The Dutch-Belgians in action or Poirot's first Battle !

 

So over the last month or so I have been busy casting up and painting a Dutch/Belgian army using the 25mm Prince August moulds and now is the time for their first apperance on the 'Tabletop of Mars' 

Their Commander Brigadier H. Poirot (rumoured to be a distant relative of that detective chap!?) , rather a poor photo - must try harder !

The Dutch/Belgian force - the scenario is they must cross the table to secure a town - the French force will try to stop them .(the card is Poirot's trump card )

The Belgian 36th Chasseur Battalion , rather natty in their green uniforms.

Two Battalions of Dutch 5th Line 

Two Battalions of Dutch Militia , these are converted British Line - I  remodelled the Belgic shako into the older 'stovepipe shako with 'green stuff ' . I am looking forward to seeing how these chaps get on and will report back as the action proceeds.

Another 'Grand Day Out' !

 

With one thing or another it has been two years since I have been to a wargaming show so when 'A' invited me down to Partizan I jumped at the opportunity !. A rather poor selfie (due to my short arms ) , Me , 'B' and 'A' , we met up with 'B, at the show . We all got in on the concession rate - sadly nobody questioned our qualifying ages .

I was keen so see this game put on by 'The Paperboys' 

All hand cut 16,000 figures - one to one ratio Hastings !

Two units of Norman Archers 

The sheer number of figures was jaw-dropping !

The veiw from the top of the ridge - they played the game using Midgard rules and I believe it was a draw - Harold was killed but the Saxons still held half the hill by nightfall .

The show was packed with wargamers - very busy indeed .

I liked the use of 'teddy bear fur' in this game - Arras 1940 I believe - got a lecture from 'B' on the differences between Universal and Bren gun Carriers ! (trackheads !)

Interesting Japanese/Samurai game using 54mm figures '

They had got the snow effect just right , lots of figure conversions as well .

This WW2 Pacific game was massive !

The aircraft were well done as well.

The mountain side was magnificent, hundreds of glued on pieces of bark chippings giving a brilliant affect .

Of course there had to be this viginete !

Lace Wars game, was impressed by the Standards carried by these Regiments.( note to self I should invest more in banners instead of just photo copying them)

The Battle of Minden - with hundreds of superbly painted figures - a great spectical .

Just before we left we came across this game using 'lego' style figures and bricks .

Very clever system ! each unit came with its own casualty / status marker built in, as well as its own range device .

A very unusual idea , clever and VERY different ! . Well it was 'a grand day out' ! it was good to catch up with 'B' and to talk wargaming all the way down and back from the show with 'A' (click on photos to enlarge)

Re-basing rears it's ugly head again !

 

I said in an earlier posting that I had been doing a lot of clearing up and general tidying and I came across a box of painted 28mm ACW figures - mainly Perry and Wargames Foundry , they were all singularly based and I think I was going to use them with 'Sharpe's Practice' ? , However this had not happened and they had been stored and forgotten .I wondered how I could use them and hit upon the idea of using 'Rebels and Patriots' by Osprey , these are a fun set of 'skirmish' rules based on their successful ' Lion Rampant' series of rules .

They use 'units' of 6 or 12 figures , the suggested Confederate early war list has a unit of 12 'Shock' Cavalry , so I decided to rebase these figures to see how they would look.

I can't remember which Foundry figures these were from but they have been painted about 10 years ago and I need to paint up a couple more to finish off the unit . I'll post again when the baes are dry and finished.

A forgotten treasure refound.

 

We are busy redecoration the back bedroom so my gaming/painting has taken a bit of a knock . Whilst reorganising I came across my copy of 'Battle Cry' the C&C version of the ACW , I purchased it quite a long time ago and not played it much , so I thought it ideal for a quick game or two this week.

It was designed to be sold at ACW gift shops at various battlefields in the US , very eye catching and marketed to catch the non-gaming publics eye , plastic figures nice terrain and easy rules.

Easy to set up and quick to play - ideal for me this week !

A reminder of the past - I got it when the dog was a puppy - hence the chewed edge and corners - I obviously left it lying about unsupervised !

This weeks project - Jackson's Valley Campaign , starting with Kernstown .

'And now for something entirely different'

 

So I and 'A' decided we wanted a joint project to provide some 'head to head' wargaming , and hit on the idea of using the new 2nd edition 'By Fire and Sword' , a set of rules produced in Poland covering the wars of the 17th century. 

The starter set has two skirmish sized forces , rules, dice and tokens to set us playing . The problem is they are 15mm - it's a LONG time since I painted any 15mm figures and this was going to be a test of my patience - and eyes ! . First up Polish Dragoon unit - an easy paint as they are uniformed and simple.

These were not as easy - all different and a bit complecated . Each unit comes with a card that has all it's stats on it - the symbols are taking time to get our heads around !

The Polish Commander , who issues orders and helps rally troops .

The opponent - the Turkish Bey who is in charge of the Ottomans .

The skirmish level battles are fought on a 4x4 table and have a selection of scenarios . Here these Turkish light cavalry have been given a 'move' order . Interestingly the Polish company uses inches for the measurement in the rules !? 

Mid battle clash ! - I have based them all up , undercoated them and are SLOWLY painting them up . The Ottomans are a challenge with ornate clothing and no uniformity , also both armies are ALL cavalry ! - very different to what we are both used too .

My opponent 'A' studying the rules to find how we play them , it is a learning experience and we are slowly getting our heads around the rules , the mechanisms are fairly simple - using D10 dice , but the difficult part is deploying and using the different units properly ! . More updates and more painted units soon . (click on photos to enlarge them)

 

A bit of nostalgia

 

Been awash with nostagia this week and been sorting out some of the photos from my blog from the distant past (well 15 years ago) and found copies of these from my 40mm Imaginations project . This is one of my favorite photos , from H.G. Wells and the El-Gin Marbles showing some of the participants .

Another photo of the Dramatis Personae , stood in front of a revolutionary Steam Carriage .

This is a bit of an oddity from the vaults of the Felpersham University Photographic Collection (FUPC)*, I have been able to identify some of the people in the photo . from the left - Mr Oscar Wilde , Mr Armitage Shanks (?) , A Lady who is Not Mrs Wells and finally H.G.Wells . Hopefull some of these will be returning to the tabletop soon. 

* the advantage of having a Borsetshire Library/ University readers card.

Real Life halts Gaming.

 

Sorry for my absence from the Blogosphere but I've been busy with real life - namely the repurposing of the back-bedroom, this room just gathered junk - things got put there for "storage" and were forgotten - it also housed my library .So that room is being decluttered and I thought it best to resite my bookshelves into the 'wargaming' room . I also took the oppertunity to thin it out and reorganise the shelves. Still a work in progress ! 

I also sorted out the 54mm figures I have on display , years ago I decided I would collect figures that had to do with World War One pilots and aircrew - okay these three aren't piots etc BUT they are looking for aircraft - 54mm hollowcast probably Johillco or Britains , the one on the right is quite unusual leaning back on a chair ! 

These are larger, over 2 inches and are I think Manoil hollowcasts from the USA , I especially like the chap with the bomb . Hopefully thinks are now back to normal and I can get back to gaming and painting once more- watch this space ! 

PS Blogger seems to be acting strange once more and my 'Reading List' of blogs I follow doesn't seem to be updating properly ! Grr !