Last Thursday, a few of us made the pilgrimage to Bishop's Stortford for the grand opening of Steve M's new war room, which is a garage conversion complete with beer fridge ! Here's the motley crew, pre-battle. An Ancients game had been decided upon, so half the participants were controlling the Romans whilst the others had Carthaginians and allies.          The following pictures give you an idea of the scale of the game (table was 12' x 6') It ended as a bit of a Phyrric victory for the Carthaginians but great ..read more

 A couple of weeks back, Ralf and I had a return to Rapid Fire! using my 20mm figures and terrain. Desert Army versus Italians and Italian colonial troops. This Colonial Battalion are based at a coastal village and Italian infantry occupy the orange groves and buildings for cover                                          and here is the reinforced Italian battalion                                 &nbs ..read more

 On Tuesday, Steve and I decided it was time for a big Peninsula Napoleonic game and what had grabbed my attention was the campaign being fought by the Perry Twins and friends in Nottingham and reported on their Facebook page.  It is so inspirational, that I shamelessly decided to nick their game set on the edge of Salamanca - I hope they can forgive this poor imitation of their game but imitation is etc etc ! The outskirts of Salamanca have been fortified by the French brigade based their.  A division of French troops is expected soon as two British forces are known to be head ..read more

 Last Friday, our Writtle Independent Gamers group fought a 28mm refight of Germantown The British camp is on the right. The 2nd Light Battalion and 40th Foot are on and behind the hill on the left of the picture. British artillery on the high ground I front of the camp British infantry outside of the village at the crossroads American militia approach in column out on the British right As attacks go in against the village A better view of the camp ! The British are having to swing round to counter the American advances from the north and east The 2nd Light Infantry suppor ..read more

 Its been a long time ! Six months to be exact. What with a prostate operation followed by catching Covid whist recuperating, blogging kind off fell off the map for me. But lets try again. Last year a group of us mostly retired gamers decided we could fit in week day games as well as our regular Sunday games at Essex Warriors, so WIG was born and we are now into our eighth month of existence. The March game was devised by Stefan if I recall correctly and was a multi-player Eastern Front WWII Chain of Command game. Here are some of the pictures taken on the day The Germans will attack from ..read more

 Our last W.I.G. game was Brandywine and we had five players a side for this one. British : Me, Mike, Steve M, Ian and Stefan.  Americans : Steve C, Mark, Allan, Rafael and Graham. The British have to force their way across the fords and defeat Washington's forces protecting the approaches to Philadelphia. In the real battle, Knyphausen's Hessians did this whilst Howe and the bulk of the British forces made an outflanking march around the American right flank. In our game, we British commanders decided to send the two Hessian brigades to do the outflanking move whilst the British for ..read more

On Thursday,  Mike and Mark came around for an AWI game to refresh our memories in preparation for next week's W.I.G. game, which will be Brandywine. Mike was going to have to leave early to pick up his grandchildren, so he armed himself with the rule book and unit stats to speed things up. Mark chose the Americans so I had the British. The Americans will advance from the left - 2 Continental brigades, 1 Militia, 3 companies of riflemen, and a small cavalry brigade. The British on the right have 1 Hessian brigade, 1 British line brigade, a combined Grenadiers brigade and a small brigade ..read more

 Now most of our group are "of a certain age" i.e., retired and gainfully unemployed (!) and enjoy big battles fought using Black Powder, we came to realise that instead of hogging all the space at our Sunday Essex Warriors club, we could afford to set up games in the hall on a week day for a very reasonable rate and spread out as much as the rear of the hall allowed.  I have to admit this idea was "cooked up" in a pub some time ago and took time to be realised - but here we are ! So, we kicked off in September with the Quatre Bras scenario in the Albion Triumphant 100 Days booklet ..read more

This was a big multi-player WWII Rapid Fire! game held at Quendon on 11th September. Guards Armoured Division have to fight their way through German defenders in and around Hechtel to get to what will become the start positions for the Arnhem campaign. German end - including Hechtel Mid table view  And this the Allied end I was pleased to see an innkeeper on the table ! First turn - the Allies are going to advance ! Recce vehicles and 25pdrs supported by infantry and Allied SP guns wait for targets to be advised by F.O.O.s The narrow hedge lined roads are a worry for the Al ..read more

This game was put on by Rafael on 9th September at his Far Pavilion.  Federal gun boats and troop carriers are fighting their way past Confederate forts on the Mississippi. I had the Union boats and Rafael the Confederate defenders. The winding river with nasty gun forts at every turn Union gun boats advance cautiously knowing what lies in store for them ! The Rebel guns spot the approaching armada and open fire The lead boat engages in counter battery fire After a couple of rounds, a critical hit sees black smoke mushrooming from the top of the fort - one down  The rest of ..read more