The 'Mighty' Phalanx, and recruits from the Garrison

Last day of the month and only one blog post so far?  Better remedy that! As a result, this will be what  Stew,  of  A Terrible Loss of Lead and Wealth fame calls a 'PB&J' post - just a summary of the (all too little) recent hobby activity.   Which amounts to a 'mighty'  Macedonian Phalanx - at least in DBA terms - and some new recruits to the 7YW garrison, from, ahem,  the Garrison. Plus a brief mention of a fantastic game I was lucky to take part in only yesterday. 

First, the Macedonians. I finally managed to complete painting Alexander's Macedonian Phalangites for a DBA army, and here they are in their massed ranks - all 16 of them!  They will make 4 elements of 4 Pk   in DBA, which should pack quite a decent punch. 

The ground shakes to the tramp of their feet..

 Painted to my usual very middling standard  of course, though I would claim I am slowly getting  a little better, maybe, and they will do fine for me on the table. Simple block painting with a wash of 'light tone' , which did seem to add a little definition to details of armour etc. Three-inch ( 18 feet, to 1:72 scale ) pikes from household brush bristles look suitably impressive, I think. Colour scheme as simple as possible, with the variation in figure poses and dress making sure they are not entirely identical. I was very lucky that my  entirely randomly selected 16 figures just about made up four groups each with a similar pose with the pike -  I did not give a moment's thought to that potential issue at the start! A little variety is nice, but I suspect that the one formation that really could and should be depicted  with identically-posed figures is a Pike Phalanx, which depends crucially on each man conforming to everyone else! 

and from a Persian perspective

 

Now I just have to finish a couple of Prodromoi light horse, and then get round to  an element  each of Peltasts, Hoplites, Agrinians and Archers ( 12  foot figures in all ), and I will have a DBA army, Then, of course, on to the Persians to fight them..

just need to finish these..

 

Jumping forward a matter of 2,000 years, we have some new recruits for the Seven Years War, and they are rather interesting. At  the Salute show in April I attended the 'blogger meet-up' and was very pleased to meet  Rob Young of The Eastern Garrison blog,  and it transpired that he is able to supply some newly-cast figures from the vintage Garrison ranges. Now that is a magic name to me, going back to the days of Charles Grant, Donald Featherstone etc and seeing Garrison figures in their books - I particularly remembered the Persians depicted in ( and maybe on the cover of ) Grant's The Ancient War Game.  So, who could miss the chance to own some - and nice new castings too?  I do fancy replicating those Ancient Persians and Greeks at some point, but for the moment I thought it would be good to reinforce the 7YW armies,  and start by putting together a contingent of French Infantry, to go with the splendid 'night-cap' wearing French Dragoons which I have already and have been wanting an excuse to paint up.  So recently a deal was struck, money ( a very reasonable amount)  changed hands, and I received a batch of 40+ small metal Frenchmen, pictured here ( straight out of the postal package, hence some bent bayonets and a very small amount of mould flash )

 

Rob has generously 'thrown in' a gun and crew as a bonus, he thinks it's not a very good model, but I think it will do just fine, very nice of him! Many thanks indeed to Rob, I am very pleased with these.

They will be organised in 'units' of 8 figures for the Portable Wargame, which can easily be combined into larger formations ( 16 or 24, say ) for use with other rules. 

who let those pikes in at the back?

 

I have enough figures to make 5 Portable Wargame units, one of which is of grenadiers. With the dragoons ( and maybe that gun ),  this will make a nice little PW force. For a painting scheme, where else to start then the Kronoskaf 7YW website, which has masses of information including uniform and flag details for many, many regiments of all armies. And looking at the French Line Infantry pages  there, what could be better than the oldest regiment?  So, Picardie it will be, with their very simple white coat and red waistcoat. I particularly like the old regime 'white cross'  French infantry standards  (yet again, reminders of vintage Charles Grant , Don Featherstone and Young & Lawford books), and Picardie has a simple white cross, red quarters scheme, which  even I should be able to paint... 

( the above copyright Kronsoskaf - if any objection, I will happily remove )

The chaps will soon be getting a coat of spray primer, and then the painting production line will (slowly) crank up - in parallel with those Greeks and Persians, of course. 

