This Year, Same as the Last, but a Little Bit Better and a Little Bit…

So the post before last was me bleating about what a tough year 2024 was, with no wargaming activity other than some limited time at the painting table. The lack of posts since then, one game of Sharp Practice aside, is an accurate indicator that the last 12 months weren’t a huge improvement. But not no improvement (grammar).

Aside from that one game back in January, I got a second game in at the last moment by inviting myself round to PatG’s place in Ottawa and refusing to leave until we had a game of CoC2. Ever the gentleman he obliged, and much merriment and learning (my first ever game of the new edition of Chain of Command) was had. He’s such a good host, he even let me win, though I only achieved this with the ungentlemanly manoeuvre of calling in a mortar barrage when he had roughly handled all four of my rifle sections.

Scenario 9 Attack on a Camp

Rather like Bernard Cornwell discovering a Sunday afternoon in Richard Sharpe’s life he has not accounted for, and turning it into two novels and a short story, we launch ourselves into the further north German adventures of Generals Lebasque and von Wreckedoffen with a Sharp Practice doubleheader.

When camping here in Ontario, the biggest risks to a good night’s sleep are the local wildlife checking to see if you have left any of your food unsecured, or the kids at the next pitch over deciding to stay up all night partying. For Lebasque’s scouting force, fresh from their success at Dreibrücke, their sleep is interrupted by those most unexpected of visitors, Prussians seeking revenge.

Having foolishly camped by the sole bridge over an unfordable stream, the French line of retreat is constrained. Their only hope is that the Prussians are spotted before they get too close to the sleeping grognards. 

That was the year that wasn’t

Well, that’s not been great. A full year without posts is a pretty accurate reflection of my hobby life in 2024. No games, no shows, no purchases and not much painting. Why? Nothing too dramatic, just all the components of IRL conspired to make it a monumentally crappy year. No need to be alarmed: I still have my health, food on the table, a roof over my head and Mrs Dog continues to tolerate me.

In amongst the never-ending nonsense, I did manage to squeeze in the odd 10 minutes of painting here and there (when my mojo wasn’t completely AWOL). Almost exclusively devoted to preparing the terrain and figures for Scenario 14, which given that the last one played was number 8 suggests either impressive preparedness or an unhinged level of optimism.

The Syldavian Women’s Militia Battalion (commanded, obvs, by the Syldavian Women’s Militia Battalion Officer…ask your parents).