It's all gone quiet over here!

 ...to coin a taunting football chant. It's been over 5 weeks since my last post and no dice have been rolled in anger. No paint brushes have been lifted either. My Italian AWS campaign stopped before it started. I called a halt initially at the end of January because I had a spell of busyness (i.e. a couple of longish drives to watch football, amongst other things). Then I realised that I didn't have enough lettered 'beads' which I was intending to use as tokens to mark competing forces on the map - under my scheme I would have 2 beads for each force (1 for the map and 1 for the 'magical activation bucket') x half a dozen 'factions' x however many forces each faction divided itself up between. Whilst I prevaricated over this, a trip up to Cleethorpes to watch Grimsby exit the FA Cup at the hands of Wolves* used up more time and energy than I had to spare. Then followed by a week's trip to Spain during which I became ill - nothing serious, but it left me blown out and too tired to do much after work for my first week back.

* For the benefit of non-UK readers, this refers to Wolverhampton Wanderers, an Association football club, not a pack of canine animals of that name. For the initiated, Wolves appeared more like a tribute act for Wycombe Wanderers (Adebayo Akinfenwa vintage) than the Old Gold heroes of the past. The players' physical stature and their method of play looked more like a League One side than a Championship-bound Premier League team. But as a League One side they were too good for League Two Grimsby. The best team won.

Had I got my act together before going to Spain I could have taken my map and bits and pieces and at least played out some initial map moves and play-tested my scheme. Thinking about this I had the idea of Having some 'block armies' out there to play tactical games during quiet evenings.

So this evening after work I checked the range of products in Flying Tiger Copenhagen and the closing time of the local branch. Bingo! They had what I wanted and were open until 7pm so I made use of my old folks' bus pass to flit down there.

What I went for

What I also came back with - these come in 2 lengths: 9cm and 15cm

And I also came back with these. The 'Jenga style' blocks suitably re-styled will be the basis for the 'wargame armies in exile'. 

In theory I could leave the blocks unaltered as they come in 6 different colours, but the pastel shades are somewhat 'unmilitary' to my mind. The measurements are 7.5x2.5x1.5 cm - longer than I would have liked, but they'll do.

The other box looks like a 'Mastermind-style' game. Handy in itself, but I have a vague notion of using it as some sort of tracker (like Charles Wesencraft's weather tracker).

There was one piece of tangentially 'wargame-related' activity on Friday. I met up with David-in-Suffolk at the National Army Museum for a lunchtime talk on the training regime of the British, Dominion and Empire troops in the Second World War. Not my core area of interest by any means, but these things are always informative and it's always good to catch up with young David.

The Big Re-basing: Final Options

I've been going round and round in circles on this for nearly two weeks now. I need to make a decision. So here are the final options swirling around my head.

Option 1: Shallow bases each with 2 ranks.

• 1a: Alala! 2 bases deep. Each row made up of bases 60x15 and 30x15mm
• 1b: Basic Impetus: 1 base deep. 2 bases of 60x15mm.

Option 2: Deep bases each with 3 ranks.

• 2a: Alala! 1 base deep. One base 60x30 and one base 30x30mm
• 2b: Basic Impetus: 1 base deep. Two bases 60x30mm

Oh to clarify....I intend to use Alala! for inter-Greek battles and BI for everything else (Romans-Carthaginians; Romans-Greeks; Carthaginians-Greeks; Persians-Greeks).

Option 1a: Phalanx for Alala! Two shallow bases deep, 2 ranks per base. I might drop 1 or 2 files from this as they are too near the edges.

Option 1a: From above. I might open up a bit of a gap between the ranks on each base so they are equally spaced when they are placed two bases deep.

Option 1b: deployed as a 'unit' for Basic Impetus. 1 base deep. 'Spares' in the background will go towards other units.

Option 1a: Alalas phalanx from above showing how the losses can be taken off. This gives me up to 12 elements so lots of flexibility.

Option 2a (right): 3 ranks per base, 1 base deep. Against 1a. Alala phalanxes. As with Option 1, I'll drop a couple of files off to make them easier to handle.

Option 2b: on the right: 3 ranks per base, 1 base deep. Unit for Basic Impetus.

Options 1b and 2b: Basic Impetus shown against a Roman Principes base. If I were to bring the 3-deep Greeks up against the Romans I'd probably have to beef up the Romans a bit from the odds and ends pile. The Hastati and Triarii (not shown) don't look as underpowered by comparison.

Options 1a and 2a together. To make 2b flexible enough I'd have to split the large base into smaller ones.

What the options mean for Alala!

• Option 1 would give me 7 or 8 units of c.60 for Alala! Roughly 1 figure:20 men.
• Option 2 units would be c.48 strong and I'd be able to make 9 units. 

A unit in Alala! is supposed to be around 1000-1200 hoplites. I suppose 3 or 4 units a side would be enough for battles between competing poleis.

What the options mean for Basic Impetus

• Option 1 units would be 40+ figures strong. Roughly 1 figure:30 men. I'd have enough for 10+units. Plenty.
• Option 2 units would be 60+ strong and I'd have 7 or 8. Probably enough.

This excludes all the Peltasts, psiloi and cavalry floating around that I haven't even got around to thinking about yet!

