Welcome

Welcome to my wargaming blog,
I'm Dave and live in Morpeth, Northumberland in the UK.
This may or may not be a regular thing, we'll just have to see how it goes.

I am a painter/collector of figures first and a wargamer second. My thrill in this great hobby of ours is to place that final well researched & painted unit into the cabinet. The actual gaming with the figures is an important but secondary experience, we all like to win, but it isn't the be all and end all of it, being with good friends and having fun is.
Hope you will enjoy reading this blog as much as I will writing in it.
Just to remind the visitor to scroll down the various pages and click on 'older posts' to see more.
Dave.

Sunday 21 December 2014

Me Heeds Battered!

Well I said 'd bring you guys up to date with the painting of Tom's Seven Years War Russian 15mm army (and I exaggerate not, there are a few of them.) so here we go. I've been on with these chaps on and off for a couple of months and as I said to Tom it will be late Feb before I complete the lot.
The figures are Old Glory 15's and really are pretty good. Tom being Tom he provided me with a thorough painting guide as it's a period I'm not particularly familiar with, truthfully I quite fancy it but it will be a while before I will be able to paint any more of this period when I eventually get them done as I'm starting to go a bit bong eyed!!!
Anyway here's the pics.

A battery of artillery:




1st Batt, 4th Gren:



1st & 2nd Batt, Butyrski Rgt:



1st & 2nd Batt, Roston Rgt:



Kargopolskiy horse grenadiers:



Tobolskiy dragoon Rgt:



So, a good start, even if the start has taken two months! To give you an idea of how many there are still to paint, here is a photograph od the half full infantry box:

The old sod says that there may be some Prussians to do after this, told him he will be waiting till the summer for them, he's a great fella though so I'll get there eventually.
P.S. Updated my  age to 53, where's the year gone!
Dave.

Sunday 14 December 2014

Ahoy chaps.

Three additions to the WW2 1,2400 GHQ collection, HMS Rodney, Dorsetshire and Suffolk. These will complement the ships I already have, HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Hood, Prince Eugen and of course Bismarck, allowing me to re-fight the sinking of the Bismarck scenario in the Naval Thunder (Battleship Row) scenario/rules by Steel Dreadnought Games Here

 HMS Rodney (just noticed the dog hair on the ship - Bugger):




HMS Dorsetshire:



HMS Suffolk:



All three together:



Pleased with the results.
The scenario itself, with the Bismarck vs King George V, Rodney, Dorsetshire and Suffolk will be somewhat one sided but I'm sure that Neal won't mind being Zee Germans - going round and round in circles and getting crushed, nothing new there! (unfair, he's bloody good actually).
Going to the clubs AGM next week, I'll ask Tom if he's ok with putting photos of the 15mm SYW Russians I'm painting for him on this blog. If so then I'll get the ones I've done so far on here next week.
Dave.

Friday 28 November 2014

I'm back

After about three weeks my laptop is finally back up and running. I havn't anything to put on here at the moment but at least after £45 for a new hard drive I can access my blog again, though I don't know much about computers (I'm an old luddite!) like everything else electronic this laptop will probabally be 'out of date' by now. It does me though so £45 compared to £1000 or whatever aint too bad.
I'm still working my way through a good friend's 15mm Russian SYW army, if he's ok with it I'll put some photos up on here as I go, at this rate it will be late Feb before I finnish them so you can imajine how many there are!
Dave.

Friday 7 November 2014

Poppies

I'm not going to say much here, just go to the BBC link and have a look -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-29935592
The pictures say it all really.
Dave.

Sunday 12 October 2014

Re-fight of the 1st battle of Bull Run 1861

Been a while but I've been quite busy on the painting front, just not put anything on here!
A few more WW2 ships done, a good start on 10mm Nap Russians for 1812, some final additions to my 15mm Spanish Peninsular and painting vast numbers of 15mm Russian SYW for a mate (this will take till about Feb to complete), so lots to put on eventually.

So with not much actual gaming going on Neal, Scotty and myself were invited to Micks place up in the borders to re-fight 1st Bull Run (1st Manassas) using figures I had painted up a while ago see here
The battle itself is pretty well known but here is a map to get you orientated:


As can be seen, the confederates, anticipating a union direct assault were caught on the hop when they then crossed Sudley Springs ford to the north and outflanked them, forcing Johnston to move to Beauregards support.
A map of the area fought over on the tabletop:


Neal and Scotty took the confederates, myself with a bit of help from Mick (who also umpired) had the attacking union. Rules used were Fire and Fury with adaptions for Mick's excellent hex base system. So, onto the photos.
A view of the field from the north (Dogan's Ridge on the map above) showing confederate defensive positions with union troops beginning to advance. Henry Hill can be seen in the middle distance with the two farm steadings on them while Stone bridge is in the top left corner of the shot:


A closer shot from the Reb side:


The Confederates decided to fall back in front of the Union advance:


A view of Keye's Union brigade advancing towards the rear of the confederate position after crossing the stream, no worries though, some bloke called Jackson was on his way to save the day!


