The refight of the Battle of Ramilles, Grimsby, August 27th 2016.

 Not known for my retiring nature, I was able to illicit an invite from Paul Robinson of the Grimsby Wargames Club to hold a command at their refight of the Battle of Ramilles over the bank holiday weekend.
   This was my second appearance at the Grimsby club's very large scale Malburian refights, and this second battle did not disappoint, albeit I finally tasted defeat for the first time this year.
 The Grimsby wargames club is a first rate set up, and a very friendly group of wargamers who love wargaming. I cannot recommend their 'big' games enough to any wargamer who wants to basically enjoy a brilliant day out, although because I wanted a night out in Cleethorpes I made Paul and Andy take me out for a beer and a curry the night before, again this is recommended, especially as there are some very good B+B'S to be had at a cheap price.

Looking down the table, showing the Allied initial setup. This unfortunately was only about half of what actually appeared during the day, mainly on my flank.

 
   The French/Spanish/ Bavarian initial deployment, showing my Bavarian foot, and French horse.

    I wont report a blow by blow account of the refight, as I know Paul has covered the event on the clubs blogsite. But what I would like to say what a pleasure it was to wargame with a group of like minded wargamers intent on enjoying their game whilst attempting to refight a battle historically.
  As a spectacle it was very very impressive with thousands of 25/28mm figures on a table. As a weekend event it was even better, with decent beer, fish and chips and loads of banter.
 Okay so I suffered a lesson in how to fight two massive cavalry battles, managing to lose both and okay, I managed to throw double 1 three times in a row, to enable a lovely Spanish unit to disappear off the table, but I did get to see off two English foot regiments for my troubles.
 Paul and the group have written their own rules specifically for the period, and I picked them up very quickly, although I found the cavalry melees to be very brutal affairs, well when you lose anyway.
They work well, and capture the period perfectly.
 I hope Paul stages another game next year, because if I can I will attend, this is the way wargaming was intended to be played, with historically researched figures, easy to play rules and good banter.

  I have supplied some images I took of the day, just to show how big and lovely the game was.
My French household cavalry, which never got to fight due to the aggression of the Dutch Gardes who drove away their infantry cover.

                                      
I took on the role of Maximilian of Bavaria, and whilst managing to do a little better than the real person, I still led his troops into oblivion.

  My Spanish who were expected to hold the left flank of my command, and also to protect the French Household cavalry. Guess what, they lasted four moves.

The Spanish infantry nemesis, the mighty Dutch Garde, protecting the flank of the first of two wings of allied cavalry.

   Never, ever take on two to one odds at a Grimsby cavalry battle, the result is not an edifying sight.

 Some of the French Foot Guard, who watched? as my lovely Bavarians were led to destruction. As per the plan, by the way.

 Some of Andy's wonderful Spanish cavalry, the image is poor and really doesnt show just how good they are.

  Running out of infantry, I rashly removed the French garrison from the town of Ramilles, in order to stop the advance of the allies, probably not my best decision, although they tipped the balance against the vile English..

                From the allied viewpoint, no dragoons amongst their command.

                                         Austrian cuirassiers, one of four regiments!

If there was ever an incentive to 'half inch something', it was this beautiful unit of Spanish that Andy of Grimsby had painted. Eventually I managed to get them to rout, but they had fought well.

The Other Partizan 2016.

Well I decided to take the trip South to visit Partizan Part Two near Newark, on what turned out to be a very warm Summer's day, especially in the hall.
 So that's twice I've been this year, and I have thoroughly enjoyed both times.
 I am probably wrong, but I thought this show was slightly quieter than the earlier show, probably Summer holidays impinging there, but there was still a very strong turnout by various wargamers from  all parts of the United Kingdom.
 Traditionally Newark was the show to have the best eye catching games at, as every exhibitor hoped that there game would feature in Wargames Illustrated courtesy of Duncan Macfarlane and I must admit I used to be tempted to drag our small group South in the hope of getting published, those urges have now gone as it would be a very tiring thing to do.
 Anyway, I can report that there were some very nice games on show, and some were of really good quality. I was also surprisingly impressed by some of the participation games which had made a real effort to prettify their games.
 I have only shown images from a small number of the games on show, just to give a flavour of the day. The best way to enjoy anything is to be a part of the day, I recommend a trip to the show, it is worth the trouble. Being of an age, I seemed to spend quite a bit of the day bumping into wargamers I have come to know, and it was great to talk to them all. I had a long chat to Duncan Macfarlane of Trent Miniatures, who regaled me with some of the background to how Miniature Wargames actually came about. I hope to sit down with him early next year for a proper talk about him and Peter Gilder.

 I was extremely impressed by the North Hull Wargames Club, who put on a very large 15mm battle from the Italian War of Independence, lovely figures and terrain, from a colourful period.

 Its fair to say, I love a war elephant and Simon Miller, had some on show for his showcasing of his 'To The Strongest' Ancient rules. Another really attractive game by Simon, who knows how to catch a wargamers eye, well done.

   Bramley Barn, put on a neat colonial 28mm wargame with a couple of great naval models.

 Teddy Bear fur was popular with a few displays this year, and Mansfield Wargames Group used a nice example in their 28mm Napoleonic battle, based in Russia.

