2022: Review of the Year

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Is that another year gone already? How the time does fly! Looking back on everything that I have done this year it seems a like some of the events took place only yesterday and some took place in a different era. Temporal perspective aside, let’s have a look back at 2022…

Gaming

My target for the year was 52 games i.e. an average of one per week. I actually achieved 47 games, equaling last year and my previous high score.

Just over half the games (51% to be exact) were Ancients, with To The Strongest still being the ruleset of choice. This tally also included one day when I fought six different battles, which is a new record for most games played in one 24 hour period.

rampaging nellies!

Next up in terms of popularity was the Pike & Shot era, with 26% of games played. I used For King & Parliament for these, the 17thC version of TTS. Note that many of the games were actually set not in the English Civil War but on the eastern front (Cossacks, Poles, Muscovites) using rule adaptations from the Tales from the Wargames Shed blog and then my own additions. Army lists for the period can be found here.

history repeats itself: muscovites preparing to advance against the zaphorogian cossacks

The next most popular period was WW2 at 13% of games played, all using I Ain’t Been Shot Mum. Not as many as I would have liked, but all memorable games including one brilliant encounter at the Operation Market Larden Lardy Games Day when it seemed as if my tanks and anti-tank guns just couldn’t miss.

Breaking the Panzers at Operation market larden

Finally a smattering of other periods: two games or 4% from each of the 19th Century (using the Neil Thomas Rules for 19th Century Wargaming) and Napoleonics (one Sharp Practice and one Age of Eagles); and one sci-fi game using my own Quadrant 13 rules. Both Napoleonic games were brilliant battles: the SP game was also at OML, the AoE game memorable if only for its sheer size.

Painting - Overview

A great year for painting where I managed to beat my old record in the Painting Challenge by a significant amount. My previous high score (set in 2019) was 2,004 points, this year I achieved 2,077 points, an increase of 4%. Now all I have to do is to do it again and more next year!

Painting - New Armies

Although I added eight new armies to my roster (Ancients: Vikings, Burgundian Ordnance; 17th Century: Swedes, Muscovites, Ottomans, Transylvanians, Polish Lithuanians; WW2: Afrika Korps) I have to confess that they were all acquired pre-painted except for the Swedes, and they consist of only a full set of command stands to order appropriate-looking troops from my other 17th Century armies, and the Afrika Korps, and they are currently only a dozen tanks strong.

Well I did paint a single unit of Saxon Town Infantry for the Transylvanians, but that doesn’t really change the fact that effectively all my new armies were bought ready painted: something I have never really done before.

Vikings as Medieval Scandinavians losing to the Burgundian ordnance

I’m not actually sure why: I’d like to say it’s because (in the case of the Vikings) an irresistible E-Bay purchase of one unit meant I had to then commission a whole army from the same painter just to find a way to use them and (in the case of the 17th C stuff) there was a bargain offer on Lead Adventure Forum but I think it’s more than that. I still enjoy painting, but am finding it more of a chore than ever before. Interesting, and we will have to see what 2023 brings.

Painting - Existing Armies/Re-Basing

Major projects completed this year were the 17th Century Cossacks and motorising my WW2 Poles. This last I am quite proud of as it involved a lot of research and the commissioning of unique models from Syborg 3D printing including, I am sure, the only accurate C4P artillery tractors in the marketplace (see post here).

How I think a Polish C4P artillery tractor should look

Otherwise, I have added bits and bobs to my Gebirgsjaeger; Sumerians; Brute; French Napoleonics; Indians and various sci-fi armies; and painted up the Kesserine Western Desert boxed set from Battlefront (Afrika Korps and US tanks).

But one of main focuses this year has been re-basing, with the Crimean Russians and Crimean British being huge jobs, and the Sassanid Persians also being significant. The Ruskies have already been on the tabletop (versus the French) and the Brits will see action next weekend, against the Russians as it happens.

Publishing

Pressures of real-life did, however, mean I failed to complete either of the two publishing tasks that I had set myself this time last year: no, or rather little, progress has been made either on the early war Far East Theatre Book for IABSM nor on a scenario pack for TTS.

I have, however, written the first seven scenarios for a new IABSM scenario pack, using an idea that had been bubbling away for some time, but that is also now on the back burner: I just don’t seem to have the bandwidth any more!

Well, perhaps not at the moment.

