Into the Bocage

When I started playing WW2 games I decided (or rather my regular gaming partner and I decided) to initially focus on Normandy. Unfortunately my opponent was very slow to start collecting, veered off by buying Russians and then, sadly it seems, lost interest altogether (at one point during a game he even said “I’m bored of Normandy gaming”, I looked at the open table where Germans and Russians were fighting and realised that I was on my own). If I’d known (whilst I am really interested in Normandy) I might have chosen an easier theatre with less scenery like Africa (it’s in the works). Luckily my new gaming friends from my local club are really interested in playing D-Day onwards so nothing has really been wasted.

A key feature of Normandy gaming (at least in some sectors) is Bocage hedgerows. These are banks with thick hedge on top which create a very unique gaming experience. They are hard to cross and reduce the effectiveness of tanks by blocking line of sight, perfect from my point of view as I wanted to play games like Chain of Command which are infantry centric. Unfortunately this means that to play such games you need to build a fair bit of bocage (literally tens of feet of the stuff); something that often stops gamers totally or means that the bocage that is put on the table is just not representative (usually there is just not enough of it).

Allied troops fighting through the bocage in 1944. 

I was lucky enough to grow up in deepest, darkest Herefordshire where most lanes are lined with what is in reality bocage. I have experienced trying to get through it whilst adventuring as a child and have a realistic view of how hard this would be for adults under fire in full kit. Whilst you can buy pre-built bocage from various online sellers such as battlefront (quite costly, not particularly realistic and comes in small amounts) I’d decided I wanted to try and make my own.

Scots Guards fighting in the bocage by Terence Cuneo from Cranston Fine Arts website. This is an excellent representation of the true severity and size of the bocage country (and a beautiful painting).

I started  by using laser cut MDF from Supreme Littleness products using their 25mm wide linear terrain bases. I could have cut them myself (with considerable effort and hassle) but the ones from SL were the perfect size, affordable and had a good range of junctions to make it varied. The owner Michael was really helpful and went out of his way to provide exactly what I needed. Sometimes I’d rather spend money and support a fellow hobbyist when it reduces the work I’d need to do and the products are of such good standard.

The sheets of MDF ready to be separated and become many feet of bocage.

I bevelled the edges using a sharp knife, then cut and glued some 10mm thick blue foam I had in store to each piece and left it to dry overnight. Next day I trimmed the foam to generate a bank like profile. I then covered each section with 4ground base render (any grout or render would work I just seemed to accidentally keep buying pots of the stuff) and left it to dry. Next day I coated the pieces in Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement and covered them in sand. In some sections I added gateways using bits of 4ground fences, I also marked up some parts to be made as destroyed sections or as defensive positions for the Germans to hide in. I then sprayed the finished pieces with Citadel black spray paint. I have started twisting and forming some of the smaller Woodlands Scenic trees which would be be inserted in various places to raise the height of the hedgerow and give it a more realistic appearance. At this point I realised that I hadn’t made quite enough straight sections and got back in touch with Michael at Supreme Littleness. He rapidly sent out more straight sections which arrived promptly just before the current lockdown. 

The pieces ready to covered in 4ground base render. Note the defensive positions (writing on them in pen saved a lot of confusion later). 

Some of the final pieces before and after being covered in sand. At this point it seemed an endless task. Let’s hope it’s worth it.

So that’s where I am at the moment. The bulk of the bocage bases are done and I’m working on the extra bits (I’ve had to give up my evening workspace recently as my multi-talented wife has been busily making scrubs for our local doctors and hospital). I have a good selection of Woodland Scenics products to create the hedges and will cover this in a further post (a clever way to say I don’t yet know what I’m going to do yet).

Not the most exciting post or pictures but I’m getting quite excited to play on a proper Normandy table soon. I’ve also started forming and basing trees to help make my table more aesthetically pleasing and I’ll post about these too soon.

Hope you are all safe and well

BALM

Plastic ships and imaginary men

Greetings,

As previously mentioned I thought I’d start to use my blog properly and provide my opinions on the games or models that I’m currently obsessing over. Without further ado welcome to my first venture into Age of Sail gaming.

