A Little Local Difficulty...

So I decided to try and cut some bases today in the comfort of the living room, while my partner sat and used the computer. This inevitably put me within range of our two cats Sooty and Ralphy (aka "The Devil's Children"). As the photo shows, the allure of small metal men and bits of cardboard were too much to resist for them, and they took pleasure in batting everything around.

I've lept straight back into my 1866 Austro-Prussian project in the last few days. Yesterday saw me finish painting most of the infantry for a second Corps, and now I'm prepping and basing the Cavalry and Artillery. I'm slightly surprised at how much Pendraken 10mm stuff I have, as whilst delving through a box I came across another almost complete Austrian Army pack. So maybe I'll get a third Corps done? Depends on if I get totally narked off with painting White and Blue uniforms.

I read the latest couple of issues of Wargames Illustrated over the weekend too, which is nudging my interests in the direction of some WSS gaming in the future. I read Richard Holmes' book on Marlborough a couple of years back and thoroughly enjoyed it. Again the issue will be of expense and scale. Given how long it took me to get a decent 28mm French Napoleonic Army, I'm reluctant to spend loads on a WSS one in the same scale. Also, I agree with many that 15mm and 10mm give a great look to the larger battles like Blenheim etc. On the other hand 28mm will be good due to all the amazing and colourful uniforms and character figures. Then again there's always Barry Hilton's new skirmish game for the period: 'Donnybrook' (also in the new WI) which can utilize only a handful of figures and follows on from a lot of recent popular games like Muskets and Tomahawks and Saga.

French Indian Wars - 28mm British Regulars

These chaps are from AW Miniatures. I picked a couple of their unit packs up from the Triples show last year. I was impressed with their prices, and the figures themselves are a nice chunky size. They were great to paint, plus seeing as we're using the Muskets and Tomahawks skirmish rules I don't have to paint up loads of them. For these I used a black undercoat with about two layers of Vallejo Flat Red then adding some white to highlight a third coat. Same approach again with the yellow cuffs and turnbacks. The AW range is really coming along and I noticed recently that they've just produced a range of British Grenadiers for FIW too.

Display Cabinet for my Figures!

After years of wanting a display cabinet of some sort to place a selection of my models in, my girlfriend surprised me with this on Christmas Day. It comes as a flat pack from Argos, but was very easy to assemble. She'd apparently tried to purchase a similar one with lighting but due to stock shortages had to settle for one without. Despite this small setback I wandered down to the local hardware shop and managed to find a 60w strip light that fits in just nicely. The cabinet has a sliding glass front and four brackets to fit it to a wall if necessary (I'd advise on this, as it makes it very sturdy and less prone to knocks - especially if you have two cats tearing around the place as we do). There's an option to narrow the gaps between each section with a purchase of extra glass shelves but I thought this would make it a bit too crowded and more difficult for the light to penetrate down to the lower sections. I collect a fair bit of militaria again these days too, so I'm also intending to rotate it with my medal collection and other bits.

20mm WW2 Russian Infantry.

From what I gather most of the Russian Infantry I bought from Colonel Bill's were Britannia Miniatures figures. Only a few quid for a bag of infantry and a mortar section, they were too good to turn down and will certainly feature again in our Bolt Action games next year. I particularly liked the wounded officer, so decided to stick him on a base with a map reading infantryman as though he were down but still shouting his orders. I painted a mix of Vallejo Russian Uniform, Khaki and some camo pattern smocks, to display the variation in supply that the Russians experienced in real life. I must say I really love painting 20mm Britannia stuff and can't help picking a few infantry and vehicles up when the opportunity arises.

Napoleonic Game 28mm

Last Sunday's Napoleonic game was a simple encounter scenario, which made a change from the usual 'attacker, defender' types we've been doing recently. Basically French vs Austrians rushing to control a hill and road in the centre of the board. Both sides began with advanced units, with French having slight superiority in cannon but the Austrians advantage in infantry and cavalry. Using the Republic to Empire rules we'd rolled for commander ratings, in which the French (mine and Ian's side) appeared to come off worse with a lot of 'plodders' and few skilful officers.

