The builders are in

 The miserable season continues with rain, wind and cold and the media ramping up the fear we are all doomed because of what used to be known as 'the weather' a few days of heavy gusts are now given names, well I think they are names when did you last bump into a Gerrit, Henk or Isha?

I digress, the builders are in. The Post Office is being stripped ready for the real work and the size of the  room is immense, upstairs the same space has two bedrooms, a dining room, a corridor, and a large utility space, but the new space will have one big room for wargames basically. A veritable treasure trove of £11.11 and a halfpenny have been found, many of the coins no longer in circulation. When will I be able to host a game, who knows but Easter now seems to be beckoning, it depends on what they use for the new floor and how long it takes to dry out.

I managed to get to the club this week and faced 'Lucky' Jimi who took my Waffen SS for a spin while I at last got to use my British, we decided not to use any tanks but could choose armoured cars. The Jerries had three large squads with some heavy weapons support and a 231 heavy armoured car, I took four smaller squads, heavy weapons support and a Humber Mk4 armoured car and a bren carrier.

It was Normandy so there was plenty of hedgerows and we just set up and set off, continuing to keep things simple. The first moves were uneventful as both sides closed on each other, turn three however was a disaster for the Germans, nearly all the British dice came out the bag first and a wall of lead hit the SS. Unusually for me my dice were on fire, I could not lose, almost 50% of the enemy forces bit the dust as all my units managed to fire. Jimi's return fire was equally impressive but for the wrong reasons. As turn four ended we shook hands and called it a night, it had been a brutal game and too one sided.

I have stripped and primed the first of the cavalry figures I was gifted by Dan at the club, I dipped them in Dettol and boy does that stink but it does the job after 48 hours. I have another six being bathed as I type, this will leave me three more artillery pieces and a few odds and ends. The cavalry I intend to use as heavy/light cavalry and look on them as the tail end types of a typical Lance for the period. So my only purchase before I get my mojo back when the new room is finished will be gun crews for the artillery, although in the back of my mind is some early war British armour and maybe some heavy weapons teams for my various WW2 forces. After this I will have to make up my mind whether I am adding more to the Italian Wars or calling it a day.

I managed to finish my grandson's fantasy warbands, brownie points for Papa.

I am continuing working on the mini atlas for Battles and Battlefields of the Peninsular War, I am halfway through but seem to be taking one step forward and two back.

 I mentioned the TV series Silo recently, I was so impressed and with no patience to wait for Season 2 I bought the trilogy. It has taken me just two weeks to read the first two volumes, that is how much I enjoyed them. I have a small amount of proper reading material, Rorke's Drift and the fall of Singapore in waiting but I need to finish the third Silo book. I am still slightly in the dark about one aspect of the sci-fi series but hoping all will be revealed.

I am hoping for a Chain of Command game this Tuesday at the club but apart from that, all quiet on the Lancashire front.

A good start to '24

 It's been a wee while but the dust has now settled from the Festive Season, the New Year has begun and seems so far not very different to the old one, "quelle surprise" as the French say. I am expecting my builders to get in touch any day but radio silence so far apart from the new windows have been measured up. I have been dragged around bathroom and flooring showrooms, been asked my opinion then had it tossed aside to be told what I really want.

I was supposed to kick the new campaigning season off with an Eastern Front Chain of Command game but Simon took ill and it was cancelled, instead my first shots were fired in the Gin Pig yesterday in one of Rob's large Napoleonic games. It was an alternative history where the Prussians had been destroyed at Wavre and Ligny and Allied forces under the Prince of Orange moved towards the approaching Russians, during this both of these ran into the French flank guard somewhere south of Turnhout.

Russians in the village with some help from their friends.

I had control of two cavalry brigades and a Guard brigade in the left centre of the battlefield, I was offered the commanders baton and told Julian to hold our left flank and Rob to attack a small village full of Russians on our right, meanwhile myself and Ian to my right would advance for a couple of moves and then see if any opportunities came our way. As usual with Black Powder I found it very hard to get my cavalry moving, my guns managed to hair off and bring the enemy cavalry opposite under fire, Ian moved his cavalry to contact while wondering what had happened to his support.

The table.

My cavalry about to attack, while the Guard whistles.

Rob lines up his assault.

Ian was pushed back but I had at last got my troopers moving and they smashed into the weakened enemy, it also helped that I had three squadrons of very tough Curassiers. The Allies lost a couple of squadrons while I followed up, more Allied cavalry were thrown into the melee but this did not help and soon the British heavy cavalry fled the field leaving the remaining horse in a very bad position. I took a bit of time to reorganise then went in again, while sending my second brigade to the right in the hope of destroying the Allied cavalry in reserve behind their left centre.

