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Sunday, 15 June 2025

Wild Geese 2025… And other Stuff.

Greetings…

Last weekend saw this years gathering of The Wild Geese Wargamers…

As always it was a joy of an event…. Excellent Company, Excellent Food and Excellent Games…

I took part in three games… And much to everyone’s …( Including mine ) surprise… I did quite well 🙀.

Okay….

Here are the pictures…

Off course the first thing I did was go straight into Shiny 42mm Seven Years War…

Steve’s game was based on The Combat of Domstadtl-1758…

I was one of the Austrian ambushers…




Steve produced an impressive amount of wagons… All of which had to get over the bridge and off the table…






Our glorious Austrians attack the convoy… Vigorously.


It was close… But eventually the Austrians block off the bridge from the Prussians and started to cut them up bit by bit.

Hurrah!

Next up…

More Seven Years War…This time from Ken… And more wagons trying to get away over a bridge…


I was on the Austrian side…

The bridge with the wagons in the middle distance…


Prussian hordes move rapidly towards our wagons


They shall not pass…



Yes we will…


Could the wagons move any slower?
Yes!…



The hard pressed Austrians hold out … with high casualties…


And a good number of wagons make it to safety…

And the third game … On the Sunday…
Sepoys and Soldiers…


A lovely colourful game put on by Martin…



I played the Maratha’s….


This is my Rocketeer unit/units… The ones with the red buttons…
These were absolutely the stars of the game…
Their bombardments caused the demise of two British units and one battery destroyed a cavalry unit in hand to hand combat….
Hurrah! Hurrah!…


These guys may look like they are attacking… Nope! This lot were retreating madly…
They did rally…Eventually…





We fought on doggedly… And much to our amazement we managed to wear the British down and cause them to break off the attack…


I say!….

The other games over the weekend were…


The Siege of Bogorovsk!…From Chris and Niall.








And the return of Keith’s French and Indian Wars river romp…



And very much to my surprise…


The Best General…. 🙀

A fantastic weekend indeed.

And so…
Other stuff…

The Trooping of the Colour…





I watch this every year… 
With the commentary turned off as I like to listen to the rattle and drum of all the equipment and the sound of the orders being barked out…
I think the whole thing has a Victorian maybe even Crimean War vibe about it… Certainly old school.

One of my friends tolled me I was a very strange socialist 🤣…

You may have noticed that I haven’t really been doing a lot of painting or that much posting really…
I’ve put it down mainly to the Blepharitis that I have… 
Which I have thought has been improving and in fact it is…
Unfortunately… As I have discovered after an afternoon of scans and tests… What isn’t improving is the Cataracts that I have developed in both eyes…Every thing is very fuzzy in my right eye and the left eye is not as bad but still showing signs of developing further…
It turns out that being on steroids… Which I am… Can cause the little buggers to come on quicker than normal…
I have been registered for the operation… Which will hopefully happen sooner rather than later…
The “Myopic Shift” that you get with Cataracts has been fairly severe… So I am getting new glasses and a new prescription to compensate…
This may actually allow me to get some painting in…Which would be nice.
Fortunately I don’t have too many problems reading… So there might be a few book reviews/recommendations on the way…

Although I have been told not to overdo things…

All the best.   Aly












32 comments:

  1. Looks like a splendid way to spend the weekend! Best General trophy? Congratulations!

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    1. Thank you Jonathan…
      A great weekend indeed…The “Best General” was certainly the cherry on the cake…😁

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  2. You had a great time it seems, and Best General too! You are ahead of me on the eye stakes, 12-18 months for me the Optician says. Meanwhile new glasses will help I'm told.

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    1. Glorious Victory certainly improves the experience 🤣
      I haven’t been given a date yet… But because the Cataracts affect my ability to work the optician says my wait will be shorter than it would normally be… Hopefully they are correct.
      I get my new glasses this week so we will indeed “see” if it helps 😁

      All the best. Aly

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  3. Certainly was a great gathering of games. Congrats on Best General! Cataracts are bothersome, especially to painting. Patience until the procedure; you will be very happy with the results. It was a while back but I remember how much brighter and colorful it was the fact.

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    1. Thank you Joe…
      We were certainly spoilt for choice…
      I have been told that you see colours a lot brighter…
      I’m hoping I won’t have to repaint my miniatures 🙀

      All the best. Aly

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  4. A cracking weekend their Aly that must have been an antidote to your current health woes. Topped off with tabletop victories too!

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    1. A cracking weekend indeed Phil…
      Toy soldiers and victories are certainly good medicine 😁

      All the best. Aly

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  5. Aly, sorry to hear of your continuing eyesight problems, let’s hope you can soon get back to painting! I’d have considered myself very lucky to have taken part in even one of those three games - wonderful miniatures in all of them. Congrats on being the best general too - your cup truly runneth over on this occasion. Huzzah

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    1. Thank you Mark…
      Fortunately Cataracts are relatively easy to fix… So hopefully I will get back to painting toys soon.
      “Best General” was certainly a surprise…
      Best “ Unlucky “ General is the usual state of play 😁.

