Salute 2013 - part 2 - a review...

...and so to part two.... 

This was one of the best Salutes in some time for good looking games (in my opinion)

In third place then was this game by Battlefront Miniatures and run by Barry Hilton - "The Battle of Little Big Top"  using his own soon to be released ACW rules "Rally to the Colours".

This won "Best Sponsored Trader Game"and given it was up against some pretty games elsewhere, this was a good result...

...that hill was quite steep..  superb terrain...

In second place...  Nantwich Gamers presented "When Chaos Reigns"  a 28mm WWII game - this won the "Salute Shield Best of Show Game" and quite deservedly!

...another game where the level of detail was simply stunning..

Look at the stowage on those Sherman's... definitely on campaign..

Puma's - one of my favourites.. 

The windmill particularly appealed..  it didn't move or light up, just solid modelling, and a good terrain to support it..

Look at that terrace...  and all in 28mm...!

...and so finally, we come to first place...  drum roll etc.

I'm a black powder gamer so for me it was a complete and utter no brainer, I saw the game and before I'd seen anything else I already knew it was the best game....  so, this is "Waterloo 1815" presented by the Essex Gamesters - this won "Salute Challenger Second Overall" losing out to the game above...

..the big view looking along the British line from right to left flank...  French grand battery to the right of the picture..

Some detail - tourists and sightseers...

Hougemont..

La Haye Saint in the distance...

British Heavy's...

French Heavy's...  no more successful this time than last time...

Close up of La Haye Saint..

....and to complete the multi format presentation that is this blog...  herewith a brief vid to show the sheer scale and size of the thing...

...and that's it....  all I can say is roll on next year!

Salute 2013.. a review..

My feet have just about recovered....  albeit it's three days later...  

Another superb show and I can only echo my fellow bloggeratti when I say that the Warlords [clicky] have again triumphed - every year this show seems to get better and better, and  it now fills the available space very nicely, but without it feeling claustrophobic - it's one of those things where those high ceilings work well...

Downsides?? Nothing major... I like the venue, I like the (geographic) location, I bring my own food...  it does seem to me that over the years that the percentage difference between historical and fantasy is gradually going more and more fantasy, but it's such huge show there's still plenty of historical flavour, and while it may not be my cup of tea some of the fantasy based games are still fascinating...  happily the instance of historical re-enactors was lower this year as well...I don't mind the Star Wars guys, but why are the historical dudes always on the "large" side (and therefore totally a-historical)? 

Another low key show on the purchasing front - Sean at Newline Designs [clicky] was doing a Salute sale (24 figure unit packs at 30% off), so I took the opportunity to re-stock my 20mm ACW painting piles with a pre-order of 3 packs of various combinations of marching infantry...   I wanted to get some rifled artillery as well but Sean doesn't have them (yet!), so I managed to get some Parrots from the SHQ [clicky] stand, along with some mounted command. I also bought myself a small razor saw to add to the modelling tool box, and that was it...   I find increasingly these days that the shows for me are a way of seeing things in the flesh that I then subsequently order via the web - the size of the ranges that manufacturers carry these days makes it impossible for them to bring everything and although I'm interested most of the new ranges are plastic (blechhhh....) or 28mm (not my scale) ...

...and so on to the games.....  very difficult this year for me to work out the winning order....  first place was easy (and having seen a few of the blogs I'm not alone in my choice), but deciding the places of those games lower down the order was very difficult simply because they were so good... as usual, and in my own curmudgeonly way they are the games that appealed to me....  the chances are if it involved fantasy, hexes, 6mm, or a period that didn't tickle my fancy (Dark Ages or Ancients unfortunately fall into this category) that's why they don't appear...   

I took a lot of pictures but as I dislike huge picture filled posts I may split this over a few parts....either way here goes....  drum roll....   and in seventh place (not "last") we have this little American Civil war set-to which appealed to me greatly, not the least because the guys were having a whale of a time playing it, and the umpire was throwing those cotton wool balls around the place like they were going out of fashion...now I think this was the Newbury  & Reading guys doing "Chancellorsville  1863 - The Trap is Sprung" but my notes are unclear, so if it's not, let me know...  if it is, then I think this will feature in a future edition of Miniature Wargames...

"Look Dad, zouaves!"

The lead was certainly flying if the cotton wool balls are anything to go by!

