"The Portents of Laarden" for 2021

"And call them meteors, prodigies and signs,

Abortives, presages and tongues of heaven"

King John, Act 3, Scene 4

As mentioned in my last blog post, I promised to return to some rashly proposed ideas I placed on the blog around this time last year.  You might remember, I had mentioned that in 2020 you might, here on the Blog ....

• come face to face with the fearsome Gendarmerie of Le Roi Soleil;

• trudge along the muddy roads of Flanders with a group of straggling soldiers;

• witness the miracle of Sint Jacobus' golden fishing net;

• inhabit the shadows of a town in darkness with a man who cannot be seen;

• trade and negotiate for lucrative tulip contracts on the Laarden bourse;

• discover the strange secret of a Prince of the Blood.

So how did I do in realising these "Portents of Laarden"?

Well, as you can see, I managed to create half of the portents during 2020, admittedly an unusual year for all kinds of reasons unrelated to the hobby of miniature wargaming.

In the early days of the year, the unpleasant, treacherous character of Gerrit Vermuelen crept onto the Blog in his sly, habitual manner.  Gerrit, the ratcatcher and spy, is of course the man who "inhabits the shadows of a town in darkness", and like all of the Laarden underclass is a man who "cannot be seen".  "Portent" unlocked!

I also in the early part of last year, we "trudged along muddy Flanders roads with a group of straggling soldiers", retreating from another shipwreck of the Flemish armies in the Field.

Another "Portent" unlocked!

I has so much fun painting the group of Flemish stragglers that, in July last year, I painted a ghostly version of the group.

What's going on here?  Wait... these are not sensible historical miniatures!  Well, they are.... but.....  

They're miniatures, but painted as the wraiths from an empty battlefield.  I thought they were just something fun to paint.  It's been a long lockdown, dear Readers!  And they nicely book-end the more sensible, and useful, colourful Flemish stragglers to be used in our "sensible" historical wargames (.... and yes, I am coughing as I type this...).  

One thing I did find in painting the wraiths, is that painting ghosts is not quite as easy as it first seemed.  But I am sure that practice will make perfect...

Moving along from that distraction, last year I finally - at last - painted the French Gendarmerie so that you could "come face to face with the fearsome Gendarmerie of Le Roi Soleil".  And yes, they appeared a couple of months back with their fine swords and slightly bad dentistry to unlock another "Portent of Laarden" for 2020.  

So, what about the other three, as yet unfulfilled "Portents of Laarden"?  When will they ever be completed?  Will those strange portents come true?

I can promise you that they will eventually appear like comets in the sky.  Hopefully it'll be this year, or at least in the next 12 months.  So, keep watching the skies, dear Stargazers.  

And as you direct your telescopes to the Heavens, I've added three new "Portents of Laarden" for you to look out for, described in a cryptic style of which Nostradamus would be proud.

Eventually, dear Readers, you will at some point in the next 12 months, be able to:

• ride with Icarus;

• be horrified at a savage way of fighting; and

• witness the chaos of the Ship of Fools.

And, quite possibly, never again want to read your horoscopes.  

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The TooFatLardies Oddcast: number one

It seems strange to say that I've taken part in a podcast after I've made such a poor effort of keeping this Blog going during the year - but I have.

With Richard Clarke and Nick Skinner, I had fun in recording the first TooFatLardies Oddcast, an irregularly appearing podcast about wargaming. You can find the link to the first show here: Lard Oddcast One

During the course of the show, we each chose a book to talk about briefly: Rich went with Sir John Keegan's "The Face of Battle", Nick chose Dr Paddy Griffith's "Forward into Battle", and yours truly went with "The Commentaries of War" by Blaise de Monluc.

Books and wargaming go together perfectly, so I'm hoping listeners will enjoy this part of the podcast.

I've again picked some slightly less well known books going forward for future podcasts, mainly so we make sure we have a lot of variety.

I hope you enjoy the first podcast. We've a series of six planned, after which I guess we'll see if anyone wants more!

Happy listening!

"The Pikeman's Lament" - Pike & Shot skirmishing from Osprey Games

One of the great things about the wargaming hobby is seeing friends and fellow wargamers enjoying fantastic success doing the very things which make our hobby such fun.  For many years I've been enjoying the excellent "Dalauppror" blog authored by Michael Leck, who I had the great pleasure and privilege of meeting at Salute a few years back.

Michael's rules for pike and shot wargaming, "The Pikeman's Lament", written with well-known wargames rules supremo Dan Mersey, were published yesterday by Osprey Games.  I'd pre-ordered my copy, and they were waiting for me when I arrived home last night.

They are a lovely looking set of rules, and feature everything that you would need for recreating small scale engagements and large skirmishes in the 17th Century.  There are many fine illustrations from the Osprey books, and some terrific photographs from many well-known wargamers and modellers, including Michael himself, the super-talented Matt Slade and all-round blogging superstar Mr. Michael Awdry, who posted some great photos on his own blog HERE which didn't quite make it into the finished rules owing to space constraints.