Post Script

I finally made a decision. Three ranks on 30mm deep bases. Two bases 60mm wide for Basic Impetus and one base 60x30 plus one 30x30mm for Alala! I like the look of 3 ranks best.  A total of 60 figures for BI and 45 for Alala! I'll tackle the weedy looking Roman units at a later date.

I played around with different ideas on how to take casualties from a phalanx. Having more smaller bases didn't really look right because in order to avoid handling damage I'd need to have small gaps around the side, and this led to gaps in the wall of shields. 

I asked myself what other way could I track strength without hordes of casualty figures and the answer was in front of my eyes - use tiny dice in dice holders on the base. I do this anyway for BI. A standard Alala unit is 24 figures, or 6 elements of 4. The 30x30mm base, 1/3 of a unit, would therefore be two elements. So once 8 pips had been built up on the D sixes, the small base could be removed. A total of 16 pips would mean the removal of the large base instead. Sorted!

So an order was duly placed for more bases from Pendraken, plus a few other bits and pieces not necessarily related to the Ancients project.

The Big Re-basing - Thoughts?

I winkled some of the recently acquired hoplites off their bases today and tried them out on different sized bases in different configurations. I want to have a system that is compatible with both the standard basing for (non-figure removal) Basic Impetus and for the figure/element removal oriented Alala! (a hoplite specific ruleset).

Probably the biggest question is whether to go for 3 or 2 ranks. My Republican Romans and Carthaginian heavy infantry are in 2 ranks on 60 x 30 mm bases. Two bases go to make up a unit of roughly 40-45 figures. For the same rules I would use 2 base-units also for the Greek hoplites. Here's a comparison of 2-rank Roman base of Hastati versus a 3-rank hoplite base.

Does the Greek base look too deep by comparison to the Romans? Bear in mind the Greek figures are Baccus and slightly 'chubbier' than the H&R Romans. Both bases are 60x30mm.

A complete Greek unit in 3 ranks. 60 figures in total, so much 'weightier' than the Roman unit of 40-45.

Alternative configuration. Same no. of files per base, but in 2 ranks. In this case I would go for bases only 20mm deep because I might want to use double-depth phalanxes and 30mm would leave too much space. Each base would hold 20 figures so a unit in Basic Impetus would be 40 strong., about the same as the Romans.

The chaps off to the left are in the double-depth phalanx on 20mm bases.

The suggested 'unit' in the Alala! rules is 24 figures in 2 ranks.  Each figure represents c.50 men. For 25-28mm sized figures the rules suggest a frontage of 15mm per figure with a 20mm depth. So the whole unit would be 180mm long. An alternative to individual figure removal is element, with the unit being 6 elements strong.

Rather than simply reducing the frontage to 1/4, I thought I would beef up the number of figures in such a unit and 1/2 the frontage. I'm considering two options:

Option 1

2 bases 60x20mm

2 bases 30x20mm

2 bases deep

2 ranks

Total strength 60 figures (6 elements of 10 figures)

Total frontage 90mm

Total depth 40mm

This would give me about 6 units (3 a side), maybe with 1 or 2 more if I use the Carthaginian heavy infantry too

Option 2

1 base 60x30mm

1 base 30x30mm

1 base deep

3 ranks

Total strength 45 figures*

Total frontage 90mm

Total depth 30mm

* element size might be awkward

This would give me about 10 units.

Complaint to the Maréchal général des logis

The supplementary supplies mentioned in the last post have begun to arrive. First the magnetic bases on Tuesday, then the polypropylene boxes yesterday, and today the MDF bases, scatter material and sticky labels.

The Maréchal général des logis needs a kick up the derrière  because look how he sent them. Bear in mind the plastic boxes and the labels were on the same order to the Range. What a waste of wagon space.

The tiny little flat white thing are the labels.

You have to go out of your way to do something this stupid. It's actually harder to do this than do the common sense thing. Why put that much effort into getting it wrong?

************

More happily some progress has been made on painting the Carthaginians and re-boxing the SYW figures. Just waiting on news on the arrival of the reinforcements.

ECW Dig on telly

The Great British Dig, on Channel 4 this week covered an archaeological dig in Kings Lynn in Norfolk (eastern England). The objective of the dig was to discover more about the extensive earthworks around Kings Lynn, which at the time a coastal port, on the edge of the Parliamentarian heartland of East Anglia. Kings Lynn had briefly been held for the King.

If you haven’t seen this series before, the USP of the programme is that a lot of the archaeological trenches are in suburban gardens. Consequently during the course of the dig they uncover artefacts from recent times like plastic toys, early 20th century coins, the usual pottery shards and flint tools from pre-history.

Anyway, this week’s episode has much to satisfy the aficionado of black powder artillery fortification. Those in the UK enjoy! Those outside might have to see if the programme appears on YouTube.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-british-dig-history-in-your-garden/on-demand/72396-007

WWII Re-enactment

 The New Malden Women's Institute Re-enactment of the Second Battle of El Alamein.

The first battery opens up

The horizon is ablaze. "Cor blimey Sarge, it almost makes ya feel sorry fer Rommel"

Even the olives are on fire

Crump, Crump Crump!

One can almost hear the skirling of the pipes as the Highland Division advances (a.k.a Christchurch Young Women's Association)

I must say the tracer effect is rather good

As seen by JMW Turner

Two Side Dishes

Rather than getting on with finding a suitable table and running the ECW siege-campaign I talked about before the Summer, I've been faffing about reading and listening off topic.

