From NoelW: Three more unconnected offerings

I recently discovered Little Wars on Youtube. I’d heard about them before, of course, but never checked them out. So I was very pleasantly surprised by what I found, and binge-watched every battle in no time short. There are some great games in their videos and, if you don’t know them, I’d highly recommend them for a good combination of history and gaming, made entertaining by what appear to be some great personalities, and backed up by useful rules reviews and more general pieces on terrain-making etc. I don’t have any real criticisms, except I’d like to see many more, and especially more games that were in 15mm or 28mm.

It was also interesting to see Miles in all his glory, pulling off some tactical masterstrokes – at least, I’m sure that’s what he’d call them. I was also slightly surprised to find myself in one of them – I was an umpire in The Great Game, the massive Waterloo game at Glasgow University last year, reported in one of the Little Wars videos, so it shouldn’t have been a shock to find my ugly mug among the clips.

Anyway, one of the best of the Little Wars’ games is D-Day, using 6mm figs and  Sam Mustafa’s strategic game, Rommel. As the anniversary is approaching, I found it such an interesting game (and, in fact, well managed – according to the video, anyway!) that I thought I’d review our neglected 15mm WW2 collection and see what might be done on similar (but very cut down) lines.

My sons and I have a rather disorganised Flames of War collection, mainly from the early versions of the game. I was hoping we might have enough figures to stage the whole of D Day but that's probably rather too ambitious. It would also have to be a multi-table, and maybe even multi-room affair, it I was to pull it off. Although I’m lucky enough to have a dedicated wargames room, its angular shape and associated beams mean it can only accommodate two 6'x4’ tables, set at right angles and with a gap between them – though they can be bridged, if you’re prepared to crawl underneath. Not enough space for the required 7 15mm games, I think.

So, more likely I’ll settle for two of the beaches – one US, one Commonwealth – and one of the para drops. What I’m really missing for a D-Day scenario, though, is landing craft. A quick internet survey showed (a) that there aren’t many in 15mm available to buy and (b) it would probably be an expensive investment in any case. So I knocked together half a dozen very simple scratch-built models from card, based on the design of one I already owned from a forgotten second hand purchase. They’re very simple, functional models, but it only took a few hours to put them together, they'll certainly do the job and I’m happy with the results. Here they are heading for what looks like certain disaster:

The rest of my week has been spent finishing off figures I began much earlier in the lockdown. Firstly 15 Italians for my friend’s WW2 North Africa armies.

And secondly 18 Perry plastic Brits intended for the North West frontier. They’ll probably do service there, but I expect them to spend more time in the Sudan, despite wearing puttees.

Imaginary scoring for this lot: although the landing craft are notionally worth 60 points, they are such simple models that I’m only going to count them as half that. Plus 33 x 28mm foot at 165 points, making 195 points in total.

Together this brings me to a working total of 924 points of which, for the side challenge with Stuart I’ve a current total of a respectable 500 points.

Even so, against my original plan, I’m slipping further and further behind and time is running out:

Project	New Task	‘Points’	Old Task	‘Points’
Agincourt
AWI	Farmstead	3
Black Seas (1/700th)	2 merchants	20
British in Egypt: 1801			Generals de Rolls’ regiment	30 60
Cape Wars	12 infantry	60
Carthaginians
Crusades	Command group	20
ECW
French in Egypt: 1801	Guns	50	Command Gun crew	75
Frostgrave/fantasy	3 Treemen	24	Frankie	5
Italian Wars
Lord of the Rings
Minden (15mm)
Ottoman
Peninsular War			12 Spanish	60
Republican Romans
Sikh/Afghan Wars	Command stand 8 Irregulars	15 40
1860s British IF			Union rebasing	0
1880s, the Sudan	Buildings	15	18 British	90
Walmington/Sealion etc	6 landing craft	30	3 Civvies 6 zombies Bandstand	15 30 2
Waterloo
WW2 Desert	3 trucks	30	15 Italians	65
Zulu War	NNI Frontier Horse Natal Carbineers	30 60 50	Pearson & Chelmsford 4 foot	25 20
TOTAL		447		477

From NoelW: Another Mixed Bag

This week I thought I wouldn’t get much painting done as I’ve spent most of my time rebasing a Union army. When my wife and I were courting (that’s right, in the nineteenth century) one of the things we did together was wargame. Although our armies had quite a few imaginative flourishes, they were essentially Airfix Union and Confederate. In our current lockdown state, we were reminded of this and she has suggested a revival game, though our armies are no longer Airfix. Mainly Wargames Foundry, in fact.