Work has been really busy this year, and I did pass my Wing Chun kung fu black sash grade (which means I now have black belts in jujitsu, kickboxing and kung fu) and all that, along with my other jujitsu work and associated Japanese kobudo weapons training, and, of course, the family, have left me little time to actually sit down and write. Hardly surprising really!

Looking forward to 2023

So what do I want to achieve wargaming-wise in 2023?

Obviously more games: let’s try for the 52 target again.

More painting: I don’t think I’m going to be able to hit the heights achieved this year, but we’ll aim at 2,000 points in the Challenge.

And then let’s re-set the publishing targets of last year - the IABSM theatre supplement and the TTS scenario pack - and add the already-started IABSM scenario pack to the list.

Thanks for your visits, likes and comments throughout 2022, and I look forward to seeing you all throughout 2023 as well.

R

Last Painting of 2022

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Too late to start a new project, so a couple of bits and pieces rescued from the slopes of the lead mountain.

First up are some more Brute. These are technically 15mm sci-fi figures from Nuclear Shrimp. I say “technically” as they are post-apocalyptic wasteland mutants…so the figures are far more like 25mm than 15mm.

These are a couple of field guns carried on the backs of gorusk beasts of burden. You can see from their eyes and teeth that the poor gorusks are vegetarian herd animals pressed into service by the Brute!

The gorusk were painted with GW Contrast Paints, with the platform and gun painted a base black then dry-brushed in steel and then either a bronze/gold colour (the platform) or a metallic blue (the gun). I then did the chains forming the harness in a bright steel colour to make them really stand out. Fun figures, although I’ve no idea when I’m actually going to use them.

The second bit of painting was a couple of command stands for the Crimean British. You don’t actually need command figures under the Neil Thomas rules that I am using, but I always think it’s nice to have them on the table top, and we will probably come up with a house rule to make them significant. Perhaps having a unit to which a command stand attached always activating at full effect, and having an officer attached to a command stand vulnerable to enemy action in some way. Something simple like that.

So that’s it for painting in 2022. I’ve exceeded my previous record in the Painting Challenge, so I’m happy about that…except, of course, that I now have to do even better next year!

I’ll post the last Painting Challenge update for 2022 on New Year’s Day (I have a handful of entries already in, so don’t hold back submitting your last efforts) and then it’s on to 2023!

TTS AAR: Vikings vs Vikings Again

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The first battle in a marathon day that would see me playing To The Strongest six times was a repeat of the Vikings vs Vikings game I’d had against Bevan a week ago.

Well, not exactly the same, as Bevan had somewhat altered the make up of his army: now he dispensed with any Huscarls and Irish, and just fielded as many Bondi units as he could.

Shot from behind my battle line

My plan was to hold the hill on my left flank whilst advancing strongly with my right. The hill was soon occupied and my men surged forward on the other side of the table determined to win there before returning to mop up the centre and left.

My left flank was soon heavily under siege, but some good work with the lights meant that I was holding the ground without much difficulty. It was also here that the first of the enemy commanders was killed, by arrows IIRC. I would go on to kill all wound all of his commanders: a major factor in my eventual victory.

The right was now engaged as well with, apart from killing/wounding another enemy general, mixed success.

Fortunately my units in the centre were able to defeat the two shieldwall units in front of them and this, combined with some other successes and, as I said, the taking out of every enemy commander, meant that I had done enough to send the rest of the enemy Vikings flying from the field.

With one victory each, the stage was now set for the decider…

TFL Painting Challenge: Boxing Day Update

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Lots of people sending in their “last entries of the year”…but we don’t believe that: there’s still plenty of time to polish off that project that’s been sitting on the painting table for far too long!

Today’s entries include David Scott’s first of the year: which just goes to show that it’s never too late to enter the Challenge! Alongside David are submissions from Matt, Carole, Chris and Mervyn.

Do look at the individual galleries, but here’s a taster of what’s been added.

Plenty of time to go yet: keep painting!

Last of the Crimean British

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I needed one more infantry unit to finish off my Crimean Brits and, to give me two symmetrical brigades, it needed to be a unit of Guards. Scots Guards to be exact.

I fancied a change from the Rank & File figures that I had been using, so went with the Eureka 18mm range. These would be a little taller than the rest of the army but, hey, I wanted a battalion of imposing Scotsmen so that would do the trick nicely.

