner) about to turn onto a
very tempting flank.

Oh well. Better be the hearthguard, then. Aelfric, Godric and half a dozen elites activated quite late in the turn, advanced just enough to be intimidating. Andy turned his warriors and levy to face, leaving a gap between them and a patch of rocky ground that was just wide enough for me, without requiring me to pass through their zone of control. So I took it, rolled well, and made it to the middle wagon, who, wisely deciding that a tall Saxon with his spear levelled at you is always right, decided he'd go my way. 

Next turn my Lord's card came up early, and the unit that just nipped through the gap was behind the flank of that formation of warriors and levy... and I had a Carpe Diem card, which means it's a flank attack. For once, my dice didn't desert me, and one of the two groups... I think the best word is disintegrated. [As an aside: I think we messed up the rules a bit here, so will be asking the Oracle!]

My hearthguard leg it.

Things got a bit interesting about then - I managed to deploy the rest of my groups, and then Andy's Lord peeled off a unit of hearthguard off his big formation and waded in on my elites, with a decent hand. Two rounds of combat and half my hearthguard (and my Lord and his champion) were headed for the edge of the table. Fortunately, they didn't make it all the way there, before turning to flee to a somewhat further away friendly edge.

Meanwhile, Andy had backed his remaining unit away from the big group of hearthguard and warriors threatening it. So Ecgwine and a unit of warriors decided to follow, after a glance over their shoulders to where Maximus Minimus was making a good legionary pace out of the fort. The resulting scrap in the wood forced the Britons back a bit further. 

Next up, or close to it, I get to activate Aelfric, my Lord, who's obviously got to part company from the fleeing heartguard. Not that it matters, since he's got three activations. So. Activation one. Draw a card, just because I'm one short and it might be useful. (It isn't.) Activation two: realise I'm well within command radius of the big block of warriors and remaining hearthguard facing off the British hearthguard. Order them in!

Andy has an Evade card, so his hearthguard scoot backwards out of the fight, leaving me to wade in on the rest of the British. My dice almost let me down in the first round, but finally Andy's (for once) desert him, he loses the fight by 3 kills and falls back.

Ecgwine (on the right) has just pushed through the woods
and cleared out another unit of Britons.

Oh - nearly forgot - activation three, move Aelfric and Godric away from the unit that's lost its amphora!

Ecgwine follows up through the woods, hits the retreating unit again. It loses its amphora. Somewhere not long after that, Andy, perhaps wisely, decides to call it a day. I, being well aware that I'm here for the wagons, not to kill British (though I have killed quite a few), elect to let him.

A look at the table layout, with the fort at the top,
and the Saxons original deployment edge bottom right.

End result, a +4 win to me. A Thief's Hoard of loot, a month's uncontested raiding and two more figures to one of my units of warriors. Can't be bad.

As ever, thanks to Andy for a great game, and equal thanks to the guys at Lard Island for producing a brilliant set of rules.

"To Britain's Shores" - Chapter 6 - The Baggage Train

"D'you hear that?"

Odin's balls, but that lass has keen ears. We're flat on our faces on the edge of a wood near one of the Britons' forts, me, Aelfric, Edgwine, Lavinia, and half a dozen of the hearthguard, and behind us further back in the woods are Beornwulf and the rest of the lads. I'm damned if I can hear anything, and equally I'll be damned if I let her know that. "Aye. Can't make out what it is, though," I lie.

She frowns, a crease between dark brows. "Sounds like a wagon. More than one." 

Ecgwine tilts his head, listening, nods. "Aye." 

Blasted kids. Aelfric works his way back a little deeper into the woods. "We'll take them, if they're light enough guarded. And remember, we're here for the gold, not the killing." 

I grin at him, "This time."

---

We come running out of the woods towards the Britons, yelling and screaming at the top of our lungs. There's a moment when I glance over my shoulder and realise that the rest of the lads are a bit further behind than I'd really like, but Aelfric grabs my arm, points to the gap between the nearest group of Britons and a patch of bare rocky ground: "Go for the wagons!" And he's off, the rest of us hard on his heels, cries of "Odin! Odin and the Young Wolf!" as we barrel past the startled bunch of British warriors, who I notice are headed up by that Geraint we had as hearthguest a while back.  

The drover of the middle wagon stares, wide-eyed at me and the spear I have levelled at him. "That way..." I jerk my thumb over my shoulder, back where we just came from. He swallows, nods repeatedly and rapidly, and tugs on the lead rope. The oxen hauling the cart don't know or care about allegiance: they just go where he leads, and self-preservation wins out over loyalty. 

"On me. Charge!" Aelfric again, turning to our right, where, joy of joys, Geraint has formed up his men to face Beornwulf and most of the rest of the lads. Caught between Fenris and and the Midgard serpent, he is: we're behind his flank, and their wall of shields is a cumbersome and slow thing to turn. It's swift and bloody, half his men gone in next to no time. About then, though, their big Lord orders his personal guard up and into us. They fight hard, no doubt about that: I manage to lay a blade on him, but it's clear after a moment or two they have the beating of us, and we fall back. 

I have to say, Aelfric looks remarkably little bothered by that, or by the couple of arrows from Lavinia and her little band that whistle past a shade closer than I'm comfortable with. He grins at me, savage like the wolf they've named him for, nods at the scattered few lads from our group running for the safety of the woods. "Never mind them. We've got this." Voice raised. "Beornwulf! NOW!" 

