Wargames blog, covering many shiny things in the world of Historical Wargames. Home of Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Podcast.
The YG tentacles reach to a You Tube Channel - Yarkshire TV, also find us on the Twitters and Insta @yarkshiregamer
There is loads of stuff going at Yarkshire Gamer but the regular features like the monthly Utubes update carry on. You can tell how busy I was with the front screen of the video having the wrong month on 😄
The Allied Italian Legion Project is nearing completion and the video features the new units and work in progress.
I've dropped some brass on a new river from The Last Valley and all I can say is it absolutely superb, I've ordered some more and I've a feeling that The Last Valley has become (unknowingly) the official terrain supplier to Yarkshire Gamer.
There has also been some actual gaming going on with a soon to be released Spanish Civil War game using our house rules. Its been a real effort to do but hopefully worth it when it comes out.
And on top of that the Podcast has begun, the Pilot Episode is available to listen to and the first full episode is recorded and edited and will be released on Friday, I'm really happy with it and hope that it catches on, so if you are a fan of Yarkshire Gamer I would love it if you would support this new adventure into Podcasting, by following the episodes on Podbean, Spotify etc
Everything done on YG is for the love of the game, I don't make any brass out of it at all.
The Pilot Episode is available through Podbean here
Alight I have gone and done it now, from moaning a bucket about there being no big game podcasts out there, a little voice in the back of my head (fuelled) by some very fine single malt Irish Whiskey said "Stop moaning lad, crack on and do it thissen"
So here it is the first (very much Pilot) episode of Yarkshire Gamers Reet Grand Toy Soldier Adventures, an audio delight for all (well some 😉 gamers)
I've tried to upset as many people as I can in the first episode 🙃 but this really isn't a negative podcast, it a rallying cry to the Big Game Gamers out their to stand up and shout out loud "I like it BIG".
Small scales have their own podcast (nice work Sean on God's Own Scale" and many others concentrate on the new shiny which inevitably a 10 figure a side skirmish in a box thingy that will be dead quicker that a May fly !
In the Pilot I have outlined what I want to do with the Podcast, discuss my start in gaming (in 4 minutes 😀) and try and define what a big game actually is. Its not perfect but its a start.
So if you like a Big Game on a Big Table with buckets full of figures this is for you.
Its that time of the month again, the monthly Utubes video is available to view. Its been a month of pretty much solid painting getting to grips with the 28mm Allied Italian Legion Project which as you can see from above is moving along nicely.
I've worked my way through a Command Base, the Velites (minus 8 figures that have gone missing), the Hastati and one of the two Cavalry units.
In other news I haven't bought much this month just a solitary vehicle for the Sweeney Project, a Mk1 Ford Escort.
On the gaming front I've been working on the rules for The Sweeney and produced some Evidence Cards for game play that I go through on the video.
All that and the usual moaning 😒 February will mostly be me ploughing through the Legion, after that I am going back into the Italian Wars for a short while.
This time of year we would normally be bigging it up large, as the kids would say and playing our traditional WW1 Mesopotamia. We are due to continue a series of games covering the attempts to relieve the Siege of Kut, next up was the Battle of the Wadi.
Unfortunately the Rona has done our legs again so no Xmas game this year. So with the table empty it was time for another Troops on Parade feature, this time with the Mesopotamia collection, it might be its only outing of the Year.
So whilst the hobby main stream bang on about big games being unachievable and how everyone wants to replay major battles in 10 minutes on a 2 ft square, Yarkshire Gamer draws the line in the sand as says no !
Don't look at a big battle and say "I can't do that, it will take too long", say "Wow, how impressive is that, I want to work really hard and achieve something similar !"
Start the fight back by watching this video,
Now that won't help the fight too much, but it will increase my views and subscribers 😀
The rest of the post will be stills and ramblings from the video.
The Cavalry are relatively new to the collection, these Indian Cavalry are from Newline Designs which reminds we I need to order some more.
I just love the sight of buckets full of painted 28mm, it took me ten years to put these together and I'm damn proud of the collections I put together, I want to play big games with them on big tables that take days to do so and also include fish and chips !
I shout out to those big battle people who are left, in the attics and outbuildings of the nation, pressured to do an "army" thats smaller than most of your units. Stand tall, stand proud, stand in your local supermarket and shout "I like it BIG !"
And when you get back from the Magistrates Court, get em out on the table and game for hours.
Still with me, nice one - we should have seen off the micro gamers now 😎 above is the first brigade of troops, most units are 34 figures strong. A 2 fig HQ unit and 4 x 8 figure companies. 4 battalions here, Cheshire Battalion, RND, Gurkhas and a Sikh unit. The Yarkshire Tea box is one of my favourites.