The Eureka figures are exquisite: my crude painting certainly does not do them justice. My only complaint would be that the bayonets are extremely thin and I’m quite worried that they will break easily…not that any broke off in the painting process, but then the figures haven’t been handled on the wargames table yet.

The tartan effect on the kilts was achieved by painting the kilt blue then painting a green cross-hatching on it. Again, somewhat crude, but all you need for the three foot rule.

I could have painted these better, but they match the style of the rest of the army. I would also have like to homogenise the poses a bit more, but the Eureka UK distributor was a bit low on stock and I wanted to get these done before the end of the year.

These figures actually now take me to a new personal best score on the TFL Painting Challenge: 2,035 points as opposed to my previous 2,004 points achieved in 2019. I would like to get up to 2,050 before the end of this year’s challenge, but with only eight days to go, some of which are Christmas, it might be a bit tricky!

Lard Magazine 2022

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It’s back and it’s 185 pages of bumper wargaming fun.

THE BATTLE FOR HIGH WOOD

Internet sensation Alex Sotheran brings his Storm of Steel magic to Lard Magazine and gets us started with this action for Through the Mud & the Blood.

ACTION AT BEDA FOMM

We’re off to the Western Desert in a small tank with this O group scenario from the gold pen of

housewives’ favourite David C.R. Brown.

FULL OF EASTERN PROMISE: PREVIEWING THE FAR EAST SUPPLEMENT

Big Rich explains what we can expect when Chain of Command takes us to the Far East! Make no mistake it’s hot, hot, hot!

LA BARRIERE DE CLICHY

The Russians are at the gates of Paris. David Hiscocks takes us to 1814 this artistically inspired Sharp Practice scenario.

BELOV: ESCAPE TO VICTORY!

Tom McKinnell maintains a Russian theme with some desperate fighting from the Eastern Front 1942 with three linked scenarios for Chain of Command.

EXCLUSIVE: FREE.STL FILE

Santa comes early in the form of this FREE .STL DOWNLOAD of a superb terrain piece for all

readers of Lard Magazine, naughty or nice!

RISE AND RISE AGAIN, UNTIL LAMBS BECOME LIONS

No turkey for Jeremy Short this year as he transports us back to the days of The Baron’s War and Robin Hood with some adaptations to Dux Britanniarum with two taster outlaw scenarios. Tights optional.

IN THE AGE OF RIFLES

That pantomime dame of wargaming, John Savage makes his first of many appearances in this Lard Magazine with a meaty piece for using Sharp Practice in the late 19th Century.

PERFIDIOUS ALBION!

Gentleman John Savage takes on HG Wells in a quest to provide the most absurd Victorian invasion genre literature. Look out Dorking – the Prussians are coming! A moustache tickling accompaniment with force rosters for In the Age of Rifles for Sharp Practice.

THE EAGLE RISES

The Prussian and Austrian armies of 1866 get the John Savage treatment. Unit Rosters and National Characteristics for In the Age of Rifles for Sharp Practice

WOODLAND INDIANS: AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW

The theme of adaptations continues as Laurence Burrows offers some considered views on

incorporating Woodland Indians into your Sharp Practice games.

HOOD’S ATTACK!

Our scene shifts to Gettysburg where we see Des Darkin in the thick of the fighting with this bumper scenario for Pickett’s Charge.

TRAJAN’S TACTICAL TIPS!

It’s been a great year for Strength and Honour. Learn how to win more games with these Top Tips from the toga touting Trajan fan, Mark Backhouse.

A CRUEL NECESSITY: RELOADED

Ioan Davies-John takes us back to when the first Charles was King as he provides updated rules for applying Sharp Practice to the English Civil War.

BEFORE THE WALLS OF CORFINIUM

Adrian Davis gives us a chance to put Trajan’s Tactical Tips to good use outside the walls of

Corfinium. Three scenarios for Strength & Honour.

TORPEDO LEADER MALTA

A wave-skipping Bag The Hun scenario from Andy Crow and Reg from Dagenham as we send Rommel’s supply chain to the bottom of the sea. Dakka dakka dakka

A LOOK AT MIDGARD

A new rules journey is beginning. James Morris chronicles an exciting new rule set headed our way.

THE BATTERY AT MERVILLE

Sidney’s Battlefield Challenge for 2022 sent Rich and Nick to Normandy. But it wasn’t all beer and sandwiches, as this Chain of Command scenario for the D-Day attack on the Merville Battery proves.

