Sunday, October 21, 2012

Response to "A Night at the Theatre"

Peter Douglas posted on his blog The Single Handed Admiral, his recent viewing of "Billy Bishop Goes to War".  

His posting reminded me that only last month I visited the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa and took photographs of the medals awarded to Air Marshal William Bishop VC, CB, DSO,& Bar,MC, DFC, ED as well as his souvenirs of  April 8, 1917, the day he became an Ace and won his Military Cross.

His Awards Include: Victoria Cross, Companion of the Order of the Bath, Distinguished Service Order & Bar, Military Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross, Canadian Efficiency Decoration, Mentioned in Despatches, Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and Croix de Guerre.

On 8 April, Bishop claimed his fifth victory, but returned with his windscreen perforated by a bullet which had narrowly missed killing him.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Sōhei 15mm Japanese Warriors Monks

These figures have been sitting around in a box for years and it was time to bring them out and go to work on them.

Primed 15mm assorted Japanese Figures

 As I posted I had three bags of warrior monks. After they were painted and based I have three distinct units,


2 Elements of Blades, 2HCW and 2 Elements of Hordes


6 Elements of Blades, Japanese Warrior Monks with Naginata
6 Elements of Japanese Long Bow


Rebasing Micro-Armour Infantry and Heavy Weapon Groups



For years I lead a very active wargaming life playing microarmour. I remember purchasing my first vehicles from Heroics and Ros in the late 1970s for what worked out to about $0.25 CDN per vehicle.

Over time, I played many rule sets but I kept returning to the set that offered the perfect combination of complexity and playability, both for  World War 2 and the Modern Period. I refer to the WRG  Armour and Infantry 1925-1950 (June 1973) and Wargame Rules for Armoured Warfare 1950-1985 (June 1979). This 2nd rule set replaced the earlier version of the rules which covered to 1975.

My introduction to the revised Modern rules was at a gaming convention held at St Mary's University in Halifax against a team from the Armoured Warfare School based at CFB Gagetown. They taught us civilians a lot that day.

WARGAMES RESEARCH GROUP - Rules Ancient and Modern and other periods in between, a website by Sue Laflin-Barker, provide pdf downloads to these and other out of print WRG rule sets.

My only complaint about these rules was the level they presented the infantry and heavy weapons units. I imagine they are what would be labeled as fire teams. My own interests tend towards a squad level unit, using markers for multiple hits.  In recent years I have tended towards Blitzkrieg Commander for WW2 and Cold War Commander for the modern period. For these rules I looked at rebasing the majority of my 600 infantry as squads on a 40mm x 20mm base and I am very happy with the results. 

WW2 Soviet Hvy MGs

WW2 Soviet AA Gunss

WW2 Soviet Mortars

WW2 Soviet Combat Engineers

WW2 Soviet Anti-Tank Rifle Teams