More self-indulgence.
I’ve just remembered whilst reviewing the draft of this post (yes really, I do check them!) that one Christmas my brother got Waddingtons Battle of the Little Big Horn. I seem to remember it a tough and challenging game for the Cavalry to win. As it should be. Maybe that’s where some of the initial rules ideas came from that I referred to in the last post.
I can’t remember the order in which more ‘authoritative’ rules crept into my games. At this point I thought I was still an oddbod wishing to play with toy soldiers, albeit in a ‘serious’ way. Gradually facts like ‘Edward Woodward is a wargamer’ came to light. Some years after the Battle of Little Big Horn arrived in the house, I got the Airfix Waterloo Wargame for Christmas. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31537/waterloo-wargame
The playing surface was a ‘vinyl’ map of the Waterloo battlefield about 2 feet by 3 from memory. Units were variable strength (1cm frontage = 1000 troops) on plinth-like hard plastic stands on which were mounted Airfix Waterloo horse/foot/gun figures (again in hard plastic). The rules were simple but I had good fun with it. It introduced me to the idea of games where casualties were not removed from units until the whole unit was removed.
Not long after my eldest sister* bought me The War Game, edited by Brigadier Peter Young.
This was it! This was validation. And my first exposure to wargaming eye-candy. Brilliantly written accounts of 10 battles, illustrated with fantastic photos of model soldiers in carefully sculpted terrain. Some battles I knew of or had heard about, others were totally new. Thermopylae, ah yes, so that was the battle seen in the 300 Spartans. Agincourt I knew about. Edgehill, I’d heard of the English Civil War, Roundheads and Cavaliers, even Marston Moor, but not this specific battle. Blenheim, yes, that’d been in a book on decisive battles I’d read from the junior school library. Lobositz - the SYW was known to me in the context of Wolf and Quebec, and some vague notions of redcoats fighting the French on the Continent (Minden?) - again a totally new battle (and whole theatre of war) unknown to me. That set off a future debate whether to ‘do’ the War of the Spanish Succession or the SYW. Lobositz is a battle that has become legendary amongst some warmers thanks to Charles Grant (senior and junior). And there were 5 more battles, 3 of which were new to me. And crucially, there were ideas for rules in an appendix. It made wargaming look something serious and complex, and something to be mastered to my young mind. Fantastic!
* The same sister took me to my first ever football match at Blundell Park (a Lawrie McMenemy-inspired 4-3 victory over Doncaster Rovers), then got me this iconic book, and later with her husband introduced me to real ale. She has probably been the most responsible for cementing my three longest-standing pastimes. I owe her a lot!
The appendix to the War Game introduced me to the idea that figures could represent more than one real soldier. And that ground scales could consequently be shrunk so that at last my 6’x4’ board could become a (small) battlefield. Companies reduced from 100+ figures to 6 at full strength.
Then I discovered, around 1976-7, that there was a wargames club at school and that I knew one of the lads in it. What’s more he was one of the cool rebels, not a geek. So I joined and ended up having a few years of very enjoyable gaming. There was a rulebook in use at the club, a thin book with a green cover which had rules for ACW, WWII and a few other periods. What’s more it chimed with the ideas I’d got from the War Game. 1 man = 20. You kept a unit ledger in which you wrote down casualties in men, only removing another figure when the next multiple of 20 was reached. Orders were handwritten and had to travel to units from the commander at courier speed. There was even one lad into the then new scale of micro-armour. One of the boys had WRG ancients rules and having set out to convert (and paint!) Airfix Romans into classical Greeks) we got together to fight a Greco-Persian War battle in his partly converted loft. My phalanxes (including my red-cloaked ‘Spartans’) didn’t get close to his line, being shot up by archers on the way in. Most disconcerting! It didn’t seem to work out that way in the history books I grumbled to myself, and I didn’t return to ancients.