HEAD INLAND

It’s the wrong beach but that doesn’t bother Chris Smith, who shares the Chain of Command scenario that drew the crowds at Lard Workshop in August.

HAPSBURG, BONAPARTE AND JUAREZ. THE SECOND FRENCH INVASION OF MEXICO.

It’s Lard Magazine so there must be a sombrero somewhere. Here Richard Crawley provides no fewer than four scenarios that take Sharp Practice on a Maximilian adventure.

YES! WE HAVE NO TAMALES!

Colin Murray presents some campaign specific Random Events for Sharp Practice games in the

Maximilian adventure. Expect tequila.

MODELLING A SMASHED JUNGLE

Terrain masterclass with Joe Bilton. How to make your Jungle look like somebody has trodden on it, without actually treading on it. Novel. And great for the Far East!

CHARGE THE BASTARDS

Nick Skinner dons his XXXXL denison and tells the thrilling story of the 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment at Oosterbeek Laag with this Arnhem themed scenario for Chain of Command.

THE GENERAL IS DEAD!

Crete 1941. The glider containing the German general, and his battle plans, has smashed on landing. All inside are dead. But can the Commonwealth troops extract the plans before the Germans can stop them? Chain of Command scenario from Joe McGrath.

GO SHARP INTO THE DESERT!

He’s back. John Savage wipes the sand from between his toes and provides The John Savage Random Event table (pat pending) for colonial Africa and the Mahdi Revolt.

THE DEATH OF WERNER VOSS

Alex Sotheran returns with the tale surrounding the loss of Voss and provides some ideas on how to refight Voss’s last action using Algenon Pulls It Off. Includes links to Storm of Steel videos and rules downloads.

THE AFFAIR AT LARDINGHAM POINT

A Prussian ironclad is sighted off the south coast of England. It can mean only one thing: a John Savage scenario is coming! Sharp Practice action for the Perfidious Albion and In the Age of Rifles.

INTRODUCING WHAT A COWBOY

Our very own Sidney Roundwood gets out his sixshooter and interviews (yes, you guessed it) John Savage, as we look ahead to the imminent release of What a Cowboy! What a finish!

Lard Magazine 2022: £6.00

TTS AAR: Vikings Win!

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Those of you who play To The Strongest will know that although the points system is supposed to make all armies equal, some armies are less equal than others.

One such are the Vikings: large numbers of unmanouverable shieldwall units lacking any cavalry and with only a smattering of lights in support. Head on it can pack a punch, but its opponents generally dance around its flanks leaving its brave warriors to be surrounded and cut down one by one.

I recently acquired a rather nicely painted Viking army in 15mm purely on the basis that I liked the idea of a Viking army. Ever in support of the underdog, however, I was under no illusions that I would have any great success with them!

Odin, hear our call: can we just win one battle please!

I was discussing the problem with friend Bevan, another proud but disappointed owner of a Viking army, when we both had a light-bulb moment of inspiration: let’s get our Viking armies on the tabletop together, to fight each other. That way one of us is bound to win and give their brave Scandinavian heroes the victory they so deserve!

With this genius idea decided upon, the next couple of weeks were spent in the customary ritual taunting - my Vikings are harder than your Vikings etc - until at last the big day arrived.

The Armies

The armies we had put together were significantly different.

My Vikings consisted of four commands: each comprising two deep, shieldwall units and one light infantry unit. One command consisted of Huscarls with mighty axes, the other were Bondi. I also had four heroes and an army standard.

Bevan’s mob also consisted of four commands, but was less pleasingly symmetrical than mine. One command comprised a couple of Huscarl units; one command was one Huscarl and two Bondi units; one command was three Bondi units; and finally he had a command consisting of some Irish javelinmen and light infantry. He also had five heroes and an army standard.

Somewhere in Scandinavia

Bevan’s Mob

My Glorious Vikings

The Battle

Both sides tried to outflank on the right. Bevan’s outflanking manoeuvre got off to a terrible start when he drew a couple of Aces for movement, but mine was more successful: a Huscarl unit led by the CinC got past the woods in front of them and were in a great position to chew into the enemy’s Irish allies.

Unfortunately, the Irish proved a lot more resilient than planned (is it not ever so!) and one of my best units spent the rest of the game blocked from doing anything useful!

