Wargames blog, covering many shiny things but at the mo its mostly a 1940 Desert Campaign, 28 mm Crusades and 28mm Italian Wars.
Now with its own You Tube Channel - Yarkshire TV, find us on the Twitters and Insta @yarkshiregamer
Spanish Civil War has long been a favourite here at Yarkshire Gamer and regular followers will have seen the many Project Updates and Battle Reports I've done over the years. I've always spoken of the house rules we use and the fun games we have with them. A number of people have shown interest in these, and other home brew sets we use so it was about time I put something together to show what we do.
The video above covers the basics of the rules, where they come from, what dice you need etc etc and is well worth a look before you go into the bigger Battle Report videos.
We then move into the full battle report, its long and splits into two sections but a lot of this is because I explain the rule processes as I go along before detailing examples and as the video progresses I concentrate more on the action.
So there we go hopefully the videos give you an idea of how the rules work, below is a brief summary to see if it might be your cup of tea.
Today sees the release of the 3rd episode of Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Podcast and my guest is Dr Chris Brown, author, historian and of course Wargamer.
You can listen or download the episode above and don't forget to listen in to find out how to get a chance of getting a free copy of Arnhem, 9 Days of Battle.
Chris is an expert in Scottish Medieval History and the Arnhem Campaign of WW2 and has many books in print on both subjects.
We covered many topics and it was fascinating to hear a Historians perspective on our hobby. Not afraid to speak his mind his review of the film Braveheart during the Podcast is worth the entry fee alone.
Chris runs two Facebook pages one S.P.I.T (Stupid Projects in 28mm a name that will definitely get you an invite onto the Podcast as a guest) which covers his Big Game Projects and was a regular on the Scottish Wargames Show scene.
He has the perfect home set up with a table in his living room and a live in opponent in his wife Pat who is also an avid wargamer. If you are thinking of going properly Big, Chris does some of his WW2 gaming in 54mm !
Chris is running a big Wargames event in Arnhem in September this year, who wouldn't want a weekend of gaming in a Hotel that was right in the heart of the fighting in WW2 ! Listen in for the details of the event and how you can attend, further details on the Arnhem 21 Facebook Group.
It was a pleasure to speak with Chris, we over ran quite a bit but it was good fun, I hope you enjoy it too.
On the 21st December 2020 I started the Analogue Hobbies Winter Paint Challenge, something I have been doing for years. This year I set myself a personal Challenge, an Allied Legion in 28mm at a figure scale of 1:20. 223 figures in 3 months was the goal, the picture above shows the result.
The Legion has 32 Velites (24 Victrix and 8 Gripping Beast) 64 Hastati, 64 Principes and 32 Triarii (155 Victrix and 5 Agema), 24 Cavalry (Aventine) and 7 Command Figures (all Victrix). Thankfully the Challenge allows the building and priming of models prior to the start of the Challenge so all of the figures were built and put to one side, primed black, shields primed white and ready to go.
Above is a short 2 minute video of the Project Build.
The first day of the Challenge was spent putting on shield transfers for the entire Project and rustling up some oils on some horses for the Generals.
The Project got off to a very bad start when I opened my box of pre primed Velites and found 8 missing ! I never found them and with Victrix only available in boxes of 60 and with only two Velites per sprue if I bought singles off fleabay I ended up towards the end of the Project going to Gripping Beast for 8 figures to make it up to 32 Velites. Technically it should be 64 but I've found that number of skirmish troops on the table as unworkable so the Velites have the same number of bases as the Hastati and Principes just half the figures.
For the Hastati I used the lightest armoured troops and just because of the way the figures are in the box set there are a few unarmoured figures in the units. The rank and file have no plumes on their helmets. They are based on 60 x 60 mdf, 8 figures to a base, not for any particular rule set. I have based them in double ranks because this Legion will be only part of a larger army, multi ranked bases are your friend when you play big games.
The Principes were distinguished from the Hastati by having 2 plumes on their helmets (2nd rank of troops, upstairs for thinking 🤔) and an increased volume of armour, lots of plated chest and back armour and the odd Cuirass.
