From My Side of the Table... The Battle of Berlin.

Yes The Battle of Berlin... But...NOT WW2...


The other week Alan Perry hosted an excellent ACW game for Jan Gradon, Peter Dennis, Dave Andrews, Chris Cound, Michael(Perry) and myself.

The scenario was based on a Confederate raid across The Potomac at Berlin, Maryland.
The Confederate forces have captured some ammunition and prisoners and are in the process of sabotaging the Baltimore Ohio rail road... All they have to do is get across the river to safety...
The river is of course flooded and a pontoon bridge must be built so they can cross...


Simple...


For a change I found myself on the side of The Confederacy with Dave Andrews and Chris Cound... Yup! I'm a Rebel... Yeee! Har!


We decided to defend the road against the predictable Union attack and let the Waggons and prisoners make their way off table as fast as possible...


The Union came on rather faster than we expected...with the exception of Jan's forces...
Chris's men were hit hard by Michael and Peter's regiments and after some tough fighting eventually broke...
I stepped in to fill the gap and rather surprisingly fought very well... managing to hold things together while Chris made his escape...
Jan's men eventually started forward and apart from one unfortunate blunder... rolled all the dice he wanted... when he wanted them...
Again after some hard fighting Dave's men broke or fell back...
All this time the bridge was being built across the river...


I managed somehow to hold my men together and give as good if not better than I took... and held the road open till a good part of our men made it to the bridge... before I felt the need to find something more interesting on the other side of the river myself...


The Ammunition wagons and prisoners moved faster than anyone else on the table...




This imaged used with kind permission of Alan Perry.

A view of the table...
My brave fellows are formed up more or less in front of the Green House to the top left...

An unfinished pontoon bridge...

Our glorious Rebel Cavalry watch on and encourage some rail disruption...

Our Cavalry... Desperate to vandalise more than rails...

My brave men basking in the sunlight...

Some union prisoners being captivated...

The (as it turned out very fast) Ammunition wagons...

A large group of Northern Commuters arrive to protest at the unexpected delays with the rail service...

Our centre braces itself...

Our dashing cavalry shout... Yeeeeee! Harrrrrr!

The Ammunition wagons start their incredible dash to the river... They never missed a move...

Jan's... for the moment not very enthusiastic troops...

Chris's men start to engage the Union of unhappy commuters while I hold back in reserve...

The Ammunition wagons and prisoners wait impatiently... to be rescued or to get across the river...

Chris's men...

As the Union press in on us ... the bridge is finished and the wagons race.. once again... across the bridge...

My men have pulled back towards the bridge and do their best to hold off the advancing Union...

This view shows Dave and Chris's broken troops falling back towards the river... for a change I did not break or in fact loose a single unit...

Chris's men make a break for it...

Dave's men also head for the bridge...

Dave's dashing cavalry... make a dash for the countryside...


We Won... We Won...
I don't care what anyone else says...
Waggons ,Prisoners and troops over the bridge at the end of the game...
And I didn't loose a single unit...


I could get used to this...


As always an excellent game of toy soldiers in excellent company... and an unexpected victory... Yes... a Victory!


All toys and terrain are from the collection of Alan Perry...
A less biased description of events can be found here...


https://www.facebook.com/perryminiatures/posts/2371621116293314?__tn__=K-R


All the best   Aly

The War Of Spanish Succession... French Artillery.

Boom Boom secouez la chambre...

Greetings...

My latest unit/units...

French Artillery... Two heavy pieces and two medium....

Both weights of gun are on the same base size...The Heavies have 5 crew and the Mediums have 4...


The Coat is... Citadel... Kantor Blue.
Which has been given a wash of... Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade.
The Facings, Socks and Waistcoat are... Citadel... Evil Sunz Scarlet...
The Hat Piping is... Citadel... Averland Sunset.
The Belts and Straps are... Foundry... Buff Leather 7B.
The White bits are... Citadel... Pallid Wytch Flesh.
 The Gun is... Citadel... Evil Sunz Scarlet.
Which has been given a coat of... Citadel Contrast... Blood Angel Red.
The metal work is... Citadel... Abaddon Black.
The Barrel and Buttons are... Citadel... Retributor Armour.


