Barbarians of the Icy North (Library: Overdue & Returns)

The air is frigid and the ground frozen hard, but this band of barbarians seem to barely notice the cold. My latest entry to the Painting challenge is a group of plastic figures from North Star that I bought preassembled on a bring-and-buy stall some years ago. 

Long overdue some attention they are now ready to join my growing fantasy/frostgrave collection of figures. 

In the Painting Challenge, I also claimed the Challenge Library “Overdues and Returns” bonus for these because not only have they rested in my pile-o-shame for at least a year, but they presumably sat in someone else's pile-o-shame before that before being sold. So these are long long overdue for their coat of paint as well as being a return to an old project from Challenge Ten, way back in 2019. 

History on the Tabletop: Writing scenarios for Wargaming Real Battles

Turning the great battles of history into an exciting tabletop wargame is more than just throwing together a list of the units that took part. This week I discuss my approach to scenario writing.

Is historical wargaming elitist?

Is Historical Wargaming Elitist? This week's video challenges the assertion of a non-historical player and asks, what do you think?

Battle of Rivoli 1797 - A 6mm wargaming using Volley & Bayonet 2nd Edition

Last Weekend was my first wargame of the year with the Rejects in Stuarts Shed-o-War, and for a change, it wasn’t Stuart running the game. Richard brought his 6mm MDF figures from Commission Figurines to the shed to refight the Battle of Rivoli in 1797.

This would be the fourth attempt at relieving the French siege of Mantua and as the Austrian commander, I was advised that troops and other resources were almost exhausted and unlikely to be replenished. The plan was to send a diversionary force further to the east and to catch and destroy the French forces east of Lake Garda, centred around Rivoli.

The game began with the enemy outposts having already been pushed back from La Corona to Rivoli. The Austrian players now had an opportunity to trap the French by attacking across the Trambolore Heights, assaulting the Rivoli Plain from the Adige. Simultaneously a separate division would march up the Osteria Gorge in an attempt to turn the French flank. A third detachment would also be sent over Monte Baldo to appear in the French rear. The question was, could these elements bring enough pressure to bear before the French reinforcements arrived? 

...and the answer was no, we couldn’t.

Surjit just couldn’t fight his way out of the Gorge to get into the flank of the French Position, and while I was able to take control of the Trambolore Heights, taking them broke my Brigades and exhausted the Division. 

In the end, we just didn’t have enough Brigades left in fighting condition to exploit any of our gains, and all the while more French reinforcements were marching onto the plain.

This was a great game, exciting right to the very end, and I think we have all decided we like Richard’s use of the Volley & Bayonet rules. I’ve no idea when he’ll be running another battle in this period, but the sooner the better as I thoroughly enjoyed this game, despite the hard-fought defeat!