Monthy Wargames Update - May 2025

 

After recent chats with a number of people I've decided to try and give the blog a bit more time and effort, for the last couple of years with visitor numbers dropping I lost interest and moved to other formats. I still think there are scope for blog posts so here we go again.

One of the most popular formats on the YouTube is the Monthly Update so I thought I'd see if it translates here, please leave a comment if you get the chance

NEW UNITS 

First up is a unit of 32 x 28mm Elite Miniatures representing a Battalion of French Young Guard Voltigeurs from the Napoleonic Wars. A proper old school style unit with 8 figures on a 60 x 60 base.

The flag is from GMB and is massive for a Big Fanion, but I love Big Fanions and I can't deny it.

The other new unit this month is this Florentine Heavy Cavalry unit for the Italian Wars, 28mm Perry plastics with Petes Flags. 

I also went a bit crazy with the buildings, making and painting 12 Charlie Foxtrot Models New World ones for a AWI Germantown game at Partizan 

TWERK IN PROGRESS 

I always include a short piece on the latest twerk in progress, mostly to keep me motivated to finish it for the next month. On the bench at the moment are some 28mm Perry Prussian Landwehr for my Napoleonic Project. 24 done, 8 to finish

HOW MUCH

Purchases this month started with the Charlie Foxtrot buildings you can see above but I also managed to sneek in a cheeky Steel Fist Purchase picking up some of the New Swiss Front rankers.

FROM THE FRONT LINE

I attended the Partizan 2025 show and took along the 28mm AWI Germantown game which included the newly finished buildings mentioned above. 

This is a game we put on at FIASCO a couple of years ago as a memorial to my friend Dave Parrott who passed away. He left all his figures to me including his lovely American AWI collection, which was featured in this game against my Brits.

We used British Grenadier and really cracked on through the day with the American centre collapsing in the late afternoon.

I always spend my time talking to people around the table, making sure that we don't ignore people and that allows the other guys to play the game and keeps the figures moving. It's not perfect but I get to chat to most interested people on the day whilst the game is played as opposed to a static display.

Down club we've had a few weeks of 28mm Ancients, using my Republican Romans against Harry and Andys Greeks.

I've been asked to help playtest a new set of rules, we did that for two weeks and we are now playing through again using MeG. I have had Mortem et Gloriam since Covid times and it kind of got lost in the lack of gaming

YARKSHIRE GAMER PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF 

There have been a couple of New Podcasts, the first with Ray and Lee of Posties Rejects where we chat about their Wargaming as well as an in depth coverage of the Salute Show 

The second show was a short update from Paul Thompson about the investigation into the WW2 Raid on the St Lawrence Radar Station on the Isle of Wight in 1943, with some pretty exciting discoveries.

Both shows are avaliable on all major Podcast hosts, simply search for Yarkshire Gamer you'll find it.

Also on the Utubes is a Troops on Parade feature on the Papal French Forces I built up for the Mentana Game.

So there you have it, a busy month, if you do read this far leave a comment and see what you think about the "reading" version of the monthly Update, if you prefer moving pictures I've included the Utubes version at the bottom of the page.

Until next time, Sithee 

Regards Ken 

The Yarkshire Gamer 

Yarkshire Gamer Podcast Episode 70 - Jared Fishman - 20 Sided Gamified

 

Welcome to Episode 70 of the show and today I sit down with fellow gamer and podcaster Jared Fishman.

Jared runs the US based 20 Sided Gamified show and its a Wargaming show with a broad topic base which has a slant towards the educational value of our hobby in a wider context.

The episode is avaliable via the link below or on any major Podcast Host 

https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-70-jared-fishman-20-sided-gamified-podcast/

My guest is a teacher and has used gaming in his lessons as a great teaching tool, something I'm sure all of us would have enjoyed when we were at school.

As you would expect with two podcasters we rattle on a bit so it might be a two or three sittings to get through the show, or you might be hard core and get some painting done in a oner !

