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. 

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).

Scenario 8 Dead Ground

WTF happened to 2023? One moment it's May, and I'm contemplating playing this scenario over the Victoria Day long weekend, and next thing it's gone Christmas and I've done nothing hobby related other than build an Italeri church. I guess 'real life happened' is the answer, and after a blizzard of house guests, trips to see family, a vacation (3 whole days of camping) and work, work, work, the dust has finally settled. Momentarily, at least.

Those Byzantines have been back from Sri Lanka and all based up since this time last year, so they're ready for the first battle to feature them against the Sassanians. 

Typical Canadian winter terrain welcomes our new arrivals from Sri Lanka

Taking a leaf from the book of Ken Riley, the Yarkshire Gamer, I am making this battle as big as possible, by basically sizing it to use the maximum number of the units I possess. In practice, this leaves only a couple of Byzantine cavalry, some skirmishers and an odd unit of Sassanian archers, off the table.

Part 2: Reinforcements

So I'm just over halfway through Part 1 and, more importantly, have all the figures and terrain I need ready for the rest of the scenarios. So, time to start planning the scenarios for (the much shorter) Part 2. Three great scenarios, the latter two involve nothing too out of the ordinary, but the first of them requires my long-planned inter war militia units, motorcycle and sidecar recce plus a lot of buildings. Not sure how much paint drinking will happen, but plenty of glue-sniffing in my future.

Manufacturers are surprisingly coy about their sets of Syldavian Militia

(Note: Zvezda kits purchased long before February 2022)

Scenario 5 Rear Guard (1)

For a brief moment, this small corner of northwestern Europe seems calm and peaceful. (My motley collection of buildings makes it unclear exactly which corner. A distinctly Italianate railway station, some oddly Russian huts, a very English looking cottage and, of course, a farmhouse that is forever Belgium. These days the quality of terrain you see at shows and online is infinitely superior, with people going to extremes to reproduce the precise architecture of the particular battle or theatre they are recreating. I can’t even get my basing to match the terrain tiles.)

But the year is 1944, and remnants of a defeated army are clogging the roads as they hurry towards the remaining bridges. Shortly afterwards, a hastily assembled kampfgruppe takes up position to act as rearguard and shield the retreat. For not far off is the enemy's light armour, seeking to turn this retreat into a rout.

The WWII armies are the first I have built entirely myself, from scratch, for this project. I started back in July and am feeling quite pleased with myself, with over 80 figures and 25 vehicles completed. For someone as klutzy as this hound, the PSC kits are a joy to put together, and I even survived the more fiddly Italeri and Caesar sets with (what’s left of) my sanity intact.

Scenario 7 Rear Slope

With Scenario 6 played just under the 1 year mark, it seemed like a good idea to make use of renewed familiarity with the rules, and the fact that the German forces for Scenario 5 were still barely half complete, to get Scenario 7 on the table. With the (6mm) score level at one game apiece, it was time to have the Prussians defend for a change. In this scenario they are supposed to take advantage of a reverse slope to conceal part of their forces from the French. Always tricky for the solo gamer, but MdE includes a combat modifier for fighting troops that were not previously visible, and I suspect a generous interpretation of this, plus my own incompetence, should help us through.

So it is that we go back to earlier in 1813, long before Lebasque’s daring maritime escape, to the maneuvering that preceded the major clashes. The twin towns of Nordcoggondorf and Sudcoggondorf sit astride a major north-south road. They are, in turn, dominated by a large hill. Whoever holds the hill, controls the road, and so it was that General Lebasque was tasked with driving the Prussians from the heights to allow the French free passage. After the depredations of the Russian campaign, the French force is unsurprisingly ‘raw’, while the Prussians are a more mixed bag. Both generals, new to their commands, are ‘plodding’. (Thanks again to the MdE random force generator for being judgemental about my abilities.)

Scenario 6 Rear Guard (2)

Having successfully seized the river crossing at Dreibrücke, the French General Lebasque finally had an opportunity to escape his Prussian pursuers. Faced with the options of a long overland march to rejoin Davout and then take part in further fighting across Europe, or a sea voyage home and Christmas 1813 with the family, Lebasque chose the watery option and turned his remaining forces towards the North Sea coast. All he had to do was find a harbour with enough ships in port, persuade the captains to take his troops on board and sail to France, and do all this while holding off any Prussian attempts to interfere.

The first and second of these were achieved with the judicious application of money looted on the way through Germany and the more profligate application of the bayonet to the recalcitrant members of the local populace and seafaring community. Now it was time to get the men aboard ship before the Prussians caught up with him.

Which is where we rejoin the story.

