Welcome 2017

For review, 2016 was not a great year and that is leaving politics out of it. It start bad for me when I not only lost my mother but the family turned to the black sheep of the fold and ask, "so you are going to take care of the funeral and arranagements?" After working with the church, mom was RC and I am Jewish, just don't tell the priest, volunteering family members to help and many visits with the attorney it came off successfully. But personally my gaming and personal time did not start to recover until late summer.

So I was able to game at the Springfield Club and got in a few games of Chain of Command as well as other club favorites. My painting projects went no where so I will reset for 2017 focusing on three areas, Imperial Skies which is VSF, battles around Caen in 1944 and lastly two slightly connected games dealing with Poland 1939 and SeaLion. These are projects that I have most of what I need. I will be playing other games, such as Black Ops and Harpoon, I will just not be buying much if anything for them.

I will only add that the blog, miniatures and the readers have been a refuge from any family darkness and I thank you. I even averaged over one blog post fo week, not to bad.

Thank yo for being here, and welcome 2017, now if I could only figure out why I have so my hits coming from Russia, but there I am not alone.

Secret Santa,

Santa did come to town...
    and I must have been really good.

Well done Chris in running the Secret Santa program. I received from Santa some serious support for my 1939 Poles. This will also move Poland up to the front of the queue as my current Poles are painted as the infantry for the 10th Cavalry Brigade (Mechanized), so I need to paint up regular infantry and National Guard troops. But first I need to order some.

These support options give me BARs, machine guns, motors and the UR Wz.35 anti-tank rifles. This was an over the top present. Thank you Santa and thank you Chris.

O Tannenbaum - Sort Of

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie treu sind deine Blätter!

Well while these are not Chrstmas trees, my European forests have received an additional 28 trees waiting to be built. These are on the larger side so will cover more area of the forest than their smaller cousins that I currently have.

I will also be using an Amazon gift card for additional trees and glue so the village project appears to have received a jump start in 2016.

Building Me a Village

Your average wargamer will have many projects that he or she is working on. Some will be at the front of the queue such as a new army for a new period, while others are further back such as researching a new period or front. Not normally number one on most lists, this year I will be moving terrain to the top of my project lists after an interesting conversation that went something like this...

An English Village or one in Normandy

"Nice farm"

          'Thank you'

"Do you play a lot in Normandy?"

               'Why yes, Normandy and England'

"So you can do an entire village"

                    (After a pregnant pause)
                                            ...'Well I don't know'

So lets find out.

A Better View of the Church.

Most of my battles are conducted in 15mm on a 6 by 4 table. Here we see the layout of a possible English village with cobble stone roads (no dirt paths here); with all the houses on display. There are few trees or fields as I wanted to give the best possible view of what I need to add to my collection.

I did leave room for the church yard as it is important for my paras to have a place to fight/play over. I see I am lacking in additional commercial businesses and residential housing. Have to keep my people happy.

I see my needs include:

• Trees - Lots of Them
• Bridge
• Town Center/Memorial
• One or Two Businesses, maybe more
• Three or Four Houses, also maybe more
• Rail Road Station - I have the Track
• Manor Hall

I expect to work through the list  during 2017 based mainly on any upcoming sales. This will give me a village suitable for an Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers adventure. Will even have a Lord's estate with the necessary out buildings. An estate to be used as a defensive structure to hold back German invaders for Sealion or ruffians and the lower orders for a Very British Civil War.

I am  certain this village will be growing. Population spurt I guess caused by all those boys in there spiffy uniforms turning a lady's head. :-)

Panzer Is and Jagdpanthers

We gamers today are very lucky, we have ample supplies of quality figures for any scale and period (yes. I know someone out there is looking for a 15mm version of the Independent, but really now). The Internet and print on demand has given access to a wide assortment of technical knowledge on, well everything. But I save the best for last, the Internet has connected gamers 50 miles away or 4,000 miles away. This world allows gamers to ask any question of experts often getting an answer in under an hour. Recently I asked Guy Bowers a question and he responded quickly and the author of the piece responded to Guy's querie in 16 minutes. Amazing.

If you have a question this community will help. So when I was interested in a new period back in 2006ish, I was introduced to TOOFATLardies and Richard Clarke. A great resource and friend to all. He in-turn connected me with Guy Bowers, editor of Wargames Soldiers and Strategy (see above). And what a publication it is.

If you are interested in miniatures or gaming, you need to get a copy. What to improve you painting, well here in the US you can find it on the shelves of Barnes & Nobel. Looking for original writing on WWII, Ancients, American Civil War or fantasy, well you need a subscription. And it is the holiday season, so treat yourself. :-)

In the last two issues there was not only original writing on the battles in Holland other than Operation Market Garden. Piers Brand wrote about battles that allows the gamer to put on the table Panzer Is and Renault 35s along side Shermans and Jagdpanthers. His historical research is first rate and reinforces the idea is you can take a battle like Caen or Arnhem and never run out of engagements. Add in the German use of training equipment and kampfgruppen and well there will always be something interesting on the table. Right now I have three Renaults on the painting bench. They will be painted in three different paint schemes, German grey, yellow and forest green.

So does this have you thinking about picking up an issue. Good, as WSS is the best magazine on the market, and I have purchased a lot of them. 

Painting Table

While I do not think I will get much done before the end of the year, but my painting table is ambitious. Should make for an interesting January 2017.

I have here Sea Lion Home Guard, Polish tanks, Imperial Skies ships, and tanks for 1944. Yes there is alot, but it still all falls into the three areas I have mentioned for 2017.

I So Love Technology

Well I found out today there is a glitch with many blog feeds. This glitch is caused by an image if it is in the top position, so you are missing the great writing I am providing. :-)

As I fix the issue here is what you missed, now just dig back a little.