Adventures on the Wargames Table

A couple of little scenic pieces for my good friend Orange Dave. The first is a thatched hut with stores and a cheeky dog. The second is a chicken coop. Both models are from Hovels with animals from Redoubt. All painted and based as per my usual Thatched Buildings and Mediterranean recipes. Please have a look at the “How To” tab/page above for more info. Both pieces should be suitable for a range of historical and fantasy gaming so hopefully Dave (and I) will get plenty of opportunities to use them.

This is the "Patrol on the hill top" battle, game one, table one. Overnight on the 20th May the Germans have gathered men and equipment from their scattered drops, consolidated their position and pushed pickets out to warn of the expected counter-attack by Allied forces. As the sun rises on the 21st May, forward elements of the 2/1st Australians advance through olive groves looking for their German paratrooper adversaries. Whilst this table is covered in olive groves and vineyards we decided that, in keeping with the original 'Von Luck' campaign, the sparsely planted trees and vines would count as soft cover across the table. The pic below shows the result of the Patrol Phase. Dave has pushed his paras forward on the flank but held his other Jump Off Points back a little. I pushed forward as far as I can but ended up with a JOP on each flank and one further back in the middle. My plan was to push forward hard and fast in an attempt to overwhelm his position. My suppo...

You might be wondering about the slightly odd sounding blog post title? Well, let me explain... Orange Dave and I have been pondering a Crete based campaign for quite some time now. Both of us have been reading and researching various aspects of the battle and we’ve bounced quite a few ideas back and forth. Then we took a break from the Mediterranean theatre to play the Chain of Command Pint Sized Campaign “Kampfgruppe von Luck” pitting my plucky Paras against Dave’s stoic Panzergrenadiers in Normandy on the 6th June 1944. Great fun and, despite a few setbacks, a solid victory for the Dave’s lads. During these games Dave casually remarked that with a few tweaks we could maybe use this campaign (swapping the nationality of each side) to represent a British counter-attack on one of the German LZs. Thus, the impromptu working title for our project became "Kampfgruppe von Crete" and despite trying to think up something more accurate, it stayed! We've also blended in some...

After seeing vines on Pat Smith’s fabulous Silver Whistle blog and then getting a copy of his superb book on Mediterranean terrain, I resolved to crack on with my own efforts. A few years back I made a test piece,  here , using whatever I could find in my bits box. So I recently made another 7 pieces in the same style. Construction was quite straightforward. Build the posts and rails from coffee stirrers and kebab sticks. Add vines using strands of twisted garden wire, plus a few rocks. Each end has a piece of wire as a kind of ‘guy rope’ with a little wooden peg in the ground. Paint the posts and base, then attach clump foliage. I used Bostik all purpose clear glue; a bit messy but quite effective. Start with clumps above the vine then spread out along the rail. Good chum Orange Dave has recently made some absolutely superb vines! You might have seen his post on FB. Together these will be ideal for our forthcoming homegrown Chain of Command campaign set on Crete.

The January weather might not be ideal for gardening outside but here at the table we’re still keen miniature gardeners! Some veg patches with flowers and a small field of lavender. They’re quite vibrant here under the daylight spot lamp but when mixed in with other terrain I think they’ll add a nice splash of colour to Mediterranean themed battlefields. Continuing with the Mediterranean theme I made some “Cypress-esque” style trees from Woodland Scenics ‘Poplar’ armatures and dark green clump foliage, FC59. I ordered some very cheap “Cypress” trees from eBay but they were terrible so these WS trees will have to do! When the weather is better I’ll give them a dusting of black spray to tone down the green. Again, the lamp makes it appear much lighter. The bases match the gardens and other pantile scenic items. Since taking the pic I’ve painted the trunks a more natural brown using VMC Leather Brown and a highlight of VMC Dark Sand. The two tallest trees are on 40mm steel discs which hel...

Squeezed in a bit of Early War Chain of Command with good friend George, continuing our Gembloux Gap pint sized campaign.  For various reasons this series of games, started back in the late Summer, had stalled, so it was great to get things going again!  After breaching the front line at Perbais , George’s Germans squeaked a very close win at Noirmont .  The next phase of the campaign sees my brave French trying to stem the German tide at Villeroux.  Here’s the map of the table from the PSC (copyright TFL, no infringement intended). George kindly hosted the game in his spacious and well equipped gaming room — which is also technically the local post office, where George greets his valued customers with a cheery smile and a jolly wave. Anyway… we played the game using the now familiar-to-many means of zoom and FB messenger with a wide battlefield view and a roving mini-tripod mounted camera.  I plumbed the laptop into my TV for a better view. Now, I don’t have an...

Sharp Practice, amongst other games, lends itself very well to having Non Player Characters to interact with, or perhaps for the GM to deploy.  So with a farm completed I thought it would be good to paint up some inhabitants.  Here are a gun-toting farming family and a few farm workers. These figures are a mix of Redoubt civilians and farm workers, Dixons ACW civilians, along with some Perry ACW/AWI militia and civilians.