I suddenly decided today that I needed a quick game, as one does sometimes. Swiss mercenaries in French pay storm the heights. Casting my eye about to see who hadn’t been out recently and would be easy to fit into a One Hour Wargames scenario, I decided that the 40mm 16thC lads were up. The last time I used them I noted that the simplified … Continue reading Dawn Surprise
Ready for action! Well, the bases will need to be flocked once I decide on how I want them but they could take the field today if the need arose. The odds are starting to even out. Ragged Republican skirmishers and that General next, haven’t had a good excuse for painting striped trousers in years. Continue reading The Cannonade of Belmont
Today’s outing was a great success as far as I’m concerned. Jeff now owns my old 15mm Russian and Austrian French Rev. armies and its always a pleasure to briefly resume command of some of my old units from time to time. A good mix of gamers either played or dropped by for a bit to chat and have a look, including old friends from … Continue reading And a Great Battle was Won and Lost.
A little bit more done today. Looking over my artillery moulds I decided that the old Karoliner/1750 French gun would not serve as anything but a 3 pounder with these larger figures but that the Rosbach 12pdr was a suitable size and shape to pass as a Gribeauval 8 pdr. Given that the games are most likely to be affairs of outposts, a four pounder seemed … Continue reading Bringing up the guns
Enough ACW for a bit. My latest Prince August moulds arrived and have been tested. LtoR Meisterzinn in later bicorne, Zinnbrigade w 1792 bicorne from PA Prussian NCO mould, said PA mould being converted to artillery officer, PA gunner with same early bicorne. (Juryrigged with plasticene to give me an idea what they might look like.) It wasn’t the best of conditions, hot and humid … Continue reading Ca ira! Ca ira! Ca ira!
The amazing libre 3D modeling tool Blender needs no introductions at this point. Suffice to say that what began as a humble Free Software alternative to most heavy-duty proprietary 3D software is slowly becoming a new industry standard. The newly released version 2.80 is a testimonial of this. The new release adds not only a much needed upgrade to the UI, but along comes an … Continue reading Blender 2.80 released, gets industry sponsorship
Once again I sat down, looked at the still unfinished 20 turn game on my table and thought: “I have not done what I thought I was doing. Instead, I’ve gone even farther off course.”. Reset! Simple scenario. Equal forces, 3 roads either side. Roll for entry point per division. Sieze an enemy road without losing any. The original plan had been to write a … Continue reading Habits Are Hard To Break
A key Principle of War. Don’t let yourself be distracted by details or put the plan above the mission. I brought my coffee upstairs this morning and looked at the table covered in disorder markers which tended to blend in with the units. What was the Aim again? Two turns later, with modified rules in play, a Reb unit has punched their way through the … Continue reading Maintenance of the Aim or Adjusting the Plan.
I confess, I was struggling. Things either worked but were too fiddly for me these days, or they were easy but didn’t work for this size of game let alone larger ones, or just didn’t work at all! Swapping the variable length move for a simple activation chart got the movement.. ummh.. moving? Firefights proved a bit tougher since my mind was locked into various … Continue reading OK So not really so Old School after all.
Finally, battle is joined. I was a little disconcerted at first to find that various favoured mechanisms proved unsuitable for the task in hand. However, it didn’t take long to resurrect some even older mechanisms and the game is now flowing. Is it on the right track? We’ll see! Continue reading Wargames can be hell
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