Wednesday, December 30, 2020

2020 End of Year Review

It’s time again for me to indulge myself, a little bit anyway, in an end of year review. This was my second year blogging although I took some time out whilst I sorted myself out. I’m going to try to not mention the great global pandemic which caused such disruption and upset so many plans. Even so though it was quite a year

2020 Highlights

 

  • The All Hell Let Loose wargames rules by David Wasilewski were published! Available now from wargamevault.com
  • I took my Arnhem game to York and Hammerhead. Wargames Illustrated put a picture of it in their magazine.
  • I completed a model and game of BrĂ©court Manor.
  • My eldest really loves going to wargames shows with me and building the occasional model. We are doing the lonely mountain for his geography homework.
  • Built a model of a V1 Launch site
  • Painted my early war Germans
  • Ended the year rebuilding my enthusiasm for wargaming.

 

Passing Regrets

  • That we were all locked down and I couldn’t attend more shows
  • My father passing
  • Having to take time out from the blog and my hobby for so long
  • My eldest not finishing his first unit of British troops for the AWI.

 

2021 Hopes 

  • Get to any show any where.
  • See respectable All Hell Let Loose sales.
  • Exhibit at the Joy of Six, hopefully alongside my friend Roly and his Chateau la Londe game
  • Engage my eldest son more and teach him some basic war games. 
  • Introduce my other son to wargaming and modelling.
  • Continue to produce this blog
  • Produce another model or two - nothing definite yet but hopefully the muse will strike
  • Get back to some face to face gaming next see so many friends.

Keep gaming!

Charles the Modeller 

Sunday, December 13, 2020

All Hell Let Loose Ruleset Available Now!

 

I am absolutely delighted to announce that the All Hell Let Loose ruleset is now available to buy at wargamevault.com!!

The rules are aimed at 6mm wargamers and are designed for European theatre WW2 games and were written by David Wasilewski.

The rules are available in hardback, softback and downloadable PDF.

The game is designed for players to control between 3 and 5 formations each - battalions, regiments or battle groups. These are made up of stands with each stand representing a platoon of about 30 infantry or 4 - 5 vehicles. The game contains a guide for playing at 1-2-1 scale and I used this for my Brecourt Manor game. Basing is 25mm by 32mm but is not crucial we’ve played games with different sized bases without any problems.

All dice rolls us 6 sided dice.

Scale and time are not defined but for bigger scale games consider 1” is between 50 and 100 yards, 1 turn 30 to 60 minutes

There are only 3 mechanics to learn -

Activation controlling movement and actions. Checks result in formations doing very little to sudden bursts of action.

Firing - both direct and indirect comparing dices rolls and situational modifiers with defence factors.

Assault - close quarters firing and hand to hand fighting.

There is no map making or written orders system. Formations can move strategically (faster and with certainty but no combat effect) or tactically (more varied movement and combat effectiveness). We also cater for disguised movement and fog of war.

Turn sequence is determined by dice out of a bag

Smaller games can be completed in 4 hours on a 6 ft by 4ft table

I talk a bit about what we wanted to achieve here and discuss the activation concepts here.

There will be more content on this blog discussing the rules over the next few months and some scenarios for use with the rules.

This facebook group contains more rules information and discussion, please join if you are on social media.

Keep the dice rolling!

Charles the Modeller


Saturday, December 12, 2020

Hiatus over

The blog has been on an unplanned and impromptu hiatus for the last six months. I haven’t had a good time of it recently with a lockdown, a lot of work on and unfortunately the loss of my father. It’s had a major impact on my mental health and my desire to do pretty much anything but I am feeling brighter and am hoping to restart posting and get back into my wargaming. There is a major post coming imminently.

Best wishes to all

Charles the Modeller

Battle of Scarif - adding all the bushes and trees

In previous posts I’ve covered the building of the boards, the seas, the islands and the transit systems for my battle of Scarif board. In t...