Time for Action - and so it begins

When on operational duty, Maximillian von Bruch seldom slept well.
The dawn light had woken him early, one of the few perils of campaigning in the spring-summer season. At least he had enjoyed a hearty breakfast as all around him the drummers of his infantry battalions were beating to quarters, and a general striking of tents and bivouacs was being overseen by screaching sergeants as the army began to make ready to march to battle.

As Brigadier of the Pils Holstein infantry, today he would be taking orders from Prinz Albrecht who took overall field command.
Accompanying his two Pils Holstein infantry battalions (The Leibgarde and the Kronprinz Grenadiers) were the Kronenbrau Kuirassiers, and already they were readying their mounts and making final preparations before the march.

They would be joined by a Prussian infantry battalion (Alt Braunschweig), as long as Tipsi Pipsi and her Holstein Hussars had found them and led them to the correct rendezvous point.

Halting only to pose for the obligatory pre-match team photo, the Pils Holstein command staff began the day with an air of confidence...

l-to-r:
ADC Lord Fulchester (a Briish Major on secondment to Pils Holstein); Prinz Albrecht and standard bearer; Maximillian von Bruch; Tipsi Pipsi and her ADC, Major Ligue.

Across the fields, and also marching to battle were The French...


l-to-r
ADC Captain Soutair of the Lancers de Saxe; Prinz Maurice de Saxe and standard bearer; The Marquis de Genitalia (commander of French infantry); Brigadier Jean d'Arfeld (commander of French cavalry)

And so the armies arrived at the place of battle, near a crossroads.
Here is the deployment map and a few images of the armies lined up for action...












May their dice roll high!

Time for "Action!"

The table is set.
Tomorrow morning I'll be having a game with the Pils Holstein 18th century collection.
This is The Action at Kreuzung Bauernhof. It's based very closely on the Action scenario in Charles Grant's, "The War Game".

Here's a sketch map of the layout.

Those who are familiar with the original will immediately notice some changes I have made.
First, is the inclusion of a small stream in the northwest corner, with a bridge over it. This is purely because I didn't have enough plain flat terrain boards available. In any case, this part of the table is only peripheral and will play no real part in the game.
The next change to note is that I have replaced one of the enclosures in the original game with a small farmhouse. In the game presented by Charles Grant in his book, the players make very little use of this northernmost enclosure, and so I decided to make the change simply to make the battle a little less symmetrical.

I have also made some adjustments to the orders of battle of the two sides.
In the original game, it is apparent that the players began to split the units in half to perform more flexible functions. In fact, both players split their cavalry regiments in two, and I have decided to field two half-regiments at the outset, one heavy and one light for each side.
In the original, each side had two infantry battalions. I have opted for three, again to provide more tactical flexibility, and of course because my battalions are somewhat smaller, at 30 figures, rather than the 48s fielded by Charles Grant.
And finally, instead of including a Field Gun on one side and a Howitzer on the other, I have opted to have each side's artillery as simply one small Light Gun. This seems more in keeping with the troops I'm using, which represent the advanced force for their two armies, both of which would be intent on moving at speed, unencumbered by larger field pieces.

The forces are:

French, commanded by Prince Maurice de Saxe
Infantry - Picardie, Normandie, and Royal Ecossais Battalions.
Light Infantry - The Arquebusiers de Grassin
Cavalry - One 'squadron' (half regiment) of The Chevaliers de Rouen (fictional) and The Nassau Saarbrucken volunteer hussars.
Artillery - one Light Gun

Pils-Holstein, commanded by Prinz Albrecht of Pils Holstein
Infantry - Leibgarde, Kronprinz Grenadiers, and Alt-Braunschweig (Prussian) Battalions.
Light Infantry - Kurtz Jagers
Cavalry - One 'squadron' (half regiment) of The Kronenbrau Kuirassiers and The Holstein Hussars
Artillery - one Light Gun

French forces will approach from the western edge of the table, Pils-Holstein from the east.

I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to use my homegrown rules, "A Grim Panoply", which haven't been opened for about two and a half years.

