Waiting

 It is cold and miserable, this has been a cold winter and I continue to wear thermals almost every day, I could really do with some heat and sunshine.

Right, it should have been warm on Tuesday as we were off to the Pacific Theater for a Battleground game set on Okinawa. Simon and I were the Americans and Andy and Jimi were the Japanese. Andy brought all the stuff and he has a lot, the game however proved far too big for three hours at the club. I had command of a Marine platoon in LVT's along with a small recce unit of two Stuart tanks, Simon took the Shermans and waited for the second platoon to turn up. The Japs were dug in all over the place, a main line then a second with A/T guns while 'spider' holes held ambushers on our approach, there were also some dug in tanks, the Marines were in for a hard time.

Recce unit.

Japanese line.

Full speed ahead.

The first suicide bamboo pole guy was shredded by the machine guns of the tank he charged, I moved up cautiously while Japanese artillery started to ruin my day, I eventually got close enough to dismount my infantry and return fire on the main enemy line, I had the good luck to knock out a tank, I think Simon got a second. Just as our main force arrived our own artillery landed and made a mess of the Jap position, another tankette went up. All of this resulted in a large hole appearing on the Japanese right flank opposite my platoon, just as I was ready to surge forward we ran out of time. The Americans at that point were slightly ahead as the Japanese had taken more casualties but there had been a plan for more of them to turn up so we were not going to reach a conclusion.

Suicide nutter.

Go marines.

I have played Battleground before and it is OK, mate Phil Robinson even uses it for platoon level games, something which almost tempted me until I saw the price of the books and supplements, beautiful though they are I have two WWII sets and don't need another. It always amazes me how much material Andy has in 20mm covering most of the war. Next week it is ACW Black Powder, yes I know, but Fran has amended the rules to better suit the period and as he plays Johnny Reb it is only fair I play with his Warlord troops.

Wednesday also brings the third game in our Smolensk Campaign which has Matt Crump stalling Barbarossa and causing palpatation’s at 7th Panzer HQ. I am almost on the ropes and need a win, my casualties have mercifully been fairly light so far but this has not stopped me having to withdraw. Despite my dire performance in the last game this is a great way to fight WWII platoon level games. I have one more game on the cards here at HQ for February, a five player Johnny Reb game as the Confederates attempt to turn the Union left flank at Chickamauga, once again I am the defender.

Kurtsevo before the storm.

I also feel the need to get the Italian Wars back in action, I know Julian has recruited a lot of new troops from his visit to Vapnartak, I gave it a miss as there was nothing I needed. Well that is not quite true I have shopped online for Colour Forge primers, Charlie Foxtrot box liners, a couple of paints and a pile of small magnets. As I said earlier I have reined in my spending for the moment due to having a smallish lead pile and vouchers for Wargame Foundry.

My painting slowed down due to being busy with maps and looking after the missus and doing woman's work around the house until she is fit again. However I got back into it last week and managed to finish my mounted arquebusiers from TAG, very nice and easy to paint figures. I do wonder however how these troops were actually used, there seems to be two schools of thought, one they shoot and scoot and two they are mounted infantry, I fall into the shoot and scoot school. Friend Charles Singleton is writing up a supplement for Pike and Shotte for the Italian Wars and has voiced some interesting thoughts on arquebusiers on the Italian Wars Facebook page. I think this supplement will be well worth getting even if you are not a P&S player but simply interested in wargaming the period for the information contained within.

I almost forgot that a week or so ago I had also finished up another unit of Archers (heavy cavalry) using the excellent Steel Fist figures for this troop type. I also took the opportunity to draw up a more complex banner than I have done so far, it has a Phoenix surrounded by what I think are flames, this is normally shown in red but I went for blue, why not, I will use a red one at a later date. I have my last (for now) unit of my French army primed and ready to go, six Gendarmes, so it will be back to researching and drawing another couple of banners and then a group photo before starting on the Imperials, just love that black eagle.

Nothing on entertainment for now, I am at a complete loss despite having four or five streaming channels. I am sick of strong, diverse female characters running the show and doing things that are patently impossible for most females I know to do, grrrrrrrr.

Still mapping, I finished the Napoleonic maps for the Russian history series for the years 1806-07 and am now on another marathon involving the 15th SS Latvian Division as it withdraws from Pomerania in 1945. In the wings are the German Peasant's War which fits neatly into the Italian Wars period and more American War of Independence, you might remember the AWI Atlas I worked on which is now several years late and might possibly be out this year.

WIP.

 I notice that my most popular posts which keep appearing are Man Flu II and Aetius' Army, I can understand the interest in the latter but the former has me baffled.

Why did I use the heading Waiting. Well I had to wait a couple of weeks for an infection to disappear, now I am waiting for a bad ear infection to leave me alone, I always seem to be waiting for the next game (never get enough) and now I am waiting to push ahead with my refused planning permission along with waiting for the missus to recover. I can only take comfort that I no longer have to meet the great British public any more along with the waiting.