Scannagallo 1554

I was supposed to be at Matt's last week but came down with a nasty cold so it was best to hunker down in Casa Anderson, it has proved to be a real pain. I decided therefore to get the Italian Wars on the table and went for a game loosely based on the battle of Scannagallo between the French/Siennese and Spanish/Florentines from the Helion book "All is Lost Save Honour." There may have been some non pike units or reduced pikes but I just used what I had, so overall pike blocks, just some better than others. The river or dry ditch was not a great obstacle so I amended the disorder roll for crossing this and units would have to be unlucky to be disordered.

Spanish/Florentines

French/Siennese.

I decided the French would advance their left and sit back a bit on the right in order that their massed artillery could damage the Spanish as they advanced. The Spanish right had drawn a Rash commander so set off as fast as they could to engage the enemy left, the Spanish left was a bit slower and wanted their left flank cavalry to pressure the French right once across the ditch and in position.

Spanish right advances.

French left.

French guns masked.

Despite the French left being heavily outnumbered they completely surprised me and the Spanish by halting and pushing back the enemy pike blocks. The better troops on the French right now advanced as their artillery had been worse than useless and masking the guns would be no great loss. The Spanish guns had been only slightly better but had to cease fire as their men got closer to the enemy. 

Spanish try outflanking the French right.

Battle at the ditch.

Things suddenly took a bad turn for the French and their allies, as the Tuscans and Papal troops began to seriously fight back, although this did not stop the rout of one of their pike blocks. As the victorious Siennese took stock of their success the Spanish gun line turned on them and cut swathes through the close packed troops, so much so that the Italians fled to get out of the firing line.

French right in trouble.

Surrounded the French surrender.

Both lines now clashed around the dry stream bed and the flow of the battle now favoured the Spanish. The French cavalry protecting their right flank now found itself in a life or death struggle with some Italian light cavalry, neither side willing to give way, this continued until the end of the fighting,  a magnificent effort from both. As the fighting continued the French lost more infantry until only one French pike block was still standing surrounded by the enemy, Spain had won the day.

How AI saw it.

I fought this over a couple of days using Furioso, even though it was a solo game I found my sympathies lying with the French, which is fair enough as even in a solo game I went down with a loss. Furioso is perfect for solo games as once you dish out character traits to your generals the battle pretty much fights itself, especially if you are fighting a real battle in that you have an idea of what is supposed to happen, then it is all down to the dice.

I see Victrix have produced yet another Dark Age/Medieval skirmish rule set for half a dozen figures  to fight over a cabbage patch. I just don't get the attraction.

We took a small road trip to Skipton in the Yorkshire Dales, the town was mentioned in the Domesday Book and became the home of the Clifford family (boo, hiss) who were important against incursions by the Scots and at times were Wardens of the Marches. The first lord was killed at Bannockburn. The castle is small and compact and worth a visit, it would make a nice model on a battlefield. The town itself was busy with tourists enjoying the many interesting shops, the local canal and pubs, we were fortunate that the weather was nice as well. The Castle Inn does an excellent lunch. 

Imposing entrance.

The Clifford rag.

I found myself with nothing to read which is unusual for me, well that is not entirely true I have Pritt Buttar's book on the Soviet assault on Berlin but just wasn't in the mood for it. So after watching a couple of documentaries on 7th October I got a book on the attack, at first it did not grab me but the more I read the more I could not stop, I do not regret buying it. Yesterday Max Hastings' new book "Plunder" turned up, Max has only disappointed me on one occasion and I have almost all his books 

TV and Film have been dire up until the last month or so, Israeli spy thriller Fauda made a welcome return and dealt a bit with 7th October, an excellent series. I got hooked on How to get to Heaven from Belfast, not in a good way but the way a snake mesmerises you before it strikes, so so. I also caught up with Reacher, the new one I like, he is more vicious and unforgiving than in the last two series, he is still a big bit of wood, but he does the job. Silo (I have read all the books) has gone way off the rails and now bears little resemblance to the original story, but it has still held my interest. This leaves The Gentlemen and Lucky, the former is well done but is more like a graphic novel than TV, some of it is just complete nonsense guv'nor, the latter is watchable and the heroine is very Lucky in that she is a better escapist than Houdini. (no, gave up with it). Why do TV cops never, ever put men at the back door when they 'surprise' the occupants, I will say that the FBI DEI programme is working very well, when was the last time you saw a white boss? Lastly I have Mobland and Slow Horses on standby. 

I have now completed the extra troops I needed to bring my Yanks up to Chain of Command specs. I really like these despite being plastic, it sounds daft but they seem more human than the metal figures, the proportions are spot on and the poses equally realistic. I would still never go all out for a plastic army but I was pleased. 

