ALY MORRISON'S "BUTTERFLY" ADVENTURES IN THE WORLD OF WARGAMES AND TOY SOLDIERS

Tuesday 26 June 2018

The Wild Geese Wargamers weekend 2018

This year The Wild Geese flocked together for another weekend of ...


Drinking, Eating, Drinking, Eating, Wargaming, Eating, Wargaming, Drinking, Eating, Drinking, Drinking, Drinking, Eating, Wargaming, Eating and Wargaming.


And a damn fine weekend it was...


There were four games on offer over the weekend...


Versailles... put on by Colin Ashton... who also did a fantastic job of organising this years spectacular... many thanks sir.
Great Northern War... put on by Paul Robinson.
A 17th century game using original Spencer Smith Plastics put on by Willz Harley.
And last but by no means least a Zulu War game put on by Garry Phillips.


All the games were splendid, the only one I missed playing was Gary's which looked like a lot of fun an was defiantly the noisiest in the room.


Here are some pictures of the games I played in ...


Pauls Great Northern War...
I commanded a Russian force and our job was to intercept a Swedish supply train... the Swedish were tasked with being mean and carrying big pointy sticks...

















Our armies face off against each other...





Some nasty Swedes rush over to play 'stabby stabby' with their big pointy sticks...




My roll of a double one means 'stabby stabby' for me in these rules...







Our forces swept and flowed across the battlefield...






I roll lots of ones ... the Swedes do lots of 'stabby stabby'...




Its so much fun that even the Swedes join in... in this case it just means they don't play 'stabby stabby'...


All this time I've been trying to get them to play a game of 'shooty shooty' which I am better at...





As the cavalry sweeps and flows on the other side of the table ... I brace myself for more 'stabby stabby'...




Yup! Its 'stabby' time...




The cavalry also get down to a bit of 'stabby' action...





This is the dice roll you need ... to see your Horse Grenadiers get their arse handed to them by some Tarter Light Cavalry....





The Swedes decided to try a game of 'shooty shooty'... they weren't very good at it... and started to run away...


Actually our cavalry had played a blinder and were about to stamp all over the supply train so the men with pointy sticks headed off to try and save the day... which they didn't ...



The lunch bell signalled the end of the game... the dice strewn table demonstrating the intensity of the battle...


After lunch I took part in Willz's 17th century Spencer Smith game...


A simple mission... defeat the enemy.


Sadly not that many of the pictures were good enough to use...







Our forces face off... we were a mixture of Prussians and Savoyards...
They were 'French'...




My beautiful hussars...



 What a glorious force...


The enemy cuirassiers... for some reason I thought that my beautiful hussars could stamp all over them...
Apparently not...



The French had managed to occupy most of the villages and towns and we simply could not remove them...


So at beer o clock we called it a day...
I really enjoyed playing with the Spencer Smith figures ...most of which were original plastics over thirty years old...
Old School Gold...


My final game was Colin's Versailles...


This was a classic treasure hunt game... The main objective was to get your troops to a bridge at the other end of the table and to stop the dastardly Dutch flooding the land that we were on...
Along the way you could collect cards which gave you 'interesting and colourful characters' to join your commanders entourage...
You could also play cards on your own forces to improve your progress or on competing commanders to hamper theirs... guaranteed to bring the best out in us.




Looking into the sun on our long road to victory...





Tally Ho!...and off we go...




An early addition to my entourage... a young lady who seemed to have forgotten to get fully dressed.
Well... it is Versailles after all...




A mad dash of cavalry head towards the bridge... or maybe that character card beside the hedge...




My dashing officer braves the bullets as he dashes between French and Dutch Dragoons engaged in a fire fight...





My Horse Grenadiers leap hedges as they head towards the bridge...




It does of course help that there is also a character card in sight...




Tally Ho!...




My Horse Grenadiers hit the bridge... Just as the Dutch blew everything up...and lunch was served.


We had some very interesting entourages by the end of the game...




Gavin favoured an even mix of  fair maidens and glamorous young men...




Graham had what one might call an eclectic mix of colourful and interesting young ladies...




It turned out that having a dominatrix and a suspicious looking nun in my own entourage made me the winner... Hurrah!  back to mine for tea and biscuits.


Another excellent and beautifully presented game...


There are more pictures on Colin's blog... there is also a group picture of everyone involved.


 http://www.carryingsonupthedale.com/


And there are also more pictures on Jims Blog...


http://altefritz.blogspot.com/
And Grahams Blog...
http://scotiaalbion.blogspot.com/




A very big thanks to everyone involved in what was a wonderful weekend...


Here's to the next one.


All the best  Aly














































Monday 4 June 2018

A Song of Drums and Shakos... British

Greetings...


So...


After all that khaki...
Time for some... SCARLET.


This is the next unit for my Song of Drums and Shakos project ,,,


The 50th Regiment of foot... The Dirty Half Hundred.


Facings as black as Uxbridge Rust's heart...


http://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2018/03/song-of-drums-and-shakos-uxbridge-rust.html


I was so excited to paint something bright that I didn't bother to take any work in progress shots...Sorry


Everything was painted in my usual way... base colours followed by a wash of Aly's Brown Liquid...






Coatee... Citadel ... Evil Sunz Scarlet.
Trousers.. Citadel... Adminstratum  Grey.
White... Citadel... Pallid Wych Elf Flesh.
Facings... BLACK.
Water Bottle... Foundry... Night Sky 62B.
Shako Cords... Citadel... Loren Forest.
Musket... Citadel.. Mournfang Brown.
Belts... Citadel...  Ceramite white.
Snap sack... Foundry... Canvas 8B.


And of course .... Aly's Brown Liquid.


Then re-highlight with original colour.




I Glossed the black leather with Tamiya Clear...and any brown leather with Tamiya Clear orange.








These were a pleasure to paint...


The miniature are from Front Rank.
https://www.frontrank.com/product-category/napoleonic/napoleonic-british/


The bases are from War Bases...
https://warbases.co.uk/


Paints from...
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling


And...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint


I have some civilian and character figures still to paint...
I need to find a suitable Malchanceux...
And a dashing escort for both commanders...


Then Mharaid.. my beloved daughter will slaughter me on the wargames table.


Hurrah!


All the best  Aly.