The Joys Of Winter

Last Wednesday evening I was taking out the trash to the curb, when I slipped on some glare ice in the driveway and landed like a ton of bricks on my left knee. I hobbled back inside the house and spent the next day and a half watching the joint swell to elephantine proportions.

Having been down this road before, I applied the R.I.C.E. technique of Rest - this was easy, since I could put very little weight on the leg. Ice packs helped reduce the pain and swelling. Compression (Thank you, Ace Bandage!), and last but not least Elevation above the heart level to keep the throbbing down as much as possible.

So the crutches have been put away, and I now look like a proper curmugeon limping along with a cane. I remember ice and snow being a lot more fun when I was younger! Perhaps it was because the ground wasn't so far away! Ha, ha, ouch! ha!

So how did I pass the tedious days and hours of recovery? Well...like any good wargamer would; painting figures and reading. When I'd get tired of one I would switch to the other, and before I knew it, I was a lot more mobile. My latest addition to the Wargame Library is "Wargaming In History,Vol. 1, The Seven Years War", by Charles Grant and Phil Olley. What a read it was! Each chapter and page held me spellbound. I haven't been so enchanted by the printed word since I first stumbled across "The Wargame" for the first time. I highly recommend it!

Actually, Messrs. Grant, Olley, Asquith, and Hyde have much to answer for making my annual wargame budget resemble a piece of Swiss cheese. Their constant barrage of publications keep blowing large holes right through it.
Well...that's enough of sitting at the computer for now. Where did I put that ice pack?!

Huzzah! The Light Cavalry!

I was trolling through the Michigan Toy Soldier And Figure Company's website, and I noticed that Revell has reissued their excellent set of Seven Year's War Prussian Hussars. They're going for $11.75 a box. So if you're in the mood to recruit batches of those dashingly uniformed rascals that we love to see "en masse" on the tabletop, now is the time to plead your case to Santa!

Has It Been A Month Already?!

Well shoot! The ticker says its been a month since the last posting...and the ticker don't lie. I attended the "Muster On The Wabash" reenactment in Vincennes, and had quite a time. My brother and I talked to the fellow portraying Governor Harrison in between his presentations, and he said that since the bicentennial for the Battle of Tippecanoe is looming near, plans are underway for reenacting the whole campaign of the Wabash Valley starting next year and climaxing at the Battleground State Park. Very cool!

HUZZAH! My latest order of figures from HistoriFigs has arrived! The LeNoble Frei Jagers castings will become the Yaeger-Schnitzel Jagers, and what fine looking fellows they are too! The mounted Hussar will be painted up as a dashing aide-de-camp for General Lostin Der Wald. I liked the resolute look of the sample figures of Morgan's Riflemen and the Hunting Shirt Infantry from the Am. Rev. line as well, so (sigh) eventually regiments of them will have to be fielded. What amazes me is how well ol' Jack Scruby's work has held up as the years have rolled on. Although some might consider them "long in the tooth", when they're painted up and on the tabletop they can hold their own with anybody.

The Von Kerns Are Coming!

Erwin von Mack was grateful that the trip from Raubenstadt to Frankzonia had been without incident. The Markgrafin of Raubenstadt, Sharon von Meltzer was traveling to Frankzonia to visit the ruling family, the von Fhartz, and help them celebrate the completed renovation of one of their many estates. Of course, the presence of a platoon of the Markgrafin's Own Guard Musketeers, with their glittering bayonets, and a squadron of the Markgrafin's Own Lancers, with their twinkling lance heads, probably had something to do with the uneventfulness of the journey. It would have indeed been a bold band of highwaymen to even consider hindering the carriage and it's escort.

"If I keep showing up here, they're going to name the road after me.", he thought sourly to himself.

He was not surprised to see his counterpart, von Badmann waiting by the entry portal, as he rode up to the gate. Von Badmann raised his right hand and spurred his horse forward.

"What?! No wandering yodelling instructor cover this time?", referring to their first encounter years ago. "You know, old friend, that we'll have to name the road after you, if you keep popping up!", he said after shaking hands.

"Well...at least I could yodel, unlike those God awful clocks you were trying to foist off as your own work. Besides, I had no choice in the matter this time.", he grunted, and jerked his thumb over his right shoulder towards the carriage. "The Markgrafin and her brothers have come to call."

"Her brothers?!", Badmann's tone and right eyebrow rose.

"Only two of them.", von Mack dryly replied, enjoying his friend's discomfort.

"THREE von Kerns?!!" His left eyebrow joined the right in a mighty effort to reach the hairline.

