Holiday Update

Here's another Waterloo teaser!

Sorry for leaving you on a cliff-hanger with my Waterloo appetiser! I've been a bit lax in following up as we've just been on a week's break up in Yackandandah. 

"Yackin'-where?" I here you ask. Well, it's just to the west of Tangambalanga, south of Baranduda and north of Mt.Tawonga! Actually, it's up in the North-East of Victoria in the foothills of the Victorian Alps, in the old Ovens Valley goldfields. Very picture-skew (or picturesque) and relaxing with the rolling hills, vineyards and orchards all around and so many historical gold-rush townships and buildings (mid-19th C = historical in Australia!) to visit.

Anyway, back to Waterloo 2015; I shall write up a proper batrep with a LOT more pictures and description, but let me share with you an anecdote and a couple of pictures which really summed up my weekend.

Amongst my command were the infamous Cumberland Hussars, a Hanoverian cavalry unit comprising of wealthy dandies who really felt that this war business cut into their time better spent chatting up the ladies. In the real battle they were kept in the rear, but bottled it once the French started lobbing artillery projectiles over the Mont St. Jean ridge, and high-tailed it to Brussels and beyond screaming "The French are coming!". 

In our game they had special rules. To whit, if they were given an order a roll of the d10 determined their action; on an even roll they obeyed, an odd they stood still and on a 0 they fled screaming for the rear. After the Duke waved his hat for the general advance, I tempted fate by ordering them forward along with all the other cavalry. With baited breath, I rolled the die...

...and this was the result

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Run away!!!!!"

So you can see that this was not my finest hour and that as an indication of my success, it was lucky that the Anglo-Allies were as successful as they were. Indeed, you could say they succeeded in spite of me!

My Analogue Hobbies Challenge progress has suffered, too. My last entry was a couple of weeks ago and I still haven't posted them on my blog! So here they are; The Württemberg Jäger-Regiment zu Pferd Nr. 3 Herzog Louis, using my favoured 1/72nd HaT figures, and a 28mm Gripping Beast Welsh Warlord from my Christmas haul of a 4 point Welsh Warband for SAGA.

The cavalry officer has a plume made from tissue paper and white glue, just to make him a little more obvious from the other ranks.

I'm not overly happy with the results after varnishing the Welsh Warlord. The varnish is getting a little thick and I feel I ruined the cape, even though I tried to salvage it with a bit of dry brushing. Still, not the result I was hoping for.

I'm happy with the free hand shield, though. Sticking with his Romanesque leather muscled cuirass, officer's belt and Spangenhelm, I gave him a Roman style Christian motif for the shield. Also, as the Welsh warlord is allowed thrown missile weapons, I gave him a javelin and a hand axe. The pose is a curious one, but I felt he was winding up to throw his javelin under-arm like a plumbata. He had no sword or scabbard, so I glued on a spare plastic one from my Anglo-Saxons.

Waterloo 2015 Is GO!

Just a quick post before I head off to Drouin for our annual January Big-Bash Game!

These are some of the photos Tim has sent to all participants over the last week and a bit. I'm sure you'll agree that Tim and the terrain elves have done a bang-up job of preparing the field of battle.

As you can imagine I'm really looking forward to this! I'm taking Uxbridge's command, so I expect to be doing lots of counter-attacking and trying to keep my troops on a short leash!

View from the east: The Prussians' view!

View from the west; Will we see a French flanking march?

Anglo-Allied forces on the ridge as seen from the east.

French forces as seen from the west

A short post script: The Anglo-Allied command has been somewhat of a poisoned chalice. Our original Duke of Wellington, Pete E. died late last year, then James Fisher of the Avon Napoleonic Fellowship was going to join us again in the role but family commitments put paid to that, then new player Nigel was to take the mantle but ill health has prevented him taking on the role, so now Tim has taken on the task (as well as hosting the event, preparing the tables, creating the special rules, providing the bulk of the troops etc., etc...). 

3 cheers for Tim! Huzzah...huzzah...huzzah! (Hopefully nothing will happen to him....)

My Year in Review from Google+

Happy New Year, everyone!

I suppose everyone whose blog is Blogger-powered got one of these recently.

This pictorial review is a good indication of my year in wargaming, starting off with the picture taken by Darren of the Allied side at our little Quatre Bras game, featuring Paul, myself, Jim and our sadly departed friend Pete. From then on it takes us through a lot of Napoleonic gaming (surprise!), including the epic Borodino game, The Pt. Cook airshowe, some of my Comitatus games, and the big novelty of the year; SAGA!