Worthington Games Napoleon's War - The 100 Days

The initial release - covering a particular favourite campaign of mine!

The game I shall be putting on over the weekend will be using my blocks on the same mapboards I fought Keder Sirt on from the Axis and Allies miniatures game. The period will be the Napoleonic Wars and the rules will be those from the board game of the title.

The system used is a variation of that designed by Richard Borg and used in his Command and Colours games including Ancients, Napoleonics, Battle Cry and Memoir 44 (not to mention Battle Lore). The biggest single difference is that command cards are not used. Instead each side has a number of Action Points (rather like DBA and similar) that are varied based on a dice roll. The dice used are also standard d6 rather than the more exotic icon dice.

These changes have the effect of making the game seem more like a war game and having played and enjoyed both systems I would say that I prefer the version without the cards but it is very much a personal opinion. The games featured in the two sets available (and the two sets of expansion map boards) are actual battles and so there is no variation in respect of the terrain available. The initial release covers the 1815 campaign whilst the second covers the usual European angle - Austerlitz, Marengo, Borodino and Aspern-Essling. the two expansions are more of the same except that expansion pack two is devoted to the war with America in 1812. the game pieces are hard plastic figures, rather like in Battle Cry and Memoir 44 and are both basic and generic (and roughly 15 to 20mm).

The game I shall fight will be a hypothetical action and, for a change, will probably feature the British and the French. The rules are suitably period specific and capture the flavour of the era as I hope my game will demonstrate.

I have even made sure that Brigadier Gerard is fully loaded up on my ebook reader - just to stoke up the Napoleonic fervour!

I may even have to watch (for the umpteenth time)  Messrs. Steiger, Plummer, Hawkins et al for some real 1815 overload!

The First of the Many....(I hope!)

I have decided that this weekend I will play a war game at some point. Of necessity it will be a solo affair in the newly tidied man cave. I say tidied because up until Tuesday the boxes used for the Christmas decorations were in plain sight (they live the rest of year tucked away from view in the eaves of the roof) but they are now stored in their customary space until next December.

I shall spend the time today pondering exactly what I shall play - I feel like trying another land action rather than naval - and when having done so will make the appropriate preparations. It may well be something removed entirely from my current interests but variety is the spice of life they say. I will try to avoid this 'dabbling' from growing into a full grown new project though and so will endeavour to keep such excursions into other periods as 'one offs'. I will of course report the action on the blog with the accompanying photos and have also decided to number the games I play in order to see haw many I manage to fit in over the year!

Needless to say I am looking forward to it!

Fezian and Rusland Armour Support....Part 2

Mad, bad and dangerous - but to whom?!

As promised (and for the benefit of the treadheads amongst us!) above is the picture of two of the newest additions to the collection being acquired for the great Fezian Rusland war of 1935 - a T28 and a T35. I have two of each of these and they are lovely models. They certainly look impressive enough and I was somewhat taken aback by the sheer size of the T35 - it is huge!

There is a minor amount of assembly to be undertaken with these - including the rail around the top of the turret - and of course they will need a paint job in due course. At the moment I am leaning towards Rusland using T35s and BT5s whilst Fezia has T28s, T26s and Vickers light tanks.

Each side will probably have around 10 tanks which will be more than sufficient but will give me a usable variety.

Shipshape or the Shape of the Ship

One of the things I have noticed with my shipbuilding efforts of late is the effect of having a shorter hull with scale sized superstructures and upper works. Basically it makes the ships appear beamier. I have no problem with this as they are hypothetical ships in any event but it has meant that the streamlined hull of the KGV class battleship has been replaced with something more akin to the vast bulk of HMS Nelson. Again, this is no big deal but it will have an impact on some other models I plan to build. In order to utilise as much of the available superstructures etc as possible I will have to reduce the amount I use. Taking the Bismarck as an example I am planning on removing the central section devoted to the float plane and, in effect, will concertina the forward and aft superstructure. It will become clearer when I have done this and posted the pictures of the end result on the blog.


I have also considered the overall dimensions of my planned models and have come up with 6" for modern battleships, 4 1/2" for cruisers and 3" for destroyers. These are obviously not cast in stone but are good enough to work around. I have also given some thought to the number of models I will build and that is a little more problematic. I am reckoning on around 6 capital sized ships per side and a similar number of cruisers. Add to that around a dozen escort types and you can see that the forces will be fairly impressive looking. As ever I always overbuild models simply so that I have the variety for use. Each side will have a carrier and submarines and of course, the air element will feature - both ship borne and land based.


