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

Friday, 10 July 2026

Wild Geese 2026… P.S.

Greetings…

I completely forgot to mention the quiz…

Every year we have a quiz set by one of our more intelligent comrades… 

This years was a tough one…( Thank you Toby).

And you will not be surprised to learn our/my team… came…. 🎉🎉🎉… Fourth!

Out of…. 

Four 🙀

But…

Rather surprisingly that meant we got a prize…. The Wooden Spoon. ( One for each team member no less)

First place got cheers… Second and Third gave the cheers… And we got this…

Beautifully hand painted…

I think I will strive to do minimal research for next year’s quiz 🤣🤣🤣.

All the best   Aly


Thursday, 9 July 2026

Wild Geese 2026

Greetings…

I realised that I hadn’t posted any of the pictures that I took last month at our Wild Geese get together.

So here we go…











As always (it seems) I threw myself into Steve’s beautiful 42 mm Home Cast…Battle of Kenilwitz.

I came a magnificent second.

Next up…


Fochabers April 1746 from Guy Barlow.



















And last but by no means least…


Ecorcheurs… Run and written by Robert W. Jones.

A splendid skirmish wargame…Set in the Hundred Years War from Gripping Beast.

https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/Ecorcheurs_Rulebook_Skirmish_Wargaming_in_the_Hundred_Years_War--product--57031.htmlÉcorcheurs! Rulebook (Skirmish Wargaming in the Hundred Years War) | ECOR01 | Écorcheurs!











I thoroughly enjoyed this game…

Even though I got massacred 🤣.

All the best   Aly.



Wednesday, 1 July 2026

A nice tidy Painting Desk…

Greetings…

So I have finally got most of my newly acquired Terrain Boards tucked away in my cellar… Just a small amount of shuffling around and it will be done…Hurrah!

But being a butterfly with limited patience who is easily lead I decided to set up my new Painting Desk.

Oh! How beautiful and tidy it looks…

Oh! How that won’t last 🤣…


I think I shall get a little bit of painting done this afternoon… And then dust down and set up the Photo Booth.

I do like retirement 😁.


All the best.  Aly

Monday, 15 June 2026

Yup!… More Rebasing.

Greetings…

Here are another two rebased Roman units…

As before spears have been replaced and a little sprucing has happened…



There will be a slight pause in rebasing and maybe a slow down in painting as I sort through… and find somewhere to put… the forty odd 2x2 foot terrain boards I have just acquired.



They have been well loved and well played with so they are in need of some light sprucing and the odd repair… hopefully it won’t be too long before I have the toys out on them.

All the best.  Aly

Wednesday, 10 June 2026

More Rebasing… Another couple of Late Roman Units.

Greetings …

They have had a little bit of sprucing and some new spears…

Turned out well I think…



More rebasing to come plus a report from the Wild Geese Weekend…


All the best.  Aly

Friday, 5 June 2026

From My Side of the Table… Shiny Napoleonics… The first Game.

Greetings…

While my old friend David was visiting over the Partizan Weekend we had game to christen my Shiny Napoleonic Collection/New Wargames Table/New Wargames Room…

We were joined by Alan Perry…

Alan and I commanded the beautiful French while David took command of the workmanlike Prussians/Hanoverians/British…

Believing the Allies to be outnumbered they went on the Defensive (It turns out that we were wrong about this, much to the frustration of the beautiful French)

The Allies were to defend the three villages across their half of the table and the beautiful French were to Attack/Capture them…

The beautiful French threw themselves at the Allies defences but after fighting until both sides were effectively broken as dictated by our rules … Black Powder…we actually decided to play beyond this as we were having so much fun. 😁

So we decided that we had fought ourselves to a very bloody draw…

Later in the weekend David and I decided to set up both sides and just charge at each other to see what happened… this was when we discovered that the Allies actually outnumbered the beautiful French by three battalions…

We were mystified… 

Clearly the French were so overwhelmingly beautiful that it looked liked there were far more of them 🤣.

So here are some pictures… Hopefully Blogger with put them in the correct order 🤞




The very beautiful French…

Every Shiny French figure I own was out on the table… All of them in danger of suffering’New figure syndrome’ 😳






The Allies in there defensive positions…
Once again… All the toys out on the table… Including The Glasgow Wellington.





As the Central Brigade ( Encouraged by Napoleon himself) makes a push for the centre… my Light Brigade attempts a flanking move on the right of the line.
Alan throws his troops at the village on the left flank of our line…






The French ( Very beautiful French) Cavalry mass in the centre…
As the Prussian Guard and the Russo- German Legion brace themselves my Hussars break out and chase the Prussian Fusiliers of their hill… Hurrah!


A Blunder…
I did a few of these 🙀





Fortunately this blunder sent me forwards…As the Centre Column pushed on supported by the Hussars.
Alan’s men break into the village and start clearing it of defenders…Hurrah! Hurrah!




The Glorious and Beautiful French push forward crashing into the Russo- German Legion…



Beautiful French Hussars… Looking beautiful 😁.



Workmanlike Prussians and… Well… I suppose I have to admit Hanoverians looking beautiful 😁


Napoleon eyes up Glasgow Wellington… Or maybe just his hat.


Wellingtons falls back as the Beautiful French push into the Allies flank…


Just one more look at the lovely Beautiful, Glorious French Hussars…😆


Although the Beautiful French Light troops have defeated this Allied flank and look to taking the village the rest of the army is in no fit state to carry on… The Allies are in the same state…
So a draw is declared…

What a fun game…
As I said we set everything up later and had a straight stand up fight… It was quick and dirty and David won… Those extra battalions made a difference.
Here are a few pictures… Chosen because they are pretty.








Time for some painting I think…

All the best.  Aly