Busy Doing Nothing.

 I try to not think about the consequences of the enforced isolation to much, its best not think beyond the next meal basically otherwise one would collapse in tears. God knows what it must be like for the many millions who have no hobbies to fall back upon. We wargamers are really lucky. Its amazing how one can potter on basically doing very little but somehow feel like one has achieved something. 

 Ive managed to complete the 23rd Virginian regiment and a fine group of gentlemen they are to. They are the last of my FGZ minis that I bought sometime last year, just before they packed in. It was a real shame they stopped production because they were lovely figures. Not cheap but definitely top draw sculpts.

 Im currently working on a Steve Barber unit of ACW figures that are a bugger to glue. I appear to have more super glue on my thumbs than the actual figures, perhaps dispraxia is a symptom of Covid 19?
I am fairly certain that my wife and I contracted the virus whilst in London although one will never know for certain, that is unless I do get the virus properly and it is confirmed.The reason why I say this is simply because neither of us can taste any food we prepare and eat. The latest offering which was a hot curry tasted of very little apart from extreme heat. A very strange experience, but then I have been called tasteless before, so if the cap fits. So keep at being busy doing nothing and stay isolated.

Death warmed up anyone?

 Well I completed these chaps this morning even though I feel like death warmed up. They represent the 69th New York who were famous? for taking their boots off before a fight to relive what their ancestors used to do. From experience I wouldn't recommend it. Some sneaky rebel just has to stamp on your foot to scupper your intentions. Nasty......

 They were a pleasure to paint. Given the current shopping situation I should have foreseen buying a couple of plastic storage boxes, I slipped up there.Unfortunately since both myself and my wife are  definitely under the weather so I cant expect her to get me a new storage box anytime soon.

On a more positive note, several months ago I was very lucky to buy some unpainted Mini Figs that had belonged to Eric Knowles who was one of our first generation wargamers from the early 1950's. Yes they are a tad stiff looking but I like the simplicity of the sculpts and hope Eric is looking down from Wargamers Valhalla and approves the look of the regiment. They are part of Newcastle's Whitecoats. I only wish I knew which regiment contained the miners from County Durham that fought at Marston Moor and never came back from the battle. It would be nice to have a little back story for some of the units.There is something very poignant if you have a little bit of a historical link to a unit in ones army albeit a very tenuous one. 

Anyway I appear to be sweating up again, so time for a very hot toddy and a handful of paracetamol.Luckily I was able to stockpile a few bottles of whiskey. Keep safe and keep washing those hands.

Lists, lists and more er,... lists.

 I think most people living in the UK will be feeling a bit like me, which is unusual given how I always feel out of step with the majority. Basically the whole virus thing is quite surreal and dreamlike but in a bad way. Ive been in isolation for 8 days now following my return from London in an effort to be a good citizen and because Im in a high risk group. Who would have thought insanity was high risk. [sorry just a bad joke really]

 Anyway like all good wargamers I've set myself a list of tasks to complete in the hope that the country will be recovered after Ive completed them. Ignoring my garden list and my writing list I will concentrate on my wargaming list. Initially I was just aiming to paint up the odd unit as fillers for my armies but as the reality has seeped in I've expanded that to include terrain, additional units and eventually a new small project, except I am waiting for the figures to be released.

 I would imagine a lot of wargamers will be trawling the internet looking for things to paint [ amazing how one ignores painting the odd room] I picked up a painted unit of Mini Fig renaissance crossbowmen which I repainted and added to to create a unit of Gascon crossbowmen. A lifetime ago John had a similar unit which I always admired, mine aren't as good as that but the figures are still very nice.

 I also purchased a badly painted ECW regiment which I have repainted as a Tower Hamlets regiment, yes its a bright red and not a brick red, but they would have looked right if they had been in the Alec Guinness film.

 As regards terrain. At probably the last wargame show I will attend in 2020, I bought three large hills from the Tree Fellas. They were a fair price but the wrong colour for my table, so I re did them as well. Finally I picked up a lovely renaissance tower which I touched up. The creator lavished a lot of love on the building which was scratch built. If my wife was to stand about for any length of time she'd probably get a coat of paint as well.

 The moral of the story is, keep busy where possible. A bit of advice I was given many years ago by an ex con was concentrate on one day at a time and ideally focus on one hour at a time if possible. Dont think about the months because time will drag. So using an old cliche, one step at a time my friends, and remember there are a lot of poor people a lot worse off than you and your toys.

That bloody virus thing, discuss.

