A good night

 I am in hiding at the moment from everything Jubilee while my granddaughter and Evelyn remain glued to the television, I heard legendary waffle from Alan Titchmarsh talking about someone who was as close to a god as a human being could be, according to Al of course, so closed the door.

Back on terra firma the club game this week was Muskets and Tomahawks, an American force had set out to burn a blockhouse to the ground while the British and some locals tried to stop them, most of both forces were irregulars, even some sailors had turned up. Rob tried something different with the initiative cards this time, each side were dealt four cards to start the game, when one was used another took its place. This meant some difficult choices when you had a hand of cards only of use to the enemy but still had to play one on your turn, strangely this happened several times in the game with both sides reluctant to play and bring down hurt on their own troops.

My riflemen.

Jocks forward!

Indians.

 I was in command of some Scots on the British far left, opposite me was some Indians, that will have to do as I have no idea what the modern term is now, a gun, some irregulars and a squad of regulars, I decided to be aggressive and sent my musket armed men over a creek and through some woods, my rifle armed squad I kept at a distance and started picking off gunners, this was incredibly successful. Stuart threw his Indians forward but I beat them off with heavy casualties, the survivors tried again later but were wiped out by my devils in skirts.

Hold, hold......

 Elsewhere the American advance was piecemeal and looked like getting nowhere fast, eventually it did manage to get close to the objectives, a hut and the blockhouse, but there were still enough British to keep them from achieving anything. I had now wiped out the gunners and put enough casualties on Stuarts command that it could not advance and would surely fail the next morale check. I decided not to grab defeat from the jaws of victory and stood waiting in the woods until the enemy withdrew. My officer did get involved in a dual with his opposite number and sent the Frenchie packing, blood dripping from a serious wound. 

So all in all a good night for me and the Jocks. Simon also presented me with a present, a dice dungeon for wayward dice, anyone would think I was superstitious about the little cubes, but I think I might need a bigger dungeon.

 The Italian Wars project continues, I am now on to painting what I thought was going to be a French pike block led by Richard de la Pole, the last Plantagenet and known as the "White Rose", just as I had completed the middle ranks which contain the command figures I realised that he was in command of the Landsknecht mercenaries at the battle of Pavia, duh. My wargamers OCD kicked in and I cut the generic french flag off and replaced it with one more suitable for the 'Black Band' mercenaries. I am basing my armies for now around the battles of Biccoca and Pavia, this allows me quite a range of different troops, Germans, Spanish, Milanese, Venetian and Neapolitan to name a few. Once this pike block is finished I might move on to something else before starting on the second block as I have crossbows, cannon and cavalry waiting, the blocks can be used individually or brought together for a much larger unit. I shall have to consider getting some generals shortly.

 

Now they are correct, phew.

That's about it for now, I am taking the next four days very easy in training for retirement later in the year. I have caught up with all the priority mapping for now and will move on a 25 map project concerning General Suchet in Spain next.

Somewhere in NW Europe

 Having recovered from my visit the Partizan next up was a Bolt Action game at the club, Jimi has built up a British force and was eager to get it on the table. We picked a scenario at random and it was Double Envelopment which meant we both had to get troops into the others deployment zone and if possible exit troops off the table. 

I decided to play dangerously and looked at a Luftwaffe field force, they can have the French Char B as a flamethrower tank and as I have one why not, they get a couple of decent squads but the rest are Ostruppen  who are just rubbish, even I am not that desperate. Instead I went for a recce force (yes, that is me laughing) from the 10th SS Panzer Division, so I had two small squads, two bigger squads, an armoured car, a truck and a PzIII N. Jimi had three large squads, one small one in a carrier, an MMG and his bloody big tank, the AVRE with the spigot mortar. 

We set up with half our forces in our deployment areas and then reserves could turn up from turn two, I brought on all my reserves except the tank, which decided not to bother, Jimi also failed with some units and his HQ. The AVRE was heading for my left flank as was the carrier and its veteran kill team. I pushed one of my small recce squads into a house in the center only to find the Churchill had a clear shot and unlike the last time it appeared it was on target, the house and my team were blown to bits, I should have known better.

Safe as houses Hans.

Killer tank.

Ooops.

 A squad down but determined to put up a fight my armoured car started hitting the British in the center while hiding from the AVRE, Jimi, now desperate to push his advantage charged with his carrier, the little machine with a new paint job was hit by a panzerfaust and the passengers jumped from there into the teeth of a full squad of SS troops with two LMG's, it took a couple of turns but they were cut down to the last man. Soon after I also took out the MMG as it laboured forward on my right, the pendulum had swung. My tank now turned up after missing several turns, Jimi's HQ was still nowhere to be seen, the panzer got off one good shot and seemed to think it had done its bit.

Some of Jimi's nicely painted British.

The carrier before it charged.

The lucky shot.

 As the fight in the centre and right drew my attention I grasped the first dice out of the bag in order to kill off another British unit, I had forgotten about the AVRE, it slowly ground its way forward and took out another squad which I should have moved first. The clock was ticking down and Jimi managed to get his tank and an infantry squad into my deployment area, I only had the armoured car inside his but I got enough points from wipe outs to get a draw. 

Always nice to have an auto-cannon around.

Recce squad.

 A good game and Jimi must be close to a win now as his dice luck had vastly improved, well, improved, his HQ turned up just in time for the last turn. I can play Bolt Action but there are times when it just grates, the Spigot mortar on the AVRE has a range at best with the wind behind it of 100 yards, to load it the turret has to turn a certain way, the loader opens his hatch and cracks open the barrel like a large shotgun, his head and hands outside the tank, the charge is then loaded and the barrel slammed back into position, I doubt this was quicker than ramming a round into a normal gun. However in Bolt Action it is not a mortar but a heavy howitzer with the range to match, go figure.

