A Blast From The Past.

Been sorting out some old photographs and came across this one . It's of myself (marvel at that facial hair ! - sadly greyed now ) and a very youthful 'S' behind the stand of 'S&A Scenics' at 'Northern Militaire ' and looking on the back of the photo it is dated November 1992  , 'S&A Scenics' are still going strong but 'Northern Militaire' died about 20 odd years ago - in fact the above photo may be of the last year ? .

The second one is off me being silly probably about the year 2000 or slightly earlier as it is in my old wargaming room . I think it's a 15mm Napoleonic battle using 'A's collection .

Crimean War Command Tokens.

I'm getting ready for the first Crimean game and have been making and printing off command tokens for the various generals . Using 'Paint' I've added command numbers to the opposing army flags , then printed and glued them to some MDF bases, then they are to be given a coat of gloss varnish . In the background can be seen essential refreshments , the tea is appropriately a 'Russian blend' from my local tea merchant a mixture of 'Keemun' and 'Lapsang Souchong'. Now to set up the table ! .

A Couple Of Recent Acquisitions .

A couple of 54mm figures I picked up on EBay and painted 'a la toy soldier' . No idea of the manufacturer , the right hand figure is a re-cast I think as it has rather poor definition . The left hand figure is of course Richthofen. I've been collecting World War 1 pilot figures for nearly 10 years now and have over 40 figures in various scales . 

Saturday Night Game At 'A's.

I went across to 'A's house on Saturday for tea - man food ! (pizzas and brightly coloured salty snacks) and a  SYWish  game of 'Black Powder' using 'A's newly painted 'Old School' figures . Here we see 'A' in jaunty mood preparing for battle .

We each had an advance Brigade on the table to start off with - here's mine . I took control of the Palatinate force whilst he had the Franconian army.

My Grenz move swiftly forward through the wood and engage his light troops .

My cavalry routed his cavalry and for some reason I forgot to take a photo of this achievement , so here's a picture of 'Fergus' the family hound instead ! .

My Frei Korp moved forward and took control of the objective of the game ( a abandoned redoubt) and came under fire from his Garde unit .

However I manage to get my Horse Artillery onto his flank and shot them away - here we see a rather sadder 'A' removing the casualties . His brigade had to take a test for the loss of the cavalry and the Gardes and started to fall back .

Luckily for him his reinforcements came thundering down the road to threaten my left flank , but unfortunately for him my reinforcements also came on - an elite Cuirassier Regiment and smashed into his leading regiment and routed them ! .

Here we see the victories Cuirassier chasing the Franconian infantry , the box is ready to put them in as they leave the table .

I was fortunate enough to get my next Brigade on very promptly - but they rolled a double 6 - and 'Blundered' ! - however my luck held and they promptly charged forward onto his right flank (obviously inspired by the martial display from the rest of my army !).

At this point 'A' decided that he would concede the game giving me the victory ! 'Huzza !' . Note the rather sadder demeanour of my opponent now he has been crushed under my martial jackboot !. A great game ! and the rules as always worked well .

We even had time for a couple of games of 'Lost Patrol' the quick and fun boxed Sci Fi game from Games Workshop ! .

A very successful evenings gaming and it was nice to see 'A's new collection on the table , it has inspired me to give my 'Old School' 30mm collection another look and wonder about rebasing them . !!!!!????

4th Light Dragoons .

The problem with the British cavalry in the Crimea is that there wasn't much of it ! , setting off for the Crimea the had to borrow horses from other regiments to bring them up to strength . Then they lost a lot of horses on the transport ships due to sickness and bad seas - so when they arrived at their destination the Light Brigade numbered under a thousand animals , this meant that each regiment numbered only about 200 men and horses . Translated onto the wargaming table this means that under 'Black Powder' the 4th Lt. Dragoons count as a 'small' unit .

Winner !.

I never win anything ! - as my dear wife points out "you have to take part to win !"- which is true , I'm not in the least competitive , I can't be bothered - in fact the only thing I've won was the 'Golden Goal' completion at our local football club - £10 I think , but all I had to do was buy a ticket as we entered the ground (the club seems to give the task of selling these tickets to the most winsomest young lady - which helps with the sales from mainly male attendee's) .

So when I got an email from a model/gaming shop saying I had won the above boxed game I was somewhat nonplussed !? . Then I remembered 'liking' them on Facebook - you know the sort of promotional type thing - the first 50 people to 'like' our site gets put into a draw and we pull a winner out . Being the low hung fruit of competiveness involving only a 'click' with the mouse I'd taken part and promptly forgot about it ! . I must admit I've never heard of 'Deadzone' but a internet search reveals that it is a Sci-Fi / post apocalyptic type game with plastic minis and terrain - perhaps not the sort of thing I would have bought myself , but seeing its free I'll give it a try .

Crimean High Command.

Think I've got enough troops done for my first game - just need some commanders for the brigades . Above is a Russian Brigadier for their infantry.

A British General who bears a resemblance to Harry Andrews , who played Lord Lucan in Tony Richardson's classic "Charge of the Light Brigade" .

Finally a commander for the British cavalry - General George Paget of the 4th Light Dragoons . I've two units of British cavalry done - 4th Light Dragoons and the 17th Lancers but I haven't got photos of these yet . Hopefully I will be able to get a game set up later this week to start playing with my toys ! .