The Austrians started well, pushing quickly toward the objectives and getting their jaegers on the heights. Added to this was a large force of their cavalry rather intimidatingly advancing on the left. Ian took quick control of the situation on the hill by meeting the first units of Austrians with two regiments of French. Knowing full well that the further back he could push the Austrians, the further the main army would have to go in order to secure its target. Bracing ourselves with some chancy dice rolls and trusting the abilities of our unenthusiastic commanders we expected the worst, but surprisingly rolled high enough to give the Austrians pause for thought. This gave the French time enough to concentrate some of their own cavalry in countering the Austrian cavalry threat pounding down the road. Again some surprising results. Although the French cavalry were finally defeated it left the Austrians in a state from which they couldn't recover. Reminding us that Napoleonic cavalry is very much a "one shot deal". Thus the hill was secure in French hands as their primary force came onto the table unopposed. The same unfortunately couldn't be said of the Austrians, whose main army were only able to take one move before having to tangle with remains of the French advance who were still making a nuisance of themselves.

In conclusion, a good game which was fast moving and fun to play. It also gave me chance to photograph some of Simon's excellently painted Austrians again!

10mm British Sherman Tanks and Bren Carriers.

Here's some photos of my new Pendraken 10mm Late British. I've finished painting all the armour and now just have the infantry to complete. They were really satisfying to paint, and I took most of the tips from the Flames of War painting guide on their website. I undercoated in black, then did a base colour of Vallejo Russian Uniform Green. After that I did a brown ink wash and then highlighted with another layer of Russian Uniform plus a mix of 30% or so White. The tracks were left black and then spotted with Vallejo Gunmetal. The camo on the Scout car and Bren Carriers was a base colour of Reflective Green, another Brown wash and then a highlight mix of Reflective Green and (again) 30% white. They were pretty quick and easy to do and I managed to finish nine vehicles in one short afternoon.

Something that inspired me with the choice of figures was reading Robert Kershaw's book "Tank Men". I'd really enjoyed his work on Arnhem ("It Never Snows in September") and was pleased to get this one through the post from Amazon. The personal experiences recounted within it's pages are just stunning and I'd suggest it to anyone who wants to get a sense of what it's like to see war from a Tank crew's point of view. In fact the Kershaw one then led me onto ordering the classic Keith Douglas book "Alamein to Zem Zem". If you haven't got any of these I'd put them on the Xmas list right now.

15mm Zulu War Game Report

A couple of Sundays back, Dave G decided to put on one of his famously epic colonial games using the 'Battles for Empire' Rules. This was a Zulu War scenario involving an British Advance army consisting of 'disgruntled' Zulus followed by a main body of British regulars. The opposition force was a fair sized group of Zulu tribal allies...and of course the Zulu Royal Army itself. The British objective was to disperse or steal the tribal group's cattle situated on the hill, drive off their force, and then bring the British Regulars to establish camp around the hill. The main Zulu Army was off board as the British Advance began towards the tribal settlement, and (as we cautiously expected) could appear just about anywhere...and fast.

Myself and Mark (who kindly provided the photos) were the Brits, whilst Dave, Paul and Chris were the Zulus and Lawrence commanded the Zulu tribal allies. I decided to use the British advance units to head straight for the hill and tackle Lawrence's guys before the Zulus might react. My mistake was not having a clue about using my Native cavalry units to scout around, and instead trying to use them to protect my flanks and keep everything together. Hence the Zulu allies were spotted easily and I began to deal with them as I approached the hill, forcing them backwards and away from their cattle. But I messed up by (as Dave mentioned) failing to throw my scouts out in a wider arc which may have revealed the whereabouts of the main Zulu force. This meant that when Mark's British Regulars came on behind me they effectively had to proceed blind.

It quickly became obvious that both the advance force and the main British body would have problems supporting each other. My own predicament became acute when I realized I'd got around 2,000 Zulus moving against my backside, whilst I was still trumpeting a short lived victory after capturing a few cows. Mark probably had to deal with about three times that number from two different directions, and did the typically British thing of "forming square". Unfortunately this only gave a false sense of security, especially when Mark's artillery began to produce less than pleasing results. So it wasn't long before the Headquarters Staff themselves were casting aside the lace doilies and turning over the dining furniture in panic as Zulus ("thousands of them") started brisk work with their Assegai.

So in conclusion, the Brits came away with few survivors and having been taught a serious lesson (again). Maybe we'll remember to bring along a few Gatling guns next time.....