2023 Wargaming and 2022 Reflection

Buckle your seatbelts people, it's 2023!  I hope the holiday season has treated you all well in your part of the world.  If you are new to the blog or have followed along for longer, thank you so much.  I continue to insist that this is primarily a documented history of my wargaming exploits, but I've also met so many fellow wargamers in different parts of the world through doing this blog, so it has yielded far more than I ever thought it would.

I'll break this - long (apologies) post - down into some sections:

1. 2022 Reflection
2. 2023 General Thoughts
3. General d'Armee Napoleonic's
4. O'Group WW2
5. Never Mind the Billhooks
6. Hail Caesar Dark Ages
7. Closing Thoughts

2022 Reflection

So 2022, what can I say.  I find myself disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, I played some spectacular games at the conventions I attended and got to push lead and roll dice a little outside of those events.  That being said, I went stone cold between KublaCon in late may and other than PacifiCon in September, didn't do any gaming outside of PacifiCon until Thanksgiving!

That just isn't acceptable, but I have a few reasons for that ... primarily work was crazy, but my son playing Volleyball (general life stuff), and perhaps most of all, I felt a little confused about which rules to play for certain periods.  I confess I'm a little tired of Bolt Action, which is why WW2 fell to the back burner for me.  I was also distracted by all sorts of random, well ... craziness.  I think mostly I just felt a little lost for most of the back half of the year, unable to focus, unable to get motivated.

But, just before Christmas I found myself getting my mojo back.  I squeaked in the Trenton games and started getting motivated to do all sorts of things with my existing collection, and cut down on the distractions.

2023 General Thoughts

I'm still on vacation this week and trying to make the most of it.  I'm committed to playing more games this year, and I really mean it!  I do need to spend a little time doing some terrain TLC though and I've already started that.  Below you can see my project for this week, getting my new road set completed.  Pictured are the narrower roads - all these are from Total Battle Miniatures.  I have the wide and narrow roads ...

I've ordered a few more buildings from Grand Manner as well that will do great for Napoleonic battles in Russia.  For gaming I really want to put some time into revising and streamlining This Hallowed Ground for ACW.  I've settled on the excellent (and slightly modified by me) Live Free or Die rules for AWI.  General d'Armee is my go to for Napoleonic's now.  I'm excited about using Never Mind the Billhooks for War of the Roses, and Hail Caesar for Dark Ages (Saxons/Vikings).  Finally, my War of the Ring collection is nearing full completion and other than some terrain projects for that, it looks like 2023 will see the completion of that collection.

General d'Armee

Funny enough, the other day I was sitting down to put together some scenarios for Napoleonic's, specifically around the first part of the French invasion of Russian in 1812.  I would be looking a building out some Russian rear guard scenarios.  While I was working on this I was playing videos from the various YouTube channels I subscribe to for wargaming when the new scenario book for General d'Armee was highlighted.  I immediately dropped everything and went to the Too Fat Lardies site to purchase the 1813, The Battles for Germany scenario book.

Excellent, just excellent.  I have everything for the Russian, French and Austrian components of all the scenarios.  Roy Scaife is hard at work bringing the Prussian army to our merry group of gamers.  Even without the Prussians for the moment, I have 3 scenarios I can play, today, right now, without having to do anything else.  This is what you'll see next up on the blog.

More than that, a 2nd edition of General d'Armee is due to hit the interwebs and bookshelves in the early summer.  From this thread, the changes sound great and I'm really looking forward to the new revision - while also being happy to use v1 for my games in the meantime.

O'Group WW2

Reviewing the O'Group battalion level wargame rules for World War 2 have inspired me to try these using my 28mm collection.  I'm unsure it these will work well for more than 2 players, but I'm still reading through the rules and at the very least I will use them for 1v1 games at my house.

28mm you say?  Yes!  I'll use the 20mm distances in the rules, but I think it is fairly easy to use these for 28mm.  Essentially a 10 figure section in Bolt Action becomes a 10 figure company in O'Group.  Each platoon is 3 figures (representing the 3 different sections), and the 10th figure is the company commander.

In order to make this work, I've ordered some movement trays from Charlie Foxtrot Models.