In 1978 I bought WRG 1685-1845 rules. Some people are not keen on these rules now but they were like a liberation (from written orders and keeping tally). The original retro ‘old school’ rules in a way - back to rolling a dice and ‘bang you’re dead’. The army lists in the back particularly pushed Marlburians and SYW - something I’d wanted to do for a long time (proper soldiers in tricornes and mitres). I was torn between the two. I’d need an opponent. Fortuitously, the same lad who I’d had the ancients game with already had a collection of Minifigs SYW Austrians. I have never figured out why he’d bought these - he clearly wasn’t the sort of person who only buys the ‘best’ army (to our level of knowledge then, that clearly would have been Frederick the Great’s Prussians). So that made the decision for me, I would get SYW Prussians (I’d be that kid who chose the ‘best army’). For me the best thing about the Prussians was that I’d be able to build up a points based army cheaper! Being generally elite and veteran, I’d need fewer models to get to 100, 200 or 500 points. Thus started a 40 year interest.
We had a game at the school club and it took off from there. I think we had 150 point ‘armies’ (probably a battalion and a squadron of cavalry, plus commander). The game attracted a lot of attention at the club, and from 2 interested boys we grew to 5 SYW regulars. Games grew from 100 point armies to 1500 point armies! Great games were had and I can still picture the other lads and the funny things that used to come out of our mouths (intentional and non-intentional).
Inspired by the Charles Grant classic, the Wargame, we plotted an Imagination campaign. Five rival states were created (conveniently based on Britain, France, Prussia, Russia and Austria), backstories developed, and 4th year English lessons (Year 10 in modern parlance) saw a flurry of secret diplomatic correspondence (a lot of it scurrilous, concerning the ‘drug-addicted Tsar of All the Russias’). Sadly the campaign never got off the ground and over the next few years, 5 whittled down to 2 over the years.
Building up my army was a case of the excitement of deferred gratification. Pocket-money and cash from odd jobs was saved up for weeks ready for visits to Toynes in Grimsby. Orders were placed via the shop for Minifigs (Ancients and Napoleonics seemed to be the popular periods so little or no stock of SYW was held). More weeks of waiting was ‘endured’ before being able to get your hands on shiny shiny metal. It did give you time to get units painted! Also by time they arrived you had saved for the next order.
At some point in the late 70s in a magazine (Military Modelling or Airfix?) I read an article about single stand units by what was then already a vintage set of American rules. I guess it was Morschauser, but I can’t honestly remember for sure now. I experimented with an ungridded version of the game (solo) but left it at that. I’ve never returned to gridded miniatures gaming, but who knows.
Tuesday, 2 July 2019
Monday, 1 July 2019
Early Doors
No, not a Jim Morrison inspired musical post. Or a quote from 'Big Ron' Atkinson. This is a self-indulgent post. A remiscence into childhood. I might make it more grandiose by describing it as a stage in the evolution of my thinking about wargames, which would be partly true.
Like most wargamers of my generation (end of the Baby Boom) I started playing with plastic toy soldiers, first Timpo cowboys and indians, Britains (1/32nd scale) then with Airfix 1/72/76th(?). All the usual early methods* were used in games on the living room floor or dining table - toy canon firing matches, marbles, flicking coins, Subbuteo-style. Then my first ‘proper’ wargames would be when my older brother had discovered somewhere you could use dice to determine ‘hits’ and have limits on movement. There were even different ranges and different weapons had different effects (did we learn that from warfilms or had my brother read it somewhere?). Most games involved WWII, then WWI, French Foreign Legion, US Cavalry and Plains Indians. In the background there had been colourful pictures of soldiers in a compendium of fairy stories and nursery rhymes (The Tinder Box?). I’m sure this fixed the idea in my mind that proper soldiers had colourful uniforms (indeed the Guards in London wore red coats) and wore strange hats that I subsequently learned to call mitres, shakos and tricorns**.
* Later this would include a more unsusal method. My brother, by then a smoker, to the startlement of my staid friend interrupted a Pacific War game to simulate a flamethrower with his cigarette lighter and torched a Japanese sniper out of a tree. I was a bit less surprised, having on previous occasions witnessed salvoes of lit matches being fired from Britain's naval cannon. There was no saving throw for poor Sergeant Kawasaki. Thanks Mark!
