A Christmas post.

First and foremost can I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and peaceful New Year in these troubled times.

Usually at this time of Year I give thoughts and an outline to what I plan for the coming year, this time I haven’t any. I have a few butterfly projects on the go and I’m sure I will progress some of them next year just see how the flow goes. 

The cancer issue this year has certainly changed a lot of how I look at things and has had some impact on my lifestyle but in many ways for the better.

I found this on Facebook which I thought was very apt.

Most of us are now in the last quarter of our life and should read this interesting piece of advice

This is one of the nicest and most gentle articles I’ve read in a while: no politics, no religion and no racial issues - just food for thought.

You know …… time has a way of moving quickly and catching you unaware of the passing years.

It seems just yesterday that I was young and embarking on my new life. Yet in a way, it seems like eons ago, and I wonder where all the years went.

I know that I lived them all.

I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams.

However, here it is …… the last quarter of my life and it catches me by surprise.

How did I get here so fast?

Where did the years go and where did my youth go?

I remember well seeing older people through the years and thinking that those older people were years away from me and that I was only on the first quarter and that the fourth quarter was so far off that I could not visualise it or imagine fully what it would be like.

Yet, here it is …… my friends are retired and getting grey - they move slower and I see an older person now. Some are in better and some worse shape than me but I see the great change. They’re not like the ones that I remember who were young and vibrant …… but like me, their age is beginning to show and we are now those older folks that we used to see and never thought we'd become.

Each day now, I find that just getting a shower is a real target for the day and taking a nap is not a treat anymore. It's mandatory because if I don't of my own free will, I fall asleep where I sit.

And so, now I enter into this new season of my life unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and ability to go and do things that I wish I had done but never did. But at least I know that, though I’m on the last quarter and I'm not sure how long it will last, that when it's over on this earth, it's over. A new adventure will begin!

Yes, I have regrets. There are things I wish I hadn't done; things I should have done but truely there are many things I'm happy to have been done.

It's all in a lifetime.

So, if you're not on the last quarter yet, let me remind you that it will be here faster than you think. So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life do it quickly.

Don't put things off too long. Life goes by so quickly.

So, do what you can today, as you can never be sure whether you're on the last quarter or not.

You have no promise that you will see all the seasons of life. So, live for today and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember - and hope that they appreciate and love you for all the things that you have done for them in all the past years.

‘Life’ is a gift to you.

Be Happy!

Have a great day!

Remember, it is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.

You may think:

Going out is good - but coming home is better!

You forget names - but it's okay because some people forgot they even knew you!

You realize you're never going to be really good at anything like golf - but you like the outdoors!

The things you used to care to do, you aren't as interested in anymore - but you really don't care that you aren't as interested.

You sleep better on a lounge chair with the TV on than in bed – you call it ‘pre-sleep’!

You miss the days when everything worked with just an ‘On’ and ‘Off’ switch!

You tend to use more 4 letter words – ‘what’ and ‘when’

You have lots of clothes in your wardrobe, more than half of which you will never wear – but just in case!

Old is good -

• Old is comfortable

• Old is safe

• Old songs

• Old movies

• …… and best of all,

• Friends of old!

So, stay well, ‘Old friend!’

Have a fantastic day!

Have an awesome quarter – whichever one you’re in!

Take care

Send this on to other "Old Friends" and let them be smiling in agreement.

It's not what you gather but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.

Another bit of a book and rule clearance.

 I aim to put a bit of a Christmas post up next week. But in the meantime in preparation for my 2023 projects and much overdue tidy up in the hobby loft I have done another sort out of books and rules. For me there are only so many books you can hold on the same topic and once the projects are done surplus books can go.

Hopefully everything is priced just to sell and postage will be at cost. Anything you want just get in touch, either through Facebook or message me on here with your email and I will not publish on blog. 