Blocked!

Meanwhile, in the centre, the two main battle lines had closed and, for a time, things swayed backwards and forwards as a mighty shoving match took place. My lights proved useless in this sort of game: they shot off their arrows with little effect, then spent the rest of the time hanging around behind my line, unable to get around an enemy flank and unwilling to mix it with the big boys.

On my left, Bevan’s Vikings finally got moving, and a separate battle developed between various Bondi units from each side. This I won fairly decisively and for a time it looked as if I had the advantage.

Unfortunately, back in the centre, the left hand side of my main line eventually gave way, and two enemy units burst through. This allowed them to turn and charge into the rear of the rest of my Bondi, who spectacularly survived one turn being hit twice from behind, and then almost did the same thing next turn as well.

By this time, Bevan was down to four coins, I was down to one, so when my Bondi hit-from-the-rear gave way, the rest of my men lost heart and fled the field. If I had survived that impact (and I almost did: drawing a Ten and a Six when a Ten and a Seven would have done it) then I would almost certainly have won the game…it was that close!

Two enemy units, top right, have burst through my line. One is about to charge my rear!

But it was not to be: my Vikings had lost…but at least Bevan’s Vikings had won!

Despite my defeat, it was a glorious game, and one that we will definitely be repeating, although this time let’s hope the correct set of Vikings come out on top!

The Return Match

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Time for the re-match: this time I would take the Burgundian Ordnance and John would take the Medieval Scandinavians.

My plan was hold the centre with my infantry and half my Knights, and use the rest of my Knights to lap around the ends of his line, hopefully achieving some kind of roll-up. Comparing notes afterwards, John’s plan was to close with my troops as quickly as possible, using sheer mass and ferocity to win victory.

I had the initiative, and wasted no time in getting forward into the centre of the field. I then halted my centre and waited until the Scandies came forward.

The Scandies did indeed come forward, with one warband getting out in front, and soon battle was generally joined in the centre of the field.

Warbands are pretty hard to kill, even with Knights, but all I needed to do was to hold them in place whilst my horns lapped around his flanks.

On my right flank, this worked like a dream: a squadron of Knights got into the perfect position for a flank charge on the Scandinavian main line and thundered forward to do enough damage that a Burgundian spear-and-longbow unit could finish off the unfortunate warband that was their target.

Unfortunately on my left flank I got a bit too enthusiastic, and although the initial outflanking manoeuvre worked and sent more Scandies from the field, his lone unit of tax-free Knights was able to get forward fast enough to out-flank my out-flankers and consign one quarter of my Knights to the recycle bin! Whoops!

Fortunately this didn’t matter, as my right flank continued to chew through his centre having achieved exactly the roll-up I was after.

I will spare you the gory details, but you’ll see from the pictures below that pinned from the front and hit from the flank (by Knights as well) is not just a recipe but a whole cook book for disaster!

The coup de grace (to put it as the Burgundians would) came either from a unit of my infantry taking the enemy camp or the loss of a unit of light archers being the final straw that broke the Scandinavian back. To be honest, I can’t remember which.

A great game, for me at any rate, and a cautionary tale for warband armies going up against more combined arms forces: watch those flanks!

TFL Painting Challenge: Second December Update

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Another huge set of entries, and less than two weeks since the last update: everyone is obviously keen to get those last few entries in before this year’s Challenge ends at midnight on the 31st.

Today we have entries from Carole, Chris, Andrew, Matt, Ralph, Mervyn, and Nick. Do go to the individual galleries, but here’s a taster for you:

Still plenty of time to get those last few entries in!

A Game...Finally!

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What with work and Christmas and everything, it’s been weeks since I actually got to have a battle, so thanks to friend John for braving the freezing fog coming over this morning for a couple of games of To The Strongest.

I had two new armies that were ready to try the tabletop: the first were the Burgundian Ordnance boys I had bought complete ay Colours; the second were my Vikings, finally complete after some time with the figure painter I like to use.

Ideally I would have fought them as is, but these days I try to make encounters as contemporaneous as possible, so the Burgundians would fight as Burgundians but the Vikings would, with the aid of a unit of lancers borrowed from my 17th Transylvanians, manifest as Medieval Scandinavians. Still not exactly contemporaneous, but close enough for jazz! For the first game, I would take the Scandies and John would take the Burgs.