My next guest is one of a number who are trying to make their minds up on when they can do a recording, so I'll be back in a couple of weeks with someone !

20 Sided Gamified is available on all major podcast hosts, here is the Apple link

20 Sided Gamified Podcast - Podcast - Apple Podcasts

And on the Utubes

Introduction to the 20 Sided Gamified Podcast. Welcome to the Fold!

Hopefully see you at Salute

Until next time, Sithee

Regards Ken

The Yarkshire Gamer

Previous episode is now on Utubes 

World Cup of Wargaming Pet Hates - Preliminary Round

After two years of World Cups and neaely 40,000 votes we know your favourite rules and figure manufacturers, now its time to find out what you really dont like ! 

This is the Preliminary Round of the Yarkshire Gamers World Cup of Wargaming Pet Hates.What drives you nuts in the hobby ? 

No matter how tolerant you are there will be something and now is the chance to get it off your chest.

Wargames Room 101 has been a regular feature on the Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Podcast.

RULES 

Vote for no more than 5 choices

If you don't see your personal pet hate, first check its not one of the 8 seeds (Competition Games, Round Dice, Points Battles, Painting Portaloo, Dice with unclear faces, Unpainted Flag Edges, Factions, Sabot Bases)If it isn't there DONT ADD IT YOURSELF, please comment on the post starting with "I nominate" and only nominate one subject per post.

The top 16 pet hates will go through to the 1st Round Proper (the draw for which will be on the Summer Brews Podcast on the 6th June). Each pair of hates will then play off against each other in a knock out cup format, the winners of the 1st round will meet the seeds in Round 2 and then its a straight knock out until we have a winner.Ties (yes we have had one) will be settled by a live one hour penalty shoot out.

Get voting and share far and wide

Voting is on the Yarkshire Gamers Facebook Reet Big Wargames Group 

VOTING LINK https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ARB3LNusA/

Apologies to those not on FB but after 3 years of doing this there are no other viable alternatives that reach such a wide audience.

Regards Ken 

The Yarkshire Gamer

UPDATE 29TH MAY

Here is the voting to date in the Preliminary Round of the Yarkshire Gamer World Cup of Wargaming Pet Hates. 

Some clear leaders with Overly Competitive Wargamers, Rules Lawyers and Cheats well out in front of the pack.

But also some surprises, who thought rebasing was popular 😄 and less people despised Fantasy History Cross Over Games than Hex Based Tiles 😆 The qualification race is pretty tight around the 16 cut off point.

A gentle reminder that this is fun, I've seen some "robust conversations" but only one 🛎🔚 so far on TMP (which is below current projections)

Poll open till Monday, top 16 go through to Rd1, there is still time to vote (or even change your votes) those topics which have been nominated after the start are often missed by those who vote early, so if you hate one of the newer nominations more than your orginal selection feel free to change.

Voting is on the Yarkshire Gamer Reet Big Wargames Group (Link above)

UPDATE WITH 24 HOURS TO GO

The voting in the Preliminary Round of the World Cup of Wargames Pet Hates ends tomorrow and here are the latest standings.

Little movement since the last update and as expected voting has dropped off since the initial surge, looks like there will be around 3,000 when it closes tomorrow.

Top six remaining same and we'll ahead, Display Games ignoring the public has been creeping upwards. The excitement is around the cut off point for the Preliminary Round, remember only the top 16 progress. 

Currently Basing Tanks and Excessive Game Counters are joint 15th and just in the qualification spots with 45 votes. Primary School Blue Rivers and Tank Parks are the main contenders to knick a spot in Round 1.

Nominations are now closed, there is no chance anything getting anywhere near, there's some good stuff on page 2 and couple with no votes, which is one of my Pet Hates, if you nominate something, I have to type it in, at least you could vote for it FFS 🤣

Anyway this js your 24 hour notice to vote, or change your vote before it closes and the "I can't believe x didn't get through" window opens

Regards Ken 

Yarkshire Gamer 

#tabletopgaming #tabletopgames #hobby #wargames #wargaming

Get voting now !

