Catching Up: A Miscellaneous Sort of Post

Hello!

It’s been a good week since my last post and I don’t really have a reason for that, just a reflection of a somewhat unsettled state on the home front as we get ready to move in a month or so.  Time for a bit of a catchup.

A week ago I had the chance to play with our friend MikeyB’s (aka Weirdy Beardy) 15mm Western Desert toys.   Mikey’s been collecting WD stuff for some years and we persuaded him to haul it all outout.   James and I took the Italians (I’m a noted Italophile) and Barry and Mikey played the Brits.   We used I Ain’t Been Shot Mum v. 3 as the rules.

Here my fearless Italians advance on the British left flank, after taking out an unfortunate pair of 2pdr ATGs with a barrage of HE tank fire.   Everyone’s had their double espresso and almond biscotti and are feeling molto avanti.

Doesn’t he have some nice kit?

Autoblinda armoured cars race at the village, but are driven off by a platoon of Vickers guns.   Driving an up-engined tin can into a hail of .303 lead proves too much for the heroes of Italy.

James sends his force at the British centre, unlimbering his AT guns to hold the flank against the British armour we suspect is lurking in the sand dunes.

Surprise!   There’s a battery of 25pdrs in the British centre.   Having uncloaked this Death Star, the British proceeded to smash two of my poor little tanks and drive off the third in a somewhat less than functional state of repair.

Another surprise!  Barry’s infantry come charging out of the village to rip into my advancing platoon.   The melee goes for badly for my latter day legionaires and the survivors are sent packing.  Nice offensive spirit by Barry.

Andiamo!  Let’s get out of here!

In other gaming, I’ve been enjoying a chance courtesy of tireless painter and blogger Jonathan Freitag to play in a Play by Blog version of the Battle of Raab, an epic Austrian-French punch up in Italy.   I’m playing the part of Prince Eugene.   I give my orders to my divisional commanders via emails to Jonathan who compares my orders with those of my Austrian counterpart and then plays out the tactical consequences on his tabletop.   If you have some time, it’s worth checking out the ebb and flow of the battle here.   Feel free to give me some advice.   I’m trying very hard to punch a way through the Austrian lines on the far side of the Raab, but it’s proving a tough go.

Mayhem along the Pancza courtesy of Jonathan F.

This is the second such game I’ve played lately.   Conrad Kinch ran a very exciting game along similar lines, emailed orders from myself and the other player which he worked out on his tabletop, a very interesting combination of kriegspiel and roleplaying set in the Peninsula War, in which my gallant redcoats fought off a dastardly column of Frenchers to secure a vital bridge and village.   CK’s emailed updates and quick videos of the tab;e, with the terse “Your orders, sir?" came once every few weeks and kept me sane while I was ploughing away on my thesis this winter.   Both these experiences have given me much food for thought on how I might improve on an ACW game, the Bluffsburg campaign, which I ran here several years ago.

Speaking of young Kinch, I was also pleased in the last week to have played a small role in inspiring his “Victorian Volunteer Regimental Name Generator”, a useful sort of tool for naming fictitious units in Her Majesty’s far flung dominions.

The Kars Light Industrial Volunteers, useful chaps for skirmishing or for making decorative biscuit tins, as required. 

Finally I’ve been slogging away on getting more 6mm Napoleonic scenery finished.  Here are the finished bases for the Timecast bridges I showed in progress in my last post.

A quiet stream flows under a rustic bridge somewhere in central Europe.

Goes well with my Baccus rubber river sections, I think.

I’ve also been working on some 6mm buildings suitable for Italy from Paper Terrain, including a rather spiffing monastery on top of a small hill, which will be a useful terrain piece as an objective maker (seize the wine cellars!), an army HQ, or just a decorative bit on the side of the table.  It’s almost done so I’ll save that for another post.  Likewise, James and I had another go at Longstreet last night, and I’ll save that for another post as well.

Hope you’ve all had a good week and that I can catch up with your blogs in the week to come.

Blessings to your brushes and die rolls!

MP