Escape from Toulon

Hello There! after being persuaded to be sociable I went to the New Buckenham Historical Wargamers Club. I was not expecting to get a game as I had not clicked 'going' on the club Facebook page but there were some spaces to take part in the above game.

As you can see these Langton ships have been very well made by Paul.

The scenario was a British fleet had to stop a French breakout from the port of Toulon. The French were escorting a line of Merchant vessels and they had to get off the other end of the table.

One corner of the table represented the French port.

The rules used were Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls. These made for a very quick and enjoyable game which fitted easily into the evening club meeting.

Further photos are on the club facebook page here.

Minster Gate Book Shop, York

Hello There! I have visited York a few times in the past and have always tried to visit the Minster Gate Bookshop.

The stock has varied considerable from year to year but always seems to have something of interest on their shelves. This year was a very good year!

I found that they had a number of plates and pictures on offer. After flicking through a number of trays I found this. As I am painting Front Rank French Napoleonic Legere at the moment, I took that as a good omen and rescued this plate. 

I have a couple of publications by James Holland so this was a nice surprise to find. Especially as his style of writing is easy to read.

I have seen this book used as a reference on a number of occasions, by other authoritative publications. This is the first time I have seen one available. Although I am not greatly interested in the sieges of this period I have listened to a few podcasts about them so thought I would pick this one up.

I have a few books on the Marshals of France and Marshal Ney has always been of interest to me.

I have heard that this has been a bit of a contentious volume in the past so I thought I would read this. So much of this battle and campaign has been related in a very Anglo centric way that I would like to see what this has to say.

My Grand father missed this debacle but was out in this theatre afterwards.

This is that last volume from Adkins that I wanted to purchase having already obtained Waterloo and Gettysburg.

This bookshop is certainly worth visiting if you are in the area.

New Purchases

Hello there! Due to the lockdown I have started to gather information and figure for an extension to the ACW skirmish projects. This is in the form of Napoleonic Marines and sailors.

This left me with a problem in having no uniform information for these figures. The Naval side of Napoleonic wargaming is something that never interested me before but with  the search for different scenarios to play I drifted, (!), into this direction.

I contacted Paul Meekins Books, here, and he recommended a few items.

I had no idea that these Osprey books existed, except for the 'Nelson's Navy' which I had looked through a friends copy and decided it would be useful. The others were a complete surprise to me.

They have proved a good read and very useful for what I was after.