Joy of Six reflections and some Devilry Afoot

On 03/08/202504/08/2025 By The OneIn 6mm, big bloody battles, Devilry Afoot, Fantasy, Games played, Painting, Scanian War, Shows, Silver Bayonet Scania 1677Leave a comment

Two things today in a rather long post

Joy of Six 2025 – Max and I had a fantastic time in Sheffield despite some initial game setup issues, successfully running our scenario and reconnecting with friends of the hobby. Lots of pictures from our and the other tables.
My preparation to play Devilry Afoot a lot of pictures of new and old models I will be using.

Joy of Six 2025

It has now gone a few two weeks since Joy of Six 2025 and Max and I ventured up to Sheffield and had some issues with the game we were supposed to use (documented here). However we managed to achieve all the objective and we had a blast at the show and met a lot of new and old friends- particular shout out to Chris Pringle and Mark Smith both from the Big Bloody Battles community. Mark wrote the BBB India and Napoleonic supplement and played on the Prussian side on the day which was a great help. Max, formerly known as the little one, held the fort well whilst I talked to people around the table. It was nice to catch up with Chris Pringle who wrote the rules and is a jolly good fellow. Also thanks to members of the Shed o War crew who kept us good company before and after the event – Des, Iain and Jonathan.

I was also on a panel with https://hereticalgaming.blogspot.com/ and https://www.blmablog.com/ and we got a wide range of questions, including the relative suitability of various historical periods and genres for using 6mm scale miniatures, considerations around gameplay and terrain, the merits of adapting existing rule sets for 6mm models, and the ethical implications of representing contemporary conflicts. I think the conclusion was that 6mm could be used for anything, but it is perhaps best suitable for larger battles, and that the ethical aspects is about context and approach to the game – or something like that.

Here a few pictures of our table the Battle of Gravelotte 1870 (more about this project, here and here). See you next year.

I did not have time to make any investments apart from a rulebook, but took a few photos of the other tables at the show. A wide range of games.

Devilry Afoot – Getting ready to play

Some time ago I did some stuff to play Silver Bayonet in the aftermath of the Battle of Lund 1676 where a darkness had fallen over the region following the bloody battle and all the corpses left unburied due ground being to hard to dig (the battles was fought in the winter). More about that project here.

After the Swedish triumph at Lund in December 1676, the grip of terror has tightened across Scania. The local population suffers under the harsh hand of occupation. You are part of a small, defiant band of Scanians, fighters who see yourselves not as Swedes, but as Scanians first, Danes second. You will never become Swedes.

Operating in the shadowed woods and frozen fields around Lund, you hear whispers about rumours of unnatural occurrences. The battlefield, littered with corpses left unburied through the long winter, has become a place of dread. First stripped of their belongings by scavengers, then seemingly robbed of their very souls by something far darker. The nights grow longer. The howls of wolves echo like the fury of Fenris himself, and the villagers speak in hushed tones of a rising evil and a Dark Master lurking in the forest. Trolls, goblins, demons, that was once tales of childhood are now spoken of with trembling voices. The war, already brutal, is now haunted.

Scouting parties vanish. Survivors return broken, speaking of shadowy figures, beast-like men with unnatural speed and strength. One such party has gone missing. Around your campfire, you discuss these grim developments when a sentry arrives, guiding a young girl through the snow. Barely twelve winters old, she is pale, exhausted, and terrified. She drops to her knees, hands clasped as if in prayer, her eyes burning with a strange clarity. “Freeshooters,” she says, her voice trembling but resolute, “I am Milda, daughter of Conrad, son of Eskil. I beg you—help me find my family. Something came from the forest…” Her voice falters, and she collapses into the snow.

We did play a few scenarios using the Silver Bayonet rules and it really works in the setting as you obviously are pitting to sides against each other with the monsters adding some drama to the proceedings.

Devilry Afoot

I recently came across the Devilry Afoot rules that is a skirmish wargame steeped in folk horror and gunpowder fantasy, set during the 16th and 17th century Wars of Religion. It blends historical themes with supernatural elements, creating a tense and atmospheric experience where players take on the roles of flawed human heroes battling monsters and dark forces. Link here for more info.

It is designed for one or more players, it is rpg-lite and all the players are hunters working together against one or more monsters (that are acting based on randomised mechanics). The only modification I have done is to replace the awards that are in monetary terms with renown – the character get access to more assets etc as their reputation grows. I have been working diligently to add to the collection to be able to have enough monsters for as many encounters as possible – I found doing this really rewarding. It is a clear contrast to doing a historical battle in 6mm.