** Even later I learned they were ‘cocked hats’
I think we found Airfix Waterloo figures around the same time dad took us to see Waterloo. That was it! Proper soldiers. Lined up in ranks. In colourful uniforms. And the British still won. I’d learned that their guns were single shot and slow to load and they fired in ranks, so rules were introduced that it was one dice per 6 men. I even think soldiers ran away when 1/2 of them were killed! More reading. These 'muskets' actually fired a lot further than I thought - normally under 100 yards but up to 200yards! That was 2 yards at scale, more than the length of the (6x4’) model railway board! Infantry regiments were 1000 men. I was going to need more soldiers. I was clearly never going to ‘play’ Waterloo or even some of the smaller battles I’d read about in the library book about the Penninsular War. It was only ever going to be about part of a battle or some of the actions of the Light Division units (another new term!). That was fine, I’d discovered the Carey books of Ronald Welch - Captain of Foot was explicitly about the ‘petit guerre’ of the Light Division (was it the 52nd Foot that Carey served in?).
Nevertheless, heavily choreographed, solo war-games were set-up on the chipboard my brother had bought years before for his Hornby train set. A thousand unpainted Airfix Napoleonics, with some AWI British grenadiers and Confederate infantry (as Spanish?) were thrown in for good measure. Columns of French infantry, each 100 strong, would pour forward and initially sweep all before them before being held in a last ditch stand by the Brits. French cuirassiers would appear and the plucky British would form square and decimate the French with their controlled volleys before the massed British hussars would sweep over the ridge and rout the French from the field. An old portable record player would be carted into the room and pressed into service, with the climax from the 1812 Overture providing a stirring backdrop!
More like this later. I promise no more toys will be hurt in the future.
Like most wargamers of my generation (end of the Baby Boom) I started playing with plastic toy soldiers, first Timpo cowboys and indians, Britains (1/32nd scale) then with Airfix 1/72/76th(?). All the usual early methods* were used in games on the living room floor or dining table - toy canon firing matches, marbles, flicking coins, Subbuteo-style. Then my first ‘proper’ wargames would be when my older brother had discovered somewhere you could use dice to determine ‘hits’ and have limits on movement. There were even different ranges and different weapons had different effects (did we learn that from warfilms or had my brother read it somewhere?). Most games involved WWII, then WWI, French Foreign Legion, US Cavalry and Plains Indians. In the background there had been colourful pictures of soldiers in a compendium of fairy stories and nursery rhymes (The Tinder Box?). I’m sure this fixed the idea in my mind that proper soldiers had colourful uniforms (indeed the Guards in London wore red coats) and wore strange hats that I subsequently learned to call mitres, shakos and tricorns**.
* Later this would include a more unsusal method. My brother, by then a smoker, to the startlement of my staid friend interrupted a Pacific War game to simulate a flamethrower with his cigarette lighter and torched a Japanese sniper out of a tree. I was a bit less surprised, having on previous occasions witnessed salvoes of lit matches being fired from Britain's naval cannon. There was no saving throw for poor Sergeant Kawasaki. Thanks Mark!
** Even later I learned they were ‘cocked hats’
I think we found Airfix Waterloo figures around the same time dad took us to see Waterloo. That was it! Proper soldiers. Lined up in ranks. In colourful uniforms. And the British still won. I’d learned that their guns were single shot and slow to load and they fired in ranks, so rules were introduced that it was one dice per 6 men. I even think soldiers ran away when 1/2 of them were killed! More reading. These 'muskets' actually fired a lot further than I thought - normally under 100 yards but up to 200yards! That was 2 yards at scale, more than the length of the (6x4’) model railway board! Infantry regiments were 1000 men. I was going to need more soldiers. I was clearly never going to ‘play’ Waterloo or even some of the smaller battles I’d read about in the library book about the Penninsular War. It was only ever going to be about part of a battle or some of the actions of the Light Division units (another new term!). That was fine, I’d discovered the Carey books of Ronald Welch - Captain of Foot was explicitly about the ‘petit guerre’ of the Light Division (was it the 52nd Foot that Carey served in?).
