It may have been a polar vortex outside for most of the month, but inside was some hot wargaming — A little of everything ending with the usual variety of book reviews.
Enjoy.
Russ Lockwood
After Action Report Newsletter February 2025
War of Austrian Succession: Tricorn
D-Day: Axis & Allies
A&A D-Day: Wild Game HMGS Next Gen: Gaming Goodness Normandy 1944: A Skirmish RUSE Back to the Chateau: WWI To The Last Man Snappy Nappy: A Quick Try 1814 Campaign: One Pager RUSE II: WWII Factory Fortress
NEWS: Figures, wargames, tiles, and more.
The River of Wrath: More D&D Adventure
Books I’ve Read
The Last Charge of the Rough Rider: T Roosevelt
From Trenton to Yorktown: AWI Turning Points
War in Ukraine: Volume 6 Air War — Feb-Mar 2022
Operation Title: Sink the Tirpitz
Rome’s Greatest Emperor: Vespasian
True for the Cause of Liberty: SC 2nd Spartan Regt
Don Troiani’s Black Soldiers: 1754-1865
Fighting the Invasion: German Army at D-Day
Battle Flags of Wars North America 1754-83
Best of All Appointments? WWI UK Brigade Command
The Silent Service’s First Hero: Medal Honor
The Shiloh Campaign 1862: Casemate Illustrated
The First Day at Gettysburg: July 1, 1863
Peredur: Truth of the Nazi Grail Quest
The Vickburg Campaign 1863: Volume 1
The Vickburg Campaign 1863: Volume 2
The Law of War (sci-fi novel)
Tigers in Normandy
Steam Yachts at War: 1898-1918
Thunderbolt to the Rebels: ACW US Sharpshooters
Altered Starscape: Andromeda Dark 1 (sci-fi)
Battle for Monte Natale: Gustav Line 1944
WWII Tank Gunner Describes Fierce
Armored Combat Against Germans
I was so moved by this video that I felt I needed to share it.
Walter Boston Stitt, Jr., is a World War II veteran who served as a corporal in the 33rd Armored Regiment, 3rd Armored Division. Stitt arrived in France one month after the D-Day landings and would find himself serving as both a loader and gunner in the M4 Sherman Tank.
Stitt would fight in both France and Belgium, and participate in helping counter the last great German offensive of the war, The Battle of the Bulge. During his time in combat Stitt would survive the destruction of three Sherman tanks, witness the death of three crew members, and be wounded twice by enemy fire, earning him two Purple Hearts for his service.
Let me begin this post by saying that I do not sell any of these products mentioned in these post here nor do I have any affiliation with any company’s mentioned.
For a few years now I have been using Sharpie pens to help with my painting. Usually their black, and other colors along with gold and silver. They don’t seem to have white or yellow. I particularly wanted white to help me paint white straps on my Horse and Musket troops.
Over the last few weeks I have come across a lot of reviews for the AK Interactive Paint Markers. These appeared to be a game changer for painting. They appear to have 32 colors and they work well on any material you might use in our hobby. The draw back was they were made in Spain. Shipping was out of this world. I did finally find a company here in the US that stocked them (see below). I ordered the primary set which is white, red and yellow to see how they would do. They were amazing. They went right on my primed and unprimed plastic miniatures with ease. The tip is strong and very fine. It hasn’t bent or failed yet. These are exceptionally good for camo work on vehicles and armor.
I will place a few you tube links below as well as a link to the US business I got my order from.
This week I dropped down to the Hobby Bunker in Wakefield Mass to pickup some supplies and Victrix 12mm WWII Soviet Infantry for my Kursk project for D-Day to Berlin. I brought the yellow marker to show the owner Matt. He was very impressed and left me with the impression that he would stop them.
We had such a great response to our birthday sale that we decided to offer a permanent discount. As the banner below says, you will save 25% off your miniatures orders of $30 or more (rules are excluded). Enter the code “armybuilder’ at check out. There will be a reminder on the shop page with the code, enjoy 🙂
> I follow the ‘Blunders on the Danube’ site and all the multi-table game AAR. I am really impressed by all.
Peter, James, Mark, Greg & company do put on a wonderful day of Snappy Nappy gaming called SnapCon. Next one is October 5 (about 10 miles east of Hartford, CT), if you happen to be on this side of the pond. It’s at The Portal, 60 Hilliard St, Manchester, CT 06042.
Peter’s e-mail is in the CC. He runs the blog and the SN ‘SnapCon’ list.
>I write to ask you if the rules have ever been converted to earlier periods (Seven Years War) by anyone?
I recall Chris Parker gave it a whirl years ago. I’ve added his e-mail in the CC in case he can add some more info about his efforts.
There was a Franco-Prussian War variant, but that was lost when the SN group on Yahoo disappeared. And it’s in the wrong time direction.
In theory, mechanics for 7YW should play roughly the same, with a slight tweak for deployment: I’m thinking instead of the second stand being placed wherever the player wants when going from column to line, the stand must be placed to one side to reflect more rigid linear deployments. Not sure about the timing of formation changes, say from line to square, etc. The best Napoleonic units could perform these rapidly. I have to dig out my Christopher Duffy book on the 7YW. I’m not sure about firing distances of musket or cannon — maybe a tweak to ground scale needed to keep things about the same.
