Minifigs, Sir - hundreds of 'em!

I have recently made an interesting acquisition, which I am very pleased with - and here is a picture of it (or rather, them). 

 

What we have here is a selection of vintage Minifigs 25mm figures, painted as units of various nations from the Seven Years War and American War of Independence (or Revolution, if you prefer) periods.  How I came about them is a story that began at the recent Broadside show at Gillingham last month. One of the 'flea market' stalls there was run by the Whitehall Warlords club, and I noticed a box of figures on their table - Minifigs 25mm, painted as Bavarians of the War of Austrian Succession, I was told ( see below, but  note, they seem to have fictitious French regimental colours ) 

 

I admit I was interested, especially when the chap  (Bob Walker) doing the selling  said 'if you like those, we've got loads more we want to dispose of, 7YW and AWI mostly'.  After a bit of chat we swapped phone numbers, and over the course of a few days Bob sorted them out and 'Whatsapped'  me a series of pictures of several boxes and tins full of vintage Minifigs. - French, British, Americans, Germans, Austrians, Prussians, Russians.. The range of different nations was quite a selling point, for me - not just big contingents  of one or two armies, but manageable numbers of various nations, so loads of scope for campaigning with multiple or coalition forces,  perhaps?  Or perhaps  a sort of 'Imagi-nations' approach? All ready-painted, in a nice old-school style and easily as good as I would be able to achieve myself,  they would go perfectly with the 'mostly Minifigs' 7YW period figures I already have.

So, after a little time to think it over, I decided to buy the whole lot - the price was very reasonable, I thought - so earlier this week, on a very warm afternoon,  I took a trip to Basildon to collect and pay for my new/old recruits. In the course of looking through them and a pleasant conversation about them, I have learned their 'back-story', which itself is of some interest to me.  

As stated earlier,  these figures were being sold by the Whitehall Warlords club, and it turns out that they are from the collections of several of their members - in particular the sadly now deceased Seamus Bradley, Phil Hoare and George Warren,  and (very much alive)  current member Andrew Maxfield. It so happens that for a short period in the late 1980s I was a member of the same club - they met in the Civil Service staff sports/leisure club at Marsham Street, Victoria, and I worked nearby.  As I've mentioned before, I remember Seamus very well, and I can recall Phil and George too. I'm not sure I wiould have been involved in games with these figures ( in my memory they were having a Marlburian phase at the time ),  but all the same I think that acquiring them  is a nice connection with a piece of my wargaming past.  It's also, I hope, great  to be able to offer a 'good home' to this collection, lovingly painted long ago, and be able to make use of them and give them a new lease of life.  And from a purely practical point of view, at a stroke I have quite large forces available, for much bigger games and campaigns than I have been able to put on before - it would have taken many years to acquire and paint anywhere near this sort of collection!              

For now, of course I have the mother of all 'sorting out' jobs to do, going through them box by box and identifying nations and units - I should here give many thanks to Bob, who has given me quite a lot of information and organised the boxes and tins sensibly.  One of my early favourites is this box - Russians! 

 

I do like the green and red colour scheme, and especially the grenadiers, and these will be a great opponent for my existing  Prussian forces.    

There are some interesting features of the collection which are worth mentioning; as you may have noticed from the pictures infantry predominate, but there is a good number of assorted cavalry, and at least a dozen guns and crews of various nations.  There are indeed AWI/Revolution forces - a box of various Americans including some Native Americans, and British, French  and Hessian units. So I can have a go at refighting that conflct, while also using many of the figures for Seven Years War in Europe games - I'm not that fussy about absolute uniform accuracy! In the course of discussions with Bob we recalled how Charles Grant in The War Game etc would happily use historical French, Austrian and Prussian regiments in his fictitious  'VFS' and 'Duchy of Lorraine' armies, as well as for re-fighting hostorical battles, and that approach has some appeal for me, too. Another feature is that there are several alternative command stands with different regimental colours and standards, so the original owners were clearly going for multi-purpose forces themselves. Indeed, it seems that from Bob's inspection of the Minifigs  code numbers engraved on the figure bases, quite a large proportion  are from the AWI range, simply painted as different nations  - I wonder if some bulk buying was done, or were the AWI figures the only ones available at first, perhaps the specific 7YW ranges came later? A question for the real Minifigs nerds out there  ( it seems likely that some of  thesefigures may date from the 1970s).