For the platoons (3 figures each) I ordered the movement trays pictures above (link).  3 of these bases will represent the 3 platoons in a company.  If a platoon loses a section (KIA) then take a figure off the movement tray.

For the company commander, which is a single figure, I ordered the movement tray pictured above (link).  While only a single figure, the back of the base will allow me to indicate which company (e.g., A Company) the models is commanding.

I have everything I need to run the scenario that is included in the main rulebook.  Once I get the movement trays in from CFM all I need to do is sand/paint them up and this game will be going on the tabletop!

Never Mind the Billhooks

I have all the miniatures acquired that I need to do Towton.  I already have one of the battles (divisions) completed with 5 more to go.  I've had a long time desire to play WotR and this is a project I will see through to completion this year.  The long pole here is assembly.  All those Perry Miniatures plastics have a lot of different parts and it really slows down the assembly process.

I'm even more motivated for this as the deluxe rulebook for Never Mind the Billhooks recently released and is just a beautiful tomb of wargaming fun.  I have the new cards and really just need to get this game on the table.

Hail Caesar Dark Ages

I had such a blast playing in the Dark Ages game at Conquest Sacramento that I just could not resist the urge to take my SAGA collection and expand it into a proper mass battle collection for the Dark Ages.  I have the movement trays from Charlie Foxtrot Models and and healthy start to the painted figures (about 120+ painted already).  Of course, I'll need about 500-600 figures when all done - but I've already got them from Gripping Beast.

I'll be using Hail Caesar with the Shieldwall Dark Age supplement.  I'll also be adopting the cleaver rules changes from Stew that he used for his game.

Closing Thoughts

So there you have it ... lot's of plans as usual.  I will get through these projects, likely with some distractions along the way.  We do what we can but I'm determined this year to get in more games and continue to knock down these projects.

I'll leave you with the most likely first distraction of 2023 - 10mm English Civil War using Pendraken Miniatures.  I even painted up a 10mm building ...

I'd like to start by having enough to do the Battle of Edgehill, which shouldn't require too much effort (comparatively speaking to say a large 28mm project).

So stay tuned, keep on painting, and go roll some dice!

No Conventions? No Con-Problem!

I can't remember the last time I enjoyed the hallowed halls of a game convention.  The musk of happy gamers.  The "nuked" restrooms - gamers bathroom habits are scorched earth for sure.  The end is nigh in my neck of the woods.  With California achieving very high vaccine rates and with very low daily cases we'll we in the "yellow" tier here very soon.  

The good news is much has been completed during the lockdowns and general "inside-i-ness" of the past year+ - even if my motivation to post to the blog has been low.

PacifiCon - held on the first weekend in September looks to be the first full convention we'll see back on the local schedule here.  The good news is pent up gamers just can't wait to get out of the house - so what would normally be the smallest/least attended convention in the local area is looking to be overrun with excited gamers.  This guy and our merry group of gamers are so on top of it we booked the hotel before the convention block even opened up.

But ... on to things that are happening sooner ...

CabinCon.  Something that we started a few years ago ... is back and alive!  While not as "broad" at the moment as it could be --- the good news is the gaming group is all fully vaccinated at this point.  I've reserved an event room at the DoubleTree here in Newark, California for May 28-30, and we are going to game our little asses off for three days (Friday through Sunday).  

We have a plan to do the following:

• Friday afternoon:  WW1 Dogfighting
• Friday evening:  LOTR - Battle at the Fords of the Isen (using Middle Earth Battles)
• Saturday Morning:  Napoleonic's - Battle of Corunna (using Empires at War)
• Saturday Afternoon: WW2 Eastern Front (using What a Tanker)
• Saturday Evening:  Board Games, Drinking, General Shenanigans
• Sunday Morning:  Napoleonic Naval (using Beat to Quarters)
• Sunday Afternoon: SAGA Crescent and the Cross Mega Battle

It's possible we may have WW2 Winter (Dan Kerrick) and/or Sudan colonial (from Matt Hilzendrager) if they can pull the games together in time.

Oh ... I can't wait!  Many pictures will be taken and shared.

Now I need to buckle down and finally get all the LOTR basing done!