I didn't need the heavy weapons.

I am now approaching the end of my work on the Atlas, I think it has been at lease 18 months and only small tweaks are required before it goes to the publisher.

Next weekend I am off down South as my son booked a talk at the Royal Army Museum on Napoleon's Marshall's by Andrew Roberts for me, I also had the choice of Max Hastings and his new book but went with the Emperor's men.

1862

 It's been a bit since I ventured on to a battlefield what with the holiday then real life to catch up with, seems a bit like 'hurry up and wait'. Anyway I had arranged a game with my son accompanied by my grandson and Stewart had asked for American Civil War, a follow up to the game we had a month or so ago. This meeting seems to have woken us all up and Johnny Reb is back with the gang.

James smiling if but for a moment.

I chose the battle of Oak Grove from 1862, the game was a prelude to the Seven Days' battles, 'Fighting Joe' Hooker's division takes on Benjamin Huger's Confederates. The fight takes place in heavy woods between the defensive lines of both sides. Stewart chose the Rebs while I of course took the Union, young James decided on wearing blue, he commanded my right hand brigade as it had a full complement of rifle muskets and only one green unit.

Stewart came on at a steady pace and took up a good central position beside the French farm while I took the School House, we both had skirmish lines deployed but the Reb's seemed to be almost invulnerable behind their fence and guns had been brought up to support the flanks. The Reb artillery proved to be fairly inadequate due to the calibre of their guns this early in the war. The Union artillery were still far from the front line. This meant that both sides concentrated on their flanks, I was slow to build up a line of battle on my left while James and the Rebs opposite him both had a long walk through the woods to get to grips.

Battle commences.

Both sides advance.

Before long Stewart closed with my left but had misjudged the range of his smoothbores and took some losses while his return fire was at long range, over on the Confederate left Armistead's brigade had got to within striking distance of James' men. Stewart saw an opportunity and launched charges against the Federal flanks. As the chits were revealed the Union line had guessed right and the Yankee's readied their muskets. Not one Confederate charge was successful and all were thrown back. At the same time I made some moves on the Rebs around the French farm and although the result was not as I had expected I nevertheless was in a good position to pressure the troops left there.

Reb right falters.

Reb left collapses.

It was now the time for the Union to countercharge, before I could issue the orders my left flank commander was hit by a sharpshooter and in the confusion his brigade did not follow up their successful repulse of the enemy. The right flank did attack and the Rebs fled further back into the woods. With two brigades gone and one left Stewart handed over his sword as the Yankees closed in.

Yankee left fails to follow up.

Reb centre holds on

Reb left has gone.

NJohnny Reb was too much for James and he gave up, however his last move in holding his ground ensured the wave of Reb charges would be stopped. JR is too intense for a young lad with no knowledge of the period. I seemed to be having a bit of a struggle in the centre and was unsure whether I would be successful in the end, but the disaster which befell the Rebs saved me from more anxiety.

In other news I have or thought I had, completed my US Platoon. It turns out I need some extra figures for Chain of Command games although they are fine for Bolt Action, and of course to prevent this from stopping me sleeping I bought a support group to get the eight figures I need. And get this, they are plastic!

I have been playing a bit with ChatGPT, so I present you with your author as John Wayne and James Bond, come on, not a lot of work involved.

I think I have Matt coming down next week for some Italian Wars, looking forward to that, I could do with a win in this period it is long overdue.

I have had my fourth treatment and now require a scan to find out what all the drugs are doing to my insides. 

Mate Robert popped in and left these, modesty prevents me taking an opposite view.

Road Trip 2: The Rip Off

On the last day of August we headed south to Cornwall, a place the Memsahib had on her bucket list for some reason, I was neither for or against. The nightmare began when we left the motorway and made our way inland to Wadebridge where we had booked a cottage for a week, the roads, and I use the term very loosely turned into one horse wagon tracks with bocage on either side. I had a heart attack every time I found someone coming the opposite way, it almost always ended up with one vehicle reversing to the last place where two cars could squeeze past each other or finding that one, elusive, so called passing place, I hated it.

We managed to make it to the 'road' to the cottage only to find it was a one lane farm track which would test the suspension of a tank, another two mile trek through puddles, muck, stone filled potholes and wayward vegetation. The cottage was first class but in the middle of nowhere, no amount of luxury made up for the travelling in and out of the place and my blood pressure.

Our first visit was to Padstow, I chickened out of driving so we took the bus from Wadebridge, a pleasant journey, a lovely tourist trap and an introduction to the price hikes for food and drink, a small jar of peanuts from Rick Stein's shop was nearly £5, Rick doesn't need my cash so he didn't get any. Have you ever noticed that tourist traps, motorway stations and airports seem to use a different monetary system than the rest of us when pricing.