Scenario 4 Holding Action (2)

It’s been over 5 months since the last game, and in that time I’ve managed to start a new job and engage in all the usual summer activities. But with the rain teeming down outside this weekend, I was very glad not to be in a tent or canoe and hijacked the kitchen table in retaliation for Mrs Dog’s annexation of the basement for her weekend course.

Another game, another period/scale combo (15mm Napoleonics) but a return to the plains of North Germany in 1813. Having been forced to retreat north after his defeat by the Prussians at Stavkstadt, General Lebasque needs to locate a river crossing that will enable him to rejoin Davout’s main body. He has sent a scouting force towards the small village of Dreibrücke (clue’s in the name), who are about to discover that the Prussians have got there first.

As per the Sharp Practice 1813 lists, French infantry are lower quality (‘Conscripts & Volunteers’ rather than ‘Regulars’, ‘Skirmishers’ rather than ‘Light Infantry’) so the Prussians have an edge there. To balance the forces under Sharp Practice 2 requires lots of good leaders for the French and plodders for the Prussians. The high rating and musician for the French light cavalry leader is to allow him to control his force, split into four groups per the scenario, as they search for a ford to outflank the Prussians.

Visually this is a bit of a nostalgia trip, with Second Generation Minifigs fighting over Gallia resin buildings. Teenage me may have painted all these forces in Humbrol enamels (sorry if the yellowing, rather glossy, varnish shows up in the pictures) but did not have the foresight to purchase a third Gallia bridge, so a very grand 1/72 Italeri span completes the table.

World War II

World War II was probably the dominant conflict in terms of the media, toys and other gamers as I was growing up in the hobby. But apart from a brief excursion in 10mm (using the horrible Skytrex Action 200 range) which went nowhere, I had never got into it personally. Then, just when I had decided that I had all the periods I would ever need, certainly for this project, I suddenly found myself launching into 1944 in North West Europe in 20mm. How the hell did that happen?

AB British weapons teams. Even my painting can’t disguise the excellent sculpting

Going Solo

I expect to play most of these scenarios solo. Is this because I am a misanthropic 'Billy No Mates' with poor social skills and poorer personal hygiene?

No.

Is it because I live in the middle of nowhere and have no opponents for miles around?

No.

Is it because I hate to lose and like to have everything my own way?

N...maybe.

Let me explain.

Scenario 3 Holding Action (1)

Two months without a post? That’s more like the kind of pace I expected from this blog. The usual real world excuses plus, in keeping with my refusal to do anything until it has long ceased to be trendy (see this blog), I managed to have Covid. Not a severe case, but enough to give my mojo a severe kicking. However, with a little help from a long weekend, I managed Scenario 3 and my first Ancients game of the project.

With my Byzantine army still awaiting its trip to Sri Lanka for a coat of paint, if I was going to get a game of Ancients in it would have to be an all Sassanian affair. Fortunately, Sassanian history provides plenty of examples of civil conflict. I'll admit that my knowledge of the Sassanian empire had, until recently, a very narrow military focus, but I've been rectifying that with this excellent book.

Yes, I know the author (or his editors) use fewer s's than me, but I'm sticking with Kaveh Farrokh (or his editors).

So my Byzantines are for the early 6th century CE, or at least they will be when they're painted, and conveniently around this time the Sassanian Sahansah Hormizd IV, who favoured the landed gentry (dehgans) over the nobility (savaran) was being overthrown in favour of his son, Khusro II. So this scenario pitches a delaying force of the savaran trying to hold out against Hormzid’s army until nightfall.

Scenario 2 Positional Defence (2)

A first outing for my ImagiNations inter war forces of Syldavia and Borduria. A low grade conflict between these two countries sputtered throughout the late 20's and early 30's, long before the involvement of an interfering boy reporter from Belgium. This scenario represents an occasion on which Borduria seized a mountain pass on the Syldavian side of the border, for complex reasons to do with the internal politics of the intelligence service, the ego of the local commander and the disappearance of his mistress's bichon frisé. Unsurprisingly, the Syldavians were quick to send a force to eject the invaders.

Using CoC Up, my modified (bastardised is more like it) version of Chain of Command, I'm calling each stand of figures a 'platoon', so that infantry units of 3-4 stands are 'companies' making each force: 

Borduria (Blue)

1 Battalion HQ (Senior Leader)
3 infantry companies (1 Junior Leader each)
1 stormtrooper company (1 Junior Leader)
1 tank squadron (2 Pz38t) (1 Junior Leader)
2 77mm batteries (1 Junior Leader)

Syldavia (Red)

1 Task Force HQ (Senior Leader)
5 infantry companies (1 Junior Leader each)
1 machine gun company (1 Junior Leader)
1 Jaeger company (1 Junior Leader)
2 tank squadrons (each 2 FT-17, 1 MMG armed, 1 37mm armed) (1 Junior Leader each)
1 cavalry squadron (1 Junior Leader)
1 105mm howitzer battery (1 Junior Leader)
Pre game bombardment

Given the force sizes, the traditional 5 command dice of CoC may make for a very slow and uncoordinated game. Now, slow and uncoordinated may be exactly the effect I am looking for in this period, but I might allocate 2-4 extra ‘red’ dice to each side depending on how things are going. (In CoC ‘red’ dice count for activation on a 1-4, but 5s and 6s which generate CoC points or extra turns are ignored.)