The listening has been the We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast with Al Murray and James Holland. But at least with a podcast I can get on and do other things.

The reading part has lately steered to the Second Anglo-Sikh War (after reading about the first in Flashman and the Mountain of Light). My book of choice here is Amarpal Singh's the Second Anglo-Sikh War. It's a bit of a whopper at over 500 pages and very good too. The same author has written on the First ASW and on the Siege of Dehli during the Mutiny. I've been thinking of Colonial wargaming for several years without actively doing anything about it, beyond buying A Portable Colonial Wargame and the Men Who Would Be Kings rules.

If I do go ahead, I've narrowed down my theatre of interest to the NW Frontier. As for period, well, I've been thinking of going right back to the 1840s and then following through successive generations right up to the 1930s. The intention is to approach it at skirmish or at most brigade level, playing scenario driven games with named characters. Not to be taken too seriously with silly names and possibly even an Imagination type approach. Expect bad puns. Also there could be an element of the Great Game involved, with devious Russian agents stirring up trouble. All being well, a brave British political officer might return the compliment causing trouble on the Tsar's frontiers which Count Karl Gustav Stutterheim will have to deal with. Suitable Russian figures can be found in ranges covering the Russo-Turkish War and right up to the Russian Civil War. Who knows.

I might stick with 10mm figures, or I might even go up to 20mm since I need new terrain/buildings anyway, I needn't be constrained by what I have currently. Pendraken have a number of ranges that I can probably use as proxies, if not always directly what I want.

The second possible side dish is the Spanish Civil War. Now this is something that has interested me since the early 80s, although I haven't done much reading on the subject since university days. To me the kaleidoscope of factions involved on both sides is a key feature. I was intrigued by Trebian's approach to handling different factions, so I popped in an order for For Whole the Dice Tolls and I'm slowly working my way through that now.

There's a lot to go through. For a start, modern warfare (and by my standards the 1930s is modern) is more complicated than the Horse and Musket era. All the different capabilities of AFVs for one thing, to say nothing of aeroplanes. It's more than I'm used to. If this goes ahead, I'll continue with 10mm ranges since I can use some of my existing stuff like woods. I also already have some T26s and a couple of trucks that could be used. Before taking the plunge, I will have a run through of the rules using my Continuation War figures as proxies. They are already mounted on bases compliant with Trebian's recommended dimensions. There are some spare Finns/Germans in helmets in the box of unpainted stuff. I might even get away with painting these up as Spanish regulars at this scale. Economy is the watchword!

Interrupting the war

Ach, real life getting in the way. I meant to run the Kesselsdorf game by the end of the weekend, but other stuff is getting in the way.

Work has seen an uptick in busyness and more evening calls. Depending on timing, I have dinner before or after, then go for a swim, and then 15 minutes on a mindfulness app. I’m not minded to do the game after that.

Then there are other ‘discretionary activities’. Like going to watch football, listening to football commentary (lately it’s been two games a week). Or getting a haircut - it was getting to the point this wasn’t discretionary if I didn’t want to look like the crazy person that sits next to you on the bus. So Saturday was used up swimming, then haircut, lunch, travel to Woking for football (with the ritual socialising before and after). By the time Strictly had finished I was dozing off on the sofa. Sunday disappeared after a morning swim, with further snoozes on the sofa and later on the bed.

So back to weekday ritual today. Late calls, dinner, swim, meditation. I am snatching some reading time. I’ve started re-reading Twilight of the Soldier Kings to refresh myself on the rules. And yesterday I finished off Flashman and the Mountain of Light. This naturally turned the mind back to the Sikh Wars specifically, and colonial wars generally. Maybe I’d be better off with something more asymmetrical than the Sikh Wars to get that real colonial war feel. Two European trained horse and musket armies might be a bit samey, even if one is in fancier gear.

All of which butters no parsnips, and next weekend is already filling up. SELWG on Sunday where I will hopefully meet up with a couple of bloggers. And Saturday sees the Mighty Mariners (I can hear you sniggering) are live on the Box (BBC Red Button) with their FA Cup qualifier at Bromsgrove. Set your alarm for 12:30 BST, thrill seekers.

Sapping weather

I’ve had three days in the garden being a sapper, or more accurately a demolition engineer. The future command post should be arriving in the second half of August, and we have a lot of rearranging to do in the garden first. As the other half was working at the weekend I decided to tackle the old wooden fence at the back of the garden which was held in place by spare timbers propping it up from one side, and the grip of creeping plants on the other. Of course I’d chosen the hottest weekend so far to do it. And I’m not used to honest graft being a desk wallah. Evening swims have been a way to loosen up rather than exercise.

The tool cabinet and various other bits had to be relocated. Other things had to be moved to make space for the cabinet. One thing leads to another. I can’t believe how many empty plant pots there were dotted around the place.

Much hacking of undergrowth (or overgrowth to be correct) was necessary before the fence could be pulled down. The wood was sorted for disposal and the growing stuff cut and piled ready for the green waste wheelie bin. When it’s current load has been emptied. Visits have been booked for Tuesday and Wednesday to the local dump or “Recycling Centre” as the council calls it.