In 6th place - and clear evidence that if the game appeals enough to me - and the terrain for this game was simply superb - then even Ancients stand a chance of getting into my top 10...   so in 6th place we have this oriental siege game put on by Oshiro Model Terrain - "Assault on Aki Kamei-jo"

I've mentioned the Oshiro guys before as one of their games was a favourite last year...  they specialise in Japanese/Samurai era and it shows....  this depicted what they saw as a typical Samurai period siege..

In 5th place,"Stalingrad 1942, The Rat War" from Arbuthnot's Terra Firma League of Gentlemen, the guy running this had just been presented with the Best Scenery award, and was absolutely gob smacked Very nice guy, totally overwhelmed, but stunning scenery...

The whole project started when he bought the two buildings below at last years show, and then wondered what he would do with them!

All the boards are interchangeable,and can be turned by 90 or 180 degees so that an infinite number of alternatives tables can be made...

In fourth place, and it's getting really difficult tosperate them now! This was "To Berlin" from the Chemins De Feu Club and it was stunning..  no other word for it.... the level of detail was amazing..

Armoured train - click - one vote straight away!

Look at the detail inside the buildings..  how much work has gone into this??

You just know that things are not going to go well for that Panther!

"Knock, knock, Avon calling..."

Brilliant...  stay with me for the top 3 in part 2...

First game of the year..

...tonight, and Salute tomorrow...  does it get any better!? 

American Civil War action this evening trying the Rank and File rules...   here's a taster...

 ...can the Union capture this??

WWII photo archive - Normandy

Spotted this in the paper yesterday - well worth 20 minutes of anyone's time! 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photosnormandie/ [clicky]

The Hobbit - a review...

....dreadful dreadful, dreadful... no not the Hobbit, the fact that it's been 8 days since I last posted...  heads will roll...

Anyway, I've had the Hobbit on pre-order from Amazon ever since they first announced it, and it finally arrived last week, so at last I had a chance to watch it..

I missed it at the cinema , no idea why, I think we just got too busy, and although the current Mrs Steve the Wargamer wanted to see it the two ingrates, sorry daughters, didn't...  anyway, it was missed so I was desperate to see it...

Opinion seems to be divided (like Mrs Thatcher) between those who think it's brilliant, and those who think it's a huge mistake..  I fall into the former camp as I sat down and had no idea where two and a half hours went, it was so good...

The dwarves are brilliant, think heavy metal, authoritarian, biker gang and you're getting close - everything is leather, metal, armoured, heavy, hairy...  just how you imagine they would have been... all axes and moustaches....  superb...

The plot line is pretty close to the book, and like the book Jackman has stayed faithful to the tone..  I first read The Hobbit 30 odd years ago and remember grinning at the joke about the invention of golf, and it's in the film - the tone is just right...  The Hobbit was written for children and is lighter than Lord of the Rings, so is the film..

The acting is superb, the special effects extraordinary (the city of the Goblin king is just amazing!), I loved the incident with the trolls, and Bilbo's riddle competition with Gollum was exactly as I remembered it in the book....

The side story with the pale Orc (Azog, the Defiler) whilst not specifically a part of the original book is a good one, and provides some wonderful scenes with the Orc scouting pack mounted on Wargs chasing the party across that beautiful terrain...

Loved the depiction of Radagast the brown (another character we know of through the Lord of the Rings who didn't feature in the Hobbit), Saruman continues to be a pompous irritant, and is there anyone better suited to depict Galadriel than Cate Blanchett??

Watch it....   just trust me on this...  watch it...  Steve the Wargamer rates this 9 out of 10  (I'm already looking for a two and a half hour slot so I can watch it again)...

39th Illinois Volunteer Infantry

Another regiment leaves the painting table...! 



The 39th Illinois Volunteer Infantry (nicknamed "Yates' Phalanx") was organized at Chicago, and mustered into service on October 11, 1861, for a three year term.

The organization of the Regiment was started by Thomas Ogden Osborn (August 11, 1832 – March 27, 1904), a lawyer in civilian life, as soon as the news of the firing on Fort Sumter reached Chicago.

