Over the Christmas period I set about doing three Union regiments of dismounted cavalry for the Epic ACW project.

I have used the three Union cavalry sprues from the Warlord Games  Gettysburg set, which is meant to give a single regiment, but the way I have decided to base these means that I will get three regiments, each composed of just two bases. 

One base has a horse holder element with a couple of horses and a couple of cavalrymen. The other base has five cavalrymen on foot, spread out in skirmisher order.

Each base is 55mm x 30mm in MDF, which will also be the size used when basing up the mounted troops. 

The deeper base allows for some extra tufts just to emphasise the sense of a skirmishing unit operating in rough ground. Their first deployment will be in the McPhersons Ridge scenario, where they ambushed from amongst tall grasses, so they should be a good fit for that.

A quick thanks to everyone who pops in here from time to time and reads some of this stuff.

As 2024 crosses into 2025, a good level of both boardgaming and figure gaming from last year, should continue into 2025, though with some evolution.

Main themes of 2024

Painting figures was a dominant activity over 2024 and in truth, has been at the cost of some gaming, but I know that if the discipline of regular painting is lost, then long periods of not painting at all will likely follow. For 2025, I am going to set a pace of trying to paint daily, which in reality will be 4 - 5 days a week, but at each session, just typically work on laying down two to three colours or do 40 minutes, whichever is the longer. I have been doing this over the last three months and found it a practical way to remain steadily productive. Just staring at the unpainted stash is not going to get anywhere!

The latter part of the year had me working on my 1066 board games that are to be re-printed. I see the early part of 2025 needing some effort to get this project over the line and then post publication, I will need to visit a couple of boardgames forums on a daily basis, looking out for any gamer questions cropping up.

2024 felt a little odd in terms of the dreaded spend and consumerism. The change in direction of some of the collection, both boardgames and figures, did cost quite a bit as new stuff was bought, but this was significantly offset by a goodly amount of selling. I expect some of that to happen in 2025, but on a much smaller scale, with selling perhaps outstripping buying, not necessarily in monetary terms, as I tend to price low to make sure things shift, but rather in clearing out in general, making space and streamlining.

This will likely leave me with a slightly smaller subject range, but with the advantage that each of those subjects becomes more rewarding and familiar as I spend more time with them.

The past year has seen the culmination of a drive that started some five years ago in shifting to series based boardgames and a much reduced collection of figure rules. But I know there is still a bit of scope to tighten that even more in 2025.

I have managed to get the size of boardgame collection down to the smallest that I can ever recall, but what I am left with is the stuff that I really want to spend time with. 

Whether that reduction in subject / game diversity impacts upon the interest and value of this site  is something that both you and I shall have to decide for ourselves. 

2024 also saw a similar slimming down with the terrain collection, which has always been a spaced hogger. A heavy culling, left a smaller collection of what might be thought of as the essentials and of course some of this has involved terrain switching to a smaller scale.

Most of this smaller stuff fits nicely into plastic document boxes that are 1” or 2’ deep, so stacking on shelves has become very efficient and much more controlled.

In the summer the 28mm ACW collection was sold off, as was the large 1/72 (20mm) WWII collection. The intention has been to replace both in a smaller scale, but while that happens, those periods feel very absent from the gaming table.

What to be played in 2025

I expect the year to generally have a solid foundation of old favourites, but that line-up will be refreshed by changes within the collection and a determination to get some unplayed stuff to the table.

The 2024 Christmas Newsletter, has a page that listed games that despite good intentions, have not made the table. The list actually helpfully highlights in one place, where some extra gaming energy can be spent this year by breaking into those games. Several of these games are nostalgia games, reprints of oldies but goodies, so they have already earned a place in the timetable. Perhaps I should think of it as a bucket list of games to play.

The Epic ACW have started coming off the painting sticks in usable numbers and so can fill the void left by the 28mm ACW. Likewise the 10mm / 12mm WWII should start to see company level games reach the table later in the year.