Today the shed came down, and the work of dismantling the pieces for disposal commenced. Naturally only half the screws heads were in a condition to be unscrewed, so there was more brute strength needed than theoretically necessary. There was a lot of stuff to be sorted and assessed for disposal or retention. If you’re passing, help yourself to the bits and pieces in the front yard.

Bamboo on the right to be thinned out and relocated to the rear and middle left.

Is it a collapsed shed or an art installation?

Later we’ve got to dig a trench (beware of enfilading fire from the defenders) for the bamboo which will be dug up and placed we’re the fence was. The trench needs to be lined to stop the bamboo spreading laterally. The soil can be used to help level off the ground a bit. Then more bamboo will be moved to screen the new location for the composters. More sapping.

It’s going to be a busy week. No wargaming, but it’s going to help me game more freely in the future.

Late edit: up and out early this morning delivering stuff to the dump and then back preparing the lines in the baking sun for the new HQ. The officer has gone off with the transport to get some heavy equipment from stores and I found I’d been locked me out of the NAAFI when I went for a break. So stuck with nothing to do I did what any Tommy worth his salt, parched and without access to tea would do, I sat down in the shade and switched on the wireless. I listened to the second half of We Have Ways of Making You Talk, episode 316. As if I wasn’t already in the mood the programme finished with Lale Andersen singing Lili Marlene. Ausgezeichnet!

Beating about the bush

I have made little progress on my prospective ECW siege campaign despite fewer distractions. The lack of motivation that I felt in mid-April seems to have returned and stuck around for the last few weeks. There doesn't seem to be any particular reason for this.

However, I have done a fair bit of reading in recent weeks. After finishing the Vyborg 1944 book, I picked up the book on Monmouth that I put down in March. The book is good on the historical background to the Duke, even reaching back to the origins of the Civil War. The downside of this is that Monmouth, or rather the boy who would become the Duke of Monmouth, doesn't make an appearance until well into the book. Even then the actual biographical detail on the man is rather thin. He appears almost as a cardboard cut-out, a puppet if you like, and then but briefly. The book is very strong on the politics of Restoration England and I learned a lot about that subject. But not much about Monmouth himself. My biggest criticism however is the way it is written. It reads like a series of undergraduate essays, is very repetitive in the manner of modern historical documentaries, and at times sails close to gushing a 'chick lit' style.

Next, keeping to the Restoration period, I read Buccaneer King: The Story of Captain Henry Morgan. An interesting subject and one with lots of potential for small scale wargames as I mentioned to the Polemarch on his blog. Surprisingly, most of the action is on land. Well it was a surprise to me. But if you like your ships and piratical adventures on the Spanish Main, this could be for you. I'm tempted, but I'm not sure I'm ready for a new period. At least not one which will require a whole new set of terrain, boats and buildings. The big bugbear for me with the book (well apart from the opening chapter, which is pure fiction) is that the author has an axe to grind. And keeps grinding it. Overall a decent read though and a good introduction to the early colonial period.

In parallel with the Morgan book, I've been dipping into the Portable Pike and Shot Wargame. Some thought-provoking stuff in there. Of particular interest is the chapter by Arthur Harman on siege games. Now I've picked up Devon and Exeter in the Civil War, which was in the batch of books I mentioned in the last post.

I almost forgot that I also order 5 packs of 10mm ships guns from Stonewall Miniatures. They're meant for the early 19th century I believe but they pass for 17th/18th century guns as far as I'm concerned. No I'm not intending to swash my buckle on the Spanish Main. I plan to use them as fortress guns as the carriages are similar. I bought some ships guns from Irregular for this purpose a few years ago, but the carriages are a bit too low for fortress guns, and the ones from Stonewall appear to be higher.

The guns on the right will do for wall pieces

Also in preparation for the siege campaign, I've been thinking about how to model the castle that will be subjected to the siege. Last year I bought some castle walls from Leven, on the One Scale Down principle, but these look a bit too small. I would also need to add some platforms for my guns and men to stand on. In the absence of anything else, I had an idea of how to produce something flexible and cheap. Of that more anon.

Face-to-face gaming returns?

The prospect of face-to-face gaming hoved* into view the other day, when the eldest announced he had bought a train ticket to come darn sarf for a few days. Will see if he can fit it in. We should be reasonably safe from contamination as he is frequently tested at work (at a virus testing centre!) and the weather is set fair for Friday so maybe a game outside is possible.

I may also get a solo game in this afternoon as I’m enjoying a day off, using up the last of 2020’s leave allocation before I lose it.

The first task this afternoon though is to finalise details, and place the order for the war room/office/yoga studio/teenage hangout den.

To add to the positive feeling at Schloß Nundanket, the pool re-opened this week so I’m slowly getting up to speed with swimming again and cycling. I bought some porridge at the caff, but as you’re not allowed to eat it there I stopped off at a little beach on the Thames.

The water looks tempting, and not as cold as I expected. But still too early in the year!

* does this word get used in any other context? It seems a bit like ‘wend’ as in ‘I shall wend my way’, wend being the present tense form of went, before we adopted ‘go’.

Call this a wargaming blog?!