Will try to play a game of this next week and I think I have most of what I will need.

Hunters – a range of both female and male hunters.. (I reckon these could be both local Scanians and some mystics from further away).

Female Hunters – Soldier (Sami Scout, a little bit far south, I do not know the miniature range, but a French Indian War model), Soldier (model by Bad Squiddo Games), Scholar / Religious (some different plastic sprues), Goodwife (again Bad Squiddo Games).

Male Hunters, Soldier (Bloody Miniatures), Religious (Perfect Six Miniatures), Scholar (plastic sprues from Northstar), Gentleman/Goodman/Soldiers (Both from Bloody Miniatures).

And some civilians

Miniatures from Northstar’s 1672 range apart from the very tanned blacksmith that is from West Wind

Monsters

The following monsters can be found in the rulebook (I have not included the Wendigo, but might later).

Barghests – these are basically hell hounds, there are a lot of options out there I like these as they looked like a cross between rats and dogs. I bought these on Etsy from TheWonderEmporiumGB they are resin prints.

Boogeymen – I went for the option doing these as scarecrows as they used to terrify me as a kid. There are some nice ones from Gripping Beast I was considering in metal, but got these resin prints from ebay seller: Borishotch Industries as I like the idea of them looking like normal scarecrows before being activated. They really freak me out.

Ghouls – I have so many ghouls already and this is just an example. The weapon wielding gents are old Games Workshop models probably at least 25 years old, the other ones are from Bad Squiddo Games.

Outlaws – All the outlaws are from Bloody Miniatures

Redcaps – well I used some Games Workshop Goblins – again these are really old but charming.

Revenants – I have a large collection of 17th century “zombies” so I will be using these to represent revenants (I also have some Norse style ones, but this fits better).

Spectres – I might need to dig deeper in the old Games Workshop box but here is one, not sure where she is from.

Trolls – Will use the amazing Scandinavian Trolls by Fenris Games. These are amazing.

Werewolves – Again some models from West Wind.

Witches – A purchase from Etsy I do not remember the seller, they are resin prints.

Wolves – These are from etsy seller Tabletopfanboy (resin prints)

Vampires – I always loved that old model from Games Workshops of Isabella von Carstein who I hope need no introduction and some Vampire thralls from Bad Squiddo Games.

That is a proper mix of models and I think it will be awesome.

And also there are some special accursed terrain features that might be needed (I am yet to do an evil tree or hungry grass but will report back):

Pagan Altars – Instead of these I will use Rune Stones to represent place that might emit an aura of dread. I got these from Fenris Games.

Pact Devils – I will use this Zombie Queen as a pact devil luring innocent souls to her feast where you are on the menu (model from Bad Squiddo Games).

Hope that was of some Interest, I will report back how the game went,

Until then check under your bed before you fall asleep

/ Keep on toy soldiering

Playtesting the Joy of Six BBB Scenario (Gravelotte 1870)

On 30/06/2025 By The OneIn 6mm, Franco-Prussian War, Shows6 Comments

Des hosted Iain, Max, and me in the Shed of War this Sunday, and we gave the Joy of Six scenario a good run. I believe that you can read a rule set ten times, but you will always learn at least ten things when you sit down (or stand up) and play them! This held true this time as well, and I think we are in a good position to at least give the impression that we know the rules to some extent. It was a sunny and warm day, perhaps better spent on the beach, but there was a battle to be fought. Max took the role of the French, Iain the Prussians, and Des commanded the Wurttembergers and the Saxons.

Here are some updated graphics. I had made a number of errors on the previous ones and changed the colour scheme (all the information is from the excellent scenario in the Big Bloody Battles (BBB) rulebook).

Further information can be found on the BBB group pages (I linked to it in the previous post).

Anyway, it was an ebb and flow of dice rolls, but the French resisted the onslaught until turn 9 (when we wrapped up for the day). By this stage, there was hardly a line left to withstand the overall mass of the Prussians and their allies. The game works well for four players, although the Saxon/Württemberg player and the opposite part of the French section take a while to get started. This is due to the nature of the battle and the geography, not a scenario design problem—it actually created a more focused part of the battle where we all were able to start learning the minutiae of the rules.

I am not an expert on this period, just a happy tourist, so for whatever it is worth, I really enjoyed the rules, and we will most certainly play more battles with these after the Joy of Six show.

Anyway, let’s have a look at the pictures.

/ Keep on toysoldiering!

