3mm 1940 for Eisenhower

It was in 2013 that I first mentioned my interest in doing 3mm French and German armies for the Battle of Hannut in May 1940. This developed into the Rommel project before being abandoned, but I've recently been mining the lead mountain and am now processing a fraction of the accumulated Oddzial Osmy 3mm kit for use with Eisenhower. 

The photo shows the entire armies for Hannut: two German and two French armoured divisions. Although historically the largest tank battle then fought, it's small for a game in which there is normally a minimum of three formations (divisions) a side. Each base represents a battalion of tanks or motorised infantry. The German tank battalions were of mixed type. Although the obsolete Panzer Is and IIs predominated, I’ve modelled them as Panzer IVs (the cutting edge) as this makes them more useful for later campaigns.

Lust for Glory! and WoFun

I saw two things at Salute that lodged in my brain and have been festering ever since. One was Simon Miller's forthcoming horse and musket variation on To The Strongest! provisionally entitled Lust for Glory! The other were the WoFun plexiglass flats.

After some intense soul searching over the last few days I've fully resolved to invest in the WoFun  War of Spanish Succession and English Civil War standees. Both of these will be used primarily for Simon's grid games - LfG! and For King & Parliament!

Although intrigued by WoFun, I wasn't initially convinced, but the more I thought about it, the more I was attracted to the style of the 'figures' and the straightforwardness of the pre-printed approach. They will be ready-to-play after a couple of hours' assembly and light to carry.

It has also helped me to come to terms with the obvious: I will never complete more than a tiny fraction of my accumulated lead mountain and might as well start disposing of it. 

An initial ECW order is in and a WoSS order will follow. The disposal side will take longer and be more difficult. This is undoubtedly the most revolutionary development in the history of my adult wargaming career.

It took some time to decide on the scale. The beauty of the artwork shows best with the larger figures,  especially 28mm, but the ECW rules require some flexibility in unit representation (e.g. small, large, pike-heavy, shot-heavy etc) and this was best offered by the 18mm stands. I'm not attracted to the 10mm flats as it's quick and easy to paint 3D figures in that scale, but my attitude may change if I decide to invest in Napoleonics. And maybe I'll also look at the '45, another period I've always wanted to do.

The missing months

I didn't have time to post much to the blog last year or to do any painting, but I did keep up the gaming. I won't go into too much detail at this remove, but feel compelled to make some sort of report to appease the god of completeness (if there is one).

Following an initial game of The Men Who Would Be Kings, my friend Ian wanted to try out 1914 by Great Escape Games. This was far too gamey for me for an historical game, but it did inspire me to revisit Square Bashing. We played a lot of games and I even dug up, reorganised and based my 10mm Chinese Warlord Era armies.

A 1918 Square Bashing game.

After that we moved on to Dead Man's Hand Redux by Great Escape Games which was a refreshing diversion. This is inherently gamey, but that's more acceptable to me in this cinematic, fun context. Ian has a huge collection of Old West figures and buildings to draw on, not that you need much for this boutique game.

A tense moment in Dead Man's Hand Redux.

Later in the year we returned to Xenos Rampant in order to prepare for a demo game at Cavalier 2025. With the Cavalier plans sorted, Ian agreed to explore Eisenhower which is where we are now and on which I've already posted.

 

Operation Crusader: Eisenhower using Ian's 6mm
North African forces.

 
Our focus on Eisenhower was interrupted last week which gave me a chance to join a game of Crossfire kindly organised by club member Hamish. I was severely over-exposed to Crossfire in 2014 when preparing the Crossfiregrad demo game for Cavalier 2015 and haven't wanted to play it since. I can hardly believe that's ten years ago. But time heals and last night's game piqued my interest again.

I commanded two platoons of German veterans fighting off three platoons of British supported by HMGs, heavy mortars and a Churchill tank. The British didn't cover their attack by properly smoking or suppressing me and were thus convincingly seen off. I destroyed two platoons and the Churchill.

One of the many great things about Crossfire is that a good game can easily be staged within the 3-hour window of a club evening.

My last Salute?

There was some fantastic scenery at Salute 25 but the usual horrible lighting and noise level gave me a pounding migraine which lasted all day and into the evening. I also sat on a chair which was apparently broken and collapsed under me. Nobody had thought to put it out of the way.

The trade stands were dominated by Fantasy/SciFi start-ups flogging myriad ranges and rules, and big box shifters reflecting the commodification of the hobby.

I found a couple of games of particular personal interest: Simon Miller's Lust for Glory (in development) and an excellent and amusing presentation of the Two Fat Lardies' Chain of Command.

But as long as the show is at ExCel and on its current trajectory, I will probably never go again.

This is also the first year that I didn't notice anybody that I used to know when I was a member of the South London Warlords back in the Seventies...