This blog is rapidly becoming a tribute act to Epictetus - Discourses on Wargaming. It's been a long time. 17 posts and not one about wargaming. Back to 11 July and a brief post about the re-fight of the imaginary Battle of Kluis with the estimable M. le Comte Maximilien de Foy via Zoom. 17 posts, mostly about what seems to be my new hobby. Walking. None of these have specifically been about wargaming.

I started going for walks during the early days of lockdown, when it was quiet on the roads (so quiet you could walk down the actual road rather than the pavement). That gradually increased from 20-30 minutes to an hour, and then to 2 in the evenings and sometimes 3 hours a time at weekends. I found a few things I hadn't noticed before, or had forgotten about. It was great when life had slowed down. But early on the walking didn't get in the way of wargaming activity. If anything, the new lease of energy helped me increase my activity in the Spring and early Summer. I got more ECW units painted, I played a few solo ECW games, painted and based enough figures for Continuation War games, and even dug out my 6mm Napoleonics and had a handful of FaceTime games with my son.

As the Summer progressed this activity ground to a halt and the walks grew longer. Then I finally got around to making a concerted effort to lose some fat around my waist (the kind of thing they warn men of a certain age about). No specific health issues (now at least) but it needed tackling. So I started a diet. So far it's been successful (5kg lost and another 4 to go), but over the last week the weight loss seems to have bottomed out.  About a month ago I started increasing the amount I exercised to earn extra calories for the odd beer or other treats. Once my favourite pool re-opened in mid-July I got back to swimming (and what a feeling that was after 4 months) and then recently I got my bike out so a typical session would be cycling to and from the pool (16 km round trip) and a swim (currently up to 1.6 km or a mile in old money). Depending on what time of day I swim, I might still go for a walk with my wife in the evening too. I'm feeling much better than I've felt for a while. Much more energy despite the reduced calorie 'budget'. I even added yoga to my repertoire at the weekend (I stretched muscles I never knew needed stretching, but boy did it feel good).

All well and good, but I'm not getting any wargaming related stuff done. All I've managed to do is read a few books but I'm only making slow progress with More Like Lions than Men. Through no fault of the book or the author. I still waste a lot of time in front of the telly and I look with admiration at Jonathan over at Palouse Wargaming Journal who seems to manage to rack up the miles on his bike, and churn out a wide variety of well crafted units with the cadence of a GC contender in a grand tour. (Incidentally, that's going to be another distraction with the Grand Départ on 29 August).

So here are a few things that have been swirling round my head.

Seven Years War

My home-brewed SYW rules need a re-think. I really need to find a way to speed things up, but I'm not ready to fully abandon some of the mechanisms, despite one of Bob Cordery's recent thought-provoking posts on the subject. I also mentioned a while back that I would look at producing a C&C inspired game having enjoyed Tony's Ramekin version of C&C Napoleonics, and his ECW version.

ECW

I think I mentioned before about another narrative, mini-campaign set in my current locale. This is where some of the walking has come in handy, especially with finding out a little more about the area. So expect something involving the rivers Hogsmill and Beverley Brook, gunpowder mills, freshwater springs, Richmond Park, Kingston Bridge, Ham House and maybe Hampton Court. Colonel Sydenham Hill will be on his home turf fighting for King and Parliament.

AWI

Despite getting a uniform guide a couple of months back, I've still done nothing. This has been on my to do list for a long time so I really should crack on with painting and basing what I've got. My intention is to  set things up for Loose Files and American Scramble. I've long admired those rules but never put them to the test.

Colonials

This has been a glint in my eye for a while. I have prevaricated over what specific scale, period and theatre. India is probably the front runner theatre-wise. Thoughts as to period include the Anglo-Sikh Wars, the Rebellion of 1857*, maybe the First Anglo-Afghan War and the Great Game. This might extend to later periods right up to armoured cars and biplanes, but that's getting way ahead of myself. Oh and the Russian Caucasian and Central Asian provinces might get dragged in. My intention is to have something fairly light in tone. My inspiration comes from Flashman, Peter Hopkirk's Great Game related books (not at all light-hearted), Carry on Up the Khyber (of course) and the old Whitbread Best Bitter adverts.**

I think I'll go for something small scale in terms of numbers of figures, figure ratios of say 5 or 10 to 1 but with 'hero' type figures. Harry Flashman and Count Ignatiev seem likely candidates in the background (both in disguise). In a break from my usual small scale figures, I'm eying Irregular's 20mm range. They seem to have what I'm looking for. Brits and Loyal Sikhs versus Mutineers and Badmashes or Afghans. At some stage the Cossacks might make an appearance, running guns to the Afghans (the Brits will no doubt get up to similar skulduggery in the Caucasus and Central Asia).

This will be a big departure for me because I'll have to start with completely new buildings and different coloured battle cloth and other scenery. More thought needed on how to do this without a big investment in time and money.

So there you have it. Still no actual wargaming done. Just the intention to.

* Lights touch paper and stands back.

** In case Napoleonic fans are feeling left out there is one for you: 1812

Blog list

Hmm! Not sure if I’ve inadvertently tapped the wrong ‘button’ but the list of blogs I follow has disappeared. I’ll give it a while and see if it somehow rights itself. If not I’ll have to start setting up the list again.

And there it is. It’s back! How strange.

