First Look at Rebel Fury by GMT and Mark Herman

Hello friends:

Not a lot of activity here due to time constraints but the gentler pace of summer beckons, I devoutly hope.   Some gaming and painting happening nevertheless.

Recently I had a chance to open and play a recent tabletop game purchase, Rebel Fury: Battles of the American Civil War by legendary designer, Mark Herman, and published by GMT Games.   It promises to be the first in a series of games using the same rules and mechanisms.  It's a somewhat abstract game, at divisional scale, but with an interestingly fluid turn sequence rather than the traditional IGUGO approach.

I only had the chance to play the introductory scenario, Fredericksburg, using the solitaire rules, which is basically a chance to learn the basic game system and not have a good time as the Federal player.  

Here's the initial setup.  The glossy counters on the river are the pontoon bridges.   Most of the Federal force is well back and the limited number of turns (four if I recall) mean that the Union divisions will be committed piecemeal.   In the solitaire rules the Confederates don't move, they just sit in their entrenchments and blaze away.  It's a stark realization of what a foolish battle plan this was.

The game uses a fairly conventional ZOC mechanic which can favour the attached if the attacker can get a supporting unit into the same ZOC as the defence, which can work in the first attacks if the Union is lucky with die rolls.   Here French and Getty were able to dislodge one of McLaw's units and force their way onto the Heights.   However, in most of the attacks, when one attacker is destroyed or forced to retreat, its adjacent friends have no support and their attacks will inevitably fail.

At the end of the game, the Union had two divisions inside the Confederate positions, which was a better result than I expected, but the US needs five units inside the Confederate lines to win the game.

I replayed the game without the solitaire rules, which gives the Union more freedom of maneuver, but it's hard to outflank the Confederates because in the two-player scenario they get extra units which can enter the map from the south and fill in the lines.   So other than learning the combat mechanics, the Fredericksburg scenario is as much fun as a root canal.  Even so I liked the mechanics, and found the combat resolution quite simple once I mastered the basic system of modifiers.   There is command and control, but it's not overly constraining.   Herman's basic idea here, I think, is to help players understand what brittle instruments Civil War armies were.  Divisions can burn out quickly and players should husband their forces for decisive strokes and broad flanking maneuvers.

I look forward to playing the Chancellorsville scenario using the same map, it promises to be much more interesting.

Blessings to your counters,

MP+

A Battle In Germania: Playing Three Ages of Rome

 Three Ages of Rome (3AoR) is written by UK wargamer Philip Garton for the Helion Books war-games series (published 2022).  Garton has a number of ancient and early modern rules to his credit.   Even though it is written with massed armies in 6mm and 15mm in mind, I found 3AoR an easy and quick way to play an Ancients battle using my 28mm figures, using the recommended adjust of +50% to movement and ranges for 28mms.

Troop types are quite simple and familiar to old school gamers, with infantry  being either Massed, Skirmish, Adaptable (can change formation from Massed to Skirmish, eg Roman auxilia).  Cavalry can be Massed or Skirmish. There are also unit types for Pike Blocks for Hellenic themed armies, artillery, archers, and rabble.   Different troop types can be armoured or unarmored, shielded or unshielded, etc, which matters in missile and melee combat.   Troop quality can be either Raw, Trained, or Veteran, and commanders can likewise range from Political to Normal, to Veteran.   There are rules for setup (which can depend on how many units in an army confer a scouting advantage) as well as discerning omens before a battle!  Once the troops are fielded, every turn players each choose one of three possible orders:  Attack, Hold, or Withdraw.

My existing collection allowed me to field three units of Roman auxilia (2 trained, 1 veteran) and two units of cavalry (1 trained, 1 veteran).   The Germanii had a veteran unit of armoured infantry with their chief, four units of unarmored massed infantry with shields (2 raw, 2 trained) and three units of javelin armed skirmishers (all trained).   I used bases I'd bought years ago for GW's War of the Ring and they worked fine, as 3AoR is basing agnostic, though it has recommended base sizes for those that want them.

Turn order can be determined randomly by cards or dice.  I gave the Germanii a slight advantage because their commander was Veteran.   In the first turn the Romans were roughly handed and pushed back on the wrong foot.   The red shock markers indicate morale states.  In 3AoR units have four morale states:  Sound, Disordered, Disrupted and Routed.   Units can rally and improve their morale at the end of the turn under certain conditions, but the more threatened they are and the worse their morale, it gets harder.   Units with decreasing morale are more likely to be destroyed in melee.  Thus the rules have a nice feel for that Ancients tipping point when armies begin to disintegrate.

