Well that didn't go as planned.

 

Well this weekend was going to be devoted to wargaming - it didn't go to planned !.My wife dropped me off to walk the dog and said - "don't do anything silly !" . Whilst walking the dog I slipped on a muddy patch and painfully pulled a muscle in my leg ! , OUCH ! - for a while I thought it was going to be a "go for help Lassie/Charlie" however I managed to right myself and mud bismerched managed to hobble home . I spent the rest of the weekend with my leg elevated and only got back to the game today.The Prussians Cuirrassiers crossed the stream, chased off some Cossacks and clashed with the Russians Dragoons.

On the other flank the Russian Infantry advanced but came under cannister fire as well as flanking fire from the Frei Korps which drove the first line back - when a unit recoils it disrupts the units behind it so this had a detrimental effect on the morale of the following units.

The leading Prussian Grenadier was broken by the Russian artillery and fled , The Cuirrassier broke a Russian Dragoon regiment but had to retire across the stream to reform , the Prussian Brigadier was also a casualty (his replacement is one ability worse - hence the green counter)

On the other flank the Russians got into a right pickle retreating through each other and driving down their own morale - Oh dear ! they need to get a grip ! , to be continued ....

*I did not tell my wife of my accident till she returned - she didn't say anything - but her look confirmed her opinion of my antics.

Whilst the Cat is away !

 

My wife is away this weekend , so I thought it was the ideal time to set up a Seven Years War game using my Wofun 2D plastic figures . Nearest the camera the Prussians and in the distance the Russians - a new army that I have been slowly building up over the last few months .I will be using the Honours of War ruleset .

Frederick consults with his Cavalry Brigadier . I have yet to win against the Russians - they have inferior Cavalry but the Infantry is as good as the Prussians - but their Command system is slow and rather antiquated.

Behind the Prussian Artillery looking towards the Russian lines.

The Prussian Grenadier Brigade who (hopefully)will be supporting the Cavalry with an attack on the Russian right.

Prussian Frei Korp who will be annoying the Russian left flank , the coin is to remind me if they have been activated - they are a small independent unit.

The Russian General Staff - facing the wrong way (for the sake of the photo) and getting very enthusiastic ! - the Green counter denotes this Brigadier is 'Dithering' (Oh dear)

On the Russian left a unit of Cossacks - an independent unit of 'Inferior' cavalry.

On the Russian right - a Battery of Artillery Hopefully I will be able to report back on how the game progresses over the next few days .

Col. Logge saves the day .

The Patiogonian Indians spring the trap to soon ! (Army Blue had a run of cards and got carried away !),The allied Indians move forward and open a devistating fire on them ! 

Alerted by the gunfire Col. Logge moves up the regulars in the column.

The Gurkahs move up to take the ridge .

The Allied Indians slaughter their opposition and cause the remnants to flee.

Bothe the Gurkhas and the Indians rush up the ridge !

The Gurkhas reach the summit first and open fire on the Patiogonian Indians , who run off ! , 

The final Warband of enemy Indians are shot to pieces by the combind fire from the Allied tribesmen and the detachment of the Rifles. - at this point the Patiogonian Indians decide to quit the field .

The end game - Logge directs the fire of the Rifles into the fleeing enemies . At this point it became apparent that the battle was lost and the ambush had failed - due to the draw of the cards and the good shooting of Army Red - and the inability of Army Blue to gain the initiative. In Logge's report he takes the credit for the results of the skirmish . An unusual game , poor Army Blue never got going and couldn't hit a barn door ! 

I have been luck enough to be sent a copy of the above photograph from the librarian of the University of Felpersham . Both H.G. Wells and Kipling mention in their memories about meeting Lincoln Logge - Kipling said "he is a very strange fellow indeed" and there was a rumour that Logge corresponded with Wells with ideas for 'Little Wars' - Lincoln Logge seems to have a finger in every pie !

 

Saga or Greek Tragedy ?

So I thought I'd better update you all on the ongoing saga/tragedy of our internet - the Open reach engineer arrived as promised (Huzza !) and did some tests on the line and scratched his head (not a good sign) and said "I'm going to have to nip up the village to the green control box" - he left half his tools with us so I was comforted to know he wasn't going to do a runner ! . He returned abot half an hour later and said he'd fixed it ! (Huzza) . When we got rid of the phone line connection and somebody had altered us to the fibre optics it had been connected to the wrong house ! - evidently quite a common mistake (!?)so it was fixed - Five weeks of no internet because of a fault that took abot fourty minutes to fix !. So normal service is resumed ........

Colonel Lincoln Logge marches into danger !

If Colonel*Lincoln Logge's somewhat eccentric memoirs are to be believed he had many adventures during the Great Patio War, so I decided to try and reproduce one of these on the tabletop. The Colonel leads a small force on a patrol across the Patio .

He has a small group of loyal Patiogonian Indians as advance scouts.

However their every move is being watched by hostile warriors.

Big Chief Escargot Killer has planned to ambush his arch-enemy.

He has enlisted the aid of Army Blue , Von Zeppelin and two units of Jeagers.

The table is set and the game will follow....... PS*. Where the rank and title Colonel came from is a mystery?

Two steps forward, one back

Well a bit of role reversal to the above, Mrs K works I cook. STILL no Internet BUT an Open Reach engineer is coming out - it seems to be the phone connection box in the house that is the problem, Hmm !? we will see (if you notice a media article about a pensioner holding a phone engineer to ransom- it's me !)

On the plus side I decided to get a new tablet as a back up device, called into the the EE shop in town and added one to my phone account (trying it out on this post), I enquired of the young woman who served me what the link between EE and BT was ?, evidently BT bought out EE for their shops - she added "BT are s**te ! , a statement I concur with ! . The photo above is of The Good Soldier Svejk I came across, he being one of my literary hero's

I break the unbreakable !.

Well we are without the Internet again, EE much vaunted "unbreakable wifi" (see TV ads) has broken, the hybrid hub they sent to boost the 4G signal suddenly stopped working about a week ago , spoke to their technical team-who basically said the hybrid hubs are s**te if you live in a rural area and seeing I was my broadband activation day wasn't far off it wasn't worth sending out an engineer. Yesterday I was out but received a flurry of text messages saying my broadband was activated! , on returning home I found it wasn't! .I rang them and a cheerful youngman said sort of 'congratulations your wifi is working' and was some what nonplussed when I told him it wasn't!. He did tests and found it wasn't and it appears it is the phone line in that is at fault (don't want to sound clever but I privately thought that, we've had issues with this before) , so an Openreach (spawnof the devil) engineer is coming to check it out ........ to be continued

A forgotten treasure.

I've been having a tidy and clear out of my library, the shelves have become cluttered with many books having to be double stacked- not an ideal arrangement. So I've sorted out the books and a lot which i will never look at again or not now interested in going to various local charity shops. Amongst the books that have surfaced is the above .

I had forgotten about it , but now i recall ordering it from the author himself (in the era when people did that sort of thing) probably via the Wargamers Newsletter, in the early 1970's and what's more the great man has signed it ! . I'm feeling much better now I've decluttered my collection and can actually see and use my library and pleased to have found this treasure and that my unwanted books have gone on to entertain other people.