Sunday 13 October 2024

T'Other Partizan

Flying visit to Partizan today. Only spent about 2 1/4 hours there, so it was a bit of a rush to go around trade stands , photograph games and anything else.

I confess I spent most of my time there having a very enjoyable chat with David Barnes of The Ragged Soldier" blog:

https://russetcoatcpt.blogspot.com/

It was nice to finally meet David in person, especially after the last time when I accosted his body double who reacted in  no uncertain fashion! We had a good old chat waiting for David's friends to arrive.

I will post a selection of photos; when I arrived it was extremely busy - I cannot say I have ever seen it that crowded before - hence it was quite difficult to get photos and several were not very well signed so it was difficult to identify them - the lack of a hard copy floor plan doesn't help. Some listed games I never saw and many I saw did not appear to be listed on the floorplan! Once upon a time they used to give you such things.....no bands this time so how they policed it I cannot say.

All Hell Let Loose 6mm Omaha D-Day


Not Quite Mechanised Tunisia - hoped to have a chat with Chris but was fully engaged in chatting each time I passed.


Old Pikey's Hell's Highway with intriguing paper buildings



Forest Outlaws French & Indian War March on Montreal 1760



The very busy and at times noisy Morris & Chums Battle of 5 Armies from the Hobbit




League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers Lutzen TYW 1632 with burning town



Simon Miller To the Strongest Wars Louis XIV




Yarkshire Gamer Italian Wars relief of Forli





Bramley Barn Wargames Club RCW



Vietnam

Like a Stonewall Poltava Redoubts Great Norther War



Chesterfield Old Boys Oudenarde (?) Marlburian



I have tried to credit where I could work out who had put on the game and what it was, there were others I took photos of which I simply cannot attribute to period or players.

Apart from the crowds and lack of adequate signs or paper floorplan, there was a startling absence of castles this year.....some city walls was it.....perhaps they got the memo or decided everyone will do a castle so let's be different....
A lot of C20th and Horse and Musket, some fantasy but only one ancients game. I'm sure there were many others I simply missed in my rush.

Purchases were minimal - casualty bases and some 20mm French for Syria 1941

Monday 7 October 2024

Going Operational

Not much progress on the modelling and painting front since the last post. Did clean up and prime some more figures for the Swiss, but that's as far as I got. Work has left me drained last couple of weekends.

I have recently purchased a couple of rule sets. In older posts on this blog, I have hinted at a move towards "Operational" level rules. Well two sets have recently been published , and both Frank Chadwick and Bruce Weigle have WW2 operational sets due for release at some time.

First, we have Not Quite Mechanised or "NQM" by Chris Kemp.

https://notquitemechanised.wordpress.com/chris-kemps-not-quite-mechanised-rules-nqm2-latest-draft/

A4 softbound, print on demand, 63 pages including playsheet. These rules have been a long time in development and I've followed Chris several versions published free on the internet. These have the benefit of having been cleaned up and organised for publication (previous versions were difficult to understand in places).

They are comprehensive and cover, well everything as far as I can see apart from Naval / amphibious landings. Several different levels of play are possible, some more tactical than operational it has to be said. I think this is a hang over from previous versions, but does allow games at a smaller level using the same basic rules.

They are written for hexes which may put some people off; also squares are possible. Originally, no grid was used, then squares and now hexagons. All arms are represented, including medical and repair. The reconnaissance rules are clever and give a use for such troops. Markers are required and it can get busy in this respect. Base sizes are agnostic, although some suggested sizes are mentioned. It's worth noting there is a stacking limit of 7 SP# (or 9 if using optional rules) per hex. In practical terms that will limit how you base and the size of hex used.

#As corrected by Martin in comments below. SP per stand is normally 3 for fighting stands but what this represents varies according to level, front, corps, division or regiment. 9SP is where quality is tied to SP on base, not the command stand.

I have found myself quite inspired by these rules, not only for WW2 but also AIW and SCW.