"Technically only two. The Margrafin herself, her brother David, the commander of her personal Guard Musketeers, and her other brother Paul, the commander of her Guard Lancers. You see, Paul has given up the family name. So...he'll thank you to call him what he goes by these days: Colonel Somerussian Guyovich."

"And he thinks that that is enough of a fig leaf to hide behind?", Badmann inquired.

"He has great faith in the new name, the cossack scalplock, the moustache, his troopers, that he has spent enough time in the Cossack Stiech for everyone to have forgotten why he left, and if all else fails, that weighted Hungarian saber he favors."

Von Mack laughed as he turned his horse around and started to canter back to the carriage.

"I've seen him hack through a fencepost, in one stroke, at a full gallop with that cleaver!"

"We'll talk later!", Badmann called after him, then slumped back in his saddle.

As von Mack neared the carriage, he heard the clink of tumblers and a flask, as the Markgrafin said, "To old scores."

"And their settling!", David replied.

"In a painful manner!!", Somerussian Guyovich chimed in.

It's Quiet In Raubenstadt...Maybe Too Quiet!

WOW! Where does the time get off to? Five weeks since the last posting? Heartfelt sigh.

So what have I been up to wargaming-wise? I've been finishing up some of those excellent Zvezda GNW Swedish Dragoons as my "Hayburningnag Dragoons". Three boxes will give you enough figures for a "Grant - Wargame" sized regiment of 1 Colonel, 2 Officers, 1 Standard, 1Bugler, and 24 other ranks, with some figures left over for Brigade Staff, Couriers, or Escorts. The boys at Squadron Mail Order were having a sale, so I went ahead and got enough for the "Roadapplegang Dragoons" and the "Knackerbound Karabiniers" as well. (As the names might suggest the Markgraaf does not have a lot of confidence in his cavalry.) They are reasonably priced and easy on the ol' Warchest, so even the most cost concious Monarch can recruit with confidence. Don't be put off by the timeframe. They are tricorne wearing Heavy Cavalry. If some eagle-eyed opponent spots a uniform detail in this scale, just say that your Imagi-Nation is very conservative, militarily speaking, and that "The Socket Bayonet is just a passing fad. Real Men Use Plug Bayonets". If he keeps it up, field a unit of pikes in the next game. Good stuff all around.

With their release of the Russian Artillery of Peter the Great and the Prussian Grenadiers of Fred the Great (I wonder why they avoided some of the more accurate nicknames of the past like Aethreld the Unready or John Lackland? I can see the troops really getting fired up to campaign with Wilhelm Augustus the Barely Adequate! Ha, ha, ha!), it looks like I'll be a regular customer of the Michigan Toy Soldier And Figure Company for the forseeable future. Check out their website at www.michtoy.com for an excellent source for figures, paints, brushes, books, etc.

I've also got an order in with Mr. Mike Tabor's HistoriFig Company for some of those classic 25mm Scruby SYW Le Noble Jagers that I will paint up as my "Ulster Jagers". (As an added benefit, they make great "stand ins" for AWI Butler's Rangers!) Included in the order are some 25mm AWI figures that I'm anxious to get my grubby little cotton pickers on too: Morgan's Riflemen, Hunting Shirt Infantry, Indians, Tarlton's Dragoons, Mounted Infantry, and some command! WOOF! They mix in well with the figures from Zvezda, Airfix, Revell, Italeri, and Hat Industrie, so a wide variety of units can be fielded.

More years ago than I like to recall, I took Bruce Quarrie's advice from his excellent book, "Napoleonic Campaigning In Miniature" to heart, when it comes to painting a couple of armies. Like most great ideas it is so simple that you shake your head and say in a sotto voice to yourself, "Why didn't I think of that?!"

Start with painting a Line Infantry Unit. Once that is COMPLETELY finished and ready for the tabletop, paint up an opposing Line Infantry Unit. Paint up a Cavalry Unit for each side, then a couple of Artillery Batteries. Add a Supply Wagon Train Unit, then paint up a couple more Infantry Units. The jist of the idea is to vary the type and nationality of the units, so that you have two balanced forces (Not necessarily identical!) to set upon the tabletop. I have found that among the main advantages is that you avoid "Painter's Burnout" (NOOOooo! Not another Highlander Unit! The plaid! The plaid!), and if it's an era that you're not sure you want to commit major bucks to, you can still have some cracklin' little actions without having to 'prentise out the firstborn, or take out a third morgage on the ol' family estate. By the time you're ready to field Guard Units, your experience with the lowly Line types, will make your elite troopies martial display something to marvel at.

