Plans for the Year - a bit late!

 Well just managing to squeeze this post in before the end of the first month! A few health issues and a lot of over thinking has caused delays in this post but I think I’m about there in terms of what I’d like to achieve.

I created Crann Tara miniatures all those years ago for one main reason - to allow me to refight the Jacobite Rebellion. Well in the intervening years I was diverted by running the business and whilst slow progress has been made it hadn’t reached the conclusion I wanted. 

So first priority is to finish all the pieces for the Culloden refight. This to be displayed at Partizan in May so all the stops are out for this.  I have also decided that this will be my last demonstration game, my first demo game was Marston Moor in 1984 at the Coatham Memorial Hall in Redcar.  From that date I have hardly missed a year, in the early years I was joined by two colleagues Gordon ( the terrain maker and Leigh) We always aimed to present a new game at Partizan and usually resurrected a game for Triples and Derby. But Partizan was always our favourite show and I guess we grew together so it seems fitting for the final battle on U.K. soil to be my swan song at Partizan.

What follows is a random selection of pics from some demo games and my collections. Unfortunately I need to find the old photos of the majority of our games although the Partizan website does show a number of them.

Following that I would like to complete my 15mm ECW and ACW projects supported by Lee Gramson (Napoleonic therapy project) then I aim to have figures to refight Edgehill and the first day at Gettysburg.

Third play more board games, I have always been a fan of board games and have a pretty good collection but they are greatly underplayed and I need to redress that.

And there I draw the line. Behind the scenes there is ongoing 15mm Ancients etc and I’m sure there may be the odd butterfly that comes along.

Of course there will also be the continuing sorting of the collections and most probably some disposals.

It’s a wonderful hobby but I now need to see more tabletop games rather than the continual painting 😃

First post of the year, apologies to fellow bloggers and a fall out with PayPal

 A belated Happy New Year to you all, I’m a bit late in catching up with things as I appear to have had some pretty dire adverse reaction to the booster jab, investigations still ongoing but I now feel somewhat better and thought I’d open the year with a post.

First for some reason blogger has fallen out with me and I’m unable to post comments on blogs, so apologies to Jim, Phil, Robbie, Norman, JBM, Tony,Aly etc all of whom I’ve been trying to comment on their blogs and all I get is some sort of blipvert which appears and disappears so quickly it’s impossible to read. I’m still looking as to why but have found no solutions as yet.

PayPal is now no longer my friend before Christmas I sold some figures to a guy in France, about 3 weeks later he contacted me saying he’d received a customs form for €22 to be paid he sent me a photo of the form and a clear message saying he had no intention to pay the duty etc. Another two weeks pass and PayPal notify me he’s made a dispute for non delivery of goods, I duly submitted photos of his comments, the customs invoice and certificate of posting. PayPal then asked for a photo of the label that I’d placed on the parcel clearly indicating the guys name and address ( apparently he’d said that the Royal Mail certificate of posting didn’t show his name how did he know it was for him!!!  Do you all take photos of the address label. Well you’ve guessed it they found in his favour as I couldn’t produce the photo. So a reimbursement of the his money, a £12 PayPal charge for dealing with the claim and no returned good as yet not a good start to the year.

I have bought these rules

Aly Morrison mentioned them on his blog as being interesting as they don’t use dice at all but they use playing cards. I’ve only had time for a quick skim through and indeed he is right  they look interesting for troops to carry out actions melees etc cards are played the better trained troops have access to more suits.but that’s about as much as I’ve picked up so far.

I intend to give some thoughts to projects for this year - that will appear next post but one Butterfly that has landed is Iain McDonald from Flags of War is going to release a full range of Reivers together with rules et and they look excellent.

Last Post of the year

 Well with only a couple of days to go before Christmas descends I would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wish that 2022 brings us all better times.

Another quiet one is scheduled for us as the kids are either working or choosing to spend Christmas Day at home - the Covid onslaught still causing so much disruption to life.

Still our pooch I’m sure will enjoy the day and sends her Christmas greetings to.

I’m still feeling after effects of Covid with poor sleep and poor concentration but I’m guessing that’s just something that will improve with time! Usually I set out plans and projects but with the exception of desperately wanting to finish the Culloden project, which was the whole purpose of creating Crann Tara miniatures, then I’m finding it difficult to focus on the other things. Sitting in the wings is WAB 2, Epic Napoleonic and some FIW. Leigh has been painting my 15mm ACW and ECW both of which should be completed by summer so at the moment it’s just going with the flow.

Take care and see you all in 2022.

Off the bench

 As Christmas looms closer I’ve been spending most of my hours repairing the damage the storm caused the other week, fence is replaced, groundworks tidied a list of what’s required in the Spring and most things back where they belong! 

It has meant little time for painting etc.although today I managed to clear some space on the workbench by finishing the basing on a number of figures, cleared two units of epic ACW in addition finished the basing on some PP ACW Lee had painted for me, as always he’s done a great job. Particularly on the Berdans which are now my favourite unit 😁

In addition I almost finished  painting some more of Warlord Games epic British cavalry my take on the Union Brigade for DBN. I have to say they are great little figures and quick to paint.

I do aim to get another post in before Christmas with a brief look back and forward projects, thoughts etc.and before closing I see the Warlords have cancelled Salute for 2022! I will maybe make further comment on this next time, so it will be interesting! To see what happens to the other ‘early’ shows next year.

Take care.

Coming off the bench!