The second brigade has Highlanders, Hindus, Ox Bucks and Sikhs. Most figs in the collection are Woodbine Design Company but I also have Minifigs, Empress, Great War, Aritizan and Newline.
The third Brigade features 3 Battalions of Anzac Troops with some Arab Irregulars lurking at the back.
The fourth Brigade is a work in progress with two Hindu units at the moment, I'm going to add a British Battalion with the new Empress Miniatures figs and an as yet undecided 4th unit, maybe more Gurkhas ? Prominent in this photo are two Signallers from Great War Miniatures, I love this set, full of character, a bit Western Front, but who cares when they are this good !
Some detail shots now, 2 x Sikh Battalions, note the British Officers.
The growing Cavalry force, my British Cavalry are early war Western Front figures with Woodbine Design head swaps, courtesy of my mate Harry, painted up by me, horses in oils on white undercoat and figures in acrylic on black. An interesting challenge on a one piece casting 🤔
Irregular Arab Cavalry from Artizan.
Centre of the picture are Woodbine Design Gurkhas with Lawrence of Arabia doing a photo bomb 💣
The Royal Naval Detachment unit, love the caps and faces on these guys.
Who doesn't want to game with masses of troops ?
We are so lucky as gamers today to have so many great looking figure ranges from so many different manufacturers. Each one of the figures in this picture is different and so many have their own little character.
Did I mention that there are Highlanders.
And guns !
So thats all folks, at least the collection saw the light of day this year. I will do a similar feature for the Turkish forces soon.
Just a quick update on the Italian Allied Legion Project as my first unit of "Heavy" Infantry are done.
32 figures, based on 60 x 60 bases, 8 to a base. Tightly packed in but that's how I like them 👍, 20 mm frontage for close order infantry looks like open order to me. Its seems to be the current basing convention, but if there's something we don't do here at Yarkshire Gamer then its conforming to the latest trend. If you can fit an extra couple of figures on a base, do it !
The LBMS Shield transfers look really good, I've done a bit of work on the edges and the gaps between the transfer and the metal edges so they blend in. I've done this by simply painting a bit of Army Painter Dark Tone on the area, leaving it a few seconds and then wiping off the excess with my finger.
The details and faces on the figures are great and really suit my painting style.
I've used a number of unarmoured figures in the unit to utilise the models available in the boxes. Although the 60 figures in a box is great when it comes to army building but when you need a few of one type. I certainly don't think that's unreasonable in the Hastati, some young pup who has just been promoted from the Velites waiting for his armour to arrive from Roman Amazon Prime 😉
I am already on with the second lot of Hastati which should be done next week.
I've laid out the project in empty bases and will photograph it as it grows and then do a little video from the photos at the end, above is after the first command stand was done.
Above with the Velites.
And with the current unit. Still a long way to go and with a March 21st deadline its going to be close.
This years project for the Analogue Hobbies Winter Paint Challenge is 1 to 20 Allied Italian Legion for the Punic Wars using 28mm Victrix figures. So that will be 32 Velites, 64 Hastati, 64 Principes, 32 Triarii, 24 Cavalry and 3 Command Bases.
Unfortunately 8 of the Velites have some how managed to desert in between them being prepped a month ago and paint time, search parties are out and the word decimation has been whispered in some plastic ears !
Here are all the bases for the project lined up ready to be filled with figures.
I really like the faces on the Victrix figures, they suit my painting style and are full of character. The figures are on 60 x 30 bases, 2 per base to reflect their skirmish role. I intend to use Mortem et Gloriam as a rule set but as with everything I do and in true Yarkshire Fashion I am basing them "how I bloody well like" and bending the rules to fit my basing.
24 figures is more than most armies these days, I sit and listen to a number of podcasts going on about how you can't have big games in 28mm and big units are unachievable etc etc, well Yarkshire Gamer disagrees and is fighting back 😀
Also hot off the press is one of the three Command Bases I am planning, I'm going to do two, two figure bases and a 3 figure one.
These figures are from the Imperial Roman Victrix General set, I've just substituted some heads out of the Allied Legion box to Republicanise them a bit.
I've prepped all the shield transfers for the heavier Infantry so they are ready to go. I chose to do my Roman Legion with plain shields, but went for random decorated shield for my Italian Allied Legion, mostly for ease of tabletop recognition. I'm well aware of the lack of historical evidence for (or against) shield designs in this era so a educated decision has been made on their inclusion.
Update in a couple of weeks when some more are done.