I have been trying to rest my arm this week and so it has taken a bit longer than normal to finish the first ranks of my new French pike block. I have the next 24 ready to go once I decide whether to do the rear or middle ranks, probably the rear ranks as I still have some research to do on flags for these guys.

 I have finished several map projects over the last week or so which again did not help the strain in my arm but these are more important than painting sojers, in order to help I have taken to wearing a wrist support which I should have done long before now. Just as I was getting a hold on everything I received more projects, some examples below.

Shogun's Soldiers

Seven Years War

Belgian Congo

Falklands

Partizan 2022

 Well I have arrived safely back at Casa Anderson after an entertaining day out. I marched at 0815 and arrived at 1030 so not a bad drive and pretty free from road rage. As planned I missed the rush and marched straight in, again slightly miffed that my 'Concession' passed without a comment considering how good I look.

Lunch and spending money.

 I had a plan and scoured the side of the large hall looking for products to fill my list, ABC Brushes were first, I got a mega bundle of 24 brushes for £15, a price which would get me 0neWinsor and Newton, then a bag of Empress Volksgrenadier LMG's, I found I was one short for my last game, and that just cannot be allowed to continue. Next it was grass tufts from Great Escape Games, I am not scrimping with these and the way the Italian Wars figures are based I have a lot more room for decoration. My next call was Wargames Foundry for a pack I forgot to order the last time, but having all this stuff in front of me I jumped for another six Gendarmes and a beautiful Demi Cannon, I will fit these in around the French pike just to give me a change from the infantry. There were no purveyors of GW paints so I settled on two matt sprays from a new outfit called ColourForge, new to me at least, they had samples of all their base sprays and I liked the look of the white and black so took a chance, they are also larger than most primer suppliers 500 ml rather than 400 ml and are cheaper. I circled around at the end to pick up a Helion book about the Battle of Aughrim, I drew the maps for this book and was intrigued by it, so spoiled myself. That concluded my purchases. Oh, I did pop along to Warlord to try and pick up a British Sniper Team for mate Jimi, unless everything went in the first half hour there was a very poor selection of figures and they seem to have concentrated on boxed sets of all sorts of stuff.

 

Once I had had my lunch in the car in the sunshine I headed back to look at the actual games. I go to York and see it as mainly a traders show with a few wargames. Partizan is a wargamers show with some traders, there was a participation zone which was mainly small games but some were exceptionally well done and looked very good. The rest of the games were in the demonstration zone and these were usually quite big and some were spectacular, the kind of tables which make you want to go home and start again.

A WWIII game 1985 or so.

A Bolt Action Indiana Jones type scenario.

English and French medieval fleets, these were very nice.

An awesome 6mm WWII table.

American Civil War

Hougemont I suspect.

TFL Arnhem.

TFL Arnhem.

French in Russia, again very nice.

Wargame Slebs were out in force, I almost bumped into Michael Perry with his burger and chips, I am sure I saw Warlord Supremo John Stannard glowering at one point, TFL bosses Nick and Rich were in attendance around Nick's Arnhem scenario, Harry Sidebottom the author was signing books. I bumped into a few of my own favourites Phil Robinson (News from the Front) and pal David Bickley (Tales from GHQ), the crowd at Helion & Co. along with boss Duncan Rogers, there was interesting chatter about future projects. I also take the opportunity at these meetings to look at all the finished publications which contain my maps and I believe my head swells ever so slightly. I also ran into, for the second time ever, gentleman Ray Rousell (Don't  Throw a 1) and we had a lovely chat for a time, I even got an invite if I am ever in his neck of the woods.

Culloden, my favourite of them all.

A beautiful game

Somewhere in the Empire.

Battle of Freeman's Farm.

Battle of Degastan 603 AD.

Perry;s game, Napoleonics.

A huge amount of effort into this game.

So there we have it, a grand day out, meeting interesting people and being inspired. A great hobby.

Oh woe is me

I have a self inflicted wound at the moment, I have been mapping and painting like crazy over the past few weeks and now have a strained right arm and shoulder, I was painting three times a day for no more reason than I had the time to spare and was enjoying it, the maps were different as most editors of course wanted their stuff done yesterday. I have now caught up with the maps and have decided to cut the painting down to once a day if that, I need to learn patience with the new project, it's not as if I have nothing to play with.

I have just finished the first of many cavalry units, John Stewart, Duke of Albany who was in French service like many Scots and ended up a marshal of France. I have one more to add to the army, another Stewart who was the captain of the King's guard. The Foundry cavalry were nice to paint although the armoured horse seems only come in one stance with the head down. I now have all the figures to build a second large pike block, French troops this time, I also go some foot knights from Steel Fist for command figures and was very impressed by the quality. As these troops are French I went for crossbowmen instead of arqubusiers to front the pikes, not that they didn't use handgunners, I just wanted a change, I sent an order to The Assault Group but have not yet received them.

Steel Fist foot knights

Albany

 I heard the growl of aircraft engines outside the window last week and was surprised to see a CV-22 Osprey flying past, we used to get all sorts flying here, usually the RAF doing low level stuff with the three fighters they have and the odd Hercules. I notice the low level flying has resumed of sorts, although still at a level to stop eco-zealots complaining. So that is a new one to add to the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster I have spotted.

 I turned my artistic talents such as they are to a family portrait a wee while back, I saw just such a picture advertised on my Facebook page and felt no compunction therefore as I didn't ask for them to advertise in turning it to my own advantage.

I should have been playing Chain of Command last night at the club, but I have been hit with an infection and it floored me yesterday, I am now on antibiotics and am hoping these will kick in before Sunday as my trip to Partizan might be in danger.