Review

 I'm back! We survived our journey down South and actually made it there and back in 4.5 hours which is a minor miracle on our roads these days, we did encounter some push back from a 'smart' motorway on the way home which seemed to increase the congestion rather than reduce it. I was never one for conspiracy theories but I do wonder if the constant 40mph is more to cheese me off than continue the flow of traffic. We had a great week and were treated like royalty by my son and his partner, I didn't lift a finger for seven days. I also did well in the gifts department although nothing wargame related for the first time in decades, I did manage some nice books amongst other stuff.

 I had thought my wargaming was over for this year but I received an invite to a SYW bash at Dans just before I flew south for Christmas. It was fought out today and was very enjoyable even though it was Black Powder (with a heavy load of commonsense from the regular players). I was in command of the Austrian centre with six battalions of infantry and three squadrons of curassiers. Dan had devised a small meta game which would or could have an effect on each armies deployment, Fran who was the Prussian CinC was cautious but Rob as our commander put a lot into the scouting beforehand, therefore some Prussian forces would be delayed arriving while another lot just wouldn't turn up, we also managed to deploy forward so got a jump on the Prussians.

My brigade and supports ready to rush forward.

 

Nervously looking around for the rest of the Austrians.

The curassiers unleashed.

The plan was for our left and centre to move on the enemy while our right merely threatened the Prussians. On my first move my entire force went hell for leather against the enemy centre and found itself out on a limb in front of the entire Prussian army, Rob on the right would not subsequently move for several turns, Matt on my left got off to a slow start but eventually managed to move up to join me. I stood and took a lot of lead but weathered it well despite looking at one point as if my troops would retire. Matt now went against the Prussian right and somehow managed to be winning but lost all his cavalry and his infantry looked to be in trouble, it was now in desperation I brought my curassiers into the action, although they were never overly successful their continuous charges and support for Matt's Dragoons gradually wore down the Prussian line. Allied to the success at last of Matt's infantry these manouvres caused the Prussian right to retire from the field, a definition of victory from the jaws of defeat.

The Prussian centre folds

My men still stood in the midst of a hurricane of fire and despite everything thrown at them managed to hold their line. The Prussian left had now turned up and was trying to put pressure on Rob's small brigade but somehow Rob managed to hold them off. The pressure now built on the Prussian centre to finally try something to stabilise the situation but Fran failed to persuade his men to back him, instead they threw the towel in and retired.

So that was the last game of 2023 and it finished the year off on a high, especially as at one point it had looked like both Matt and I would be overwhelmed and sent packing only for the dice gods to turn half way through the battle in our favour. A great afternoon of fun and laughter.

What about the rest of the year, well not a bad year wargaming wise, I started and finished the Imperial Army of 1525 to face my Pavia French, I have had a little break from painting and am now unsure whether to begin or delay Phase 3, this being the introduction of troops from various Italian States, if I do they might consist of a pike block, a gun and a couple of mounted units. I had a daft idea to build up some Peasant Bands for the German Peasants War but those poor guys in reality should never stand a chance in a pitched battle, my next daft idea is to add more Swiss, but earlier than 1525 with the upcoming Steel Fist figures. These would be Confederation Swiss and not mercenaries for the 2nd and 3rd Milan Wars period. It's still all up in the air.

The Italian Wars of course took up quite a bit of my wargaming time here at home, with several chaps coming to refight some of the battles with Julian and I. It would seem I am a poor commander (new dice needed) for this period and have yet to gain success on the battlefield, but this is offset by the sheer enjoyment of seeing massed pike blocks and swarms of cavalry face each other across the table and everyone having fun.

I did at last manage to play a Chain of Command campaign thanks to Matt Crump who has valiantly fought the Hitlerites off as they attempt to kick in the rotten Soviet door around Smolensk and win Operation Barbarossa, something which now seems impossible to do, hopefully a full article on this later in the year. Is it getting colder?

I have not played as many ACW games as I would have liked here at home, but I did manage to field my War and Conquest forces thanks to Stuart Smith and my Seven Years War troops thanks to Erik Faithfull who journeyed to Casa Anderson.

And on the subject of Casa Anderson the builders are due to arrive in the third week of January so my home games will be on hold until it is all finished, I expect this to take at least two months, maybe three. I am not looking forward to the upset but it will I hope be worth it when I open the 'War Room'. If you can think of a better name then suggestions on a postcard.

I have finished my last map of 2023 a private commission for my nephew of Rorke's Drift which is to be framed and presented to someone as a birthday present, I really enjoyed doing this one (see the books above). This year I have drawn 406 maps for 49 projects. I have two new projects in the wings but am determined to see the year out before starting, one is warfare in the Indian Ocean just after the American War of Independence and the other is entitled Battles and Battlefields of the Peninsular War.

For a time there I had thought of stopping the blog or if not to simply cut down on the number of posts, I managed this for a few weeks then things ran away with me and there was a lot to say, also I do enjoy doing it so perhaps less posts in '24 but I should still be here.

I will finish with two recommendations to watch over the holidays, both on AppleTV, Slow Horses and Silo, the latter is an old one and one which I stayed away from as it didn't seem to be my cup of char, but I was wrong, so wrong I have even bought the books, I also intend at some point to buy the Slow Horses series as well. And I nearly forgot The Equalizer 3, bad guys get their just deserts, what's not to like.

Silo