My force consisted of only three commands. The first, headed by the CinC, consisted of my single unit of Frasle or “tax free” Later Knights and two unit of light archers. The second comprised three deep units of Hird: hard men with axes and extra bows. Finally there were the Leidangr bondi types: three of them in a third command.

The Burgs consisted of four commands, each a unit of Later Knights accompanied by a unit of foot. Three of the foot units were either billmen or spearmen with extra longbows, the third were crossbowmen, with the command with the crossbowmen also having a unit of organ gun artillery.

The First Game

With neither side being particularly hot on scouting - Later Knights don’t scout! - a straight draw of the cards meant the John and the Burgs had the initiative. I set the Scandies up in a long line with the Frasle and lights on the left, Leidangr in the centre and Hird on the right. With two camps and almost no cavalry, I was nervous about his cavalry lapping around my flanks.

The Burgs remained in attack columns: coming forward with their infantry sheltering their Gendarmes.

I was keen to get my Hird into his troops as soon as possible, so ignored my bows and headed forward on the right asap. As I came into range, his infantry fired a couple of longbow volleys which actually did me more damage than I had anticipated. At the same time, one unit of his Knights managed to get past his sheltering infantry and charge into one Hird warband. This proved disastrous for the Scandies: with a glorious or pitiful (dependent on your point of view!) run of cards leading to me losing both a unit of Hird and their general!

Meanwhile on my left wing, my Frasle had proved themselves victory-free as well as tax-free: being sent fleeing from the field through a combination of bow fire and the attentions of some Gendarmes. The battle was definitely not going well!

I continued to lose ground on the right - my remaining Hird were outnumbered but putting up a good fight, and those deep units are hard to finish off - but it was in the centre and centre-left that a unit of Leidangr started to properly fight back.

The Gendarmes that had dealt so summarily with my cavalry were wounded by some light bowmen and then polished off by a warband; and another unit of Gendarmes was smashed from the field by some Hird. I was still down to only four coins, so would lose the game if I lost another two units/generals, but now John was down to only five coins, meaning I would win the game if I could kill three of his units/generals.

Unfortunately I could not sustain this momentum (you can see in the gallery above that most of my units were by now disordered) and was soon down to just one coin.

The final action of the game was for a unit of Gendarmes to lap around my right flank, and although I had some Leidangr to face them, Later Knights versus damaged Shieldwall was a foregone conclusion.

Post-Match Analysis

A good first game with the two new armies. I was surprised at how effective the Burgundian shooting was, and how fragile my deep units were in the first half of the game. That was, however, probably an atypical result of the actions that took place, as the second half of the game saw my surviving Hird and Leidangr soak up huge amounts of damage whilst still dishing it out effectively.

So the game was probably decided in that first clash, when I lost a unit of Hird and their general in a shock result. After that, even with things being 50/50, I was on the road to a defeat. All kudos to John, though, for maintaining the pressure and not giving me the opportunity I needed to turn the tables.

The next game will see us swap sides…

More Crimean War Brits, and some Scots

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As this year’s Painting Challenge draws to a close, I find myself very close to achieving a new high score. Before the below are added, I was on 1,967 points versus my previous record of 2,004 points set in 2019: a mere 37 points apart.

First up today is a another battalion of Crimean War British Line Infantry.

These are Rank & File figures from Timecast: very nice figures that my somewhat messy painting doesn’t really do justice to.

These chaps had quite an adventure. Firstly I varnished them before noticing that the Union flag was missing the red diagonals. Secondly, I had these drying in the garage and managed to acrobatically drop the tray holding them in a spectacular fashion whilst wrestling with the garage door. More speed less haste, as they say! Some time was needed to re-glue half the figures back on the bases and touch up the impact points with fresh paints. Annoying!

Second up is another command stand for my Covenantor Scots:

I’m showing you the back view so that you can see all the lovely tartan! Figures are from Peter Pig.

So that lot give me 36 points in total, meaning I am now only a couple of points under achieving a new record with over three weeks of December still to go…

TFL Painting Challenge: First December Update

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As we move into the last month of this year’s Challenge, I’ll be doing more regular updates as you all accelerate production.

I’ll be running the Challenge again next year, so get in as many points as you can over the next four weeks or so to set yourselves a decent target for 2023.

