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

Wednesday, 15 January 2025

A New Year… Again.

Greetings…

So another year has come and gone…

It’s been an odd one… I certainly didn’t get as much done as I wanted… The world , Life , Health and Builders have conspired to getting in the way of me painting and playing with toys…

Anyway here are some pictures…



Shiny Napoleonics…



Rebasing Russians…



More shiny…



The Wild Geese Weekend…



Lion Rampant Wars of the Roses…



More Shiny…


Edinburgh…



And all the dry storage space I will ever need…

I was definitely leaning towards the Shiny in 2024…

Hopefully I will get a bit more done this year… I do have some vague plans and thoughts…
Whether they last the year is another thing all together…

Things that I would like to do more of…

Shiny Napoleonics,
Wars of the Roses,
The War of 1812,
3rd Century Rome,

All these collections would benefit from have more and new units added to them….

Shiny War of 1812,
Shiny Neapolitans,
Shiny ACW,

The War of 1812 and Neapolitans would make excellent expansions to my Shiny collections… Especially the outrageous Neapolitan uniforms.

Pyrrhic and Hellenistic Greek…

This is something I am definitely going to go… Aventine Miniatures do some splendid figures that would be suitable for this…

Make some new Terrain…
I could do with some more flexible boards 600mm x600mm rather than the 300mm ones I have.

Maybe something Byzantine…
Maybe something WW2… The War in the Desert maybe…

Or maybe not…

Of course this may and possibly will all change by the end of the week…
Except for the Pyrrhic and Hellenistic Greeks that is…

Let’s hope my Butterfly agrees with me…

All the best.  Aly










Thursday, 9 January 2025

Boxing Day Game 2024

Greetings…

My apologies for the time between posts… and the late posting of the Boxing Day Game…

Shortly after Christmas I caught Flu which combined with my Sarcoidosis and an underlying infection… Basically knocked me for six and lead to two visits to the hospital for Blood testes, chest X-Rays, ECG’s and various other swabs and checks….

I am slowly recovering…Apparently this will take some time…

I am beginning to feel a bit better….And I am starting to think about painting toys…

I have even bought myself some new toys… Retail therapy…. What’s not to like.

So… I’m not going to give a full blow by blow account of the Boxing Day game…. I’m not sure how much I can recall… apart from the fact that I will not be holding a victory parade….

Here are sone hopefully pretty pictures with some occasional comments…




The beautiful village… With the Gavle Goat in the village square…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat

The object of the game was for Rust and Malchanceux to burn the goat for a victory… collecting Xmas dinner and destroying enemies on the way would be a bonus.

The Snowmen had to defend it….






Rust makes his move…As does one of the Snowballs of the Apocalypse… (The only one to be activated in the game)…


Rust press’s on…



Malchanceux wanders slowly through the woods… They did manage to pick up a little snack…


Brace yourselves …



Rust finds good firing positions and pours shot into the Village square…



Wander…Wander…Sigh!…



Look… The Village , The Goat ,Snowmen and Rust…
Open fire!…





Like my memory… It starts to get messy…
A flurry of Snowmen and Rusts soldiers running around fighting, shooting and attempts at arson…


Not even Drunky wanted to get involved….


And then at almost the last throw of the dice… The Goat is incinerated….😱

It really was down to the wire…. Rust and Malchanceux were one wrong throw away from breaking…

I reckon I came a Glorious…. 4th 🤣🤣🤣…
A very fun game indeed….

Heres to a Happy and Healthy New Year…

Look after yourselves…

All the best.   Aly



Monday, 23 December 2024

Merry Christmas….

 A very Merry Christmas to everyone…


Drinky and Drunky say…
Bl&***bloo&£##@flum**”%Glook….

Apparently it makes perfect sense after you have had forty or fifty pints…😳😱🤯🤣🤣🤣

I hope you get all the toys you wished for…

All the best.   Aly, Drunky and Drinky….


Thursday, 19 December 2024

From My Side of the Table… Lion Rampant… Christmas Cappers.

Greetings…

The other Friday we got together for a Christmas Wars of the Roses treasurer hunt…

The table was beautifully set up by Matt… looking suitably seasonal….

Although Adam and Matthew couldn’t make it we decided to include them as two drunken Revellers/Deserters…

The scenario was very simple… like most of ours… made up on the spot…

The object of the game was to collect up a much Xmas loot as possible and then present it to Santas glamorous helper at the church…

Points were given for loot gathered and enemies destroyed…

The drunks and the Maid acted as mobile loot…Moving randomly across the table.



The Drunks…

Santas glamorous helper…

The Maid and the Drunks….

A view of the table… 

You can see the cunningly hidden counters…


My brave warriors make their way on to the Field of Mars…

Hastings (Steven) makes his presence known…

My brave men start to spread out and look for Xmas treats….

Boucherie ( Israel) makes his play at the church…

I rush forward and persuade the Maid to join our party and snatch up a number of Xmas treats… A Goose and a Tree… I think 🤔.


The Drunks… Let’s be honest… They haven’t gone far… So much for their plan to to leave the country and party like its 1499….


An overview of the table… Enemies are massing around me as I try to snatch up as much treasure as I can.
I think this is probably my high watermark…
Then the dice gods removed their favour… And laughed in my face. 😱




I deftly place myself in a perfect position… For everyone…and their Aunties…to shoot at me… 
Sigh!



I am forced back… And lose control of the Maid…And her treasure…


Matt (Tudor) goes for broke and mobs the church…
“ With me lads… And you drunks… Get in the steeple… It’s party time”


The Maid decides to rejoin me… And I decide to try collect everyone around the House/Hovel and try and hold on to my goodies.
In the background Israel (Boucherie) makes a play towards Matt (Tudor) and the church…


Once more I seem to have presented a perfect target for my enemies…


Ouch!…


The Drunks make a break/stagger for pastures new…



But somehow end up back inside the church…
While Israel (Boucherie) and Matt (Tudor) continue their fight…


As I consolidate my position… Israel (Boucherie) rushes forward and challenges me to a duel…
“ Come on if you think you are hard enough De La Pole”



It turns out I was…
A fleeting moment of glory for me… Hurrah!


The party kicks off in the Steeple….


I look glorious and prepare to take on the world…



Unfortunately the world is armed with crossbows….
Not a single man left alive… Sigh!

The Maid wanders off to join the party…


Steven ( Hastings) sweeps up all of my fallen/lost treasures…


Party time for Matt (Tudor).

A splendid game indeed…
Matt won the moral/party high ground but Steven definitely won on points…
He got most of them for killing my men and collecting up my treasures…

I forgot to take a picture of what the treasures were … but there was A Tree, A Goose, Presents, Plum Duff, Beer, Wine…And much more. (Yes… The memory of a gold fish). We also included some blanks… I think Israel got these…

I think the next game will be my Xmas game with Mharaid 

Hopefully I will get some painting done over the holidays… 
I have been quite unproductive of late…
I am still not fully over the office Lurgy and the current weather we are having is exasperating my Sarcoidosis and causing my joints to ache ( Possible Fibromyalgia I am told)
Age… A laugh a minute 🤣🤣🤣

All the best.   Aly