Well having reached a dead stop on the Italian hill town I have progressed some other items.
Well its proved to be a good investment in the scenery season so far.
Not sure what else will get done.
Author: lorenzoseventh
Wargaming in an erratic style
Stokes at grand duchy of stollen reminded me of the battle of sittangbad with his recent post about wanting to solo game it.
The narrative battle in Charge or how to play wargames was the climax of the book which included a ruleset and some fabulous armies.
The battle was a rearguard action fought to enable valuable stores to be moved across a river via a pontoon bridge in the face of the enemy.
It’s always been a go to scenario for me and not having a suitable bridge I have in the past simply gamed without one or indeed the great river Weser: Off scene so to speak.
Stokes’ post was about creating a suitable bridge for his refight and that neatly fitted into my season of scenery trawl which had dredged up some Renedra pontoon bridges still in their bags from many years ago along with a few unmade gabions by the same company.
Here is Stokes post.
http://grandduchyofstollen.blogspot.com/2024/08/a-bridge-to-future.html?m=1
The book was all in black and white (except for the cover) which is how I always remember the battle.
Mind you the covers even today are compelling!
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Off Season? or what?
The Football season properly got underway this weekend (although the hard workers were already on their second weekend) after the summer break and it kind of gels with my view of the wargaming calendar year.
My off season is spring and summer. Well yes I know there are lots of wargamers who are of the 24/7 variety and make up the engine room of this fine hobby.
I am much more the peripheral player – wargaming fits in with lots of other activities. In summer I like to get out in the daylight and enjoy the warm rays of sunshine – not too warm though!
So it occurred to me the other day that it was odd that I might post a plan for the year at the turn of the year. Yes thats when many other things get planned and reflected upon – makes sense to do the wargame planning stuff at the same time in those dark months.
The reality is that my transfer season (= all those painting plans or rules/gaming period changes) and this disruption really happens between May and August. And thats because as my painting tails of in Spring my mind starts wandering.
Looking back I have noticed Summer has been quite fruitful for projects going awry and new ideas popping up.
I mentioned earlier those 24/7 wargamers. Well even if I dont paint much in Spring and Summer I do tend to read and that is the devil in my wargaming. Or rather it is the seed point for another idea or ideas.
What has seeded this summer?
Back in early spring I was on a roll (no pun intended!) painting, well inspired by the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIV.
My main project – Schleswig Holstein Wars were well served yet also some new material like a kit airplane – first in decades, retro citadel fantasy figures, gameshow freebies and even a magazine WW2 freebie figure Sci Fi carve up.
And then the finale posting by Karl at AHPCXIV featured a trojan horse. How apt, as it drove the Bronze Age front and square into my wargames thinking.
Soon I had the books out, which rules, which figures to paint, heck which scale? I am the sad possessor of 15mm and 1/72 chariot armies none of which are complete – in the case of 15mm not even started……
In the end I managed a strip or two of Assyrians undercoated and then opted for my version of 2mm armies. A successful campaign with DBA using a previous mapped world followed and then nothing.
Back to reading again. Suddenly William the chivalrous knight sprung upon me – I got all medieval and then it passed: And so did the book.
The same happened to my wild west thoughts.
The season of scenery challenge popped up. and I briefly made progress on a long overdue Italian hilltop town.
And then the Pike and Shot 16th century erupted with books on history, rules and uniforms spilling out of cupboards. A whole set of stockpiled figures got cleaned, reading progressed and rules were contemplated. Taking a lead from my Bronze Age moment I created some 0mm, yes 0mm armies for the Italian Wars – France versus Spain. I had intended them for testing rules including Pike and Shot by Warlord but bailed out using Neil Thomas Wargaming an Introduction instead – Pike and Shot Rules. These are easy and simple to use.
One wargame later and dust started to gather on the abandoned field – no second game.
So you see spring and summer has been properly, my fragmented wargames season. Its not an “off season” or indeed a “low season” but its definitely a season of sorts.
And its still going on………….pretty much what you would expect from a wargaming erratic I guess.
The Italian hilltop town remains in a state of construction so what to do given the fine weather we are having?
Well I offer up this recently built rock garden complete with wild west shoot out and all finished in “silver screen” tone!
Next up I was looking again at the spare parts mountain and remembered I had kept this old chopping board container for sci fi possibilities.
Sorry Dave this post is a bit tongue in cheek.
Just like John at just add varnish I have joined the season of scenery community challenge and started with an Italian theme.
This piece is still unfinished but has made it from idea to concept in only about five years – so that’s about four and half years procrastination plus various false starts in materials and a bit of design. And finally some tv viewing and Dave Stone’s scenery season challenge.
Grid gaming by Mike Smith is a great rule set and early on in my Italian independence wars project I thought a couple of hilltop towns would be ideal for the grid.
Then the procrastination started – which materials and what style?
Initially I was absolutely into the idea of wood and it would be modular and come apart. Then when I started to think about details wood felt wrong. The framing of the town was to be the city walls and slim, this was leading to fret saw country and simplicity of the idea was waning.
A long delay ensued.
Style wise I was looking for the abstract and Joe morschauser scenery pictures – more grid games – drew me towards something that could still accommodate units as a garrison.
In the end watching the giro this year suddenly prompted a “just do it moment” and as it happened cardboard kept coming into my head as a possible material and multiple postal deliveries reminded me of this free material.
But it needed to have some structure. What to do?
Then I remembered the flat scenery that are found in paper boys armies booklets. These have interconnecting cutouts that give strength to the arrangement.
These interconnecting card pieces now became walls and the corrugations gave me another idea.
Plus other things on this long journey fell into place.
Maybe I could use these simple cut outs approach?
I did and I quickly developed some solutions to get the elevations I wanted to see.
The buildings had been done a few years ago during the wood era.
Well that’s it and it remains a work in progress but I think I have found my modular abstract Italian hill town.
The pirate city shown in my last post also offered up a train – sponsoring the giro of course. They often carry the trophy in these trains and the train matches the riders usually on a coastal stretch for photo opportunities! Obviously don’t catch a train when the giro is near your route…..
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It’s the 4th of July!
Oliver Cromwells plump. This week saw the 380th anniversary of the battle of Marston Moor. Oliver Cromwell delivered the tactical move that secured victory on the day for Parliament and the Covenanters. Ultimately the King was defeated.
Then it all went wrong as the parliamentarians fell out which led to the first and only British republic. Oliver Cromwell ruthlessly crushed opposition in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland to become a dictator- a role he saw as the only solution to the continuing chaos.
The glorious revolution followed his death and since then we have had both a monarchy and a parliament. It kind of works.
Today we can vote because many people down the years have fought, suffered and died to preserve that right for us.
380th anniversary of this crucial battle between king and parliament and in this battle the Scot’s Covenanters made the difference.
Here are some more castles or rather famous palaces, Roman Pompei and yet more medieval bastions….Cassini and Naples today.
The Wargaming Erratic 