It seems hard to be jolly this year given all the stories that populate the news. But perhaps it makes enjoying the company of friends pushing around toy soldiers and ruminating about history and the hobby all the more important. I hope that those of you who look at my blog have a happy Christmas and much joy in the new year.
All the best,
Chris
For a very long time I have wanted to do a SYW collection. While Napoleonic and Sudan/Colonial gaming was inspired by Peter Gilder, and WWII gaming by Colin Rumford and Richard Marsh (Rapid Fire), the SYW has had its inspiration drawn from John Ray. His vast and unique collection, all sculpted by him (except the horses and guns) presented on a lovely Gider-esque terrain layout and beautifully photographed defines the SYW as a toy soldier period worth doing. The book of his collection, The Military Gentleman, has been a source of torment for years and recently I decided to take the plunge by starting a SYW Prussian Army using Elite Miniatures. I love these figures and they populate a high proportion of my Napoleonic collection along with (yes, you already know) Connoisseur. The Prussian range is quite small and unfortunately incomplete; no artillery nor fusiliers. But the Musketeers and Grenadiers include a set of complimentary poses for a 'marching' unit. There are also march attack and advancing/charing poses, but the marching poses are just wonderful.
Now, my collection to date is a mere 2 battalions drawn from IR 1 and IR 5. I have 2 battalions of converged grenadiers prepped along with a regiment of cuirassiers. I'm taking it slow. I alternate painting these units with the usual suspects: a slowly amassing Swiss Italian Wars army, ancients, WWII, lots more colonials, vast numbers of Napoleonics, Great War, oh dear....
All lots of fun. There really is no finish line. Needless to say, while I am working on a BFE inspired ACW rule set, the Great War version, and tweaking BFE 3, I have written a grid set of rules for ancients-renaissance and a...SYW grid game. Retirement next year will be fun!
Here are a couple of poor quality shots of the two battalions. Hope you like them. Oh, forgot to mention that I am using the old Willie 30mm officers for some of my units.
I had not pulled out the Sudan collection in some time and decided to replay the old original scenario from the first edition of the rules, Tamai. This has been played many times and gives a good game. Since playing this I have made a new arid mat using a canvas drop cloth and acrylic caulk. Next time I use it I will post again - I have posted a couple of pictures from a NWF game but not with the Sudan collection.
The mat in these images is my old felt but with patches of, well, not sure, patches of cracked earth? I spread pebbles on the cloth is a dense clumps and then sprayed it with brown paint. The stones acted as a mask and gave an interesting effect.
The Ansar won this one although it looked horrid for them for a while.
A local gamer with whom play I infrequently but always enjoy his company has recently jumped on the colonial gunboat and has been painting Zulu war British. He was not sure about what rules he wanted to use, but was sure he wanted to amass armies for both sides. He has not delved into the history deeply and so when I asked him what battle he wanted to play it had to be either Rorke's Drift or Isandlwana. He opted for the latter and wanted to get indeed by playing the British. Well, it was a cracker of a game - always a relief when introducing a period and/or rules to a new player -- and he is now enthusiastic about the period and the rules. Yay! Job done. Here are some pictures of the fight using my 28mm collection (Old Glory Brits and Connoisseur Zulus with Redoubt and some others thrown in for good measure).
Yes, the blog and I are alive. Summer is over, classes have started, but gaming is back on the agenda. As I have mentioned for some time, I am very slowly working on BFE3. This is a project that is more about clarifying things and simplifying the game. Ridding unnecessary complication or rules that just don't get used is the priority. But I am also wanting to learn more about the military systems of the "Native" armies. When I wrote BFE (1) I tapped into the secondary materials that were to hand. Frankly, much of it was more popular history than scholarship. I want to remedy that by looking more closely at recent scholarship. It might not change much. Clearly the Zulus had a well known military structure and doctrine . The Ansars of the Mahdi/Khalifa also had systems that need more attention. But whether this will change the way BFE is designed and played, I am not sure.
Another influence on BFE3 will be the work that my group is doing to develop an ACW version of the game. This has been very instructive and resulted in some interesting new mechanics. The game is set at a higher level (regimental as opposed to the company) but there is cross-over conceptually and I have found it useful in contemplating ways to simplify the colonial game.
Progress is slow but stay tuned.
Of course, while all this is happening I am enjoying photography and local travel in our van.
As part of a world-wide Wars of the Roses event, we contributed by playing Towton. It was down to us to see which side - Yorkists or Lancastrians -- would take the prize of the crown. Well...it was the Lancastrians!
The event was held outside and was one of the first games we had payed as a group since Covid restrictions were imposed some 7 months earlier. It was great to see everyone and push lead.
We used a house-set of rules and it played really well.
Here some shots of the battle:
Well it looks like a game is on the horizon. Partly due to changes in public policy and partly due to better weather, we are going to play a large game outside. I am delighted. We have been doing zoom games and meet every week for a gab-session, but it will be delightful to actually see the crew around a table pushing toy soldiers around. I know that those of you in the US and UK have had this opportunity for a little while already. Happy gaming, all.
