For the UK, 6th April is the beginning of the tax year. Starting last year, Inland Revenue allowed people to continue selling on platforms like E-Bay and Etsy freely, but anything that accrued sales over £1000 would be subject to tax and the seller would be sent self-assessment forms from the tax people.

The various platforms are now obliged to submit client sales figures to the Inland Revenue and that of course will include PayPal receipts. I can’t actually work out how much of selling your old things like clothes or say a loft clearance can avoid the tax, however someone like me, who only sells wargame-related things, can easily look like a trader and my understanding is that the ceiling will kick in straight away.

The past few weeks have been a bit costly with various pre-orders and purchases, so it is nice to have reached a new tax year, with my allowance zeroed and seeing something going out of the collection to bring some funds in (above parcel).

The collection is a bit of a living thing with regular tweaks and nudges to keep it current with whatever fad I am going through, but playability, streamlining and an eye to storage are generally constant themes and now, increasingly, persistent back and leg pain problems are also taking their part in tailoring what sits on the shelves.

Two mapper-type board games become an easy target, as not only do they generally require a lot of bending and stretching across, but by their nature (bigger), they take longer to play, adding to the amount of time spent bending and stretching etc.

I generally sit at the dining table to play 1 mapper and smaller boardgames, while figures and larger boardgames are taken to a higher table that is 40” off the floor, at which I stand and it is the prolonged standing that exacerbates my back and leg pain. So bringing more games back to the dining table makes sense and the games at the other table need to be shorter games for less standing.

I was recently having correspondence with another gamer regarding this sort of thing (Hi S) and he felt that the smaller affairs such as Neil Thomas-sized games are looking increasingly attractive compared to trying to re-create full battle games. I entirely concur. I have plenty of boardgames that can cover the ‘big battle’ and so I am happy for my figures to be doing something different and I seem to favour the divisional-sized game and lower for them.

Why mention this? Well for a while, I have been dithering about getting a smaller scale army for smaller games to take to the dining table (for a 4’ x 2’ mat). I like the idea of the Epic figures, where you get lots of ‘heads’ in the unit, but I don’t like their formulaic method of ranking up in shoulder-to-shoulder strips, where it looks like each figure is welded to their neighbour …. So I have ordered some Pendraken 10mm, just enough to do an infantry unit, a cavalry unit and a gun battery, so that I can look at the practicality and result of basing the figures up tight, but lose that ‘welded’ look.

I want to get off the treadmill of painting, so buying into yet another project has me wary, but I plan to base them, then spray black primer, a quick light dry brush around the outer facings and exposed areas, then just dabbing on colours where the brush can quickly reach, which will mostly be on the front of the unit and rear of the unit, everything else stays black.

It will be a bit rough and ready and I know, initially at least, I will not be happy with that, but it might be time to get over it and it is radical enough (for me) to make a break on how I do stuff. The figures have been dispatched, but already, as I paint a group of 28mm Austrian Jägers, I am cooling on the idea - we shall see. Also I really don’t want to get the smaller lads and end up with project creep with more units and bigger games, that would totally defeat the purpose.

As for the boardgames, I thought that I had pretty much nailed that, but it too has an appointment with Mr. Change!

Anyway the point is that my collection is frequently in a state of flux and that as things leave the collection, this site regularly gets a little weeding, that totally strips out the stuff that has gone, so that the content stays relevant to what is actually going on and keeps me true.

The size of both figure and boardgame collections are kept quite tight and concise, so things generally have to earn their place to stay and by that I mean have a reasonable prospect of getting to the table. A few things might get kept just for the pleasure of owning them, but with storage at a premium, not many things will find ‘favours’ granted to them :-)

Anyway, a word to the wise, if you are planning to clear out the collection, in the UK, it might be better to space this over a number of years than doing it in one go, if the tax implication bothers you.

A couple of posts ago, I described an AI attempt at creating a Napoleonic wargame scenario.

It looked interesting enough to have ago, so today I did a run through. Would it work? Would it be balanced, I had my doubts, but there was enough there to intrigue.

The instruction to the AI was to create a Napoleonic French attack against an Austrian held farmhouse. It called the generated scenario ‘The Kaiser’s Kitchen Garden - 1809. It gave me general instructions, an order of battle and what it called a map, but which looked like a photo reconstruction of a gaming table.

