Small and cute!

And nothing to do with Danish actresses!

I've had some R&R today, down the pub with my eldest children watching Sarries beat Saints. Top result and it looks set to be a great final against Bath next weekend.

In the fraction of time I have between rugby and Eurovision (afraid so) I have put together a recent purchase of a Zvezda 1/100 Dingo armoured recce vehicle.

A very cute little model. Almost dwarfed by a 10p piece. Other recent purchases include a Zvezda U-2 and a Blenheim which I might have a go at over the long weekend.

Firestorm Neuve Chapelle

Finally on the stocks....

I have got my finger out and started doing some real work on this project. I have missed the 100th anniversary unfortunately but still aim to finish this one during the course of the next month or so.

Initial design work is focusing on the map.

Getting the Firestorm grid right is a real problem. I'm never too sure how realistic these grids are. I need to ensure that the combats occur in the right places and that the right options are available. 

The OB is pretty straight forward for the British forces. German forces are more difficult but I have a copy of Landrecies to Cambrai by Capt. G C Wynne which is simply brilliant (a Helion reprint of articles from Army Quarterly published in the period 1924-39). I expect to be able to mine this book for ideas for some time to come!

Breaking radio silence!

Here is some stuff....

My recent turbulent work experiences have left me feeling a little strange. Sort of not quite sure what I'm doing or where I'm going. Not that I have lost my interest in the greatest game but just that I seem to have lost my place.

So lets get rehabilitated....

1864: The big news is that this will start on BBC 4 on Saturday 16th May. So there is no excuse for this photo whatsoever!

Some people are just very beautiful, Sidse does the nose thing!

I shall of course watch every episode at east twelve times. See the trailer here.

Milton Keynes: Not everyone's favourite town. I have though a remarkable liking for the shopping centre which often reminds me of some very old fashioned idea of what a shopping centre might look like if crossed with the Natural History Museum. The best bit is that Campaign returns next weekend (9 and 10 May) outside John Lewis. I shall be there for my first outing this year.

Wargames Illustrated: This is unusual. I hear that Dan Faulconbridge is taking over the magazine (buying it out?). I think this can only be good news. It has also shrunk. Not a bad thing either with a better content to size ratio in future perhaps. Best bit this month is Peter Dennis' paper Jacobite soldiers.

More paper work: Billy Bones has announced some Dark Age paper soldiers in full colour. These look great. Check them out here.

Norm does QB: Last but not least, Norm has a crack at a hex grid game of Quatre Bras. Nice one!

One Hour Wargames again!

A break from the never ending year end!

I have never known a year end like this before. I'm sure it will come to an end shortly and I can get back to normal but I think my immediate priority will be getting some sleep and cutting the grass!

In preparation for my return to normality I have spent some time aimlessly surfing and I have found some new reviews of One Hour Wargames from a couple of big hitters (that's a compliment of course!).

Battlefields and Warriors Blog: Norm Smith has done a very detailed review of the rules with couple of AARs. A very fair and thorough review with some nice graphics.

Marco Arnaudo: I regularly watch Marco's reviews which are largely of boardgames. He is an insightful and entertaining reviewer and I have a lot of time for him. This week he has posted a review of One Hour Wargames. It would be nice to see him putting it through its paces but his review is entertaining enough as it is.

On a slightly different subject, I was very taken by Marco's review of Unconditional Surrender, a full scale WW2 strategy game (play the full war or individual campaigns). It has a great and very simple combat model which I am thinking about for use elsewhere.

What is really interesting is that there is a print and play campaign for Unconditional Surrender featuring Case Blue. You can get this for free from BGG, nice!

Well that was very therapeutic and hopefully I can get back into regular designing and blogging mode shortly.

QB the last...for the moment

Its the Menu de Renforts!

Oh yes, one last bit of activity this holiday weekend. I have had the privilege of re-reading Peter Hofschroer's Waterloo Campaign to research the reinforcement schedule. This is a great resource even if the conclusions are a bit iffy for an Englishman! I have added the draft reinforcement schedule to the QB page. All we need to do now is find some time to get playing and see if it actually works.

There may be a number of issues with this game, mainly around activation levels and attrition. It will be interesting to see how it plays. The idea is that this should produce a very tense game all the way through to the finish.

Quatre Bras - Ferraris (18th century) from Walking Waterloo

I have also enjoyed reading the Walking Waterloo Blog over the weekend. Another great resource. Thankfully, I have not felt the need to go and change anything on the play test map as a result. Some great map extracts and photos though, as per this example.

More QB at last....

Counters!

A busy weekend but I have had some time to put together a set of counters for QB. I have uploaded the file to the QB page. It looks a bit messy when you open it up but it prints out OK. Let me know if it doesn't work for you.

I have improvised some Brunswick counters and will return to do a proper job on them when I have time. In the meantime, here are some nice Dutch-Belgian types!

Quatre Bras nearly there.....

Just in time for Easter

I have found some time to work on this game over the past couple of days. I have finalised the play test map....

Gemioncourt is now a fortified hex given its similarity to the Waterloo farms. Here it is....

I have also pulled together a draft set of rules, based closely on the Waterloo a la Carte set. These are now on the new page I have set up for the game.

My to do list now has only two items:

• A reinforcement schedule
• The counters themselves

I have nearly completed the reinforcement schedule. I think the counters will be straightforward and I'm looking forward to doing the Brunswickers. Something for the weekend I think.