The Battle of Kolin

Steve M organised a big bash for our New Year game at the Polly..a refight of the Battle of Kolin, using his own cast and painted traditional semi-flat Seven Years War figures as described over on his blog.. today the Prussians were commanded by Greg, Trev and Rich, whilst Quint and myself took the Austrians, assisted by the Austrian umpire (Steve).. we were using 'King of the Battlefield' rules, with which most of us were fairly unfamiliar.. we were assured that they were fast and bloody.. as it turned out, a lot more saving of hits than is apparently the norm took place.

I won't go into too much detail as I'm knackered (!) , but it was a great game, lots of fun and always a pleasure to take part in a big one like this... just wanted to get some pictures up.

Steve took lots with his camera, so hopefully he'll have them posted soon. As ever I was using my phone, so not so great pictures, but hopefully capture a feel of it here..

Not sure who won.. that was down to classic wargamers debate in the end, as the Prussians were still pushing on the ridge, but the Austrians still had a large uncommitted reserve. I suspect that Frederick's actual defeat may have been repeated had we played on to the evening!

Greg and Trev decide on tactics, much to Quint's amusement

The huge cavalry melee on the Prussian left about to start

And the ArchDuke is still tickled..

The Austrian centre

Austrian cavalry feeling rather misplaced

French, er Austrian, er Spanish... our side anyway!

The Austrian left flank brace for successive cavalry charges

Austrian right, reserves moving up

Prussians put pressure on the ridge, but are challenged by Cuirassiers

The Prussian centre

Shiny Toy Town soldiers

Apart from the flag, my little 'unit' of Toy Town soldiers is done. I really like these. These evening they paraded to salute the evening sun..

I just need to finish off the gun and crew, and a couple of lancers now.
I have no idea what I'll do with these really. Far too pricey to buy proper 'armies', nice as they are, but sometimes you've got to just do stuff because you like it.

Missed most of Partizan on Sunday due to a poor night on Saturday, but did pop down for an hour or so and caught up with a few friends.

Yesterday had a very enjoyable first game of 'Bag the Hun' with Scrivs.. I can see me painting teeny tiny planes in the near future!

Simon Miller also pointed me toward Tom Fuss blog 'Skull and Crown' where he describes his up and coming galley rules and pretty special wooden ship models - this looks like fun!

Old School Rules!

Haven't been painting or keeping the blog up much just lately .. mostly because I've been quite busy playing with trains..

Last week Ade and Quint joined Scrivs and I for another Punic game of To The Strongest! The Romans sadly reverted to their original brittle state and promptly lay down in front of the Carthaginians. Much as I am enjoying Simon's rules, it is becoming a bit of a theme that the Romans fight a desperate defence from the start and I mostly try to lose with grace rather than consider the prospect of victory. I'm not sure that means that anything needs changing, it's just as likely that I'm not using my troops properly!

Last night I had a very enjoyable introduction to "Field of Battle' Horse and Musket rules, guided by Steve and using his amazing collection (just a small part) of 'traditional' toy soldiers. Sadly I have never rolled so many 1's and 2's in one game before! Considering we were using a variety of dice, up to D20, I think I rolled an 8 once, otherwise pretty consistently below 5. A little frustrating for Steve, who was trying to demonstrate the rules and these rolls kept bringing up rather extreme results. Also seeing his newly painted Russian grenadiers leave the table on the first turn due to some pinpoint Prussian artillery fire didn't help!

Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to play with these beautiful 40mm home-cast figures. It felt like a game straight of one of the war-games 'classics' that I used to borrow from the library as a teenager. The rules seemed a lot less complicated than at first impression too, and have some nice mechanics.

Not great photos as I was using my phone, but you can see a lot more of these on Steve's site.

Yer actual Toy Soldiers!

The Romans are coming along nicely. well into the second legion now and hopefully I can get them done just in time for Victrix new Latin allies to be released!

I fancied a change today though..

Although I have long admired the wonderful Toy Town soldiers and various other unique and fanciful offerings from Eureka, I was a little put off by the prices to get anything underway. However a chance ebay purchase snaffled me a small force of these for a rock bottom price..they have been a drawer waiting to be painted for a little while now.

Today I thought I'd paint up a couple as 'test' figures, work out what colours to use etc. The uniforms are vaguely Danish 1848ish.. but ultimately these are Toy Town and not historical! 

Once they are dry, I am going to give them a good gloss varnish, hopefully can get them looking bright and shiny! (Which goes against every toy soldier painting bone in my body!

I have done an infantryman (white plume), and artillery gunner, and a lancer (have a few of these, and will be replacing the bendy whitemetal lances with something suitable and homemade)..

Although listed under '28mm' figures.. they stand around 35mm base to eye.. the lancer measured from wheelbase (!) to top of his plume is 65mm high.. so they are fairly substantial.