Nevertheless, heavily choreographed, solo war-games were set-up on the chipboard my brother had bought years before for his Hornby train set. A thousand unpainted Airfix Napoleonics, with some AWI British grenadiers and Confederate infantry (as Spanish?) were thrown in for good measure. Columns of French infantry, each 100 strong, would pour forward and initially sweep all before them before being held in a last ditch stand by the Brits. French cuirassiers would appear and the plucky British would form square and decimate the French with their controlled volleys before the massed British hussars would sweep over the ridge and rout the French from the field. An old portable record player would be carted into the room and pressed into service, with the climax from the 1812 Overture providing a stirring backdrop!
More like this later. I promise no more toys will be hurt in the future.
Sunday, 16 June 2019
Hiatus and Life in the Trenches
Apologies to my esteemed reader for the lack of updates these past weeks. I plead Real World interruptions including a work trip lasting 12 days. I had intended to write up some posts based on thoughts I'd sketched out before I went away, but I hadn't accounted for how tired I would be in the evenings. I'm still getting back into the swing of things having landed in the UK on Friday following an overnight flight. I'll have a stab at those updates this week.
In the meantime I offer you another musical interlude. This time from the Continuation War of 1941-44. It has strong associations with the Finnish novel 'Tuntematon sotilas' by Väinö Linna (The Unknown Soldier) and films of the same name. I re-read the book (in translation of course) on the trip and it is just as powerful the second time round. If you appreciate All Quiet on the Western Front, I'm sure you'd value this too.
The song has a slow tempo waltz rhythmn, so I'm sure you'll soon be singing along 😉 (words below the description in YouTube) .
Elämää juoksuhaudoissa
There's a beautiful version ont'web by an American of Finnish stock called Diane Järvi. Well worth listening to too in my opinion.
In the meantime I offer you another musical interlude. This time from the Continuation War of 1941-44. It has strong associations with the Finnish novel 'Tuntematon sotilas' by Väinö Linna (The Unknown Soldier) and films of the same name. I re-read the book (in translation of course) on the trip and it is just as powerful the second time round. If you appreciate All Quiet on the Western Front, I'm sure you'd value this too.
The song has a slow tempo waltz rhythmn, so I'm sure you'll soon be singing along 😉 (words below the description in YouTube) .
Elämää juoksuhaudoissa
There's a beautiful version ont'web by an American of Finnish stock called Diane Järvi. Well worth listening to too in my opinion.
Thursday, 23 May 2019
Why the English Civil War?
This post concerns two interlinked questions:
I deliberately use the old school term here, and not the Wars of the Three Kingdoms or the British Civil War(s). I do wonder if the 'BCW' as a bit of a misnomer as there wasn't really a polity referred to as Britain at that time and the inclusion of Ireland stretches the point even further. I have nothing against the term the Wars of the Three Kingdoms - this is more accurate than BCW if we're considering the wider series of conflicts that occurred in these islands in the period 1639-1651. I'm not one of those people who says things like 'It's political correctness gone mad'. It's just that I have restricted myself to action in England (and Wales!). That's not to say I won't, in gaming terms, venture north of the border at some point, though it's less likely my gaming will take me across the Irish Sea.
Technically, I'm even more restricted to gaming the First English Civil War, and mostly pre-New Model Army. Despite the narrow temporal and geographical scope, there is still plenty of variety to go for. Pitched battles range from a couple of thousand aside, to monsters like Marston Moor. There are raids, ambuscades, leaguers and assaults. Sieges against re-inforced castles, and medieval city walls augmented by earthern work artillery fortifications. There is a lot of scope for focussing in on particular regions or even counties (supported by a wealth of literature). Campaigns could be at the national, regional or local level. Thanks to its geology, England has a wide variety of landscape in a relatively small area, so lots of scope for different topography on a campaign map if not on a single table.
There are several reasons for me personally to get into the English Civil War, after decades of interest in the Seven Years War. For a start the primary and secondary sources are almost exclusively in English! This is different from the SYW where a good level of literacy in French and German are necessary if we are to go beyond Duffy, Showalter and Szabo.