I'me really looking forward to giving these rules a try.  The "petite guerre" of raiding, forcing contributions, scouting and skirmishing was a major feature of many seventeenth century campaigns, particularly during the winter months when main field armies were in winter quarters.  

Michael and Dan's rules should be perfect for recreating these kinds of actions - swirling cavalry skirmishes, desperate last stands of small companies of soldiers in remote villages, plundering of supply columns.  These types of encounters were a very popular theme in mid-seventeenth century 'battle-paintings' - and there's plenty of inspiration to be gained from searching out paintings such as the above canvases from the Dutch artist Pieter Meulener.

I really looking forward to using the rules for my own chosen period of the 1680s in Flanders - a brief read through of the rules last night gave me some (hopefully) good ideas for the games we can stage and the terrain I can build for these kinds of actions.

Here's hoping these rules spark everyone else's imagination.  Congratulations to Michael and Dan, and best of luck with the venture!!

Seventh Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - 2016

As you may well have seen from the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge blog of my good friend Curt Campbell, the Seventh Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has been recently announced. From December 20th, through to March 20th, bloggers and internet painters will be feverishly wielding their brushes in a collective bout of hobby madness.

I am sure that this year, like many previous years, will have many fantastic and magical moments from all the many friends participating, as well as some times of exhaustion, sore brush fingers, back-ache, frustration (through lack of time) and general chaos.

The Challenge is a slightly mad, though definitely most wonderful, time. It showcases the best of what the internet has to offer. In that regard, the painting and the (lustrous, lovely and spell-binding) miniatures of all participants are really just the backdrop to the real prize on offer – which is the deep and lasting friendships which the Challenge brings among those who take part, comment, observe, or just read about the Challenge-craziness.

I’m trying to be a little more organised in the Challenge this year, and have been thinking of some ideas for the Themed Rounds, as well as trying to get the figures I would like to paint prepared and ready. No doubt many of the other participants are doing the same. 

Mindful of saying too much and of achieving very little (or even less), I’m reluctant to say a great deal about what I’m hoping to do. I do, however, promise to try and blog a little more about the thought processes behind the entries and the painting and perhaps explain a little of the method behind the madness.

One of the things which was fun this Summer was using Google Hangouts to stage “paint and chat” sessions. Chatting to, and seeing people, around the world at their own painting tables was a great privilege. Hopefully, there’ll be many more of those Challenge “paint and chat” sessions before the end of March.

So whether you’re a grizzled veteran of previous Challenges or a newcomer, whether you’re hoping to paint 3,000 points or just 30, I wish you good luck and that I very much hope to see you in the Google Hangouts “paint and chat” very soon.

The Analogue Hobbies Sixth Painting Challenge

For the past three years, this time of year has always been a little frantic. Christmas shopping? Last minute work panic?  Getting Roundwood Towers ready for the arrival of the In-Laws, friends and family guests? Yes, all of those, but also the start of Curt’s Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. 

And this year is no exception, with the Sixth Painting Challenge beginning yesterday at 6am in the UK, and already producing some very fine submissions.

 
I’ve been enormously privileged to take part in the Challenge in 2013 and 2014, and I’ve signed up again this year.  It’s one of the hobby activities which I do which has a real sense of community. This year, there are 88 painters in the Challenge – and between us we cover the globe, and paint wargaming figures of every type, period, shape and size. It’s a truly international challenge, made even more wonderful by the fact that the real winner is the hobby, our gaming friends, and our beloved wargaming and painting community.

My Challenge last year was heart-felt but not very successful, as I really failed to get going as a result of all kinds of things (nothing serious, just family and work - no doubt a story so many of you can relate to).  This year, I’m a little bit nervous as a result, reducing my targeted points total to 500 points over three months – which for me is pretty challenging. But, with a fair breeze behind me, and some application of will, I feel I can make it.

I also love Curt's theme - of risk takers, daredevils and gamblers...

I’ll be painting for a new period, and a new army, completely different to anything on my blog so far - but actually a period which I know fairly well and which goes back to my wargaming youth.  Here's just a small hint, with hopefully a lot more to come:

I’m very excited. The figures are prepared and (mostly) undercoated. My Christmas holidays are almost here. And I have the company of some of the finest hobbyists one could ever meet for the Challenge.  

So here’s to the Sixth Painting Challenge.  The die is cast! Good luck everyone!

Vive la Republique! Vive la Liberte! Vive La France!

Others will no doubt say it more eloquently, but here are some of my favourite French things:

Paris, in all it’s glory

French summers

French food and wine

French films

Louis XIV

French armies

French courage, now and always

Nous sommes unis - Nous sommes Paris

Wargame Bloggers Quarterly - Volume 2, Number 1

The new WBQ (Wargame Bloggers Quarterly), being issue 1 of volume 2, arrived online while I was away for a few days again in Northumberland.  It's a fantastic issue, and I think one of the best yet.

