Recycling figures...

A major new project... finishing two matching Crossfire battalions. I first bought a copy of these rules thinking that they might provide a use for a lifetime's collection of 20mm WW2 figures.

I was right.. I fell for the rules, they are wonderful. The fact that I'm not terribly good at them is irrelevant, I still love playing them.

So I have found a use for nearly 40 years worth of accumulated 20mm WW2 figures. They are in various states, almost none of them up to the painting standard that I aspire to now, but this gives them a charm of their own. I like that.

So, they are partly re-based, just the completion of the scenic effects on the bases required. I'll post soem photos when they are finished.

1944 Germans and British. The British battalion has a company each of standard infantry, paras and commandoes (not because I like super troops.. I'll use them as standard infantry).. I just like the varied look of the figures on the table. The Germans were painted by good friend Gerard D.. a variety of camouflage, and Field Grey, uniforms.. as I said, a charm all of their own.

Then there is the mass of Russians that were always my favourites: standard infantry, black sea fleet marines .. oh, yes, I'm certainly recycling figures.

Commando Comics - a holiday read

A little holiday reading...I grabbed a copy of this from our school library shelves just before we adjourned for the summer holiday, and it was quite a trip down memory lane. I grew up with the occasional read of these comics, hiding them in my wardrobe because my parents didn't approve.

But it has left me thinking about our war-gaming hobby and the perceptions of some of our colleagues. I wonder how many 'gamers, and rules writers for that matter, shaped their perceptions of battle on this sort of literary diet? When I think about some of the rules systems I have read, some of them bear an unerring likeness to the Commando Comic view of battle. On the other hand some don't, some are indeed based on good evidence, and some on hard core academic research.

A good friend showed me a copy of 'Lost Battles', written by Phil Sabin ("Philip Sabin is a British military historian who is currently a professor in the War Studies Department of King's College London. He specializes in air power studies and ancient warfare. He is a member of the CAS Air Power Workshop, a small working group of scholars and other theorists convened by the Chief of Air Staff." - Wikipedia), this is a good case in point. The rules are an afterthought in some ways to an analysis of a number of ancients battles, and are therefore firmly evidence based.

For quite some time I have been a fan of the Spearhead stable of rules, and have been closely involved with the Great War Spearhead set in particular (Shawn Taylor). The original development by Shawn, the discussion of these rules since publication, and their further evolution into GWSHII (currently underway) have been very largely evidence based.

All great stuff, and a long way from the Commando Comic inspired ideas of war-games rules.

Of course, war-games are just that: games, and I guess regardless of their basis, if they inspire hobbyists, then it's all good stuff. Just don't try to tell me that they represent an accurate simulation of command and control in war.

In the meantime, I must hunt out another set of these comic reprints; they are a great holiday read.

Failing eyesight...and hope!!

Hmmm... for the past 6 months or so I have been unable to do any painting of note at all. Why? Failing eyesight. Age catches up with us all, and for me the onset of presbyopia a couple of years ago has meant that seeing  anything close up has become more and more of a trial. I finally succumbed to the need for progressive lenses in my glasses in order to cope with daily life, but still found painting to be difficult. I considered getting special magnifying lenses for painting, and then.. a revelation: try painting in daylight!!!

I managed to move my painting table into a position next to a window, and.. fantastic. I have just been able to get back to painting some long suffering figures (some sample HaT WW1 German infantry.. sorry for the delay, HaT.. but at least I'm back!). That's a far cheaper solution than the dollar cost of magnifying lenses. 

The only down-side is that I used to paint in the evenings, after completing work for the next day etc. Now, painting time will be limited, but.. at least I can get back to completing armies.. oh, yes.. and starting new ones.

There's the British VSF army, the Semi-Historical Chinese HotT army (and the equivalent Chinese historical DBA army), the WW1 Russians, and Austro-Hungarians, the French League of Augsberg (they've only been waiting 7 years).. and then there's the...

Oh dear!!! But at least I can paint again.

Morphing DBA into HotT

Good friends Nick and Stan gave me a simple piece of inspiration on morphing my recently completed DBA Early German army into a HotT army.. and a 'gamer from Temuka (a town south of Christchurch here in New Zealand) kindly offered me a GW Dryad figure for a tree man hero (saving me the purchase of an entire box of 12 Dryads).

And so the initial morphing is completed:
9 x Warband
2 x Lurkers
1 x Hero

I think the army might need a little more mobility though (as does the DBA army) so some riders might well find their way onto the painting board sometime soon. The warband composition makes this quite different to any of the other four HotT armies completed so far, and brings with it its share of playing challenges. I think some war dog "beasts" might be suitably barbarian, but finding dogs in 20m is quite a challenge. Still, I'm not one to give up easily..... morphing is fun....

DBA EIR II/56

I added this little lot to my DBA collection a month or two ago, drawn from a larger DBM army (which frankly I don't use that often any more - well not at all, and yes I could use it for FOG, but haven't really taken too well to that either).