A main theme that I want see done is the battle of Trebbia from the Punic Wars. The deluxe SPQR reprint from GMT has an excellent boardgame scenario from the Great Battles of History series. In addition, I have the Epic Hannibal set from Warlord Games. it is unpainted and will likely remain so through 2025, but I have already put the Trebbia order of battle on temporary bases and so will get that to the table in their unpainted state, as much to settle on what rules to use (likely Hail Caesar) than anything else.

My New Year game is on the table now. It is the Airborne module from the Old School Tactical system, a boardgame playing two linked scenarios dealing with the 1944 para drop at Sainte-Mére-Èglise. Scenario 1 has the transports flying over the board, throwing out sticks of paratroopers, that end up scattered on and around the town. They need to reorganise and press on to attack the town. In the linked second scenario, everything that survived scenario 1 stays on the board. The Americans ‘might’ get some stragglers arriving as reinforcements, but their task is to survive the waves of German counter-attacks arriving in the part II scenario - very enjoyable so far.

Media footprint

The Christmas Newsletter was a fairly big chunk of work and particularly in late November / December, it ate into a lot of spare time. I like the final result, but it has been a lesson or at least a reminder about getting drawn in to spending too much time at the screen at the cost of other things including game related activity, especially figure painting productivity and as such, the experience of doing the Newsletter has put the brakes on me wanting to restart the Battlefields & Warrior blog any time soon, due to the obvious ‘time sink’ nature of it all.

Posting at my Commanders webspace, is proving enough for me for now and is perhaps where I should draw my ‘screen time’ line. In 2025, I will build up the various pages and categories shown in the menu list and then depending on how functional or useful that is, at the end of the year, a decision will be needed as to whether I want to take out another subscription of hosting fees to continue with the site.

I may still use the B&W blog for specific things such as running the Midway campaign that I am considering and perhaps supporting my ACW and Napoleonic rule sets from there with updates, AAR's and design notes and the likes - who knows!

Shows

Staple shows for me typically fall within a radius of 160 miles. I expect to make four in 2025. I might try and give a bit more thought about doing something different at each one. In my minds eye, I will make purchases at a local one and perhaps try to put a demo game on. At another I might get a table to sell and there is another that is very game orientated, so I might just immerse myself in some games - so perhaps a bit more of a targeted approach.

Changes going into 2025

A likely change to my gaming surrounds some increasing difficulties that I am having with back and consequently leg pain. My longer / bigger boardgames and all figure games are played on a temporary table at which I stand - hence the aggravation to back pain etc.

I like the immersive nature of bigger games, but not the time that they take to get played, so for 2025 I will attempt to pursue the ‘immersive’, but favour the more playable. 

This will mean keeping some games set up for two to three days, but just doing a series of short sessions over those days. The number of different games that I therefore get to the table will likely reduce. 

Also, to get that sort of ‘big story’ thing of the bigger games, running a campaign of smaller games or at least doing a series of linked games should become a thing.

Secondly, tweaking the collection to have some good playable shorter games is a must and I have some ideas in mind for that. Likewise designing figure scenarios that come in at around 6 or 7 turns would help, which also plays into my favour of liking to build the smaller ‘Pocket Armies’.

I have a few sets of the Epic (small 15’s) sets from Warlord Games and I think they will increasingly feature in the playing lists. Since everything I do has a theme of ‘wargaming in small spaces’, the Epic games may be something that interests those who only game in a domestic setting, with the space limitations that typically come with that.

The Epic might also allow for some smaller games at the dining table .... i.e. no standing!

However ….

Regardless of plans, ideas and potential posts, the main point is, this is a hobby, it is meant for relaxation and pleasure, so whatever the year gives, I will be grateful.

Best Wishes for the New Year and I hope your new project or game plan gets off to a flying start. Norm.

With the order of battle for the ‘Action at Mill Creek’ scenario now fully painted. The next part of the ACW Epic project will be to expand the orders of battle to meet the demands of the McPherson’s Ridge scenario - also taken from my own rules.

So as before, I will base up the ‘new recruits’ on temporary bases, so that the scenario can be played while the painting is still going on.