The rear rank of Triarii was simply more armour and more plumage !
I did think about having these on single ranks but decided against it in the end.
The Cavalry came from Aventine, a company I have admired for a long time, they are superb, it turned out to be a lucky break as well, the Victrix Cavalry are massive and won't fit 3 to a base so it's a good job I went for the Aventine.
Finally the Generals came from Victrix, I used the later Imperial Roman set and substituted heads from the Allied Legion box.
I have got to admit that the white started to drag towards the end and the last figs were a real effort but I got there in the end.
I will be adding to my Italian Wars Project for the next few months while I contemplate a new Project for the next AHPC. Finally there is a link below to the painting tutorial for the Infantry if you are interested in my painting and basing techniques.
Well this was a bit of an unexpected arrival on the games table, I had planned out the Analogue Hobbies Winter Paint Challenge to a tee and honestly thought, the huge Legion I had painted, "will see me over my target" . So when I finished my Legion and totted up the points being 12 short of my target was slightly annoying, but every cloud has a silver lining.
I spoke to Gareth Lane and Chris Breeze on the Yarkshire Gamer Reet Big Wargames Podcast about their #worldwarroses Project which will see players from around the world battling out a Wars of the Roses game over a weekend in May and I said I would do a little retinue to show my support for the Project.
So I had bought and primed the figures last month with the intention of painting them up post Challenge but needing points I started to paint, I did the Command stand first really quickly and decided to plow through the unit of Archers in quick time and the varnish dried on them 10 minutes ago.
The livery is for an earlier period (Earl of Chester) but the figures have been done as a generic Cheshire Retinue. I have figures for a unit of 24 Bill men and 16 Dismounted Men at Arms.
I've always wanted a Front Rank army, I love their figures, I remember looking in awe at them in a glass cabinet at Sheffield Triples in the old Octagon probably 30 years ago, I have just never had the excuse, I've painted them for others in the past but these are the first which I'm keeping. After that who knows but I have no plans to Go Big with Wars of the Roses (stop laughing) but you all know I've said that before, with other periods..
So that's it for The Analogue Hobbies Winter Paint Challenge for another year, thanks as always to Curt for organising this wonderful event, I really look forward to it every year and I'm already thinking of a big Project to do next year.
This episode really goes BIG when it comes to Big games and I am joined for a chat my another Gamer from God's Own County, Richard Harris.
You can listen to the episode below in the embedded link.
We discuss Richards entry into the hobby, restricted of course to just 4 minutes before talking about a recent feature that appeared in the Yorkshire Post newspaper covering the wargaming weekends that Richard runs under the Legendary Wargames banner.
As I approach the end of my Punic Wars Legion build its time to answer one of the most asked questions I get, no, not the "why are you in my garden at 2 in the morning dressed as a chicken" question, the how do you paint those question.
So above is a Utubes video covering the very same, an in depth paint along video as I complete a base of 28mm Victrix Allied Italian Legion Triarii. I have covered everything including basing.
In between moaning about wet palettes and the "thin your paint" brigade I do actually give some tips about getting decently painted Big Armies to the table, apologies its a bit long but it covers a lot of stuff and techniques and it's free !
So if you're not spending your weekend listening to the Yarkshire Gamer Podcast
Today sees the release of the first full length episode of Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Podcast and it sees me talking with Gareth Lane and Chris Breeze about all things Big Game and their #worldwarroses Project.
There are two cracking efforts at the "My Wargaming History in 4 minutes Challenge" and both Guests try their hand at the "How Yarkshire Gamer are you quiz" ! Something for all you Big Game Gamers out there.
The boys then talk about their World War of the Roses Project and the associated Painting Competition which has an amazing prize (even better than the Speedboat on Bullseye 🎯)
Would love it if you could drop by and have a listen to the Podcast and support it in its early days. There are a few sound issues but for a first attempt I am damn proud of it.
Pics courtesy of Chris Breese @winston_ab_rees
Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer
The Podcast Pilot Episode is available now on the Utubes
