Plans for 2021

With the new year looming it is time to plan the year ahead. As in previous years this will be broken down into Battles, Campaigns and Painting/modelling. 

There is one new project, the Battle of Trebia from the 2nd Punic Wars. An old favourite period of mine and given added impetus from the LittleWars TV episode.

BATTLES

There will almost certainly be more from the various projects (see "My Collections and Projects" tab above which will be regularly updated) and those listed below will be priorities.

ANCIENTS:

Early Imperial Roman 16th Legion v Ancient British Trinovantes tribe in East Anglia.

2nd Punic War - Battle of Trebia (Both sides need painting so 50:50 if achieved this year).

ECW:

Battle of Chewton Mendip.

Looking further out I hope to play some of the more well known battles, the first being Edgehill. It is unlikely to be in the coming year but is a possibility depending on how fast I can paint the additional figures required!

NAPOLEONIC:

Battle of Talavera - Peninsular War project. Over the past month I have made good progress painting the Spanish force required. I have several allied units to paint for the French but this battle is now a probability for this coming year.

Battle of Tourane - Campaign Dutch v French. This, in all probability, will be the first game of the year.

ACW:

Cavalry skirmish at Rorketon - from the new campaign.

Scenarios - I have yet to decide if any will be played with concentration being placed on the campaign.

Gettysburg is still up there but unlikely given all other projects planned.

COLONIAL:

Rorkes Drift - Almost half the Zulus painted with most of the British needed to be done including the buildings.

WW2:

Air action and battle south of Nibeiwa - Operation Compass campaign

Battles from the "Reconnaissance in Strength" mini-campaign (Soviets v Germans) - I intend to play this as a continual rolling battle to completion of the campaign.

Groesbeek Heights - Op Market Garden

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Review of 2020

With the wargame table packed away for the Xmas festivities it is time to review how the past year progressed.

As with previous yearly reviews I will revisit my plans for the year to see how they panned out and will add any unplanned events!

Text in italics are taken directly from my years' plans.

Before I start I should mention there are 2 events which will impact on my wargaming this coming year. From mid February I will be away for 5 weeks. The second, and rather more impactive, is a house move. Assuming we manage to sell our house ok we intend to move before the end of the year. This will severely restrict the gaming side of the hobby although I hope to maintain at least a degree of figure painting. One of the criteria for our new home will be it possesses, or has the potential to possess, a wargames room. So, all being well, normal service should be resumed in due course. It may of course give me the opportunity to experiment with skirmishing in 6mm. Chain of Command on a coffee table looks promising!

We managed to get away for 5 weeks returning to the mayhem that was Covid-19! This also clashed with our house move which fortunately, was completed in April. My worst fears about not having wargame space were not realised, and even better still I had slightly more room than previously! So normal service resumed.

WARS OF THE ROSES:

Battle of Shrewsbury - From the Kingmaker campaign. 400 - 500 figures need to be painted, the first of which has now been primed and on my painting table.

Completed with AAR on the blog.

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Market Garden: XXX Corps Breakout

This scenario is taken from the Rapid Fire! supplement 'Market Garden'. Converting Rapid Fire orders of battle to Blitzkrieg Commander IV is relatively simple. Artillery is translated 1:1 as are support weapons. Infantry have 3 bases to a company (1 base = 1 platoon). Mine are based in multiples of 4 figures and given that RF companies average around 8 figures it is a simple matter of increasing numbers by 50% to calculate how many are needed for the reduced German battalions.

Where there is transport that needs to be increased slightly to ensure all units have a vehicle assigned. Tanks are a little different. In RF the tank ratio is 1:5 compared to 1:3 or 4 in BKC. A squadron of 3 tanks therefore becomes 5 and so on.

This will mean rather more tanks and vehicles travelling along the road from Joe's Bridge and the increased possibility of a traffic jam! Should be interesting.

The scenario book recommends a table size of 8' x 5' for 20mm (although allows for flexibility). I calculated that 4'6" x 3' should be sufficient for 6mm.

Game details:

Table Size - 4'6" x 3'

 Figures - Heroics & Ros 1/300 (Brit carriers GHQ 1/285)

Rules - Blitzkrieg Commander IV

ORDERS OF BATTLE:

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Market Garden: XXX Corps Breakout Preview

Still on a WW2 theme I bring a preview of my next game, "XXX Corps Breakout", the first game of my Operation Market Garden project. This is to play through the scenarios in the Rapid Fire 'Market Garden' supplement and possibly turning it into a campaign.

Details of the game will be provided on the AAR which should be completed fairly soon. In the meantime I am posting photos of the German position through which XXX Corps will have to fight. All the figures and vehicles are by Heroics & Ros.

XXX Corps will arrive along the road in the foreground and all armour must remain on it until they reach Valkenswaard in the distance.

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