Reenactment of the Landings in the Dardanelles using miniatures.

Found on the Internet , a old postcard , not sure which set of rules the young man is using ?.According to Google translator -'The forts are destroyed  and the Allies land '.

 

2D in action .

Not so much a battle report as a collection of the 'Wofun' 18mm Plaxi-plastic in action on the tabletop - as I've managed to delete some of the photos from my phone (sorry bout that) .

The British push the French skirmishers back as the French infantry form 'ordre mixte' , the markers are for hits taken , three then you remove a base .

The 1st Battalion , 10th Ligne having moved through the village form into line .

The Frech Artillery on the ridge open fire on the advancing enemy . The guns are from a 2mm MDF sheet and a bit fiddly to put together (I enlarged the location holes with a small file )  , some people have replaced them with 15mm 3D metal  models . 

The French army prepares to defend the village.  You get 32 bases per side in the starter box , a total of 387 characters . I'm willing to believe they are not everyone's cup of tea - but having spent the last 50 + years painting toy soldiers the notion of being able to buy ready painted armies and within a couple of hours get them onto the table is very appealing . Flats are not popular with some people , but I have lots of metal flats and semi-flat figures so they are no problem for myself . I've ordered a few more 'sprue' in a combined order with my colleague 'A' to build up my existing force - overall I'm impressed with them .

 

 

Flats for the 21st Century .

My wargaming colleague 'A' has been expounding the virtues of the new plexi-glass 2D ready painted figures by the Romanian firm  Wofun  (WoFun Games (wofun-games.com) , so as an own Christmas present to myself I bought the 18mm Peninsula War starter box - it arrived very promptly in about ten days via DHL . I'm VERY impressed - I based up the box onto the bases that where included in my deal - tarted them up a bit and next day was playing a game with them .

One tip I found from other bloggers was paint the edges of the figures with a brown ink (GW Agrax Earthshade ?) which cuts down on the glare ., I also gave them a coat of  matt varnish . The British Line Regiments are six bases each of two strips giving a total of eight figures per base (48 to the Battalion).

One of the individual bases , the art work is by Peter Dennis and was originally from his 'Paper Soldiers' book .

The French Dragoon Regiment (click on photos to enlarge)

British skirmish bases , I see these as the modern equivalent of the old German flats , being ready painted means you can get them onto the table top almost immediately and let's face it my days of paint lots of small scale figures are well past .

Another nice touch is when you place your order they send you a link to a downloadable set of rules by Andy Callan - simple but effective . Will do a battle report using the figures that where in the box next blog .

 

 

Stevenson's Toy Soldiers

Some of Robert Louis Stevenson's toy soldiers, from the R.L. Stevenson Museum St. Helena CA. U.S.A. - Robert Louis Stevenson Museum - a bit worse for wear I'm afraid .

 

Roberts Louis Stevenson, forgotten hero of Wargaming ?

 

On the brilliant 'Man of Tin ' blog Happy Robert Louis Stevenson Day 13th November 2021 – Man of Tin blog (wordpress.com) there has been a series of articles about Robert Louis Stevenson's and his wargaming , which pre-date the much better known H.G Wells 'Little Wars' . Very interesting indeed everyone knows about H.G. but nobody mentions R.L.Stevenson which is a shame . He seemed to use quite complicated campaign rules which covered supply etc. , I'm not sure how the actual combat was adjudicated though ,there is mention of pea-shooters and rolled marbles (?) , I wonder if anybody has tracked down the actual rules used ? .

 

Bavaria sends aid to the Helenyk Republic .

Things have been a bit slow on the wargaming front here this last week , real life interrupted with various jobs around the house and so not much has got done . However I did get the semi-flat 40mm Bavarian figures that I cast up painted and based . I ended up snipping off their bayonets - they were just to slight and would not survive the rigours of the tabletop . These will be joining the forces of the Republic of Helenyka having been sent by Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to aid the cause . I rather like them, they have a dynamic pose  and of course the cornflower blue uniform is always a winner .

 

A tribute to H.G. Wells

I've just started reading this book* on my Kindle device , rather good I'm finding it as well . I've never read a biography of the great man, having seen various reviews of the existing ones which don't seem too impressive . I inadvertently read Claire Tomalin's biography of Jane Austen  .: Off piste reading (tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.com) and was impressed - it being a subject I'd not usually read , so I thought I'd try this new one on H.G. 

So in this Wellsian frame of mind I decided to set up a small game using my 54mm figures in his honour .

Both sides will have four units of infantry , a gun and crew and a cavalry unit . Here we see the 'Blue Army' commander General Mouters , I will be using 'A Gentleman's War' rules for this engagement hence the coin unit markers and hand of command cards .

The 'Red Army' commander General Crawley oversees his troops deployment . I diced for points of entry using the Featherstone method (1- Left flank , 2 - Left centre, 3 - Centre , 4 - Right centre , 5 - Right flank , 6 - come on as reinforcement ) 'Red Army' has got most of its units on table with only one in reserve , 'Blue Army' rolled two '6's so has two off table .

The patent 'AGW Turn Counter Device' is deployed and the games afoot !

* will his playing with toy soldiers be mentioned or relegated to an embarrassing foot note - or not mentioned at all ?