Everything was given a wash of Aly's Brown Liquid and highlighted with the original shade.

I am very pleased with the end result...

I know that the barrels were probably painted black, but I decided to paint them bronze so that they looked different from the Allies...

Next on the list I have two British artillery pieces...

The miniatures are as always Front Rank...
https://www.frontrank.com/product-category/18th-century/spanish-succession/
The paints are Wargames Foundry, The Army Painter and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling
Bases from Warbases...
https://warbases.co.uk/?product_cat=premier-bases-metric

I also managed to pick up a couple of new books...

All very interesting...


But I will keep my butterfly calm...


All the best   Aly

Remembrance Day...

Last year I posted some pictures of family members from my fathers side...
This year my brother sent me some images of my family from my mothers side...

Centre right Tommy Wardrope ... My Great Grandfather.

The oldest picture is of my Great Grandfather who was a long serving soldier in The Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders... Some 30 years under the colours as my dear old mother would say...I am told that our family history with the Argyle's goes back further than this but I have yet to find any hard evidence...
It appears that my Grandmother was actually born in Stirling Castle...
At the start of The Great War my Great Grandfather caught  pleurisy and was not allowed to go to France... Apparently he was livid...
Instead he was forced to stay at home and train others...
He rose to the rank of Colour Sergeant

Far left... Edward Wardrope... My Great Uncle.

My Great Uncle Ted... Also an Argyle and Sutherland Highlander...
I am told rose to the rank of Gunnery Sergeant at Stirling Castle..

Frederick Wardrope... My Grand Uncle

Grand Uncle Fred... My Grandmothers youngest brother...
I know very little about this man... My grandmother talked very little about her siblings and with my mothers increasing age and diminishing mental capacity I am not sure what I will be able to find out...
There are many websites that can give you the raw data.. Births...Marriages... Deaths... but sadly they do not preserve the stories and anecdotes...

My Grandfather.

My Grandfather... Peter Robertson... Royal Scots Fusiliers.
Sadly My Grandfather Died when I was eight years old...
He of course survived the Great War... He went on to work down the coal mines but after an injury started to drive buses for Wallace Arnold( A British tour company) in the 1930's and served in the Home Guard in WW2...

Robert Wardrope... Handsome devil.

Bobby Wardrope... My mothers Cousin... so my Cousin... Once? Twice? Removed???
A tall and very handsome man... Clearly I missed out on this genetic line...
I remember him as a very debonair gentleman and career soldier... My mother used to go all a flutter at the mention of his name... He I am told was married four times... the old devil.

Uncle Ian.

My Uncle Ian... My mothers older brother...
Sergeant RAF... He flew Hurricanes toward the end of WW2...
He trained in Canada and eventually emigrated there in the 1950's...

Dad.

My Dad...
Royal Army Medical Corps...
I think he was really glad that none of us followed the family traditions of joining the army, going down the pit or working for Carron Ironworks (the company that manufactured Carronades in the Napoleonic Wars)...


A slightly poignant post... I know...


They all survived...


Lest we forget...


All the best   Aly

The War of Spanish Succession... Dutch Artillery.

Greetings...


I have finished a new light gun and crew...


This one has been painted up as Dutch and with be used as a battalion gun or simply a light gun on its own...

The Coat, Waistcoat and Socks are... Citadel... Kantor Blue.
Which has been given a wash of... Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade.
The Facings are... Citadel... Evil Sunz Scarlet...
The Belts and Straps are... Foundry... Buff Leather 7B.
The Gun is... Citadel... Evil Sunz Scarlet.
Which has been given a coat of... Citadel Contrast... Blood Angel Red.
The metal work is... Citadel... Abaddon Black


Everything was then given a wash of Aly's Brown Liquid and highlighted with the original colours.


A nice workman like uniform I think.


Next on the painting desk... More Artillery.


All the best  Aly