I have put observations and replay notes up on the Battlefields & Warriors Blog. Link

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/04/playing-ai-game-napoleonic.html

A second playing of the Blue & Gray Deluxe scenario and getting a different outcome.

Casualties were significantly higher than in the first game for the Union, losing 81 strength points compared to the Confederates losing just 30. Also, the Confederates fully held all four hexes of Sharpsburg at the end of play, worth an extra 15 points, so when all is added up, we come out with a Confederate Decisive Victory.

Some highlights;

From the outset, the Union took heavy casualties. In the photo, the Union have pushed over the Middle Bridge rather successfully, but a counter-attack cut into their ranks and the Union (strength 7) unit in the photo is about to be removed from play from getting a ‘Defender Retreat’ order and not being able to comply due to being cut off.

The Sunken Lane fell to the Union, but Dunker’s Chapel didn’t.

The Union got over Burnside Bridge and broke through the Confederate line, for a short time threatening the Ferry Crossing over Antietam Creek, which could have seen the whole Confederate army trapped and captured… but the Union just didn’t have enough strength on hand and despite getting close, their attack fizzled out.

Finally, in the last turn (like in the last game), the Union threatened to take one of the four hexes of Sharpsburg. There was essentially a 50/50 chance of the Union winning the attack, but they were repulsed by the town’s defenders and then defeated in detail by A.P. Hill’s Division counter-attacking from outside the town.

Again, we are in the region of a 25-minute set-up and a 2-hour play time, giving a fun and engaging game. The scenario is looking a little uphill for the Union, but there is a compulsion to keep on trying :-)

The Blue & Gray boardgame mentioned a few days ago has started to see some table time.

First up is the Antietam scenario and I though it played rather well, making for an engaging game.

I have put an AAR up on the Battlefields & Warriors Blog, link below, which has a closer look at turn 1 and then just gives an overview of the rest of the game.

As a starting experience, it certainly makes me keen to a) replay Antietam with some of the optional rules and b) to get the other scenarios to the table.

Just good old fun.

LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/03/antietam.html

I asked Google's 'Gemini' software to create a scenario for Napoleonic French forces attacking Austrian forces located in a farmhouse. I also asked for a tabletop map to support the scenario ....... and this is what it gave me.

Amazing on first inspection, but it raised the question in my mind as to how much of that image was created / mashed-up by the software and how much of it was an actual lift from someone's table.

Anyway, I have written a piece about it over on the Battlefields & Warriors Blog if this sort of thing interests you.

LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/03/thinking-aloud-ai.html

I popped into my Waterstones bookshop (UK) today for a quick mooch, not expecting to find anything new, but there on the Osprey Publishing stand, somewhat out of place, was a book in paperback published by Helion.

The Wars of the Roses by David Grummitt (£30) is going to eventually become a three-volume series that covers the whole of the period and really it is the last volume covering Bosworth that will interest me most ...... but I do like a series!

This book has been on my radar since 7th Son did a review of it on his YouTube channel, but I thought I would wait and pick it up at a wargame show as a way of channeling funds into the show, but seeing it in front of me and hoping to encourage Waterstones to stock more Helion titles, I bought it.

This book (The Triumph of York) covers 1455 through to 1461, which will take us up to the Battle of Towton.

The author has gone into meticulous detail of the available sources, testing the credibility of each and that gives a fresh look at the battles, Towton being the one that particularly interests me here because the nature of the battle does much for wargamers to understand how armies of the period fought in relation to separating archers out from the melee troops and the command structures used.

I feel that if you are writing wargame rules for the period, being able to emulate Towton is an important aspect of getting the right feel, at one end of the spectrum (large battle).

I generally approach revisionist text with some caution, but here I feel that the combined level of detail, scrutiny of sources and battle/campaign narrative make this a worthwhile addition to my shelves and I look forward to a) delving into this b) expanding my Wars of the Roses armies in the summer and getting more games with them to the table. Hopefully the book will be inspirational in that regard.

For the 16th year, the painting challenge has run its course, again over the three months of winter. The idea being that you sign up and commit to painting a certain number of points worth of figures and that by having a target, you are encouraged to paint and add to your collection over the winter.

Almost 90 people signed up. You paint whatever you choose, post it on the Challenge blog and then others will comment and you will pick up your points.

I signed up for 400 points, which due to a lapse mid way through, became a bit if a stretch, but in the end I got there and here are the rewards of that effort.