      All the best. Aly

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  6. Splendid looking games, did you bring your own dice or were you borrowing someone else's? Clearly you need to bottle it! Post cataract operation meant I couldn't see miniatures as well and had to use reading glasses for the first time but for everything else it was a massive improvement as my sight had rapidly fallen of a cliff!
    Best Iain

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    1. You make a good point Iain… I wasn’t using my own dice.
      Maybe I need to do a re-supply 🤔
      I have been told that I will need reading glasses to paint my toys but as I already have them to ‘read’ with there shouldn’t be many issues…

      All the best. Aly

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  7. Super looking games, all are top notch, there is certainly something about the Prince August game that really get the juices flowing, quite superb! Hopefully your sight travails will get all sorted sooner rather than later.

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    1. Steve does such a good job putting his games together and they are a real joy to take part in…
      I am hoping that my new glasses will help a bit until I have the operation…

      All the best. Aly

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  8. Aly, sorry to hear of the eye problems.
    We heard all about your exploits on the VWC from Guy B!
    Neil

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    1. Thank you Neil…
      I think Guy was wondering what I had done with the real Aly Morrison 🤣

      All the best. Aly

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  9. That looks great - and good luck for the surgery!

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    1. Thank you Kym…
      Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later…

      All the best. Aly

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  10. I feel your frustration with your eyes but they'll so very much better with the surgery - it really is wonderful what they can do now. After retinal surgery and then the subsequent cataract, I was able to clear for active service once more and deploy - so the tunnel you are on is truly light at the end. All the best.

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    1. Thank you…
      With any luck it won’t be too long till I get surgery…
      And then it will be back to painting toys…

      All the best. Aly

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  11. Congratulations on the trophy - very impressive!

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    1. Thank you Ian…
      It was a genuine surprise…

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  12. Good luck with cataract ops, I've heard your eyesight can get much better after the op, I hope that will be your experience.
    The Wild Geese look like a great set of gamers, I've done Sittangbad (I was the attacker and took too long bringing an overwhelming attack to bear and the b*ggers got away) it's fiction I know, but 1766 and SYW?
    Also, loved the fortified town in the Bogorovsk siege game - want to try that some time with my SSMs.

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    1. Thank you Rob…
      Everyone I have spoken to says that post procedure the difference in vision and quality of colour is quite dramatic…
      Sittangbad is great scenario… I think the easy bit is just trying to get the wagons over the bridge…
      The “Prussians” really have to work hard to get a coordinated attack in place…
      Bogorovsk was really well done… I really liked the way they reproduced the advance of the Saps and Trenches…

      All the best. Aly

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  13. Best General....just as well I am sitting down Aly! Bugger about the eye sight but sounds like a relatively easy fix, so hopefully you don't have to wait too long.

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    1. Yes… Best General?…. Crazy talk 🤣🤣🤣
      I was told that Cataract operations are one of the most common medical procedures around…
      So one hopes they know what the are doing by now. 😁
      I think the waiting time is the biggest unknown…

      All the best. Aly

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  14. My original comment didn't go through, so I'm coming late to the game. Always good to gather with old mates for some dedicated gaming (and the games all look superb!). Good luck on your procedure: my father had cataract surgery and it was successful (and pretty routine: but then again, nothing is "routine" to those who are going through it). In the meantime, I have discovered that there is a ton of audio content (to include complete audio books) on (of all things) Youtube.

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    1. Hi Ed…
      It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend…
      It is quite reassuring to hear about so many people having the operation and having very positive results…
      Yes Audio Books on YouTube… a splendid thing…
      There are also a number of Podcasts that post on there as well…

      All the best. Aly

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  15. Congratulations mon général!
    Fabulous looking games, especially the three that you were part of. Wonderful mix of scales, figures and periods all on sensational table tops.
    All the best with your cataracts until the op(s) Aly. You'll be amazed at the improvement, if you are like all of the others that I have heard of having them removed.
    Best wishes, James

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    1. Thank you James…
      There certainly was an excellent choice of games… A good sign of how good it was is that you leave… Wanting more 😁
      Hopefully it won’t take too long till I get my operation…

      All the best. Aly

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  16. Superb looking weekend. Sounds like you've been kidding us along to lull your opponents into a false sense of bravado...Best General!
    Hope you get your eyes repaired soon, and get back to painting.

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    1. It was indeed Meic
      I wish I was cunning enough to convincingly lose as much as I have done…🤣
      I think this was just a strange ripple in the wargames reality.
      I am managing to get quite a lot of figures cleaned up and assembled…So I will have plenty to paint when my eyes are fixed.

      All the best. Aly

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