RSS FeedAngus Konstam is an author and historian - visit his website at
www.anguskonstam.com or e-mail him at anguskonstam@aol.com
He's a member of the Orkney Wargames Club, which meets in Kirkwall on Thursday evenings.
See their Facebook page for more info.
Bismarck’s Wars, Fire & Fury, 10mm Okay, Bismarck wasn’t responsible for this one, but it still fits into the same historical period. As I’d recently painted up some Italian buildings, we decided to take the fight to Northern Italy this week, and fight part of the Battle of Magenta – the big scrap outside Milan
The Second World War, Chain of Command, 28mm With just Nick and I available this time, we decided to play a CoC game, set in 1940. that seemed the perfect excuse to stary a new ‘pint-sized campaign. I opted for Attack on Caesar’s Camp, which follows the fortunes of the 51st (Highland) Division of the
The French & Indian Wars, Rebels and Patriots, 28mm We opted for a French & Indian Wars game as there were just two of us. We’ve played ‘Scenario L – Defending Mendenhall’s Battery’ from the rules before. As memory serves it was an easy win for the defenders – the ones with the big guns.
The Second World War, Rapid Fire Reloaded, 10mm We were off to Sicily this week, trying out a scenario devised by Kevin Calder in the latest Wargamers’ Annual. It wasn’t the usual fare – deployment was pretty random, to reflect scattered units, and instead of morale worked out at battalion level, as usual, we did
World War II Naval, General Quarters 3, 1/2400 scale Nick from the club has just bought loads of 1/6000 scale WWII ship models. He wanted to try out General Quarters v3, as he’d last used the set back when it was v.1. So, I l staged this by way of an introduction to the rules.
The Back of Beyond, The Men Who Would Be Kings (adapted), 28mm It’s been quite a while since we last ventured into the ‘Back of Beyond’. As Nick pointed out, we usually run it as a pre-Christmas game, but this time ACW river rams got played instead. We made up for it this week, with
The English Civil War, For King & Parliament, 28m After a couple of weeks fighting with tanks in Russia, we hankered for something less modern and closer to home for this week’s game. We settled on the English Civil War, and a small game set amid our fictional struggle for control of South Yorkshire between
The Second World War, Rapid Fire Reloaded, 10mm Its very unusual that we play two similar games back to back. Still, as I said last week we’re trying out different rules sets for our 10mm WW2 kit. Last week it was Iron Cross, while this time it’s Rapid Fire Reloaded. Now, I haven’t played Rapid
The Second World War, Iron Cross, 10mm It’s been a while. Damn you, Christmas and New Year, for your enforced jollity and closed venues – like the hall we game in! This week though, we were back, or at least Sean and I were. The plan was to try out two rules sets for this
Ironclads, Dawn of Iron, 1/600 scale For the final club game we wanted something fairly light-hearted and frivolous. This sort of fitted the bill. As you know, I’ve been trying out these rules, but this was their first proper outing, a multi-player game with lots of ships. There’s something about Mississippi paddle steamers – they
The Seven Years War, Honours of War, 28mm We needed our Seven Years War fix, so we staged this little game at the club this week. the idea – lifted and adapted from an old Charles Grant scenario – had the Allies trying to force a crossing of the River Else, a tributary of the
Ironclads, Dawn of Iron, 1/600 scale As part of the ‘learning the rules’ drive, I staged another small American Civil War naval game at home, to see how less well-protected ships fared under these new rules. In the end I staged a slimmed-down version of Hampton Roads, and the fight between the Monitor and the
Ironclads, Dawn of Iron, 1/600 scale I’m sure I’m going to bore you over the next few weeks. First off, for various reasons I’ll have to skip two club nights. So, instead, I’m going to post a couple of American Civil War naval games, as I’m trying to learn this new set of rules. I’ll
Bismarck’s Wars, Fire & Fury, 10mm Sean opted for the Franco-Prussian War this week, so I selected this battle, fought on October 1970. It was meant to be the French break-out from Metz, but in the end it became an exercise in farm-grabbing, to secure supplies for the besieged French army. So, it was unusual
The Napoleonic Wars, Shadow of the Eagles, 28mm This was a scenario lifted straight from by friend Charles S. Grant’s Scenarios for Wargames (1981), a standard ‘go-to’ for fiendish tabletop challenges. This one was certainly a challenge – a small blocking force, deployed on a hill, buying time for reinforcements to arrive. Even then the
The Roman World, To the Strongest, 28mm Sean is one of the few archaeologists who hasn’t much time for the Romans. So, for this game, my second with these new figures, opted to lead the Sassanid Persians into battle against a small Late Roman force. The clash was set against the backdrop of the Emperor
The French & Indian Wars, Rebels and Patriots, 28mm This game used a scenario straight from the rule book, (Scenario G) which revolves around a river and a bridge. One side – the slightly larger force – wanted to cross it, and the other lot wanted to stop them. In this game, I played the