All of this cavalry are stunning.

On my left Julian had been forced to withdraw his light cavalry and his lancers had been pushed back, however the Allies could not take advantage of this as most of their commands had a great reluctance to move forward and with the arrival of several infantry battalions were running out of room to manouvre. My Guard had arrived by now but again simply sat around for a couple of turns before decideding to obey orders. Rob was having a very hard time trying to oust the Russians from their defences. Ian managed to send his infantry into the attack but had been beaten back, but importantly not broken.

Two more players had turned up and were given a brigade each, Andy sadly now facing a large hole in the Allied centre and slowly being outnumbered as Peter with the French reserve now moved to hold the left of the breach with lots of French cavalry in reserve. This allowed me to move my Guard battalions to the right flank of the breach and threaten the Allied flank and rear, my cavalry had not managed to destroy the Allied cavalry reserve but they had weakened it and as my infantry now took up the ground things looked very bad for the Allied cause.

Our hero, now Marshal, Georges on the left.

Paul's traffic jam on the Allied right.

French cavalry still a threat.

We called it a day at this point, objectives were counted up and the French scraped a win on points, game wise the Allied right could not budge the French defence and the French right could not take the town, the Allied centre however had been crushed and the flanks of the Allied army on both sides of the breach were in great danger of collapsing. And so we were done, another great looking game with some beautiful figures moved around, Julian and Ed's cavalry are simply superb, if things keep going on like this we will need a larger venue.

Nine of us, seemed like more.

I have finished off the last of the figures in my lead pimple, some arquebusiers, this leaves some of the figures which Dan had offered me, these are some guns and heavy cavalry types, they need stripped, cleaned and primed before I move on them, but with the threat of builders arriving and my vast wargaming empire hidden under beds, in cupboards and taking up most of the study and shortly my living room I will not be adding troops for a while yet. I am also finding it difficult to find Dettol to strip the paint, is this now too dangerous for the public?

My grandson is a Blood Bowl and Underworlds player and received several teams and warbands (how can a warband be three figures?) for birthday and Christmas, as I have time I offered to paint some of the figures for him, something out of my comfort zone but hey a test of my brush skills. I have completed the first figure while watching a Games Workshop video, the host got to the eyes and recommended white and black of course, I couldn't actually see the eyes! Whither you like GW etc. or not some of these guys are fantastic painters, I can confirm I am average, maybe just a tad above that but no more.

To The Strongest author Simon Miller dropped me a line to inform me that the Montrose scenario book which I worked on will be out soon, I was quite chuffed if I say so myself with the maps for this publication. Years ago I covered the same ground in a book written by Charles Singleton. I have no priority map work on at the moment which again suits me fine, I have started the mini atlas however.

 

Central Madrid for the mini atlas.

 I saw something on FB the other day, a lovely camouflaged German truck, but it had bright blue windows, on my walk the other day I looked at all the cars jammed along the village main drag and did not see one with bright blue windows. Why do wargamers paint blue windows?

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

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 I am not at home and so unable to do a review of 2023 until I reconnect to the digital world, I can’t type more than a sentence on an iPad.

But I would like to wish everyone who reads my musings a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

George

Last calls for 2023

 After a bit of a break it was back to the Italian Wars this week at the club, using the now familiar battle of Ceresole as a base we used Dan's resurrected 15mm figures all newly based for Furioso. I took the French once again, and once again I despaired of the French deployment.

I held my Gendarmes back as I moved my pike blocks to the front, as the battle developed I sent a unit to each flank to back up my heavy cavalry. Before this I found my artillery and most of my skirmishers were not keen on moving or firing on the Imperials, on the other hand the Imperial guns and skirmish screens were causing my advancing infantry a lot of problems. I persisted though and my German/Swiss block hit the enemy Spaniards opposite, my Swiss pushed through the enemy screens, overran an artillery piece and then smashed into some Landsknechts, nearby my French moved on a smaller Landsknecht pike block supporting the larger one. 

Then it all happened, my left flank heavy cavalry were ridden down by their Imperial counterparts, the Swiss were stopped and incredibly (to me) pushed back by the Landsknechts, the French infantry supporting them were also pushed back. The only bright spot was that the German/Swiss block hammered the Spanish and were within a whisker of destroying them but the enemy held on with grim determination. On the right flank it looked like I could possibly hold the Imperials with my Gendarmes and heavy cavalry but it was merely a hope as the battle came to an end.

