2023 - Playing and all that

Still catching up, in retrospect, I have played a lot less this year than I wanted to, and a lot less than I could have. It's felt like a bit of a limbo experience. 

I basically went into hermit mode in 2020, and played online. I quite enjoyed meeting players from all over and playing games I wanted to play, rather than compromising and playing what the locals were prepared to play. But then everyone decided Covid was over, face to face play resumed, online play fell off, and I was left unsure of whether to go back into smaller halls and take the risk. 

It was also apparent that there were plenty of folk around who were completely cavalier about Covid and would happily tell you they had had it four times, and were certainly not social distancing or being careful not to infect others, showing up at events and shows, or inviting folk around to play even when they were infected. 

Given I'm in a vulnerable category, I'm not keen to expose myself to those risks. So I have 'popped in' to the club, 'popped in' to shows, but haven't wanted to sit down for hours over a table in a crowded environment. So this year, it's mainly been my mate 'popping' round for a game at my place.

This Years Games...

Chain of Command - 28mm set in Normandy

Sharp Practice II - 28mm American War of Independence

Undaunted Stalingrad, we played through the whole campaign

Without a doubt, the best Boardgame I have played 

Chain of Command - Far East

Very simple terrain for the Vinegar Hill campaign

Iron Cross - 10mm Middle East 

Undaunted Battle of Britain

Couldn't help myself, 3d printed aircraft for Undaunted

Chain of Command - More Normandy action

In addition to these, I played some Black Powder with Martin, not my favourite set of rules, but it does keep things cracking along to a rapid conclusion. We also played 7 Days to the River Rhine in 10mm which I quite liked. 

It's been a while

It's been nearly a year since I last posted... Where has the time gone? 

It's been hectic. Major family strife. Both the Boss and I made redundant in the same month. Major home renovations, new job, broken bones, travel - etc..  ok, excuses over. I have been printing and buying and painting... 

Trying to cover a whole year in one post is just insane, so I will try to break this up a bit. 

1745 and War of Austrian Succession

The Flags of War Charity Hessian

Flags of War Garde Francaise - bought these at Targe in mid November.

Good enough for Government Work

Lovely Ratnik Civilians

American War of Independence

Perries Join the Ranks

Warbases?

French Deployment Point

Another French Deployment Point

Books

I seem to have bought a ton of books this year, some second hand, others... this is only a fraction of what I bought, but I now have to stick to the Kindle as I think it would strain things if I brought another book into the house...

  

I think that's quite enough for one update....  back with more soon. Stay safe, get some games in.

Mea Culpa - Lots!

I recently had reason to do a search on this blog for some of the earliest content, and realised I had been blogging for quite a while. Not as early as some of my first wargames websites, back when blog wasn't even a word. In 1999..  http://dbm.freehosting.net/cancon2000.htm  (back in the day when we had 79 players at Cancon  - and I famously rolled my first dice in a 6 round tournament with a 1,1,1,1.)

But I have been sadly remiss updating this blog for some time. Since August! Mea Culpa. I plead, tiredness, work, life, Mastodon, watching Twitter become 'TrainWreck' (tm) and just general slackness. 

It hasn't meant I haven't been doing wargames stuff, sadly, few games, but lots of reading, purchasing, printing and even some painting.

So first of all, success stories - finished two platoons plus core supports for Chain of Command - 

British Airborne - 28mm

A mix of Offensive, Artizan, Warlord, 1st Corps, and even Renegade (PIAT teams). 

BEF - mainly 1st Corps with 3d printed AT support. I also made progress with their armour supports, here they are with silly putty masking for the camouflage. All 3d prints. The Vickers VIb are particularly nice, from Arvernes on Wargaming 3d.

Then there was the Panzer IV kickstarter (including a Panther add-on), from Night Sky also on wargaming3d. To which I have added some Lee and Stuarts from Thingiverse.

It included some rather nice tank crew...  these will see a  lot of use I think. The heads are separate.

Then there are the ongoing items of terrain. The rather nice Warbases Russian Chapel... 

Some cows..  Warlord games, loads of filling - annoying, but I can't find decent 3d print files for dead cows, or horses, or pigs even.

The 10/12mm stuff hasn't been neglected either.. some Farms/BUA for 'O Group' or 'Iron Cross'. 

Burned Out

And then there has come the insanity..   first of all, this in my FLGS caught my eye... 

Which of course, led to this...

And this...

Oops...  and then there was this..   Alex at @StormOfSteelwargaming is to blame..  WW1.

This eclectic workbench... 

What on earth was I thinking? Maybe prepping for 'What a Cowboy'... 

And then there were these.. 

Why do I do it to myself..  there's a bunch of Perry figures to do XIV Army in Burma. Thus explaining the Lee and Stuart tanks.

Altogether now,  dum dum dum, dum de dah, dum de dah...  

Making for a Mutiny

Like lots of other wargamers I invest a lot of time and effort into collecting and painting figures and models. My terrain; however, could use some work. As I've recently been collecting figures for the Indian Mutiny, my existing collection wasn't going to cut it. 

I also have figures for Napoleonics in the Peninsula Campaign, WW2 in Sicily, plus there's Mexico if I wanted to do Maximilian, Northern Africa.. etc. So I figured that with a bit of cunning and some removable roofs, I could bash together something that (if you squinted a bit, and with suitable specialist pieces) would just about pass muster for all these. 

The base models were bought very cheaply from ebay JB models for £12 for 5 basic adobe shells. White glue and chinchilla sand masked the obvious 'flatness' of the MDF. 

Some Wills HO pantile sheets, thick card and a hot glue gun were used to make the roofs.

I then attached them to bases, added walls from foam, brush bristles, and my usual pva and sand textured base mix.

But who knew the foam walls would melt under an aerosol undercoat...  oops.

Well, that's annoying, but crack on, and slap on coats of cheap acrylic umber, ochre, cream and sienna for the tiles.

Ok, looking the part, and usable in a number of terrain regions. Now add roofs...

And suitable for a few more. I also had another building..

More upmarket this one. Still needs a trellis and benches on the deck. I also picked up some 'Arabic' buildings, from the same source, that got a similar treatment.

 Just some tufts, dried grass and bushes, and a few bits of scatter to add, and I will have quite a nice little conurbation.  I also have a nice ornamental Indian fountain, some carts and villagers that I think will really make this work. Not bad for a couple of days building.