First post of the year - Desert defences.

First post of the year and as the news tells me we can expect a weather bomb due to Storm Goretti and with snow outside.... the perfect time to throw up some trenches for the Western Desert.

Having been gaming for over 35 years, it's inevitable that as some point long and trusted traders would likely be looking to get out and retire. December saw John over at Ironclad Miniatures decide to call it a day.

Great news they have been saved and sold on to Leon over at Pendraken.. John held a retirement sale - just the excuse I needed to grab a few more trenches to help bolster the Vichy defences for Operation Exporter or perhaps Torch?

Great castings and the prefect balance between playability and sculpts.

Not a bad start for 2026.

Dispatched from the Front XXXIII - Anything but Arabs.

It's been a while since the last dispatches post. My apologies this entry might be more of a reminder for me to keep me on track.

Chatting during the Cotswold day we shared a listing of half finished projects, we also seem to share one thing in common far to many projects than ever making it to the table. It got me thinking about the need for a clear out or sweep up of the ever going list on the paint table, during lockdown when everyone appeared to have more time I did a full review of projects underway and sold off a number of half finished projects, but things appears to have been building up again with a queue of things that need completing. I can't be the only one that thinks I have two spare figures why don't I buy a regiment to build them out......

So after the mass of figures for the Crusades project a brief pause whilst I clear some of the distractions that need that little bit of focus to get them table ready. My reckoning is that these should be done over 2 weeks - Enough time for a fresh Pendraken order to arrive.

To kick the next two weeks off I found a bunch of spare figures tucked away in a draw for the American Revolution Project. Getting these done will leave me with no spare figures for this project.

Keeping the focus on the AWI I brought a few packs of snake fencing back in March together with some large cosmetic spatula's but they were not wide enough, not wishing to waste anything and gambling that who is really looking in 10mm I straightened them up.  

Not bad basing material for less than £5.00 and these should not take long to get to the table, the sharp sand and I quick spray done over a couple of lunchtimes.

Pretty sure these were 15mm but have been sitting in a box for 25 years!!! Using the same spatula's these barricades were complete in a day, I don't know what took me so long.

Also purchased back in March an extra bunker for the Western Desert a nice piece of kit from Ironclad Miniatures well you can't go to a show and not buy anything. This was half done just needed some extra dry brushing and a light wash. Now ready for the next campaign game.

A package from Studio Historia Miniatures which has been hanging around since the summer. A case of idle hands on a train ride to London and a few clicks later and I am the proud owner of Zombie Camels and the Ramesses II headquarters, I figured the tent would be a good centre piece for my New Kingdom Egyptian forces and the camels for Silver Bayonet in the desert.

They have some great items on the website I can see a few more orders coming their way in the coming months - that damn butterfly.

Hittite Walls and WW2 Greeks - hhhmmm.

A few months ago we gave Xenos Rampant a run out for Chechen Wars, a great game which was really quick to get through in an evening session, it highlighted the need for a few extra heavy weapons, so a quick order from Fighting 15's and there they sat - time to get them done.

That should do for starters 6 different projects to juggle before I even think about projects for next year.

Fox holes - Western Desert - Iron Clad Miniatures.

Back to the Western Desert and some welcome cover for the foot sloggers, these fox holes are from Iron Clad Miniatures.

I had thought about creating my own and adding in half figures, but in the end opted for some more functional that can be moved around on the table top. The down side is the placements are quite high but a far comprise vs game play.

The CO gets something a little more sturdy with the sides shored up with planking, cast in resin these are really good value for money with two man fox holes at £4.00 and single for £2.00 

Enough for a section and supports all done in a day...

Next up the Germans get some extra fire power...

Dispatches from the front XXVIII - In house rules & desert purchases.

It's been over a month since the last dispatch and still everything is still middle east focused.... I was hunting around for some extra terrain items for the desert and spotted some nice pieces on Two Shed Fred's eBay page.