Jackson's brigade arriving to the left:


A shot of the field at this point in time:


Keyes men turn to their flank to face Jackson:


The battle in the center swayed to and fro over this small stream:



Flanked to their left the confederates in the center streamed back over Henry Hill, where were those rebel reinforcements?


Evan's confederate brigade out of ammo but still clinging onto a section of Henry Hill:


All looks well as the union troops push on, the reb center looks shaky with Jackson holding firm on their right:

Finally confederate reinforcements begin arriving on the right flank of the union line:


After the majority of Johnston's confederate troops had arrived from the south they began to repulse the by then exhausted union forces back off Henry Hill. The union troops had achieved much but could do no more, even in full dress uniforms:


The rebels break through in the center and it was agreed that as twilight was approaching the union forces would decide to withdraw:


A cracking game swaying to and fro each time reinforcement for each side arrived. Points wise it was deemed a draw but Richmond was saved!
Dave.

Thursday 31 July 2014

The battle of Bunker (Breeds) Hill, 1775.

 
After finally getting the garage back from generally accrued clutter Scotty, Neal and I finally managed to get together for a re-fight of the battle of Bunker, or more accurately Breeds Hill in 1775.
We used the very good British Grenadier set of rules, these have at their heart a system whereby a unit will accrue potential disruption points through movement, an the exchange of fire. If a unit suffers three (accumulated) hits from musketry/artillery fire then each further hit will then cause an actual casualty. The author states that casualties from musketry were, in the main, light during this campaign (though of course there were exceptions) but that the disruption system recreates the moral disintegration of the unit. Disruption points affect moral and firepower in a negative way but can be rallied off with varying ease depending on whether the unit is Elite down to Militia class.
Basically don't try to maneuver Militia around or they will as like as not accrue so many disruption points that they will be useless.


As can be seen above the Americans occupied and fortified the 'Charlestown neck', basically the British decided that the rebels were scum and could be thrown out of the fortifications after a swift bombardment and a frontal assault.


The battle field as set up, the American fortifications were a bit of a last minute cobble together job using bits of foam packing!


Scotty took the Americans, mostly Militia with some 2nd line Rgts thrown in, while Neal and I had the forces of the King.
Pigot's brigade (me) on the British left. I could have marched up the road through the outskirts of Charlestown (before turn 9 after which the navy set the town alight) but thought to play it as the Brits did and drive them off from the front.


Howe's brigade (he was also CinC), commanded by Neal on the British right with the lights to the front.


The American (Scotty) defences on Breeds Hill.


American militia lining the rail fence,
and the Fletches.



My brigade closes with the American defences suffering casualties from both skirmishing and artillery fire. It was only a 3pdr, but it was a nasty little sod!



Neal's brigade decided to bide their time and see how things developed on the right, this delay would prove costly in the long run.


Things were looking good however as my brigade chased off the American gunners and broke into the defences.


The British 6pdr guns were finally being dragged into a position whereby they could do some damage. The British boats had sent over the wrong sized ammunition and the battery couldn't open fire till game turn 8. Bloody navy!


Situation on game turn 8 out of 16 when darkness set in, Neal's troops getting into position on their right.



This was the crunch combat on this flank, Scotty's American 2nd line Rgt moves forward to contest the British assault, the Brits automatically accrued 2 disruption points by climbing over the breastworks, this was to be the difference with the Americans throwing the British back.


Reinforcements, but too late?


Howe's (Neal) assault stalls in front of the defences.


The situation on turn 10, British artillery deployed and starting to do some damage, but one assault thrown back with the other reluctant to go in, will the grenadiers make the difference?


 Lt General Howe.


Howe's assault goes in and pushes the American Rgt back.



On Scotty's right my British have had enough and fall back awaiting the reinforcements, but Scotty decides to sod off with his piddly little gun anyway!



 The game ended with night falling at this point, turn 16. It was an American victory as the British were required to take the fortifications but to have also inflicted more casualties on the Americans than they suffered themselves. The casualties were heavy for the British who I'm sure will have a bit more respect for those rebellious fellows in the future. Well done Scotty.
This was fought over three evenings (one per week), the big advantage over fighting it at the club where everything must be packed away each night.
Back to re-basing those Macedonians, bugger!!!
Dave.