I hope to finish the second Rusland ship this evening (at least the build thereof) and so will then be able to get the brushwork underway. I will be basing the models but at this stage am uncertain as to whether or not I should use painted card or transparent plastic. I will also have to think up names for the ships of both navies but that can wait for the time being and will probably be incorporated in the background story for each side.


Note the refreshing lack of self-imposed and usually unrealistic deadlines being mentioned for this project….;-)


How very liberating!

Fezian and Rusland Tank Support

I arrived home today to a box of four rather nice models recently acquired via Ebay. The models are a pair of 1/87th scale Russian T35 tanks and also a pair of T28 tanks - all of which have been earmarked for the 15mm Fezian and Rusland 1930s armies. I will post a proper review later but suffice it to say these models are little beauties! The box describes them as being made by Premo in Russia and Roco in Germany and further describes them as being from a range called 'Military Vehicles of the Red Army'.

At 1/87th they are a little on the large size for 15mm but I shan't let that bother me overmuch - the models are far too good to be hidden away because of the minor scale discrepancy!

The plan is to use these in conjunction with the Art of Tactic vehicles made by Zvezda - principally the T26 and the BT5.

A Painful Choice - But The Logical One!

'Were I to invoke logic, however, logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few'

I have been very fortunate in respect of Christmas presents this year and no mistake. An unexpected present though, was an Airfix 1/600th scale model of HMS King George V. This I received yesterday with the instruction that should it not be the kit I required I could happily exchange the same (the receipt was provided for this very purpose) with no problem. As a rule I do not like to exchange presents unless I absolutely have to - usually the wrong size or such like - because of someone has gone to the trouble of buying you a gift then the least you should do is to enjoy it as such. However, in this case, and after careful consideration, I reluctantly decided to do the deed and exchange the same for something of far more immediate use.


Don't misunderstand me as I would absolutely love to make a model warship in this scale (Fletcher Pratt anyone?) but such an undertaking assumes the halcyon state of affairs whereby I have nothing else to do in the meantime which of course is usually extremely unlikely!


So I made my way to Model Zone at Holborn at lunchtime and exchanged the larger kit for a 1/1200th Duke of York and another Airfix Sink the Bismarck set (coughing up the cost shortfall) which will be a whole lot more useful in the short term. Gaming with 1/600th scale models is a very attractive idea but is a little off the wall even by my admittedly esoteric standards!


With the acquisition of extra Revell Duke of York kit the second Rusland battleship can now be completed sooner rather than later and the planned extra models using the Bismarck set are just that little bit closer to being realised.


1/600th? One day perhaps….;-)

The Four Pillars of (Wargaming) Wisdom

"So then Lawrence, why is Zorba wearing fancy dress?"

A couple of comments I have read (one as a response to one of my posts and the other as the subject of a post on another blog) have given me much food for thought about my gaming and enjoyment of our hobby. The first was courtesy of Tim Gow and featured on his blog megablitzandmore whilst the second was comment around my Happy New Year post from Conrad Kinch - author of the blog joyandforgetfulness.

Tim made mention of how 'Blogging' is now an integral part of the enjoyment of his hobby and I must confess that I had never thought about it in that way. Sometimes the most blindingly obvious things can somehow creep under the radar and of course, Tim is absolutely right - and in my case as well. I have often said to SWMBO that my hobby is in fact a bargain as it is three hobbies for the price of one - reading, modelling and gaming being three pillars the war games whole if you like. The use of a blog is really a fourth aspect to add to the other three and so I would like to thank Tim for reminding me of this most obvious of truths! The blog is for me a valuable tool for collecting opinions, exchanging ideas and, to be honest, showing off the toys as and when I am able to - and long may it continue!

The second part concerns the New Year resolution that Mr Kinch wanted to make for me concerning getting more games in. Alas this is very true and I have been truly abysmal in this regard over the course of last year. I spent a lot of time testing rules and managed to get the odd game in at the club but that is about it. With this in mind then, I have decided that this year I will take part in at least one game a month - be it a solo game or something at the club - I really have no excuse not to and so I will not attempt to offer up any!

Now that the new man cave is up and running I shall be able to get more games in for sure and I have a lot of ideas and plans for this over the next few months.

My humble thanks to both Tim and Conrad for the observations - the points have been duly noted and the appropriate remedial action is in hand!