In the Duke of Tradgardland’s Garden

Set up some photos yesterday to see how it went...

Yesterday in pictures

Charge

I had mentioned these to David in Suffolk in a comment. They are Charge adaptions by Stuart Asquith and Alan Cook. As they were printed in 1981 I assume I am doing no wrong by putting these photos up here on my blog. I do so to enthuse others to use these classic rules.

 The above photo is of the organisation suggested. The one below is the play sheet.

The search for scenarios- truth is stranger than fiction

I was at my books  over the stormy weekend browsing away looking for an engaging scenario to play. I am a great one for imagineering but sometimes you come across a piece of history that really gets you hooked. Anyway I was looking at Christopher Duffy’s book-

A splendid read by the way. I recalled something I had read ages ago about an Austrian renegade in Prussian service. I found the passage and was fascinated. His name was Gottfried Fabian Haube aka Carl Adolph Von Rexin .  He negotiated with the Turks on behalf of Frederick the Great, giving them bribes, Nuremberg dolls and the promise of returning the Banat of Temesvr to them. He completed a trade and friendship treaty between Turkey and Prussia in 1761. 

Meanwhile Frederick entertained someone from the Khanate of the Crimean Tartars and sent one of his officers back to see if the Tartars could be encouraged to fight against the Russians and Austrians.

A plan was hatched where a Prussian Corps would rendezvous with six thousand Tartars and “push south to the Danube.”

They would be commanded by another Austrian renegade Lt Gen Paul Werner. April 1762 saw him setting out to join the Turks...

 What a tale eh? Yesterday also saw me finally finding the Eric Knowles Tartars I had been working on before lockdown, which was most fortuitous. So the plan is to have a few games around what might have happened. It is an excuse to fight something different with unusual opponents taking centre stage. The history has more fascinating byways to share in this story but that’s for another day...

Railways from the bolts up...

I sent this to a friend recently asking for suggestions of books etc-

"I am looking for some pointers. I am going to try and build my railway 
bottom up , from characters to scenery to rolling stock. I feel if I 
give personality/roles/functions/back stories to the figures then the 
rest will follow. what I am very aware of, having watched the Pathe 
video of the chap running the station on his own (Port Victoria) with two trains only a 
day,my lack of basic knowledge of how a small country station was run 
and functioned in the twenties and thirties in particular. I wondered if 
you knew of any memoirs/handbooks etc that would give me a flavour of 
railway life at the equivalent of squad level in army terms?"

He gave me some very useful pointers but I thought I would put this out here wondering if the collective blog mind had any suggestions too...

Reading matters

I thought at the start of all this my reading time and inclination would have increased. I imagined myself getting through the paper as well as the lead mountain. Things have proved different. I am finding it hard to settle to one book or even a number at a time, if you know what I mean.I haven’t been able to get into fiction really at all preferring non fiction . One advantage of Lockdown is that I am not in WH Smith at all and so cannot whim buy hobby and other magazines. The wargaming glossies I find so disappointing these days with little depth to the articles and little inspiration too. Too much eye candy as opposed to articles which move the hobby forward. The history magazines, and to a lesser extent model railway ones,  are similar.

What has been great has been the regular monthly from the 009 society, home produced but always with good articles, inspiration and interest. A few days ago the Arquebusier arrived too with much interest in it. I really enjoy online content, have found forums and other fellows blogs great but there is something about the postman putting a physical copy through the door. 

I have also enjoyed looking on the bookshelves at what I had forgotten about , what I had not realised were there in the way of books. I have a habit from way back of writing my name, the date and a sentence about the day of purchase ( events, occasions, family outings etc ) in each book I buy. It has fascinating to come across these too.

Rules etc

This is my dice tin.I have had it for a number of years and it holds my older wooden dice and a few others I use regularly. Other tins hold the vast number of coloured D sixes and twenties some gaming requires. When I left teaching I gave a colleague my seaside tin of of dice as it is so useful in a classroom for maths games etc. I am glad to say she continues to use them most creatively.

At the bottom of the tin above is a folded piece of paper which always goes back in when I have finished using it. It contains rules Of a very basic but fun kind. I think I may have scribbled them down from something Fitzbadger wrote on his blog. Anyway here they are ready for another game-

I decided upon an 18th century game and here is the table ( probably over stuffed with figures but we will see...

By the way I use  these rules with 28mm , 40mm and 54mm. Any extra period flavour ( kept to an absolute minimum) I keep in my head.

Do you have a back of a post it/postcard set that you use?