 I havent posted for several weeks which was a deliberate choice. Sometimes one feels pressured to write 'something,' anything really to prove one is still in the game.Frankly I didnt feel I had anything that was relevant to say so basically got on with wargaming ie playing a wargame each week and some really great fun was had albeit very bloodily fought affairs.

     Anyway  I now feel I should put pen or keyboard to print. This weekend has been a series of disappointments beyond ones control due of course to the Armageddon that is reported as Corona-virus. I was due to enjoy a weekend of quality music in London but inevitably due to the said virus the whole thing was postponed. This was followed by the postponement of my long planned trip to India, well its been reported as a postponement by the travel company when in reality it is a cancellation but they refuse to use that term due to the financial implications of such a decision. Im not complaining and one should simply accept this as a minor price to pay for ones reported potential death as portrayed by all forms of the media.

 What does worry me is the potential effect on wargaming in general. We are in the main a graying hobby and lets be brutally honest there a lot of wargamers who really arent that fit and I dont just mean the veterans. There are a lot of younger wargamers who struggle to see their feet never mind tie their shoelaces. All are potential victims of the said virus. So I can foresee a cancellation of all major shows which are a great source of pleasure for me, second only to actually wargaming itself.

Witnessing how Europe is tackling? the crisis I can see 2020 being a very long year with few pleasures, a bit like I imagine life was in Cromwellian England. So I think there will be more painting activity and less reports of shows for a long time. On a brighter point I have been pottering away with various painting projects albeit varied and basically filling out some bits of my armies.

 This artillery piece and crew is an interesting piece [well for me it is] I purchased this badly painted item from E Bay and began repainting the crew. One figure I immediately recognised as a Warrior figure but the other three crewmen I cant identify. They are lead and whilst a little crude they do possess a lot of charm. The best discovery was the actual gun itself which is handmade from balsa and tin with commercial wheels and a plastic barrel. It is a lovely thing and someone expended a lot of skill creating the carriage and wrapping it carefully in thin strips of tin. I hope the maker is still alive because I would like to thank the person who made such a lovely thing.

 Which leads me onto this foot regiment hat I also purchased from E Bay. Again the figures are lead and are exactly 25mm tall. I have no idea who made them but once repainted I love them even though no civil war regiment would have ever been that well dressed. I have flagged them as Taylor's Royalist regiment. They looked very cavalier-like to me and exactly how I would have expected Hollywood to depict the troops. No doubt they will fare badly at their first outing.

 The Mini Fig officer was a rider that John gave me out of his spares box. He was part painted by him in the early 1980's and deserved promotion to a general officer with a command rating of eight.

Event Cards in Pike and Shotte.

 I know it appears like Ive been quiet on the wargames front but that isn't the case, well not really. John and I have played several games, all of which have been defeats for me albeit very close calls. A case of only if. But then if can be a very big word. Anyway I have been painting various figures and renovating old units. I had read a lovely article in an old Wargamers Digest about the history of the Cherokee Braves and decided I wanted the unit in my rebel army.  Company D figures produce the mounted and dismounted versions so I treated myself to them. This little company have excellent mail order and also added a couple of freebies, so whats not to like.
I understand the braves were one of the last units to surrender and had been an effective combatant unit and not just the usual irregular marauders.They even captured some Union artillery at the Battle of Shiloh. 

 So these are my version of the dismounted unit, they are armed with a right old mix of weapons but I like them.

 I was also able to locate an old painted ECW unit containing a number of Garrison figures, so naturally I had to have them and basically given them a bit of a touch up. They're not brilliantly painted but I like them.They are now carrying the Queens Lifeguard standards and will hopefully add to the glory of the regiment.
                                   

I used them in my latest battle of the civil war, except they were rated as raw for the game.We scatter the odd preacher amongst the units so I gave them a Catholic preacher to lend them some steel.Sadly he wasn't needed as they failed to act with any real enthusiasm. 

 I also utilized the event cards that Eric the Shed had created and tested them to see how they added to the game.Eric very kindly sent me a download so I was able to get a set printed up on card by a local print shop.They are lovely things with a nice image of the wars contained on them
 Each side had a large pack of various event cards and we dealt each side five.
 These could be played during the game to add a bit spice. Or so we thought.....

John and I used the Pike and Shotte rules which give a decent game with little need to task ones brain too much.Naturally I commanded the Royalists while John acting as Essex led the nasty rebels.