As usual great service from Fred.... a set of walls which will add to the village and be useful for multiple periods.

Add to that three Mine Fields, these are great pieces very simple in design with a barb wire fence around each of them, with 6 movable signs, 2 generic, 2 British & 2 German. 

Having had Fred make me some bespoke roads a few years ago, I was wondering what to do with my Battlefield in a Box Roads, the answer was found in a couple of cans of Desert Yellow and Bone Yard and there they are..... Desert Roads..... and an excuse to add a couple of house rules for the desert games around bogging and mid day heat.

To compliment these pieces a small order from Ironclad Miniatures with a selection of fox holes, nothing says desert warfare than a bunch of infantry hiding in fox holes, whilst these are rather high I like the fact that I can drop them over the top of infantry or support teams rather than half figures.

On the subject of House Rules, I played a couple of Pint Size Campaign games with Chain of Command over at the Wyre Forest Club, a good encounter between the French Defenders and the attacking Germans... It's been a few years since I last played CoC, they have some nice mechanisms and feel a little more realistic than Bolt Action however my gaming tastes have changed slightly and I am leaning more towards the 'fun' game but still keeping a degree of realism. 

It got me thinking about adding in certain key elements of Chain of Command into Bolt Action.

I like the Force Morale elements in the Too Fat Lardies game mechanism, this makes you think about when you commit your troops but also not leaving sections too exposed. So adding a Bad Things Happen Table for the loss of a unit in addition to a loss of a dice makes for some jeopardy. 

This is the draft.

Snipers in BA can be pretty lethal and players always go for the LMG in a squad, Force Morale makes Officers more important and their loss could reduce the Force Morale which feels better rather than just taking dice from the bag.

Movement within BA can feel a little rigid with 6" for Advance and 12" for a Run so I have tweaked this with 1D6 for Advance and 3D6 for a Run HOWEVER if you get a double a unit gains a pin. This makes a Run a useful move but you may need to spend a turn reordering the ranks in a future turn.

If a unit fails a pin test and breaks under the house rules now units fall back 6" plus 2D6 and then go Down, but also take a Bad Things Happen Test.

One of my gripes with some rules is how whole units are taken off the table after a few casualties, it takes so long to paint units do I really want them back in the box after a few rounds of fire. So when it comes to Hand to Hand now when units lose they not taken off the table but rout backwards and gain pins equivalent to the difference in casualties.

The initial run through in a small game as French take on the Italians for a desert watering hole played really well.

How to test it with a few more players who are used to BA proper let's see if the tweaks hold up.

Happy gaming...

Ironclad Miniatures - Russian Buildings

First out of the blocks for June and some extra's for Kampfgruppe Sticker and Chechnya, the ruined buildings will be a good compliment to the ones I already own, mostly on one level they will be a useful addition to the town.

The Russian barn when painted does not shrink :-)

It's a nice design and fits the other rural buildings well, but I am not sure I will placing it next to the ruins above. 

The small Russian church is a great casting. I thought long and hard about the colour of the dome, in the end I opted for a blue palette with some gold leaf for the circular spire.... That priest sure knows how to spend his flocks money....

Finally a timber bunker, which will double up as an MG or Observation Post, a number of the Stickler scenario's call for a construction of this nature so this will come in very useful.

The bunker only has two firing slits and no back door so could easily be easily outflanked if the defenders are not careful so hopefully won't dominate the table.

A quick turnaround.

Looking forward to getting these on the table.

Dispatches from the Front VIII

April was a good month with two projects cleared in one go.

May sees a return to the Elizabethan Project with a plan to complete the English forces and some new evil elements entering the campaign.

As we all know a project is never complete, so why not compliment the new infantry with some extra terrain, I ordered a number of new buildings from Iron Clad Miniatures to bolster the Stickler Campaign. They took a little longer than usual arrive due to the new working practices but will fit both the WW2 campaign and my Chechen War stuff.