This is what the terrain is supposed to look like…

Inter War

A long time ago I purchased a couple of boxes each of the Revell WW1 French and Germans simply as an excuse to buy the fantastic Revell WW2 German artillery set, with vague notions of WW1 skirmish action. These sat unopened and undisturbed for years with a little reinforcement by Emhar, until a combination of the novels of Alan Furst, Beevor’s book on the Spanish Civil War, the appearance of ‘A Very British Civil War’ and some fantastic sets of plastics (one by Pegasus and two by Caesar) produced an unstoppable momentum towards gaming the interwar period. Hät provided the hallmark of the era: useless tanks, Italeri chipped in with German motorcycles just begging for conversion, and my ‘Furst Wars’ project was born. ImagiNations are courtesy of a well known Belgian reporter.

Scenario 1 Positional Defence (1)

So this is where it all begins.

Armies painted (by someone else, thanks Neil and team), terrain painted (by someone else) and laid out (by me, yay me!), rules studied, scenario prepared. Deep breath. Let's go!

For this first outing I am using my 6mm Napoleonic armies with the Maréchal d'Empire rules. A few die rolls using the army generators in the back of those rules provides the following forces, as a Prussian Corps attempts to dislodge a weak French corps with supporting cavalry from a fortified position somewhere in Germany, 1813. (Note for the non-grognards: what the Prussians call a brigade is roughly equivalent to a French division, while French brigades are similar to Prussian regiments. C’mon, it wouldn’t be Napoleonics if it wasn’t needlessly confusing, would it?)

Napoleonics

Without ready access to a cup of tea and a madeleine, I cannot accurately recall the precise order of events that made Napoleonics my first (military history) love. Certainly there were the 1/32 Airfix figures, but there was also a book from the local library on the Waterloo campaign with an orange hard cover (the slip cover having long disappeared) that I read and re-read.

Eventually, despite my mother’s misgivings over their small size, I graduated to the Airfix HO/OO figures, which included cavalry and artillery and the fantastic battle set complete with farmhouse and wagons that I still own and use. Then, when I grew up to be a serious wargamer (about age 12 or 13), I sold them all off and bought metal 15mm Minifigs, French and Prussians for the 1813 campaign. Having acquired enough for Scenario 42 (of course) I then purchased no more for almost 20 years, by which time Minifigs had been through a couple of resculpts and my figures were out of scale with pretty much everything on the market.

Part 1: Attack and Defence

Scenario 1 Positional Defence (1)
A straightforward scenario with the defensive line anchored on a forest, some villages and three redoubts. The latter make this seem like a Napoleonic game, and the forces translate nicely into a Corps sized attack in Marechal d'Empire, so a first run out for 6mm it is. If only I had had the foresight to get some redoubts from Total Battle Miniatures...

Scenario 2 Positional Defence (2)
This time the defender holds a re-entrant and there is a lot more terrain.

My Plan

or "The Triumph of Hope over Experience".

Nothing as misguidedly optimistic as a timeline. Just the scenarios, with the period and any little tweaks I can already see I need to make. I will update this as the project proceeds.

Part 1: Attack and Defence

Part 2: Reinforcements

Part 3: Rivers

Part 4: Air, Rail and Sea

Part 5: Convoy and Ambushes

Part 6: Terrain Problems

Part 7: Encounter Battles

Part 8: Special Problems

Totals so far: 2 Ancient, 4 Napoleonic skirmish, 5 Napoleonic big battle, 3 Inter War, 2 WWII.

OK, now I’m really worried. Which idiot came up with this idea?

Fantasy..nope Ancients...oh wait...Dark Ages!

I really don’t like the fantasy genre. Apart from some very happy, but misguided, time spent playing ‘Tunnels & Trolls’ as a lad, it has simply never appealed, it’s just too silly. (Yes, I am acutely aware of the irony of that statement given the subject of this entire blog.)

I can’t stand Tolkein. The Lord of the Rings movies were rescued for me by the battle scenes, but otherwise faithfully recreated the crushing dullness I had experienced when attempting to read the books. (Half way through the first of the movie trilogy, my better half stage-whispered “Oh just get on with it! I could have been there and back by now.” Luckily the assembled elf groupies and dwarf botherers in the cinema were too engrossed in hobbit antics to notice.) As for Warhammer, well don’t…just don’t.