The first bit of good news is that the present Confederate OOB will work as it is for this scenario - so no additional building there. I need to update the scenario to have Heth present for the divisional command aspect of the rules.

The second bit of good news is that I bought five painted Union infantry stands from e-bay, so I will have a bit of a leg up on getting this started.

In total, The Union will require another artillery battery, three additional infantry regiments and three cavalry regiments.

The artillery is straight forward, it just needs a couple of gun bases painting to represent the battery. I will paint these on the sprue and then assemble the guns / crew on the supplied base.

The cavalry is a bit more involved as I will need to have each regiment represented by both mounted and dismounted bases, including some horse-holder stands. Each regiment will need two bases. I am not treating the regiments as small units because they effectively act as skirmishers once dismounted and they use the cavalry carbine with its high rate of fire. I also have the Union commander pack, which includes a figure of General Custer (a cavalry commander), so I can use him to make a bespoke base for Buford, the cavalry commander in the scenario.

The infantry can be done last because I already have 5 bases of e-bay pre-paints, which can be used as they are for now, with just one more base painted up and added. However, the pre-paints don’t match my own painting style, their uniform is darker (correct, but darker than I like), plus they have not had finer detail like their hair or cross belts painted - so I will feel compelled to work on them a bit if they are to match what I already have.

Also they have been mounted on 60mm MDF bases and I use 55mm across the army, not a big thing, but I will try to get a strip off one of the bases and see how that goes …. I’m not looking forward to that and if it is too destructive, then just keeping them at 60mm will be acceptable.

Terrain wise, the Part II project will need a ridge with trees on the forward slope and separate piece of high ground, two roads, an ‘under construction’ rail line, a stream (Willoughby Run), a farm house and some crop fields with fences. I already have all of these, though the rail track (N Gauge) is fully constructed, but will easily proxy. So that is another short cut to getting Part II to the table.

There isn’t really a timetable for this, as the over the next 3 - 4 months, I will be directing my painting time to getting another painting project off the ground. But if I make the temporary bases up now, it will frame what needs to be painted next in the ongoing ACW project.

Good Morning and Happy Christmas.

I have uploaded a Christmas Newsletter with 30 pages of wargame related material,

So if you have a moment or two on your hands and fancy a look, please use the link below to download the file.

Please note, I store the file on DropBox (thank you DropBox), but it seems they always ‘invite’ the viewer to sign up to DropBox to see the file - YOU DON’T NEED TO DO THAT.

Just click on the 'View in Browser' tab and you will get direct access to the file without having to do anything else.

I hope you find something of interest there.

Cheers Norm.

LINK

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/uq4kfa5xzojtfua8cy2n4/Christmas-2024.pdf?rlkey=qdlsxbaggxan1tcj1e5bddjwu&st=s8fgle6a&dl=0

A nice arrival in the post. I have been working on my home brew ACW rules and sent them off a few days ago to a print on demand firm for just a single copy, which has since arrived.

This is the third time that these have been reprinted after updating. I use them for games, write notes in the margins and once it looks worth getting a nice clean and updated copy done, I order a new booklet.

I have tried various formats each time, but I have settled on wire bound, as it is easier to use during play and I think more durable overall.

I have been experimenting with different paper weights and think that next time, I will go for a heavier paper.

The booklet is at A4 size and comes in at 40 pages of actual rules / scenarios etc. In this edition, I dragged a few photos in from the Epic scale to sit with the 28mm shots, so that the book visually looks a bit more scale agnostic.

While proudly browsing through them, within minutes I found a bit of a howler (I had got the rules name wrong in one part of the booklet) … Doh! So already the red pen has hit the new copy!

I shouldn’t have worried, I am getting the McPherson’s Ridge scenario ready for stage II of the ACW Epic project, the reference books have been out and now the scenario is covered in amendment notes!

A new set of play aids on heavy card are also hot off the press, courtesy of the home printer. These had been updated with just one amendment, but I also thought it worth adding the generic Random Events Table on the blank side of the second card.

My last game saw four minor edits go in, so they are still a work in progress, but getting there …. forever onwards!