Wargames for 2021

I've spent some time recently planning out the games I'll run this year -- with a target of getting these games to the tabletop all before the summer.  All of these games are well within my power and capability to deliver before then.

In no particular order ...

Austerlitz, 1805

Not too long ago I posted the scenario for Austerlitz.  I have 80% of the miniatures done for this scenario and the main focus on my painting efforts now fall to completing the remaining 20% - all Russians.  The great news is all the Russians I need to finish are all needed for Borodino as well.

I've compressed the map into a 6 foot by 16 foot table (was 20 foot wide).  The gap down the middle was too large for any of the allied forces to have any chance of attempting to reinforce Pratzen.  This will greatly improve playability of the scenario.  Very much looking forward to finally getting this scenario on the tabletop and putting myself into a realistic position to get Borodino on the tabletop perhaps by late this year (if not late this year, very early next year).  Borodino is a *massive* battle that will be taking almost my entire French and Russian Napoleonic collection - including Dutchy of Warsaw units, Wurttemberg units, and other key units like the Zastrow Cuirassiers and Saxon Guarde du Corps (using the beautiful Eureka models for those two units).  There is light at the end of this tunnel.

War in Rohan

With the final batch of Rohan, Dunland and Isengard forces in hand the basing/rebasing will commence immediately.  A large number of War in Rohan scenarios are unlocked by this milestone.  First and foremost though will be the battle of the Fords of the Isen.

Rather than creating a one off river, I'd invested in a great modular river from Tabletop Modellbau.  I've really impressed with the different sections in this range (I'm having him make many of the straight sections more plain).  The waterfall section, various turns and the end piece are excellent sections to really make this set stand above others I looked at.

I'll use the Y section to create the small eyot (little island in the middle of the river where Théodred makes his stand).  This should work out well.  I figure it will be about a month though before I have the river in hand as he is still working on the order and it needs to ship from Europe.

I'll also be doing a smaller engagement I'm calling Defence of the Westfold.  This will be a more plain battle with very few (if any) characters and will be centered around Dunland forces looking to burn the buildings of a Rohan village.  I already have the buildings done/painted for this.  I can also upgrade this to an attack on a fortified village/town if I want as I have all the fortification sections complete as well.

Last but very much far from least is Helm's Deep.  My 3D printer is already hard at work on printing off the Helm's Deep files (these are sadly no longer available).  This will be the pinnacle battle for my War in Rohan series.

Battle of Brandywine Creek

The very last two AWI units I'll get completed for my collection is a unit of British 16th Light Dragoons and a unit of Queen's American Rangers.  Both of these units round out the forces I need to run a game for the battle of Brandywine Creek.

I'll be using the same river mentioned above to create this tabletop.

Battle of Freeman's Farm (Saratoga)

I have everything I need already done to run the battle of Freeman's Farm from the Saratoga campaign.  The only thing I need is the same modular river (man, that river is going to get a lot of use!).  This should be a lot of fun as there is a hefty bunch of Hessians in this battle and even some native Indian units I'll be using for the British side.

Casey's Redoubt (Battle of Seven Pines)

The only thing outstanding for me to run this scenario is to finish painting the two white buildings that are the landmarks of this battle (well, outside of the redoubt).  I'll be using the same earthworks I used for Vicksburg and Breed's Hill to create the redoubt for this battle.  All troops are done and ready to go.

Wrapping Up ...

Looking at all this now that I've written it down seems like an impossible amount of gaming to bring to the tabletop - but to be perfectly honest - outside of Austerlitz (~80% done) I'm like 95-99% done on every other scenario I've listed here.  All of this is VERY honestly and realistically achievable in the first half of this year.

So stay tuned to the blog as there is much to come over the next few months.

General Update: More LOTR Models

A quick post today.

While I've been hard at work on finishing my AWI stuff (very close now), the glorious Steve Dake finished up the last of my Rohan, Isengard and Dunland forces.

They arrived in todays post and I promptly unpacked the models.  Christmas again already?  I snapped a few pictures.

As you can see above this batch is large, clocking in at around 270 miniatures, all stunningly painted by master Dake.