#tabletopgaming #Wargames #tabletopgames #Wargaming 

Troops on Parade - Papal / French Army for Mentana 1867

 

I've put together a video covering the 28mm Army I put together for the Papal French Forces at the Battle of Mentana in 1867 available now on the Utubes 

I've used figures from Wargames Foundry, Perry Miniatures and Gringo40s to put the army together and had to go to various ranges outside of the Risorgimento to get the figures I needed. A lot of them have been released by Shako64 since which is a real pain !

The French are from the Perry Miniatures Franco Prussian War range, part plastic part metal.

The Papal Zouaves were made from Perry ACW plastic Zouaves with Steve Barber head swaps

I used figures from The Perrys Triple Alliance to represent The OIC of the Papal French General Kanzler

I'll do a similar thing with the Garibaldi next week

Germantown 1777 and 2025 at Partizan

 

A few pics and a bit of chat from the Germantown game at Partizan yesterday, I haven't done a proper blog post for a while so here goes.

Firstly thanks very much to Andy, Steve, Steve and Geoff from Leeds Wargames Club  for running the game and keeping the figures moving whilst I did my usual front of house. Above is a pic of the table at the start of the show.

I ended up feeling a bit ropey first thing and spent most of the day sat down, I still managed to speak to loads of people however and had a great time. It was lovely to see loads of friends and have people come up and say how much they enjoy the Podcast, I even had a donation of "snow" to the Narvik Project, thank you very much for that.

I can't mention or even remember everyone but I want to say it was wonderful to see brother Ken Hanning and Charlie Walker looking well. I had a lovely chat with Dave Tuck planning a Podcast, the Brews boys Iain McDonald and Alex Sotheran came over. Henry Hyde stopped by a couple of times and it was wonderful to see him looking happy and enjoying the day.

We raised a bit of awareness for Dogs Trust the chosen charity of my friend Dave Parrott, and it was lovely to have his figures (all the Americans) out on the table again. Dogs Trust supplied us with some bunting and flyers for the table.

The game looked great, my Chew House really stood out as a centre piece, even if you couldn't see all the subtle plank shading, I'd picked up quite a few Charlie Foxtrot Models from their New World Range a couple of weeks before the game and managed to get them all finished in time. i'd been down the DIY Store as well and as only wargamers can do I saw an Arris Rail, and rather than thinking "that's a good addition to my fence" I though that would make a good Game Title Board added something and the bunting from Dogs Trust looked good.

I used the plans from the British Grenadier 2nd Scenario Book with a few minor alterations, mostly to get more figures on the table and we used the British Grenadier rules which we are familiar with. Lots of people commented at the table that the rules are 'a bitbslow" but we absolutely cracked through the game even with public engagement.

The figures where all sculpted by the Perrys. Most of the British had been painted by me and were from the Perry Miniatures Range, mostly metal (these were started before the plastics came out) although there are a few plastic units.

The Americans are from the Collection of Dave who left them to me when he passed away. I've done the odd bit of rebating and adding flags but they are all painted by him. The collection is entirely metal and mostly the Perry Wargames Foundry sculpts, Dave was a huge fan of that company.

As for the game itself, the lads really cracked on even with the "slow" British Grenadier rules and the Americans were really Agressive pushing the British back from Chew House towards Germantown but the Firepower of the Brits told and Greenes column broke at the end of the day.

Pendants Corner - in the excitement of the game some of the British flags have ended up their ongoing way round, I shall chastise those who are responsible in due course.

Regards Ken

Yarkshire Gamer Podcast 69 - Arran Johnston - Jacobite Rising

 

Hello all and welcome to Episode 69 of the Reet Big Wargames Podcast.

My guest today is Arran Johnston, Arran works with the Scottish Battlefield Trust and the Battle of Prestonpans Museum increasing awareness of the History of conflicts in the Highlands, Lowlands and Isles.

