Almost as cold as Missouri

 It is bitterly cold today and the high wind does not help, I now know how those troops feel staring at each other across Wilson's Creek. I managed to get the campaign moved on a bit having finished three map projects this week or at least got the drafts off to the authors, only two left so the pressure is off. The Confederates have made a successful withdrawal during the night and the Federal commander is chagrined but determined to follow and force an engagement.

 When battle does take place it will be a fairly large engagement, these are not the size of the later armies involved in Tennessee and Virginia but from a wargame point of view still a handful, it would be perfect for a Saturday afternoon and four or more players but that is beyond the realms of possibility for some time to come, a real shame. I am now looking, like many others to running something online, War and Conquest would be the easiest to play like this and I should be ready by the time the ACW campaign finishes to give it a try, if it works I would like to expand the games to WWII or even a SYW tussle.

None of my orders for the upcoming German platoon have started to arrive so I expect next week might be busy. As I do not have a deep well of patience I am going to try and finish the 23rd Foot for next week as I cannot simply put them to the side. I have the red coats and facings done so it is now only the fiddly bits left, the lace, leatherwork and weapons etc. once these guys are done that only leaves two heavy limbers which I will put aside.

One of my readers recommended "The Red Army Handbook" by Steven Zaloga and L.S. Ness, what a great book, much like Glantz this has opened my eyes to the Red Army in WWII and banished all sorts of preconceptions I had held on the conflict, it hails from 1998 but better late than never. My thanks to Steve C.

 That's really it for now, even my entertainment has been curtailed and I have managed only one movie this week "The Dig" on Netflix about the discovery of the Sutton Hoo treasure while binge watching "Bosch" on Prime, good police dramas are hard to find these days, what with defunding etc. The movie was pleasant enough and evoked a time long gone, it was based on a novel so the screenplay took liberties with err, most of the story, there were invented characters and the usual tip of the hat to modern mores, why, it just grates. At the end of the day I would have been just as happy never to have seen it at all.

 Missus gets her vaccine jab today, no word yet for me, so some good news.