All in all, I am very happy indeed to have these chaps in my collection, and look forward to putting them together on the table with my existing troops ( many of which were  from another  deceased veteran wargamer, Eric Knowles, so there is a common theme emerging - 'legacy armies'?).  I'm quite tempted to just try to put on a large and entirely fictitious  game with some old school rules, as simple as possible - the basic rules in Young and Lawford's Charge! would seem ideal - simply to enjoy the spectacle!  I'm also thinking about a multi-nation  7YW campaign, probably going back to the Soldier King boardgame  that I used a couple of years ago.  For dipping a toe into AWI, I have treated myself to a copy of  Osprey's  Rebels and Patriots rules, and I had a fortuitous find in my local Oxfam shop the other day too - a nice vintage Osprey 'Men at Arms', published 1972 and written by none other than Brigadier Peter Young.  

So that's my update - quite a big update, as it turns out!  Many thanks once again to Bob Walker and the Whitehall Warlords, very nice doing business with you!   I'm very much looking forward to 'sorting out' and organising the new troops (and I have to work out a storage solution too..) and getting them into action. As I do that, I will post updates showing what I've got, so watch this space.  

For now, we have something of a heatwave in the UK, and the best place to be is sat in the garden shade with a good book ( Washington's Army, perhaps? ) - I hope everyone else is keeping suitably cool.  I suspect my next post may feature Minifigs 7YW figures, inevitably! Meanwhile keep well, everyone.

Fnurban #33 : A Fine Day at Duxford

Until last week, I had never been to IWM Duxford - I'm really not sure why, given that the childhood  me was pretty much obsessed with aeroplanes, having picked up Biggles in Borneo from the mobile library that visited our village school, aged about eight. That was the first of many such books that I positively devoured in the next two or three years.. 

Recently an old friend of mine suggested visiting Duxford, and I thought 'why not' - it's only about an hour's drive from home, so an easy journey.  Well, we got there about 10:30, and were still there pretty much when the place closed at 6pm - clearly there was plenty to see!  I'll include a selection of the (probably far too many) photos that I took during the day. 

The displays are divided between several different sheds and halls, plus a number of aircraft parked outside. We visited most, but not all, areas - first up was the 'Flying Aircraft' sheds. As the name makes obvious, these are the hangars for aircraft which are in flying condition. This was very interesting, as several of the aircraft were being worked on, with engine covers etc removed - best example of this was the Gloster Gladiator:

does this bloke have a dream job, or what?

 

As I've said in a previous post, I've long been fascinated with the defence of Malta 1940-1942, so it was great to see a Gladiator - and it's clearly able to fly, so might see that one day too! 

There were no less than three of the Curtiss Hawk family : a P-36, a Curtiss 75 in French markings, and a nice  P-40C 'Tomahawk' undergoing maintenance.

 Also a P-47 Thunderbolt - it's a big brute of a machine, I'd quite like to see that flying. 

One point that really struck me about the 'flying condition' section  was the sheer number of Spitfires!  When I was a child, I remember going to an air display at Rochester airport where the star attracton was a Spitfire Mk IX  (painted as 'Johnnie' Johnson's 'J-EJ', just like the Airfix kit!)  which was thrilling to see, and I'm pretty sure was billed as either the only flying Spitfire, or one of just  two or three in the world. . Fast forward several decades, and if you'll excuse the poor  picture composition,  on a random day at Duxford you can chance upon a hangar  like this: 

 

Ok, so that's a Mustang at the back, but I can count 4 'Spits' here, and we'd already seen several in previous rooms. I suspect Duxford could now muster a squadron of them! Interesting how the restoration of vintage ( and especially WW2 ) aircraft has become a small industry - and I am told that owning one will cost you a few million.  Perhaps there was always  a demand waiting to be met, once restorers worked out that the task was practicable?   

Of course there is a 'Battle of Britain' display - appropriate as Duxford was a Fighter Command sector station at the time ( home to Douglas Bader's wing ) and was also used for filming the 1969 movie. And of course, there is a Spitfire:

  

If I recall correctly, we were told that this particular Spitfire is a Mk.1 which actually flew from Duxford, force-landed near Dunkirk and was recovered from the sea decades later and restored.

Of course there must be a Hurricane, also: 

 

and from the other team, an Me 109E - which had force-landed in England during the battle, and been subsequently put on show around the country to raise funds for the war. 

.   The next building we visited was the American Hall, which displays a collection of US military aircraft from WW1 to the present day - and it's quite something! It's a very big space, but it is absolutely packed with aircraft:

As you can see they have a B-17 Flying Fortress in there, and a B-24 Liberator - I was interested to see those,as both types operated from the air station near my home ( RAF Sudbury as it was known ), the runways of which can still be seen today.  They were impressive, but I have to say they looked a bit small compared to some of the other exhibits! In the same hall there is a B-29 Superfortress - significantly bigger - but even that is dwarfed by the B-52 Stratofortress, which is simply huge, and I suspect the Hall may have been effectively built around it!  You can see the cockpit windshield, one wing and a couple of its eight engines in the first picture, but there was just no way to get a view of the whole aircraft, it's too big! .  I rather loved the juxtaposition of the SPAD from  1917 with the F-4 Phantom and the B-52 - the development of American air power in one picture.  All sorts of other aircraft were packed in there: P-47, P-51, B-25, C-47, F-111,  F-15, A-10, to name a few, and not forgetting the SR-71 Blackbird.  Quite something to see! 