The episode is available on all major Podcast hosts or via the link below 

https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-69-arran-johnston-jacobite-rising/

A specialist in the Jacobite Rising Arran has had a number of books published on that subject as well as Cromwells earlier campaigns in Scotland. On top of his day job he has also done some historical re-enactment, so as my grandma would say " He knows his eggs"

Arran has a personal website covering his historical work here

https://www.arranjohnston.co.uk/

The work he does with the Battle of Prestonpans Museum can be found here

https://www.battleofprestonpans1745.org/

Recently Arran has begun to use Wargaming as a tool to tell the story of the Jacobite Rising and has chronicled the Campaigns in a series of "What If" videos on the museums YouTube Channel.

The decisions made, by the Jacobites in the first run through and by the Government in the second have been made by members of the public which has been a really interesting experiment. You can tune into the campaign here

www.youtube.com/@Prestonpans1745

I think all wargamers would love to be involved in such a well run campaign.

My next guest will be Jared Fishman from the US Wargaming Podcast, 20 Sided Gamified Podcast.

See you soon

Regards Ken

Here's the video version of episode 68

Yarkshire Gamer Podcast - Episode 68 Martyn Kelly - Wargaming Pavia

On the 500th Anniversary of one of the most pivotable battles of the Great Italian Wars, what better to do that a deep dive into the battle of Pavia, with a specific slant on recreating the battle on the tabletop.

The episode is available on all major Podcast hosts or via the link below 

https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-68-martyn-kelly-wargaming-pavia/

I'm joined by Martyn Kelly who has last on the show 2 years ago. He is well known for his exquisite Big Games at Historicon in the US and this year he will be putting on a huge recreation of the Italian Wars classic.

Neither Martyn or myself are historians, just enthusiastic wargamers, we give our own briefing introduction on the history of the battle before moving on to a deep dive on the orders of battle and figures used in Martyns game.

After that we talk about the terrain for the battle and how that is recreated in miniature before eventually getting to the battle itself and how that presents challenges on the tabletop.

Martyn has an excellent blog College of Kings on which he posts updates on the project.

https://www.collegeofkings.com/ ​

Please like, subscribe and leave a review wherever you see the show.

I'll be back in a couple of weeks when I will be talking to Aaron Johnston who works for the Battle of Prestonpans Trust and runs the What If, 1745 Jacobite Campaign on the YouTube.

See you then

Sithee

Regards Ken

The Yarkshire Gamer

#history​ #miniaturewargaming​ #wargames​ #wargaming​

Here's the last episode on the utubes 

Yarkshire Gamer Podcast - Episode 67 - Listerner Phone In

 

Hello everyone and welcome to my first ever Wargamers phone in !

Available on the link below or via all major Podcast hosts 

https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-67-listener-phone-in/

I'm joined on the show by 8 different guests for 8 very different conversations about different aspects of our wonderful hobby, in order of appearance we have.

1. Gary Wills - we talk about the War of the First Coalition or the Revolutionary Wars and his book Throwing Thunderbolts about the period

https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/throwing-thunderbolts-a-wargamers-guide-to-the-war-of-the-first-coalition-1792-1797.php

2. Dex McHenry joins me to discuss the importance of using correct terminology when discussing wargames (like The Dark Ages)

3. Neil Armstrong bravely joins the show to talk about contrast paints !

4. Simon Stokes talks about how Wargaming the Dark Ages can be fun.

5. Sam and James from Warfulcrum join me to discuss "1918" a set of WW1 rules covering the final year of the First World War, which they have in development.

https://www.patreon.com/WarFulcrumGames1918

6. Then its time for Rhys Humphrey to talk about his Ashdown 871 Big Project

7. Then Harvey joins us from Vermont in the USA so he can blame a certain Yorkshire based Podcast on two huge projects he has become involved with.

8. My final guest is Chris Gosney who discusses filming Solo Wargaming for his YouTube Channel.

https://www.youtube.com/@CrustyColonel18/videos 

Hope you enjoyed this new format, do please leave a like and review wherever you listen to this is really helps broaden the audience.

