Adventures on the Wargames Table

As promised here are some photos from the Zero Hour participation game. I’ve added a few notes to some to help make sense of the action, but really I think the pictures speak for themselves! The basic premise of the game is that the French are attacking a section of the line with the aim of capturing the second line of trenches (including a command post) and the nearby ruined village. The French have superior numbers and armour, but the Germans have a Storm Trooper company held off table ready to mount a counter attack if the forward trench line is breached. The French mass in and around the blasted wood on a low hill. And the Germans are waiting in their trenches! On the French left the Senegalese are supported by tanks and big guns. Scarab’s WW1 Rommel figure keeps an eye on things from a ruined building (a Charlie Foxtrot kit). The whistles blow and the attack begins! German artillery begins to hammer the advancing French as they scramble through mud filled craters and along rickety...

As you will surely know it's 100 years since the Battle of the Somme began. Lutyens monument - Inscribed with names of 72,246 men with no known grave Let's take a moment to pause and remember those of all nations who fell on that day... and the many days that followed. If you have the opportunity then I highly recommend a visit to this extraordinary and moving memorial. There is also a visitors centre that is worth seeing. If you'd like a little more information then the BBC have a couple of interesting videos here and here . Lest we forget.

Général de Brigade d'Orange and I were keen to do some more play-testing of his splendid rules "Zero Hour" so I laid out a table and waited ... since he was fashionably late ;o) I decided to take a few pics of my WW1 British heading for the front line. Think this chap needs the attention of a pretty nurse at the nearest aid station - sadly it will be some tired, over-worked and possibly ham-fisted medical orderly who will apply the dressings. A walking stick ... the ideal weapon for tackling the might of the Imperial German army. Not quite an army of Germans, but a few of them were getting ready to give the BEF a warm welcome. Others were beyond caring what the enemy did. Anyway, the good Général de Brigade d'Orange finally arrived, muttering something along the lines of ".. couldn't let the fois gras go to waste.." or perhaps ".. I was really enjoying that French tart.." ;o) So enough faffing around with dollies and sce...

About 10 years ago I built a modular battlefield. Then a few years back, after getting interested in gaming The Great War, I started converting it in to a small section of the Western Front. However, following the conversion of the garage (in our old house) into a spare room I no longer had anywhere to do all the messy work so the project rather stalled. Anyway, we now have a proper garage so I've been making some space to re-start this project. Here it is. I'd like to be able to do a some in a "little and often" fashion as it's going to be quite a lot of work! A couple of hours per week should keep it ticking along nicely plus allow some time for other projects. This is one of the 4' x 2' (approx 1220mm x 610mm) sections. In background of the first picture you can see the other section that I've started - that will be the cratered ground in front of the trench section, i.e. placed to the left of the board in the picture below. The boards...