The action that has been outlined here over the last couple of days has been played out on the tabletop.

I managed to squeeze a 28mm game into a 4' x 3½' space, which I know will interest some readers who share space constraints.

I really was in two minds whether to use my own rules for this or whether to revert to Hail Caesar. In the end, I went with my own rules and they did a better than expected job, for me at least, and it has encouraged me to crack on with them and get them into printable form - so yes, more WotR games while these rules develop. 

I should like to be painting more WotR unit bases and the figures have been patiently waiting in the queue for some time, but unfortunately the Napoleonics have taken pole position on the painting corks for the presently running painting challenge and I am loathe to break my painting commitment to that particular project while the Austrians catch up to the French in numbers, but I think by April a change of painting subject will be happily embraced!

Anyway, for anyone wanting to see how the figure game played out, here is a link to the Blog Report.

LINK:

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-ambush-of-fauconberg.html

Following the boardgame mentioned in the last post, the 28's went onto the table to replicate Fauconberg's advance into Yorkshire. (Above photo - Somerset, the army commander for the Lancastrian army).

Play is being supported by my own (decades old) rules and I have started a first draft of updating them, calling them 'Men of Piggy Longton'. 

There is enough structure from the existing set to get a game up and running and it is going well. There are the little scribbled notes that I am adding to tweak things as play reveals not only weaknesses, but also some new ways of dealing with old problems.

One of the things added from this session is an 'Out of Arrows Phase' to represent the exhaustion of arrow supply. It puts a bit of a cap on archer excess and as with real battles, there will come a point where the archery naturally gives way to the hand to hand fighting.

One done, I will have a go at doing an AAR on the fighting.

Our face-to-face game tonight was MMP's Warriors of England game, covering the Wars of the Roses. A nice derivative of their Warriors of God game from the 100 Years War campaigns.

It is all about control of the regions by the two factions (Yorkist / Lancastrian). As the game played, it struck me that this would be an easy alternative to something like 'King Maker' as a campaign system to generate actions and scenarios for the figures table.

Anyway, one such action occurred as the Yorkist, William Neville (Fauconberg) moved into Yorkshire to reclaim it, but was ambushed by Edmund Beaufort (Somerset), who had been joined by Humphrey Stafford (Stafford of Southwick) and Edmund Tudor (Earl of Richmond).

Fauconberg was compelled to fight against a larger force, with nowhere to retreat to as the surrounding area was now hostile.

In the game, Fauconberg could fight with 3D6 needing 4, 5, or 6 for hits, while Somerset got 5D6 but needed 6's to hit. Somerset also have a reserve to feed into the line and so managed to hold a superiority in numbers, even whilst taking heavy losses.

Fauconberg was eventually overwhelmed and died on the field, though it was a costly victory for the Lancastrians.

In re-creating this for the tabletop, the immediate takeaway in terms of game dynamics is that the Yorkists are outnumbered by at least 5:3, but that their military capability was much better than the Lancastrian force. A typical Quality vs Quantity arrangement.

I shall start to knock something together that takes account of all of this and get the lovely 28mm Wars of the Roses figures to the table.

Picked this up at Waterstones book store (UK) yesterday. ‘Operation Zitadelle 1943’ by Mark Healy, published by The History Press. It is a 150-page softback book in a small A5 format with plenty of photographs (on non-glossy paper). Orders of battle are given as are some details of involved tank types etc.

First impression is that it is similar to an Osprey book in nature (but no colour) and I seem to recall that in the early days of the Osprey Campaign series, Mark Healy did a Kursk book and if that is right (edit - I have just checked and it is …. Published 1992), this will be of similar content. 

The edition I have in my hands was published in 2023 and first published in 2012 by Spellmount, in their ‘Battle Story’ series, but it doesn’t suggest that the new edition is an update, so I assume it to be a straight reprint.

I mention this because in June 2023, Osprey published a title called The Panzers of Prokhorovka: The Myth of Hitler’s Greatest Armoured Defeat, by Dr. Ben Wheatley. That book is based upon a historical revision, suggesting the action was actually at a smaller scale with fewer losses in German tanks than the traditional telling gives. The book accepts it was a decisive German defeat, but with lower German losses, whilst being a costly Soviet victory. I have not read the book and so cannot comment on to what degree it impacts on earlier writings.

As an aside, in 2014, Osprey released a new ‘Campaign series’ title, replacing their 1992 book, called Kursk 1943 and this was actually presented in two volumes, one covering the Northern Front and the other the Southern Front, so one assumes twice the detail as the initial Campaign title and in any case, these two volumes were authored by Robert Forczyk, not Mark Healy.

