The Battle of Scheidewegdorf

With the weather still being unseasonably cool and rather wet (ie torrential rain) it was perfect weather both  for ducks and for myself to get in another game of SotE. After the last game I had re-read the rulebook and everything was much clearer, so I decided to add in some cavalry and artillery just to see how they played compared to HoW and the SYW, which I'm much more au fait with.

I left the terrain pretty much as was, but added in another road and a house, both really for aesthetic reasons, with the latter having no effect on the game as it wasn't to be classed as a BUA. For both sides I once again used the 1809 Wars & Campaigns section as a guide, as well as adding in some Superior troops and Rifles, just to see how they affected the play. The OOB can be seen below:

French 

C-in-C - Inspiring

Brigadier Generals - Capable

3 x Line infantry - Regular

1 x Line - Inferior

1 x Light Infantry - Regular & Independent

1 x Medium Horse Artillery - Superior & Independent

1 x Heavy Cavalry - Regular & Independent

Austrians

C-in-C - Inept

Brigadier Generals - Capable

3 x Line Infantry - Regular

1 x Line Infantry - Inferior

1 x Light Infantry (Rifles) - Superior & Independent

1 x Medium Foot Artillery - Regular & Independent

1 x Heavy Cavalry - Superior & Independent

The scenario was nothing fancy to keep things simple at this stage, with the crossroads acting as the nominal objective for both sides with them advancing to contact from line of march. Hopefully the annotated photos will suffice to give an idea of how the game played out, so without further ado:

An overview of the table, with the French at the bottom and the Austrians at the top.

The French left wing with the yellow die indicating the Inferior troops and the black Superior. I used horses with the artillery to denote that they are Horse Artillery rather than Foot.

The French right with their Cavalry providing some flank support, with the infantry in depth.

The Austrian right with the Foot Artillery on the road to gain a movement bonus.

The strong Austrian left with their Superior Light Infantry and Heavy Cavalry that would hopefully pack a punch.

The French won the Initiative roll and chose to move first. All units were in command and so pushed forward, but the independent Horse Artillery managed a double move and so moved up to the crossroads and unlimbered.

The Austrians similarly pushed forward, with their Foot Artillery staying limbered to try and close the range for canister before unlimbering. The Light Infantry got a double move and adopted a skirmish formation as they pushed forward.

The French Horse Artillery opened up on the inferior Austrian Line, but managed to miss completely. 

The French once again won the Initiative and chose to move first. Their Line Infantry moved forward with two units forming into Line as to maximise their firepower, whilst two stayed in column for ease of manouevre. The Cavalry stayed close by protecting the flank, which was a wise move as the Austrian Cavalry hove into view on the hill.

The Austrians all pushed forward with the Foot Artillery unlimbering but had their line of fire blocked for canister by their infantry! 

The French left wing causes hits on both Austrian Line Infantry units, but takes none in return.

The French Horse Artillery takes a hit from their Austrian counterparts as their canister finds the Inferior Line Infantry to their front.

The Austrian Light Infantry manage to cause two hits on the French Line infantry to their front. the extra range provided by their rifles is very useful.

With the French winning the initiative again, they chose to move forward and advanced to get with range of the Austrians, who did the same. The French Cavalry wary of the Superior Austrian Cavalry to their front chose to hold position guarding the flank. Shooting broke out right across the front, with both sides having units become Weakened (red die).

Both Austrian Line Infantry units have become weakened, with the one of the extreme right close to routing. The French have a Line Infantry unit Weakened too. In the Rally phase both the Brigadier General and the C-in-C attached themselves to the Weakened unit and managed to rally two hits off. The Austrians tried with the Regular Line Infantry and only managed one hit off, leaving them still Weakened.

The Austrian Left wing has had the better of the firefight, with a French Line Infantry unit Weakened. In the Rally phase the French Brigadier General attached himself and was unable to rally off any hits on the Weakend unit.

The French Cavalry have taken a hit from the Austrian Light Infantry who once again use the extra range afforded by their rifles to great effect.

Again the French won the Initiative roll and made a few small moves here and there, but did manage passage of units on the right wing to replace the Weakened unit in the front line with a fresh one.

For the Austrians, their right wing pulled back slightly due to being under pressure of routing, whilst their left wing pushed forward. The Cavalry charged the Austrian cavalry who failed to counter-charge, but a small mercy was the fact that the Austrian Light Infantry failed to hit them with supporting fire.

