Romans vs Celts in "To The Strongest"

After a long hiatus we finally managed to play a game.

Bart was so kind to set up a large battlefield using his Romans and Celts collections, and we used the To The Strongest ruleset. TTS is very fast and easy to learn, and plays well, although the 2nd half of the game became something of a slogging fest. But this was probably more due to the scenario and initial setup. We made a mental not to allow some more room for movement and manoeuvring in our next game.

Here are the pictures, taken during various stages of the game. Note that there is some visual clutter (TTS requires cards or chits to be used for determining activation), so this is something we might to work at a bit as well.

Bart and Wim discussing the finer points of the rules ...

 

Some more decorations for the wargaming room

Last weekend, there was a militaria fair at Fort Liezele, the best preserved fortress of the forts around Antwerp. I am a volunteer of te organization that keeps Fort Liezele in good condition, and regularly act as guide for visitors. So if you're ever in the neighbourhood, you should think about visiting!

But anyway, collecting militaria is not really my hobby, but I was present anyway to lend some helping hands to the organization.Militaria fairs in this part of Europe are mostly dealing in WW2 artefacts. This is quite natural if you think about it ... lots of stuff from WW2 hasn't desintegrated yet, as opposed to WW1 or earlier conflicts. And there's simply heaps of it to be found. One should not visit such fairs in the hopes of finding an original Waterloo piece of equipment :-)

Nevertheless, I bought 2 items.

The first is a poster that was produced for the Belgian army pre-WW1, and was meant as a memento for conscripts who had served. This poster is for infantry line regiments, and from the drawings one can see the life of the soldiers: leaving the homestead and returning (watch the dog!). There is also room for writing down the names of the officers of the regiment one served in, as well as the dates of some exercises. The middle portion contains some battle honours of various infantry line regiments. Interestingly, some regiments have honours for Waterloo in 1815, while Belgium only gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1830 (according to Belgian lore, for the Dutch it's 1839 :-)).

This poster will be framed, and will be a nice addition to my wargaming room.

A second purchase is a cigarette-pictures album, from Waldorf Astoria (not the hotel, but the cigarette factory, although there is an obvious connection between both). This one is about the "Alten Armee", the German army pre-WW1.

Next year, I might go for an original pickelhaube!

The Battle of Freeburg

A somewhat late gaming report from a game we played 2 weeks ago, but better late than never ...

Eddy and I played an ACW game, using our well-tested house rules and continuing campaign system that allows for  generals to gain abilities and each player nominating one unit that did exceptionally well for a boost in abilities. See my previous blogposts for more details.

The battle we played was based on the Battle of Freiberg in the Seven Years War, and is described as a scenario in Charles Grant's "Refighting History Vol 11". 

Excellent series of books by Charles Grant.

Scenario lay-out for the battle of Freiberg.

 

The scenario calls for a defender defending a ridge and a village, while the attacker approaches through forests in 2 columns. Moreover, artillery units are engaged in counterbattery fire. The Union would take the defending role (and played by me), while the Confederacy would be the attacking side (played by Eddy). To stay in the ACW theme, the battle became the Battle of Freeburg.

Pictures of the game, with captions:

The initial lay-out of the table, as seen from the defending side.

Eddy is contemplating his attack plan:

 

The opening phase, as seen from the defending (Union) side.

Union view of the central sector. We use imaginative names for our units, based on Bourbon and Whiskey brands.

Another view from the defending (Union) side.

Napoleon - our "lucky general" token that allows for command rerolls (but then you have to hand him over).

The battle in full swing.

The Union left flank attacking the Confederate right wing.

Our Lucky General token again. He stayed in my possession for many turns - I didn't need him ;-)

Near the end of the game.

The artillery guns duelling. The off-table Confederate artillery is "off table" but visually represented by a stack of hexes.

Action on the Union left flank.

The "2nd Woodford Reserve Riflemen" were nominated by me as the most courageous unit on the field after the game.

Eddy nominated the "Magnolia Mash Militia".

Final stages of the game.

Final stages of the game.

Overall, a good game. The defenders held the the attack back, but we concluded that they were probably overpowered. It's funny how one makes sometimes still basic mistakes when setting up a game - giving the defenders too much of an edge in a "more or fire" rules framework.

The next day, I took some more pictures with all the clutter removed:

Nazaire Beeusaert and old Belgian toy soldiers

A long time ago I posted on this blog about old Belgian toy soldiers in my collection, produced by Nazaire Beeusart, who led a toy factory in Deinze, Belgium. 

Since then, I did acquire more of these old toy soldiers and even have tried repairing and repainting some of them.

Recently, I visited a local museum in Deinze near Ghent to see a total different exhibition, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out they had a display window specifically dedicated to the toy soldiers made and sold by Nazaire Beeusaert.

I visted Dunkirk and Gravelines

During the weekend of 8-11 November, we visited Dunkirk and Gravelines. These are located just across the Belgian border, so it was a relatively short car ride. Dunkirk and Gravelines both lie in the area that was once Flemish-speaking, still very much visible in the place names - Duinkerken and Grevelingen - but also many smaller villages such as Hondschoote or Koudekerke.

We did some beach walking and shopping, went out for some good dinners (gastronomy is an important aspect of all our trips), but of course also visited some of the military historic landmarks, of which some pictures are shown here.

As for the military nature of the Vauban fortress of Gravelines, I can refer to Henry Hyde's excellent series of articles in "Miniature Wargames with Battlegames", in issues 380-384 (published early 2015).

Me in the museum about "Operation Dynamo".

Monument for the fallen in the centre of Dunkirk.

Still visible shipwrecks on the beaches between Bray-Dunes and Dunkirk.

German bunkers, part of the Atlantik Wall.

Vauban Fortifcations in Gravelines

Gravelines again. It's somewhat difficult to capture the nature of the restorated Vauban Fortress when taking pictures from the ground and not from the air.

More Gravelines

November 11 in Gravelines

November 11 in Gravelines