Then out of the blue comes another set, Sam Mustafa' s Eisenhower.

https://sammustafa.com/eisenhower

Somewhere between UK A4 and A5, softbound, print on demand from Amazon. 112 pages.

I was unaware this was in development and its publication came out of the blue. It clearly follows Rommel by the same author and like that set uses a square / rectangular grid. Bases are battalion sized and a player controls a "command" of roughly corps size comprising 2 -6 division sized units. Thus, the scale is much larger than Rommel whic itself was originally aimed at having battalion, not company size stands.

Only infantry (leg, motorised and mechanised) and armour stands form a division, with cavalry and tank destroyers being specialist versions. Artillery are represented by dice and recce, engineers, flak etc are not represented but are assumed to be part of other stands "getting on with their job". The website has downloads for command sheet and cards for advanced game and several scenarios.

I have not finished reading these, but find them a bit "bland" so far. I'm puzzled by some of the decisions; German reconnaissance battalions were equipped for fighting and were used as ad-hoc combat fire brigades in Normandy. Lots of German kampfgruppes were depleted remnants, but which took on battalion sized combats. For example, much of the German forces for Market Garden would not be represented in Eisenhower - Graebner' s Aufklarungsabt for example and the cobbled together armour formations, flak detachments etc.

It may be the advanced rules cover this, but to me, it seems that a decision to restrict the type of stands is flawed. I could not see any recommended base sizes; the standard 6' x 4' layout uses 150mm / 6" squares with a stacking limit of 3 units - a battalion sized stand per square which will limit base size. Some of the terrain is odd - no roads for example, it being assumed a campaign will only take place where there is a road net.

I will continue reading and it may be only playing will reveal how they work, but so far I'm unimpressed with some of the decisions taken. 

Sunday 22 September 2024

Swiss and desert distractions

Decided to check how the various Swiss contingents I had painted matched with each other colour wise and what they would look like all together.

There are rather a lot of  Swiss now.....



Some shots of massed pike



In the attack


Flankers


Must get the bases painted and the figures varnished and based properly.

Having obtained my copy of "Not Quite Mechanised" by Chris Kemp:

https://notquitemechanised.blogspot.com/

https://notquitemechanised.blogspot.com/2021/06/follow-not-quite-mechanised-on.html

I have been thinking of Western Desert WW2 as well as how well they will work for Arab-Israeli 1967 (to say nothing of Indo-Pak 1965). This has mostly consisted of digging out boxes of stuff, mulling over orbats and wrestling with how many infantry to put on a base.....

I thought I was going down the Megablitz route which in 20mm has two figures in a 40mm square base. NQM is more agnostic on base size and it seems Chris happily uses all sorts together. As NQM is hex based, it's more about how many SPs are allowed in a hex, each standard battalion having 3sp, with maximum occupancy 7-9 SP.

For Megablitz (starting with AIW) I had moved to the idea of 2 mechanised or 3 foot infantry on a 40mm square base.Now I'm contemplating 50mm wide bases with 4-5 figures, partly due to realising how quick I can paint up 20mm plastics and aesthetics (I think 4-5 infantry look nicer). However, I have to think about what will fir in a hex. Most of my hex cloths use a 100mm / 4" hex which means 50mm width is probably the max - it also has to fit with vehicle bases which are likely to be 40-50mm depending on the vehicle; experiments with card and figures is inconclusive. 50mm starts to look crowded, so I'm now  dithering between 3 on a 40mm base or going for something like 60x30mm and 4-5 but that takes up a lot of space.....

Decisions, decisions..... 

Sunday 15 September 2024

Zinnfiguren progress

A bit of a photo dump this time. The (hopefully) last of the Swiss....

Command /flag stands - since these photos I have fettled obsessively with the flags and added more flesh highlights and corrections....








Pike












Zweihander







Arquebus






T'Other Partizan

Flying visit to Partizan today. Only spent about 2 1/4 hours there, so it was a bit of a rush to go around trade stands , photograph games a...