Wild Geese 2023…

Greetings…

Last weekend saw the Wild Geese flock gather together for a weekend of mostly 18th Century gaming.

It was great to see that a lot of the usual suspects were there along with some new faces.

Friday night was spent eating food, drinking beer and catching up with old friends… Yes I know… It was an awful job but someone had to do it…

On Saturday after a hearty breakfast (The hotel does indeed do a damn fine breakfast), We headed off to war…

My first game was Paul’s lovely Seven Years War game using Berliner Zinnfiguren Flats…

I actually did really well in this battle… The dice gods were clearly in a good mood.

Unfortunately they had taken against my co-commander Chris… His force was soundly beaten and I was left outnumbered and almost surrounded… I doffed my hat graciously at the Prussian hordes and surrendered… ha well!

Here are some pictures… 

I really enjoyed this … the figures looked amazing… The buildings I believe were made by Paul’s Grandfather who was also into playing with toy soldiers.

I definitely did not go straight onto the Berliner Zinnfiguren website… Okay… I might have… But just for a look…

I absolutely did not press the ‘Buy Now’ button… Okay… But it was just once… Erm… Twice maybe…

Apparently they are arriving tomorrow… 🦋🦋🦋

Anyway…

The second game I had was Steve M’s battle of Kolin game… Using Command and Colors and lots and lots of home cast Prince August figures…

Another cracking game… And yes a win. 

My co-commander Robbie and I were glorious… Hurrah!

Here are some pictures…

No I didn’t rush of and buy some Prince August moulds…I’ve already got enough 😂.

After two games it was off to eat, drink and be merry…

After a good night’s sleep it was up and at them again…

This next game was always going to be a winner for me…

Now where have I seen these toys before…😁

David and I took the part of the plucky Brits… And we won… 😱… Yup!… Two and a half in a row…Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurr!…

Here are more pictures of glory…

Tim and Ian were using their own home grown rules… And they were nicely Old School.

A lot of the figures were Shiny Toy Soldiers and Little Britons but a good few of the ‘Continentals’ were home made home cast figures by Ian… And very nice they are too.

The games I didn’t play in were a magnificent Great Northern War game by Steve…

Sadly I only managed to take one very out of focus picture… My apologies to him… Victory can be so distracting.

Willz put on a lovely game using collection of Spencer Smith 18th Century figures…

This game certainly deserved more pictures than I managed to take…

Keith put on a very interesting looking and crowded FIW game.

Again only a couple of pictures…

Needless to say… I did not get the Unluckiest General prize this year… Gasp!

A fantastic weekend… And a big thank you to everyone who made it possible.

I am already looking forwards to 2024.

Here are some of my fellow Wild Geese’s blogs were you will see more pictures…

https://scotiaalbion.blogspot.com/2023/06/wild-geese-weeken.html

https://stuartinschwargames.blogspot.com/

http://grimsbywargaming.blogspot.com/2023/06/wild-geese-2023.html

https://independentwargamesgroup.blogspot.com/2023/06/wild-geese-weekend-2023.html

All the best.  Aly

Did the good dice last?

Of course not… All back to normal 😂🤣😂.

A New Book… Fighting for Liberty.

Greetings…

This evening I sat in the garden and continued to read this rather excellent book…

Sun, A white wine spritzer, A book and absolutely no gardening

If you are even a little bit curious about the Monmouth Rebellion this is an excellent book… Very well written and easy to read…

Reading about the ‘Battle’ of Bridport had me reaching for the Front Rank Miniatures catalogue 😂.

Unlike some of the books I have on the subject this one also covers the actions in Scotland really well.

A lot of the actions would be perfect for Pikeman’s Lament or Donnybrook…

Am I tempted… No!… Not at all… Honest…

Whether you are tempted to let your butterfly have a treat or just want to find out a bit more about an interesting period in British history I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

You can find it here…

https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/fighting-for-liberty-argyll-and-monmouths-military-campaigns-against-the-government-of-king-james-1685.php

All the best.  Aly.

Helion Books have not bribed me in any way to say nice things about this book… Yet!

The War of 1812… A solo game.

Greetings…

I realised that I hadn’t actually had a game with my War of 1812 collection…

I used Rebels and Patriots…Which I hadn’t yet played either.

The rules work really well… If you have played Lion Rampant then there are no terrible surprises to be had…

There was no real scenario I just put the toys on the table and rolled some dice…

It would appear that playing solo doesn’t improve my position with the dice gods.

Twelve dice… needing 5’s and 6’s…sigh!

Here are a few pictures from the game… suitably randomised by Blogger.

The game was fun and easy to play…The Americans won the day.

I enjoyed it so much I am going to have another go and then get some chums round and host a good old fashioned face to face session.

All the best.  Aly