As they’ve not been out of the box for a dozen years, they needed reorganising so we can use Black Powder. Hers first. So I’ve been sitting out in the sunlight, prising figures from various old cardboard stands and creating units of 6 bases on 50mm square mdf.

I’ve been standardising on 50mm for several reasons. I’ve been using it for cavalry for some time, with 40mm for infantry. So three cavalry bases are almost the same length as four infantry: 150mm to 160mm. Using two ranks of foot to a base gives me normal foot units of 16 figs or 6 cavalry in one rank. That’s been my basic approach for some years. However, in the last three years, I’ve been building most new armies as individual figures on single bases, to make their use for skirmish games, sieges and rough terrain easier. In mass battles I put them in sabots, generally four figures per sabot. These sabots have to be 50mm square. 

As I rather like lots of variety in my forces, I’ve some armies built of units of 12 individual figures in those sabots, so still the 150mm frontage. Small units are not everyone’s cup of tea, but they’re (obviously) quicker to paint, meaning more scope for variety in the army as a whole, and they can be brigaded together into “brigades” of 24 figs, if I want that. My wife’s Union army is basically units of 24 fig foot and 12 figure cavalry, now on 50mm bases to fit that general pattern.

So here’s the rebasing for this week, about two thirds of her army. The sharp-eyed amongst you will see that the rearmost unit and general are Confederate. I sneaked those in! 

No points for the rebasing, of course, but I’m going to count them off against my British Intervention Force target, as these forces will form the opponents for the BIF who're on the way to support my Confederates.

But I also have managed to find time to finish some of the painting I began the four weeks ago. Two armies: the Zulu War, which is a current particular fascination, and Afghans which, though strictly for the North West Frontier, I’m including as irregulars in my Sikh Wars project.

For the Zulu Wars, I’ve four infantry that I found skulking in the back of a drawer, a mix of manufacturers:

three mounted Frontier Light Horse

and six dismounted

And five Natal Carbineers scouting the plains of Zululand:

These are all Perry figures.

The Afghans are also designed by the Perrys, some from their current range, some from their Wargames Foundry Afghan and Sikh sculpts. Firstly, 8 irregular infantry:

And finally a command stand, which I’m particularly pleased with:

For the imaginary scoreboard, that’s 9 cavalry and 19 foot, so 185 points, all of which, Stuart, will add to our little Bolt Action side challenge, to give me a current total of 275 points. I'm closing in on you!

However, I’m slipping behind my overall plan, having filled only 13 of the 16 slots I should’ve completed by now.

Project	New Task	‘Points’	Old Task	‘Points’
Agincourt
AWI	Farmstead	3
Black Seas (1/700th)
British in Egypt: 1801			Generals de Rolls’ regiment	30 60
Cape Wars	12 infantry	60
Carthaginians
Crusades	Command group	20
ECW
French in Egypt: 1801
Frostgrave/fantasy	3 Treemen	24	Frankie	5
Italian Wars
Lord of the Rings
Minden (15mm)
Ottoman
Peninsular War			12 Spanish	60
Republican Romans
Sikh/Afghan Wars	Command stand 8 Irregulars	15 40
1860s British IF/ACW			Union rebasing	0
1880s, the Sudan	Buildings	15
Walmington/Sealion			3 Civvies 6 zombies Bandstand	15 30 2
Waterloo
WW2 Desert
Zulu War	NNI Frontier Horse Natal Carbineers	30 60 50	Pearson & Chelmsford 4 foot	25 20
TOTAL		317		247