The above photo shows how the battle can become chaotic as units swirl and the battle line breaks up.   The longer units fight, the more fragile they become as disruptions and worse become sticky.  In the above photo, the German bodyguard and the centurion's unit, both Veteran, clash while the Germans move a unit in to prevent another Roman unit from intervening in the decisive battle.

Combat in 3AoR is very simply resolved, always using 1d6.   Units shooting or melting get 1 or 2 dice, and regardless of the type of roll required (shooting, melee, saves, morale) a 4 or better on a d6 always succeeds, though there are some basic modifiers (eg, for unarmored, disrupted, etc).   The basic mechanism is thus easily learned and quite simple.  There are some other clever touches, such as testing to see if units move into close proximity to enemy massed units (depends on the troop rating of the attacker/defender).

The game ended when the Roman veterans threw better than the Germanii veterans, who, having no path for a rout, were destroyed and the Germanii chief captured.  A very close game.

 3AoR divides Roman history into Ages of Expansion, Empire, and Decline, and includes army lists for each of these periods.   It includes a few sample scenarios based on famous battles, and allows players to build armies using a simple points system.  

I liked these rules a lot, they are accessible, give a clear result, and while I am not an experienced Ancients gamer, they felt right to me.    I would recommend them to others, and look forward to trying them again when I get a few more units ready for the table.

Thanks for reading, cheers and blessings to your dice!

MP+

Saturday Workbench: Victrix Roman Archers

After saying in my last post that I was treating my newfound hobby fascination with Ancients with caution, I've spent the day chopping and glueing a set of Victrix early imperial Roman auxiliary archers.   I found it fairly simple to assemble them, each figure has only five parts - body, arms, head and quiver - and yet there's a satisfying number of poses. 

The Victrix set comes with a dozen western and a dozen eastern Roman figures, so I started with the western ones first.

I then started looking at the dozen eastern figures still on the sprues and got to thinking that they looked exotic enough to serve as Easterlings or Haradrim in a Middle Earth setting.   I never did like the Easterlings that Games Workshop released for their LOTR range, but these figures would do nicely, so I got to work.

I was pleased that I could find a use for all of the figures in the set, though these eastern fellows will get put in a box for now while I think about what other historical figures might pass for Tolkien's Easterlings and Haradrim.  Parthians, maybe?   What are your thoughts?

Cheers and blessings to your glue and clippers,

MP+

A Small Ancients Diversion: Victrix 28mm Roman Auxiliary

 I've always tried to be careful about overextending my hobby energies into too many periods, but I often fail.   A few years ago, when Clash of Spears was all the rage at my local gaming store,  I painted a Germanic war band and developed a fondness for Victrix figures.    A little fiddly to put together, but they come with a pleasing range of options and they paint up nicely.    So I thought that my Germanii could use some opponents for solitaire play and decided on, of course, Romans.    My friend James likes to say that the auxiliaries made up the backbone of the Roman armies, rather than  the sexier legionaries, and so that was my next step into the world of ancients wargaming.

Here's the first set complete, and tucked into 8 figure bases from now defunct 4Ground that I bought for GW's War of the Ring rules.

A very mean and scary centurion in the middle.

Shield transfers from Little Big Men.  Once you get the hang of applying them, they're quite easy to do for a whole unit.

On manoeuvres in the forests of Germania.  What could possibly go wrong?

Very easy figures to paint, I quite like how the mail shirts look from this angle.

 

There's a lot of competition to get into the painting queue these days.  On one desk I have a regiment of Union ACW infantry, and on another desk I have a Prussian SYW musketeer regiment just getting started, but I think once they get done I'll return to Romans.  I have some Baleric slingers and some auxiliary arches to paint next.    

In the meantime, there are rules to master.  Clash of Spears is too tactical for what I have in mind.   I am currently playing with Three Ages of Rome, written by Philip Garton and published by Helion.  Hope to have an initial report here soon.