Things were certainly going well for the Imperials at the end, I was only winning one combat and things looked very bad for the Swiss and French infantry. Once again my shooting was abysmal in this battle and I found it hard to get my skirmishers to move, even my Gendarmes lost a morale test at one point when my heavy cavalry dispersed, so much for French elan. The game itself played well in 15mm although it did take time for me to get used to the scale from my 28mm battles. The good news is Dan's men are far more easily transportable than mine for a club game and we can do a decent large battle within the club time limit.

That leaves this weeks home game, Erik was coming back for a second Seven Year War bash. The author of the AWI Atlas is now doing a wargamers guide for Helion and as I did the maps I took his battle of Camden as inspiration for yesterday's game. It is a simple get stuck in game with both sides lined up against each other, I of course do not have AWI troops so it was French and British, the French initially outflank the British line but the British have reserves arriving behind their main force and they have a cavalry unit.

 I was unlucky once again with commanders and got one Dashing and two Ditherers, Erik got a Dependable and two Ditherers, so the commander in chief would be up front in both armies inspiring one of the ditherers. I tried to advance quickly on the British right and hoped I would win the numbers game before the reserves arrived, I did not manage this before the enemy line was extended and the cavalry raced to turn my left flank, nevertheless I did manage to get within long range of the red line and deal out some pain on the serried ranks before me. I was worried about the British horse though and had to send a battalion to deal with them which meant I was now being outnumbered on my left, over on the right nothing was moving quickly and both sides remained staring at each other throughout the battle.

Erik must have felt pressured as I sent his cavalry packing and his battalions began to suffer losses so he surprised me by withdrawing his battle line, as I had moved to the centre of the table and suffered for it I was not going to continue to press him. Although he managed to rally off a lot of casualties so did I, I also managed to bring back two battalions which had had to retreat, with the threat of the cavalry now gone I felt a lot better. With darkness approaching, quite literally, Erik now tried to bring his line forward, this proved a struggle due to his less than enthusiastic commanders.

He did manage in the end but the shoe was on the other foot this time and my men were calmly standing waiting as he moved on them, volleys crashed out and British casualties mounted, the Redcoats came into close range and tried one magnificent but rash charge into some waiting French grenadiers, the return fire all along the line proved too much and the British centre and right disintigrated, the battle was over. Once again a nice little battle and a treat to get my SYW troops on the table, and a win this time.

I have the builders in around the third week of January and once the holidays are over I need to relocate all my wargaming paraphernalia elsewhere in the house for at least a couple of months, maybe even a friends house. So there will be no more games here for some time, a real shame as I have managed to get quite a few people to venture here over the year, Matt Crump, Stuart Smith and Erik Faithfull along with club members. My wargaming for now then will consist of club games and possibly the odd big bash in the Gin Pit. I must now think of what I will do for the grand opening.

 I am finishing up my last Imperial cavalry unit of the year and have put some gun crews aside to work on, I am not at all fussed about these in that I don't feel in a rush to paint them, I feel a little painted out for now. Perhaps I just need a change, I have asked for a SdKfz 222 for Christmas as I want one in panzer grey for early war, I just could not use the late war one, I also offered to paint some of my grandsons fantasy characters for him as he has several sets coming for Christmas, this would simply be a painting exercise to prove to myself I can do it. I then have some cavalry and artillery to strip, clean up and paint.

I have sent away my last map projects for 2023 and put down my stylus until the new year. After the success of the AWI Atlas I believe Helion are looking at two more, that could prove interesting for 2024.

Old Dog, New Tricks?

 I have one set of rules I have been playing since 1988, my second longest playing rule set is from 2014, these two continue to be my favourites although there are a couple of other sets/games I have played for some time or go back to now and again. I enjoy, in the main, what I play and am willing to try things outside my comfort zone, but suspect I would not pick up on a completely new set anymore.

This week I was introduced to 'O Group', a company level WW2 game with elements of Chain of Command in it, it has to be 'abstract' to a degree in order for the game not to bog down, all well and good but a lot of abstraction niggles me. I was the French and defending against a German assault in 1940, I had less numbers than Matt but was defending, I put two companies on the table and left one in reserve, Matt did basically the same thing. I got off to a decent start and wiped out his recce armoured cars and I think I got one of his Panzer II's later, while he got both my anti-tank portee units, by the end of the night he had not got very far and I still had a company in reserve.

Can you make a call on a set of rules having played only one game with no clue as to what your are doing, probably not but I do know I would not hurry back for another game of 'O Group', despite Matt taking the time to explain everything for me.