Anyway, bottom line, this particular title harks back to 2012, Healy seems well versed with the subject having been a previous Osprey author and of course everything written before 2023, is made without inference to the evidence described in Panzers of Prokhorovka …… if indeed that matters and whether Healy would have agreed with that said revisionism.

It was the German main effort on the eastern front that summer and huge resources had been ploughed into it, so I am happy with the traditional telling, until such time as I read Dr. Wheatley’s book and judge its impact.

As an aside (again!), my mind is drawn to the similarity of fact that all the modern stuff written about the battle of Bosworth (1485) before the site of that battle was recently ‘re-located’, does so without that new perspective of re-location. 

In this book, I will be retreading old and familiar ground, but I was aware of this at the time of buying and found it a compelling buy anyway!

I have entered my first submission to the Analogue Hobby Painting Challenge, which runs over the winter period and is intended to encourage gamers to get some of their stash painted.

I am using the challenge to create a painting discipline to get my Napoleonic 28mm Austrian army to a strength that will match the French collection.

These are 20 x 28mm Perry plastic Austrian Infantry worth 100 points out of the 400 points that I have pledged.

I found them a bit hard going and am still not fully happy with them - it is the whites that cause me the problem. You would think it should be easy!

I deviated this time by using GW Corex White as my pre-highlight layer and I feel it is just too greyish for the job. Even after these were based (i.e. done) I went back in with GW Scar White, for another go at highlighting.

Anyway, with lesson learned, I already have the next unit on the painting corks and I am returning to my previous use of Contrast Apothecary White as the pre-highlight coat. It offers a much lighter bluish white that is easier to highlight with my Vallejo White (Blanco).

The new unit should see an outing on the table soon - hopefully it will reward me for the extra work and perform well!

It has been on my mind to build a horse & musket Kriegsspiel-based set using a hexed surface and wooden blocks.

I am reminded of something I did years ago, building up games with 2mm figure blocks (from Irregular Miniatures) on an 18" x 18" board. The game had a clock involved and unit formations got orders. You could change orders, but it would depend upon the game clock when the new orders would be implemented and it became the (interesting) case that sometimes it was better to leave a unit with a mostly redundant order which it could complete, rather than give a new order, which would not be executed in time.

Also a formation (say brigade) was made up by a number of blocks and the blocks were removed as casualties, fatigue, loss of cohesion etc. crept in. So a lot of the game is visually managed, rather than having rosters etc.

I would fancy doing this on a hexed surface, as I see this more boardgamey than tabletop in the same way that Commands & Colors does similar.

Anyway, this is a slow burn project. I saw the parts a few weeks ago on the high street (UK) and after prolonged thinking! I pounced on them today.

The Jenga type blocks (these are mini ones, just 50mm wide) will do for infantry and cavalry. The letter tiles can be artillery or commanders. It would be nice to get a trial game going.

A quick hello and thank you for those that pass through here and read these posts.

The latest Wargames Illustrated magazine has started to filter through to the shelves in the high street (UK) after the Christmas lag.

Quite a nice read, the stand out things are free cut out 28mm paper figures (the same paper as the magazine) for the Assasin and Templars system that the mag gave free rules for in the last issue. The ones in the mag are paper, if I used them (which I won't), I would wrap them onto a stiffer card - there is also a download option for self printing. 

There is an article called 'The case for small-scale wargaming' and the author is using Epic American revolution as his proving ground, with a scenario for the Battle of Princeton - looks nice but that ship has sailed for me.

Elsewhere in the mag, the Author of the new Midguard rules highlights the soon to be released 10mm Azincourt plastic armies from Wargames Atlantic, so a bit of a small scale theme going on ...... in a mag that other than that is 28mm focussed :-)

There is a Q&A discussion article between the mag and  Simon Miller (he of the square grid) concerning his next set of rules 'Lust for Glory' (1650 - 1780) and the article is illustrated with his semi-flats that he took to the recent Partizan show.

My first set of figures for the Analogue Painting Challenge are progressing. They are 20 x 28mm Napoleonic Austrians. I am not particularly happy with the white uniforms, but I am getting fed up with them, so onto bases they will soon go!

I am 'deep thinking' about which way to jump with my Napoleonic boardgames in terms of which series to put my shoulder to ..... there is a bit of choice, not helped by the announcement that Revolution Games may be doing a series for Napoleonics that is similar to their ACW Blind Swords series - a game that embraces chaos of war and going by Revolution Game's track record, it would be a well supported series - do I stop spend and wait to see what that looks like?