Not to be outdone,  the history of  British aviation is of course represented, in the other big hall named 'Airspace'. We were running out of time by this point, but here's an idea if it: 

 Yes, that is a Concorde at the back - and the rear end of a Sunderland in the middle. Lots more to see here. Fro now, there's one more really 'big bird' to show - the Handley Page Victor 

 I gather this has been a major restoration project in recent years (though I suspect not to flying condition), and it is currrently parked in its own hall in the Airspace building - this is quite a surreal experience as one wanders into a truly huge 'room',  in which a pretty  huge aircraft only takes up a small proportion of the space. And because there's nothing else in the room,  there's nothing else to give you a sense of scale - it all feels a little unreal. Amazing to see it, though, and I wonder how it is going to be permanently displayed. 

Finally a few more gratuitous plane pics from the 'old and interesting' categories :  going back to Biggles, I was pleased to see several aircraft from 1914-1918.  A Bristol Fighter, for instance :

 ..and a Be2 : another example of decades of history in one  picture, with the Hawker Hunter and Tornado behind!

.   

And from memory, we also spotted an RE 8,  and a DH 9 - and there was a flying replica Fokker Triplane!  

Slightly more modern now : I had never seen one of these in person before.  MiG 21 'Fishbed', a surprisingly large 'plane. I think this was formerly with an Eastern European air force of the Warsaw Pact era.    

  

And not forgetting the goings-on outside the static exhibition halls - I thought the (almost constant) comings and goings of flying aircraft added an extra dimension (quite literally!) to the day. There were modern light aircraft visiting,  there were 'joy-rides' available ( I think ) from a Tiger Moth, a DH Dragon Rapide, and the two-seater Sptifire - I presume at a corresponding range of prices! Also  a varying selection of interesting aircraft tantalisingly lined-up on the grass, some of which obligingly took to the air - and it seemed to be obligatory for any vintage fighter plane to complete its flight by a low-level pass to 'beat-up' the airfield! In between halls, it was great to just stop a minute and see what was flying, and at all times the 'sound effects' were great!   Getting pictures of these - neccessarily distant and often fast-moving - proved not to be easy, but some of them stood still for the camera.

Given the local connection, it was great to see the B-17 'Memphis Belle' parked on the apron: 

 

And last but not least, with apologies for picture quality, here's a snapshot from the varying line-up of aircraft waiting their turn for a spin - nice juxtaposition of 'old enemies' now flying together :

 ( and yes, for the real nerds that is one of the ex-Spanish  Bf 109s with a Merlin engine..)

Well, now I think I may be said to have 'entertained us long enough', perhaps I'd better leave it there. As you can tell, that was a great day, and there's more to see - a whole hall of 'Land Warfare' which will no doubt be of interest(!), and all those British 'planes to have a proper look at, for example. Good job we took out annual membership... the plan is to go back fairly soon, while the weather is still good and the flying condtion aircraft are still active. So, watch this space.

In the meantime,  'in other news' so to speak, I was lucky to be invited to take part in another of Jon Freitag's remote games, this time the ECW battle of Cheriton, where I played to role of Sir Arthur Haselrige, no less. Jon will no doubt publish one of his excellent battle reports soon; in the meantime as a taster here is a picture he passed around after the game     

Cheriton 1644 : infantry contest the South Spur

 

The figures are ( I think )  30mm scale, and look lovely - and Jon was in constant danger of injuring his hand on the pikes!  I can't say Sir Arthur exaclty covered himslef in glory, but it was a great evening's gaming and sparked some good discussions. Many thanks again to Jon and the other players! 

Apart from the above I have been doing a bit of painting, slow but sure progress, and will show off the results soon.  Meanwhile, keep well everyone. 

Lurking in the Loft - continued

I was sure I would get on with painting and/or gaming this past week or two, but those have rather fallen by the wayside - apart from a great evening in the (remote)  company of Jon Freitag and fellow bloggers Tony MS Foy, Mark  Jolly Broom Man and Chris Nundanket,  playing Jon's Third Battle of Trasimene - many thanks, all! 

One of the things that has taken up some time has been finally getting round to looking at a whole bunch of hobby-related stuff that was still lurking in the loft, some for several decades!  These really need sorting through, and reducing (in terms of  volume occupied, at the very least), and some stuff probably needs to go to a more caring home. 

The largest task has been going through many and various boxes of old (mainly) Airfix figures. As a first tranche, I found this selection of random boxes : 

 

what lies within..?