If you fancy being a guest on the next phone in (if there is one) drop me an email to yarkshiregamer@gmail.com and I'll be in touch for the next phone in.

I will be back on the 24th February to talk about Pavia on its 500th Anniversary.

Until Next Time, Sithee

Regards Ken

The Yarkshire Gamer

Here is the last show which is on the Utubes 

Yarkshire Gamer Podcast - Episode 66 - Lorenzo Sartori, Dadi et Piombo

 

Hi there,

Welcome to the first episode of 2025 and today I combine two of my favourite things in life Wargaming and Italy.

My guest is Lorenzo Sartori who runs the Italian based wargames publishers Dadi & Piombo.

The episode is available on all major Podcast hosts or via the link below

https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-66-lorenzo-sartori-wargaming-in-italy-dadi-piombo/

Lorenzo has been publishing a magazine of the same name for over 25 years, along with various sets of rules and books relating to wargaming, including the very popular Impetus Rules.

I chat to Lorenzo about his Wargaming History, as I do with all my guests before moving on to discussing the hobby in Italy in general before finishing off discussing the magazine and his rules.

The magazine is available via the website below,

https://www.dadiepiombo.it/

I love talking to wargamers from around the world about this wonderful hobby that unites so many of us.

Thanks for listening and I'll see you again soon.

Regards Ken

The Yarkshire Gamer

The previous episode is on the Utubes below

Yarkshire Gamer Podcast 65 - Xmas Brews in't Binyard 2024

A bit late to arriving on the Blog, I keep forgetting to post them ! If you haven't it's definitely worth a listen.

Welcome back to the Yarkshire Gamer Podcast with our usual Xmas Special with the Brews in the Binyard Boys, Alex Sotheran from Storm of Steel and Iain McDonald from Flags of War.

The episode can be listened to via your normal Podcast Host or on the link below,

https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-65-brews-in-the-binyard-xmas-special-2024/

In what is now tradition I butcher a Xmas song at the start of the show so get ready for a version of Fairy Tale of New York which you have never heard before !

The show ended up being 4 hours long, but lets face it, you've got plenty of spare time over Xmas, stick some earbuds in and pretend to be asleep after a festive meal.

We tackle weighty subjects like, what the f.... is Trench Crusade about, why historians can't make their minds up (again), Crisp Butties, the demise of Twitter, Warlord Games French Lancer horse legs and most importantly which is the best Fish and Chip Shop in Skipton.

Whether you digest it in a oner or in several more digestible parts, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did recording it.

I hope to be back in the new year with the regular mix of guests, until then have a great Xmas and a Happy New Year and may all your Pike Blocks be massive !

Until Next Time, Sithee

Regards Ken

The Yarkshire Gamer  

The last episode is on the Utubes below

Yarkshire Gamer Podcast - Episode 64 Andy Johnson - Soldier Gamer Author

 

Hi everyone,

Welcome back to the first, long form "normal" Podcast for a while and todays guest is Andy Johnson.

Available on the link below or via all major Podcast hosts 

https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-64-andy-johnson-soldier-gamer-author/

Andy was born in York which gets a big tick in a box on this show ! and in the first part of the show we chat about Andys Wargaming life and the old Little Soldier Shop on Gillygate in his home town.

Section 2 covers Andys extensive military career in the Coldstream Guards and how wargaming was used as a learning tool throughout his service.

Its then the usual quiz etc before we move on to talk about Andys books and his Utube Channel "Brave Men Died Here".

I really enjoyed reading my guests books and they are highly recommended.

Books avaliable via the link below

Amazon.co.uk: Andy Johnson: books, biography, latest update

YouTube Channel is here

Brave Men Died Here UK - YouTube

Back in a couple of weeks when I hope to be interviewing Lorenzo Sartori editor of the Italian Wargaming Magazine Dadi & Piombo 

Regards Ken

The Yarkshire Gamer

The previous episode is on the Utubes below