The second day we went to Bodmin Jail, a very interesting trip, they knew how to treat criminals in the old days, many burglars for instance were hanged along with one poor sod who interfered with animals. No Playstation 5's, Sky TV, fresh air or toilets. The guide, dressed completely in black with more metal in her face than a scrap dealer and more ink on her arms than an issue of the Telegraph was, to my surprise and prejudice very knowledgable, humourous and pleasant. Part of the jail had been turned into a very plush hotel, I suddenly wished I had never seen the cottage. On the way out I wanted to visit The Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry Museum, it was shut, has been for a couple of years seemingly due to renovations, can we do anything here? I wanted the Panzer Museum in Vienna, shut, the Napoleonic section in Les Invalides, shut, the Royal Army Museum, shut, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Disney) yes shut, the second time I got there they had removed it!

 Up early the next day and off to Land's End, we have been to John O'Groats so had to visit the opposite end. GPS is touch and go in those there parts, although we could see our destination the Satnav wanted to take us to a different part of Cornwall. The first shock was the parking charge, more of which anon. We could not see much for the fog and mist, we got to the famous sign post only to find if you wanted to get close for a photograph you had to cough up £10.99, no way, we waited until the queue, yes there was a pile of people waiting to be fleeced, until it dispersed then used the zoom on the phone. On the way back we stopped at St. Ives, another lovely tourist trap of a harbour and very pleasant to walk around.

If you look close you can see New York...... 

Next up was the Eden Project, a big hole in the earth with loads of plants, I cannot say I was enamoured of the place as I have no interest in plants at all, it was smaller than I imagined and I am sure if you were really, really interested in plants you would have had a great visit. They had plastered big, fake dinosaurs all over the place because kids are not interested in plants either.

Parking, the times were usually such that they were not enough to see whatever place or attraction you had chose so you were left paying for 8 hours, which of course was way too much time to spend looking around yet another quaint fishing harbour, that will be £7.50 ta. You got no discount or extra hour for having a Blue Badge, which I have due to my circumstances. At least Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask.

George's taxi service next headed of to Tintagel Castle, home of King Arthur, despite not a lot being left the place has a certain brooding air to it, Mrs A enjoyed this, I did wonder however why Cornish was set out next to English on signs etc. No visitors would be able to understand it and not many locals either I suspect, a bit like the foisting of Gaelic on lowland Scotland. Our last port of call that day was Port Isaac, yet another old fishing port used as a back drop for many movies including The Eagle has Landed, Saving Grace, Fisherman's Friends and Doc Martin amongst others. (I have since been informed, rather gleefully, that the movie place was Charleston.)

We also made it to Falmouth, the last time I had been there I was taking the mail ashore in a dinghy from HMS Sheraton while a dolphin swam alongside, although it looked like Jaws to me. Lo and behold the Navy were present, HMS Portland and RFA Argus were in, so almost half the navy. Falmouth harbour was nice with cafes and bars and a main square, ruined somewhat by the obligatory Ferris wheel in operation. The National Maritime Museum charges £19.50 per person with no discounts for OAP's or Veterans, silly me, it's Cornwall. About a third is an exhibition of surf boards, a third of little dinghy's or row boats, including of course one showing the plight of illegals, sorry, asylum seekers, and a third of local maritime history, but not enough of this most interesting part for us. The young lad taking our cash had blue hair, tattoos and a ring through his nose, pleasant enough though. Did I mention the kiddies pool with radio controlled boats which they needed a further £1 token to play with.

N

??

 

Ditto.

It was a busy time and a stressful one for me, I visited more ports that week than I did in the RN.

Our second visit was at Putsborough in North Devon, we decided to park the car up for four days, this was a great boon for me. Again the cottage was superb and we took things easy with beach and coastal walks. The beaches here were very nice and busy with surfers, mind you they seemed to spend their time paddling out and jumping through the waves rather than actual Hawaii type surfing.

During the whole period we visited several towns starting with a stop off in Gloucester, almost all are now shabby and run down, full of barbers, nail and vape shops, and overrun with Uber Eats cyclists. Supermarkets and retail parks have been the kiss of death to many, unless they have something for the tourists like Padstow, St. Ives and Falmouth. 

On the way back I popped in to see mate Rob Broom and had a lovely lunch prepared by Barbara, his  missus. We chatted and as we were leaving he 'borrowed' me the first 25 Judge Dredd comics, I am now working my way through the ups and downs of Megacity1.

So there you have it, the missus got to see everything on her list and I got to relax for four days, I am doubtful of ever going back to that neck of the woods. Oh and a little collection from Mr. Miserable.