Gotta love the random selection of boxes and tins that must have been all that came to hand years ago (the box from the Japanese fighter plane kit has a price label marked 33p!) .  I wasn't a smoker as a child, I hasten to add(!), but an elderly 'aunt'  ( do kids still have 'aunts' that are not really aunts? ) rolled her own and was a good source of those nice tobacco tins. And yes, that's a classic Hinchcliffe box, too - pocket money never stretched to them, so where did that come from?! 

But enough about the boxes - you can see how  sorting through this stuff can be a slow process.. On to the actual figures themselves. Let's start with the real vintage ones : 

The 'classic' 1960s Airfix Germans

 

and rather fewer British, of similar vintage 

I'm quite glad to have about 80 of those vintage Germans, they are the figures my gaming started with as a kid, and there will be enough to raise a few more Wehrmacht units for my 'D-Day Dodgers' to fight.  The British 'Combat Group' is more tricky as there are not many of them - and I don't think I ever liked them that much. My first  British infantry battalion (in Rapid Fire order of battle)  has been built around some 1970s Matchbox figures which I liked, but there are only a few more of those, and the Airfix 1970s update to British infantry are a bit rubbish, tbh! So I may have to find an alternative which may involve much more modern figures. I suppose I will just have to put up with the much better quality sculpts(!).  

Having said that, the following couple of sets may come in handy: .

old-school (1960s) British 8th Army..

      

..and German Afrika Korps

I think these two sets could be quite useful when  running games that purport to be set in the Italian summertime, such as Sicily in July/August  1943.  After all, it was pretty much the 8th Army making up the British  contingent, and they would have surely continued wearing their tropical uniforms - and I assume  the Germans would have worn 'hot weather'  gear too. So there is scope for a judicious mixture on both sides - and the various 'early Airfix' will go together OK, so I think I can use these. Yes, I am really going to try to use some of these -  I should say I am entirely aware that more modern figures are much 'better', i.e more detailed, dynamically posed  and well-proportioned, but this is at least partly an exercise in nostalgia for me, I have had these figures a very long time and it will be lovely to make use of them - and to finally get them painted!  

I'll spare you too many   more of these pictures, but so far I have also found Airfix British paratroops (terrible poses and blobby physiques ),  Commandos ( men holding up anchors!), a few WW1 British,  WW2 Russians, Japanese and US Marines, plus the later (1970s) Germans,  and 1980s Esci British and German WW2 - which have an old-fashioned look which may just fit in.  

 

the famous 'Michelin Man' Paratroopers

Switching periods, a couple more random aircraft kit boxes revealed a small collection of (badly-painted)  Airfix Ancient Britains - ancient indeed,  probably at least 40 years old! I think based for WRG 6th Edition:

yet another US Cavalry conversion

 

I had just been reading Alan Gruber's  Duchy of Tradgardland blog featuring lovely conversions of old Airfix figures, in which it was mentioned just how versatile the US Cavalry figures were - and guess what?  Yes, very clearly they are the basis for these Ancient British horsemen - you can see the dark blue plastic where the paint has flaked off saddles etc. The US cavalrymen have had their body rather brutally cut off at the waist, and the top half of a British foot warrior glued in place - and as if to prove it, one of them has suffered a catastrophic glue failure and separated into its consituent parts. I'm afraid the conversion wasn't terribly well thought-out,  as the shields get in the way and prevent the man sitting securely on the horse - but at least the younger me had a try!

There's plenty more in the loft, which means a lot more sorting required, I suspect, and perhaps one or two more blog posts.  Meanwhile, if anyone out there is desperate to add to their collections of say, those blobby British Paratroopers or slightly bizarre Commandos, do drop me a line via the comments and we'll see what we can do - just cover the postage, maybe?  I can't quite bring myself to actually throw them in the bin. 

To end on a positive note, this Sunday is the Cavalier wargames show run by Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society,  and I will be going along, I have never been before, so it will be interesting. Given the quotation on my blog page header, I really should pay homage to the club that George Gush founded. The website lists about 20 traders and 17 games, so a nice medium-size show, which I hope makes  everything a bit more relaxed than the big shows like Salute, and allows visitors to spend a bit more  time looking at each game or stand. I'm glad to say I have arranged a couple of meet-ups with friends old and new, too, and it will be great to have a bit of a chat.  Hopefully a nice start to the 'show season' for 2024.  

Right, now back to the boxes, let's see what else there is... Until next time, keep well, everyone.

Fnurban #27 Postively Proustian Pocket Publications

A couple of enjoyable recent charity shop finds:  from quite a large batch of 'Ladybird' books, I couldn't resist picking up  Robert The Bruce  and The Story of Napoleon. 