There's the second part of Eric the Shed's excellent guide to making Egyptian desert terrain, a very fine piece on "SAGA Do's and Don'ts" by Monty Luhmann (I wish I'd read that a long while back, Monty!) and a terrific article entitled "How to Design a Rulebook" by Mike Reynolds (The Dark Templar).

Mike's article really repays a second reading - it's full of helpful information, practical good sense and valuable design suggestions.  Mike's advice that a rulebook is a "piece of communication" carries a lot of thought behind it, which Mike's article goes on to demonstrate in exemplary fashion.    As with so much in previous issues of WBQ, Mike's article has had me looking and thinking afresh about how I can make written information for gaming look better.  If you do get the chance to have a look at WBQ Volume 2, Issue 1 (see the sidebar on the right hand of this blog for the free download), have a read through Mike's article.  There's something in there for every aspiring rules or scenario writer.

Huge congratulations to all of the editorial team of WBQ for a great edition, and in particular to the tireless Evan (as editor) and Millsy (as designer) for pulling this one together so well.

Congratulations, guys!

Great War Miniatures and 1st Corps: Some British supporting units

After making some headway with the Highlanders in June and early July, I managed to finish off some Great War Miniatures British late war infantry, a Stokes mortar team, and a set of signallers towards the end of last month. These have been languishing in the painting queue for some time and I had been very keen to get them completed.

You know how it is. The same half-finished figures stare at you for weeks, for months, sometimes for years. You almost stop seeing them, and they become part of the general "stuff" on the painting table or in the "next project" box. They blend in.  They finally become become invisible.   The fresh green hope of how that unit would fit into your army starts to wither, and the figures end up being something you brush past quickly to get to something newer, more promising.  I am sure someone reading this will know the feeling!  Come on, own up!

Don't worry, I'm exactly the same.  One of my New Year’s Hobby Resolutions (gosh, remember those?) was to try and finish these half-done units off. And yes, there are a few of them coming over the next month or so ...

The odd thing was that as soon as I started painting these figures again, I remembered the plans I’d had to use the figures in the first place.  By the end, I definitely was of the thought “why on earth has this taken me so long to do this?”, and "I'm such a mug for not completing these!".  

I can’t remember what made me stop halfway through the Stokes mortar section, or the lovely little group of signallers.   But I’m really glad I started again, and got these chaps finished.

They were fun to do. The gas masked junior officer with walking stick and .455 Webley & Scott revolver is one of my favourites from the Great War Miniatures range.  It combines a few of the iconic images of a British junior officer on the Western Front from about 1916 onwards - the junior subaltern advancing on the German lines, the late war gas mask, the walking stick and the top-break Webley revolver.  This is the third such figure I’ve painted, and I’ve really enjoyed painting every one.

Also, I finished painting up a small group of 1st. Corps British sentries and some baggage (from Hovels) for them to guard against German trench raiders. The sentries are a very nice set, and match the scale of Great War Miniatures well, although they are slightly more slender. Both of the rifle-armed sentries look great when painted up. The sentry sitting disinterestedly in the storage area is adopting a pose that I think we can all associate with from time to time!

***

Thanks to everyone for commenting over the past few days and for coming back to this Blog.  I realise that the Blog has had a bit of a stop-start existence this year, but I am grateful for everyone continue to follow, visit and generally hang in there.  I'm hoping to post more regularly during the rest of the Summer and through the Autumn, if at all possible.

I've some more Highland and Scottish focused posts to come in August, which will bring you up to speed on the rest of the Highlanders which were painted in July and earlier this week.  There's a "mechanical" post, featuring "Auld Reekie" (Scotland, again).  And hopefully there'll be a couple of game reports.

I'll also be starting a new series of posts entitled "Roundwood Recommends" which are a bit more light-hearted but hopefully of use to someone out there (with the bonus being that they don't involve painting lots of figures, and therefore are a bit easier to blog about).

Hope you can join me for some, or all, of those!

WBQ3 - Wargame Bloggers Quarterly - is published

The other piece of good new is that the third edition of Wargame Bloggers Quarterly is now available, free of charge.

You can pick up your issue HERE

And yes, the editor for this issue, the super-talented PK, very kindly has featured my "Operation Gericht" game from Partizan in the Park last June, with the photo from the Germans' flammenwerfer attack in the second game making the cover.

I was very grateful for this honour, and it came as a complete surprise when I found out.  As I mentioned before, all of the four Operation Gericht games we played last year, at both Partizan and Evesham, were great fun and huge thanks go again to everyone who took part in wonderful spirit.

I promise to get around to posting the backgrounds and scenarios to the "Operation Gericht" game here shortly.

As for Wargame Bloggers Quarterly, I've taken the reins as editor for the next issue, number 4.  The first three issues will be a very hard act to follow.