Beyond Beornwulf I can see Ecgwine urging a group of warriors into the woods after some of the Britons, and beyond that their fort, and their little man leading a bunch of their levy towards us. Too little. too late. The thought amuses me, and Aelfric's laughter is infectious: we've done our bit, and watch as Beornwulf at the head of a dozen screaming warriors and the rest of our hearthguard charge in. Their Lord's guard back away, and our lads crash into what's left of Geraint's force. It's a messy, protracted scrap: Aelfric, damn him, just leans on his spear and watches, apparently unconcerned, just nods once as the Britons finally waver and withdraw. Another glance at me, and an almost boyish grin. "Got them now."

---

He's still grinning back at Wulfhere's steading, and when we're done unloading the loot, he raps his spear on the dais, thrice, hard. 

Silence.

"This..." A handful of gold and silver, held up for them all to see. "This was what we came for. British gold. Caesar's gold." That savage smile. "Our gold." He tosses that handful to Theobald. reaches for another. "They'll be sorely hurt. We raid again, while they lick their wounds. But then...." Another handful of gold to another of the hearthguard, "Then we bring them to battle. Then, we take their lands!"

The shout goes up, as he scatters gold, even-handed, amid the rest of the hearthguard, and, I notice, tosses a purse to the scop Oswulf. "Aelfric! Aelfric! Young Wolf!" And then, first one, then another, till every throat raises the same chant. "Drohtin! Drohtin!" Warlord, they name him. 

I look across at Wulfhere the Red, sat on his great chair, impassive, that huge axe he favours across his knees. And the old fox just nods at me, approving, perhaps, as the chant rings in the beams and rafters of his hall. "Drohtin! Drohtin!" 

He's seen this day coming. 

Photographing miniatures part 1 - starting at the end

I confess that I'm usually pretty lazy about this - point the iPhone at the figures, cross fingers, click. The problems with this approach are many:  the iPhone's a pretty awesome camera, but it is fixed aperture and autofocus, which means you do have to rely on its own idea of what constitutes a good photo and good lighting. It's surprising what you can pull off doing this, but there are better ways, especially given a basic understanding of a few core principles of photography, even a fairly basic camera, and a small outlay in extras.

Hohum. You know, I've got to here, and realised this is another series in the offing, since I do actually have a pretty decent grasp of the theory of photography. Oh well, it was probably inevitable, since at least one of my series is about to finish. (Really, it is. What do you mean you don't believe me? :D)

Ah well. Never mind, It's not like I was short on posts.

So. By way of an introduction, here's what I used to take the photo in yesterday's post. Essentially, it was a cheap and cheerful light box tent from Amazon, along with a Canon DSLR (although for this approach a decent compact with flash would have done). The whole thing folds up (with a little effort and remembering how) into a bag the size of a tea plate, and unfolds to a white cube about 50cm on a side.


The inside of the cube has Velcro fixers for attaching various colour backgrounds, which also come with the kit, and a front panel with a slit in it through which you can poke the camera lens. You might think, "why bother, when I can just leave the front open?"

Ah, well...

The nice thing about the box is it lets light in, and also diffuses it: the trick I pulled for the Judge Dredd figures was to poke the front of the lens through the slot, but leave the flash outside so the translucent material diffuses it and makes it less harsh.

Standard of painting notwithstanding (hey, I don't claim to be any good at THAT!), I think you'll agree that the photo's an improvement on the 'iPhone on the kitchen table' approach. Of course, the bad news is that it shows up everything you missed, and that's compounded by the fact that the flash is still strong enough, even though it's diffused, to blast through thinner (and thus not completely opaque) layers of paint and generate slight reflections off the underlying metal. Even if they look opaque under normal light, it's surprising what a strong flash or bright daylight work lamp shows up.

Next time (here we go again! told you it would be a series!) we'll discuss light, and how you can make sure the camera gets enough.

[And no, this wasn't the announcement either :D]

Judge Dredd

Ok - I confess: I am in fact an unrepentant Judge Dredd - and particularly Judge Anderson - fan, to the extent of having written not one but two songs inspired by her, and having most of the original Titan graphic novels sitting on my bookshelf.

I'm a firm believer that comics can be as moving and powerful a medium as any other, and I will still hold up one particular Judge Anderson (well, actually mostly Judge Corey) story as an example. If you were a fan back in the day, and have a copy of the 2000AD Summer Special 1989, you'll know what I'm talking about - it's a short but stunningly powerful piece, not even in colour, called "Leviathan's Farewell'. Alan Grant was reportedly very annoyed that it was relegated to a one-off magazine that a lot of people missed. Fortunately, it's reprinted in Judge Anderson: The Psi Files 01, and I strongly recommend you go buy it just for that, even if that one story is the only hole in your collection. Several Anderson stories since reference back to it, and it's a necessary part of the canon, as well as being a stupendous piece of writing.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you how this was taken. 

Bearing that in mind, then, it wasn't exactly difficult for Rob to talk me into a game of the Moongoose Publishing game. And it was probably inevitable that shortly after that my Paypal account would have a nasty accident.

Here we have a bunch of Mongoose Judges, plus the Wargames Foundry Judge Dredd and Judge Karryn, and a Heresy Miniatures figure as a Wally Squad judge. Slight variation on my usual - these were undercoated in Humbrol gloss French Blue, and the basing is Javis grey ballast chippings with a wash of leftover Citadel black ink. And of course, these aren't historical miniatures, so aren't eligible for Curt's contest :D

A horse of a different colour... namely, grey plastic.

Twenty four Wargames Factory Persian horses, to be specific, ready to be coaxed into being some of what's looking like a rather large Parthian horde.

I am contractually obligated to give Curt first dibs on the photos once I'm done painting, but these should be the horses for the final part of the 'Horse of a different colour' series!

No, this is NOT the big announcement I was referring to.