The result of the cavalry charge. The French lost badly, taking 6 hits in total and retreated back, but the Austrian Cavalry failed to pursue! A fortunate die roll allowed them to rally off tow hits (6 rolled). Things are not looking good for the French Cavalry. 

The French right wing continued to come off worse with the Austrians and the Brigadier General once again failed to rally off any hits from the Weakened unit.

A whiff of grapeshot was enough to finish the Austrian Inferior Line Infantry, who routed off the table. The French certainly have the upper hand on their Right Wing, but who would break first, given that both sides had a Wing under pressure?

For once the Austrians won the Initiative and chose to move first, with their right Wing retreating, their Left Wing managing passage of units and the Cavalry charging. The French could do little on their Right Wing other than stand and take the fire, whilst over on their Left Wing, they moved forward to keep contact with the Austrian Right Wing. They did move their Inferior Line Infantry into a position to form a reserve in case their cavalry broke, as seemed likely.

The French Cavalry are destroyed, but the Austrians are Weakened in the process. (In fact I got this wrong and the French should have rolled to retreat, taking one hit and then see if the Austrians pursued).

Disaster for the French, as their Right Wing sees a Line Infantry unit rout, weakening and already Weakened unit in the process!

Fire from the French Light Infantry sees the demise of the Austrian Right Wing Line infantry, leaving a huge gap for the French to exploit.

The French won the initiative and chose to move first. Their Left Wing moved as best they could to support their Right, with the Reserve moving forward given that the Austrian Cavalry threatened their LoC. On their Right Wing, the remaining Line infantry unit formed square to try and protect themselves from the cavalry, but naturally putting themselves at risk from musket, rifle and artillery fire. The Austrians had little to move, other than realign their Cavalry and move the Light Infantry forward to shoot at the square.

The Austrian Cavalry poised to exploit and opportunities if French Infantry retreat.

The French Line Infantry in square unsurprisingly break, but the supporting Horse Artillery nearly routs the Austrian Line, who are severely Weakened.

The French Left Wing move forward but are unable to assist their Right Wing to any meaningful extent.

The French Inferior Line form the reserve to protect the LoC.

End of the Game

With both sides bloodied and beaten, I called the game a draw, but the Austrians had the slight edge given that they still had their cavalry in play.

Post Game Thoughts

Well for a second game and with some new units to play with, that went remarkably well, with it already feeling nice and familiar as a game. What more could one ask for? So as always a few post game musings in no particular order:

• Using the half move or less for units when getting close to the enemy to avoid the Significant Move modifier made a difference when it came to shooting, something which I didn't do in the first game.
• I really noticed the difference between Superior and Inferior units in terms of staying power as well as shooting and combat modifiers. For the former, the Austrian Light Infantry with rifles were very effective as were their Cavalry. In contrast the Austrian Inferior Line Infantry had little staying power as one would expect. You really have to think how best to husband your resources, especially with a force containing a high percentage of Inferior troops.
• Rallying did make a difference this game, not only in terms of the die rolls actually working, but also for me to remember where best to position the Generals as the action unfolded.  Passage of Units also helped but not to any great extent, due to some devastating die rolling at critical junctures in the game. As mentioned previously, having a reserve in bigger games will be crucial to aid either sides chances of winning.
• I forgot to use Skirmish Screens for Line Infantry, something which I really need to learn to remember for future games.
• I think I need to make some markers to aid game play, as whilst the coloured dice help, they can't cover all aspects of the game. Something to look into and ponder.
• Both Shooting and Close Combat proved to be rather effective this game, as both sides for the most part rolled well. Also not moving too far as mentioned above helped. 
• I liked the difference between Horse and Foot Artillery, with the former really giving the feel of a Napoleonic game. Ditto the French Line Infantry forming square due to the presence of the Austrian Cavalry, but at the risk of coming under fire from the Austrian Infantry and Artillery.
• Having the Old and New Regime restrictions for various armies is a simple but effective mechanism.

Well I think that's probably it for now. For my next game I will be adding in terrain into the equation, to see how that affects things and am not sure whether to go with the starter scenario from the book or for a small historical action. Probably the former to be honest but we will have to wait and see.