Cheers and blessings to your brushes!  MP+

The Canadian Wargamer Podcast Is Back

James and I catch up after a few months off, in a conversation that includes the recent Hot Lead event, Henry Hyde's new horse and musket rules Shot, Steel and Stone, and who is the best movie Napoleon.

Front Rank 28mm SYW Prussian Cuirassiers Swell the Ranks

 A bunch of Front Rank swells swell the ranks.   Trotting off the paint bench are these 12 figures, representing the 5th Margrave Friedrich von Brandenburg Cuirassiers.  They been consuming my time off and on since just after Christmas and I'm happy to get to the finish line with them.

As noted, the figures are Front Rank, and I'm so glad that this venerable line of figures was picked up by Gripping Beast.    I just chose the regiment because I like the number 5, and liked the blue on beige uniforms.  I used this page from the invaluable Kronoskaf website as a guide.  The flag is from Adolfo Ramos and the paints used are mostly from the Foundry tri-tone system.

The newly mustered regiment passes in review in front of Der Alte Fritz and are cheered lustily by their cavalry colleagues.

Some shots of my completed Prussian army thus far.   

Next in the Prussian Painting Queue  (PPQ) is another musketeer regiment (No 3 Anhalt-Dessau) and some pesky friekorps, including Von Kleist's uhlans (very pretty, but can they fight?).

Thanks for looking and blessings to your brushes!

MP+ 

An Estate Sale Rules Haul and a bit of Memento Mori

 Where do wargamers go when they shuffle off this mortal coil? 

That's a question that I won't attempt to answer.  Even though I am a wargaming vicar, I will leave theology for my other blog.   However, I think most of you, gentle readers, know by now that when our wargaming friends pass away, they tend to leave a lot of stuff behind.

Last Saturday I took advantage of a lovely and sunny early spring day to drive the two hours from Collingwood down to Stratford to visit Hot Lead, ably run by my friend James and his redshirted cohorts.   I only had a short window of time, so it was all about saying hello to old friends, scanning the games in progress, and of course shopping.

The bring and buy was picked over and offered nothing of interest.  I did buy some lovely painted scatter terrain from a local fellow named Dale Jardine (sorry, I don't have his business' name or website), including these overgrown ruins ready for fantasy games or for pulp heroes like these ones to explore:

Fallen trees and stumps!  Perfect for fantasy or for my ACW gaming, where stumps around a homestead or in a second growth forest battle like The Wilderness would be common.   What a clever idea!

Other than these purchases and a handful of specialty dice (including average dice, necessary for Keith Flint's Honours of War rules), there was nothing I really wanted, but then I met some fellows I know who were selling off the wargaming collections of two chaps as a kindness to their loved ones.  

I wasn't interested in the figures on offer, but I was keen to stock up my rules library.  Can one ever have enough Napoleonics rules?

I never did learn the Fire and Fury systems in their heyday, so I feel I should have a look at them.    I've also heard good things about Shako.

Finally, I succumbed to this old school Phil Barker classic, because I love the enthusiasm of people like Barker who enjoyed a hobby before it became an industry.  Coincidentally on social media today, somebody saw this photo and said he'd just received an Easter card from the Barkers, so good to know that Phil is still around.

Why does the elephant on the cover look sad?  Because nobody ever borrowed this poor book!  Either Templeton SS didn't even have _one_ nerd, or the nerd stole the book from the school library. 

So while old wargamers may die, they sure leave a lot of stuff behind them.    I admired my friends for managing these little hobby estate sales;  it is an act of charity to get rid of a friend's kit and hopefully pass some money back to their widow or survivors.   Buying these books seemed the right thing to do, even though it was an intimation of my own mortality. 

Perhaps, as one of my friends said to me, our stuff will  keep circulating in ever decreasing circles as our generation drops off, and eventually there will be only a few us left standing, at which point the last of us should agree that we will be cremated atop a giant pyre of wargames toys.

I have a friend who I've asked to be my hobby executor if I predecease him, and maybe I'll do the same for him, you never know.  What plans have you made for your hobby gear when you fall of your twig?

MP+

First Thoughts on Henry Hyde's Shot, Steel and Stone Miniatures Rules

 Not that they are especially new, but I've spent the last few weeks learning a set of horse and musket rules by Henry Hyde called Shot, Steel and Stone (SS&S).    I've been looking for a good set of rules suitable for the Seven Years War period, and added SS&S to my shopping cart when I was buying some books on the Caliver website.  They are also available on the Wargames Vault webstore, and are fairly inexpensive.