Prices are as follows: 

Triumph and Tragedy £2 SOLD

All the Osprey rule books £5 each

Hodges Scout £3 SOLD

Up the Nile £3 SOLD

Russias Way to the West £6.50 SOLD

The Wild Goose and the Eagle £5 SOLD

In Deo Veritas £5

Frederick The Great - A Military Life £6

The Art of the Flat Tin Figure £5

Fontenoy £5

Zweybruken in Command £4.50

The Army do Maria Theresa £6 SOLD

Die Armee des Augusts Starken £5

The Red Lancers £5

Foys history of the Peninsular War £12

Ferdinand of Brunswick £4.50 SOLD

Pioneers and Heroes of the Wild West £2.50

Forlorn Hope £6.00

Operations of the Allied Army under the Duke of Brunswick £4.50 SOLD

Controlling the Chaos £5.00  SOLD

Lawsons 5 volume set of History of the uniforms of the British Army 1660 -1805. ( vol 5 mainly focuses on militia as per photo) the bible as far as British uniforms go £30.SOLD

Finally in the New Year I may be selling my Wofun 18mm Peninsular War collection as I acquired a large 15mm painted collection this year. If anyone is interested let me know.

 

Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario 1.

Marlowe to Maidenhythe written by Robert Avery  and published by Simon Miller is a fictional Campaign/Scenario book for his His For King or Parliament Rules although the information provided effectively means they can be used for any ECW rules. 

I thought therefore it was time I started to test out my ECW armies the majority of which were painted for me by Lee Gramson as part of my Edgehill project. For me it was a no brainier to use the scenarios from the book, there are 12 scenarios in total so more than enough to keep me occupied for a while. The campaign/ scenarios follow the exploits of Sir John Boulters a wealthy mill owner, loyal to the King and his friend, now enemy, Sir Christopher Grey who has declared for Parliament and has therefore declared himself traitor.

Sir John Boulters having raised his force realises that if we’re to take the bridge at Marlowe he will effectively cut Sir Christopher Grey from his support from the South. 

The rules I use ‘Remekin ECW’ are available here http://prometheusinaspic.blogspot.com/

Written by Tony Howard they are based on the Command and Colours game system but has the options of replacing the order card with command chits ( this is the system I use) Tony has retained the use of hexes but I decided not to do so using 4” as the equivalent hex distance and writing some house rules for the lack of hexes. Etc.

So onto the game - my regular opponent Steve opted to be the Parliamentarians and I took on the role of Sir John Boulters.

We decided to follow the set deployment with the Royalists taking first move, generally speaking there will never be enough order chits to command all the units in each turn.

The Parliamentarian forces Sir Christopher and his cavalry and dragoons can be seen in the distance, to the front of the town Col Hands can be seen with the commanded musketeers and the forlorn hope, to the bottom of the picture is Colonel Kavan and the 3 regiments of pike heavy foot.

An overview of the battlefield, the Royalist forces can be seen with  the infantry advancing in the centre and cavalry on both flanks. 

End of turn 1 the Royalists have pushed the cavalry forward on both flanks and the the foot have advanced along the road Sir John and his lifeguard remain on the baseline.

In response Sir Christopher placed his forlorn hope behind hedges, advanced his foot and brought his cavalry forward.

Bounds two and three a reduced number of command chits saw the Royalist forces push the left flank cavalry out towards the woods and start to deploy the foot regiments for the push in the centre.Sir John began to tentatively advance with his horse in anticipation of a Royalist breakthrough.

Bound 4 again with limited command chits the Royalist continued to advance on the left and centre, interestingly Col Kavan ordered his 3rd foot regiment not only to turn to flank to prevent the Royalist cavalry from getting behind but he ordered them to advance to the rear of the wood.

Bound 5 the limited number of command chits again prevented the Royalists from doing anything on their right flank.

However Col. Derrick on the left flank saw his opportunity the enemy foot continued their advance so the Colonel ordered the horse to start to move to their right.

In the centre the Royalist infantry began their advance their musket fire was particularly ineffective whilst the Parliamentarian fire was starting to inflict casualties particularly on the right hand Royalist foot and the red coated regiment.

