Author: Wargaming.info

Combat Tanks Collection 1-7

Here are some photos of the models in the first few issues of the CTC Magazine. As I previously posted on the Auckland Wargaming Club Website the Combat Tanks Collection Magazine from the UK is now available here in NZ (having been available in Australia for sometime, and in a different format as the non-English Panzer Magazine in other countries)…

And you can subscribe on line or pick it up from most book stores. Each issue includes a 1/72nd Scale Die-Cast Model similar to those produced by Dragon Armor; Forces of Valor; and similar.

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I take a foray into Vac-U-Form Plastics

Amera Plastics Nissen Hut
Amera Plastics Nissen Hut

Some recent discussions on the Crossfire Yahoo Group brought up the old Bellona range of vac-u-form moulded plastic terrain. Many of you will remember these old classics from the days of Charles Grant, Donald Featherstone, and Terrence Wise, the terrain featuring extensively in their books, and later books by other authors such as “Operation Warboard”. For those like me, in countries like New Zealand, this was something you marvelled at in photos and wished you could get hold of… Bellona has long since gone out for production decades ago, although there was some suggestion the moulds had been purchased by someone in recent years to resume production – but to the best of my knowledge this is not the case. However the discussion led to Amera Plastic Mouldings, a company very much in the tradition of Bellona, and producing many very similar terrain pieces to the original Bellona range.

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Wargaming.info Relaunch [April 2010]

Early Mycenaean (or Minoan) Spearmen.
Early Mycenaean (or Minoan) Spearmen.

Welcome to the completely revamped Wargaming.info – the new format is designed to hopefully make things a bit easier to find and to enable me to upload more content more easily and keep the site more up to date. By using a CMS (Content Management System) much of the process is now streamlined and virtually the entire site is CSS based (as well as being W3C & XHTML compliant). You will also find Feeds (RSS 2.0 or Atom 1.0) on the main Home Page (which will show the half-dozen most recent items on the whole site), the Blog (which will show all blog entries), and each major section (e.g. Napoleonic’s, Colonials, World War II, showing the items under that category) – so if you are just interested in a specific era (e.g. Colonials) you can just subscribe to the Feed service for that section! I have not put a specific feed icon on any of the pages as your web-browser should display the icon by default for you to click on…

Anyway, I hope you find something of interest and I look forward to significantly increasing the quantity and frequency of updates from now…

Modelling Japanese in Crossfire

Imperial Japanese Army Battle FlagAs mentioned in by blog entry Time To Do ‘The Pacific’ with Crossfire I have been inspired by the release of “The Pacific” by HBO to finally build a Japanese force for Crossfire, to game the early Pacific Campaigns of 1942-44 and the Burma/Malaya Campaigns. As I have a sizeable force of 1/72nd scale Japanese coming, I thought I would give some thoughts to how Japanese Battalions & Regiments were organised historically, what peculiarities and special weapons they had, and how these are best represented in Crossfire (i.e. as defined by the rules or by an alternate method). As a result these are my current thoughts on representing Japanese forces and most especially the presence of their main support weapons at Battalion level, over and above HMGs…

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Time To Do ‘The Pacific’ with Crossfire

Imperial Japanese Army Battle FlagI’ve always had an interest in the Pacific Theatre, most especially the 14th Army in Burma & Malaya, and the early U.S. Marine operations such as in the Solomon’s (as the 3rd NZ Division was involved in additional actions in the chain after the main U.S. battle ended on Guadalcanal), the Gilbert (Tarawa) & Marshal Islands campaign, and perhaps ultimately the Mariana & Palau (Peleliu) Islands… After years and years (OK make that Decades) of procrastination I have finally bit the bullet and ordered the figures inspired by the release of “The Pacific” by HBO.

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The Relief of Old Dongola

It is early 1884 and the Mahdist Rebellion is reaching it’s peak – Gordon is isolated in Khartoum, and the rebellion has steadily spreads north towards the Egyptian frontier. As the debate about any relief expedition to go to Gordon’s aid is being discussed, news comes that a large number of European, Greek, and Egyptian Civilians, along with a small British Hospital Corps detachment, have been cut off in the town of Old Dongola; and the local Egyptian Commander has only a small force of Bashi-Bazouk Irregulars, supplemented by whatever Civilians that can fight, to try and defend the town (who’s defences are in a poor state due to official Khedival policy of not maintaining any permanent fortifications in the Sudan, the town having the partial remnants of a wall, supplemented by zeribas and improvised barricades)… Continue reading “The Relief of Old Dongola”

English Civil War in 15mm

15mm Parliamentarian English Civil War figures from my collection – most are Essex with some Frei Korps making up the numbers. These are no longer in my collection as I moved away from figure scales smaller than 20mm in the early 2000’s…

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Lost in the Wilderness: Napoleonics?

FOGN (Field Of Glory: Napoleonics) is a regimental game where 1 unit is a regiment. It has small units (1200-2000 men for infantry) and large units (2000-3000 men). This means it is an in-between scale game (sort of like Principles of War), where you can change formation into things that look like column, line, square and skirmish but aren’t really (and in practice you stay in one formation for most of the game in FOGN).

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Edward Woodward, Well Known Actor & Wargamer, dies

Veteran actor Edward Woodward has died aged 79, his agent has confirmed. Woodward was famous in wargaming circles (like Robin Williams also) for being a celebrity/high-profile actor who participated in the hobby… Read More at the BBC Website.

The FOG versus DBMM Debate

One of the big challenges facing the club today is the debate in Ancients Gaming between DBMM and FOG. As in many other clubs and wargaming groups around the world at present there is a split between gamers who prefer FOG and those who prefer DBMM – luckily the AWC at least has no odd Ostriches still sticking to DBM (of course there is nothing really wrong with that if its your thing, but its a position causing a 3 way rules-set split of gamers in some areas so doesn’t help unify the scene)!

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Graf von Schnyder

For my Colonial Games using TSATF I like to have a few ‘personality’ figures to add to the games or campaigns over and above the standard units and commanders. Graf von Schnyder is a German Adventurer and Big Game Hunter who has travelled to the southern-most reaches of the Sudan and beyond retracing Samuel Baker’s epic journey, in addition to visiting other parts of Africa and the Pacific. Independently wealthy Schnyder is on a self obsessed mission to become world famous ‘somehow’ with the currently popular ‘Geographic Society’ and earn his immortality!

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Doctor Ernesto Furtwangler

For my Colonial Games using TSATF I like to have a few ‘personality’ figures to add to the games or campaigns over and above the standard units and commanders. An Austro-Hispanic Missionary & Doctor who has done charitable work in Khartoum and Kordofan and is well travelled (South America, India, China). Dr Furtwangler has travelled much of the world doing his missionary work for various Catholic Churches & Societies, and has learned several dialects.

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