My first impression of SS&S was that the subtitle, "The Bare Essentials", described it well.  The black and white book weighs in at about twenty-ish pages but was attractively bound in a soft cardboard cover.   The B&W photos show ranks of the old school figures that Henry unabashedly loves, and help give these rules their nostalgic feel.    However, Henry's been busy augmenting these rules with a whole set of "how to" videos on his You Tube channel, done in his loquacious and enthusiastic style.

Since I had my Turkish 18th century army on the table (see my previous post here), I decided to put my Russian troops down and have a go.  This may have been a mistake, as it's always better to learn a new set of rules with fewer units, but I couldn't resist the visual appeal.   As you can see, I didn't put any terrain down, as I wanted to focus on the core mechanics.

Here are four things I especially liked about these rules.

1) Limited Friction.   Commanders and subcommanders can have three ratings, basically Good, Average, and Poor, which determine their command radii and the bonuses they can give their troops.   However, at the start of each turn, each commander's ability is checked by a die roll, meaning that even good commanders can have a bad moment, and vice versa.  This effectiveness check imposes a limited friction on the battle, so that a bad roll means that a commander's units will move more slowly and be less reliable in melee, or (again), vice versa.   Thus, a wing of the army will not lose a turn, as in some other rule sets where initiative rolls are required, but that wing might perform erratically to the good or bad.

2) Basing Agnostic.   Like other rules sets, bases don't have to be of a certain size as long as the size is standard, and movement and range is measured in base lengths (my bases are generally 2 inch squares, so that's easy to work out). Unit strength is measured by a number of bases.  Bases can be removed by shooting hits or by melee results.   Large units have better morale than smaller ones, and generally when a unit gets to half its original strength, it's basically spent and will retire.  Each base gets so many dice for shooting or for melee.

3) Morale System.  In SS&S units have three levels of quality,  A (elite), B (line) and C (poor).    Morale checks are taken before charging, when being charged, after melee and after shooting hits are taken, etc.   The quality of the unit and its size are among a range of factors that determine the morale check modifier, including:  unit posture (eg, advancing or retreating), hits taken that turn, current size vs starting size, formation (eg, skirmish vs close order), threats to flank and presence and proximity of supporting units.  

That sounds like a lot to calculate, and will remind older players of WRG rules sets and the days of yore, but Henry's supplied a clever little matrix that makes the process fairly easy to work through.  

Of course, the dice will be perverse.   Here my Elite (A Class) Russian grenadiers caught a unit of Poor (C Class) Ottoman skirmish bow in a charge and amazingly the skirmishers held their ground and fought the grenadiers to a standstill, with casualties tied on both sides.   Of course, two of those grenadier bases were newly painted and having their first outing, so the new unit curse naturally applies.

4) Disruptions

Units can acquire Disruption points through events such as being charged by cavalry, crossing difficult terrain, routing, routers passing through, second round of melee, etc.   Disruption points adversely affect morale checks and combat.   Units that do nothing except halt and reform can remove two disruption points per turn.   

Other things worthy of comment:

Shooting and Artillery:  

The shooting rules seem well thought out.   Musket armed infantry, the queen of the 18th century battlefield, are pretty effective (3 dice per base) whereas skirmish troops get one dice per base.   Shooting, like morale, is reminiscent of WRG, with modifiers awarded or denied based on firer's troop quality, target density, first volley, and so forth.    However, hits do not become kills automatically; the targeted player gets a saving throw for each hit.  One blogger who was also reviewing SS&S said that he was inclined to jettison the saving throw for solitaire play, but that he would keep it for FTF gaming as it adds some fun and uncertainty.   Seems fair.

One thing I did learn was that artillery is pretty deadly, especially at short range, and smoothbore artillery hits can only be saved on a 6 on 1d6.  Because I had put all my SYW models on the table, the Russians had four guns (see photo below), which were able to chew up an advancing unit of janissaries long before they got within range.    I would keep the artillery to a minimum.

Cavalry:   

Horse, especially shock cavalry, are potent but can be seen off by good order infantry in line.   In Henry's rules, there is no need for 18th century infantry to go into square, though fighting the pesky Turks with their light cavalry hordes, I could see the wisdom of the Russian practice of the divisional square.  Here, some Russian musketeers, with artillery support, see off armoured spahis.

