No pasaran ! Spanish Civil War Campaign

 

I've been looking through Neil Thomas's 'One Hour Wargames' book wondering how to use it and hit on the idea of using his 'Machine Age' rules from the book with my 15mm Peter Pig Spanish Civil War figures .  He mentions playing a campaign using 5 of the 30 scenarios in the book and linking them loosely together . The forces are decided by a dice roll and use a maximum of 6 units per side which is great as I can do this by the existing figures I have with minimal painting of figures .

    The first scenario - a pitch battle - you dice for a scenario from each group of 6 scenarios . The forces deploy 6" in from the top and bottom of the table and the victory goes to the whoever holds the hill and the crossroads .

The table as set up , the buildings, walls etc are purely scene dressing and do not influence the game . The crossroads are nearest the camera and the hill top left .

The forces , at the top the Republicans 3 infantry units , a heavy infantry unit and 2 tanks .Nearest the camera the Nationalists 4 infantry , a heavy infantry and a tank . He uses only 4 troop types in the rules but as I didn't have any cavalry painted I substituted tanks which are mentioned as an option . The Heavy infantry represent troops with heavier armament and better morale .

The Nationalist General Luis Rosales deploys his troops ., is he saying "I want that tree cut down for a start !" ? 

The Nationalist army, nearest the camera an infantry unit and a heavy infantry on the road to seize the crossroads and hold them , in the background 3 infantry and a tank unit which will attack the disputed hill .

The Republican commander General Jancinto Benavente discusses his strategy with his staff .

The Republicans , On the road their 2 tank units and a infantry unit which will attack the crossroads then an infantry unit which will act as a reserve and in the background a heavy infantry unit and the remaining infantry which will take and hold the hill . The next post will be the battle itself .....

 

Lord of the Rings objective markers .

Back to wargaming articles - these objective markers have been half finish for months so when I returned from holiday I thought "I'll get these finished!" . The first one is a dwarf  siting by a campfire , it's an old Gimli casting slightly converted (he was sat on a dead Orc)  and the rocks are yellow foam cut up and coated before painting .

Here we have a beacon , again yellow foam cut to size and the fuel is match sticks cut up and painted .

A camp fire with a store of weapons (left a bit near that fire I think !) . The weapons are some plastic ones that have been collected in my bits box over the years and have finally got used .

Buried treasure tht somebody has been digging up ! - again odds and sods from the bit box . Since I started playing LOTRs again I realised a lot of the scenarios in the rules need objective markers to capture etc so this has spurred me on to get these done - just took longer than I thought .

 

New Recruits .

 

We've had a couple of deaths in my flock of hens , one through old age and the other from an undetermined sudden cause ,  I was down to 2 birds , so I thought it was time to cast about for replacements . 

There has been a huge increase in demand for 'back garden hens' since the onset of the pandemic and I have heard of birds going for ridiculous prices . However I managed to track down a local supplier and got 3 birds for £12 each and here they are above in the photos . The are a Maran (dark one) , White Leghorn and a Speckled Leghorn , I must admit I chose them for their looks rather then their egg laying abilities .

The are fairly young ones 'point of lay' as they say, so no eggs in the near future . There is a bit of bullying going on between the old established birds and these new ones (the pecking order) . I've had a couple of escapes - they can get through very small holes and I recaptured one in the back field and one in my neighbors garden , hopefully I have bird proofed the run now . Fear not some wargaming content coming up next post .....

Wargaming humour No. 32

 

Freshly reaped from the Internet 

A new wargaming cloth .

I've just been on holiday and before I left I ordered a new 6' x 4' cloth for my table , my old felt cloth was showing its age after about 20 years of service so I cast about for a new one .

Technology has moved on since I last bought a cloth and this new one is a sort of 'teddy bear' fur without the fur as it where . It's about 4" over the stated size which is useful as it allows you to build up hills under it . I decided not to go for the 'grassy' one - this is the  'Rocky Grass' version which  I preferred  . Here we see a column of Mexicans moving across the table about to be ambushed by the Texicans .

You can see how it drapes over the terrain under it , It was not cheap , but compared to the price of figures well worth it . I ordered it from https://geekvillain.co.uk/ , it was posted very promptly and sent post free so I'm a happy bunny ! 

 

 

Found on the computer files .

I was having a clean out of my saved photos in my computer files and came across these three photos which I must have been playing around with using Photoshop. Prussian High Command with a Dragoon escort . The figures are 30mm Tradition Generals and Foundry Dragoons .

French troops advance down a road , their progress overseen by a group of French General Officers . Spencer Smith Infantry , Tradition High Command figures .

Prussian Staff exchange orders as their troops march down the road , again 30mm Spencer Smith figures . (click on photos to enlarge)

Return to The Lord of the Rings

Several years ago I sold off my Lord of the Rings collection and re-invested the monies in other wargaming projects , however I won the above rules rather cheaply on eBay and inspired I thought I would have another go at it using some of the cheap plastic figures you can get second hand on eBay . (I need to wash my tea mug out as well !)

However the first two models are metal and are King Durin and his bodyguard Mardin armed with his trusty troll spear . It's nice to get back into painting fantasy figures for a change rather than uniformed rank and file , plastic goblins next I think .