I don't normally play these .

I don't normally do board game , being mentally scared playing a Gettysburg boardgame against 'R' and loosing EVERY playing piece of the Army of North Virginia ! -  I never got the idea of 'zoc' (zones of control) . But I came across this boxed game in Waterstones and I had vaguely heard good things about it and it's use of the Command & Colours system , So I bought it ! .

It uses a hex board with terrain hexes on top to produce the various scenario layouts , you also get command and resource cards to play and move your figures around . The rules seem simple enough , the skill is playing the right cards at the right time .

The game uses 15mm (?) figures to portray the various troop types,  here a German machine gun they are rather nice figures in a soft plastic , evidently the original game had hard plastic ones on sprues and numerous breakages getting them off it . 

There are 16 scenarios (sorry for the glare off the glossy paper ) I chose number three, the 2nd Division's diversionary attack at Loos . There are a series of very good videos on You Tube where a German chap plays through all the scenarios and provides some very handy solo adaptions .

The battlefield from the German side , they have three lines of trenches and the British gets a 'medal' when he occupies each of the lines plus one for each unit destroyed ., the Germans when they delay the British and remove attacking units . The British have done the pre-game bombardment and have cut the barbed wire in several places . Let battle commence ! .

P.S. the British won 6-4 on medals,  managing to capture the first two lines of trenches and cause severe casualties on the German defenders 

The Army of the Sublime Porte .

In between painting figures for 'A' and about six other dabblings I have got the first contingent of my Turkish force done . Here we see the Commander Omar Sharif Pasha , he's a Irregular 40mm figure made up from pieces from their Deutsche Homage range .

Here he leads his bodyguard of Lancers in an al fresco setting - seeing summer has finally decided to arrive , the cat had to be removed from this location for the photographic shoot as it's a favourite sunning place .

One of two units of Infantry , I'm not usually keen on firing figures but Irregular only do a firing pose so I've had to use that - it's growing on me slowly as it's different .

Omar Pasha meets with the German Naval attache , both up to no good I expect . The foot figure is a strange semi flat figure I got with an eBay buy and is 50mm tall , a bit big - but as a 'cameo' figure it doesn't matter , I painted him in a vaguely naval uniform . I have another batch on order but have thought of a scenario for a game using this small force which will be appearing soon .

The things that you come across .

I was tidying up the outhouse which is a general dumping ground for all unwanted things and has to be purged every now and again . I came across my metal toolbox - remember those canter lever tool boxes everybody carried their figures around in about 20 years ago ? - if you were a wargamer they were  SO de rigueur . In it was a sad collection of figures , samples of different ranges and odds and sods that didn't go anywhere . However I did find two unopened blisters of Foundry Bronze Age figures .

These were the remaining two of a couple of armies I bought twenty years ago (?) in the days when Foundry did some VERY nice deals - buy one army deal get the next half price ! - the don't do that sort of thing nowadays ! . There was a chariot model and the civilian casualty pack , these were the only ones not painted , so I thought I'd better get them done seeing they had been waiting only twenty years . 

Also there was this resin terrain piece which had been undercoated ready for painting , I have long thought I am suffering from "wargaming Alzheimer's " and I have no recollection of buying this and no idea who made it , so it will be getting painted as well .

Some of my completed Bronze Age Foundry 28mm figures .

Some painted figures for 1897 .

I've been busy painting some figures for my wargaming colleague 'A' who wanted some French for his 1897 collection to complement the British and Germans I painted a year or two ago . The figures are 28mm Irregular Miniatures.

Colonial Turcos , the units are designed to be used with 'A Gentleman's War' and gloss varnished to match his existing ones.

Chasseuers d' Pied , these are to be used as 'Marksmen' and so only number 6 figures .

Gun and crew on an Artillery base from 'Warbases' .

French Dragoons again from Irregular.

He also wanted another unit of German cavalry , so I painted up these Hussars .

Personality figures can play a large part in AGW , so 'A' provided these 'Willie' and 'Stadden' figures which I have painted to suit the various protagonists . These figures should be appearing on the tabletop soon .

500 miles done ! .

Well I've just completed my 500th mile in 1000 mile challenge and am celebrating with an ice cream , note how the dogs attention is somewhat distracted from the photographer's attempts to get him to pose .

An early start to the week .

Been a bit of a topsy turvy weekend , the dog has been to the vets for surgery to get his anal glands removed - it's a Spaniel thing they commonly suffer from it and he's started having painful abscesses on them so the vet though it best to remove them ( I don't think he will mind me discussing his medical matters with the world in general )  . Then my order from Irregular arrived ! .

The evil eye ! 

The upshot of this saw me at 5.30am this morning in the garden spraying figures with a black undercoat . I recently sold most of my Ancients off and have re-invested the money in 40mm Irregular Turks - being the logical thing to do to match my vaguely Balkans themed armies . Please excuse the state of the garden we've been on holiday and everything has shot up whilst we were away (well mainly the weeds and grass) and I'm in the process of reclaiming the garden (but being distracted by Toy Soldiers) .

This will be my General - Omar Sharif  he's made up from bits from their Deutsche Homage series .

The basic Line Infantry, wasn't sure on the firing pose but he's growing on me . I have a lot of other figures to paint for somebody else so it may be a time before these hit the tabletop but at least I've made a start.

" Now what's he up to ! ? "

The title is a quote from my dear wife to the dog as she entered our back garden . She knows me to well to think that the wood working will be domestic and must be for " your little men " . A progress report will follow or an embarrassing silence as the resulting debris are feed into the log burner .

Clash on the Glavna cesta , a AGW battle (part one)

My wargaming colleague 'A' and I are going to play a series of 3 linked AGW games , the result of one leading to the next scenario . Game one is an encounter between two advance guard forces meeting whilst moving down a border road between Treboria and Ferraro Rocher . 

'A' sent me a 40 point force for Treboria - 2 Dragoon units , a Horse Artillery gun , 2 infantry units , a detachment of Sharpshooters and a unit from the famed British Legione . Here we see the first elements of his force entering the table.

I chose 40 points for Ferraro Rocher , 2 units of Hariboan Lancers , 2 units of Mounted Gendarmes and 3 units of Infantry . The cavalry move onto my end of the table.

'A' has a 'Mad Scientist' with a 'Infernal Device' as a Cameo appearance.

I drew 'Oscar Wilde' ! 

My leading unit of Lancers (which are classed as swift) with the addition of a Ace card managed to move twice and deploy well in advance of the rest of my forces (the old pennies denote that the units have activated) , part two of the battle to follow soon ……….

Having A Right Sort Out ! .

I've recently sold off a lot of Ancient figures,  collections which have not been used of ages and I didn't think I'd ever really use again . This has left me with money to spend (more of which in the future) and perhaps  more important - space in the plastic boxes they inhabited . This has allowed me to sort out some figures that have been bundled away under my wargaming table for ages and will allow me to get around to using them . My Darkest Africa figures - collected nearly 20 years ago and in my pre-blogging era used a lot .  Here are the Natives in this box.

Here the Zanzibar Arabs and a load of casualty figures , these were some of my favourite figures - full of character . The bases are for baggage elements.

The British , Native Askaris and Explorers with the Porters bearing various loads . There have been a few breakages (spears mainly) and some of the paint and bases could do with 'tarting up' , It took ages to sort these out as I kept coming over all nostalgic over various figures . I now hope to get these back onto the table in the future and am wondering which rules to use .

Tribal Chieftain , drummer and Witchdoctor .

Arab Leader and attendants .

European Explorers , if I remember rightly the chap at the front is Stanley .