Hi
Starting up this blog site to continue pursuing my lifelong passion for solo historical wargaming and historical wargaming interests in general. I hope to migrate over here in full depending on how this site pans out. This first post is mostly a writing post covering introduction and interests.
Thought for the day
I was watching an animated movie last night. It was an interesting variation of an old English language fairy tale. What made it interesting viewing was noticing creators of this animation (Korean production team) were borrowing and rethreading the tale using so many contemporary themes and ideas. And I began mentally naming as many of those themes and concepts as appeared. That action seemed to colour my overall appreciation of this rework because I ending judging it by what I saw as a rehashing of something familiar into something entirely hash.
That idea of seeing something familiar redone in different garb seems common these days with wargaming. What you see is not always something new or different, merely a reworking of something old and done already. So, what's the appeal? A momentary distraction? A titillation?
Napoleonic
The other day I finally returned to my Borodino Project in the proper sense of once again committed to completing this enormous endeavour. I started repainting some previously painted French minis returning them to their former French glory.
I am planning on refighting solo the Battle of Borodino. I have until the anniversary of the battle which is officially September 7 to have both armies prepped and ready for action on a suitable gaming table.
I have also committed to building the main terrain features for the table, the Grand Redoubt as well as the Bagration fleches. Throw in a few villages - Borodino, Gorki, Semenovskaya (ruins), Utitsa, some temporary and permanent bridges, and I have a full platter of construction, assembly and painting between now and September.
The Russian forces MINUS their commanders and artillery is already done (image below). I plan to make up that shortfall once I've completed assembly of the French and Allies, a task I hope to accomplish by the end of April.
I managed to finish the Russians in mid-February after originally commencing in September also shows how much I need to get a move on with Napoleon's men.
The French/Allies are similar in quantity to the completed Russians. My only real concern in starting the French/Allies was not having enough appropriate figures to complete the mission.
To aid me grasp just how many stands I was going to need, I wrote out an estimate yesterday just to quell my own sense of dread. It's still a large quantity (especially the amount of French artillery I am going to need) but it's doable with what I already have. I've been weighing up recycling the large number of Nap figures in my bitz box, the majority of whom are not French, and wondering how they'd look in French blue. Beggars can't be choosers at this point in the project.
NOTE: If you haven't already guessed, I am going blind into this Borodino project build. I knew little apart from what I've read online as I gathered my minis. I now have a basic grasp of what happened even if I don't have access to books like sensible folk do. I've viewed a few other blogsites (thanks Avon Napoleonic Fellowship out in WA) who've done this before as a collective just to get an idea of how they tackled the game and the question of the light guns used by the attacking French columns.
Normally with such battalion-level guns, they tend to get dismissed in corps-level games that I am normally involved in. But they're so many of them, especially in Davout's and Eugene's corps, that ignoring them might affect how the game plays. In the end, I am going with including them. And I will also include them for Poniatowski's corps which operated independently from that main attack happening in the centre.
FINALLY: I do have a general idea of how I am going to run this solo game. It will be interesting to see if it works out as I anticipate it. But knowing that between the two states - imagined and actual - there is a whole gulf known as gaming reality, anything that is going to happen will happen. Keep you posted.
Other Interests
I also enjoy other historical periods but currently Napoleonics occupies my gaming time. I also play naval and air wargaming. Currently involved in a naval PBEM with members of naval group I belong to. But I have played the Napoleonic era and WW2 using various rulesets modified to solo play.
Also enjoy air wargaming with my regular gaming buddy. We use 1/72 aircraft using Canvas Eagles, a WW1 ruleset (freely available online) that's served us for a number of years now. I also game WW2 and modern era using various rules and boardgames, again adapted to solo play.
I also game solo medieval skirmishing with Lion Rampant. Just finishing my sixth campaign season (12 games) in an alternative region of France using family groupings. Next season (#7) will introduce a split campaign season (6 games apiece) with the same family grouping in France and a new season in the Bulgarian region.
I have also tested the Ancients, primarily in the Peloponnesian War period, both in land warfare using Hoplomachia against another live opponent and naval warfare using a simple set modified to solo play when I refought the Battle of Salamis.
And Bolt Action and Rapid Fire are among the several WW2 gaming rulesets I've sampled and enjoyed, both in 20mm and 28mm. I trodden the jungles and paddy fields of the Vietnam War era with Charlie Don't Surf using a sizeable collection of 15mm figures that include riverine boats and helicopters and Phantom F4s.
These are current for the 2010-2021 period.
Long ago in the previous century, I have also gamed the American Civil War (another lengthy campaign over two years - solo).
I've tested the waters of fantasy wargaming with forays into Warhammer and 40K in the nineties and early 2000s. Still play fantasy occasionally with a live opponent using Dragon Rampant. Also done a few earlier games in other systems - RPG and boardgame but still would love to play the Hyperborian Wars with flats using Donald Featherstone's rules. But I don't have flats unfortunately. Still believe that is my favourite fantasy wargaming moment.
I also wargame online using my PC playing War Thunder and World of Warships. There is also War of Rights (ACW) and Holdfast: Nations (Napoleonic). Also some console gaming: I'd have to say I really enjoyed Minecraft. But right now I am about to embark on a journey of space adventure playing Elite Dangerous: Odyssey.
Wargaming solo offers many options and advantages over conventional live opponent gaming. One is the lack of reliance on others to provide you with hours of fun and entertainment. Sort of like the self-reliant and resourceful Mr. Bean but without the hilarity or goofy antics beloved by many.
Cheers.
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