Evade moves:  

Light and skirmish troops have the option to take Evade moves, though I found this a little confusing and wished that the rules had an index as it took me a while to track this down.=.    Evaders need to pass a morale test if charged (I think, I need to reread the rules) and then have the opportunity to take a full move with an evade bonus, or shoot (with a move penalty) and evade.    With the Ottoman skirmish horse archer units, for example, they pretty much evade automatically, so they were mostly ineffective but pesky.  I decided that iuf they were to evade, it must be a full evade move straight toward their friendly table edge, and if that took  them off the table edge, too bad.  One could house rule this so that they were lost if they evaded off the table, or took a full turn to regroup before entering the next turn.   

Of course, another approach would be for the Ottomans' opponent to have sufficient light cavalry to keep the skirmish horse away!   As it was, with only one hussar unit on the table, the Russians found the skirmish horse quite annoying.   

Some final points.   Besides his YouTube channel that I've already mentioned, Henry is very active on social media (he's on Bluesky - @battlegames.bsky.social) and today he just posted some errata and clarifications.  Henry also has a Facebook page for SS&S where he has been good about answering questions, so these rules are very well supported by the author, and are obviously his passion project.  That's a huge plus for me.

While I've written about these rules through my own lens of SYW interest, Henry is clear that they could easily work with Napoleonics, and there are some modifiers and rules (eg infantry squares) that are specifically for that period.   SS&S also includes rules for fighting in built up areas which would allow for some siege battles, as well as a colonial section, so it's quite versatile.

While there are other SYW rules that I want to explore (eg, Keith Flint's Honours of War), I will happily try SS&S again, and think with a little investment in time it could serve well.   Any game with five pages of charts and tables will require that sort of investment, so I would say it's more for grognards than beginners, especially those of us who remember the WRG days and secretly miss them, but the rules seem fun and playable.  

Ottomans On Parade: A Resurrected Army

 Some years ago I started something called the Resurrected Armies Project, where I would revisit an old wargaming project and try to breathe some life in it, assuming that the project made the cut (my 20mm WW2 collection was rehomed rather than resurrected, but that's another story).

Recently, after finishing a unit of Assault Group janissaries as seen in my previous post here, I wanted to see how my entire Ottoman army looked on the table.    Some of these figures are quite old, and some, like an ancient Minifigs janissary regiment (the chaps in red) have been recently rebased.   There's more cavalry rebasing to do.  

Here's the entire army.

The total collection can field three units of skirmish bows, two units of janissary infantry, two units of levytype guys with choppers, three units of skirmish akinci cavalry with bows, two units of armoured spahi cavalry, two medium and one heavy gun, and several command figures.  A unit of tufecki musketeers is in the painting queue.

The heavy gun.  I have no idea what make of figures the gunners are.

Gunners in blue and janissaries in red are ancient Minifigs.

The flower of the Sultan's cavalry.    There are a few Assault Group spahis mixed in with God knows what else.   As you can tell from the banner, my Arabic is a bit rusty.

Newer janissary regiment and behind them some bare chested fellows, once dubbed the "Turkish love slaves" in a game ages ago

It's embarrassing that I have so many Ottoman figures and know so little about the Turks in the 18th century.    I've looked at several SYW rules sets and there are no lists for them (there might be an Ottoman list in the very old Age of Reason rules by Todd Kershner, I should see if I still have my set).  Generally I would rate the skirmish troops as low quality, the artillery and janissaries as varying from low to line/trained, and the spahis as line to good, able to go up against European heavy cavalry.

The secret of an Ottoman army should be superior numbers of horse - even a multitude of bad horse units can threaten and engulf the flanks of a smaller, superior force, which is why the Russians favoured large brigade or divisional squares when fighting the Ottomans.

What are your thoughts on how to rate and use such an army?

Cheers and blessings,

MP+

28mm Ottoman Infantry Regiment

Hello friends:

Bit of a change of direction here, as I finally finish a unit that's been on and off the painting table since the start of winter.

 This is a regiment of Janissary infantry, figures by The Assualt Group.   While these figures are more Renaissance than 18th Century, they will be opponents for my SYW Russian army.

The flag was from a set I purchased from Warfare Miniatures USA.  Good customer service.  I have some of their Ottomans and while they aren't as good as TAG, they're ok.