Operational Studies Group (OSG) are about to re-release two of their previously out of print titles, so I would like to make my mind up before cash starts being spent.

There is certainly plenty in the pipeline for playing in the first quarter, with there being 4 boardgame systems that I want to break into and to do a bit more work with On Bloody Ground and Napoleon's Soldiers as I aim to settle on figure rules for the Wars of Roses and napoleonic collections.

For my Christmas to New Year game, I settled for an Old School Tactical (OST) scenario from the Western Front ‘44 / ‘45 module and the Scenario - The Beast from Argentan, which is 12 turns long and covers a typical action from the period of fighting for the Falaise Gap, where the allies were about to pocket two German armies and those German formations closest to the town of Falaise were attempting to break out before the trap snapped shut!

There is quite a lot going on in the scenario, but basically both sides enter the board and it is the American task to set up blocking positions to stop the German infantry units pushing through them and escaping off the board edge.

‘The Beast’ we can assume is the lone Tiger II that has joined the German exodus. Will it be a match for the 7 armoured vehicles that the Americans have to hand?

I have now played the game over a couple of days and put a write up on the BoardGameGeek forum. It can be accessed via this link;

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3634710/the-beast-of-argentan-replay

While in a remainder bookshop today (UK), I grabbed these two.

While a huge fan of the WWII topic, the Desert theatre is at my lower end of interest. However, how often do you see a wargame-related book being sold on the high street, so it was a compulsive and impulsive buy. Not bad £5 for a £13 book that will be read cover-to-cover. I have had his 1066 book which I enjoyed.

In contrast, of significant interest is the Blitzkrieg book which covers both the France '40 and Poland '39 campaigns - both theatres are the next game subjects to be released in my favoured Old School Tactical (OST) boardgame system, so this will be great support material.

Further, it is an Osprey title, so a very easy read with a good number of photographs and maps. Another good buy, £10 for a book listed at £30.

This wargaming thing is good!

Good Morning and best Christmas wishes to all who pass by.

I have put the link to my Christmas Newsletter up on the Battlefields & Warrior Blog.

This year it comes in at 30 pages and is a mix of figure and boardgaming content, plus some observational stuff, so if you find yourself with a bit of spare time and fancy some wargaming content, then please head over there and have a mooch (link below) - I hope something there will interest you.

Finally, a thought goes out to all those, who for whatever reasons will not be enjoying the day.

Link;

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2025/12/christmas-2025-newsletter-post.html

The Analogue Hobby Painting Challenge

Oh dear!  - work to be done :-) The day has arrived! The 16th Challenge starts today and runs for 3 months until the 21st March next year.

It is run by some very kind people, who give freely of their time to organise things and keep the submissions process running smoothly.

Photo ( thanks clipart)

Yesterday I received my permissions to post on the TAHPC blog. The idea is once I have painted a group, I take at least 3 pics and write some blurb and do a draft blogger post on their site.

Someone then checks it over, awards points and hits the publish button.

It is NOT intended as a place to show off wondrous painting skills (thankfully), but rather, to encourage gamers to get painting part of their stash during the winter months.

I have set myself the goal of 400 points. That roughly equates to 80 x 28mm foot figures, which in turn, for me, equates to four 20-man units. I might normally do 60 in that time, so this is a bit of a stretch goal … which is what they suggest to do.

The Challenge comes at a time when I need to expand my Napoleonic Austrians, to get the numbers of the ‘Pocket Army’ up to something a bit more flexible. Four new units will make a big difference to the level of game that I can play.

A first submission must be made by 19th January …. Otherwise you are relieved of your place at the table!

Looking at the instructions that I have been sent, it appears I am one of 96 who have committed to picking up their brushes for the challenge.

As units get done, I will add a quick post here to show progress, before they march off to barracks.

Again, thanks to Curt and his friends who give up their time to allow all of this to happen.

Some will know that each year I do a lengthy wargaming Christmas Blog post on Christmas Day. It’s just a gentle ramble of absolute no importance, covering both boardgame and figure game related things.

It’s intention is not meant to be a self absorbing post. Rather it is made in recognition of gamers who for one reason or another are not doing Christmas this year, but who might like the distraction of some wargaming material on what is otherwise one of the quietest days of the year on the internet. There should be enough there to get through  a coffee …. or two!

At 0700 hours GMT on Christmas Morning, I add a post here that has the necessary link with the 2025 Newsletter, which will be in the form of a downloadable PDF file from my DropBox account. Consider it kindly, many hours of work sit behind it.