Entries this time from Stumpy, Sapper, Carole, Mervyn, Matt, and Chris: I recommend a visit to their individual galleries, but here’s a taster for you:

More Crimean British

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The last of the re-basing…

my name is cardigan, what is what, what is wHat!

These represent the 11th Hussars of Balaclava fame, or rather infamy. I had eleven of these already painted, so had to find one more to colour match and paint up.

I painted these myself some twenty years ago and was very proud of them at the time.

Here are all the skirmishing units I will need: naturally composed of Riflemen. These I bought painted

Finally, here’s another battalion of Guards. This is a half-n-half unit: the rear two ranks are composed of Minifigs Guards that I painted some twenty years ago; the front two ranks are newly bought Timecast figures painted up to match. There’s a small difference in size and pose between the two, but nothing that will be noticeable on the tabletop.

Just another unit of standard foot, a Scots battalion, and the commanders to go now: but they will all have to be bought and painted from scratch,

TFL Painting Challenge: Mid-November Update

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A quick update to keep on top of things as we come to the last six weeks or so of this year’s Challenge.

Do visit the individual galleries, but here’s a taster…

Winged Hussars!

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With real life being so busy at the moment, I have started augmenting my own painting by buying already-painted miniatures, either second-hand or painted to order.

One of the stands, therefore, that I always try to visit at wargames shows is that of Instant Armies & Veteran Miniatures. They stock literally thousands of second-hand figures across a wide range of periods. They don’t usually have a sign or branding, but they are the chaps who have the 28mm figures on display on top of the wooden draws containing the 15mm figures.

I restrict myself to buying figures at least as good as what I can paint myself, and the good thing about IAAVM is that a lot of their offering, unlike many second-hand figures platforms, is of a very good quality indeed, and at prices that won’t necessarily break the bank.

They were at Warfare on Sunday, allowing me to pick up a very nice unit of 15mm winged hussars for my nascent 17th Century Polish/Lithuanian army. A night in a tray with just the bases under water and they were all ready for re-basing.

Cost-wise, they worked out at around £2.50 a figure, which is a great price considering that the base lead would cost you about £1.40 a figure with a £3-£4 painting cost on top of that.

So thnak you to IAAVM: my Polish/Lithuanians are now one unit closer to completion!

Warfare 2022

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Just back from Warfare 2022: a show I have been to many times before but whose home, this year, was the Farnborough Exhibition Centre.

So what did I think?

Well, it was £10 to get in: hardly a bank-breaker, but more expensive than any other show I have attended this year.

A ‘Nam game that looked like a recreation of the famous scene from Apocalypse Now

The venue itself was half exhibition centre and half aircraft hanger. I found it a bit dark in the hanger: but I imagine it’s set up that way because they anticipate that participants in whatever’s on show will bring their own lighting. Catering was okay (bring back Ascot as a venue!): the queues looked much, much worse than they actually were; and prices were fine.

German engineers make their way to Luxembourg

There were a decent number of traders, but not as many as I would have expected to see, and they were all crammed into two areas with very narrow aisles between stands. It was quite claustrophobic even though we were effectively in an aircraft hanger! It left little room for browsing, so it was really a question of only going for what you needed.

Vive la France!

Besides the bring and buy, which was the usual sweaty melee, there did seem to be much more painted figures, presumably second hand, for sale. Apparently this has been the topic of some discussion on various fora recently: how the first of the gamers who enjoy the “golden age of wargaming” are dying off, leaving behind them hundreds or even thousands of beautifully painted figures available at comparatively bargain prices. I may have come away with a complete, lovely, fully-painted Burgundian Ordnance army for To The Strongest for considerably less than it would have cost me to buy the lead and get my figure painter to paint it but, if my better half is reading this, that would definitely be a scurrilous rumour with no basis in fact. Honest.

Some kind of attack on an Italian aerodrome!

There were a lot of exhibition games, and of an incredibly high quality. I have dotted this post with examples: they were very inspirational and, as usual, surrounded by people happy to talk about the battle, the game, the rules, the figures etc.

A bit blurry, but another spectacular WW2 game

The largest part of the show, however, were the competition games…and there seemed more than ever of them. It was good to walk around, weaving your way through the labyrinth of tables, looking at all the beautiful figures on display. It was amusing to see the difference between the look of the tables and the different rule sets used…but I will refrain from any bad-mouthing of rules other than those that I play.