Figures are painted using the Foundry tri-tone system.  I'm especially happy with the headresses.

Also some single based command figures, always useful for Sharp Practice.

Always fun to paint Ottomans.

I'm hoping to muster these fellows into my Ottoman army, which is a strange mix of new and old figures, and put them on the table against my Russians.   I don't have a set of SYW rules that includes an Ottoman list.   However, Henry Hyde's new horse and musket rules have a colonial section that might do for some of the wilder Ottoman troop types.  More to follow.

Thanks for looking and blessings to your brushes!

MP+

First Look At A Bulge Monster Game: Wacht Am Rhein by Decision Games

 I think anyone who remembers the heyday of paper, hex and counter wargames from the 1970s and 80s has a fondness for the monster games, multi-map, thousand plus piece mammoths that took up all available space, chewed up thousands of hours, and often never got finished.     The most well-known were published by SPI in so-called "soap box" format because they resembled those old laundry detergent boxes.

Last December I remembered that I had a Bulge monster game in my stash and I thought it was a good time of year to give it a try.   Wacht Am Rhein is a Joe Youst design, published by Decision Games in 2005, and traces its lineage back to an SPI game of the same title designed by Joe Balkoski and Jim Dunnigan and published in 1977.  There's a lot in the box.

It comes with a big rule book.   The Grand Operational Simulation Series (GOSS) is highly detailed, and is grand-operational in scale, which is one of my gaming sweet spots.  Units are mostly battalion sized, and have three steps; most BNs can break down into company level which is useful when attaching armour to an infantry attack, or distributing AT units among a defensive line.  The system reminded me of SPI's Atlantic Wall which I played a lot of long ago.

I chose a very simple learning scenario, a four turn (two day) battle called Fight For Kesternich, in which the US 78th Infantry Division tries to capture a ridge on the German/Belgian border guarding the Roer Dam.  Defending the ridge was most of the 272nd Volksgrenadier Regiment.  Historically this American offensive kicked off just days before the Ardennes offensive and forced the Germans to change the northern pivot point of their operation. 

In the scenario, the Americans have two days/four turns to capture two hexes, one being the village of Kesternich (shown below towards the left of the photo, occupied by a stack topped by the German (grey) AT company0, as well as hex 5510 towards the bottom of the photo.  I've broken the US tank battalion down into three companies to support the infantry.    The Germans begin the game entrenched, so are hard to dig out, and there are some hexes occupied by the Germans at start which are rough and restrict the number of units that can attack each turn.  The shot below is taken just after the first US turn, with a little progress made on the attack but the Germans pretty much holding fast.

This learning scenario abstracts artillery, has no weather or night rules, and imposes strict boundaries on the hexes in play.

And the state of play at the final turn, No American progress to report, and at the bottom of the photo, the US attackers have actually been pushed back.   Both sides have suffered casualties, and it would be unlikely that the 78th could manage another day on the offensive and still be effective, while the Germans have clung on by their fingernails.

One of the things I like about GOSS is the combat system is quite complex at first, but as you get the hang of it, you see its wisdom.    Terrain determines the starting odds, which are then adjusted for or against the attacker depending on whether the attack is prepared, whether engineers are in support, whether the artillery barrage has been effective, and for the defender depending on entrenchments and, crucially, adjacent enemy units that are not themselves being attacked.   Such shifts simulate supporting and enfilading fire that can be brought to bear on an attack from supporting, adjacent defending units, and they can break an attack.     

Once the odds are calculated, there are a variety of bonuses that can be added to the D100 die roll depending on armour superiority, regimental integrity if more than one BN of the same Regt is attacking, and so forth.  Both defender and attacker roll separately, meaning that an attack can have a NE fail while the defenders' fire is murderous, or vice versa.  Combat results are a tradeoff between step losses, fatigue, or retreats, depending on how badly you want to hold a hex.  A few days sustained combat can easily wreck a division.

So my first attempt at WAR was successful and I learned a lot about the basic system.  The bigger systems have rules for strategic movement, transport, logistics, weather, air support, leaders, etc that I have yet to crack.

It was great fun to make it a little ways up the mountain of this monster game, and I hope to return soon.  The next scenario features the 101st AB defending Bastogne and looks like great fun.

Blessings to your counter clipping!

MP+