More lead leaves the recruiting depots...

Trying to rediscover the painting 'mojo' of old, I'm getting through those little projects that have sat around for quite some time. Earlier today it was the Irregular 20mm WW1 artillery, this evening it's two battalions of 6mm WW1 Russians, ready for the Great War Spearhead battlefields. These were the left overs from my first order (which I place a couple of years ago as I recall); a long way from the 2 divisions that the Scenario Generation System demands for the Russians, but it's still another couple of battalions.

I quite enjoy the Russians: taking some regiments as random morale creates a very characterful force that can do some unexpected things (like stick around to fight to the bitter death, or run away with a third casualties.. either way it's the stuff of movies, and memorable wargaming moments).

So just a couple of shots of these stands.. more for my own satisfaction than anything else.

WW1 artillery...

The push to catch up on the piles of unpainted lead continues, with four WW1 artillery guns that I bought several years ago. The guns come from the Irregular 'Really Useful Guns' range. More photos can be found on my web page 'The Great Adventure'. Go to the Photo Gallery.

The first two guns are German 150mm, the 'workhorse' heavy guns of the German army.

The second two are British 6" howitzers, with the characteristic lack of gun shield.

Empires clash!!!!

Final game before the Christmas season begins, and it's a clash of mighty empires as Hittite and Egyptian kingdoms collide. We were using Adrian's 15mm armies, and the Armati rules. I commanded the Hittite army, with the green bases, while Adrian commanded the Egyptians with the brown bases.

Each of us had our heavy infantry in the centre, with strong chariot units on the wings each supported by our lights and skirmishers. In Adrian's case he had a series of bow armed heavy units that he interspersed with his spear.

The action predictably opened with the lighter troops on the wings, each of us vying to win the battles here and turn the flanks of the chariots. I managed to win the battle to control the right (and eventually the left too, but too late to influence the main event in the centre).

The centres collide!!!

The action looked as if it was going to go the way of the Hittites.. the Egyptian line seen on the left in the shot below, thinning out as the Egyptians lose valuable heavy units.

My victory on the right had even allowed me to flank the Egyptian chariot line.

However the centre crumbled... five 1's in a row for combat, and I lost every combat on the crucial turn!!!


Below is the Hittite general, having attached himself to a Hittite spear unit, still managed to not win a single combat in the entire game!!

However another great fun game.... and a suitable finale to the year. A few more games to be had, but not before some serious feasting, and generally good times with family and friends.

'Lost Battles' and some...

With work winding down for the Christmas break, I've managed to get stuck into quite a few painting projects (actually finishing several projects that I'd started over the past few years - more later), and we also managed a couple of games over two evenings at the end of the week.

Of great interest was my first ever game of 'Lost Battles' (the games system designed by Phil Sabin). Andrew Taylor ran the game, and Keith hosted it at 'The Wargames Room'.

Andrew wrote up a good after action report, and Keith has posted it along with a few photos. The game system was very interesting, and I'd like to play some more. It simulated a number of aspects of ancient battles that I've read of in various contemporary accounts, and the game also look amazing with Andrew's 60mm wide bases packed with 6mm figures, so this really looked like a battle from a 'birdseye' view.

On the following evening we also managed several Wings of War games. I've posted on this game system beofre, and all I can  add is.. I really must get in to our local supplier (Comics Compulsion) and buy a couple of the box game sets of my own. I'm also tempted by their WW2 version of the game, so look out.

Rebasing...GAH!!!

The bane of the wargamer's life: rebasing figures. However this little exercise is really about finishing something I began a long time ago. Volley and Bayonet (Frank Chadwick) became my rules of choice for all 1700-1900 'gaming, and I set about some years ago completely rebasing a very large 25mm French napoleonic army. Several years ago I was lucky enough to acquire a large Spanish army to use as an opponent, most of which had already been rebased for VnB. However there were quite a few figures still not done, and no command stands. The size of the forces was really too small to fight larger napoleonic actions as well. Our game last week really drive me to the point where I decided to do something about it.

So I've set about finishing the rebasing the remaining infantry (9 regiments worth), one remaining regiment of cavalry, and enough command stands for the entire army. This will give me about 3000 points worth of Spanish in VnB Road to Glory terms.

This is also a part of my current drive to finish a number of nearly finished projects. Next are the alst of the Dwarves to finish the WFB army, and I've line dup in my sights some behicles that will allow me to put the 40K IG army to bed as well. There's a certain smug sense of self satisfaction in getting things finished ... and it's nearly Christmas.... yep!!!

'Mud beneath my boots'

A colleague from work recently lent me a copy of the book 'Mud beneath my boots' by Alan Marriott. Mr Marriott has used the journal kept by his uncle Len Coley to produce this extraordinarily good account of one soldier's personal experience on the western front from 1916 to 1918.

Len enlisted at age 17 (lying about his age,  using an assumed name of Len Collins ) in 1915 and served with the NZ Division in France, fighting on the Somme, Ypres and again at the Somme in 1918.
The book is well written, and provides a fascinating insight into both the fighting, and the 'war weariness' that must have engulfed so many soldiers after years of war.

Here is a small extract from the book, describing action at Passchendaele in 1917.

"Meanwhile, I made arrangements to move up to the right flank of the Hawkes Bay Company. With the aid of willing helpers. I secured my position from snipers. I erected a barricade of timber and sandbags taken from a dugout that was useless to us. I was sure Fritz would post snipers on the ridge overnight to try and silence our guns in the early morning and I wanted good protection. I completed my job and took a rest while I had a chance.

Their second attack came at 4pm. But my gun was now cool. I had cleaned it and it felt in beautiful order. I wanted to get down to tin tacks straight away. If Fritz succeeded with this attempt, it would give him a whole night to consolidate his position. And we had to prevent that at all costs.

Fresh reinforcements for the Germans poured over the ridge in front of me and I decided to hold my fire. The Germans were a poor target with the sky behind them. I waited until the face of the hill gave them a background. I opened my fire, emptying one drum in a single burst. When I gave a short burst from the second drum it jammed. It took nearly   minute to clear the expanded cartridge case, and I was at it again.......

...... Our concentrated fire from four guns at this end played havoc with Fritz. We wiped out their right wing, their remaining men fleeing. This broke up their attack and we lengthened our range another 200 yards towards the German right wing. We could see that the Aussies were being hard pressed. The fleeing German line in front of us probably saved them on their end. The whole German attack now gave in very quickly."


This is an extraordinarily good book, a great read and thoroughly recommended.

The sun was streaming on through...

Walked out to the games room to pack up after last night's game and there was the evening summer sun streaming through the window onto the GW games mat and the figures in-situ after last night's game. I just thought this was pretty cool.