Coming Soon: The Blasthof Bridge Post-game Report. . .

Young Master Paul makes his opening move in our Blasthof Bridge refight yesterday afternoon.

A busy Monday ahead as somewhat more normal life cranks and clanks back into gear following a long July 4th holiday weekend here in the U.S. As soon as I have the chance, I'll share a few after-action ramblings, but the two of us had a blast (ahem) playing another game of toy soldiers, which lasted about 2.5 hours. That seems just about right.

I won the game on a technicality, but The Young Master meted out considerable punishment and rolled well when it came to morale tests. And, most important, he enjoyed the experience of pushing lead around the table. We're planning another game shortly, possibly a raid of some sort. He likes these.

Our game also got me thinking later of ways to continue refining (otherwise known as trimming the fat) from my developing rules, so that they can indeed be committed to memory instead of of (right now) five pages of small print (Groan!). But of that more anon.

-- Stokes

Comments

Rob said…

Congratulations on finally turning the tables on the 'Young Master'.
I see a few more troops than at the original Battle of Blasthof, looking forward to the triumphant AAR.

7:48 AM

Der Alte Fritz said…

You are living the Wargames Dream: father and son enjoying playing a game together.

Jim

9:17 AM

Matt said…

Reminds me of my Fire & Fury games with my eldest son (now 26 and starting his own family).

We both have fond memories of the hours spent together. His younger brother never really got wargaming so we spent hours at football (soccer) matches instead!

You will remember these times long after they are concluded.

5:19 PM

tradgardmastare said…

Looking forward to hearing more. It is a great photo of son and armies.

12:58 AM

Peter Douglas said…

Great looking table, properly old school. Sounds like all involved had a great time.

2:20 PM

Neil said…

I'm glad you get to play with your son. I have 5 boys and they were my "geeks in training" and I enjoyed every game with them. It's great when they visit and say, "Okay Dad, what are we playing?"
Neil

12:53 PM

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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