Joy of Six 2025 – Franco-Prussian War in 6mm

On 28/06/202528/06/2025 By The OneIn 6mm, Franco-Prussian War4 Comments

“Dad, which Great Northern War battle are you doing at Joy of Six this year?” asked the Little One.

“Gravelotte / St Privat!” I exclaimed with some excitement.

“That doesn’t sound like the Great Northern War, does it?” he said, thinking hard to remember the battles from that era.

“No, it was fought in 1870,” I replied, getting ready to tell him more.

“Oh, the Franco-Prussian War,” he said, sharing some excitement.

“Yes, indeed,” I said even more excitedly. “Let me show you more!”

I have been working on some Franco-Prussian war miniatures for a while in the background and have found the period interesting and intriguing. Following a discussion with Nick and the potential that he might not be able to attend when we had our last catch-up at Salute I decided to put some pressure on me to finish enough miniatures to put on a battle for Joy of Six. I reviewed a number of rulesets and settled for Big Bloody Battles (being about 2 weeks away I am doing my first play test tomorrow and as always the project completes to late for me to get properly prepared on rules – missing my wingman Nick who always picks that part up).

I showed off the table in the post last week (see link here) and have been working on some handouts this week for the battle itself.

In contrast to the Great Northern War era I could find a picture of each Commander. So using the Gravelotte Map (from the BBB discussion group, link here, as a basis I wanted to get a feel for the “Named Commanders” for the Gravelotte Scenario. Seeing the faces gives me a better immersion.

In the scenario the Korps/Corps arrive at different times and there are special rules that are situationally dependent. I also did a Turn Tracker as a checklist for what is happening in each turn.

I also shared an overview and scenario notes as well as some labels for the units on the BBB group page you can find it in the files sections in this folder.

I will share some shots from our playtest tomorrow with the Shed of War Crew.

In the interim here are some photos of the miniatures we will use for this battle.

Some French Commanders (only 4 will be used for the Battle)

Looks like someone I know, but hardly a Corps Commander

It is a Colonel, Colonel Sanders

Some German Commanders (have painted the missing ones, will only be using 6 in total)

Saxons!

Ok that’s all for now, will post up some pictures of the play test tomorrow at some point next week, hope that was some interest.

See you at Joy of Six?

/Keep on toysoldiering!

It has been a while

On 10/06/2025 By The OneIn 18th Century Rules, 6mm, Franco-Prussian War, Great Northern War, Twilight of the Sun King Rules16 Comments

Welcome (back) to your good self and to myself to the Roll a One blog. We have been inactive for some time but following some encouraging comments at the recent Salute event from people from back in the day and some people who has stumbled onto the site in the interim years and found it useful – I have decided to dust of the shelves and do a blog post every now and then.

Wargaming still plays an important role in my life, the Little One is now taller than I, I still love the 6mm scale but would not consider myself a one trick pony, but the most important thing for the hiatus is that I have been playing so much more the last few years – virtual RPG sessions and some amazing and frequent wargames and board games with the Shed of War crew – a loose collective of some great people I am proud to call my mates (check this out on Facebook if you are interested https://www.facebook.com/groups/1213707833867074 ). But more about that another time.

Have not decided yet how I want to approach this next step with the blog, but just wanted to publish something whilst I got that sorted out. In the interim I present you my two latest 6mm projects:

The Crossing of the Duna 1701 – the 2024 Project

I took the Crossing of the Duna to Joy of Six in 2024 and then to Salute in April this year, I am proud to say that it got the Small Scale Award at the Show and we got featured in the Wargames Illustrated (June 2025).

They also did a nice video of the game during the day (Link below).

LINK HERE https://www.facebook.com/WargamesIllustrated/videos/1405341810649268

The Battle of Gravelotte–St. Privat – the 2025 Project

The Battle of Gravelotte–St. Privat on the 18 August 1870 was the largest battle of the Franco-Prussian War. It was a tough nut for the German forces to crack, with the French taking advantage of the high ground and time to prepare some defensive position.

To give the battle justice and to be depicted at the right level on a 6 by 4 foot (1.5m X 1.2m) table using a groundscale at roughly 1:8000 (a foot representing 2.5km) and a figure scale at 1:300 we needed to make a few sacrifices to make it visually appealing without loosing flexibility to play a wargame on the board.

Anyway almost done, just a few details to complete. Next we need to finalise the Prussians, Wurttembergers, Saxons and French soldiers, detail the brown spots (some quarries) and some other details. Will take this to Joy of Six in Sheffield this year (13th July) and to Salute in London in the Spring next year.