To aid my limited knowledge of this period, I have just received a copy of Brent Nosworthy's 'Battle Tactics of Napoleon and his Enemies', which from a quick skim through looks to be excellent reading. A few books to finish first but I hope to be able to start reading it this week. with my wife away for a few days I aim to get another game in soon and who knows, even some FtF gaming as numbers finally continue to fall in our neck of the woods.

So until then stay safe and keep healthy!

The Battle of Burnt Oak - a Shadow of the Eagles trial game

Having read through the SotE rulebook over the past few days, it was time to bung some figures on the table and give things a little run out to see how the core mechanics worked. Nothing too fancy so I could concentrate on nailing the basics, so kept everything small and only used infantry, leaving artillery and cavalry for another time. I loosely based both forces around the 1809 Danube campaign, using the 'War & Campaigns' section as a guide and came up with the following:

Austrians (Red)

1 x Capable Commander

1 x Inferior Line Infantry

2 x Regular Line Infantry

1 x Regular Grenz Light Infantry

French (Blue)

1 x Superior Commander

2 x Regular Line Infantry

1 x Superior Light Infantry

Scenario

Nothing complicated at all, with the basic premise that the Austrians have formed a blocking position by the Burnt Oak and the French have been ordered to break through. The French will have +2 Initiative due to their National Characteristics and their Commander being Superior.

An overview of the table, with the French in the bottom left hand corner.

The French in company columns for speed of advance and ease of manoeuvre, with the light infantry in front as a potential skirmish screen.

The Austrian in line with the Grenzers in front of the weaker inferior line infantry.

The French won the initiative and chose to move first, with the light infantry getting a double move and changing into skirmish order to mask the line infantry's advance, which only moved once. The Austrians pushed their right flank forward one move as the Grenzers held their position to improve their shooting prospects.

The French light infantry in skirmish order.

The French light infantry took 3 hits from shooting and only managed 1 hit on the Grenzers in return. The French commander was too far away to be able to move up and try and rally hits of the light infantry.

The Austrians won the intiative and once again the Grenzers held their positions as the line infantry moved forward to try and make their weight of numbers tell early on. The French light infantry formed back into line and wheeled to the left to support the line infantry moving up to attack the Austrian right.

The French light infantry took a bit of a hammering from the Austrians, becoming weakened in the process, but managed some hits on the Austrians in return. The French commander attached himself to the light infantry in the rally phase but failed to remove any hits, which would have removed their weakened status.

The French won the initiative and chose to move first. The light infantry could not advance being weakened and didn't fancy assaulting the Austrian line, even with the support of their General.

The French line infantry on the left assaulted the Austrian right flank, surviving incoming fire on the process. Unfortunately for them they lost the combat and were forced to retreat, becoming weakened in the process, with the Austrian line infantry just managing to catch them in their pursuit, with the combat being fought in the next Turn. The French light infantry were lucky to survive due to some rather poor Austrian shooting, but managed to weaken the Austrian line infantry to their front. 

The end of the Turn with the French left flank under some pressure as the Austrian line infantry certainly have the upper hand. Both sides centres are not in the best of health and could easily crack in the next Turn.

The French once again won the initiative and the French line infantry on the right charged in against the Austrians Grenzers who held firm, but were weakened as the French closed, who took hits in return. On the French left the Austrians made short of the weakened line infantry who routed, which in turn led to the French light infantry in the centre routing too, leaving the French line infantry on the right flank the only unit still on the table! a close run thing and it could easily have been the Austrians who were fleeing the table.

Post Game Thoughts

Well that was fun, nice and quick and certainly gave me a good little introduction to the core mechanics of the game. I certainly look forward to re-reading the rules in the light of this to see if I went wrong anywhere and to gain a better understanding of the rules themselves. so in no particular order a few thoughts:

• The French really should have been in line to start with, to potentially weaken the Austrian line before forming company columns and then going in for the assault. Still, it was all about learning so a point to remember for future games. Still they speed and manouevreability of the company columns if very useful, much more so than line, just as it should be.
• The French being able to win the initiative more often than not due to their National Characteristic and Superior commander felt right.
• Early on it was obvious that you need to think about where best to position your commanders, not only for their command radius but just as importantly for the use during the rally phase. Not that they managed to rally any hits in this game, but if they had, it might have made a difference for the French and to the outcome.
• The game was very enjoyable and nothing jarred or felt wrong. The book is very well laid out so it is easy to find the rule you want during the game that may not be on the QRS. A big 'thumbs up' for this.
• Next game I want to add in some artillery and maybe cavalry, but again will keep it small. Adding in terrain after that so as not to complicate things too much.
• Skirmishers can make a real difference I'm sure, certainly in terms of providing skirmish screens to mask advances etc. Something I'm not used to for sure so this will be an interesting lesson to learn and certainly one pivotal to the period.
• I certainly look forward to reading some of my Napoleonic books to gain a better understanding of the period, having played plenty of 18thC and 19thC games, but precious few Napoleonic ones. Hopefully this won't be a case of old dog and new tricks!

I'm certainly looking forward to more games of SotE and certainly some FtF games with my friends in the hopefully not too distant future. The rules have certainly kindled an interest in this period, just as HoW did for the 18thC and Bloody Big Battles did for the 19thC, which is rather nice to be honest. So time to go and do some reading and plan my next game. Until then stay safe and keep healthy!

The Eagle Has Landed

Back in April of this year, my good friend Keith Flint released his Napoleonic ruleset, 'Shadow of the Eagles'. Normally in its gestation I would have spent many a happy game playtesting these face-to-face with Keith, but for obvious reasons this was not possible due to Covid. Since their release we still haven't been able to meet up, but Keith kindly sent me an authors copy in the post, so that I can get to grips with the final version, in advance of some games, all being well, in the Autumn.

So I will give some initial impressions of the book, but first a few photos of the book and some of the pages therein:

A very nice cover by Chris Collingwood.

As you can see, the book is the same size as BPII, but less thick as it's not padded out with unnecessary verbiage.

The contents page.

James Roach has provided many fine photos of his lovely 28mm armies of the period.

The diagrams to accompany the text are concise and clear.

More artwork by Chris Collingwood.

An example of an 'Army List'.

First Impressions

Well the book is very nicely produced and a pleasure to read, as the font is not too small and the double columns across the page are well laid out. There are plenty of diagrams to accompany the text and references to other pages where relevant. For those familiar with Keith's 'Honours of War' rules, these rules have a nice similarity in concept, but are certainly not HoW with some Napoleonic rules added on. They are very much a standalone set, but reading through I felt comfortable that I would enjoy playing these.

Introduction & Notes to the Rules

Keith sets out his stall early on and again in his notes after the rules themselves. I like this in an author as it allows you to understand why they have done certain things, something which Neil Thomas has been doing for many a year and something I wish more authors of rulesets would do. Whether you agree with them is another matter entirely.

Basics & Pre-Game

As one would expect, a guide to the die etc you will need kicks things off, followed by basing suggestions for the various arms of service. I really like the 4 bases per unit approach and a similar frontage, which works for me. I will have to make a sabot base or go for some more artillery, as these have half the frontage of other units. No big deal and not sure which route I will take yet.

After this the basics of the rules are covered, which all feel right and have a nice familiarity having played many games of HoW. So nothing drastically new to learn here, which as I get older becomes more important to me, as i prefer to concentrate on core rules with similar mechanics, so that I can focus on the game rather than trying to remember different rules during a game, which I find too disruptive.

Playing 'Shadow of the Eagles'

Naturally this is the core part of the rules and I must say I found them very easy to follow and understand, with nothing standing out as confusing or unclear. Where required there are references back to other pages where relevant, which should make searching for things much quicker when playing the game.

There are some very useful examples of play at the end, which having read the rules, just help one understand them. There is also guidance on playing larger games at Corps level and above, for those that like to put on larger, possibly multi-player games. Personally I will be sticking at Division size games for the most part, as that fits in nicely with the time and space for my games these days. However Keith often puts on a 'big game' now and then which would be fun to play.

Wars and Campaigns

Essentially this section could be classed as 'Army Lists' in many books, but here they are more a guide as to how to create an Army for a game, dependent upon the period played. So no points here or proscriptive limits on troops, but enough information to create a plausible force for say the 1809 Danube Campaign. Given the huge difference in say the various French forces for said campaign, this is quite nice as you can fit your force to a specific action or go for a more generic one which feels 'right'. Personally I like this sort of approach but naturally some players may not agree with Keith's approach.