My second foray into a new rule set was yesterday at the Gin Pit in Grange where Rob once again organised a large Napoleonic game to test them out, some small games had been played at the club but this was the big one, seven players and umpteen brigades on both sides using Valour and Fortitude from the Perry brothers, and they are free. Needless to say they are a fast play set for big battles and once again therefore with a fair bit of abstraction.

Basically the Russians and Austrians were holding ground to prevent a French withdrawal, the French I am told outnumbered the Allies but looking along the table I was not so sure about that. I held the French left and my three brigades were well outnumbered by the Russians opposite and they had much larger battalions to boot, this will no doubt not surprise Napoleonic players but it came as a shock to me. Anyway I had decided not to attack and simply hold the Russians, who duly forgot they were defending and instead launched an attack all along their line ably commanded by Stewart.

French centre.

French left, me.

Good looker third from right, me.

My division.

We learned that skirmishers were simply used as a suicide squad to soak up fire as your attack went in, there was no closing fire if you were charged and I was not convinced of many of the other mechanics, yes they were fast but did they feel like I had been commanding a Napoleonic division, nope, but then as I said, I do not know much about Napoleonic warfare despite being an admirer of the big man.

Erik moving on the Austrians.

Cavalry fight.

I grab the village.

My right in trouble.

Anyway Stewart did launch a successful attack on my right and took out the brigade on that flank, I stopped going forward and reorganised my line to at least attempt a speed bump before the Russians steamrollered me. I did manage to build up an attack by my left hand brigade and it took an objective just as the shutters came down, so a win for me and an overwhelming win for the French as victory points were tallied up. As I waited patiently for my turn to move, a huge cavalry combat had occured way over on the French right between Rob and Paul which had destroyed the Austrian and Russian cavalry while Stuart and Erik managed to overwhelm Michael around the centre of the battlefield.

The rules certainly were quick and I think the consensus is that they will overtake Black Powder in the Gin Pit battles, personally these types of rules are simply not for me, I don't have massive Napoleonic armies and although I like big battles they are generally under the figure count of these games. I do very much enjoy spending the day with friends and moving wee sojers around however and as long as the lads keep me on the straight and narrow will continue to turn up, but I will never quite understand the rules.

Ah, now for the sting in the tail, Matt came around to play our latest game in the Smolensk Campaign, I felt fairly good about this meeting, my platoon was back to full strength and I took a PzII and in anticipation of Russian armour paid for a heavy anti-tank rifle, which should be enough to support my boys. This hope was kept alive until I heard the clank, clank of tank tracks and Matt drove a KV1 onto the field. I had also not done my homework and it transpired that the large area of scrub in the middle of the battlefield prevented me seeing anything behind it apart from the damn KV1.

Panzer II arrives.

The monster and battle winner.

Soviets.

I hid my troops from the nosy Red monster and Matt set his in a corner on overwatch apart from a forlorn hope in the centre, the amount of firepower on the Russian left was against me quickly moving forward. I therefore moved my PzII on and took the Russian forlorn hope under fire as vehicles could see over the scrub, this was going nowhere fast so I decided to move the tank up at the same time as the heavy anti-tank rifle and hopefully kill or at least damage the KV. Twice the AT rifle failed to spot the thing, yes, a KV1 became invisible, gah, this also happened with the PzII, the return fire when it came brewed the panzer and routed the AT rifle.

"What if we go that way Hans?"

It's all over.

I called a halt with two men dead and withdrew, I was not prepared to sacrifice a platoon to try and win an uphill struggle. I did think later that I could have just put everything on the front line and hope that Matt would take heavy losses and his morale dropped before mine, but as the KV was sitting waiting with two MG's supporting all the infantry on overwatch I simply despaired of winning anything. The initiative now belongs to Matt who can still win the game with two turns to go, he might even get a major win if he chooses the right tables, there is a very slim chance the Germans could cause both sides to lose but the ball is in the Russian court for now.

Alright I could have organised better and should have taken into account the terrain but this game threw up one of those Chain of Command regulars where the game is just no fun at all, and this effects both sides, Matt had travelled an hour to come and play a game and although we had a laugh and chewed the wargame fat, he deserved better for the effort, he did enjoy it though.

I recommended Vagabond on Netflix last post, if you do listen to me on these things stop watching at Episode 13, and consign the last three to the dustbin. I am still furious over the ending having enjoyed the series and spent hours watching it, it is as though they simply switched everything off and went home, completing nothing and leaving half a dozen plot lines to simply hit the buffers.

 There are quite a few jokes (or are they memes now?) about Napoleon the movie, here is a sample.