Finally,  back to the ancients. Yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited to partake of another 'remote' game run by Jon Freitag of Palouse Wargaming Journal, this time using his 28mm collection to re-fight the Battle of Ilipa, 206 BCE  between Rome (Scipio) and Carthage (Hasdrubal), using his amended version of Basic Impetus rules.  A great time was had by all, and quite a surprising result ensued. I will leave Jon to describe event in his battle report, which should be well worth a read!  Just as a teaser, Jon has provided me with  a picture he took, of the moment the Roman Legions made contact with (retreating) Carthaginian elephants - with interesting results! 

be careful when approaching the rear of an Elephant...

It was a great game, many thanks to all concerned, and of course mainly to Jon for being such a fine host and umpire!

That's enough from me,  I think those Garrison chaps may need a spray of primer next, and a bit of paint on some Macedonians would be good, too.  I'll keep posting my progress - meanwhile thanks for reading, if you have got this far, and keep well, everyone.

The Fight for Der Sachsenhügel

There's been a distinct lack of actual gaming on this blog in recent weeks ( in fact, probably months), and the newly-painted 1750s Saxons needed some experience, so I thought it was time to get a Seven Years War period game on the table. I had a look through Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames - always a good source of simple scenarios - and came up with Scenario 4 'Take the High Ground'. The attraction was that it involves one army ( 'Red' )  being split into two contingents, which I could set up as an allied army of Austrian and Saxon troops, facing Prussian  ('Blue') opposition. The scenario specifies six units per side, and  I used the 'OHW' army selection charts - the dice gave an interesting setup, as neither side received any cavalry! 

The selected forces were as follows: 

'Red' ( Allies ) : 4 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 1 'Skirmish' ( which I counted as Light Infantry ). 

'Blue' ( Prussians ):  3 Infantry, 1 Artillery, 2 Skirmish/Light Infantry :

Using my own 18th Century variant of Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame rules, this translated as 

Allies: 

- 1st and 2nd Battalions Saxon Regiment Friedrich August, each  4 Strength Points (SP)

- 1st and 2nd Battalions Austrian Botta d'Adorno Regiment , each 4 SP

- one Battalion Austrian  Grenzer Light Infantry, 3SP 

- one battery of Austrian Guns,  2SP 

- Commander - our old favourite  General Dachs,  6SP

Total 27 SP, Exhaustion Point =  9 SP

Allies..

 

and Prussians :

- 1st and 2nd Battalions 9th Line Infantry 'Jung Kleist'  each 4SP

- 1st Battalion 44th Fusilier regiment, 4SP

- one battalion Jaegers ( Light Infantry ) ,  3SP

- one battalion Von Kleist Frei Korps ( Light Infantry ), 3SP 

-  one battery of Prussian Guns, 2SP 

- Commander  Generalleutnant von Gehirne -  6SP

Total 26SP,  Exhaustion Point = 9SP.  

.. and Prussians

For simplicity, all units and commanders are rated 'Average'.

The scenario specifies that the Allies must place just  two units on the table initially, holding a hill in the middle of the battlefield,  with the rest of the force entering from the North table edge on turn 2, while the Prussians can bring on their entire force from the South table edge on Turn 1. It seemed appropriate  that the two Allied units deployed on the hill should be the two Saxon infantry battalions, hoping to hold the position until their Austrian confederates could reinforce them. And thus we have the fight for Der Sachsenhügel (  'The Saxon Hill', if I can trust Google Translate ),

Here is the initial setup, with North at the top and the novice Saxons in position on a pretty simple terrain. Let the battle commence.. 

 

I used Bob's card-driven activation system, which essentially allowed each side to activate 3, 4 or 5 units each turn, depending on a card draw (I decided that shooting,  or continuing an ongoing  close combat, does not require an activation).  The 'One Hour Wargame' scenario allows all the Prussian   units to enter on Turn 1, but I allowed the activation mechanism to limit that slightly - the Prussians  only scored 3 activations that turn, so only 3 units could enter. Accordingly, they brought on both battalions of 9th Jung Kleist infantry, and the Jaegers. The Allies only had the two Saxon units on the table - they opened musketry fire on the Prussian line infantry, and 1st Friedrich August scored an immediate success, taking 1 SP from 1st Jung Kleist. First blood to the Saxons! 

Opening volley from the Saxons..

In Turn 2,  the Allies only scored 3 activations so only 3 units could enter. For both sides I decided that their units arriving at the table would be in a pre-determined 'marching order', representing a column of march coming up the road - it seemed only sensible, for example,  to put Light Infantry units at the front ( and where available, another as rearguard ). Allied troops could only enter by the road or East of it, while Prussians could enter anywhere along their baseline,  but in reality the advantage of increased  movement tended to dictate that units entered via the road.   Wearing my  'Prussian hat', perhaps I should have considered advancing  several units up the Western side of the table to take the hill in flank, knowing that the Allies would have a long march to counter such a move?  Oh well, maybe next time..

