Several things to catch up on this week ? Firstly following the recent V&F French Russian battles it seemed time to get my British onto the table with a Peninsular battle. Surprisingly I seem to have painted almost as many British as I have french ? So they are fairly well balanced. Steve would take control of the British as this was his first run out with V&F and he could defend, the French would be tasked with assaulting. The French are assaulting from the two long edges, the British holding the higher ground which is cut by a ravine in the centre. Forces are roughly equal with fiv ..read more

For our weekend game we wanted a full day battle and I was keen to get the recently completed Mediterranean terrain on the table. Although not historically based the battle sees the Americans seek to force their way inland, Capturing small Sicilian villages located on difficult to access mountain tops the terrain is difficult and the Germans dug in. Then Americans will enter from the left (south) the air support is controlled by a special die being pulled from the bag. The Germans are already occupying the three main villages and the church on the craggy hill. All the rest of the German force ..read more

After the Napoleonic battle last week I quickly packed up for a game the following day. Loosely based on a recent scenario in WSS I setup a Dark age encounter. The Normans have pushed their control across most of the British isles building fortified buildings and castles as they go. In 1069 they are on the welsh border their occupation as much about intimidation as the collection of tax. The local Norman Lord has been on a 2 day march to collect Taxes from the local population. But the Welsh are not happy and a raiding party has been sent to take back the extorted money. Using Lion Rampant bot ..read more

After a brief hiatus we managed to get the Napoleonics back on the table this week pitching Martin’s Russians against my French for a second battle. The Russian commander had been busily painting fresh troops and Uhlan lancers, whilst the French had slightly more heavy cavalry, which meant I left out the Hussars from the previous encounter (did anybody notice they were actually British ?) anyway this means the Russians now outnumber the French so our scenario (not historical) made the Russians the attackers. We would be using V&F again but unfortunately we had both forgotten most of it so ..read more

On the back of completing the 15mm Sicilian/Iberian terrain I pushed on to complete some other ‘European’ buildings which I had ordered ages ago and had sat in the box. Wanting the terrain to match in I had ordered some more Hovels Battleground buildings. I really like the slightly rough casting of the resin which gives them a more natural look than mdf. You can buy them painted but I wanted to match them in as best as I could. A small three building block Damaged shops Even more damaged shops, I actually bought two of these A small rural church , which also comes with a spire After paint ..read more

A while ago I posted that I had bought from eBay a ‘job lot’ 15mm modular village for gaming in Sicily or Italy. Whilst painting figures I have gradually been ‘tarting’ painting these up and they were completed last night. The main reason I bought them was their obvious flexibility and the fact that the package gave me pretty much all I could possibly need ? They are made of some form of plaster so won’t stand dropping on the floor I have no idea the manufacturer but would be interested to know ? The set came with a couple of walled sections which I forgot to put in the photos. Pretty much th ..read more

With George still building his wargaming palace/Fortress he came up to the dungeon for a game Friday morning. His only request was not WW2 and something colourful so time to roll out the Al Andalus Arabs. As I wanted something balanced it isn’t based on any historical incident. A simple border battle between two Arab Taifas fighting for control of their border. The objectives for both sides are to cross the river, reduce the enemy numbers and if possible capture the enemy camp. The cavalry on my left wing move forward to the river supported by archers who move onto the hill The enemy right ..read more

Having painted up the extra Fallschirmjager recently they ‘jumped’ straight into the battle for Sicily 1943. The scenario for today sees both sides attempting to rescue/capture a high ranking German officer. Unfortunately neither side knows his exact location. There are three possible locations as marked on the photo above and marked by the Storch and two command vehicles. This created some interesting tactical decisions for both sides, whether to cover all three objectives or quickly eliminate one then focus on the others ? It will take a unit one turn to search an objective. Roughly equal ..read more

Things have settled slightly in Edinburgh and I have been able to spend some time basing up the figures I had painted over the last few weeks. We also managed a planned weekend away in London more of that later. Onto the figures in no particular order ………at the recent York wargame show I picked up a bunch of Fallschirmjager these have nearly all now been painted. First up a machine gun team Support weapon teams with Panzerschrek Two snipers and two flamethrower teams. Radio operators Riflemen and sub machine guns A couple of British AWI infantry casualties A random collection of ‘Ancien ..read more

A quick post just to ensure my loyal followers I’m still alive up here in Edinburgh. The caring is going reasonably well and we finally have a date next week for my Father to move into a care home. Between my general caring duties I have managed to get quite a lot of painting done. The (poor) photo below shows the progress so far. These are all the finished figures, but as I didn’t bring my basing materials they will still need a little work when I finally get home, but the hard work is done. I am still working on the new Fallschirmjager and some other stuff as well so it will take quite a wh ..read more