Toy Soldiers Lost & Found

       With my wife out of work waiting for surgery, I haven't had time to work on gaming. I have spent more time on the computer looking at wargaming sites. One that peaked my interest was Toy Soldiers and Dining Room Battles .  On it he has a series of battles using Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames played between two teams of children. What's more, the game is being played as a narrative campaign. Also, the armies used were made up of Zvedza Great Northern War figures, which at one time I was going to use for wargames, being excellent figures.
     I found myself excited at the thought of using OHW rules and 18th century figures. Unfortunately, I gave away my large Revell SYW collection years ago and sent the Zvezda figures I had with them; I
and traded my plastic Spencer Smiths SYW for some Peter Laing AWI figures. I started thinking of buying some Hat SYW Prussians to make two armies, if I could find them. However, with my wife not working, money is tight so I decided not to buy figures at this time.
    I then thought of my large collection of Editions Brokaw SYW figures. As I haven't used them in years, I could easily base them and used them in a one off game.

    I started looking for them in my new "gaming room". While I still haven't found them, I did find several different figures which will come in handy in other games. I found among an odd lot of Airfix figures I bought last year some Infantry Combat Group figures, and looking through some food containers of Airfix figures, I found some more 1st generation WW2 German infantry. These should give me enough figures to use with Memoir 44 as I had thought of using before.

  I also came across some Zvedza GNW figures and Revell SYW figures in another tub; possibly enough  to copy the armies on the TSaDRB blog.

   What's more, I found another tub with more Spencer Smith  SYW plastic figures. I was thinking of holding on to them; however, now I think I will try to reach the person who got the rest of the collection and send them to him.

    Still, the search goes on for my Edition Brokaw figures.

Airfix Infantry Combat Group figures. The unpainted figures are the figures I didn't even realized I had. I plan to use them with Memoir 44 instead of the infantry figures that come with the game.

Airfix 1st generation Germans. These with be used with Memoir 44. 

The newly found Spencer Smith SYW figures.

Some of the Zvezda and Revell 18th century figures that I might use with Neil Thomas wargame rules.

Command & Color Games

      In the last few weeks I have had little time for gaming. What time I have spent has mainly been on research. Most of the time has been reading up on Richard Borg's Command & Color gaming systems. I have several of Richard Borg games, including Battlelore, Battle Cry and Memoir 44. And while online I came across several games made by Worthington Games, including Clash for a Continent and Hold the Line. The one thing all these games have in common are they have hex game boards, with 9 x 13 layout of the hexes with separate hexes for different terrain. And while all the games use the same style game boards, they have different rules.  One thing I like about these games are they all come with several scenarios.  I have managed to download 45 scenarios from the Worthington games. They are from the Jacobite Rebellions, War of Austrian Secession, and Frederick the Great's wars.
      When I first got back into wargaming, I bought Edition Brokaws WSS and SYW figures. With the downloaded scenarios, I have been looking over these figures again. While I have plenty of infantry, I skimped on cavalry. I do have 1st generation Minifigs cavalry that I can use for the period. For the Jacobite Rebellion, I am thinking of using Peter Laing. One of my first molds was a Peter Laing highlander from the period with a musket.  With one of my goals being to use more of my figures  that haven't been used before, I can spend more time on figures and less time working out game set up.
    I am thinking of taking the different boards and terrain pieces and pooling them, where I could use the different pieces on the different boards.

Typical Richard Borg size board.  I put some terrain pieces on the lower right. This board is from Battlelore.

Some Edition Brokaw SYW Prussians advance on the river. In the foreground some Jagers have seized a hill.

Editions Brokaw Austrian grenadiers fall back before the Prussians.

From above the terrain looks good. It would be nice to make custom hexes in stead of flat hills and woods.

New Figures and Old Friends

    While going through some of my older figures, I came across some of my first metal soldiers, 15 mm Editions Brokaw SWY and WSS figures. When I started wargaming again, after using my 1st generation Minifigs and Heritage Napoleonettes, these are the figures I got hooked on. They can be hard to come by. They were produced by Pat Condray. I bought a large lot of them a couple of years ago. The only way to contact Pat was by regular mail. He doesn't have a website to order through. And as he splits his year between two addresses, it was tricky to get an order in. For me, the extra effort was worth it.

     I also bought a couple of lots of 1st generation Napoleonics, including some Prussian General figures. There is something about the Minifigs general figures that every time I see them, I have to bid on them.

Editions Brokaw Prussian grenadiers

Editions Brokaw grenadier

More Editions Brokaw figures, painted as French infantry and Guards.

Editions Brokaw figures compared to a Peter Laing figure.

Minifigs 1st Generation Prussian Generals