So all in all, worth going to, but I won’t go again tomorrow: it’s an hour’s journey for me either way and it wasn’t that good. I will go next year, provided it is on and not too far away: the exhibition games alone, if they repeat this year’s quality, would be worth it.

FK&P AAR: Muscovites and Scots

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John and I fancied a game of For King & Parliament, but I didn’t fancy using straight ECW armies. Eastern front was a possibility, but I didn’t fancy using the Cossacks, which meant my only complete army was the Muscovites, but who to fight against them? Step forward the Scots and we were good to go, albeit for a rather odd if contemporary mash up!

I would play the Muscovites and, incredibly considering the amount of horse I had, immediately lost the initiative and had to start deploying first. My plan was to put most of my cavalry on the right and win there whilst my infantry held the centre and left, then swing my victorious cavalry into the rear of his infantry once they were fully engaged with mine.

Only potential problem was that I didn’t have much infantry, so had to use a brigade of Reiters (heavy horsemen) in the middle to fill a gap.

The Scots read my cavalry deployment superbly, and placed their large cavalry brigade opposite them, meaning that not only were my Tatar light cavalry immediately wrongfooted (I wanted to sneak them round the flank but their way there now led through some Scots Pistoliers) but my National Cavalry were squashed up behind a windmill! C- could do better for deployment!

Lots of lovely Muscovite horse, but they’re not quite in the right place

As battle commenced, the Scots hung back: advancing only their Highlanders on my left and their cavalry on my right. I quickly led my entire army forward except for the Servant Cossacks and Border Dragoons on my far left: I didn’t fancy mixing it with some mad Clansmen!

I also attempted to sort out the mess on my right flank by getting one of the brigades of National Cavalry to swap places with the Tatars: what a mess!

The aforementioned mad clansmen

Swapping two brigades of cavalry over is not easy

Fortunately John’s Scots had a fit of the slows, and I was able to get my horse sorted out and push forward to start the engagement that should sweep the Scots cavalry from the field and thus fulfil stage one of my cunning plan.

Meanwhile in the centre, the main body of Scots infantry had finally started moving forward. My Reiters headed out to meet them, but as I didn’t fancy charging well-ordered pike blocks, my cavalry turned around and retreated before any significant action took place.

The enemy were now effectively advancing in echelon towards me, which suited me fine as it gave my National cavalry more time to win on the right. The only trouble was that the Scots horse were proving hardier than expected!

The cavalry melee on the right went on and on, and I just couldn’t seem to break the Scots donkey-wallopers!

This meant that the Scots infantry were able to advance on my line and a series of sporadic firefights and melees broke out. My Reiters were still able to outpace the advancing Scots, but my Soldats and Border Dragoons were not so fortunate. A good thing, however, was that my Tatars had now managed to slip through the enemy line, going over the crest of the hill through the grounds of the windmill.

Finally, however, the Scots horse broke, and my cavalry were able to turn and head to the left. The Tatars led the way, forcing the nearest Scots pikemen into hedgehog. My heavier horse cantered past the spikey beasts and then curled round and slammed into the rear of the units next to them. At the same time my Reiters now charged forward meaning the Scots were caught front and rear.

Once the surviving Muscovite heavy horse got into a position on the flanks and rear of the enemy line, the battle was really all over for the Scots. I won’t describe every moment of the roll up: suffice to say that it got very bloody very quickly, and once one or two of their pike blocks had broken, the domino effect soon had all their troops fleeing for the safety of the Glens!

It hadn’t quite been a text book victory: too much had gone wrong with my initial deployment, meaning that my left and centre had only just held out for long enough to let my right wing do what they did. Had the Scots been even a little quicker off the mark on their left and centre, then I would have lost the battle there before my National Cavalry had even dealt with the Scottish horse.

TFL Painting Challenge: First November Update

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Two months to go in this year’s Painting Challenge, and the entries are flooding in.

Take a look at the individual galleries (navigation through the navbar, above) but here are some piccies to wet your whistle!

CDS AAR: A Writtle Bit of Lard

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Also on show at the Lardy Games Day A Writtle Bit of Lard was a great looking game of Charlie Don’t Surf put on by Nick Bellamy.

Here are some pics, also from Ian Roberts, but this time from the CDS Facebook Group:

And as Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance, here are some shots of the playtest that Nick ran a few weeks before: