Life in Victoria has been a bit busier than we would’ve liked over the past month, which is why there has been a steep drop-off in the number of posts (and sadly, games). Nonetheless, Lucius has been busy building up some German Grenadiers for Von Luck, as have I, though my output has been significantly lower.
He’s obviously been pumping out some armour as well (Ready for Battle: Warlord Halftrack and Ready for Battle: Warlord Hanomag). While getting my paints ready for my Grenadiers, I planned on using the triad of paint colours that Lucius used for his excellent Gebirgsjager. I then noticed that I had not put that post into the right Ready for Battle category and have rectified that. I’m nowhere near the painter that he is, but I’m learning and enjoying it, which is really the point I think. I have managed to finish building (but not detailing or painting) a Warlord plastic Marder. Some small detailed parts to fit but overall quite fun.
We have managed a small bit of wargaming as we look for rulesets to use with some upcoming Napoleonics. We put my 15mm Franco Prussians on the table and tried some Black Powder 2. Sadly the only pictures that survived contact with a distracted photographer as we worked with the rules were the following of the French forces:
Black Powder 2 is pretty similar to Hail Caesar, which I have some experience with so the overall action seemed familiar. Sadly, unlike Hail Caesar, there isn’t a rules summary at the back of the otherwise beautiful rule book. I would have preferred a drop in production quality for that summary, as we honestly had to dig into Hail Caesar to get into key concepts that were mentioned but not indexed or clearly explained. Nonetheless, our first foray showed that it is a very quick playing game, especially with only 2 brigades a side. We’re not sold on the ruleset though, and once we get the full Napoleonic force to the table we’ll try Black Powder 2 again and then take a look at General D’Armeé.
Having spent a fair bit of time at sea, having some (enforced) time at home has been quite nice. I’m seeing flowers bloom in my yard that I have never gotten to see before. The weather, normally dry and hot in July in Victoria, has been sitting in the low to mid 20s (Celsius) and we’ve had some much needed rain. The plants are certainly enjoying it!
We’re hoping to get a few more posts this month before we dive into the Von Luck pint-sized campaign in August. Once we’ve completed that, it turns out we have all the forces for Operation Martlett and the Scottish Corridor, so with those and some Napoleonics our gaming for the Fall is nicely set!