Secondly, it is easier to visit places of interest and battlefields. Within a ten minute drive of here is Surbiton where there was a skirmish in 1648. Within a 30 minute drive of here there are Syon House, Brentford and Turnham Green. In under 90 minutes I can get to Newbury, Oxford, Cheriton, Portsmouth, Basing House. Not much longer and I could be at Edgehill or Cropredy.
I've already mentioned the variety of scenarios open to the ECW wargamer, and the varied landscapes that games could be played out on. The ECW is also rich in 'uniform', if this term could be used at all pre-New Model Army. Gone are regiment after regiment in Prussian Blue, or Imperial White, instead we have red, white, blue, grey, green, yellow and even purple. On both sides! If you really want variety you can have different hat types (broad brimmed, Monteros, Monmouth caps), helmets (Morions and lobster pots in all their divers types). With or without breastplates. And a lack of consistency within any unit if you wish.
At a more 'worthy' level, what happened in the 1640s still matters today. Whilst no one seriously still holds to the traditional Whig view, the principle that the war was fought over still holds. Parliament rules - even if it took a second ovethrow of the Stuarts to re-establish. The wars also opened up the possibility of tolerance of other (protestant) sects, democracy and a sort of socialism (though the war was not fought for these reasons). The wars also had the first large cross-border military collaboration. The alliance between Covenenters and Parliamentarians (indeed the Committee of the Two Kingdoms) reflected the common interests that led to the Act of Union 60 years later. It's also a cliche, but still one that holds some truth, that people can be characterised as Roundhead or Cavalier in their approach to life. Personally speaking, whilst having a somewhat cavalier attitude in some respects, I have a great deal of sympathy for the Levellers and their ilk (one of the great 'what ifs' of history).
Lastly, there's the aesthetics. Not just the colour, but the style of dress. The look of the thing. And the florid language used.
For once, judging by the amount of ECW gaming in the blogosphere, I’m in tune with the wargaming zeitgeist.
- Why do I wargame the English Civil War?
- Why do I refer to the 'English Civil War'?
I deliberately use the old school term here, and not the Wars of the Three Kingdoms or the British Civil War(s). I do wonder if the 'BCW' as a bit of a misnomer as there wasn't really a polity referred to as Britain at that time and the inclusion of Ireland stretches the point even further. I have nothing against the term the Wars of the Three Kingdoms - this is more accurate than BCW if we're considering the wider series of conflicts that occurred in these islands in the period 1639-1651. I'm not one of those people who says things like 'It's political correctness gone mad'. It's just that I have restricted myself to action in England (and Wales!). That's not to say I won't, in gaming terms, venture north of the border at some point, though it's less likely my gaming will take me across the Irish Sea.
Technically, I'm even more restricted to gaming the First English Civil War, and mostly pre-New Model Army. Despite the narrow temporal and geographical scope, there is still plenty of variety to go for. Pitched battles range from a couple of thousand aside, to monsters like Marston Moor. There are raids, ambuscades, leaguers and assaults. Sieges against re-inforced castles, and medieval city walls augmented by earthern work artillery fortifications. There is a lot of scope for focussing in on particular regions or even counties (supported by a wealth of literature). Campaigns could be at the national, regional or local level. Thanks to its geology, England has a wide variety of landscape in a relatively small area, so lots of scope for different topography on a campaign map if not on a single table.
There are several reasons for me personally to get into the English Civil War, after decades of interest in the Seven Years War. For a start the primary and secondary sources are almost exclusively in English! This is different from the SYW where a good level of literacy in French and German are necessary if we are to go beyond Duffy, Showalter and Szabo.
Secondly, it is easier to visit places of interest and battlefields. Within a ten minute drive of here is Surbiton where there was a skirmish in 1648. Within a 30 minute drive of here there are Syon House, Brentford and Turnham Green. In under 90 minutes I can get to Newbury, Oxford, Cheriton, Portsmouth, Basing House. Not much longer and I could be at Edgehill or Cropredy.