Black Seas by Warlord Games. 3 lovely little brigs

So in November (I think) last year Warlord games released their first foray into Age of Sail gaming called Black Seas. At the time I was interested mainly because of the model ships (they are ships not boats, accordingly that’s a faux pas in traditional AoS gaming circles), they are charming and it’s hard to deny the appeal of tiny sailing ships on the table top. Having looked at Black Seas and read some of the reviews of the rules however I wasn’t as convinced. The rules are very simple (there is a section called advanced rules that I think should have just been part of the standard section) and are intended for fleet actions (not too surprising for a game for Ships of the Line, if there was only one ship it would be more of a dot). Whilst the sight of a line of 1st, 2nd and 3rd rates cruising across the table and unleashing devastating broadsides was appealing, I am supposed to be reducing my collection not just adding another pile of shame to it, so I held off.

About a month ago, having stared so hard at the delightful little 1/700 scale ships I could see them when I closed my eyes, I started to look for rules I might enjoy so I’d have an excuse to purchase some. I have played other AoS games before, my favourite being the Avalon Hill classic Wooden Ships and Iron Men (counter based and all included in the box, well worth the purchase if you see it at a reasonable price) but what I really wanted wasn’t a fleet based game but rather something focused on single ship to ship actions.

Black Seas American Frigate by Warlord Games.

Through some scouring of the backwaters of the internet I discovered a game called Post Captain by ODGW games. This seemed right up my street stream, it was detailed and really seemed to make the gamer feel like they were sailing the little ships across the table. I took a gamble and purchased the rules from Caliver books (no link for you as you tried to make me pay a surcharge for using PayPal, barbarians) and was pleased to see that upon purchasing a hard copy you got access to a digital version from ODGW. Now I haven’t played the rules properly yet (just sailed a couple of ships around a table badly) so can’t give a fair review of the game, I can say that I’m really impressed with the rules from reading through them. They are detailed, well written and laid out, including the best written description on how sailing works I’ve ever read. Rules in hand I asked my mum for a box of the Warlord Frigates and Brigs as a birthday present and started to get excited.

Post Captain by ODGW games. It’s thorough, well written and bizarrely loose leaf and punched in a system only used by our American friends.  Off to Tesco for a binder and poly pockets I went.

Models in hand I scoured the internet for inspiration and found a truly excellent blog written by a true artist. JJ’s Wargames is written by the eponymous JJ and covers a broad range of subjects, what caught my eye was the 1/700 naval category and when I clicked on it I was blown away (seriously stop reading this now and check it out, come back though) his level of work on the Warlord ships was amazing. He had done the standing and running rigging, pennants and flags and in some cases had added some tiny photo etched crew to the decks. I scoured his site and was inspired.

Isn’t she beautiful, I’m in love and have spent many hours just staring at her. Some things need improving but she’ll be my ship whenever I can use her. There’s even a little gig on davits I modelled on the back in case, as her Captain, I have to abandon her. Room for me and my parrot and not much else.

So this is my first attempt at a Brig of war, temporarily entitled the ‘Salty Lass’, and whilst the rigging was a learning process (the next will be much easier) I really enjoyed the time spent. She will be my British privateer for running down the French and plundering merchantmen on the high seas. There is a little bit of rigging left to do: from the mizzenmast to the foremast and down to the bowsprit, and the rigging on the sprit itself still need to be done. I decided trying to do the running rigging might be too much for my nerves currently and reasoned that they were intended as gaming pieces (doesn’t stop JJ but I’m not on his level... yet), I did add some brass etched ratlines (instead of the perfectly serviceable acetate ones included in the kits) by Meridian from Navy Models and Books (excellent service, fast friendly and very reasonable; a true pleasure to deal with) which whilst fiddly to install do look amazing and add a level of structural rigidity to the model. I also shamelessly copied JJ’s idea of using clear perspex pill bases from Fluid 3D Workshop. They have an excellent range of bases for all the ships (Brigs, Frigates, 2nd/3rd rates and 1st rates can all be found here) and were very reasonably priced with a blistering fast delivery time. The bases I chose were 2mm thick so my ships would have a robust base that would be easy enough to pick up and prolong the models tabletop lifespan. They extend about 3-4mm from the outmost points of the yards and give a nice amount of space in front and behind the model. I may try to add some waves or water effects using PVA or a water effect material in the future but haven’t researched this enough yet (I’ll let you know how that goes).