Turn 4: Frei Korps in flanking move?

By Turn 4 both sides had a mix of Line and Light Infantry ( Botta D'Adorno and Grenzers vs. 44th Fusiliers and Jaegers )  disputing possession of the road, while the Prussian gun had opened a bombardment of the Saxons on the hill. Saxon musketry scored more successes, further reducing both battalions of 9th regiment Jung Kliest, but in turn the Prussian volleys had forced  one of the Saxon units to retire  from the crest of the hill.  The Prussians had made a tentative move on their left flank, bringing on the Von Kleist Frei  Korps to threaten  West of the hill, and forcing 1st August Freidrich to re-position to face them. Losses by this point were Prussians 3 SP, Allies 1SP. 

Turn 5 : Prussians in diagonal line from bottom left

 

Perhaps more by accident than design, by Turn 5 the Prussian force was arranged in a nice diagonal line - a sort of 'oblique order' ?  The Austrian artillery had deployed in the wood, aiming to dominate the road and give fire support to their comrades on the hill - but were promptly attacked by Prussian Jaegers sneaking up on them through the trees, and forced to retire. The Austrian guns took little part in events after this. 

Grenzers ( left ) and Jaegers skirmish on the wood

On Turn 6,  Prussian musketry having previously forced both Saxon units to step back, both battalions of  9th Jung Kleist regiment stormed onto the hill (despite the Allies now having 3 battalions there ) , and in the ensuing close combat 2nd  Saxon battalion suffered 2 SP losses - and was now reduced to 1 SP ( the Saxons on the whole seemed to be better at shooting than melee, I wonder if that reputation will stick to them?).  Meanwhile in the Eastern woods Prussian Jaegers and Austrian Grenzers fought it out, and the Grenzers came off worst to start with. By the end of the turn, Losses were Prussians 4 SP, Allies 5SP , which looked like something of a turning point. 

Jung Kleist storms the hill

 

Fighting continued on the hill, with the stronger 1st Saxon battalion being forced to retire, but the Prussians unable to finish off the crippled 2nd battalion - in fact losing 1 SP to the plucky Saxons in close combat. In the East, 1st Botta d'Adorno got the better of a musketry duel with Prussian 44th Fusiliers, and Grenzers and Jaegers still disputed the wood, with Grenzers now  getting the upper hand.  At the end of Turn 8 things had turned around again, and  losses were Allies 6SP, Prussians 7SP. 

Turn 8 : Action all along the line

 

For Turn 9, the Allies won the initiative and moved first, with 1st Botta d'Adorno forcing 44th Fusiliers to retreat, but making no progress in the fight for  the hill - indeed the Saxon 1st battalion took another 1 SP loss. And then the Prussians struck back - in the wood, their Jaegers' musketry took another 1 SP from the Austrian Grenzers, and in close combat on the hill, von Kleist Frei Korps took a further  1 SP from Saxon 1st  Friedrich August battalion. Thus the Allies had suffered the loss of 3SP in a single turn, and this was too much - total losses now stood at  Prussians 7SP, Allies 9SP, which meant that General Dachs' Austrians and Saxons had reached their Exhaustion Point.  Being now unable to take offensive action, the Allies could only try to fend off further Prussian attacks, and they would be unlikely to be able to throw the Prussians off the vital hill - so the chance of an allied victory now looked very slim. I decided to call the game there, with General Dachs conceding defeat.  A hard-fought victory for the Prussians, and a bit of a bruising first combat for my newly-raised Saxons! 

Still, a nice fun game, with a real see-saw, back-and-forth affair, the Prussians suffering more losses early on, getting ahead when they stormed onto the hill, only to suffer reverses in the woods and along the road,  before finally the tide turned decisively on Turn 9.   The rules work pretty well, Bob Cordery's basic Portable Wargame engine is lovely and simple, great for small-ish games like this, and a good base for 'tinkering', of course! I quite like the variable activation card draw, which puts a moderate, not excessive, limit on players actions and forces them to prioritise. I think the close combat system is a bit indecisive and maybe tends to draw out melees for longer than necessary, and  I have seen some suggested amendments which I think I may adopt. Of course, many thanks once again  to Bob for getting me started with this!