So I took the necessary stands from that larger DBM collection, and tidied them up a little. Here they are. Mostly foundry figures (so 25mm rather than 20mm), while the ballista is 20mm Irregular.

They make a nice opponent to the Early Germans I completed a few months ago. The scale difference is ok for us.

The other view of the Somme

All of my previous reading on the Somme (1916) has been totally Anglo-centric. I had read accounts of the British advances against German trenches, the fruitless 'battering' of those German lines with row upon row of British bodies, the allied successes in the south etc. This reading had shaped my entire perception of battles on the western front between 1914 and 1917.

And then I read "The German Army on the Somme, 1914-1916" written by Jack Sheldon. The book (published by Pen and Sword Publishing, 2005, ISBN 978 1 84415 513 2) gives an account of the gargantuan battles of the western front on the Somme from the German perspective, drawing from German unit and personal diaries. The insights that I gained from this book have been profound. The paradigm within which I think about those mammoth battles has been changed forever...

This was not some sort of battle in which fresh German troops emerged unscathed from deep dugouts to mow down row upon row of pristine British infantry. This was a battle of materiel in which human beings of all three nationalities were caught up. All suffered the inhumanity of battle, the inhumanity of man to man.

My enduring image is now not only that of British troops suffering in no-man's land, but also of German troops suffering under the often described British and French 'drum fire', artillery barrages of such intensity that men shivered in fear for day after day. I have wanted to type a quote from the book to show what I mean (despite the publisher's concerns about such activities.. such quotes could do nothing but promote the book to all serious students of the first world war), but I have struggled to decide which to type. I chose the following, knowing that in itself it cannot do justice to the book, nor to the experiences of the men whose words are printed there.

"After dawn, the artillery fire increased, peaking at about 8.00a.m. Enemy airmen flew low over us, machine-gunning the position and giving their hooter signals. One entrance to the dugout was crushed. The artillery fire continued relentlessly, high explosive being mixed with shrapnel fired by the flanking batteries. casualties were already considerable..... At about 1.00p.m. the second entrance to the dug out as crushed, so, for a time, I was cut off from the company. We worked with all our strength to open the entrance and succeeded."

And from another entry dated 12 December:

"The regiment has now been in the line without relief since 26th November. because of the adverse weather all types of colds, chills and gastro-intestinal illnesses have appeared. Despite every effort to improve the lot of the troops, it has proved impossible to counter these illnesses, or to prevent them from spreading. The freezing wet and cold weather, wet dugouts, work in flooded trenches with a mud a metre deep, extremely strenuous carrying duties to transport rations and trench stores......."

and so they go on.

These words from Professor Richard Holmes in thbe forward to the book:

"Jack Sheldon observes that the Allies did not succeed in breaking through on the Somme, nor did they destroy the morale of the German army. But he agrees that it was never the same afterwards, and quotes a Bavarian general who acknowledged that: "The monster of the modern overwhelming machine of war gobbled up our finest men". But in a sense to talk of victory and defeat is to miss the point. as this book makes so very clear. the Somme was a supreme test of human qualities, and the soldiers on both sides displayed them more abundantly than their political leaders deserved, or those who were not there could ever really recognise."

This is the other view of the Somme.

HotT Carnage.. and it certainly was!!!

It was Christchurch's first.. HotT tournament that is, and 8 layers gathered (it was meant to be 10, but 2 were unavoidable detained..). The tournament followed the Berkeley format, with 5 rounds of play during the day. The players and armies fighting it out for the 'Emperor Dragon' trophy were:

* Simon, Dwarves
* Nick, Mountain Indians
* Mark, Lost Worlds
* Kevin, Cavemen
* Gordon, Zulus
* Basil, Mediaeval
* Andre, Republican Indian
* Stan, Wood elf

These two photos from the day: some of the guys at play....



And the Lost Worlds army messing around with some Indians...



The games were exciting, many of them close calls, and the Gods were as fickle as you'd expect, coming and going as they saw fit. Notable for their absence were Dragons.. none to be seen in any army lists (no wonder they didn't appear on the table!!).

The overall winner of the tournament, and so holder of the "Emperor Dragon" trophy, was Basil (club president.. no connection there.. truly!!). The best concept army was won by Gordon with his Zulus (a close one, as Gordon vied with Kevin and his wonderful Cavemen for the prize).

Special mention of Simon who, despite only 3 games before the day, managed to finish first equal on tournament points. He lost to Basil on casualty count back. Well done Simon.

Kevin managed the record for the greatest casualty count in army points.. a hard general, but totally in character with his Caveman army theme. Kevin had also played very few games before the day.

Many thanks to the guys who played... as you'd expect the games were played with a great sense of sportsmanship - what else would you expect with great guys and a few games of HotT. Plenty of mayhem and fantasy worlds murder: HotT Carnage - it certainly was.

Finally thanks to the Christchurch Wargames Club for supporting the event.

You can find a lot more photos of the event here