Operation Martlet Campaign - Game 5 ... And a New Beginning

Today we had an international visitor at the club: Will is a young 14-year old historical (!!!) wargamer from Virginia, with a deep afection for the Spanish Civil War. Showing a surprisingly mature personality for his youth, he's spending the Christmas holidays in Spain with his family, have already visited the Ciudad Universitaria and tomorrow the Jarama battlefields. 

After contactting our club email, we invited him to play a Chain of Command with us this morning. As I know he follows this blog, I'd like to thank him for his visit and hope he has enjoyed the morning despite some lack of action in the two games played this morning. Obviously, the invitation to visit us is open to any you travelling to Madrid.

The fifth game of the Martlet campaign for Chain of Command was the straw that broke the (British) camel's back. Already the patrol phase was far from auspicious to the British interests, as the Germans got 5 (!) free moves that basically cornered our deployment area to a narrow belt along the table edge, hindering our options.

Warming Up to the Challenge

I will spend most of this weekend priming my models for Curt's Analogue Hobbies challenge, which is merely 2 days away now. My plan is to paint a German Fallschirmjager platoon for Chain of Command together with several supports (engineers, mortars, HMG, recoilless ATG and a Hetzer), reinforcements for my German infantry units (the recently released  wonderful Warlord German in snow uniform are on their way home as we speak...), some vehicles and a few French Napoleonic cavalry and infantry.

This should be close to the 500 points that I decided to use as my challenge level. 

What you see in the photo is part of the work done so far stored with my French Dragoons (I have noticed an alarmingly scarcity of storage space at home!!!). You may notice some models already initiated: don't worry, I won't cheat and use them to my challenge count; actually I put them on purpose in the photo... These are models I was painting when the challenge was announced and are part of the units I'm using for the contest.

Also, some of the models will "arrive" under the tree next 24th December and for obvious reasons can't even start the priming phase yet. The Xmas holidays will be useful to catch up.

So brushes, paints and models on the table ... on my marks, ready... BANG

Operation Martlet Campaign - Game 4

The fourth game of the Martlet Campaign for Chain of Command resulted into another defeat of the British forces, the third in a row. After a very promising start, the truth is that the offensive bogged down and is becoming crucial to break the deadlock if we want to have a minimum chance to win the campaign.

After the disaster of the previous game, we introduced a couple of changes: first, we decided to take the initiative despite being on the defensive, and not wait for the Germans to deploy their units;  and second, we reinforced the artillery component of our force by adding a Churchill AVRE with its powerful petard mortar gun. This was necessary as the Germans had already fortified three buildings and converted into mini-fortress.

Abyssinia 1935 for Chain of Command

A quick alert to those interested in dark but interesting war theaters pre-Second World War. Jim Hale and Rolf Grein, the same guys that two years ago produced the excellent supplements for the Spanish Civil War, will be realising a new supplement and lists for the wars in Abyssinia in 1935.

The first article of the series was publshed on December 2 in the official blog of TooFatLardies, introducing the period and providing some special rules to play it with Chain of Command. Since then, a number of army lists have been released almost daily, that you will find in the same site.

As I already have an Italian Army for the North African desert, it may a good opportunity to confront against some (unlike the British) exotic foes... should I convince one of may gaming buddies to jump into this wagon.

UPDATE: You can also follow the wide campaign and related topics here

Operation Martlet Campaign - Game 3

Resuming now normal program, after almost two weeks out travelling. 

We continue with the Martlet campaign as it was a national holiday in Spain; you may remember we decided to pull out in the second game after losing a significant number of units in the mist. In the third game the mist lifted so no more hassle, but the initiative was now German and they declared a counter-attack.

The truth is that at least on paper this was an option that may favour the British, being an opportunity to force the attrition of the German units. The truth is that the game´s outcome was totally the opposite: the British had to give ground again when the Force Moral fell to a dangerous level of 4.

Taking up the Challenge

You know Christmas is just around the corner when... Curt launches its Annual Painting Challenge. This is now in its sixth edition and has developed as one of the most remarkable social media event of our hobby.

The challenge gathers wargamer aficionados from all over the world. The contest includes duels between participants and special thematic bonus rounds where you can let your imagination fly to create a vignette representing the theme. All details can be found in Curt's blog.

After many years watching the fun from the sideline, this year I'll take up the challenge and will participate for the first time. I'm aiming to a modest target of 500 points considering how unpredictable my hobby time can be and also how sloooooow painter I am (as my gaming buddies can attest).

My focus will be 28mm of course. I have a couple of IIWW projects to use (an early war German Army and a late war Fallschirmjager platoon, both with supports) as well as completing my Napoleonic project with some French infantry and additional cavalry units. I see this as a good sting to plan and put a spin to my painting and gaming plans for 2016.

The challenge starts with the winter (on 20th December) and will finish with Spring (20th March). Quite excited already with it... wish me luck!


A final comment on blog administration: I'm leaving tomorrow Sunday on a 10 day business trip to Latin America, returning early December. Don't expect to see much activity here until then. My next post will be the third part of the Crisis trip, the visit to Arnhem and will be followed by a special entry on the not quite known but really remarkable tank museum of Overloon, also in The Netherlands.

Episode 2 - Dragones in Waterloo

This is the second instalment of our trip to Crisis 2015, covering the visit to the Battlefield of Waterloo. I must add that personally, the most emotive milestone of the whole trip, suffering one of those “Stendhal Moments” on arriving to the “Butte de Lion” feet, when I could hardly contain my tears... how many of us in the wargame hobby had played countless hours (with my younger brother in my case) in the early 70s with the Airfix farm and the boxes of British, French and Prussian soldiers???

A visit to the real Waterloo one day in the future was one of my earliest dreams, but it has taken 53 years to become true... I’m sure you understand the feeling

Freezing but happy and moved