Of note, the paper is bright white, not the blue tinge that you see here. I tried several settings on the camera, but it refused to find the correct white balance. 

On Friday evening we put the veteran Ligny scenario on the table from the good old Napoleon’s Last Battles quad.

The last time we played this was in the late 80’s. The quad basically allows you to fight each of the 100 Days battles (Quatre Bras, Ligny, Waterloo, Wavre) separately or you can combine the four maps and play a campaign game game - which we once did ....... when we had a spare full day on our hands :-)

This time there are a few differences. I am using the latest Decision Games’ version of the game. In this version you can use the raw original system or you can add in a number of variant rules that have been formalised in this volume to add a little more simulation.

The counter strengths of the original game have also been revisited, with some alternatives added to swap out with the original counters, in those cases that a good historical case can be made to adjust strengths.

There are also some terrain changes that stop chateaus becoming too fortress like. Across several terrain types, it  is now the attackers combat rating that gets modified rather than the defenders. Adding in a few extra rules like cavalry retreating before combat, improved combined arms and leaders, results in more game nuance.

The main thing that you can say about this game is that  it more themed than simulation based, but it just allows the players to have a really good game, in which manoeuvre and positional advantage is important without becomming bogged down by read rules. I think I only read the rules once.

We managed play the Ligny battle to a conclusion in under 3 hours, probably nearer to 2½ of actual game time.

In our game, the rather good defensive line held by the Prussians of villages and brooks felt like a tough nut for the French to crack. The French took the D’Erlon’s I Corps option and that arrived mid game onto the right shoulder of the Prussian defence. Overall, the Prussians were mauled rather than decisively destroyed. The French took St. Amand, but the Prussians kept hold of Ligny … both circled in the photograph.

In the end, it is the casualty toll that wins this game and the French were just not able to push the Prussian casualty rate high enough ….. plus the penalty for bringing in I Corps was that the casualty level needed to be pushed up beyond Demoralisation and into Disintegration status …. a tough ask!   I am going to play through the other battles while the rules are in my head.

Maintaining the traditions of the Battlefields & Warriors blog, at 0700 hours on Christmas Morning, I will upload a link to a Christmas 2024 Newsletter both here and at the B&W blog, which though shorter than previous years, is still expected to run for around 30 pages.

It is just a bit of christmas silliness from my e-pen, highlighting some elements of my wargaming year.

While it is a bit of self indulgence, the effort that I put into it is grounded in simply creating some wargame reading stuff for those not particularly doing Christmas, for any number of reasons and just wanting to get through the day.

Of course, everyone is invited to read, whenever it fits in with busy plans.

Kind Regards to one and all.

Norm.

For my generation, Michael Palin is of course noted for his Monty Python fame and more latterly as a travel writer. He tells a good story and is one of those people who can naturally hold an audience in a calm and relaxing way.

At some point in his early life, an aunt delivered a satchel of family documents and photographs to the Palin household. She was ‘that’ person common in many families who seem to be a walking Who’s Who of all the relatives past and present.

Michael spots a photograph of a man in army uniform and asks her who it is. He is told that it is his Great Uncle Harry, but the tone of the reply is somewhat dismissive of the man, as though he didn’t come to much and of course this does no more than intrigue Michael into wanting to know more.

In recent years, Michael Palin had the opportunity to dig deeply into his Great Uncle’s life, helped by diaries that Harry had kept during his adult life. His research is also helped by the fact that the things Harry did and the places he visited or worked in, tended to be bureaucratic in nature and so there was a paper trail to help fill in some of the gaps.

The fascinating aspect of the book is that Harry, at the heart of it all, was an ordinary man, not marked out for excellence and not the typical subject for a book, but Palin gives us a compelling read of the life story of his Great Uncle, writing in a warm and easy style.

We get to know Harry in a rather intimate way and I found myself liking him for his simple ‘man in the street’ character. Without giving too much away, the journey of the book gives us insight into the men of his age, who signed up eagerly to fight for King and Country, when Empire, class and social etiquette were institutionally embedded and people moved around within the empire, experiencing a different world outside of their birth place.

