Another foray into the past that never was…

 Table set for today’s Very British Civil war game. Cast - the King, emboldened villagers, liturgical Swedes and leftist Liverpudlians. A heady brew ( of tea) to see November out. As ever we will use “ Went the Day well?” Rules.

 

A fun skirmish game in the making..

 Pop over here-

https://brushandbattle.blogspot.com/2022/11/an-invitation-to-minceheim.html?sc=1669739473035#c5110901850199631417

to see a great skirmish set up . It is being done in 15mm but the rules would work well in any scale.

I very much look forward to seeing more…

Chess

 I was very fortunate as a boy to be given for Christmas a Lewis Chess set . It was my pride and joy. I loved the characters that made up the set. Somewhere, sometime in removals , the set went missing . I have no idea when or where. I recall looking for it thirty or more years ago and there was no trace of it.

About this time of year we put out the chess board and play a bit. I played at school and helped run the chess club at the school l retired from. I try to get my daughters to try Fairy Chess variants but they are less keen than I am . Anyway I decided to get a replacement, larger Lewis Chess set recently and there were some good buys on Etsy. It arrived the other day and I was delighted when I opened the parcel.Today we finally got it out and played with it. It brought back memories of my youth and also of enjoying playing with my daughters, the youngest is particularly keen. Here it is-

Finally a recommendation of a book about Fairy Chess-

Follow up to yesterday’s post…

 Got this off the shelf today- 

Btw do pop over here-

https://manoftinblogtwo.wordpress.com/2022/11/25/my-elastolin-castle-invaded-by-st-trinians/

to see another splendid castle and interesting background.

A castle in deepest Ostmerk

 The young reporter is visiting a castle in Ostmerk today…

Bargain

 Got these on Thursday  for £4 in my local charity shop, a bargain indeed!

Twins

 Xenos Rampant ( along with a free sprue of plastic heavy troopers) landed in the Duchy this week. Here it is with its twin-

A picture of the free sprue of figures-

I have always liked Lion Rampant. It put some dearly needed fun into wargaming when it first came out some years ago. Dan Mersey wrote it in an engaging, fun and accessible way, drawing the reader into an excellent gaming experience. This continues with the new edition and also with Xenos Rampant. 

Xenos Rampant calls out for folk to dust off their old collections and just have fun. The rule book is full of interesting ideas to make your army individual and the way you want it to be. Get out the plastic and lead and have a go…

I never played/ bought into 40k and don’t have lots of SF figures at all. Somewhere in the lead pile are a number of Colony 87 and Ratnik figures. However l  don’t know where  and don’t really have the energy to lift ridiculously heavy boxes in the shed to find them. Lovely figures, l hope l come across them sometime soon.

I am tempted to cobble together two forces - one very hi tech the other the opposite but we will see. Anyone planning to use these rules, if so do share your plans here…

Vbcw game today

 Premise was that the BUF had crashed a truck carrying state papers. The mission for the Swedes of The Anglican League and their opponents The Liverpool Free State was to get to the truck , find the state papers and exit off the table with them. Here was the set up-

The BUF had laid anti personnel mines along the farm road to deter everyone and then left . They had however alerted local sympathisers and charged them with guarding the crash site until they BUF could return with mechanics and troops.

In my role as umpire l controlled a unit of local militia ( unbeknown to the two players) which would deploy from the building nearest the crashed lorry when any troops were sighted.

Here are a few pictures from the game-

Opposing forces enter from opposite side of the table. The BUF sympathisers have mobilised and are ready to protect the lorry.

Swedes and Liverpudlian troops face off in the village outskirts.

The Swedes about to take the truck , search it and of course watch out for mines whilst crossing the road.

Toy soldier rules.

 I recently came across ( or found again, not sure which) the OMOG one man one gun rules-

http://www.thortrains.us/armymen/sandygme.html#:~:text=Army%20Men%20Homepage-,OMOG,-One%20Man%2C%20One

They look terrific fun , l really must give them a go …

I also came across this blog with interesting content and games-

https://modelrailsandwargames.blogspot.com/2022/06/1-bc-one-brain-cell-toy-soldier-rules.html

I urge you to have a look…

Btw l have been dipping in and out of the Rugby League World Cup over the past thirty five days. Excellent games and podcast too. I was entranced by the Samoan haka equivalent which ended up about an inch from an opponent’s face! 

Ostmerk on the march.

 Ostmerk troops marching through Weltschmerz…

Black Hawk War

 Trying out some ideas for a 1832 Black Hawk War game. Grid based, 60mm Expeditionary Force figures and simple rules. Very much a work in progress…

Weather in the Seven Samurai

 The recent torrential rain, apart from bringing me down dramatically, reminded me of the rain in the film The Seven Samurai. That was what it felt like being out and about. I found this interesting little video-

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A72doIjNayw

It is about rain etc in the film and is well worth a look.

Thank you.

 Thank you Professor Duffy for all the joy, knowledge and inspiration you have given me over the years.

Box straight to battlefield

 I very recently bought some Conflix buildings. Here is one pre painted, straight out the box and ready to use.

The buildings work well with 54mm figures as undersized terrain works well in games.

Here is a box , a Conflix box, opened and ready to play…

Same building with 28mm interwar Swedes. Works well with lots of periods and places…

My regular opponent has been using them for countless years, I am late to the party. The buildings will fit in nicely with Kev’s splendid houses too. What’s not to like!

Get the King ! A Vbcw scenario

 I came up with a scenario for P  & G today for our VBCW game. We played this period a lot during Covid via Zoom. The scenario ran as follows- the aircraft carrying Edward viii had to make an emergency landing due to engine failure. He was seen leaving the aircraft by locals. They told the two factions - Liverpool Free State and Anglican League Swedes where he was. Both factions attempted to capture him and escort him off the table-

The table at the start of the game and close ups of the King and his transport.

I umpired using the “Went the day well?” Rules which are ideal for platoon action games. It was terrific fun all round. A few more photos-

Another game is planned for the very near future. P.S the Swedes managed to capture the king and escort him off , a victory therefore to the Anglican League.

Mountain Men etc

 As a boy I had a few 60mm Elastolin figures of trappers, as I called them , and my favourite-

The above is just an internet image as are those below  , he is long gone. He fought with or allied with these and others, also long gone-

They towered over my Britains and Timpo and mainly fought each other. Later in my teens I bought this in Thins bookshop and loved it-

I still have it and it still reads well. Recently I enjoyed the films The Revenant and Prey. 

Whilst on eBay I saw some Foundry mountain men at a good price. I bid and was successful. So a wee “sandbox” or should I say “ Potting bench “project  has been commenced. Just a wee skirmish game to scratch the itch for those old toy soldier games of youth…

Reinforcements

 I collected the package from North Star Friday morning  and here are the contents-

Later on I made a start-

The above figures came with bergens already. I glued a spare bergen onto the officer . These will form the mountain troops for Ostmerk. 

The figures below are the mountain troops for Morava. I glued backpacks on all of them. I am thinking of white jackets with desert yellow beret and trousers but we will see…

Breakfast and a question

 In in Edinburgh for my Victorian Scotland class. Stopped by Soderberg https://www.soderberg.uk/ for breakfast. It was delicious.

And now the question,does anyone make St Bernard dogs in 28mm?