3 x Austrian Infantry Battalions (from 9th, 35th and 38th Infantry Regiments), 1 x Austrian Artillery Battery, 1 x Austrian Commander (Prince Liechtenstein), 2 x Austrian Colonels and to get me my final 10 points, I also painted up a couple of 28mm Soviet soldiers, just to see whether this is something that I want to do in the future for the Rapid Fire Rules (oops, just noticed that they did not make it into the photo - there is however a close up on the 'Painting Desk' page - yellow button on the left).

Seeing them all together makes me really pleased that I did this. My Napoleonic French forces had been steaming ahead and the Austrians needed to do a bit of catching up - and now they mostly have.

Thank you to Dallas, Curt and the rest of the team behind the Analogue Hobby Painting Challenge for hosting the Challenge and so kindly giving up their time and to all those fellow hobbyists who commented on the Challenge blog, supporting the various entries. 

The latest World War II magazine from Decision Games has arrived on UK shores (Second Chance Games) and for me, this is a very special issue.

The subject covers the German attempt at relieving the Stalingrad Pocket, which of itself is a really interesting action, but more importantly (to me), it uses the series rules from Decision Games’ Battles in the East system.

To date, there are four volumes in BitE, each has two battles, all are in print and initially this was meant to stop at that. The artwork on the side of each box is a ¼ slice of a well known photograph of a Soviet soldier in action, so that when the four boxes are stored end up on a shelf, the box edges of the four volumes mate to present the full photograph.

However, the series has proven quite popular and so the designer is working on a fifth volume and now we have Decision Games adding this new single title in the form of Winterstorm.

The number of units looks to be lower than the scenarios from the boxed games, so I am hopeful that here at least is a scenario that can fit in with our face-to-face sessions. In every other regard, other than the map being paper (rather than mounted) it perfectly matches the series games.

Being a magazine, we are also graced with a rather nice article on the operation itself.

I suspect, as with some other issues of the magazine, that this will fly off the shelf and quickly reach collector status, so if this is on your radar, pounce now! 

EDIT - wow, that was fast, just checked in with Second Chance Games and they are sold out already!

This game hit UK shores (Second Chance Games) some time ago and while I fancied a low complexity series of ACW games, I felt that this was perhaps a bit too simple and that the lack of command and control would allow units to be continually doing fancy footwork and moving outside of their Corps area of operations to get those perfect attack odds etc.

Anyway, the game itself is beautifully presented (the clue being in the Deluxe Edition). It is a collection of eight battles that the hobby was first introduced to in 1975 in the form of two quad games, Blue & Gray vol I (Antietam, Cemetery Hill, Chickamauga, Shiloh), to be later followed by Blue & Gray vol II (The Battle of the Wilderness, Chattanooga, Fredericksburg, Hooker & Lee - which covers Chancellorsville).

I have done a bit of an ‘initial look’ post over on the Battlefields & Warriors Blog, so if you fancy that, here is the LINK.

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/03/blue-gray-deluxe-boardgame.html

1944 - Battle of the Bulge from Worthington Publishing went onto the table last night for a face-to-face game.

It is a very playable system and last night's game moved along swimmingly.

At the start of play, rather than simply playing the campaign game (10 turns), the German player can choose one of four objective cards, each dealing with 'a plan' with different objectives.

As the German player I went with 'von Rundstedt Case Martin' plan, which was a bit less ambitious than the actual 'Watch on the Rhine' plan and so you are under tighter time scales (6 turns) to get those objectives captured.

Anyway, I got to around halfway to my objective goals, primarily failing to also take Bastogne, Verviers and Marche.

I did have a chance on turn 2 of a major breakout and exiting the board with a supplied unit for a 'sudden death' win, but my die rolling deserted me and the small window of chance was quickly closed down ..... forever!

The game uses special dice, with infantry and armour symbols, plus blanks and you are looking at rolling the symbols to score hits, resulting in step losses to the enemy.

Some units, particularly the armour have 4 steps (represented by two counters) and they can be hard to shift.

Anyway, the system has not failed yet to give a good clean competative game and last night was no exception.

I have opened a new yellow tab (halfway down the left of the screen) that will start to highlight some map sections / artwork from boardgame maps.

Over time it will build to 20 images (my maximum allowance per page) and then slowly start to rotate out as new things come into the collection.

As with all images on this site, clicking on one should give you a slide presentation of all images on that page.