I've decided to abandon the clear basing as it is just too brittle for regular handling of the miniatures.  Also, I'll be able to add secondary pins for those ever fragile plastic GW horses once I get them on mdf bases (with glue, sand, static grass and tufts).

So once I finish up the AWI basing I'll have more basing to do.  I shant complain though as having a backlog of painted miniatures to put on bases is better than a backlog of unpainted miniatures (ha, I have that problem as well, but one thing at a time).

Some Changes Around Here

Inspired by my long lost brother Ivor Evans I've decided to breath a little new life into the blog with a new look and logo.

I was messing around and came up with the following new logo.

I'm not 100% sold on it but figured I would give it a spin for a little bit.  It looks a little Wargames Illustrated'ish ... but hey ... I like the WI logo so cool.  I can easily restore the old look.

In other news, I've finished all my Hessian units for AWI ... now just working on the last big batch of basing for my Continental units that are done.

So, the new look/logo ... crap?  Good?  Don't give a hoot?  Let me know.

To 2021, And Beyond!

Happy new year!  I'm a little late with this post, but better late than never.

I finally took a moment to reflect on the last year and I must admit, while I made a lot of progress on finishing projects, such as starting and completing AWI, from a gaming perspective I'm a little underwhelmed.  On the bright side ... the Mandalorian is F'ing awesome.

With all the conventions cancelled and it generally being hard to get anyone together, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's be stuck inside most of this past year. Oh, and kids home schooling ... yeah.

Ok ok ... enough ... on to some reflection here.

The highlight of this year - which was done just before COVID wrecked everything, was CabinCon.  We didn't know it at the time but this would be the last time we all gathered together for some big games and some concentrated gaming time.

That being said, CabinCon was a hoot and was the first running of my Siege of Vicksburg game for ACW.  I did run this scenario again outside on my patio with just the main part of the group.

At least I got some great pictures of the Vicksburg game.  I do enjoy going back to see the pictures and remember the fun that was had playing the game.

I also finally got a game of Blood and Plunder in, which of course is a really fun game.  I have some more I'd like to do on this front but alas it will be a little bit before I get back around to it.

Roy Scaife brought his 1:1200 scale WW2 naval game to the tabletop.  Solid rules and fun with ships that are a good size so as to not feel "dinky" like the normal 1:2400 scale.  Roy continues to fill out the ships (getting a lot done now) and has added observation planes and various fighter/bomber squadrons since we played a couple of games a little while ago.  Looking forward to more naval action this year with Roy.

Despite getting a very large number of Russian and Austrian Napoleonic completed this year, I've not really played that many Napoleonic games (which is one of my favorite periods!).  Again, I blame COVID.  However, all my progress with the Austrians and Russians have put me in a great place to be able to get Austerlitz on the table this year.  Borodino is still very much on my main list and I continue to get units done for that game.  I sorta shot myself in the foot there when I expanded the scenario to include the Poles and additional Russians.  As a result I have to get some Duchy of Warsaw units done now :-)

Getting my Middle Earth Battles rules and troops on the table was a big accomplishment.  I'm weeks away from having my Fords of Isen scenario done and ready to play --- but of course, can't play with anyone at the moment so I don't know when I'll actually get to play it.

Steve just finished up the last of my Dunland force and Rohan expansion (primarily foot troops).  With that I'll be able to base/complete the rest of my Rohan and Isengard forces.

Last but certainly not least is AWI.  This one the period that came out of left field for me.  That mis-shipment from Perry earned them lots of additional revenue ;-)  lol  I was happy to throw more money at the Perry's though.  

Getting Guilford Courthouse on the table and playing through it was really great.  I'm really happy with how everything turned out for this period.

Right before the end of the year I was also able to run my Breed's Hill (aka Bunker Hill) scenario which also was a grand time.  I'm looking at running two additional scenarios this year for AWI, the battle of Freeman's Farm (from the Saratoga campaign) and Brandywine.  There are of course many more I can run.  The last units for AWI I'll get done are some American Rangers, British 16th Light Dragoons, and another unit of Hessian Grenadiers.  After that I can't think of anything else I would need.