And many thanks also to Jon Freitag at Palouse Wargaming Journal who provided my other recent gaming experience, with his fantastic 'Hammering Sickles'  ACW Gettysburg game, which I was privileged to take part in a recent iteration of. Great fun, despite being thoroughly trounced by Johnny (or rather, Mark and Chris) Reb.  I can't possibly better Jon's report of the game, which you may well have already enjoyed. If not, it's thoroughly recommended! 

Sickles getting roundly hammered..

 

Having 'scratched the itch' of gaming a bit, there's plenty of painting to do, and some interesting recent purchases to join the - ahem -  Garrison... about which, more next time. Until then, keep well, everyone.     

A Brush with Macedonians

In the past week or so I have been able to devote a little  time to painting figures, in particular my 1/72 scale Macedonians. These will make up a DBA 'army'  as a try-out for the Alexandrian period. I'm quite cheered by my progress, though I won't win any prizes for either speed or quality! 

I started with the cavalry, and have completed these :

Alexander's strike force ( if he played DBA )

 

In DBA terms, one stand each of Companions ( Kn) , Thessalian (Cv ) and Greek Allied (Cv) Cavalry. My first attempt at painting ancients since Airfix Ancient  Britains and Romans in  the 1970s  ( I think I still have the Brits, based for WRG 6th Edition, lurking in the loft somewhere), it's been an interesting experience. I thought the small numbers of each type would make things easy and quick  - but I have  realised that of course, most of the time is taken up with researching and thinking about how to paint them, and then while actually painting,  it's quite annoying mixing some paint and then only applying it to three figures!   Once you've set up and got a brush loaded, you might as well be doing  a dozen or more.. 

On the upside, I like the colour schemes, though I admit my version of  Macedonian purple may be a little stronger and brighter than Ancient dye-makers could have come up with!  The 'research' side is interesting too, in that there is really quite scarce  information to work with when it comes to 'uniform' details - where would we be without the Alexander Sarcophagus and the Pompeii mosiac? I relied mainly on  Osprey's The Army of Alexander the Great ( MAA 148 ) by Nick Sekunda and Angus McBride, which takes a quite rigourous evidence-based approach, and Peter Connolly's Greece and Rome at War  - but of course everyone is working from pretty limited evidence.  It's not like the 18th Century/Napoleonic period, where detailed descriptions and illustrations are available for any and every uniform, and I rather like that, it means everyone can make their own interpretation and use their own style.  No-one can really tell you how you got a detail wrong - they can't prove it! It reminds me of  ECW/30YW armies, which have a similar feel of non-uniformity and freedom to interpret. So these are my interpretation - let's hope Alexander isn't rotating too fast in his grave, wherever that may be. I've kept it very simple and within my limited skillset - block painting, with  a touch of Army Painter 'Light Tone' ( probably could have been stronger ) and a coat of matt acrylic varnish for protection.  Beginner level I know, but they will be fine on the DBA battlefield, I'm sure.  I did even manage to give a couple of them leopard-skin saddle-cloths, and was quite pleased with the (strictly impressionistic) results.  

Making a start on Phalangites

 

Encouraged by those results,  I've moved on to the Alexandrian 'signature dish' (!) - the Pike Phalanx. In DBA terms this is 4 bases each of 4 Phalangites ( Pk), so at least this time I have a decent batch of 16 figures to work with! On a rare sunny outdoor afternoon I made a start by giving them scarlet tunics - I really like the colour,  not sure why I have been avoiding the British in my Seven Years War armies.. Inspiration for this is a splendid picture in Peter Connolly's book, which highlights the many possible  variations in armour ( both metal and cloth spolas ), helmets etc. The HaT Phalangites are very nicely modelled and easy to paint - and maybe I'm gettimg my eye in a bit.

The Companions and the Thessalians are sporting the rather impressive 12-foot long xyston cavalry spear, and the Phalangites will of course brandish their even longer ( up to 18 feet ) sarissa pikes - HaT quite wisely don't try to model these, so how to proceed?   I remembered an idea which I think came from Graham Evans aka 'Trebian'  on his excellent Wargaming for Grown-Ups blog : so I went to a local hardware store, and equipped myself with this: 

Bristling with ideas..

 

Yep, a good ol' household brush,  with tough plastic bristles - I had to measure it carefully before buying, though, to make sure they were at least 3 inches (  18 feet in 1:72 scale ) long! They have worked admirably, they even fitted perfectly in the pre-moulded holes in the HaT figures' hands. Of course they may suffer from paint-shedding if handled too roughly, but I'm going to try a final coat of  clear PVA glue just on the spears and pikes to stiffen them up a bit. Fingers crossed!