What I can give away, because the author does so on page one of the book, is that Harry dies on the battlefield in WW1.

So his is a short life, but the story ends up not just being about Harry, but being a commentary on the hundreds of thousands of men like him, who offered up to what ever their commanders asked of them, with a total sense of self sacrifice, resignation and doing ones duty! 

The numbers in single regiments and brigades that might die in one operation, one day, one action, are shocking and you are left sharing a feeling that as time marches on, surely Harry’s time will soon be up and that he will simply join a list of names on a memorial.

As you get near the end of the book, the anticipation builds as you wonder whether ‘this’ is ‘the day’ and you can’t help but hope that instead he gets one more day of getting letters from home, or receiving a postal order for a treat or popping to the local village and hanging out with the French girls for some friendly company and escaping the war for a few hours.

Overall, this is a very thoughtful book. The idea of just looking at one ordinary life and along the way telling the story of what happened to an entire generation makes for compelling reading. It struck me as a very easy read that at times is so gentle that it felt like it wasn’t particularly going anywhere as yesterday could feel like today and also tomorrow, but by the end of it, a very big story has been told - Recommended

I had a really enjoyable session yesterday as the completed ACW Epic project went onto the table, that is, I played the Action at Mill Creek scenario with fully painted forces - very satisfying.

I reverted to my own rules and during play, four more notes were scribbled into the margins. I also dragged in an additional photo taken during the game.

One minor change concerned the attributes for brigade commanders. During set-up a couple of commanders managed to get attributes, one got 'Lucky Commander', which allows the commander to make two re-rolls during play.

However, the rule allowed the commander to also force a re-roll on enemy dice and on reflection, I thought that this was too powerful, so the attribute has now been restrained to use with the commander's brigade in question.

It turns out he wasn't such a lucky commander after all, because on each of the two re-rolls, his new score was less than the original one!

Enough changes have happened now to justify getting another copy of the rules printed .... if only to give me some more clear margins to write stuff in :-)

Anyway, a most excellent way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I ummed and arred  about getting this, but eventually jumped and it arrived today, intended as a Christmas present. It is a two map boargame covering the battle of Eylau 1807.

my reasons for indecision were that while the game components were reportdly lovely, there were said to be problems with the rules that raised questions about playtesting and also of the strength of the language translation.

it looks like behind the scenes, some goodly work has seen improved versions of the rules, with us being at 1.4 now and 1.5 about to be released any time soon.

It is true, the components look lovely, though it is a biggie of a game being a 2 mapper and over 1100 counters, but there are some single map scenarios. A flick through the original rulebook that comes with the game looks like it is quite slick, so the full game might be all the more playable for that.

I have the Vae Victis Eylau, so a comparison might be interesting. I note the system uses strength markers, so that counters are slowly reduced as they suffer the rigours of battle.

This basically means enough troops have been painted to play out the ‘Action at Mill Creek’ scenario.

Checking my records, I was somewhat surprised that I started painting units for the ACW Project in July. I have been putting a lot of time into them, but realising that this has still taken some 5 months just to get a basic project up and running is a little disappointing and makes me realise that for other similar Epic projects I really do need a faster approach to painting these little fellows.

I don’t particularly want a slap-dash look - I have done that before and regretted it every time I played with those. figures, but I think I should be ignoring a lot more detail than has been the case.

One of the problems is that I take a lot of pictures of what I am doing and digital photography can be a cruel medium as it shows all the detail (or lack of) in sharp images, so I want stuff to look nice ….. but also, I just want some figures on the table to get as many games as possible.

To carry on building the ACW set, I will need to keep the same standards, so that the army looks like a cohesive whole, but new ‘from scratch’ projects will give an opportunity to be less demanding on standards, getting the troops to the table will need to be where the emphasis falls.

I do have some Napoleonic Epic strips with a commission painter, to help give a boost to a planned 2025 project, so of course, that will set its own standard that I will be obliged to match.