Ancien Regime to Grand Armee

I found this section on the differences in the Napoleonic period compared to the 18thC very informative as I'm a complete Nappies newbie, having only a basic knowledge of the tactics used. For many players this will be well worn territory but I think it nice to have this for players like myself.

Scenarios

There are 3 scenarios that could be called Small, Medium and Large, which are useful to allow the player to get to grips with the rules without trying to refight Waterloo in their first game. This is something I advocate to new players of Blitzkreig Commander. As the rules are dedicated to the late, great and greatly missed, Stuart Asquith, the last scenario is one of his and shows how to play a manageable Corps level game as mentioned earlier.

Bibliography

A selection of books that Keith found useful when developing the rules. Given there must be thousands of books on this period, this I still found interesting, as some of them I might get and some I already have.

QRS

The last page is a double sided QRS that you could cut out if you wanted too, but aside from the heresy of doing this, Keith has put up QRS' on the website set up to support the rules.

Summary

So there you have it. I like what Keith has done in producing a set of rules that are easy to understand and make the whole Napoleonic period approachable for those players such as myself, that are not au fait with it. I'm certainly looking forward to giving these rules a run out in the next day or so and have set up a small board in anticipation of such.

I know some may find the rules on the expensive side, given that they are around the £30 mark, but you have everything you need in one book, with no need to purchase additional supplements etc, that you might need to do for say Black Powder, so worth bearing in mind. 

Keith also has set up a website and forum to actively support the rules, which is well worth checking out. For another review and an excellent one at that, check out Norm's review here on his Blog.

So I hope this may have proved useful to some of you considering these rules, which I can heartily recommend. I look forward to trying some simple games out soon with my mdf figures and working my way up to something more involved in the days and weeks to come.

Until then stay safe and keep healthy!

Dyrham Park

A few days ago my wife and I took a trip out to the National Trust's Dyrham Park, a favourite of ours as it has wonderful views and gardens to enjoy, as well as being only some 20 minues drive away from our house. The whole area around Bristol is full of history, from Iron Age hills forts onwards, which is rather nice as originally coming from the edge of the Fens, there wasn't that much visible history around. 

As you walk around the extensive parkland on the Cotswold Edge, you come to a great view of Hinton Hill fort, where the Battle of Deorham was fought. We put on a demo at Colours 2013 and quite scary to realise that that was 8 years ago. How time flies!

You can just about make out the levels of the hill fort, which is towards the top right of the photo. It extends towards the tree line in the distant left and is now bisected by a road. Despite it's age when you walk across what remains of the ramparts, they are still very impressive, even today.

On a clear day you can see towards Bristol and the Black Mountains, but the heat haze prevented this when we visited. I just love the British countryside!

My wife enjoying the view and the ridgeline to here left in the far distant if where the Battle of Lansdowne Hill was fought.

So after a nice walk we made our way down to Dyrham Park house itself. The house hadn't opened yet when we were there and we haven't seen all the house as it was having its roof restored, so most of the rooms were closed off. Something for another day.

The approach from the East. This was intended to have been more landscaped etc in the plans which can be seen in the Orangery below, but whether it was ever done I'm not sure.

The Orangery has a lovely collection of maps of the estate at various times, as well as a rather nice map of the surrounding area, showing the fields as well as a medieval strip system still in operation, which was quite unusual by then.

One of the maps showing plans for the extensive gardens.

A lovely courtyard used to grow plenty of herbs and rather tranquil too.

The spectacular Western approach to the house.

St Peter's church.

The gardens are being re-modelled to be as close as possible to one of the designs seen in the Orangery. Covid lockdown has delayed things somewhat and they have lost some shrubs, but still it is coming together nicely and should look superb in a few years time.

A nice cascading water feature into...

...the ornamental pond, rather choked with blanket weed. The team of gardeners and volunteers are doing their level best to catch up on over a years worth of jobs!

St Peter's Church is not actually part of the house and park, but is cheek by jowl with it as can be seen in the photos above. It is a lovely church and one that is open to visitors, a rare thing these days and also seemingly untouched by the iconoclasts during the English Civil War and the Commonwealth afterwards.

There is quality of craftsmen's ship everywhere you look. The font is apparently Norman.

The pulpit is beautifully carved and a joy to behold.

The approach to the altar has nice tiled floor, which looks to be Dutch. The Flemish triptych is beautiful.