Now I just have to keep up the routine of 'painting hour' to push on with these - after the Phalangites there are bases of Prodromoi Light Cavalry, Thracian Peltasts / Hypaspists , Greek Hoplites, Javelin men and Archers. Maybe I can put them into larger batches when it comes to applying common colours, to speed things up.  And then there's the Persians, which should be really interesting, madly colourful, and are probably even less well-documented! 

More figures next time, I think - I have made an interesting 'old school' purchase, but I've rambled on long enough for now. And I feel a 7YW Portable Wargame battle coming on.. So until then; keep well, everyone.                               

The lure of Malta, and Spencer-Smith Saxons - finally

 I really must get back to a spot of painting, and maybe even gaming..was the sign-off to my last post here. Well, one out of two isn't bad.. I did manage to get behind a paintbrush or two this past week, of which more later. But I also got slightly led astray.. You see, as a child in the grip of an obsession with aeroplanes ( thanks to Capt. W.E, Johns, of course )  I picked up a little paperback book that made a huge impression.- Faith, Hope and Charity by Kenneth Poolman. Here is that very volume, which I have hung on to all these years: 

 

The story of the famous trio ( actually, maybe  there were four of them )  of Gloster Gladiators and the heroic defense of Malta from Italian and German air attacks from 1940 to 1942 ( it was the most heavily-bombed place on earth )  just grabbed my imagination, and I have never really forgotten it.  Several more books on the subject have joined my bookshelves since - I can recommned James Holland's Fortress Malta  as a really good modern telling of the story, with lots of eyewitness accounts. I also made it to Malta once, just on a ordinary package  holiday, but I remember managing to drag my friends to the museum in Valetta to look at the semi-restored airframe of the last survivor of those Gladiators - 'Faith'.  And then last week The Naval and Military Press came up with one of their special offers - 25% off WW2 books, in this case  - and I found something of a bargain. This is Fighters Over Malta: Gladiators and Hurricanes 1940-42  by Brian Cull and Frederick Galea, published in 2018. by Fonthill.  

 Now Mr. Cull has form in this area, with a string of books relating to wartime events on Malta to his name, ( many years ago I picked-up his earlier  'Malta: the Hurricane Years' and was pretty much amazed that someone had researched in such detail )  and Frederick Galea is a Maltese native and aviation writer, who is also hon. secretary of Malta's National War Museum Association, so we are in the hands of experts.  They have produced something of a doorstop of a volume, almost 500 pages ( in a small typeface too!) , covering the operations of Gladiator and Hurricane fighters defending Malta from June 1940 to April 1942. The text includes a very high proportion of extracts from personal diaries and journals written by those taking part, and I think that, combined with Brian Cull's mastery of the detailed history,  will make it especially interesting. You've got to salute a book that includes, among nine appendices, one that simply lists the serial numbers of all the known Hurricanes used on the island - I'm sure that will be extremely useful(!).   I am really very pleased with this book, now the only issue is the small matter of actually  reading it! I am thinking of a  'real-time' approach - given that the story is told strictly chronologically from  June 1940,  I hope to make a start now and read up to mid-July 1940, and then  every few days, read the account of the events of the same few days 83 years earlier. Only a few minutes each day ( or week ) should be  required - though of course I wouldn't then finish the whole book until April 2025!   Anyway, this is going to be something of a feast, I am very pleased to have acquired it. By the time I finish, I suspect there may be a companion volume on the Malta Spitfires..  I haven't really tried gaming this campaign,  though I do have the recent WW2 air combat boardgame Wing Leader, and I am pretty sure that has some Malta scenarios. Tally ho!

And the painting? Well, I am glad to say I finally finished painting a couple of Portable Wargame units of infantry, representing the  Friedrich August Regiment of the army of Saxony. These are the vintage Spencer-Smith figures gifted to me by Neil from the excellent Aufklarungsabteilung blog - I was really pleased to get them, but I will admit I struggled with painting them! A case of  'be careful what you wish for', perhaps?  I thought that their minimal detail would make them easier to paint, but in reality it seemed to be exactly the reverse, and I clearly didn't have the skills, steady hand or eyesight for the job.  I hit something of a 'wall' with these, but eventually managed to press on and finish them. Here they are - just don't look too closely!

