Monday 26 January 2015

You say Dybbol and I say Duppel

Lets call the whole thing off!

I wonder if Fred Astaire ever went to Schleswig-Holstein and what his chosen pronunciation would be? The reason I mention this is that, following my post the other day in which I mentioned Chris Pringle's BBB rules, I have had another look at the scenarios that go with it. The Yahoo BBB site has plenty of these including the battle of Dybbol from 1864. An epoch shaping battle for the Danes.

From an interesting Danish website
My main problem is that I have very little space, too many children and not enough time. BBB looks great but would be just too large. However, there is a solution to this by using a Command and Colours variant. My attention has been drawn to Pete Belli's wide range of variants for Battle Cry, CCN and M44 on the Boardgame Geek.

I have a weakness for both Command and Colours and also the use of miniatures. Pete's work is just great. Here is a picture of his Dybbol scenario played on a Battle Cry board.


I have always viewed the Commands and Colours games as kits that, pretty much, can represent any battle or campaign at any scale. Pete Belli's many adventures go to prove that. Its also a great excuse for not painting up lots of plastic soldiers!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for link - Pete is very enthusiastic and active in this area - I enjoy his battle reports.

    Fred Astaire - I remembered vaguely that Fred was kind of German, and checked him out to refresh my memory - he was, of course, Fred Austerlitz, no less - his dad was born in Austria and his mum was American, of Prussian descent, so I guess Fred's pronunciation of Schleswig-Holstein would be exemplary!

    It's entirely because of you I've just purchased Kindle version of Neil Thomas' 1-hour wargames book - I hope Neil is paying you commission!

    Cheers - Tony

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  2. Hi Tony, I'd like to think my Fred Astaire reference was based on deep knowledge of his origins and perhaps his preferred holiday destinations but I'm afraid it completely by-passed me. Next time I make a crack I'll Google it first!

    I think Neil deserves a few quid for the 1HW rules because they are like Lego, you can make whatever you want out of them and they will probably still work!

    Cheers

    Jay

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