On The Road To Chevarie

Autumn is in full flow, the harvests have been harvested, the leaves are falling, but snow is still weeks away. The British forces have rested after their victory at the abatis, and after a council of war, the decision has been taken to proceed northeast on the coastal road along the Minas Basin.

The captain of the Rangers pressed the importance of sending out scouting parties well ahead of the main body but the British general dismissed that idea. He was intended on a quick march, with just a near scouting party, so the column would surprise the French at Beausejour, and did not think the French would have the guts to set another ambush.............

The End Of The Year Is Getting Near

My Winter preparations are unusually starting to coming to completion early. (Must be getting older than I feel.)  Every remaining collection has seen action during 2026 and soon free time will increase. (Especially since I no longer have wheels!)

What periods, scenarios, etc would folks like to see in the time that remains in 2026? If there's something you'd like to see, drop in a comment or, if you're shy, email me. (rmacfa@gmail.com). On the side bar there are links to past posts in the various periods.

Days of Arthur and the Saxons.

16th C: Henry VIII vs the Scots

The French & Indian Wars

The French Revolution

Faraway and Oberhilse in the 1830's/40's

American Civil War (1/72nd)

1840's fictional border clashes 
(54mm, Not US, 'Patriots', or Fenians vs Canadians and British .....)

The Longest Game

 Its been one of those months......... "Winter is Coming!" as a Stark might say, but I have been preparing for winter for some weeks. More precisely, I've been working while muttering ...."I'm a lumberjack, I'm OK" (Monty Python fans will understand the context). In other words, I've been sawing storm damaged trees, and a couple of standing trees to provide fuel for our wood stove which helps keep the house warm in winter, especially when the occasional winter storm knocks out our electricity for several days. 

So,........I played this game a turn or two, now and then when I had time and energy, esp when we had some of this year's scarce rain events. Anyway, here's a very short "Illustrated Battle Report".
(Some repeat images may be included to make a brief "Illustrated Report".)

The third wave of British infantry has landed. Both the generals and the Admiral are annoyed that there were not as many landing boats as they had requested.

The last wave lands as the second assault on the ladders wins a foothold on the ramparts and the party of sailors with axes are making headway on busting open the fortress gate.

    

The fight at the gate is ferocious but the Highlanders have now climbed the wall and forced back the French.

At last the main gate has been broken open, while the walls on the left have been swept clean.

"Surrender!!  Your flag is down and our troops are approaching your rear!"

______

Another week or two should see something more like usual.

Gotta Make Time

My main focus these days is to increase our store of firewood for the cold days to come. However, I have to find a bit of downtime now and then.

So, the game must go on! .........(Even if it's a couple of turns a day ...)

Oh. And yes, the Brits are landing in waves.

Pull Boys Pull

This is likely going to play out slowly since I'm spending so much time turning some of our fallen trees into stacks of firewood.

But it has finally begun!

To be continued......

Aux Armes!

On a fall morning on Belmont Island, the mists began to clear.   An alert sentinel spotted a flotilla of boats rowing hard towards the shore

. The sight of red coats made him sound the alarm!

 To be continued.........

Coming Soon.......

In no planned order, but all French Revolution:

 1. Assault on St. Lambert. A surprise attempt to storm the walls of a coastal town in the West Indies.

2. Vive le Rois!  Royalist rebels continue the fight supported by Les Anglais. (Scenario not yet chosen)

. 3. In Flanders Fields in 1790's.  (Scenario not decided)

Stand by for the trailer for next upcoming game......

Annnnnnnd I'm back.....

 I've been away visiting family but now I'm home and there are a vaste number of outside chores waiting......BUT...it's raining, not just one day, but most of the week, or more. (Yay!)

Now, I happen to have some new-to-me French Revolution troops which have been drilled and reinforced, and are ready to get into action. I have a feeling they will be sent to the West Indies....

West Indies

Unless they get orders to face a Royalist uprising supported by British troops...

Breton rising

Or it could be in Flanders, early in the wars.......

I'd better start collecting news and awaiting the votes from Parliament as to which expedition should be attempted.

Now published.....

 The battle report on the Gathering of Hosts is now up:

Contact

The pass through the mountains is not a speedy route for an army, and the raven's message gave just enough time for the local nobles to gather their levies, horse and foot. 

By chance, the Queen was visiting the various provinces and when the word was received, she immediately sent her Horse Guards to face the enemy while she called on all of her subjects to be alert along their borders,  and to send their pledged contingent to a Royal army.

Battle is nigh!

Coming Soon To The Gathering Of Hosts

A Midlish army has crossed the mountain passes and they are sure they were not spotted. Sure until they see the local farmers forming a shield wall, and a column of Valdurian cavalry entering the valley village.

Stay tuned to the Gathering of Hosts or watch this blog for an announcement of the Barde's telling of the coming battle.

As requested......

A game is now shaping on the Gathering of Hosts with the opening teaser already posted.

to be continued.

Awright! The table is ready for some more action....

 ...but......I'm having trouble choosing what to do next!

Any suggestions or requests from my current collections are welcome

 ( See my  my blog page about my current collections) 

Aux Armes, Citoyens!