Collections

A recent post by Bob Cordery about his hat collection got me reminiscing about the collection of hats I had as a small boy. Not unusually for a boy in those days (1960s) I played at ‘War’, Cowboys and Indians, knights and Robin Hood, and this led naturally to wanting to dress up in the appropriate costumes. ‘War’ by the way, generally meant the Second World War, although we weren’t aware of any anachronisms in our kit and accoutrements - FN Rifles? Sure bring it. Winchester Repeaters? Ace.

Digression: in primary school at break times, if we wanted to play war/cowies & indies we would start with a call to arms. The initial cadre would stand side by side, arms over each other’s shoulders, then proceed to march across the playground chanting “who wants to play at War? No girls allowed!” Volunteers would join the line in turn and the line would continue marching and chanting. I have to this day no idea how we would decide when the recruitment stage had finished and we could proceed to the game. Looking back it appears as if it was just something we intuitively agreed upon. Taking sides was the next phase, and this was largely decided by self-selection, and this naturally led to many on the ‘goodies’ side and a pitiful number of 'baddies'. The odds were evened up by allowing the undermanned baddies extra lives. Occasionally a more assertive boy would insist on some poor sap having to go on the baddies side. As an occasional exception to the “no girls allowed” rule, girls could be allowed to play as the Indians. After all, they had long hair, had no idea about military discipline and could not make good gun noises so were better suited to imaginery bows and arrows. Later variants on the games would include Romans v Greeks, Saxons v Vikings and Normans v Saxons, all after watching BBC TV for schools history programmes in class. I remember being virtually the sole Greek volunteer. I wonder if our pre-game recruitment method was just something we did at our school or was it more widespread?

Outfits in my case came courtesy of my mum’s dad, a deep sea trawlerman who was always generous, especially after a good trip. And there were plenty of good trips in those days. The crews of trawlers were classed as ‘casual’ workers (a ludicrously inappropriate description for a job of such long hours and danger) were paid a relatively small fixed amount but had a share in the catch which frequently turned them into ‘3-day millionaires’. Three days because they were often only home for that amount of time before returning to sea.

Half crowns (12.5 pence in modern money) were common currency after Granda's trips, and this funded a growing collection of Timpo cowboys and Indians, and later Airfix toy soldiers. Christmas and birthdays meant a succession of outfits, bikes and scooters. There was a range of outfits using the brand Billy Best and at different times grandad bought me cowboy, soldier (modern) and spaceman outfits. Other, home made, outfits included Robin (my big brother was Batman naturally) and Robin Hood and his Merry Men (complete with home made bows and arrows). So far so good. All fairly normal (we'll gloss over the costumes my sisters made for Batman and Robin).

Now I’m very hazy on the timing here. I’m not sure what came in what order, but at around the same time I took to wearing hats of whatever type took my fancy on other occasions. I don’t mean things like balaclavas or sun hats that had a practical application, but my play hats. I have an old picture of me with two of my sisters on the prom at Scarborough, holding a tiny monkey with me in a US navy style hat. Re-reading that back now it sounds more camp than it was. I was not sporting a Jean-Paul Gaultier stripey top.  My mother’s youngest brother was then a rating in the Royal Navy and he gave me his hat from HM Bloody Big S. He would drop off other hats that he acquired on his travels from time to time - my favoured titfer  being a bush hat acquired from somewhere out in the Far East. The HM Bloody Big S hat never left the house as it was too splendid for mere play and more importantly, too big to stay on my bonce.

Photograph by Isaac Newton of a Bloody Big Ship from Wikipedia.

The same uncle used to come back with an array of exotic loose change after his trips, so foreign coins became another collection. This really was a ‘collection’ as opposed to something I had rather a lot of. It served no practical purpose. It was just for looking at and organising. I certainly wasn’t going to play shops with it - girls games, yeugh! I think my favourites were some small Danish coins with holes in the middle and a Kenyan shilling. The Danish coins could well have turned up in Grimsby rather than on some naval posting, as the town was a port of call and eventually home to a lot of fishermen and other merchants sailors from Denmark in the 20th century. Quite appropriate given the place's origins.

So hats, toy soldiers and foreign coins. Added to that was what became a vast (over 100) collection of badges. I have no idea how this started. The sort of badges I had were a random assemblage of company marketing tat (Eskimo Frozen Foods anyone?) and hippy type slogans. One of my main sources being my eldest sister (by then mid-to-late teens). These badges were typically tin or some cheap metal, round, about an inch in diameter and with a safety-pin type, erm, pin on the back. Rather like this: https://www.ebay.ie/itm/Vtg-Badge-Eskimo-Frozen-Foods-Fish-Advert-Advertising-1960s-Promotion/223793975200?hash=item341b290fa0:g:DfoAAOSw7iZd88cF It seems on reflection that my sister was always encouraging me to adopt hobbies of one sort of the other (see other posts about her influence on me with regard to football, wargaming and real ale).

OK, badges were still fairly ordinary as a collection. Indeed, noting the e-Bay Ireland link above some people are still collecting them. But bottle tops?*  The sort that you have  to lever off with a bottle opener, not screw caps. This collection grew and grew, although there were many duplicates. Quality or uniqueness was not of overriding importance to me. I remember as a small boy my siblings trying to tell me that I already had a Pepsi bottle top but I simply would not part with the surplus examples. So the collection was a hoard really. An evolutionary psychologist would have had a field day.