Two small ruins these should fit in with the other bombed damaged buildings. They come with some additional flooring to make a second storey.

The log bunker is suitable for a number of periods and comes with two firing slits and a detachable roof, a number of the scenarios in Platoon Forward call for bunker clearance or an OP, so I am sure it will get some use in the next couple of weeks.

When they said a large Russian barn they weren't kidding.... I doubt I will be putting the barn and the ruin next to each other on the table top.

Finally a small Russian church enough for a small family and a church mouse. I will base this piece up to give it some texture on the table top. I suspect these should be gaming table ready in a couple of weeks.

The diplomacy campaign continues to keep the club talking I have had a couple of good turns and the Turkish empire continues to expand with new provinces in Russia and the Mediterranean 

We have been trying to give Standard Games - Cry Havoc/Outremer a run out over facetime with both players having the maps deployed, it was a bit of a bugger setting up the maps as our collective eye sight has failed over the years and it was hard to recognise Fulk vs Giles, but played reasonably well if only the Wi-Fi would hold up.

Another potential distraction?

Every couple of years the conversation turns to turning this to a miniatures game.

And with Footsore's Caliphate range back in stock. Hhhhhmm….

Competition time, I was packing away the new reinforcements for the South Koreans and the new M60's when I noticed that the rear guard rail is slightly smaller on one of them. Answers on a postcode if you an identify the different class ?

(Sorry no actual prizes..)

This looks interesting. I quite liked the idea of the Drowned Earth perhaps my Atlanians will have another excuse to entire the table, besides co-op/solo dinosaur hunting? - I mean what's not to like.

Up next Spanish reinforcements and a return to Elizabethan England.

Cornered Wolf - Rule review and 1st outing.

Sunday night and with the smell of varnish hanging heavy in the air saw the first outing for the Cornered Wolf Rules. It's fair to say they are somewhat bloody. 

The table represents the outskirts of a Chechen town where farm land starts to give way to the industrial centre, plenty of cover and boy do you need it.

They have some quite neat rule ideas, you never quite know what you will have to play with or the scenario you are playing.
You will need a deck of cards as this decides the forces on offer and turn sequence.

Dane pulled a lot of Face cards - Kings, Queens and Jacks which gave him plenty of Russian Armour, whilst I pulled low number cards which gave me infantry with the occasional RPG apart from an Ace which gave me some armour support...
On face value the Chechen's looked hard pressed.

Deployment is an unstructured affair, you deploy your first unit near one table edge and then place units anywhere on the table but you have to be in minimum of 12" away from any other unit, which means you could quickly end up with isolated units as your opponent places units in the same fashion, which gives quite a unique challenge bearing in mind at this point you don't know what the scenario is.

Once deployed you pick an objective each, The Russian's picked clear each sector of the board, whilst I picked raid a Russian held building, any easy choice given they only had one infantry section in this game and they were some way away from the supporting armour.

With the forces and scenario picked the deck of cards becomes your activations, a face card gives you the option of armour and a number card mostly infantry, Black for one side, Red for another.

We soon realised that the chances of Russian armour rushing round the table blasting anything in sight was somewhat limited especially as the Chechen's can't be shot at if they get close enough to a tank.

The Russians with limited infantry cover were exposed to sneaky infantry running from building to building.

Pretty much everything hits on a 4+ on a D6 and RPG's get three shots so we soon had smoking wreaks all over the place.

The single Russian section could not stand up to the numerous infantry against them, which mean't the Chechen's could nip in and steal the supplies.

The tank hunting certainly gave the feel of the armour being vunerable to sneaky infantry which is what the rule read up suggested but it feels like a few tweaks are need to separate AFV's to Tanks and perhaps limit the number of rounds or AT hits (As I type I have received an update which looks like it does exactly this.)

I fun evenings gaming but I suspect people will add house rules to reflect their own view of the conflict.