Long ago and far away (well ok, 1998 and 1,600 km.) I crossed the border into the USA and drove down to Pennsylvania for 'Cold Wars', a US wargame convention (That's another story.), to run a 54mm 1812 game using my  "With MacDuff To The Frontier" rules which had been published in 'The Courier' magazine the year before. To my surprise, some guys were running a  French & Indian "With MacDuff" game using homecast 40mm figures, and another game using Prince August homecast figures (Yes, that's how I started home casting figures) and Charge! one of my first wargame books which had been read over and over, especially the pictures......, a few hundred times since I bought it with my first paycheck at military college at the old age of 17!

Rob and I became friends and co-hosted 40mm games until Covid hit.  French & Indian skirmishes, then a 16thC Anglo-Scottish affair involving the English trying to get a supply train into a defended city, (A game we ran three times ending up with twice the number of players in the last game as they teamed up, and which got us a "Best of show" award). 

A few years later, we ran a French Revolution sort-of-skirmish/character game involving the Scarlet Pimpernel and all. The figures were largely homecast from Meisterzinn moulds cast and painted by Rob. I think all that I added was to sculpt and cast some peasants but the games were fun. Well, things change, people move, etc etc, and the last time Rob and I ran a game in Portland Maine, roughly 1/2 way between us we were using our mutual horde of Prince August semi-flats and Rob was moving to a different house and had decided that his French Revolution figures would be better elsewhere, like in my game room!

(btw his blog is:  https://sharpbrush.blogspot.com )

40mm French Republican Infantry

Each of his units were 12 single figures, a good choice for the kind of games we had been playing, but I have recently decided to settle on 4 stand battalions, preferably with 16 figures for line infantry but not necessarily. So, I added the handful of standard bearers then scrounged a few extra figures to boost the numbers to at least 14 figures. Rob's painting style is a bit different from mine but I think I managed to copy his style close enough to fit in. 

40mm French Regulars, still wearing their old uniforms.

Austrians and British to follow, I think I'll leave the civilians and peasants as singles!

Meet Me At The Crossroads

Well......., its been more than a week since I laid out the table for a quick game with some of the refurbished Oberhilse (not USA) and Faraway (not Dominion of C.). Well, life's chores and obligations sometimes interfere with hobbies, as does working on reversions of incomplete rules. None the less, the game went on.

(PS: If you click on the pictures, they will expand to a larger size. Depending on your computer, you can either expand and shrink the pictures using 2 fingers, or on older machines, there will be a "+" marker, click that and then the picture will expand to full size, bigger than most screens BUT you can slide around the big picture and have a good close look. When you've had enough, click the back pointer on the header panel where the left, right, arrows etc).  

 a '+' on the Click on pictures for larger size. Depending on your machine, you can use your figures to enlarge or shrink the picture, or there may bepicture which will expand again and allow you to slide the large picture to see all of it. Click on the header arrow pointing left to go back to the regular screen.

What follows is a quick illustrated report on the opening encounter in the war of 1837. Once again, there was a dispute over just where the border ran. The particular target was the Stone Jug Inn and Tavern.

At dawn, both armies rose and hit the roads. Once the enemies spotted each other, the advanced guards moved as quickly as possible with the republic's cavalry and sharpshooters moving fastest with the infantry doing their best to catch up.

The Oberhilse forces moved up quickly, cavalry across the fields, infantry up the road and soon had troops in the village. The Redcoats marched forward in good spirits, but it was soon clear that the enemy was already occupying the town. General Turner had to come up with a new plan.

For awhile, while the armies deployed, the battle was a skirmish between the light troops, taking what cover they could find while the infantry on both sides moved forward as fast as possible and the Generals made battle plans.

A prolonged firefight followed.

Before long the casualties were increasing without any advantage apart from the side in the cover of the town.

At last, the Redcoats were ordered to "Fix Bayonets" then "Charge!!!"

The Dominion's infantry on their right managed to push back the enemy infantry but they weren't broken or even forced out of the cover of their houses, and reinforcements were at hand.

It was time for General Turner to fallback, fortify the two sections of the town that they held, barricade the roads, call for reinforcements and make a clever plan to evict the enemy.

ps: About 2/3 of these figures were home cast, with or without conversions, but about 1/2 of those are from my original sculpts, the rest being from commercial moulds.

Interlude

It's been "one of those days" but I managed a few turns. 

Hopefully, I will be able to resume soon. 

'Hurry Up and Wait!'

The plan was an afternoon to play out the game. I managed to play 2 turns today......sighhh

At least the advanced units are engaged.

Ah well, there's still tomorrow.

Genr'l, Thanks for giving us a chance to show what we can do.

 Coming soon to a screen near you!

1836, Oberhilse and Faraway will clash again!
(click on photo for a close look)

......(well, it could be a few days, depends on the weather, volunteer stuff, various chores, etc, etc....)

Pass In Review

 ”Yes Colonel, that's our newly raised 2nd Dragoons passing by us now."

"Would you and your lady like to review the new Squadron, Colonel?”

"Oh, of course, your companion is dressed beautifully for the soiree, not to inspect horses and men. My apologies"  

Bit By Bit

I'm trying to make time for a short painting session most days, so these lads are slowly getting into tabletop condition.

If the forecast heavy rain comes, they should be finished tomorrow!