Ladybirds were an extensive series ( over 300 titles ) of small hardback books for children, produced from the about the 1950s onwards, and made a deep impression on several generations of British children, me included. These two are from their 'Adventure from History' series,  and give a (surprisingly unpatronising, non-childish) biography of the subject in 24 pages of text, with 24 pages of often rather  beautiful illustrations. As a child I had a well-thumbed copy of  Robert the Bruce, and when looking through that book yesterday I was amazed by how deeply all of the pictures ( by one John Kenney) had imprinted themselves on my memory! 

'by swift campaigns Bruce beat them in the field and captured their strongholds'

 

'The army which Edward II gathered to relieve Stirling Castle must have been a fine sight'

 

'his foot-soldiers were strong and sturdy, and each was armed with a long pike'

 

'At once the English trumpets sounded for the attack'

 

'Bruce swerved aside, and as de Bohun swept past, struck him to the ground with one blow'

 The narrative is concise and clear, and seems to pull few punches - quite early on it tells of Bruce stabbing to death his rival John Comyn, who Bruce accused of betraying him to the English King.('Comyn had deserved to die for his treachery towards Bruce', says the text), and shows an illustration of Bruce sheathing his dagger while standing over the (partially concealed)  body of  Comyn. Quite strong stuff for 7-year-olds!  Looking through the book was one of those interesting moments where one wonders at the workings of the human memory - I would not have seen these pictures for probably  over 50 years, and yet I knew every one of them.  For that reason alone, I'm glad to have found this little book. I suppose I should by rights be thinking about raising colourful Scots and English armies to refight Bannockburn - but I don't think I could paint all those beautiful coats of arms!

 

I didn't have the Napoleon book as a kid, but couldn't resist it - and I reckon it will be better, at least  from a historical accuracy point of view, than Ridley Scott's recent essay on the subject(!).  Interesting that there are, however, not many battle scenes in the book, the pictures ( also by John Kenney) seem to focus much more on the man himself.  Rather an effective 'Retreat from Moscow' picture, though.  

The text is interesting in that it concentrates on Napoleon's rise to mastery of Europe, and rather hurries through his decline - the invasion of Russia and subsequent distastrous  retreat, the campaigns of 1813/14 and the 'hundred days' and Waterloo are covered by only four ( out of 25 )  pages of text. The very first page sets out its stall boldly, as perhaps he himself would have : Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the two greatest soldiers the world has ever known...   Napoleon had more energy, more intelligence and a better brain than any other man in Europe ..  Discuss?

There has not been a vast amount of hobby activity over the recent holiday period, but a pleasant time was had, and the Covid infection that I reported on last time turned out to be about the mildest possible case, I'm glad to say; I was fine again within a few days. I have been spending a little time in the world of WW2 aerial combat, which I may report on next time (Tally Ho, chaps!), and another remote gaming opportunity has been kindly offered by Jon Freitag, and gladly accepted.   I hope you all had a pleasant holiday period - it's been interesting to see many bloggers' reviews of the year just passed and plans for the year to come. I'll report on some proper gaming soon,  in the meantime keep well, and a Happy New Year to everyone.

The Latest Research, 47 Years on

I have been looking around for sources of information on the armies of Alexander the Great and his Persian opponents, so I was quite pleased to find a copy of this book on ebay, at a very reasonable price: 

 

Published by the Wargames Research Group in 1976 ( 47 years ago! ) this is a softback with  60 pages of 'organisation, tactics, dress and weapons. 72 illustrations'.  Phil Barker's introduction states that 'there has to now been a complete lack of specialist publications dealing with ancient armies. This booklet is the first of a series intended to end this situation' - I think it was quite a leap forward at the time. The chapters are Major Battles of the Period,  Tactical Methods,  Composition of Armies, Organisation and Formations, and  Dress and Equipment.  In fact the last of these takes up 3/4 of the book, and that is fine by me. I have very few sources to inspire the painting of my Macedonians and (especially) Persians, so this is may be a help. 

The content is, how shall I say -  brief and to the point. The illustrations are, well, 'basic' springs to mind, and Phil Barker states 'we have not gone in for glossy coloured illustrations for the sake of of prestige, when a black and white sketch with colour notes fulfills the purpose adequately',,, because  'This cuts down on the space required and reduces the expense to the reader'.    

keeping it simple..

What a contrast with the 'eye candy' dominated rulebooks and expansions of today,  they'd never dream of such a philosophy, and you can't charge £30 a pop for that!  ( and this must in effect be the first 'expansion module' , mustn't it?  Readers almost certainly had the WRG Ancients rules, this gave them the details  needed to recruit forces for ths particular period, which Phil terms 'Pike and Elephant' - now why didn't that stick, it's quite  a good label! ).  Thinking around this, it's worth noting that publication date of 1976 - the inflation rate that year was nearly 17%,  having hit 25% the year before!  I can well understand the emphasis on reducing 'the expense to the reader',  publishing anything in that climate must have been a nightmare. Of course it was a success, and it spawned a whole series of related publications, still well-regarded today. Is it possible that today's 'cost of living crisis' may generate a back-to-basics approach and an emphasis on simplicity and low cost? I suppose  Rapid Fire Reloaded springs to mind.. 