Rather surprising to see an organ of this quality in a small parish church. However the surrounding area is full of wealthy farms and houses, so maybe not so surprising afterall.

A salutary reminder of those that gave their lives in the War, at home and overseas. There is also a brass plaque with the names of those from the parish lost in both World Wars.

A spectacular tomb of George and Anne Wynter.

A lovely brass, showing a knight in his full armour.

Our aim is to visit more local areas over the Summer and possibly to share them with you too. Landsdowne Hill is definitely on the cards again, plus some in our neighbour hood as there is quite a bit with in a stone's throw of where we live.

Sadly Covid cases continue to rise where we are and don't look like slowing down at all, so maybe out plans might have to be curtailed somewhat. However the extreme heat has broken so I might even get back to some gaming related activity as SWMBO watches the Olympics! So until next time stay safe and keep healthy.

Hot and Cold

The weather here in Bristol has been frankly too hot to do anything of late, due to some prolonged very hot weather that has seen the first extreme heat warning issued in the UK. Now it's nowhere near as bad as those temperatures seen in the North West of the USA and Canada, but still it's pretty hard to bear as it's in the low to mid 30's C in the bedrooms at night! Thank God a neighbour lent us a fan to help cool things down again as there has been no breeze at all to help.

So I thought I'd post some pics of our garden which after a very funny year on the weather front, is looking good but is some 2 weeks or more behind compared to normal. Fortunately we have a nice space to be able to sit outside and cool down a bit once the sun has begun to set, which has been a real God send!

The view from the patio doors, which we currently can't enjoy as we need to keep the blinds closed to help keep the house cool.

My wife wanted some Jasmine on a trellis and who am I to refuse her? The smell in the evening is delightful.

My hot border that bakes in the sun for most of the day.

The more shady border with shrubs and perennials. Still a work in progress.

Another hot border that needs some editing, but is nearly there.

To counter all this heat and in keeping with my desire to game more of early part of WWII, I bought the following book, which is rather weird to be reading in such heat given the conditions in which it was fought:

I'm only a couple of chapters in, but it is an extremely well written and readable history of a conflict I know so little about. Whether it tempts me to game it remains to be seen as as mentioned previously, the big issue is new terrain and of course troops on snow bases. I am keen to learn more on the Continuation War which is much more doable as it would only require new figures.

So hopefully the weather will break soon and some gaming related activity can return. Sadly Covid cases in our neck of the woods have hit an all time high (60% increase in one week) and hospital cases are on the rise, so little prospect of any FtF gaming for quite some time.

So until next time stay safe and keep healthy.

Early WWII Wargaming

As a child my primary interest in wargaming centred around Normandy 1944 and the North African campaign, largely due to the Airfix and Matchbox figures that were available at the time. Over the years this interest has broadened into other periods, such as the SYW, ACW and mid-19thC Europe. Alongside these over the past five years or so, my interest has steadily grown in the early years of WWII, from the invasion of Poland through to Operation Barbarossa as a broad guide. My library of books on this 'period' has steadily grown too.

When I first started wargaming in 10mm, I bought plenty of 'toys' to allow me to game the invasion of France and Operation Barbarossa, but only ever completed the British, due to my gaming chums interest in the late War. Of late however my interest in early WWII has been re-kindled, to the point that I have dug out my 'toys' from the attic and have started basing and painting with the aim to game this 'period' in a meaningful way.

My initial thought is to have a core German force that is nominally based around the 2nd Panzer Division, as they fought in Poland, France, the Balkans and Russia, so a nice opportunity for a narrative to develop around each campaign. Late war they fought in Normandy which is useful but sadly not Italy, but with some artistic licence I'm sure they could make an appearance. Alongside the Germans I have the following Pendraken figures:

Norwegians

Well these have been ordered from Pendraken and I am using WWI Austrians as proxies as in 10mm and with the right paint job they should be close enough.

Belgians

I am using some WWII French as proxies and they are close enough for me once on the table. the Belgian armour is interesting but not the most exiting camo I'm afraid.

French

These are from there WWI range along side a nice mix of armour, which has some of the best camo schemes of the war!

British

These are complete bar some additional armour, so are good to go.

Italians

Complete.

Greeks

I use the British as proxies for these.

Germans

Really I've only just started on these, both infantry and AFV's, but the aim is to get enough together for some small actions soon. I do have Fallschirmjager that can be used to at a push.