                                                                      

I am still really very pleased to have these nice old figures in my armies, their distinctive pose is so evocative of the old-school games pictured in Charles Grant's The War Game .  I think I rather rushed into doing these, and I will need to think and plan a bit before doing the next batch, but I also think I learned some useful lessons which will help me do better in future. I think I need to do at least one, perhaps two  more eight-figure units for regiment Friedrich August, and I then hope to add another infantry regiment from Saxony, plus some cavalry.  In case you are wondering, the slightly wobbly black-lining was done with a fine-tipped pen from an art shop - luckily it proved to be waterproof when I gave them a coat of matt acrylic varnish - and I think the resulting delineation between colours,  especially the white and yellow in the uniforms, helped a bit. I hope  they won't fight any worse than other units when deployed on the table - and one advantage of mostly gaming solo is that no-one else is likely to get a very close look at them! 

Having more or less got back into a painting habit, I have also been picking at the first few of my HaT Alexandrian Macedonian figures - more of those later, if I can keep up the momentum. And surely some gaming must be in order: these Saxons need to take the field.  So,  watch this space, and until next time keep well, everyone. 

Fnurban #25 : A Load of Old Balls?

I've been to that there London, specifically to the Design Museum in Holland Park (the building  was formerly the Commonwealth Institute )  to see an exhibition :  Making Sense by Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei. 

I'll admit to not being very good at 'conceptual' art ( i.e. where they have to explain what it means ), but it was pretty interesting, even if only at the level of 'how are these pieces put together, how much effort goes into them, and how did he acquire 250,000 pieces of Lego?'. But one piece in particular intrigued me: this being  Untitled ( Porcelain Balls ).    I took some pictures, which I include here.

It was a pretty amazing sight - there are clearly many, many thousand of these objects in the piece (which measured probably 10 by 5 metres ). I think the smaller balls were maybe 2cm diameter, the larger ones about double that - perhaps 5cm / 2 inches ? It seems they are indeed made from porcelain, and the exhibition commentary  says the following :  

When Ai first encountered these balls, he had no idea what they were. It turned out that they are cannonballs made during the Song dynasty (960 – 1279 CE). There are more than 200,000 on display, making it hard to comprehend that they were hand-made.

 

That rather flabbergasted me;  the sheer numbers of them, the age of them, and the idea of using porcelain for this purpose.  From a brief internet search,  Wikipedia confirms that cannon were in use by the 13th Century in China, and even has an article on Gunpowder Weapons in the Song Dynasty   which is quite an eye-opener ( government factories were producing gunpowder in large quantities in the 11th Century!) but does not mention cannon balls being made of porcelain. 

I can only assume that the description is correct - I am certainly in no position to contradict it - and I simply remain rather 'gobsmacked', if you'll excuse my highly  intellectual language.  I might have to read more about Chinese military history; now where's that copy of Sun Tzu? 

I thought readers might be interested in this - if you want to go and see them, the exhibition continues until 30th July. 

I really must get back to a spot of painting,  and maybe even gaming; meanwhile keep well, everyone. 

 

  

 

Fnurban #24 : East Riding military miscellany

I've been absent from hobby activities for the past week, while on a pleasant holiday to the Yorkshire Wolds / East Riding area.   In any new area I suspect we all tend to keep an eye out for military history interest, and there are usually a few things to note. 

We stayed near Bridlington, and did the 'old town trail' there including The Bayle Museum, which is in the medieval gatehouse which once protected Bridlington Priory,  A typical local museum with small collections reflecting various aspects of local life, it was well worth an hour of our time, and entry was free. There was a militaria room, which included this splendid chap: 

 

An ECW period musketeer, of course - I don't think it claimed to represent any particular regiment. There was some ECW involvement locally, as Wikipeida says:  In 1643 Queen Henrietta Maria of France landed there with troops to support the Royalist cause...before moving on to York, which became her headquarters.

I was struck by the simplicity; the coat and breeches in a fairly coarse woollen fabric, the stockings also wool, I think, just like long socks really, The boots of soft leather, almost like suede - not sure how authentic that would be!  Somehow this has an immediacy that you might not get from illustrations in books. 

The local regiment was the Green Howards, and the display included this nice picture depicting  the raising of that regiment in 1688, 'guarded' by mannequins wearing the uniforms of the regiment from WW2. 