I've already mentioned the variety of scenarios open to the ECW wargamer, and the varied landscapes that games could be played out on. The ECW is also rich in 'uniform', if this term could be used at all pre-New Model Army. Gone are regiment after regiment in Prussian Blue, or Imperial White, instead we have red, white, blue, grey, green, yellow and even purple. On both sides! If you really want variety you can have different hat types (broad brimmed, Monteros, Monmouth caps), helmets (Morions and lobster pots in all their divers types). With or without breastplates. And a lack of consistency within any unit if you wish.
At a more 'worthy' level, what happened in the 1640s still matters today. Whilst no one seriously still holds to the traditional Whig view, the principle that the war was fought over still holds. Parliament rules - even if it took a second ovethrow of the Stuarts to re-establish. The wars also opened up the possibility of tolerance of other (protestant) sects, democracy and a sort of socialism (though the war was not fought for these reasons). The wars also had the first large cross-border military collaboration. The alliance between Covenenters and Parliamentarians (indeed the Committee of the Two Kingdoms) reflected the common interests that led to the Act of Union 60 years later. It's also a cliche, but still one that holds some truth, that people can be characterised as Roundhead or Cavalier in their approach to life. Personally speaking, whilst having a somewhat cavalier attitude in some respects, I have a great deal of sympathy for the Levellers and their ilk (one of the great 'what ifs' of history).
Lastly, there's the aesthetics. Not just the colour, but the style of dress. The look of the thing. And the florid language used.
For once, judging by the amount of ECW gaming in the blogosphere, I’m in tune with the wargaming zeitgeist.
Tuesday, 21 May 2019
Boxing and Basing, or ‘Ambassador, you are spoiling us’
Ever since I switched to the Polemos basing convention, I've been on the search for the Holy Grail. The perfect sized storage box. Whilst there is no set size for bases under Polemos rules (at least the Napoleonic sets of rules, 'Maréchal de l'Empire' and 'Général de Division'), the standard size adopted seems to be 60mm wide for cavalry and infantry and 30mm wide for artillery. Depths are usually 30mm (60mm for brigade sized horse and foot units in Maréchal de l'Empire). I have all my SYW and Napoleonics (both periods in 6mm) on bases 60x30mm for infantry and cavalry and 30x30mm for guns. Containers that were sized in multiples of 60 or 30mm were therefore what I was ideally looking for. Height was of secondary importance, though not to be ignored if I wanted to disguise how big my toy collection was!
Out on shopping trips I'd be pouring over the 'storage solutions' section of hardware stores, pound shops, or in that well-known Swedish shop. Often cursing myself for not having brought a tape measure. Family members would ask why I needed a tape measure when the containers dimensions were on display. In case you are not already on the same page, I should point out that it's the internal dimensions that are the critical feature. Are the internal dimensions in multiples of 30mm? Very few of them are.
A decade ago in said Swedish interiors store, I came across the boxes below which were then retailing for a few quid each.
Overall measurements are 320x250x65mm, but more importantly the internal dimensions are a shade over 300x240x60mm. Enough for 40 bases. Because of the depth, I decided to store the figures double height (using bubble-wrap and newspaper bewteen layers). In 7 boxes I have an Anglo-Spanish Napoleonic army and Austrian and Prussian SYW armies. I knew at the time I should have bought more but thought 'don't be greedy, it's enough for now, you can always come back when you need more'. No prizes for guessing that when I did eventually go back the line had been discontinued.
In the succeeding years I found that boxes from Macbooks and i-Pads have reasonable dimensions, but the buggers keep changing the sizes and there's only so many devices of that price that a household of four can justify. And as with the Ikea boxes, these are on the deep side for 6mm or 10mm figures. For a few years this didn't matter as my collection didn't expand in size.
When I finally took the plunge and ordered some Pendraken ECW figures, the hunt for the ideal box was resurrected. It had never quite gone away - I was forever examining the range of boxes in Clas Ohlson (another outlet with Scandinavian origins!). Then that Christmas (2017) one of the wife's friends gave her a box of chocolates. It was a fairly simple looking, clear plastic box about 8 inches square and 1 1/2 inches high. Hmmmm! As soon as the chocolates had been finished, out came the tape measure. One of the best presents I got that Christmas! 210x210x35mm. Even allowing for cavalry standards and upright pikes they were perfect for my new toys!