Admittedly I've found myself with plans for this year but currently a serious lack of motivation to get cracking on them.  There are AWI, ACW, Middle Earth and Napoleonic games I'm going to finish and run this year - I know it for sure (you know, if society doesn't collapse this year).  

Hopefully my motivation will come back soon.  Right now when I sit down at my paint table I feel like a storm trooper taking a leak - stay on target!  I guess the real question I have is what will be this year's squirrel project?  I actually hope it doesn't happen ... but I don't have a good track record on squirrels :-)

Well, that's enough for now.  It looks like there is finally a light at the end of this COVID tunnel ... and I can't wait until we can all get back to some real gaming.

Epic History TV - Napoleonic Wars

Sharing this as an excellent resource that is free on YouTube.  Looking for some great wargaming related things to watch while we are all hunkered down?

Epic History TV has an very well produced series of videos covering key battles throughout the Napoleonic Wars.

You can access the full set of videos here.

Some of the key videos I recommend:

• Austerlitz 1805 (18 minutes)
• Jena 1806 (16 minutes)
• Friedland 1807 (20 minutes)
• Spain 1808 (19 minutes)
• Aspern-Essling 1809 (19 minutes)
• Wagram 1809 (14 minutes)
• Spain 1809-1811 (20 minutes)
• Salamanca 1812 (17 minutes)
• Borodino 1812 (18 minutes)
• Leipzig 1813 (33 minutes)
• Waterloo 1815 (14 minutes)

These are very "digestible" documentaries, not running on and on for hours.  Most are roughly 20 minutes or less.  The maps displayed are beautifully detailed and more importantly are animated to show troops/formation movements and key events!

Even if you are not all the interested in Napoleonic's, the channel covers many other periods with the same format.  Highly recommended!

I also highly recommend watching the War and Peace (2016) mini-series by BBC that is available on Amazon here.  Excellent actors and a telling of the classic story that I very much enjoy.  Of course the original movie is also still excellent to watch as well!

General Update - The Summer of Basing

I've been busy this summer.  I have a backlog of painted figures that need basing so I've hunkered down and started "The Summer of Basing" --- although hopefully it doesn't take me that long ...

I'm currently basing ~1,750 figures spanning AWI British and Americans, and Napoleonic's spanning French, Russians, and Austrians.

I have most of the units on bases at this point ... still finishing up a few for this "wave" of basing (2 x French Line infantry at 36 figures each, and a Russian Grenadier unit at 36 figures).

You can see most of them arrayed together on my bar top below.

From closest in the picture to farthest - the first 3 "rows" are AWI --- which represents about 1/3rd of my AWI collection --- 2/3rds needs basing straight after this batch.

Next is French Napoleonic - 4 units of light infantry and 4 units of line infantry.  I have 2 more line infantry to base.  Behind the infantry (for the French row, and behind the Austrian row) is French cavalry, a unit of Lancers, 2 units of Dragoons, Hussars and Carabiniers.

The Austrian row has 5 new "large" (48 figure) German line units, with 1 regular (36 figure) German line unit and 1 Grenz unit.  I have 8 more Austrian infantry units to base at 36 figures each.

The last two rows are my Russians.  12 x Musketeer units (36 each), generals, 2 artillery batteries (6 guns each), Dragoons and Cuirassiers.  Basing a Grenadier unit currently to add to this pile.

Above you can see a closer look at the AWI units ...

Above you can see a closer look at the French Napoleonic units ...

Above you can see a closer look at the Austrian Napoleonic units ...

Above you can see a closer look at the 1st part of the Russian Napoleonic units ...

Above you can see a closer look at the 2nd part of the Russian Napoleonic units ...

Above you can see a closer look at the Russian High Command ... excellent set by Perry Miniatures.

Very soon I move on to getting sand on the bases, static grass, tufts, etc.

I'll have both AWI Breeds Hill (Bunker Hill) and Guilford Courthouse on the game table in September - looking forward to those games.  My Wagram scenario is hot on the heels of that, with Borodino being ready in the new year if all goes to plan.  Borodino is a very large game ... will need ~8 players per side ... so hoping that can be run at a convention after COVID finally passes ... but we'll see ...

With that I'll wish you all health and happiness during these troubled times.