"Billy Yank" at the "Guerriers du Marais"

I am honoured to report that I have been accepted into "Les Guerriers du Marais" ("the warriors of the marshes"), a French wargames club in Carentan. I happened to be in Normandy and took the opportunity to get in touch and go along for a game.

The day's entertainment was an American Civil War battle using "Billy Yank", a French ruleset that was published in Vae Victis in 1997. Didier aka "Kid Dynamite" laid on a nice mobile scenario in which he and Pierre with a Federal division were racing parallel to me and Jean-Louis aka "Texas Reb" with our Confederate division, to seize a village at a crossroads. The figures were lovingly painted 20mm plastics, each representing a named historical regiment with a distinctive uniform: McClellan's Zouaves, Berdan's Sharpshooters, Cherokee cavalry ... Playing a division-sized game with 20mm figures made a refreshing change from my usual BBB fare! It was a good-looking table and a tough scrap in which my brigade acquitted itself well, and I think we were holding our own against the dam' Yankees, though unfortunately I had to leave a little before the battle was concluded.

Standin' up for states' rights

Apart from the excellent company of my very hospitable fellow gamers, another highlight of the day was a delicious lunch at the local creperie. Wargaming French-style - I could get used to this!

As well as ACW, the guerriers tell me they play Saga, Victory at Sea, Bolt Action, and Dead Man's Hand. At the moment they're preparing 6mm armies for the 950th anniversary of the battle of Hastings later this year. I hope I'll get another chance to visit Carentan some time for more good company, fun games and fine dining.

For the sake of the year's tally, let's call this ACW game a draw. Total for 2016:

Played: 8
Won: 6
Drawn: 1
Lost:1

Bash Day, Oxford, Sunday 10 April 2016 - one month to go!

I have hardly mentioned it on this blog, but we will be holding a small BBB convention - "Bash Day" in Oxford UK on Sunday 10 April. We have a dozen simultaneous historical games scheduled for about 30 players, with the aim being that most people should get to play one game in the morning and another in the afternoon; some players focusing on smaller games might manage three or four.

I'm really pleased with how Bash Day has shaped up. I was worried that we might have either too many players or too few, but it looks like being just about the perfect number for the venue. Pretty much everyone should get what they asked for. We have a great set of varied and interesting games, from the 'biggies' (Solferino and Koniggratz) down to the little 'training games' such as Montebello and Langensalza; battles from three continents, with two African colonial battles (Laing's Nek and El Teb) and some ACW action to add to the European ones; and a 3-battle Franco-Prussian mini-campaign.

It's going to be a lot of fun. If you want to know more, there's still time to check out the OWS page about it
http://www.oxfordwargamessociety.org.uk/bigbash.html
and to let me know if you want to be added to the orbat.

Bash On!

BBB's first video! "Last Century of the Ottomans" campaign, and others

Konstantinos Travlos is the man behind the "Leadhead, Ph.D" blog and the popular and growing Facebook group "19th Century Warfare and Wargaming". To my considerable delight, he and his fellow wargamers in Istanbul have constructed their own BBB campaign, "Last Century of the Ottomans". This compiles ten BBB scenarios from the Crimean War, Serbo-Turkish War, Russo-Turkish War, and Greco-Turkish War. It should be fascinating to watch his reports on how the campaign progresses during the course of 2016.

They have just fought the first battle in the campaign, Kurudere. Konstantinos made a video of the game, which as far as I know is the first BBB video - hurrah! Pretty good for a first experiment in the medium. I enjoy how the mounting drama and tension are revealed as some frustrated swearing creeps in towards the end ... Bravo, Konstantinos!

The Istanbul club are not the only group to have embarked on a BBB campaign. The Corlear's Hook Fencibles, in New York, are two games into their Franco-Prussian War campaign. So far it is two battles, two bloody ties, so pretty tense and exciting. And here in UK another FPW campaign has commenced at Wissembourg. I'm looking forward to following all of these.

Chris