On the third picture you can see the sticky-backed 'metallic paper' I line the boxes with. I stick magnetic paper underneath the MDF bases the figures are mounted on to stop them moving.
Incidentally, horse are based on 30x30mm bases, foot and dragoons on 40x30mm. Pike in the 'charge' position are on 40x60mm bases. The charging pike are mainly conversions from Pendraken musketeers firing, since no one really does figures in this pose (Irregular do pike in the receiving cavalry position). Guns are mounted 1 per base, 30mm wide by 40mm deep, with about four gunners in attendance.
There are generally 3 ranks of four foot on each base of pike and shot (or should that be 'shotte'?) and 1 rank of 3 horse on each base. Horse bases are placed in 2 rows of bases to represent 'Dutch' style tactics and 1 deep for 'Swedish' tactics. Command figures are 3 to a base for horse (officer, trumpeter, standard-bearer) or 4 for foot (officer, drummer, 2 standrd bearers). As I mentioned in a previous entry, hose can be any number of bases to a regiment, with one base being a troop. Naturally, there is one pike base plus two of shot for each foot unit. Command stands are supernumeray but are used as markers to indicate what's going on in the unit. At 1mm to the yard, the figure scale is about 1:20.
Getting back to the boxes, UK readers of a certain age will remember this advert.
You are really spoiling us
Standing request now for me with my kids is, if in doubt about presents, get Dad a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates (but not the dinky little ones with two tiers, they're totally the wrong dimensions!). My storage solution of choice retails at around £6-7 and it comes with free chocolates!
Out on shopping trips I'd be pouring over the 'storage solutions' section of hardware stores, pound shops, or in that well-known Swedish shop. Often cursing myself for not having brought a tape measure. Family members would ask why I needed a tape measure when the containers dimensions were on display. In case you are not already on the same page, I should point out that it's the internal dimensions that are the critical feature. Are the internal dimensions in multiples of 30mm? Very few of them are.
A decade ago in said Swedish interiors store, I came across the boxes below which were then retailing for a few quid each.
In the succeeding years I found that boxes from Macbooks and i-Pads have reasonable dimensions, but the buggers keep changing the sizes and there's only so many devices of that price that a household of four can justify. And as with the Ikea boxes, these are on the deep side for 6mm or 10mm figures. For a few years this didn't matter as my collection didn't expand in size.
When I finally took the plunge and ordered some Pendraken ECW figures, the hunt for the ideal box was resurrected. It had never quite gone away - I was forever examining the range of boxes in Clas Ohlson (another outlet with Scandinavian origins!). Then that Christmas (2017) one of the wife's friends gave her a box of chocolates. It was a fairly simple looking, clear plastic box about 8 inches square and 1 1/2 inches high. Hmmmm! As soon as the chocolates had been finished, out came the tape measure. One of the best presents I got that Christmas! 210x210x35mm. Even allowing for cavalry standards and upright pikes they were perfect for my new toys!
On the third picture you can see the sticky-backed 'metallic paper' I line the boxes with. I stick magnetic paper underneath the MDF bases the figures are mounted on to stop them moving.
Incidentally, horse are based on 30x30mm bases, foot and dragoons on 40x30mm. Pike in the 'charge' position are on 40x60mm bases. The charging pike are mainly conversions from Pendraken musketeers firing, since no one really does figures in this pose (Irregular do pike in the receiving cavalry position). Guns are mounted 1 per base, 30mm wide by 40mm deep, with about four gunners in attendance.
There are generally 3 ranks of four foot on each base of pike and shot (or should that be 'shotte'?) and 1 rank of 3 horse on each base. Horse bases are placed in 2 rows of bases to represent 'Dutch' style tactics and 1 deep for 'Swedish' tactics. Command figures are 3 to a base for horse (officer, trumpeter, standard-bearer) or 4 for foot (officer, drummer, 2 standrd bearers). As I mentioned in a previous entry, hose can be any number of bases to a regiment, with one base being a troop. Naturally, there is one pike base plus two of shot for each foot unit. Command stands are supernumeray but are used as markers to indicate what's going on in the unit. At 1mm to the yard, the figure scale is about 1:20.