* I thought I was weird but a quick look on the aforementioned auction site suggests it's alive and kicking as 'a thing'. And who am I to call others weird? I play with toy soldiers.

Ultimately the collection of collections reduced over time to just one. The toy soldiers. That grew and grew. Before shrinking in number when I transferred from plastic to metal, and then growing again in number when I switched to a smaller size of toy.

Panic buying paper products

I need to stock up given the lockdown we’re now enduring. I haven’t even finished the first of the last two such purchases. I’m sorry, but I saw it and it was cheap. Even with postage it was under £8 compared to £20 cover price.

Had a quick gander and it looks promising. Which is more than can be said for my photography.

Now I'm in week three of working from home, thanks to having an employer with a proactive attitude. It hasn't really made much difference to my work because at least 95% of it was done remotely. I don't sit with anyone in my department as they're all thousands of miles away, and my interlocutors, if that's the right word, inside and outside the company are scattered across the globe. So sometimes I'm a little taken aback when people ask how I'm coping with the change. The big change is not chatting to people in the office (a minus point of the changes) and not driving an hour each way (a positive change). I have to remind myself that other people's routine has been affected to a greater degree.

I haven't made the best use of the extra time saved by not commuting, although I will claim I've lost some time having to make more shopping trips in order to get all the supplies needed. I'm glad t say things have settled down a bit this week. The wargaming corner of the blogosphere seems to be full of chaps of both sexes getting things done. Must do better. Also since last week and the closure of the lido, I've had to adjust my exercise regime. A small price to pay but the pool is a lot kinder on the knees than the pavement.

But I'm not moaning. I really I have it good. I'm very thankful for my lot. The present circumstances has made me even more aware of my good fortune. I have my health (more or less), my income is secure, a lovely family around me, space and the tech for the kids to do their schoolwork online without getting in each other's way, a sizeable garden for a breather, and friends who send funny/interesting/annoying messages at all hours.

I'm nearly finished Hey for Old Robin. A very good read. I've learned lots of new stuff and it makes me want to find out more and get the lead onto the table. I say 'learned', but most of it probably won't stick. The book does a lot to counter the 'traditional' view of the 3rd Earl of Essex, though I feel at times it does go a little too far the other way. But these guys know a lot more than me on the subject, so who am I to judge. I'm not even a dilettante - I aspire to be a dilettante. The second book I bought, Wanton Troopers: Buckinghamshire in the Civil Wars, seems a bit dry at first. Lots of tables about who owned what, so it might not make its way to the reading list before the Minden book.
I dare say the Minden work will nudge me towards the order book for Heroics and Ros. However, there is one other siren call, already working on my wilpower. 'ave you 'eard about zis fellow le Comte de Foy, who 'as been seducing all ze wargamerz wiz 'is pictures of ze 'earlièr war? Very tempting you naughty man. I've even found myself eyeing the Irregular Miniatures 20mm WSS catalogue. But I must resist, and tackle the list I drew up four months ago.

It didn’t happen today

‘It’ being Kunersdorf. To not many peoples surprise. This is part of the reason: 

Following M. le comte de Foy’s house style, I have opted for terrain ‘one scale down’. Human figure in 1:1 scale . Tree is 1:1.5 scale.

Rouva Nundanket ordered a mature olive tree in the week. I agreed would be ideal for our south facing garden. Recent summers have been very hot and dry and the expectation is that they will continue to get hotter. What could be better for Mediterranean conditions than a Mediterranean tree that is used to parched conditions.

The corollary of hotter drier summers, is warmer wetter winters. So when this tree arrived on Thursday  (let’s call the old girl Olive for convenience), when Olive arrived the ground was sodden and the rain was about to start again. This was the midweek ‘dry spell’ between two storms we’ve been ‘enjoying’ in the UK and northwest Europe. 

The pot that Olive arrived in was a metre wide - her  tree trunk is over half a metre in diameter in parts (sorry Olive your bum DOES look big in that). It took an hour of hacking the (plastic) pot, emptying soil, squeezing and pushing, and lifting* to get Olive through our 83cm wide side gate on her trolley. * inevitably one of the rear wheels went into the drain just inside the gate. We (Mrs N and I) looked at each other several times as if to say why did we do this. But we pushed on through and a couple of  minutes after getting through the gate, Olive’s trolley had reached the end of the concrete paving. Any further and we’d have had an object lesson in why ECW guns rarely moved once in position and the horses had been led away. The ground was too wet (though it did occur to me later we could have used the left over planking from our building work. Never mind the spot where she came to rest would be ideal and Olive would give us some shade on the patio. Mrs N dug the pit whilst I returned to my own labours indoors. Attempts to lift and lever Olive into position were abandoned before we caused ourselves too much damage to our musculature. 

We returned to the task with fresh vigour late this morning  after I’d dropped off the ever-so-slightly younger Ms Nundanket off to her third ballet session of the weekend. My bright idea to lift Olive worked. The only question is whether Olive will get root-rot with the ground as wet as it is.  Phew! We did it though. We saw the job through. We’d constructed the VKT Line. The conditions to be fair were more like Ypres in 1917 than Karelia 20 odd years later. But still a case of ‘sisu’. We’re available for any 1:1 scale earthworks you have in mind.