 Because the Royalists are pike heavy it pays not to hang around too much as the royalist shooting isnt very good. So I naturally decided to take the battle to the rebels who were tardy in their initial movements. Things seemed to be progressing well, my dragoons had succeeded in their task of seizing a field where they could annoy the rebel cavalry. My infantry in the centre were doing okay and on the left wing my infantry were causing John's larger cavalry brigade some discomfort with the musketry.

 And then as I ordered Rupert to lead the cavalry reserve across the river to tip the balance on my right everything suddenly imploded.The reserve consisted of the best cavalry on the field led by the best commander with a 9 rating. Simples really....

 First Rupert blundered. Then the subsequent throw caused the reserve to retire two moves causing chaos as the reserve split into smaller units leaving a couple of troops in the middle of the rive! The 'pile of ordure' says it all. This causes a minus one on the command throws until the next sucker rolls a blunder.

 The same move I rolled a double one for my main artillery battery which caused it to blow up.

 And as my timings went awry. John encouraged by the lack of firepower somehow managed to charge into the flank of my Kings Lifeguard led by Charles! and things were slowly unwinding to put it mildly.

Because Rupert had scattered his command, my right wing cavaly were in deep trouble. Well actually the whole lot collapsed in a welter of shaken markers as the rebel cavalry ploughed through them.

 Somehow my Lifeguard refused to collapse but was forced to retire led by a battered King who was stuck in the middle of the confused unit. It didnt matter because the remainder of the command became shook following a desperate charge by the Duke of Yorks regiment that succeeded in the melee but tipped them into a shaken status.

                          
 And the cards. Well John used a 'sniper' card that failed to shoot my cavalry commander. My double volley card failed to hit anyone! John's similar card also hit no one! I did manage to use one card to disorder the charge of the Lobster's but my infantry didnt need that help and basically repulsed them easily.
 But I did enjoy using them and I can see them becoming a regular feature of Pike and Shotte games.

 So another close defeat but it really didnt matter because it was a really fun? game and sometimes losing is as good as a win.

 Just to prove it wasnt just me that blunders.A Parliamentarian commander ends up in the poo.

Vapnartak 2020

Well yesterday was the start of this years wargaming campaign season marked by a visit to Vapnartak staged at York Race course.
 Because I wanted to offload some of my wargaming ephemera we arrived early expecting to queue prior to a mad rush to book a bring and buy table. I was very pleasantly surprised that the organisers from York Wargames club had recognised the issue of the last few years and completely changed the set up for their table top sale.
 We were allowed in straightaway, that is 09.30 and sent via one of the lifts to the new location for the sale. The club have designated a whole floor to the tabletop sale, and after paying a £1.00 for half an hour I was allowed to set up ready for the 10.00 opening.
 The tables had plenty of room and there was ample space for punters, result.
 I found I sold a lot of stuff prior to the show actually being open, so even though I paid a princely £2.00 for an hour I stopped selling ten minutes before my allotted time.
 So well done York Wargames club for making their bring and buy a very pleasurable experience. Only one gripe and that was a box of lovely painted buildings I had sold prior to the opening were up for sale again with another wargamer at very, very inflated prices. Clearly I was too naive/ generous in selling them to someone I thought wanted to wargame with the buildings. My own daft fault I suppose.
 So how was the rest of the show?
 Busy, very busy, but strangely pleasant to walk around.
This is the first time I have never examined the demonstration games at a show, hence the paucity of photographs. Between doing some buying and a lot of time gabbing and setting the World to rights I didnt get to check out what the games were like.
I was impressed by the small participation games on the top floor which were very well set out and looked interesting. I didnt really circulate on the ground floor where I could see four large games which looked okay as I was too busy doing a deal with Tree Fellas for some hills and fields.
 I examined a few new traders selling their 3d wares which is going to become very common and hopefully cheap, they are very good in the main.
 Overall impressions were that the games were an afterthought which is a bit sad but to be honest I can see them disappearing in the next couple of years to make way for even more trade, because between the excellent tabletop sale set up, the popularity of competition and participation games and the large number of trade stands something will have to give.
 I can state I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Its probably because of the fact I found offloading my spare stuff very stress free, or it may have simply been the buzz around the show as wargamers emerged from their Winter hibernation.It was great to get the gossip from various wargamers I talked to although I wish the organisers would stop letting the Westerhope hoi-poloi into the show. Talk about lowering standards.
 On the retail front I picked up two lovely ACW painted regiments at a decent and fair price in the tabletop sale and somehow managed to buy even more brushes and paint.
 So thanks to York Wargames Society for making the start of the wargaming season a very pleasant experience.
 Only complaint, just the usual lack of soap use by some members of the fraternity.