Bound 6 was a good round for command chits for the Royalists, whilst the Parliamentarian foot was occupied by the enemy foot Col. Derrick led his two regiments of horse at speed towards the open area between Marlowe and the isolated Parliamentarian foot regiment. The Royalists still took the worst of the musket fire exchange, the pike heavy Parliamentarian foot being ably supported by their light gun.. the red Royalist foot regiment was almost at half strength. The Royalist cavalry on the right had resumed their advance thus keeping Sir Christopher and his horse occupied.

Bound 7. It was time for the Royalists to strike a regiment of foot managed to close with the commanded muskets who took casualties and were forced to retreat across the hedgerows. Col. Derrick continued his sweep to the rear of the Parliamentarian line and the Royalist cavalry on the right had managed to advance gradually posing a serious threat to Sir Christopher.The musketry exchange was still going the way of Parliament with two Royalist regiments now at 50% strength. Sir John brought his Lifeguard forward into the Royalist centre in the hope of exploiting the gap that would shortly open to the the rear of the Forlorn Hope.

Even though the Royalists were restricted in the number of command chits they received it was sufficient for the killer blow. Col. Derrick led his unit of Vet. Horse into the rear of the Parliamentarian green coated regiment, unable to form a stand of pikes the Royalist horse wreaked havoc amongst the foot inflicting close on 60% casualties on the infantry with only minor casualties received. The second unit of horse advanced towards the exposed flank of the commanded shot. Sir John ordered his two battered regiments of foot to hold and try to rally and on the right the Royalist horse crept a little closer preparing to charge.

At this point Steve, sorry Sir Christopher conceded calling upon his men to make good their retreat ( we had run out of time) .

All in all a good game we agreed that the command of forlorn hope, the commanded musketeers and the dismounted dragoons would be lost but saw no reason why the Parliamentarian horse and two regiments of foot would not escape. For the Royalists two of their foot regiments had taken heavy casualties one 50% and one 60% although they were no longer under threat and could try to rally troops.

Overall we really enjoyed the game and didn’t think we needed to change much. As a point of note in the original rules one hit equates to the removal of a base a play two hits and I don’t take bases off just track them with mini dice.

And yes I know I still need to paint the edges of the flags 🤪We are both looking forward to the next match up.

Battleground Show - a most excellent day.

 The show is held on the university campus at Stockton and is run and organised by Leon of Pendraken Miniatures ably assisted by the rest of the Pendraken team. Leon took on running the show after the original Stockton show ceased and was run for a short while as Smoggycon by the Middlesbrough Wargames Club. Since then Leon has worked hard to encourage local gamers to support this event. It’s easy to get to always has a good variety of traders ( big and small), plenty of games, reenactment groups and even a couple of talks.

Add to this that it’s easy to get too, lots of free parking and free entry to the show! What’s not to like? Catering is provided by a pretty good catering van although this year I didn’t partake as since the op I have to be pretty strict on what I eat.

My only complaint in previous years has been the lack of attendance by Northern gamers, this year I’m pleased to say it looked and felt busy until I left which was great.

In terms of games there was a good selection of demo and participation games (25 I think) photos are below, for those I missed I apologise it wasn’t through any deliberate decision but it took me the firs 45 minutes just to get to the middle of the hall with people asking how I was and wishing me well for which I’m truly grateful it meant a lot but it was also great just to touch base and talk hobby.

Onto the photos and in no particular order, where possible I took photos of the nameplate.

 

Finally my haul was modest, I sold a few books and games to Lanchester books, picked up some figures Steve Allen had painted for me, a few bases from Warbases, some Eureka revolutionary bits from Colonel Bills a very nice little publication on Stamford Bridge and finally Robbie Roddis convinced me I need a scenario book for Antietam whilst he was selling on his spot in the tabletop sale. 

This was my first proper outing since my op and by 2 I was feeling tired so whilst I would have loved to stay longer I took the decision to head home.

In my humble opinion this show is what the majority of shows should be like so a huge well done to Leon and it was great day out for me.