The Action at Federstein 4. August 1769. . .

Pain medication and swollen face permitting, a small game is about to take place. Look familiar?

Haven't felt terribly well, or like doing very much the last couple of days since my set to with the periodontist on Thursday morning last week. A pretty invasive procedure all things considered, and I both look and feel like someone has smacked me in the side of the head with a baseball/cricket bat. Not exactly pain, but a persistent, dull throb, which has finally let up a little today. No, dental implants are not for the faint of heart!

That said, I finally felt good enough midday today to clear The Young Master's things from my table and set things up for a small action between limited forces tomorrow. The first in a series of four linked battles, all of which are based on well known demonstration games as presented in titles by Donald Featherstone (Three Basic Battles), Young & Lawford (Blasthoff Bridge), Charles Grant (Sawmill Village), and H. G. Wells (Hook's Farm).

The rules are my (?!) Call It Macaroni set (two sides of one page), which owe a great deal Featherstone, Grant, et al. I've been tinkering with these fur two or three years now, have used earlier versions in a few games, and have been trying to whittle things down to just six easy-to-remember steps that will give a playable, fun game that takes 1-3 hours depending on the number of troops involved. We'll see how things go tomorrow (Sunday).

-- Stokes

Comments

Peter Douglas said…

Stokes, been there, done that, had the dental implant. Only time that a dental procedure has involved a socket wrench and hammer in my personal experience, But the implant works way better than the empty socket after a bad crown led to the root rotting out.

Table looks great, looking forward to AARs. ,

9:24 PM

Steve J. said…

Hope you feel better soon as some friends have had good and bad experiences with dental implants. Me, I'm keeping well away from them!

Have fun with the linked games and look forward to seeing AAR of each one, if you're up to it.

1:27 AM

CelticCurmudgeon said…

My Dear heinz-Ulrich, Greetings!

It is with some deal of sorrow and commiseration that I read about your difficulties with the aftermath of the dental implant procedure. My experience a year ago was similar and not at all pleasant. The only thing I can say is that the end result was a stable, viable rear molar that was worth the effort.

Can you tell us a bit more about your rules set? I would be greatly interested in looking at them and seeing whether my companions here at the Chancellery could enjoy a decent game.

Wishing you a quick recovery, I remain,

Gerardus Magnus
Archbishop Emeritus

7:07 AM

A Little More Brushwork. . .

A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday). Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men. Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished. Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions. Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed. Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red. They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery. I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point. Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...

It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings. Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat. The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week. Next up, the neck stocks. I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit. Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step. "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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