 Thought I’d squeeze one more quick post in, on the recovery to health the last two weeks has also seen me trying to clear what’s on the bench. Although that will slow a little as the recent storm decided to take out 80’ of fencing so the next few days will see me otherwise engaged putting new fence up.

First up waiting for the grass and heather to grow and standards to be issued are a batch of Lowlanders there will be a muster soon to see what else is needed I have a feeling it’s 12 highlanders and the Jacobite artillery and crew 

Then I mentioned I had been lulled back into WAB, and Greeks were on the menu. I had hoped to finish these off but there’s still 15 to go to finish the first batch and from the photos I can see there’s some touching up to do mainly Lucid eye and Foundry.

Then of course I had to paint up some of the Warlord epic French cavalry I got with WI - quite enjoyed doing these.

Finally the club project epic ACW so these guys are assembled again waiting for the grass to grow. Still quite a bit on the bench to finish but we will press on against the odds.

Heth renews the attack

 Some time ago I fought the McPherson Ridge scenario from the Summer Storm scenario book for the battle of Gettysburg.  I always think the early attacks of Archers and Davis’ brigades make for an entertaining game. The scenario was played using the Bonnie Blue flag rules and it pretty much followed the real battle The Union Cutlers brigade got pretty mangled but the Iron Brigade saw of Archer’s brigade and Davis’ brigade was too spent to put any pressure on the Union.

So today I thought I would refight the second scenario in the book this starts around 2.45pm and follows a lull in the battle allowing both sides to reorganise and bring up reinforcements.

The above two photos are from the Confederate right flank Pettigrews brigade of North Carolina regiments all green troops but some big regiments 6-800 men per regiment ( 1 base is roughly 100 men)

Moving along the Confederate line Brockenbrough’s brigade - all experienced Virginians but some small units these two brigades were facing off against Merediths brigade ( Iron Brigade) some of the units carrying casualties from the earlier engagement. He’s supported by Dana’s brigade 3 regiments of green Pennsylvanians.

Bringing up on the rear of the Union left flank is Biddles brigade.

Way out on the Union right is Baxter’s brigade supported by the 6th Wisconsin a detached regiment from the Iron brigade coming towards them is Daniels brigade they are supported by 5 batteries of guns from Pegrams artillery which are firing from off board.

The Confederates didn’t waste any time with a full advance along the line although Daniels started to swing some of his regiments towards the centre. 

Early exchanges went the Union way with the Iron brigade still showing their worth however the Union whilst repelling some of the early attacks were unable to break those large green regiments. The Virginians in the centre were made of sterner stuff and advanced to engage elements of the Iron Brigade and Dana’s brigade

Biddle’s brigade began to move to the Union left to hold the flank against Pettigrew’s men.

As the Confederates pressed forward pressure began to mount on the Union line the 40th and 42nd Virginians attacked the 24th Michigan  who suddenly evaporated before the onslaught! At the same time Rebel units from Daniels brigade were starting to advance towards the flank of Dana’s brigade

At the same time Pettigrew’s brigade was putting pressure on Biddle’s   brigade on the left. The Union commanders were working overtime trying to replace lost attrition on their units whilst the rebel commanders had managed to keep fresh units in the line whilst rallying troops. Baxter’s brigade had managed to destroy the 53rd North Carolina and were swinging left to attack Dana’s brigade however Pettigrew’s artillery had been gradually causing casualties to the point where Baxter had used his attrition point in keeping his men moving. 

At this point the Union had lost 4 regiments to the Confedrate 1. The Union centre had buckled to the point where there was only the 7th Wisconsin holding the centre. Biddle’s men had managed to stall Pettigrew’s attack although it was more than likely another co-ordinated attack would force Biddle’s men back.

8 bounds had been played.

A thoroughly enjoyable game, a couple of things I need to check/ adapt, I can’t find any rules for taking the ground if victorious in melee, I’ve done away with the loss of a unit if you score less than 10% in the morale/ attrition test and changed it to scoring zero, likewise if a unit scores 99 I’m tempted to reinstate either an attrition point to the unit or to the Brigade commander. I have a number f sets of rules which I enjoy these to me give a straight forward game.

Surfacing from under the blanket

 On the 19th October after 28 years working as a civilian for Cleveland Police my wife took early retirement as over the last few years the management of the force has run its staff into the ground this isn’t the place to go on about poor leadership etc. But after doing the sums it was worth her while to leave and she has found another job less stress, better managed and almost same pay. Her parting gift was to test Positive for Covid on the 22nd. She had what seemed like a bad cold my tests PCR and lateral flow were negative but on the night of the 26th I felt like crap and sure enough tested positive.

Anything flu or cold like goes straight on my chest and up until today I’ve really been out of it, so don’t know how I’d have been without vaccine - most probably in hospital!

Today I still have bad cough and chest but starting to feel better and isolation finishes Friday.

I know I’m feeling better as I managed to finish the bases on these Sea People figures (Lucid Eye Miniatures) that I started before Covid Struck. They haven’t been Matt varnished yet as the weather and atmosphere didn’t feel conducive to getting good results.

The figures are excellent sculpts ( a little on the large side) but are a joy to paint. This is a dabble back to WAB 1.5 and is all down to Phil Olley and his associates. There’s also some Greek hoplites starting to make an appearance.

I also copied the Chariot rampant rules from WSS to allow an intermediate level of gaming at some point.

Hopefully next week if I’m feeling better I can return to some 18th century pieces.

Take care