First dice are at 1000 tomorrow.

Full sitreps and despatches from the front will reach this warcabinet blog over the weekend.

Tomorrow evening is the fourth of our Virtual Wargames Club meetings, and I'm very much looking forward to hearing what the members have been up to this week. We've got one pictorial battle report already in and a painting tutorial being provided by one of the members too, in addition to several pictures for the show n tell.

Well done to everyone for contributing.

A very virtual hobby

Sometimes, I confess that I just set up a table layout with no intention of playing a game... just to admire the tabletop narrative presented, without having to actually roll any dice, or make any decisions!
Last weekend, I set up a little photo shoot with my successors. I particularly wanted to capture the moment just before the clash of pike blocks...

I suppose one might count that as 'Virtually wargaming", but that wasn't the meaning of this post title.
No, I was referring to the inventiveness of the online hobbyist.
I have noticed many people coming up with ways of sharing their wargaming activities of late, and I am sure you have too.

Not least was the "Partizan in the Cloud" initiative at the weekend. Well done to Laurence and Tricks for making this an enjoyable event as people from all corners of the hobby shared photos and videos... Particularly good to see were the photos from so many past Partizans.

It got me looking back through my own photo albums, and particulary through the Neerfuncken display game photos from August 2017.

And, coupled with Henry Hyde's contribution to the Partizan reminiscing, this caused my mid-18th century tastebuds to become whetted!

I may just get that collection out onto the tabletop this weekend, and have a little game!

Other virtual activities continue apace...

My son even reported that he has an online Diplomacy game on the go, and I know of one professional (and well-known) ballroom dancer who is running zoom D&D games with a group of pals!

Our own Virtual Wargames Club goes from strength to strength.

Last weekend's session had us chatting about rule sets, and in particular considering the proportion of rule sets owned to those actually played, regularly. We also discussed the tendency to create home -brewed rules, and yet the advantage of playing certain commercial sets so that one may turn up at a club anywhere and join in a game.

We are on again this Saturday at 1700 UK time... A relaxed, informal gathering of wargamers... Some of whose names will be familiar to you! 
If you'd like to join in, all the details you need to be there are on the right hand side of this blog. Just send me an email in advance and I'll send out the appropriate invitation. Simple.
You will find knowledge, expertise, experience, and more than a little inspiration.

Look forward to meeting you.

Meantime, hop over to my Classic Wargaming blog where I reminisce on the 2006 Partizan showing of Sittangbad...
link

https://classicwargaming.blogspot.com/

Silver Shields and VWC update

Managed to get the next unit of successor pikemen complete this week... 
The Silver Shields:





And here they are alongside their fellow Antithesid (Seleucid) pike blocks:


It's a mark of Successor fatigue that this unit took twice as long to complete as the others. I'm quite happy with them, but I may take a break from painting successors for a short while and concentrate on something else. We'll see.

Meanwhile, Saturday evening (UK time) saw the second gathering of the Virtual Wargames Club, with attendees from far and wide joining the group - from Manila to North Hampshire, from Dundee to Chicago... and all stations in between.

The conversation included current activities, terrain projects and games, and the show n tell was most entertaining, with members sharing some stunning modelling and painting work, from The Sudan to Stalingrad.
We even had a small breakout session with groups discussing the relative merits of metal, plastic and resin figures, and even an interesting straw poll as to which is the most popular medium.

Now, I don't want to put potential new members off, but here's the rogues gallery as the members started to settle down for the meeting. Not a bad bunch of lads after all!



Thanks to all who came along and joined in the intelligent, fun, and most enjoyable chat.
For anyone who wants to join in, it really is very straightforward. Just send me an email (details on the right of this blog page) and I will send out instructions for those not familiar with zoom, and an invitation to the meeting.

Same time next Saturday...

First Contact

Well, I have to say, the first meeting of the Virtual Wargames Club yesterday was a roaring success. And a big 'thank you' to those who supported it and contributed. 

We had people dialling in from all parts of the globe, and for some at an ungodly hour... well done to Stokes, Eric, and Ed who joined us from The States. Dedication indeed!

