Wargaming wishes from my childhood.

 

Many many years ago in the childhood of your blogger I was occassionaly given an American comic - Superman, Batman etc, our next door neighbour, Mr Sharp who bought them and past them onto me (Mr S was an unusual chap who you wouldn't think would be interested in American Super Heroes !?). The facinating thing about these magazines were the adverts for various sets of toy soldiers ! . The one I always wanted was the American War of Independence - my exposure at this time was limited to the early Airfix HO/OO Guardsmen - and I lusted after these exotic figures ! . It was a wish that was never fulfilled - they wanted your 'zip code' - what was that !??? (of course it was the post code which didn't arrive in the UK till many years later) . Of course these figures where semi flats and at that time I would have been disappointed with them as you couldn't tell this from the dynamic advertising . I found this version of the advert which actually shows the figures being viewed  by two clean cut American children . . I had to wait a few years till Airfix finally brought out their range of British Grenadiers and Washington's Army.before I could realise my dream.

And so to the Cinema .

 

Me and the Mrs K went to the local cinema to see the latest Ridley Scott blockbuster - Gladiator ll . There are very few modern films that entice me to the pictures , and this new one I have seen mixed reviews about  , but I think it is a good follow up to the original ! . Shakespear it is not - but as a 'Sword and Sandal' spectacular it's good - very bloody , lots of CGI - I enjoyed it ! . People will moan about the historical accuracy and military equipment , but when has Hollywood ever bothered about that !? . I often judge a film by if I find myself checking my watch during the performance - I didn't whilst watching this one.

Recently on the tabletop.

A recent rather undocumented battle from the 'Back of Beyond' involving the Chinese Warlord Fung Shui and his quest for the 'Jade Buddha' in which his forces attack and try to cut the railway line thus depriving the Russians supplies and reinforcements - it did not go well for him.

The Chinese have Artillery !!!

That didn't shoot all game ! 

A strategically place White Russian HMG ., this proved the undoing of the Chinese left wing attack.

The Chinese Infantry move out of the cover of woods into the hailstorm of Russian fire .

The Chinese Mongolian Cavalry charge into the village and having driven off one Russian unit are shot to pieces in the deadly crossfire ! - Oh dear things are not going well for Fung Shui !

The White Russian Priest (with the look of Rasputin) encourages his parishioners in defence of the village and the impetuously charge across the battlefield and capture the Chinese Artillery piece ! at this point Fung Shui thought it was time to call it off and retire . Sorry for not recording more of the action but in the heat and excitment of the game I forgot !

 

On the painting table .

 

Finally getting back to painting and got these four Flint and Feather Indians armed with muskets finished - they have been waiting ages to get finished. They are Crucible Crush 28mm figures .

I also cleaned up added weapons and  based these Huron Great Warriors (?) to be painted next !, again Crucible Crush. I've got quite a lot of these done now and should get around to getting them on the tabletop soon 

Quick Friday morning game .

 

Well we have got the decorating done (for now !?) and having cleared off all the detritus that had gathered on my table I quickly set up a small 2D AWI game and I invited my wargaming colleague 'S' the "enfant terrible" of wargaming round for a Friday morning game.

The inital set up , I started with a force of three American militia and some Riflemen hidden in the woods - I would be reinforced by a couple of Continental Line battalions .'S' had four Line Battalions , Artillery and a few Light Infantry.

'S' advanced quickly to get into contact before my reinforcements arrived . Unfortunatly my Militia proved rather brittle and one by one fled the field .

Just as the Militia exited the field my Continentals arrived and counter attacked driving the British first line back ! - but the damage had been done with half  my army in flight, I conceded the game ! . The game was played using a simple free set of rules by Andy Callan which gave a quick fun game . We hope to link these games together in a loose informal campaign .

A view from the past .

 

The decorating is still in progress which is preventing much modeling/gaming - everthing is seeming to take longer than it should - all the painting is taking 2 or 3 coats and as I suspected all the walls are not level or plumb ! , flat pack furnishing is next ! ( Oh joy!!) . One thing the cleaning and tidying has turned up is the above photo of myself and Mrs K . It was taken about 20 years ago when we were camping at Whitby in a very small tent (we forgot to pack all the camping cutlery , plates, mugs etc and had to scourer  the town for replacements). There was a photographic gallery that did sepia period photos and so we had our picture taken . It may be a trick of the light but my beared and hair look a LOT darker than they are now ! .... It will be taking pride of place in the finished room !