Battle for the Farm - Sharp Practice AAR

First off, an apology for the paucity of blog updates in the last few months, but between travelling and then getting back into the swing of uni back in Australia, it's been difficult to find the time. What time i have had has been devoted to terrain making (trees, terrain boards, buildings, fields and more trees seen in the below pictures) and painting and basing up the remainder of my French and Austrian Napoleonic figures.

So, to get the ball rolling again, here is a quick after action report for a solo game I recently played of the Toofatlardies set Sharp Practice. I've now got enough figures painted up for a decent game, and so have been playing through the rules a few times before introducing them at the local club. Even solo, the rules are great fun and play through quickly as well. The ability to generate random personalities for the Big Men who control the action infuses the game with elements of role play, which adds a lot to the fun and flavour.

Triples 2012

First off, thanks for the feedback on the museums blog, the post on the Swedish army museum will be coming up in the next few days.

But first, a brief intermission. This Saturday just gone, I caught the early coach from Leeds down to the Sheffield, the city of steel, for the Triples war-games show, hosted by the Sheffield Wargames Club. This is the first games show i've managed to get to, and I must say it was a great day out. After a quick and easy trip on the Sheffield Supertram, I wandered down to the English Institute of Sport. The entry to the exhibition hall was flanked by two groups of reenactors, some Napoleonic fusiliers of the 21e Regiment de Ligne, and a couple of Great War Tommies from the 18th battalion, Durham Light Infantry. I had a chat to both groups, and they were all really friendly and knowledgeable guys. I grabbed my ticket and squeezed past the daleks which were making the rounds, and ventured into the hall. The exhibition space was great, well lit and, to me at least, huge (Rich from Toofatlardies later told me that Salute is around 8 times as large. My antipodean mind boggles.)

Still Kickin' - and Museums!

Well, it's been quite a while since I've posted anything on this blog, what little time I've had between travelling, uni and day to day life has been spent updating my trade bog, benlauraeurope.blogspot.com. Well, as of last friday, the university semester has wrapped up here at Leeds, and I've just got a couple exams and then its time to wave bye bye to blighty.

The whole exchange has been a mix of amazing and challenging. The subjects I'd chosen turned out to be for the most part fascinating. The course studying European Great Power politics and diplomacy from 1871 to August 1914 with Prof. Holger Afflerbach was really interesting, and it was great to delve into the Bismarckian era and the years leading up to the Great War. I think the title of the module, 'Doomed to Failure?' sums up the approach of the course. Additionally to filling in some gaps in my understanding of European History, I was able to focus upon my proposed area of specialisation - namely the French Third Republic. I completed a paper on the Boulanger Crisis, which is a fascinating period of French history - Prof. Afflerbach went so far as to refer to General Boulanger as the Hitler who never was. It is interesting to imagine how European history would look if there had been a Weimar republic official as willing and able to suppress the Nazi party in the 1930s as French Minister of the Interior Emile Combes was the Boulangists.

Happy New Year, and some more Brit Armour

Happy new year everyone, and thanks for all your support over the years. I'm really astonished that i've got so many followers and page views, so thanks, and i wish you all the best for 2012.

First off, I'm now officially half way through my degree. Finished off my last monster 12000 word paper on the French in Algeria from 1840-1870 the week before christmas, and thanks to my professor Philip Dwyer for being very understanding and flexible with due dates. Still waiting on results though, as he is off in Paris until March trying to finish the second volume to his Napoleon bio (please forgive this bit of a plug: anyone who hasn't read Napoleon: The Path to Power 1769-99, I highly recommend it - and not just because Philip is marking my paper :). It's nice to have a recent, thoroughly researched and unbiased bio on such a polarising character).