You will note that the box of Union troops on the left, have a movement tray at the front with 5 bases in them. These sit outside the project and are just something that I found on e-bay that I thought would give me a leg-up to get the expanded second stage of the project going.

Anyway …… there are now enough troops painted for a game and in that regard the initial goal of the project has been realised. The above photo shows the collection for the Mill Creek scenario and you may agree or not, but I think they look rather nice.

There are a total of 42 bases, so perhaps the time taken to paint them is not so bad after all!

The important thing is that I can take my reward by putting a pre-Christmas game on. The terrain and everything else needed has been gathered.

I have updated the ACW EPIC PROJECT page, 6th tab down on the left menu and this outlines the project from inception to today and discusses the rules that I am favouring ...... at the moment :-)

I have been looking at doing a small WWII campaign for either figures or the Old School Tactical boardgame.

I was re-visiting some posts from my Battlefields & Warriors blog (which is currently ‘resting’), when I came across an article that I think is worth re-highlighting here and given a fresh airing.

It concerns a WWII campaign system, together with fast play rules.

Matt Irsik runs a free downloadable e-zine called Warning Order. In issue 58 he covers the topic of campaign and provides a supporting set of fast play rules.

It is obviously designed as a figure game campaign, but I have a number of stand alone small maps from my Old School Tactical system (Squad Leader boards could serve the same function), which could be used to build the campaign structure shown in the photo here.

Anyway, my blog post uses his systems to put down a quick game to highlight the essential campaign mechanics. It also includes a link to Matt’s site, which has issue 58 listed for download.

Further, in my example, a pinboard is used to play the game, so anyone strapped for space or wanting to play multiple campaign tables at the same time, might find that an interesting part of the post.

Re-connecting with the article has me keen to get a proper campaign up and running - hopefully in the first quarter of next year.

If you like what you see at the Warning Order site, might I humbly suggest hitting the donate button. His site can accept a one off donation of any size of choosing. He puts a real ton of effort into keeping each issue going and sharing that work and I get the impression that although his audience is quite large, there are relatively few people supporting those efforts with a ‘thank you’.

In one of the following issues, he takes this campaign system to the 80’s, Cold War gone Hot type campaign for anyone preferring the modern period and his fast play rules for that are great for those of us wanting to easily navigate the complexities of the relationship between modern guns and vehicle armour.

As an aside, if you have something like a hospital visit due etc, downloading an issue or two onto your tablet is a great way to pass some time in a waiting room :-)

Link

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2022/07/campaigning-and-fast-play-wwii-tactical.html

Published by Academy Games, 878 is a board game covers the Viking incursions against England.

Each turn the Vikings get a new invasion force to attack the coast of England and over a number of turns the Viking player will hope that these incursions collectively will have imposed increasing control across the English landscape.

The picture on the left shows one of the cards played each year to create the invasion force. This card will see the Vikings get 11 Norsemen and 4 Berserkers under the leadership of Björn Ironside. This force is allowed to attack any coast - not just the North Sea, so he successfully assaulted Wessex (south) which meant that the english army now had Vikings in front of them and at their backdoor!.

The English force will attempt to maintain control of England by fighting the Vikings and reconquering territory that has fallen to the Vikings and they do this with nobles, the thegns and local militias.

In our game, the Vikings initially landed in Northumbria, with a plan to take the main centres of influence and that with Northumbria secure (i.e. nobody to their rear), start to press deeper down into England.

Despite a successful Viking opening, a swift english counter-attack saw them pushed into the very top part of Northumbria and an early total defeat looked likely.

However, the system is quite forgiving and in our game, events quickly flipped and the Vikings first dominated the north and then central England. In a desperate bid to change the balance of superiority before the game ended, the English player launched attacks against the weaker held towns and with two victories, brought the Victory Point tally just within their favour.

However, the Viking player had the final activation and likewise took two areas, regaining the advantage in territory held and calling a win.

The ending pushed towards something on the gamey side of things, but regardless, it was one of those games that played in a single session (2 hours)  and went down to the last attack, which are both things we favour in our face to face games.