That still left most of the afternoon after I’d picked up the ever so slightly youngest up, but hay fever (not the onset of a cold as I thought yesterday) made me very sleepy. Hay fever! At this time of year and in this weather! I blame interfering Brussels bureaucrats.

Oh my excuse for the evening? ‘Why didn’t you get on and wargame after your afternoon snooze?’ nobody asked. Well that was because of a delayed anniversary dinner. Can’t beat that for an excuse.

It's coming at last!

KUNERSDORF! Finally on the table. Baron von Münchausen's view from his balloon above the Oder in his escape from besieged Frankfurt.

The main Russian position. The Observation Corps on the Mühlberg to the north (top). Prussians appearing from the top.

The southerly end of the position. Austrians towards the bottom left. In the bottom left corner is the Wagenburg.

Frederick's army approaches the Mühlberg. It's going to get very hot soon.

The battery on the Grosser Spitzberg, village of Kunersdorf in the background

Back after a long lay off. Illness and a subsequent loss of my mojo, football watching, spousal and parental responsibilities have all taken their toll on wargaming in Schloß Nundanket. I should get down to the game tonight and hopefully write it up tomorrow.

It took quite a long time to set up the table (3 hours). I took some time to get the dimensions right, using one of the maps from Kronskaf for the overall positions and Duffy (see previous post on Kunersdorf) for the placement of the different troop types. I don't have sufficient Russians for the Observation Corps musketeer regiments so have used Bavarians and Austrians. And I'm a few bases short of Prussian fusileers so have had to use musketeers - must remember this when the game starts.

Table layout with some key dimensions. Had to use a photo of the file on my laptop screen because Blogger wouldn't accept a pdf file of it.

To do list / Boxing

Been thinking about expanding my ECW horse (and maybe dragoons) but had a look at my unfinished bits and pieces while I was re-boxing the other night.

Not massive numbers of anything in particular, but these are all the jobs that get pushed back whenever I acquire more horse or foot.

1. Finish ECW 'clubmen'. Just 'texturing the bases and a bit of touching up paint. Tempted to get more. Can double-up for the Monmouth Rebellion (in fact they're from the League of Augsburg range).
2. Texture ECW casualty marker bases.
3. Finish ECW musketeers. Probably at least a regiment's worth. Maybe have as firelocks?
4. Finish ECW command figures. A few to paint and texture bases.
5. Finish ECW odds and sods, e.g. limbers.
6. Paint bridges.
7. Finish AWI. Quite a few Brits done but no Yanks. Brits need cleaning up too.
8. WWII Finns and Russians (10mm) - lots of infantry (some painted and based by Old School Tony) and AFVs. These are for the Continnuation War as when I made my first order and anxious to get something Pithead Miniatures didn't have Winter uniformed Finns. Probably a good thing really as the Continnuation War has more variety of scenarios.
9. Touch up and base 6mm siege train, pontoons and transport. These I kept pretty generic so they could be used with any army - not that I have a fortress or a ruleset I'm happy with.
10. Paint and base 6mm cattle/bullocks - Baccus, bought with my Naps. Too big for my SYW (H&R and Irregular).
11. Base Leven hedges so they don't keep falling over. Corner pieces will be ticky unless I want to fix them permanently to the 'straights'.
12. Finish 6mm gabions. I bought lots of dowels - thicker for my 10mm figures and thinner for 6mm. Cut into appropriate lengths they make cheap and half-decent looking gabions. Which are needed in large numbers for sieges.

Obviously this is all excluding anything that appears on the acquisition list. I could probably do with a regiment more of ECW foot as well as the horse, plus more mounted officers. Oh and throw in some civilians and peasants armed with tools. And a more permnent solution for roads (rather than masking tape) and watercourses. And a lake for the Karelian front. And expanding the AWI collection (I fancy having a go at Loose Files). And maybe the late 17th century........Oh nearly forgot high brick walls such as you'd see around a place like Hougoumont. Or Richmond Park/Ham House.

In case you are still reading.....Reboxing of my 6mm SYW and Napoleonics has been completed. I was buying Ferrero Rocher* boxes 1 at a time until last weekend I thought 'who am I kidding?' I'm going to buy more so why not do it in one go. As it was the five extra I bought are now nearly all full. I will need more for the AWI and WWII collections. My old Ikea boxes have been repurposed for terrain bits, earthworks and buildings.

For the record the FR box numbers are:

• 6mm SYW:  10
• 10mm ECW:  6
• 6mm Naps:    5

Each box is 21cm square by the internal dimensions, and about 3.5cm high internally. 

The whole lot. Not bad for 7 armies.

8/10 of the SYW collection

ECW and 2/10 of SYW

Naps

This will also necessitate re-organisation of the cupboards in the dining room which contain books, files and glassware (whatever next?) as well as the collection. In fact books around the house need a re-org too because the ECW collection has grown the female members of the household never puts things back where they belong. I have acquired a built in shelf in the new stairway, built last year for the loft extension. Conveniently positioned for my place of easement too. I suppose I could put my toys in one of the 'new' built in cupoboards upstairs but that's not so convenient for the dining gaming table. Hmmm.

* for the reason why see the old post Boxing and Basing, or ‘Ambassador, you are spoiling us’

However. All of this just eats either into gaming time or my 'wasting time' time. Maybe I should give some of the latter the heave ho and start making more productive use of my evenings.