( it seems that the 'Green' comes from  their facing colour in the 18th Century, but until at least 1709 the facings were yellow as in the picture )

Also in a museum was a temporary exhibit in honour of  local artist Estella Brown ( 1944 -2020 ), who it seems had some military interests - her painting depicting  British infantry squares at Waterloo was included in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. The narrative of her life explains this - it seems her husband Geoff Brown already had a fascination with war games and owned hundreds of lead soldiers- you can't get away from wargamers, it seems.. It occurs to me to wonder if any readers knew Geoff?  

I always like a good castle, and nearby Skipsea has a nice Motte and Bailey type, built soon after the Norman Conquest but destroyed and abandoned after its owner rebelled against King Henry III in 1221. Still quite an impressive mound remains, guarded by cows which we didn't disturb by going any nearer,  and you could see the prominent outer bailey earthworks, where it is thought the associated burgh might have been.

 

  Finally a visit to Flamborough Head to the North of 'Brid' - here a toposcope has been set up, to commemorate the sea battle in 1779  between John Paul Jones' ship Bonhomme Richard  and British Frigate HMS Serapis - during which Jones' ship sank, but he and his still crew boarded and captured the Serapis!  

It seems the wreck of the Bonhomme Richard is out there somewhere, though it's exact location is yet to be confirmed. Meanwhile Flamborough Head remains a rather beautiful place 

 

with much wildlife - seals and seabird colonies, including some of these little chaps, who also have a rather smart uniform! 

We had a thoroughly pleasant week and were pretty lucky with the weather, on the whole. Now, back to normality, but also I hope, back to hobby stuff - and the promise of another remote game, thanks to Jon Freitag, which I look forward to very much!  More of that, in the next post - meanwhile keep well, everyone.

Broadside and Bull Run : it's all about the people

Last week was a good wargaming week, and on thinking back about it, that was all because of the people. 

Young's Branch : a 'blue wall' attacks..

 

It started with two evening Zoom sessions, of well over 3 hours each, where I was lucky enough to be one of the players in Jonathan Freitag's  big ACW game of First Bull Run, aka  Young's Branch. I commanded Burnside's brigade in the first session, and Tyler's division ( I also got to be Sherman as a result)  in the second, with my Union comrades played by bloggers  Tony/MS Foy and Chris/Nundanket , and our Confederate opposition by Mark/Jolly Broom Man and my old buddy Dave/St.Cyr.    Jon's account is well worth a read, he makes us sound like quite competent generals - not sure I quite measure up to that! I won't try to outdo his brilliant  battle report, and lovely pictures of the spectacularly massed model soldiers. Suffice to say that  we Yankees triumphed in the end, after some hard fighting - poor old Burnside's brigade got 'broken' quite early on. I think we got some good breaks in that our troops seemed to arrive a bit quicker than the opposition, and we managed to get our regiments and brigades deployed into mutually-supportive firing lines and concentrate an impressive mass of fire on the most important points. Much kudos to Tony also, who drew on  his extensive  'Command and Colours' experience to suggest that we make sure to 'rotate' badly shot-up units out of the firing line, so they would not be destroyed - thus their brigades would not be 'broken' ( which would give Victory Points to the opposition ).  That was proper generalship, and a good example of Jon's rules encouraging authentic behaviour from us commanders. 

On the other hand, yours truly provided a moment of possibly quite rubbish generalship, but my excuse is the traditional one of 'the dice let me down' and also 'trying something chancy on the final move'. We had all  found ourselves using ranged musketry exclusively when getting into combat with opposing units, and no-one had tried an actual charge into melee contact; but as brigade commander William Tecumsah Sherman, I thought - 'I wonder what would happen?'.. I  had pushed  two regiments onto the heights at Robinson House, and a single  Rebel regiment presented a tempting flank - 'charge, boys!' But with 8 dice to roll and advantage for the flank attack, I managed only 2 hits ( and I think Mark 'saved' even them ), suffered losses myself and was 'bounced' back from whence I came! Oh well, 'War is Hell', I suppose.. 

Sherman's Charge ( Jon's pictures, many thanks! )

 It was all in all a great game, enthralling and challenging, and the best part was the interaction with such a great group of people. Huge thanks to all the other players,  and especially to Jon for doing such a great job of running such a large game so successfully!  Thanks for the patience and good humour of both Jon and our opponents, as we Unionists developed rather a 'discursive' command style - I guess we were fighting for democracy, after all! 