I need to think about how to paint my Persians, and this book ( along with the same author's Alexander the Great's Campaigns )  has helped with a few ideas, in particular regarding the lower status Persian troops, who he thinks would be likely to wear costumes made from natural/undyed fabrics. The idea of plainer colours for lower status troops, while the higher status units sport  more colourful finery, works well for me, and may tone down some of the more psychadelic tendencies that can be tempting for Persian armies.. 

Being only 60 pages, I read this in one sitting and am suitably inspired - and of course it features not just Alexandrian and Persian but Indians, Macedonian/Hellenistic Successors, Carthaginians, Republican Romans,  Gallic, Spanish and Numidians, all very tempting for the future. So all in all, I am pleased with my purchase, and also enjoyed opening a little window on wargaming times gone by.  That nostalgic aspect was boosted when I spotted a small label on the back of the book, clearly from a previous seller: 

 

Athena books was of course run by the late great Terry Wise - it's nice to think my copy was probably once in the master's hands.  And it looks like he only wanted £1.50 for it - that must have been quite a long time ago! If books could talk, what tales would this one tell, how many other hands has this been through, and how many armies has it helped to inspire? 

So now with this inspiration,  I need to get the brushes and paints out and raise that Persian army! With luck, some painting progress to report next time. Meanwhile keep well, everyone.

In the lap of the Dice Gods

The other week I had the good fortune and great pleasure to take part in another of Jon Freitag's excellent on-line games, being a second go at Ilipa 206BC - as reported brilliantly by Jon on his Palouse Wargaming Journal blog.   It was a thoroughly enjoyable game, of course, but it will stay in my memory particularly, becuase I contrived to have pretty much the most successful winning streak I've ever experienced in a wargame! 

I was commanding the Roman left wing, with Tony 'MS Foy' as C-in-C ( Scipio ) against the Carthaginians Chris 'Nundanket' and Dave 'St Cyr', and the Roman deployment (which reflected historical reality )  was unusual in that the heavy Legionary  infantry was deployed on the wings, leaving the centre deliberately weak - which centre faced the scary-looking Carthaginian heavy spearmen.  Scipio's tactic had been to overwhelm the Carthaginian flanks and thus surround and crush their centre, while his own centre held  their opposite numbers' attention. But we were not convinced that the thin Roman centre was up to the job, and we had good evidence for that, since in  our previous essay at the same game, playing the Carthaginians, we had won by smashing the Roman centre! It looked a bit of tough scenario for the Romans, and Tony and I had been uncertain how to proceed. We had come up with a  compromise 'half and half' plan whereby his right wing would swing in towards the centre, while I tried to push forward on the left wing. It was working, in a way, as Chris' centre was being drawn towards Tony's men on our right - I think partly because my wing was a bit slow to get moving forward! At which point  Chris tried a charge at my Legions with his Celtic warbands and Spanish Scutarii  in the centre, only for a poor die roll to leave the charge stalled and one of the Spanish units  too close to my Legionaries. Only one thing for it - Legionaries, charge!  What happened next is aptly described by Jon Freitag as follows :

The force of the legion bearing down upon the light infantry is too much.  They turn and flee.  Marcius (David B) orders his legion to pursue.  They oblige.  The legionaries plow into the adjacent warband.  They, too, are overpowered and retire.  Bloodlusted by their success, David's Romans press on, catching the retiring warband.  The warband turns and flees.  Still the Romans advance.  Is there no stopping them?  Not yet!  Next victim is a hapless unit of skirmishers.  They are easily overpowered and scatter.  With the Carthaginian Center hollowing out, David's Ever Victorious Legionaries turn to strike the elephant from the rear.  With escape route blocked, the rampaging elephant is dispatched. 

As you see, the Legionaries managed to break no less than four enemy units - and then my second Legionary unit chipped in and scattered a further unit, completing the destruction of the Carthaginian right wing. At the end of the turn, our opponents conceded defeat, judging that although  their heavy forces in the centre were still intact, they  were now vulnerable to a flank attack from my triumphant Legions while pinned by Tony's Legions  to their front. Victory completed in a single move - amazing stuff! I was roundly congratulated, and very pleased with myself. But of course, it wasn't my skill as a commander 'wot won it' - it was all down to the dice.  