We chatted about all sorts of things, and whilst on this occasion we spent a lot of time on introductions and each person's current plans and projects, we also chatted about rules (from all periods, but specifically Pike and Shot/ Renaissance), and about Optivisors, and many other things.
We kept it light-hearted, and it was just wonderful to genuinely connect with people with whom many of us have had an online acquaintance for some 15 years, or more.
One member did manage to conduct the whole session whilst painting away at his painting desk: multitasking at its finest!
Everyone said they went away with renewed enthusiasm for the hobby. and that was the aim.

Even from a technical point of view there were very few hitches. The zoom newbies found it very straightforward. One person's laptop decided not to be as reliable as normal, and another had microphone issues, but apart from that, it was a huge success.

So much so, that the unanimous vote was to continue with weekly club meetings. From now on we will do Saturday at 1700 UK time, allowing those 'across the pond' to join in at a more sociable hour.

If you'd like to join this growing band, email me:
phil(at)philolley(dot)com
and we'll be delighted to have you along.

VWC - First Meeting

Having floated the idea of a Virtual Wargames Club in my previous post, I wasn't quite sure what to expect in terms of a response.

Well, I'm delighted to say that enough readers have emailed to say they'd like to be involved for this to get off the ground, so our first meeting is in the diary for 11.30am UK time on Saturday.
A big 'thank you' to those who have emailed and joined the virtual regiment (surely it won't be long before we start designing colours, and logos..!)

It's a small, but elite group of fellows so far. If you'd like to join the throng, email me:
phil(at)philolley(dot)com.

I'll be sending out the zoom invitations this evening, so look out in your inboxes (and check your spam folders if you don't receive).

If you're reading this after the invitations have gone out, do still email me, and I'll be able to add you.

So, if you'd like to spend 'coffee time' for an hour in the company of fellow wargamers from around the globe (we are already 'international' in our membership), then do get in touch. If you only wish to join for a few minutes, that's ok too... it doesn't have to be the full hour.

The conversation will be all about wargaming, painting, and the sort of stuff you are likely to bore your spouse to death with in lockdown! The sort of stuff we talk about when we meet in person, at shows, at clubs. 
There will be a bit of 'show n tell' too for those who want to show what they're working on, and discussion of books, rules sets, periods, and projects galore.

Who knows, it may become a regular 'thing'.

All the very best
Phil

Virtual Wargames Club..?

I've been thinking...
Dangerous. But true.

At the moment, I'm noticing I've got time to listen to podcasts, enjoy reading the odd blog, and even look around the various social media groups.
There's a spirit of connectedness in his period of lockdown.

And yet, sometimes there's nothing like a good face-to-face chat about the hobby. Whether that be at a club or a show.

So... Whilst the wonders of modern technology can't bring us into contact directly...

what about a Virtual Wargames Club?

Not a club where we play wargames, but where that other part of the hobby is conducted, namely a good old chat.
We'd talk about painting, current projects, rule sets, books, figures, terrain making, modelling, all manner of the sort of stuff we chat about at shows and at clubs. The sort of stuff that helps keep the painting ands gaming mojo going.

The wonders of zoom (is there anyone on the planet who is not yet familiar with this?) allow this to happen in many other arenas, so why not wargaming?

I'd be happy to host it, and set it up, I'd just need to know there would be enough interest to make it worthwhile. Initially I think we might have a dozen or so, or maybe more... Who knows.

If you might be interested, drop me an email:
Phil(at)philolley(dot)com
with "Virtual Wargames Club" in the subject line.

It will most likely be a Saturday morning around 1030 - 1130 UK time. 
Now, I know that might not suit some of our overseas pals... so if you are in, for example, the US or Canada, Australia or NZ, let me know in the email and I'll see if we can find a time that accommodates everyone.

If you aren't familiar with zoom, it will become very apparent how it works when you join the first meeting. I'll send out full instructions in advance.

At this stage I'm not sure we'd want to do it weekly, fortnightly, monthly. Who knows.
Let's just see who might be up for it...