Joy of 6, 2019

Just a quick one as it has been a couple of weeks since the show and I’m sure everyone has read bigger and better reports from others but here’s a few thoughts on this years show.

The first thing that was obvious to us was just how much the show has grown since our last visit 2 years ago. I think I preferred the new layout and even though there were two rooms at least they aren’t lots of smaller ones like there used to be which cuts down the chance to miss something. As usual there was a real lovely vibe about the place and everyone was keen to share info on terrain and painting tips as well as generally just being friendly which is one of the great things about the show.

There seemed to be more traders this year too, and great to see Richard there with the Scotia kit. He very kindly indulged me by allowing me to look through some of the modern kit that doesn’t have pics on the website which resulted in a nice sized purchase (I’ll be posting about the swag in another post) and it was a pleasure speaking to him properly after conversing via email and messenger for ages. The only other purchase I made was for a few Swedish infantry from H&R, but I did manage to speak to a knackered looking Ian quickly at the end of the day (I hope that Andy’s wife is on the mend soon) and TOW mounted Land Rovers might be coming at last. Bart bought some fantastic looking French mid-C19th 3d printed figures from a Polish company -http://www.gmboardgames.com/blog/en/ – that really were spiffing, the horses were particularly good, which piqued my interest. If they do an Austro-Prussian range I don’t think I could have resisted and their metal ACW kit was really nice too so something to mull over for future projects (like they’re ever needed!).

The games were of the usual mixture of quality, range and period as in all shows and the two absolute stand out ones for me were:

‘Poltava’ put on by Per Broden and the Wyre Foresters club, for lots of ace pics check out Per’s excellent blog here: https://rollaone.com/2019/07/08/poltava-1709-at-joy-of-six-2019-the-grand-finale-of-the-towards-moscow-trilogy-tmt/. It was great to see the real thing after following the build progress on Per’s blog, this table truly was not only a masterpiece and really showed just what can be done in 6mm but an obvious labour of love. Bravo gents and thank you for sharing it with us.

Coming a close second was Robert Dunlop’s WW1 Battle of Gnila Lipa from the Eastern Front. I’ve seen quite a few of Robert and his lads games at shows and I always love them. They are great for showing the vast scale of the industrial warfare that defined this conflict and always tempts me to have a dabble. I managed to have a good chat with one of Robert’s sons (sorry forget which one!) about the huge Marne game that they put on actually at the Marne a few years ago and he told me a story that made my weekend. Apparently they were able to point out to an elderly English chap the unit which his father was serving in and exactly where he would have been in the battle which apparently had a profound effect on him and he seemed to become more spritely as he followed the course of the action. Great stuff.

Honourable mentions go to James Mitchell’s ‘Culloden’ which was a gem of a game9sadly my photo didn’t come out well enough, sorry!), Dan Hodgson’s Star War’s ‘Battle of Hoth’ (sadly only lacking in Pew-pew sound effects) and the Battle of Kolin 1757 put on by the Legion of Blokes which not only had great figures and terrain but truly inspired, hand-made, ‘table tidies’ to boot. Hat doffed gents.

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Our game went over quite well I think, it was the XXX Corp Hell’s Highway one we did at Colours in September, even though we didn’t get many quotes from A Bridge Too Far this time we still had a cracking time and ,weirdly, we even recruited a couple of new members for the club which was nice! Thanks go to Bart, Dan, Jonathan and Daren for making it such a great weekend and we already have plans afoot for next years game. The plan is to do a Western Desert dust up but swapping WW2 forces with Modern ones, so Caunter camo’d Chieftains and Challies with South Africans in Ratels vs Afrika Korp with Leopards and Marders and Italians with Centauro’s – watch this space…

Lastly a massive thank you to Peter and his Baccus crew and volunteers for the show for not only coming up with the idea for the show in the first place but making it such a success, here’s to many more.

 

Napoleonic update

Right then, I thought I’d bung these up to try and keep me motivated about painting. Now done a couple more Saxon battalions and the Lippe-Detmold battalion and a Saxon battery. There’s a few skirmish bases and the limber for the gun near completion and I’m starting on a couple more Saxon Battalions today as well as the Anhalt Battalion.