Recruitment was from the following counties:

Company A - Will and Cook Counties
Company B - McLean County
Company C - Livingston and Cook Counties
Company D - Ogle and DeWitt Counties
Company E - Will and Cook Counties
Company F - Cook and Lake Counties
Company G - Cook and Will Counties
Company H - Cook County
Company I - DeWitt and Boone Counties
Company K - LaSalle, McLean, and Cook Counties

Unfortunately the state filled its quota before the regiment completed preparations so they then tried to get the regiment accepted as part of the muster of Missouri (also without success).

The regiment had assumed the name of the Governor of Illinois (the aforesaid Yates), who as a result was keen to see them accepted into service. He wrote to the President and Secretary of War.

Osborne (seated left) and his staff - piccie
courtesy Wikipedia

The Regiment was accepted on the day following the Union defeat at First Bull Run, but Austin Light, of Chicago, was appointed Colonel with Osborne as Lieutenant Colonel (which must have been a disappointment to Osborne??) According to the sources I've seen though Light was well liked...

They left Camp Mather, Chicago, on the morning of October 13, 1861, and reported to Brigadier General Curtis, at Camp Benton, St. Louis, Missouri.

On October 29, the Regiment received orders to proceed to Williamsport, Maryland, where it was fully armed and equipped.

Colonel Austin Light was dismissed on November 25 (he was a regular army officer and my sources seem to indicate this was because of technical reasons going back some years rather than any fault), and Osborne finally became the regiment’s colonel in December 1861. In the same month the regiment was armed with Springfield rifled muskets..

On January 3, 1862, Confederates "under the command of "Stonewall" Jackson, attacked Companies D, I and K, in the command of Major Mann, near Bath, Virginia, and, after a brisk little fight, were repulsed; then, with two pieces of artillery, and a liberal display of strategy and courage, the enemy was held in check for nearly twenty-four hours". Company G, was also attacked at Great Cacapon Bridge, while Osborn, with the rest of the Regiment was attacked at Alpine Station. The Regiment finally retreated by fording the Potomac, having lost most of their baggage....

Cumberland was then threatened, and the Thirty-ninth was ordered to make a forced march of forty miles over poor roads, this was accomplished in just eighteen hours.

From Cumberland the Regiment was ordered to New Creek, Virginia, and assigned to the First Brigade of General Lander's Division. It was then ordered to Martinsburg, to protect workmen repairing the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

The Regiment then took part in the battle of Kernstown where they fought in the Second Brigade (this is the first unit I've painted in that brigade) commanded by Colonel Jeremiah C. Sullivan, but were little involved owing to their position on the extreme left.

The regiment went on to serve throughout the war - but never in any of the big battles - they seem to have been a well respected, veteran regiment, who happily, fought in very few of the major bloodbaths...

• the siege of Fort Wagner
• Jan. 1, 1864, returning to the front in Virginia the regiment was located on the extreme left of Gen. Butler's command in May, when the entire force under Butler was attacked and driven back. The regiment was at one time completely surrounded by the enemy, but succeeded in cutting it way out after great loss. Its entire loss in that engagement, including killed, wounded and missing, reached nearly 200. 
• on Aug. 16 the brigade to which the 39th was attached was ordered to charge the works of the enemy at Deep run, during the performance of which the enemy's lines were broken and a large number of prisoners captured. In this battle the regiment lost 104 men in killed, wounded and missing. 
• In the latter part of August it was ordered to the trenches in front of Petersburg, a few days later the regiment took part in a charge upon the enemy's works near Darlington road, 7 miles from Richmond, and out of about 250 men who went into that charge, 60 fell, struck by the enemy.
• it crossed to the left of the Army of the Potomac and on April 2 (1865) took part in the charge upon Fort Gregg, the key to the works about Petersburg and Richmond, the 39th was the first regiment to gain the ditch, and the first to plant its flag upon the structure. Out of 9 of the color-guard 7 were shot down, and out of 150 members who went into that fight 16 were shot dead and 45 severely wounded, many of whom died from their wounds. 
• After this affair the regiment took the advance of the Army of the James in the pursuit of Gen. Lee, and were present at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865,

The regiment was mustered out on December 6, 1865.

Figures are 20mm by Newline Designs - these guys take me over my painting total for the whole of last year so clearly I'm on a roll given it's only April...  the next unit will mark a return to 25mm tricorne's - American War of Independence time...

Apologies for the yellowing of the pictures, had to use my new camera which is slightly more sensitive to available light than my trusty old one (battery flat)...  must invest in a light box....