Partizan…at last

Well, the continued lack of progress towards the goal of this blog can now, at least partially, be blamed on a real wargaming adventure: I finally made good on all my big talk and actually made it to the UK for Partizan 2026!

With my Outpost colleagues Allan (Minneapolis), Kerry (New Zealand) and Malc (Spain) all making the trip, the usual excuse about Toronto being ‘a bit too far’ didn’t really hold any water. So it was that my employer begrudgingly let me have a few days off and I headed back to the old country for a couple of days visiting family and then a full day at what is now widely recognized as the UK’s premier historical wargames show. (As opposed to the much larger and more eclectic Salute, which I have attended a few times, that accommodates all sorts of sci fi and fantasy stuff as well as historical.)

So much better in person than in photos

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.