Last, but not least, I've been kicking around the idea of combining Graf Bogy's (of Hesse-Fedora fame) canvas cloth General Purpose battlefield with the Perfect Captain's Battlefinder tabletop terrain layouts. Seven foot by five foot canvas dropcloths would be ideal to represent their 6 by 4 area. When painted with all the detail of rivers, roads, fords, forests, fields, etc., then draped over the table and the edges clamped to the table's edge, the only things left to be added would be any hills, ridges, and buildings. Each battlefield could be unique and easily rolled up until the next conflict. BWAHAHAHA! The World Is My Oyster!

Meanwhile....In A Back Alley, Somewhere In Frankszonia

Those who noticed him passing through the Frankfurter countryside thought that he was a well to do farmer. Most didn't even consciously register his presence at all, and that was just the way Erwin von Mack "The Knife" liked it. The whole idea was to blend in so well that no one would recall his features or clothing, so an accurate description would be difficult. For the life of him, he never could understand why any one who didn't want to be noticed, would dress in an all black outfit that fairly screamed, "Look at and remember me!". A dark, sober brown was just as good at night, blended in better in the day, and the occasional unavoidable bloodstain was much easier to hide.

God! He hated amateurs. They always gummed up the works and forced professionals, such as himself, to take extraordinary measures; like the one he was taking now. Hans Rottenbrat, a Stagonian Agent Provacateur, had escaped from the City of Frankfurt, and was lying low in a small town outside of the Frankfurter capital, but he had not escaped von Mack. There he was now! Just like clockwork, slinking along the alley way, all in black.

Mack the Knife waited until Rottenbrat had slunk by, then he stepped out behind him. One smooth, swift, practiced blow from a shot-filled leather blackjack, and Hans fell to the ground without a sound. A moment later he was trussed up, gagged, hidden in a haycart, and on his way to the Felsigburg. Erwin wondered what kind of song the canary would sing, once he was in the cage.

As the cart move out of the alley, he didn't notice a heavy lace curtain fall back into place. Milady de Winter turned to her cloaked and spurred minions. "Should we kill him and recover Rottenbrat?", one of them asked.

"No", she said after a long pause. "Mack the Knife has killed more people than smallpox, and he would not go easily. I can't afford the losses and the ensueing inquiries. His Vileness would not be pleased. He'll not get much out of Hans that concerns us!"

She turned back to the window and said, "And that is why we use 'Cut Out' Agents."

And now for something completely different. Does anybody know what's going on with the DPC website?

Oh No! Not Another Period And Ruleset!

Those evil trolls over at, "The Perfect Captain" keep tempting me with new periods and rulesets. I've already fallen victim to their "Battlefinder" campaign system and "Hoplomachia" - Hoplite fighting in Ancient Greece. Democrates, the leader of my City/State of Indiepolis has been having quite a time going up against opponents like Slago the Carthaginian, Philanderer of the Meander, and the local Persian Satrap, Arses The Extremely Ill-Tempered The Fourth. It wouldn't be so bad, but those equally evil trolls over at Zvezda also keep churning out good looking figures that paint up well and are easy on the ol' warchest. (Must resist purchasing Polish Winged Hussars until after thePrussian SYW Grenadiers come out!)

TPC's latest offering to catch my wandering eye is their "John Bull/Patriots" rules - small unit actions that can stretch from the French and Indian War to the War of 1812. One of the neatest things about this timeframe is that I can visit some of the actual battlefields and get a feel for the terrain and the combatants. Fallen Timbers, Fort Meigs, and Tippecanoe come to mind, but one that really caught my fancy was, "The Battle Of Blue Licks", August 19, 1782.

One can make a good arguement for it being the last battle of the Revolution. (Cornwallis who?) It's a small engagement. One hundred and eighty Kentucky Militia against three hundred and fifty Indians and Loyalist Rangers. It has it all: a well-known hero, Lt. Colonel Daniel Boone of the Fayette County Kentucky Militia, a well-known baddy, Simon Girty of the British Indian Department, infamous troops from Butler's Rangers, warriors from blood thirsty tribes like the Shawnee, Mingo, Ottawas, etc. against Sharpshooting pioneer indian fighters. WOOF! I see a road trip looming in my near future to catch the annual reenactment just a little bit North of Lexington, KY. Then I've got to find where I put those 1/72 scale Accurate Am. Rev. Militia and the Italeri Eastern Indians....I think I can get my 25mm Scruby Prussian Fusiliers to stand in for Butler's guys.....