Jon's adapted version of 'Basic Impetus' rules has a 'pursuit after combat' mechanism whereby the victor of a melee decides whether they want to pursue, and rolls a die to test whether the troops will actually pursue,  and how far they will move.  If they are able to contact the retreating enemy, or another enemy unit, then a further combat occurs, and if the pursuers win that combat and the enemy retreat again, then they have the option to pursue again, and so on. Obviously all this is decided by the dice, and my die-rolling was good -  Jon tells me that the chance of that sequence of events was 6.25%, or one in 16. So indeed, quite a lucky streak!

Just for local colour, here are the dice I was using : 

Nothing very special - the blue dice came from a 'Pocket Battles' game, appropriately enough Romans vs. Barbarians ( the lid of which makes a handy dice-rolling area) , the red die is of unknown provenance. We've all got a random collection  of dice we have picked-up over the years, I'm, sure. I am the very opposite of a 'must have all the latest kit' guy..

It has set me thinking though, are we representing reality here? Or just pure random chance? Well, I would like to suggest  that the dice were representing not my tactical/leadership genius, but the grit and determination of the little metal ( or plastic? )  legionaries on the table, who in turn represent a historical  'Legion' of flesh-and-blood warriors. In this case, they saw the enemy unit pull up in some confusion a little to close to them, and were 'raring in to go' after them.  I happily ordered them to charge, and they did so with gusto and a shower of Pila, and promptly routed the Scutarii, who fled - but not fast enough. Their blood up, the legionaries pursued and did further slaughter among the unfortunate Iberians. The Spanish unit disintegrated, and the legionaries saw further easy targets, and kept on charging, fighting - and winning. As a commander my only input was to allow them their head,  and not try to reign them in - in other words, keep rolling the dice.  My thought was, let's see how much chaos these guys can cause! And the fighting, winning and pursuing were decided (of course) not by my intelligence and decisiveness, but purely by the fall of the dice.    

So in a way, what happened was simply a result of purely random die rolls, just pure chance. But I do like to think that the randomness does represent something, and I think that 'something' is pretty much all the stuff that is beyond the control of the commander.  The general can give orders, but he can't determine how those orders will be executed ( or even 'if' they will ), and how the enemy will respond, and how his troops will respond to the enemy response,  and that is where the dice come in. And somehow, on occasions the dice just seem to take charge, and deliver a result that no-one expected, but seems to have a sort of poetry of its own.  I'm sure that on this occasion, the dice were telling us how the rank and file of that legion said to themselves 'let's go get 'em!', having decided that their commanders were being a bit too indecisive for their own good.  I'm no expert on Roman military history, but I seem to remember that at this stage of the Republic, generals were in effect elected by the political leadership of Rome, and I  tend to assume that as a result, those generals were not always necessarily the best soldiers. The guys in the ranks of the Legions presumably knew that, and sometimes maybe they would have thought 'this guy will get us all killed, unless we take things into our own hands,,,'  So the result seems like it could be quite appropriate. Alternatively of course, and much more charitably for me, perhaps they thought 'that Marcius is a great guy, we'll go the extra mile for him!' But I think I know which of those two options it  would have been...  

I must of course add one more thing - the randomness comes from the dice, but the outcomes are decided by the rules, and they need to translate the dice scores into plausible effects. So I should give a lot of credit to Jon and the original 'BI'  authors for their rules, which played a big part - not every pursuit goes on through four units, not every purusing unit has the stamina to keep going, and the probability of those outcomes  depends on the rule-writers. I think they got it pretty much right in this case - but I would say that, wouldn't I?   Not sure if  Chris and Dave  would agree! 

Am I ovethinking? Probably! But all part of the fun. We are just playing a game, but I do always like to think, what's the story here, how does this line up with what might have happened in a real battle? That's what we wargamers are all about, isn't it?  

And to finish,  some more of the dice in my life. First is a pair of battered cheap plastic examples, which are all that remains of my copy of Waddingtons' board game 'Campaign' which would have been a birthday/Xmas gift c. 1974,  I would guess. The game is long gone, but I have somehow hung on to these two little chaps ever since - pure sentimental value. I bet you've all got something similar..   

And last but not least, these 'Percentage Dice' we would have called them, though now perhaps 'D10'. Acquired in the late 1970s when swept up in a craze, along with school/club friends, for WW2 aerial combat using Mike Spick's fantastic 'Air Battles in Miniature' book and rules. These have seen some action - massed dogfights of 'cut in half down the middle' 1/72 plastic models, with no historical accuracy whatsoever,  quite possibly a Gloster Gladiator in the same mass brawl as a Messerschmidt Me 262! But oh dear, was it fun, spread over the floor of Rainham village hall.. I still have some of the aircraft, maybe they need to be given a go sometime - I have kept the book, too  More recently, these dice have been used in Jon's on-line ACW games, so they are still coming in handy and adding new chapters to their story, after more than 40 years. 