We haven’t done a 7YW battle in our group for a while…or maybe I wasn’t at the game that night. I found a write-up of Rossbach from 2018, but it was using modified Shako II rules. I’m attaching the After Action Report (AAR) newsletter I wrote. Dan played in a Command & Colors Kolin game at Fall-In 2022. Here’s a link to the PDF download page:
If you like the AAR, I’ll add you to my AAR list and e-mail the monthly PDF issues to you. If you think it nothing but horrible spam, let me know and I won’t. It’s changed over the years, but I think it’s gotten better. 😀
Or, Chris is nice enough to post the AAR on his website: Here’s the June 2024 issue:
If you have any other questions, SN, AAR, or otherwise, please don’t hesitate to ask…
Thanks,
Russ
On 07/15/2024 6:44 AM EDT JACQUELINE LODGE wrote:
Dear Mr Lockwood,
Please forgive this ‘cold call’ email. I hope you don’t mind me contacting you.
I have recently retired from the British Army and find I have a great deal of time to pursue my long-standing wargame hobby!
Firstly, I am a recent convert to Snappy Nappy and love the rules. I combine them with WoFun 10mm Napoleonic figures, which work brilliantly. I follow the ‘Blunders on the Danube’ site and all the multi-table game AAR. I am really impressed by all.
Sorry to ramble. I write to ask you if the rules have ever been converted to earlier periods ( Seven Years War) by anyone? If so, please would you kindly point me in the right direction to where I might find them. In addition, please could you advise where on the net I might find the best snappy nappy group to join.
Very many thanks. I look forward to hearing from you in due course.
how sad, that the name I remember hearing about, “Chris Parker”, who had started a branch/franchise of “The Toy Soldier” waaaaaaay back decades ago, and who would have a complete set of the Follow Me rules (along with the supplement that covered mortar fire) … is such a pathetic website … I was one of the original members of the “Maine Wargamers Association” … I was one of those many gamers who used to go to the old Toy Soldier store to hang out with other gamers and have fun, way back in late 1977 and 1978 … I also remember seeing many years later that Pete sank a ton of money and effort into the early rip-off card games like “Magic”, and ended up with his gaming shop going out of business … sincerely, an actual former member of the Maine Wargamers Association
Dirk, if you are real I am sorry you find my website such an insult.
Summer’s here. Hope you are planning to include a bit of gaming, and maybe a convention or two, into your plans.
Here in the US, I’ll wish you a Happy 4th of July holiday in advance. In the meantime, here’s the June AAR with all its gaming goodness.
Enjoy…
After Action Report Newsletter — June 2024
Chain of Dice: WWII Skirmish Chain of Dice: The Umpire’s View Chain of Requests: More Chain of Command (CoC) Familiar, Yet Surprised: CoC More CoC Thoughts: By the Umpire Reflections: Connected CoC Games CoC: Experience and Tactics
Martian Spreadsheet: Terraforming Mars
1941 Battle of Alytus: Command Decision
HMGS Next Generation
1429 Joan of Arc: Darien CT Library
Sci-Fi Father’s Day: New Canaan CT Library
1429 Joan of Arc: Greenwich CT Library
News
Game Master of the Year 2024: HMGS Award
Early 14th Century English Archers: New Figures
Update: Source Pre-Colored Hex System and TimeStrike
New Wargame: ECW Volumes 3 and 4
HMGS: 2024 Election Results
Knights of Freedom: More WWII Photos
New Wargame and Books: Bloody Omaha
Point Breeze: Joseph Bonaparte’s NJ Exile
Books I’ve Read
Countdown to D-Day: The German Perspective
Tanks on Iwo Jima: 1945 (New Vanguard 329)
The Battle of Thapsus: 46BC
Soviet War in Afghanistan: 1979-1989 (EurWar 50)
The German Way of War: Tactical Management
The Hill: Brutal Fight for Hill 107 on Crete
Armies of the Normans: 911-1194
Caesar’s Gallic Wars: 58-50BC (Essent Histories)
Haunted War Tales: True Military Encounters
The Siegfried Line: Then and Now
1217: The Battles That Saved England
Operation Allied Force 1999: NATO Air in Kosovo
Manfred Von Richthofen: Red Baron
Admiral Canaris: Hitler’s Chief of Intelligence
Army of Transylvania: 1613-1690 (CentSold 115)
The Typhoon Truce 1970: Vietnam
World’s Greatest Escape Stories
Japan Runs Wild 1942-1943: War in the Far East
Inside the Roman Legions: 264-107 BCE
Belleau Wood and Vaux: June 1-26 1918, Jul 1, 1918
Clash of Crowns: The Battle of Byland 1322
Surviving Three Shermans: With the 3rd Armored Div
Panzer III vs T-34: Duel 136
Hitler’s Gold: Nazi Loot and How It Was Laundered
Jamestown 1622: Campaign 401
King George’s Army: Vol 2 – British Regts 1793-1815
Bf 109E: Battle of Britain (Dogfight 12)
Destruction Imperial Army: Vol. 2 – Battles Metz
The Beagle Conflict: Volume 1 (LAmer at War 36)
Destruction Imperial Army: Vol. 3 – Sedan Campaign
The Beagle Conflict: Volume 2 (LAmer at War 39)
The Army of the Kingdom of Italy: 1805-1814
Far From Suitable? Haig, Gough and Passchendaele
Germany’s French Allies: 1941-45 (MAA 556)
If you’re like me you love adding flags to your units. Well I was reading through some reviews on The Miniatures Page recently and found a very nice post from user Alea Jacta Est Miniatures. He was mentioning his free HYW flags and pennons.
He wrote “Hi – My new Free to use Banners set suitable for the Du guesclin and his fellows.”
Click for TMP posting
here is the link to his blog. I do hope you will all have a look, download them if you are of mind and maybe post either on TMP or his blog.
AAR_Wargaming_WAS_DDay_WWII_WWI_SNap_News_HMGSNG_DnD_BookRev.pdf