Getting back to the boxes, UK readers of a certain age will remember this advert.
You are really spoiling us
Standing request now for me with my kids is, if in doubt about presents, get Dad a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates (but not the dinky little ones with two tiers, they're totally the wrong dimensions!). My storage solution of choice retails at around £6-7 and it comes with free chocolates!
Friday, 17 May 2019
The Last Battle
This is the first in an occasional series (i.e. when the mood takes me) of little musical interludes. Now and again there's a military history link. Often there'll be a Nordic* aspect. Sometimes both together, as in this song about the last battle in the Russo-Swedish War of 1808-09, when the final nail was hammered into the coffin of the Swedish empire. I've tinkered with the idea of wargaming this war, but haven't got
beyond some vague ideas, let alone acquiring any suitable lead. I do
have plenty of trees though!
The singer, Elina Järventaus Johansson, has a beautiful voice and the song has a haunting melody. I'm yet to find the lyrics and translation. Oh, and there's some atmospheric visuals to go with this. You can practically smell the black powder. Gå På!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y7jZSk8mus
* Carefully chosen word, as there will probably be a fair bit of Finnish content at some point, and, as every fellow pedant will tell you, Finland is not Scandinavian.
The singer, Elina Järventaus Johansson, has a beautiful voice and the song has a haunting melody. I'm yet to find the lyrics and translation. Oh, and there's some atmospheric visuals to go with this. You can practically smell the black powder. Gå På!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y7jZSk8mus
* Carefully chosen word, as there will probably be a fair bit of Finnish content at some point, and, as every fellow pedant will tell you, Finland is not Scandinavian.
Monday, 6 May 2019
The Civil War
The American Civil War that is. PBS America (on 'Freeview' TV in the UK) are showing Ken Burns documentary series. The whole series in one day by the looks of it. Fabulous programme what I've seen so far (I missed the episodes covering 1861-63).
I have a fascination for, but only a relative passing aquaintance with, the ACW. Something about it resonates with this Englishman. The fact there's so much material available in English helps (and what language they had in those days!), but it goes beyond that. Some of the photography is so sharp even after 150 years it seems so contemporary. It's real in a way that most previous wars do not seem real (the Crimean War being the obvious exception in the Anglo-centric sphere). Like our own civil war two and a bit centuries before, it was a struggle sparked by a constitutional clash and was infused with religious feeling, and had the highest proportionate death toll in any of the nation's wars. In fact the ACW death toll was absolutely higher than any other US war. Staggering.
I'm not sure I can take 9 one and a half hour episodes in one sitting though. So I searched for lighter relief. Scanning through the schedules I came across a programme entitled 'British Sporting Greats' on a channel called Together. Closer inspection revealed this list of 'British' sporting heroes:
Arsene Wenger (French), Manuel Neuer (German), Bastian Schweinsteiger (German), and Frank Lampard (English - yes a real Brit!). Now I'm not doubting the sporting credentials of these gentlemen but Britain is not so short of sporting greats that it needs to co-opt them from other countries. Hmmmm! 🤔
I have a fascination for, but only a relative passing aquaintance with, the ACW. Something about it resonates with this Englishman. The fact there's so much material available in English helps (and what language they had in those days!), but it goes beyond that. Some of the photography is so sharp even after 150 years it seems so contemporary. It's real in a way that most previous wars do not seem real (the Crimean War being the obvious exception in the Anglo-centric sphere). Like our own civil war two and a bit centuries before, it was a struggle sparked by a constitutional clash and was infused with religious feeling, and had the highest proportionate death toll in any of the nation's wars. In fact the ACW death toll was absolutely higher than any other US war. Staggering.
I'm not sure I can take 9 one and a half hour episodes in one sitting though. So I searched for lighter relief. Scanning through the schedules I came across a programme entitled 'British Sporting Greats' on a channel called Together. Closer inspection revealed this list of 'British' sporting heroes:
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