Sunday 24 September 2017

Ongoing stuff, games and reading

I've not posted in a while, and though painting has dropped off a bit, games are still being played.  Here's a quick update of stuff at the club.



Our Longstreet  campaign continues. Four others who joined in have now played two games each and that brings all six of us up to the same campaign point of mid-1862.  I don't know how the Epic Points are looking for everyone, but most have been good games. 

If I've not mentioned before, success in the Longstreet campaign is measured in Epic Points, i.e. if you participate in a battle, if you launch epic charges or successfully defend against charges, you get points.  It's all about getting your name in the papers and history books and having statues put up in your honour (statues that will be taken down 150 years later!). This is not a campaign about winning or occupying enemy territory. 

The only game that was a bit 'iffy' was the attack across a river at 4 fords. It seemed a difficult task for the attacker and we couldn't figure out how an attacker might win to gain the objectives.  Maybe this scenario might be easier with later war armies and a lot of artillery.

Anyway, onwards into the second game of 1862. Now we can mix and match players a bit more.



A few weeks back I played the Salamanca scenario from CnC Napoleonic.  A great game, even though I lost. Sadly, with so many other games to play, the CnC games don't get played as much as I'd like.



Rommel is my newest game and we played an introductory scenario of Operation Brevity. This was a basic scenario with 4 chaps playing and me in the middle on rules n stuff. Everyone seemed to have a good time.  This is a game and a scale that appeals to me, rather than more skirmish oriented games, but only time will tell if we can fit more games into the club schedules.

The game is based on a square grid and units represent reinforced companies or battalions of artillery. Each grid square represent 1000 m / 1km across. It's very close to some of my favourite old boardgames, Wacht am Rhein, Highway to the Reich, Korsun Pocket etc. Some scenarios and suggestions for modern and WW1 variants have already been proposed on the Honor forum and I'm going to try work up some Battle of the Bulge ideas soon. 

And now some painting. When we were doing Longstreet and I was providing figures for two armies on each side, I realised I was a bit short of painted cavalry.  I've no shortage of unpainted stuff, but I decided to try get some more painted stuff on the table.  I also need to apply flock to my ACW bases and replace the old basetex with flock. 


All these were done with my more usual semi-wash painting style, that creates it's own highlights and shadows over the white undercoat. 


And finally, some current reading.  I've wanted to get these comics (graphic novels) on the Night Witches for a while. It was a story that fascinated me some years ago, about the women who flew Russian PO2 biplanes in WW2. The history is far more fascinating than fiction, though this 3 part novel is quite good and serves to supplement the history. 


I liked the passage where it said, "who coins the nickname is a mystery". But as I understand it, it was the Germans who gave them the title The Night Witches and they came to wear that name with honour.  A bit like our own Red Devils. 


There's stuff online about the The Night Witches / Nachthexen.  There's some on youtube, including interviews with veterans and even a subtitled Russian TV series called The Night Swallows.  It's quite good, though lighter in tone than Band of Brothers. I suppose the Russian censors didn't fancy the name "witches" and  chose the milder "swallows" instead, though they did dedicate the series to the women of the 588th / 46th Guards night bomber squardron.  Anyhow, you can find it here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFK9wAOatGE


And finally, I got this is the post this week. This is about a series of battles on the eastern front in WW2. Little is known about because it was mostly a series of failures and the Soviet Union suppressed the details, preferring to focus on the much more successful operations round Stalingrad. 

More wargame stuff soon I hope. 

2 comments:

  1. Hi Tom.

    Two armies for each side; you have too many figures good sir!

    Would be interested in seeing/playing Rommel in the future.

    Cheers, Ross

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Ross.
      Just let me know if you want a run through of Rommel sometime. I don't know when it will get on the Perth schedule again, but I'd be happy to do something down here.

      cheers,
      Tom

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