I’ve made the Lippe battalion at ‘paper strength’ just because as that’s all they get so I thought sod it! Also it shows up nicely the difference between the two sized bases I’ll be using (still contemplating an even larger one for the massive Austrian jobs) and the difference between a 4 company battalion in column of companies and a 6 company one in column of divisions.

The plan is to finish off a Saxon Division, so 2 more Infantry regiments with a Light Infantry Regiment and 2 Grenadier Battalions with Artillery then I’ll probably do all of the Rhinebund Regiments just because I’ve always had a fascination with them for some reason. Then will be some Prussians which I have the figures for and have started on one battalion for a tester.

Cavalry will be a mixture of Saxon and Prussian lights to start off with.

Of course I can see this going out the window as I progress and I get tempted by other units (like the Lippe one!).

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And so it begins….

I’ve just finished the first 2 battalions of 6mm Napoleonics, Saxon Infanterie-Regt. von Low in the late war uniform. I’m happy enough in how they’ve turned out, not award winners but once there’s lots of them on a table they’ll look fine I reckon. Baccus figures.

They are based for my own rules (tentatively entitled ‘An Elegant Chaos’ – a million points if anyone knows where I nicked that from) which are aimed at the Brigade being the lowest tactical unit so no need for battalions to change formations as it is abstracted out. However I do want the units to look somewhat ‘realistic’ so am planning on each Army’s infantry to be based around columns as they fit the bases best – the Saxons are depicted in a column of companies (although they could be in column of Divisions too I suppose!), figure scale is 1:25. Dice frame to mark strength loss. I’ll bung some more pics up once basing is complete but just wanted to get something posted to mark the occasion as it were. The next regiment is already started and a battery is on it’s way too. Flags will hopefully be picked up at Salute this weekend.

Updated pics as based them up properly yesterday.

 

 

Salute Swag

I forgot to put what I managed to acquire in my last post and as it is like a Wargaming Blog law to do so I shall rectify it straight away!

My major purchase was at Heroics and Ros (as usual), and mainly it was bits and pieces to round out my Alt-History Polish units now that I’ve eventually settled on a TO&E for them. So some Vickers Mk.1’s, Grizzly APC’s, some Fox’s and Ferret/Vigilant for some kitbashing. and some ARV’s and minerollers. I also got a bunch of T-62’s for my Soviet Tank Regiment as I’ve decided to go 3 platoons per company instead of 2 per company as in the rules as it was just bugging me, it’s just too restricting for the Soviet player and not ‘realistic’.

Vickers Mk.1 – old sculpt but ok especially as no-one else does one

Kitbash: Fox with a Ferret Vigilant turret posing as a Swingfire turret!

My ‘off list’ purchase with Andy and Ian was some of the new Sisu APC’s and a G.91. Both of which, in keeping with all of their new releases, are cracking little models. They will be soon appearing in a Baltic State’s armed forces pretty soon! Unfortunately I didn’t realise that the new Danish Infantry were available as I’d have had some of those too as I’m a big fan of the new sculpts. Yes they are a bit bigger than the old ones but are belting figures and great to paint and, if we are honest, the older stuff seems like its on its last legs.

Sisu APC, love the tyres and open hatch on this.

Fiat G.91 – sorry about the half arsed priming, just had some left on the brush!

I also bought an Austrian Infantry Booster pack from Baccus for some 6mm Napoleonic shenanigans that we have planned for later in the year. Nice figures and look easy to paint up so I’ll be looking forward to doing those sometime soon, and a bargain at 288 figures for £19.80.

Lastly while with Comrade Noakesavitch at the PSC stand he chucked me a box of their new 15mm T-55’s that he picked up as his buy-4-get-fifth-free. Daren has some Team Yankee kit that he picked up a couple of years ago in a raffle at the club and although we have absolutely zero interest in those rules (and even less after Dan and I watched the game being put on at Salute – nice enough models but tanks jammed together in rows and M109’s and Rolands on the table, niet tavaritch) we are looking forward to the release of either ‘I aint been nuked Mum’ or ‘Battlegroup NORTHAG’ rules to get them all on the table. I also got to check out the Armies Army range as well and they are lovely too so worth investing at a later date in some of that kit too.