So that’s it, my first (and definitely just the start) of my adventures in little ships. I’ll try and review PC as soon as I have played it. I’ve bought a couple of beautiful Warlord merchantmen to use as targets in my privateering enterprises and have a miniature shipyard sat on my workbench.

Black Seas merchantmen by Warlord Games. Merchantmen were often older ships that had been in service for some time so these little beauties have a classic age of sail look to them. Here’s hoping Warlord tackle earlier periods than the Napoleonic in the future. 

Something I haven’t said is that accordingly (to those that know their stuff) the Warlord plastic ships aren’t super accurate and take some liberties with structure to make the ships more robust and suitable for gaming. This doesn’t really bother me and could easily be remedied by some advanced modelling and if cared that much I could buy accurate replacement masts and sprits/sails from Meridian, it would add about £20 to the cost of each model but is simply above my needs for gaming.

Thanks for taking the time to read all that, hopefully it will inspire you to have a go at AoS gaming. So from me it’s “Blah’de’blah” for now (first person to comment and get where that reference comes from can have a free gift from my mountain of lead, as soon as I’m not on lock down and can get to a post office).

Stay safe

BALM

Endless hobby ahoy!

The times of potentially endless hobby are upon us.

I know these memes are over used but it is very appropriate currently.

Greetings.

     So like many a blog mine has sat idle for quite a while and like (I’d imagine most of the other blog authors) I have some pretty good reasons for not updating. From my own health (I’m literally one in 2 million, Doctors eyes light up when they read my records and imagine all the exciting ways they can “solve” me) to my iMac deciding to keep some water in the corner of its screen, my regular opponent and I having to be grown ups and deal with the problems associated with such responsibility; I just haven’t tackled it. I tried using my phone to update it but the layout was appalling and caused me to have aesthetic conniptions. I did miss my blog however, it had helped motivate and focus me and the comments from the couple of people who were kind enough to look at my online nonsense really inspired me (thank you for your support, it is really appreciated).

My first Warlord Black Seas model which I intend to use to play Post Captain by ODGW.

     Right, excuses over, on with today’s post. Many if not nearly all of my fellow hobbyists (in the U.K. if not the rest of the world) are now having to stay home to protect our people and infrastructure. This hasn’t changed a lot for me but must be a difficult time for many and I wanted to try and pass on some advice that has allowed me to stay sane (relatively speaking) since I had to retire from arboriculture (at my wife and doctors request, quite rightly I must add).

I didn’t actually make this vehicle specifically it was just a coincidence and powerful little magnets getting together. Love finds a way! How on earth did the Italian tankers see?

     Your hobby is there to bring you joy, don’t feel pressured that because you have lots more spare time you should be achieving more. For some lucky and talented individuals this may be true but in reality most people will just be adding unneeded stress. Plan some regular time to hobby and just try and keep it ticking over. Maybe use the fact your non-gaming family members are trapped with you to introduce them to the hobby. If you’re isolating alone play one of the many available solo games, or just play both sides of your normal game, try and be even handed, play both sides as well as you can (it can be just as fun and help you really learn your favourite rule sets). Just try and remember you’re hobby is for enjoyment, if it’s not fun try and do something else and come back to it in a bit (don’t worry your mountain of shame isn’t going anywhere!).

A bit more of this spirit, a little less panic and we’ll all get through this. Courtesy of the IWM (I think, please correct me if necessary and I’ll adjust this appropriately).

     Enough waffle for now. I intend to try and start updating regularly, showing all my progress since I stopped posting, sharing the games I now play and the state of my ongoing projects. Hopefully this might inspire someone (or just give you something to read).

Stay safe, stay calm and be positive, respect each other and hobby on.

BALM