And then on Saturday, to Gillingham for the Broadside show staged by the Milton Hundred Wargames Club - which was excellent, as always.  I like the fact that it is a slightly (considerably!)  smaller affair than the Salutes and Partisans of this world - it makes it a very manageable day with no need to rush around to see all the games and traders, and with less crowds it's easier to get a good long look at the games and chat with the players and demonstrators. Quite a few of the games had been at larger shows already, so even though they were 'repeats' so to speak, it was great to have a much more unhurried look at them. Without further ado, here are some pictures of games I liked: 

Shepway Wargames Club  - Hahuasen '89, a rather beautiful rendition of Cold War period Germany, played in 15mm with modified 'Battlegroup' rules, I think. 

Harriers to the attack!

 

Battle of Cawnpore, Indian Mutiny 1857 - Hailsham Wargamers 

Was this a crucial dice roll? We may never know..

RED and white and BLOOD RED SNOW - Skirmish Wargames Club (Russian Civil War, 54mm)

 

The figures were just lovely

My personal favourite was Eagles & Lions at Carentan by Retired Wargamers Reloaded, using Rapid Fire Reloaded rules and 15mm figures on a just fantastic layout.   I had already seen it at SELWG, and Salute, and Partizan ( though I think they have been doing slightly different scenarios each time ), but this time there was a much better chance to take some time and have a good look and a good chat with the guys staging it. I thought it was great, and was impressed that the Rapid Fire rules allow such a large setup to be played as a proper game, it's not just a static display. I think it deserves more than one picture, if you'll humour me:

 

Having had a good look and taken some pictures, I had a chat with one of  the Retired Wargamers Reloaded guys, and after some minutes thought 'I know this bloke' - it turned out to be Tony Toms, who had been a fellow member of Rainham Wargames Club when we were teenagers to early twenties - which is nigh on 40 years ago! I moved away in the 80s and we lost touch, well before emails and mobiles etc, of course.  It was fantastic to see him again, we had a really good chat and are now back in touch, which is great news, one of those people I have often thought 'wonder what happened to him?' I think that pleasant surprise was the best part of the day - funny, I had probably looked at that game on 2 or 3 other occasions without twigging who it was! Which goes to show the advantage of a smaller show..

 More games : Luxembourg 1940 - Deal Wargames

 - another large game, 20mm this time, being played using Rapid Fire. 

Of course Postie's Rejects were there, with Skirmish at St Francis Cove 1784 - A Smugglers Adventure.

Sorry this isn't my greatest picture, but the terrain looked really good with the cliffs and beach etc - there are many, many more pictures of this (and loads of other games ) on 'Rejects' blog pages by Ray Rousell and Big Lee which I thoroughly recommend! 

 

Crawley Wargames Club - First Sikh War. I think..

 

Fallujah, Iraq, 2004 - Maidstone Wargames Society

And a Napoleonic Naval Battle  - not sure who put this on, but the massed ships ( Black Seas, I think ) looked great, and they told me they are building up to doing Trafalgar with 1 model per actual ship, which will be something to behold! 

Of course there was a little shopping: I managed to sell a few surplus books to David Lanchester Books, which added to my spending money for the day.  As a result I acquired: 

 - Three WW2 dug-in gun positions from Ironclad Miniatures 

- A stone bridge from Debris of War, which can be a large bridge for 15mm troops and a small one for    20mm/25mm - versatile! 

- Plastic Soldier Co. pack of 3 Opel trucks in 1/72 - from (naturally) 1/72 Models

- A nice 3D-printed model of a Bren carrier in 1/72 from Disain Studio  

- A 'Portable Wargame' unit of  6  Seven Years War Cuirassiers from the flea market. 

Not a bad little collection, overall!  All in all, another good show - many thanks to the Milton Hundred club and all involved in the organisation,  and to all who put on games, tradestands etc.

Overall, a  very good hobby week, as you can see from the above. And the key ingredient? Of course, it's all about the people, from Jon and the guys on those Zoom sessions to all taking part at Broadside, it wouldn't be good without all of you.  I'm really glad I have returned to this slightly quirky but endlessly interesting hobby, and I think a massive part of the fun has been the people I have met both on-line and 'IRL', the new friends made and the old friends re-discovered. One of the biggest factors in meeting all those people has of course been this blog, both as a motivational tool and as a way of making contact with so many great people. So, thanks everyone for reading, commenting and welcoming- it's all about you guys.  

Now I have a fairly large painting backlog ( hmm... 7YW, Ancients, WW2 - at least its varied! ), and have realised that no actual gaming has occurred on my table for some weeks! So, better get back to some of that, inspired and energized by this past week.  Keep well, everyone.