Gaming Update, Game at my place 29JUL23 at 1900hrs

        We will be gaming at my place this Saturday, July 29th, at 7pm.

Suggestions are welcome

WRG in the forested field

       So Anton and I recently played another one of our afternoon WRG games.  This time Anton ended up in the Orange book (book 1) and I ended up in the Yellow book (book 2).  Anton selected the Roman era Spanish, and I selected the Normans.  We hope you will enjoy the results.  

       Here is the terrain for the game and both of our armies laid out on the table (Anton is near, mine is the further)

 

Thoughts on travel, guided tours and preserving your own choices....

 

these thing are like sand on a beach, 

nearly everywhere I turned there was a gray finger pointing at the heavens,

stone reminders of Ireland's frequently-invaded past

        As most readers know I just returned from a trip to my ancestral homeland; the Emerald Isle of Ireland. This trip was taken through the agency of a guided tour company and was jolly fun. Two weeks (or rather less as we lost two days due to flight cancellations from United Airlines) touring the south-west of Ireland (my family hails from County Cork). It was edifying, delicious and (literally) intoxicating. My tour-mates were a diverse and amusing group and by the end of the trip some strong friendships had been forged. Unfortunately it wasn't designed by a history buff; we sailed past ring-forts, pele towers, castles and battlefields at 100kph while on the way to falconry demonstrations, sheep-dog performances and such. It was all good for the passing tourist but it left me wishing for a "Let Me Off Here" button.

 

 

yes, it REALLY is that  lovely

Sheen Falls near Kenmare

        The countryside was beautiful to the point of breath-taking, the food was ample and inventively tasty, the beer and whiskey flowed at a rapid pace and the people were uniformly friendly.  I plan on returning but I will also be certain to remain the captain of my own destiny during the return visit. A vacation-home rental and careful use of the omnipresent public transportation will allow me to visit the vast array of historic places at my own pace rather than the "OK folks, we have an hour here" pace of a tightly scheduled tour. The Dublin area alone could absorb two weeks of steady exploring. Then there's the Neolithic sites like Newgrange..........

Commandos and Guards; 28mm fun from Wargames Atlantic

 

        These really aren't new, they are just full-sized boxes of the minis from 02Hundred Hours Starter Set. They are a great deal if you want to play using a different system or are building a unique force for Bolt Action. You can find full sprue-reviews here. These are both great sets of figures and I highly recommend them!

Gaming Update; Game this Saturday 22JUL23 1900hrs

        Fresh back from Ireland and looking to get a game in. Not sure yet what, but there will be a game this Saturday. I got a couple of books while I was there and they are chock full of skirmish ideas. I will be considering how to adapt them to 02Hundred Hours or maybe my own Wild West Shoot-Out Rules.

It appears that Anton has taken up the true sport of Kings!

 

Just a few more days folks.  Here we see Anton relaxing in his native element, literally!  And he seems to have made a new friend

Anglo-Danish VS Libyan Egyptian AAR

 

       As is usual with our games Anton and I launched into the game and forgot to take pictures of the deployments and first turn.  But here is what things looked like at the end of Turn 2.  

Once upon a time .. on a Mythical Field that never existed

 

       Anton and I have continued our afternoon WRG sessions here is our latest "messcapade" for your amusement.  As a general note these games are seen as opportunities to try out army idea and just generally "getting in a game".  We randomly assign each other and army book to work from and run on a standard 1,250 points for each army.  Anton had book II for this game and I had Book I.  

Off To Ireland!

     Operations here at Anton's Wargame Blog will be in the hands of my (rarely seen but ever-present) co-editors, R.U.P. and The Housemartin for the next couple of weeks as I am running away to Ireland. This has been a life-long dream and I am eager to visit the land of (half of) my bloodline. I will bore you all later with piles of pictures of historic things (perhaps on a spin-off blog rather than crowding out wargaming here) that I see while I am there. Have fun, stay safe and roll sixes!

Bastle House Project, the beginnings of the interior

 

rather than laying in miniature tiles I drew them into the matte-board floor

       Having finally finished painting the exterior I shifted gears and started on the interior of the model. Rather than trying to paint and model the interior features directly onto the walls I decided to build them as flat objects that I could simply glue to the walls after painting was completed. Regular readers will likely be aghast at the idea of me carefully measuring things to ensure a tight fit, but I assure you that all the measurements were made by marking directly from the model onto the materials and the ruler served only in the capacity of a straight edge for drawing lines. 

        The first step was to draw flagstones on the floor of the room that I was working on. The thick soft matte-board is easily indented by a ball-point pen (much like the roller indented the blue board). With the flagstones delineated it was a simple matter to paint over the floor with  thinned-down paint so the dark lines showed between stones. This worked even better than I thought it would.

 

the floor with a coat of thinned paint, 

the lines between the flagstones are too clear so another coat of paint will be applied 

The End of the Rock Era

 

all the bastle bits together

       It seems like a thousand years ago that I started painting the individual stones on the surface of this collection of models. A solid week of four hours a day painting little tiny rocks......what in the name of all that is Holy was I thinking? But it is done now. Weathering, highlighting and interiors remain.

Gaming Update, My Place 17JUN23 1900hrs

        As usual I'm not sure just what I will be running but there WILL be a game.