That's enough cod philosphy for now - but I think it is probably worthwhile thinking about this sort of stuff. 'What are we representing, here?'  always seems a useful question. I'll leave you to ponder, or dismiss, that idea. Until next time, keep well, everyone.

Fnurban #26 : Keeping Up the Tradition

Yesterday was the last day of a (rather damp)  holiday in Shropshire. On the way home we stopped in to have a look around Leominster, Herefordshire, which turned out to have quite a concentration of antiques and bric-a-brac shops. You never know what you might find - and I struck fairly lucky, I think. One of the shops included a bookstall, with a decent 'military' section, and amongst the contents I found four issues of 'Tradition' magazine.  I've never seen this publication 'in real life', and they were not expensive, so I bought them. They are as follows: 

Issue No. 10

Number 47

Number 63

and number 72

They are ( slightly frustratingly ) not dated, but from a little research it seems that publication began in 1964, and 6 issues per year were produced.  Number 10 has an article by veteran wargamer Philip O. Stearns, reporting on the ( clearly recent ) Waterloo Convention, London 1965, so that seems to tie in OK.  Number 47 has an article on an auction of Lead Toy Soldiers,  which refers to Britain's recent General Election Contest  being on the same day, 18th June, which must be 1970 ( Indeed the article ends by saying the next such auction will be on 10th December 1970, so that nails it down ).  Assuming they kept to six per year, I assume that number 63 appeared  in about  Spring 1973,  and number 72 in late 1974.  

 

example layout - from issue 10

The focus is very much on uniforms - what I tend to call 'button-counting', which I admit I am not deeply interested in, but it's still a pleasure to leaf through these vintage magazines and savour the atmosphere of times long gone. The editor is the splendidly-titled Lt-Col J.B.R. Nicholson, and the general manager John Tunstill  (who also published 'Miniature Warfare', I think, around the same time). Contributors include Brigadier Peter Young ( with a snippets column called 'Random Shots' ), Colonel H.C.B. Rogers (on Mercenary Soldiers )  and Philip Haythornthwaite ( The London and Westminster Light Horse Volunteers 1779-1829 ).  There are lovely full-page colour plates in the centre pages,  a few rather discreet advertisements mostly for stockists of Norman Newton or Stadden fgures, and a nice colour ad on each  back cover for the same figures, including a lovely set of 54mm Stadden medieval knights.

 

All available, of course, from Tradition Ltd at their fabled 188 Piccadilly address. I think I have a dim memory of passing their shop in the 80s/90s, though they may have moved around the corner to Shepherd Market by then, and I was more interested in finding my way to the Curzon Mayfair cinema for the latest Eric Rohmer, so sadly, I did not venture inside.

The earliest issue also has a nice bonus - a sample colour print, advertising a volume of 20 such plates depicting 'Infantry Units of the British Army 1660-1790' by one P.H. Smitherman, available by mail order for the princely sum of 75 shillings ( I make that £3.75 - remember this is in 1965 ). Here he is : 

If this is a sample of the plates listed in the description of the book, then I think he is a Grenadier Officer of 1st Guards, 1688 - the clue being  the 'JR' royal monogram, as this is the only one in the list dating from James II's reign.  It's really pleasing that this loose slip of  heavy-grade  paper  has remained  all these years between the pages of the magazine - I get quite  annoyed at advertising  'inserts' in magazines these days, but this is a cut above. I wonder how the book sold? ( it looks like you can buy second-hand copies on Amazon for £25, and this image is on the front cover )

Note the prices of the magazines  -  Number 10 cost 10 shillings and sixpence ( for younger and non-UK readers, that is  52.5p  or about £0.52 ), but by number 47 the price had risen to a serious 17 and six ( 87.5p ), and following decimalization , the two later editions were offered for 90p.  I am impressed by how 'reassuringly expensive' these were - I looked around the web for 'prices adjusted for inflation' and found  a multiple of about 15.5  from 1973 to now.   So that 90p issue of Tradition 50 years ago  would be the equivalent of about £14 now ( current wargame magazines are priced at around £6 per issue) - quite pricey!. Fairly obviously this was well outside my childhood pocket-money price range, even though  I may have been  aware of  its existence thanks to mentions in books by the likes of Featherstone, Grant and Wise.  My early issues of Miniature Wargames, from about ten years later  (hence after the really  big inflation surges of the late 1970s)  cost only 75p. 

All in all, a nice piece of serendipity,  I am very glad to have come across these and will enjoy browsing through them. I should point out that Tradition of London Limited seems to be still going in online shop form, and will even sell you copies of the magazine - for consderably more than I paid! 

Now back from holiday, time to get on with painting and gaming - next time, a rumination on the role (and the roll) of the dice. And a bunch of shows coming up soon! Meanwhile keep well, everyone.