Russians

I've just started basing these and forming up units to see what I have as I bought these years ago and can't remember my plans for them.

Polish

Still in their packs but I have a complete force for when it's their turn to be based etc.

In terms of the campaigns to be fought, the following are all on my list:

Khalkhin Gol (Nomonhan) 1939

A passing interest in this Russo-Japanese conflict that could make for a nice little campaign at some point in the future. The biggest issue is the lack of the Japanese tank used in this conflict, unless Pithead miniatures make one of I can find a 3D printed one. Not high on my list of priorities for sure.

Poland 1939

Very much high up on the list to game. A nice mix of units on offer to both sides, with armoured trains a bonus too.

Norway 1940

This has been on my radar for some time and last week I took the plunge and ordered some troops from Pendraken. Plenty of options with French and British involvement too. One issue is the snowy terrain for certain actions, but something that can easily be addressed I'm sure. Also I would love to have a Neubahrfahrzeug tank for the Germans, but will have to check Pithead or 3D print options.

France 1940

It goes without saying really, with so many options for campaign, given that I have Belgians, British and French to play with against the Germans. Also plenty of 'what if's?' to be explored, such as Phoney War invasions of Germany, or if the French airforce had bombed and strafed the Germans in the Ardennes. Also for something a bit left field, the Italian invasion of France towards the end of the campaign.

Operation Sealion

Need I say more?

The Balkans

I've gamed this on and off over the years, with the Littoral area being of most interest to me, with the Italians often having a tough time against the Greeks. I'm now leaning towards the latter stages when the Germans got involved, as it's not something I've gamed bfore, so could be fun.

Operation Barbarossa

Like France 1940, so many options it's hard to know where to start. I have all the toys so just need to paint the troops, as with most of the above! I'm also keen to learn more about the Finnish involvement in this, so need to search for some good books on the subject.

Western Desert

Rather low down on the list as I simply have no terrain for it, nor figures, so a complete start from scratch project. Due to the type of actions fought, I might go down the 6mm route for this to give a sense of the immense open desert that the battles were fought over. Very much low down on my list but would be nice to do some day.

So there we have it. I'm certainly not short of choices to keep me entertained as the nights draw in. Fortunately I have plenty of reading and reference material for the above, so quite easy to get inspiration for actions and/or campaigns, with the latter very much favoured. 

Hopefully I will be able to post some updates soon, but until then, stay safe and keep healthy.

Painting A Little & Often

For countless years my painting used to be done in the evening after everyone had eaten and the kitchen became free, which was the best place for me to paint. However as I got older and the family grew up, there was less free time available for me to sit down and get out the brushes and paint. Not being a fast painter at the best of times, things got even slower than before. Then with Covid and the national lockdown coupled with retiring, evenings became family time and my painting virtually stopped dead in its tracks. I used to enjoy my hour or so of painting after work, which was some valuable 'me time', especially after a stressful day, which was quite often in my old job. But I simply couldn't find the time nor the motivation to paint whilst in lockdown. 

Then recently for some reason it occurred to me that the kitchen was quiet and free in the mornings once breakfast was out of the way and my wife had gone to work. The light would not be a consistent as in the evening, due to the early morning sun shining in, but not a big issue easily overcome by drawing down the blinds. So I thought I'd give it a go and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I was able to achieve, helped in no small part by not being tired at the end of the day!

So whilst the iron was hot I have been able to paint up a load of early WWII German Panzers, which like many things have been on my 'to-do' list for too many years to mention. Not the most exiting AFV's to paint but very, very quick due to the dark grey colour scheme. No three tone camo to worry about here! So far I have managed to paint up enough for a Panzer Regiment for BKCII, which is more than enough for most of my games. Also I have found this new 'free time' is good for doing other gaming related activity, such as basing figures, terrain making etc. I've been spending about an hour each morning, which is enough to achieve visible results, which is nice, as you can see yourself making progress each day. The old adage of 'a little and often' is very true!

I aim to carry on in the vein moving forward, but due to it being Summer (allegedly), it will be variable as I tend spend as much time outdoors as I can, plus with the schools breaking up for the holidays soon, the 'free time' will lessen somewhat. When Autumn approaches and the schools go back, then the aim is to carry on as of late.

So until next time stay safe and keep healthy.