Like a Stonewall wargames group put together an atmospheric, Ardennes? 25mm game with some great models on display.,

 Steve Jones gave us a display of the Battle of Echmul in 6mm which I thought was excellently done, I was particularly impressed by the Baccus figures, which looked really well sculptured. The bases are similar to mine with similar information contained on the backs, a great looking game.

 I can only apologise for not recording the details of whoever put on this great looking desert war game using the Perry range of figures and models. It was a lovely game.

 Grimsby Wargames Club go from strength to strength, and again displayed a lovely looking naval battle. The ships were beautifully modeled and painted. A great game Paul, naturally.

I seem to be drawn to model pachyderms, [ maybe I need help] so when the reprobates from the Durham Wargames club turned up with some 54mm plastic versions, I had to take some photographs of their battle. 

Balcony Painting.

Well this is my first post since 19th July, which confirms that making resolutions is basically a waste of typing. Granted I have been busy with the odd distraction, ie. family birthdays, grand children etc, but is this how retirement is meant to be?
 For the first time in many many years I put down my paint brushes and basically stopped painting anything, well apart from my bedroom balcony, but I suppose that doesn't count in wargaming terms. My wife can never understand how I can paint a straight line on any figure of any scale, but always manage to get paint on a wall etc.
 I have played several wargames over the last few weeks, including a refight of Wagram using Blucher rules.
 Somehow I came away from that event dissatisfied. Granted I had blagged my way into the game at the Durham Wargames Group  who had gone to great lengths to make the battle as accurate as possible. The rub for me was how other wargamers approach such refights, and how they interpret the Blucher rules. I dont think they were wrong, in fact they taught me a couple of new interpretations of rules which were correct, it was just the French opponents were still in the competitive mindset that I have avoided for many years now.
 To explain what I mean, one of my Austrian Hussar brigades attacked two French light cavalry brigades, which was inconclusive, resulting in me losing a couple of strength points for having the temerity to attack. The french Corps commander however was advised not to attack my brigade in their turn, as they ran the risk of also getting an inconclusive result, so instead the brigades smartly moved up to point blank range and stopped!. The ethos being that I would have to charge again, and lose by attrition.
 Nothing wrong with that from a rule point of view, but as I pointed out, after such a  maneuver the divisional commander would have been cashiered for cowardice in a real life battle.There were many such instances of good rule knowledge, but poor historical appreciation. Such is wargaming.
 Its funny that in the two refights that I have been involved in regarding Wagram, both have ended in acrimony and dissatisfaction. Actually one ended in physical threats and a really intimidating atmosphere, and no it was nothing to do with me for a change.
 I have realised however that my sense of humour can be interpreted in other ways apart from the one it is intended, so perhaps I should bite my lip and just throw some dice instead.
  [ Nah, it wouldn't be me]
 I'm sorry if the post sounds a bit negative, my intention is the opposite really. I am looking forward to Partizan this weekend, and hope to get some inspiration from the Bill Gaskin game. I also know that there are another couple of top quality games on show, so hopefully I will be able to get some new ideas.
 I have started painting again, but trying a new small project, which I will post when I have finished some of the figures.
 Anyway, I'm back, looking for a windmill to pitch against.
 

Wargaming Big Brother.

I have yet to receive my copy of Miniature Wargames, but I understand that Henry Hyde has written a piece about a project on Kickstarter regarding a film about wargaming.
 I have included a link so that people can check out the blurb featuring several wargame personalities in order to drum up some financial support, and having watched the link I am a bit ambivalent about the said project.
       http://miniaturewargamingthemovie.com/
 In some ways it may be a good thing, because any publicity is a good thing, right? But in other ways I am a bit confused about who the film is actually aimed at, ie what is the audience that the director is hoping to inform and entertain.
 Past attempts to create media interest have had mixed success, with obviously Tyne Tees Television programme, Battleground being the first real attempt to reach out to the uninformed public.
 Personally I loved the series, but they were preaching to the converted, but re watching the episodes, even I fast forward certain pieces of the series, because it is frankly, dull.
 But then wargaming is a very personal thing, involving in the main the players and the odd umpire etc.
 Clearly this new project is attempting a more populist bent, with dare I say, drama, tension and the like.
 I am not certain, that the poor chap talking about his trauma, and thoughts of suicide when he was in the forces is conducive to selling the idea of wargaming, and neither am I certain that the chap who is clearly under severe financial pressure as a wargame dealer talking about his worries about how he will feed his family will make for good viewing either, but who can say, especially in this day and age.
 The biggest drama in my wargaming life, is whether I will throw a one on my white dice, or a one on my red dice, which I dont suppose would make for great viewing.
  I suppose I could spice it up with the odd crying jag, followed by some Turetts outburst, and a bit of talking to myself. [ which I do anyway]
 Or we could go the whole hog and have a Wargaming Big Brother programme filled with the flotsam and jetsam of the wargaming world, which would certainly make for interesting viewing.
 I can just imagine having to intensively live with some of the folk I have met over the last forty or so years of wargaming, it would make Made in Essex look like a normal night out, and thinking about it, I suppose that would include me.
 Anyway, I hope they succeed and make a decent fist of it, but somehow I cant see it winning a Palme D'Or.