The Perfect Trifecta: Wargaming, Hiking and Painting
Photos from a great afternoon playing an introductory game of L'art de la Guerre with good bud Mike Lee. It has been far too long since I had pushed some soldiers around on a wargames table! We will not discuss the outcome of the game however...
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| Mike surveys the devastation he has wrought! |
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| Yes, that's my cavalry surrounded on two sides with a line of pikes to the rear |
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| The takabara were at least trying to hold back the advance of the pikemen. |
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| Unsuccesfully... |
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| The Persian heavy cavalry on the right flank fared much better. |
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| So many long pointy things! |
Spring Break
We turned off the electric devices Wednesday and hiked 10.5 miles in Montgomery Bell State Park. Ended the day at the park restaurant overlooking the lake. Nyra was so tired she fell asleep against the leg of my chair. I was a bit tired myself...
The following day we took another electronics free hiking day at Edgar Evans State Park. Nyra saved the day by refusing the climb up to an exposed ridge during our morning hike. It was steep and difficult, so we thought she was just tired from the previous day's exertions, but it turned out she was warning us about a pop up thunderstorm! We think she sensed it coming before we even heard the thunder, but five minutes after we turned around the sky opened up and the thunder rolled! Later in the day we were hiking again on a really stunning section near the visitor's center. It's a short 2 mile but quite challenging trail, and halfway along the loop we got hammered by another storm, this time with lots of pea sized hail! Fortunately, Nyra's thick fur must have softened the impact, because she never complained and was just a champion. Her new nickname is Brave Nyreen after a favorite children's book of ours. Before the rains, I did get lots of wildflower pictures, but nothing during the storms as we were a bit pre-occupied!
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| Bloodroot |
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| Cutleaf Toothwart |
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| Trout lillies |
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| Jefferson Twinleaf |
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| Harbinger of Spring |
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| Trillium or Toadshade |
And finally I got some time off my feet for painting toy soldiers.
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| The German division's command; General de Division Jean Darmagnac with a Staff Major (center) and an Aide de Camp from the Nassau regiment (right), along with a Brigadier General, Neuenstein of Baden (left). |
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| 1st Battalion of the Baden 4th Regiment of Infantry. These are based four to a company base like the Nassau battalions. |
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Now that the 1st Battalion is done, the second is already on the painting desk for prep work. Dick Tennant did a wonderful job painting these originally, so my job was greatly simplified.
Next up; Baden Infantry, Artillery, and Battalion Command. |
A good looking game, some lovely figure on the table. Nice hiking pics, Nyra looks a right sweetie, lovely looking dog. Lovely Baden troops and commanders for your collection, really nice.
ReplyDeleteThanks Donnie. Nyra is my constant companion, whether I am working, hiking or painting. She's just a big floofie sweetie pie.
DeleteThe Baden troops and those command figures look great - restoring figures that already have a decent paint job does speed things up a bit. Some stunning scenery there and I’m very impressed with the Lassie type behaviour of Nyra, our own dog would have let us plunge to our doom!
ReplyDeleteUsually Nyra is one can short of a six pack, but she upped her game for our hikes! As for the miniatures, having Dick's work to base the collection on has been a real blessing!
DeleteNyra the Wonder Dog! It's often struck me how lethal the Great American Outdoors can sometimes be. NZ's got a bit of a rep for too, mind.
ReplyDeleteThe troops, as always, are magnficent. Would those Badeners have started out as Wurttembergers? Some very clever conversions there too amongst the Geeral Staff., although I reckon General de Division Jean Darmagnac has a bullet-proof vest under his tunic!
Yes, General Darmagnac is a bit puffed up in the chest. I assume he is a Newline Designs casting. Would love to chat about the conversions you see, as you are so much more knowledgeable of the HH figures than I, you can generally figure out the original when I am totally in the dark. I did note that the best resource I could find for the Badeners, was online via the Napoleon Series and was written by Dick Tennant!
DeleteWere the Baden pretty small, was that why you went with 4-figure bases?
ReplyDeleteThe German division had tremendous losses at Mesas de Ibor and of course attrition on the way to Spain as well. The battalions were small, but I also wanted to represent the attack column on a typical two company front, and the only way to do so was to reduce the size of the bases to reflect the smaller companies. I had the bases custom cut for me by Warbases, and I have been extremely pleased with the result.
DeleteHow can they have lost lots, you haven't fought Mesas de Ibor yet... ;o)
DeleteI'm guessing these were the smaller Warbases that I thought were the wrong size?
Playing toys soldiers and then marvellous scenery and then painting toy soldiers…
ReplyDeleteYou have such a hard life David 🤣🤣🤣
I’m not jealous… not even a little bit…. Honest 🤔
All the best. Aly
I know, but I had to take one for the team. It's a shame, but someone has to do it!
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