Here a link to the Joy of Six event – https://www.joysofsix.co.uk/

More to come… that was an easier nut to crack than I thought.

/ Keep on toysoldiering!

Salute 2023 – Sharing the Joy of Six, the 6mm Charity Project

On 14/02/2023 By The OneIn 18th Century Rules, 6mm, Charity Project, Shows4 Comments

Last time at Salute Nick Dorrell and I brought the Poltava 1709 game and we had a blast on a 16 feet table and even came back home with an award (more about that here) – this year we will only bring a normal sized 6 feet table. However the loss of width we more than adequately gain in the depth of this project. This time we will bring armies created not by sweat and frustration like mine usually are, but instead two armies that was created by over 50 painters during the recent lock down – a true community effort and we would like show these armies. We have further put these into an Imagination setting where we have the Kingdom of Denswe in a war against the Tsardom of Siarus.

We presented the project at the Virtual Joy of Six in 2021 and will bring the armies to be displayed at the Joy of Six in July (not as a game but for our painters and others to get an opportunity to have a look at it in all its glory).

The idea is summarised above, but there are a fair few previous blog posts covering the project that you might want to check out.

More here:

Lund 1676 and the Charity Project at Virtual Joy of Six 2021 on 4th July

6mm Charity Painting Update no 3

6mm Charity Painting Update no 2

6mm Charity Painting Update no 3

Community effort to jointly paint some 6mm armies for fun and charity!

And here a presentation of the two armies.

6mm Charity Fun – an overview of the Two Armies (first draft)

An old overview of the project

Apart from the armies that were gifted by Baccus (link to them here) and sent to each painter, we have been given a wargames mat from Geek Villain (link to their webpage here) – they produce some amazing mats (I have 5 myself), and Nick will include a copy of his Twilight of the Sun King to the eventual winner of the armies, once we have finalised how we will “get rid” off the project.

However, we would like to include more and ideally the eventual winner will be given sufficient stuff to fold out the mat, put on the terrain and play with the armies. I guess we could throw in stuff we have lying around at home, but if you fancy and find the idea interesting for your business to get some small 6mm exposure and Spreading the Joy of Six then let us know and we might even tell people about it, we would be looking for (with the prefix – suitable for 6mm scale, or size):

Road
River
Hills
Houses / Churches / Wind mills
Trees
Hedges
Any other idea that might fit…

Happy to paint them up/base things to fit the overall look. If you are interested just contact us through the blog.

Anyway, looking forward to see you at Salute if you are going to the show, otherwise at Joy of Six (but just bringing the armies).

/ All the best

Mike Hobbs 6mm Rommel Project

On 12/02/2023 By The OneIn 6mm, Adler, WW24 Comments

I have been given a few things from the late Mike Hobbs (I wrote more about Mike here) and the most noteworthy must be the 6mm collection of Rommel stuff that he was working on every now and then. The collection came with a number of painted items and some unpainted ones indicating that he had some further grand plans. However as we shall see there are more than adequate completed bases to have some grand games. Mike and a few friends had been playtesting the Rommel rules and had used some of these bases during that process.

Today I spent some time going through the boxes and organising the two sides – there are is German and a Russian army. They are based on 70mm by 50mm mdf bases and with a total more than 200 bases (a detailed breakdown is provided at the end of thus blog post) – each base being unique and telling its own story. I and a few others are planning to run some games with these and more than likely bring them to a show at some point next year, in 2024.

Anyway, here are some pictures from today’s inventory exercise (it is a mixture of Adler and Baccus WW2 infantry and Heroics and Ros and GHQ vehicles) – a wonderful collection.

I also got Mike’s Rommel Rulebook with a dedication by Sam Mustafa,

This weekend I have been making some railway terrain to be used for gaming with these and for some other theatres. I used the tracks pieces from Leven Miniatures for this project (link here), they were brilliant.

/ Hope that was of some interest

Here are the details for the German bases:

And the Russian / Soviet army

A Small 6mm Great Northern War Game

On 12/05/2022 By The OneIn 18th Century Rules, 6mm, Games played, Great Northern War, Twilight of the Sun King Rules2 Comments

Some silence on the blog for a while. I have a few drafts posts I never seem to get out of the door. Here is a short one, but I hope it will give you some of that Joy of Six.

Have had the pleasure of playing a fair amount of games with Des, and friends, in his shed of war (more about this later). Over the bank holiday weekend I wanted to introduce Des to the Twilight of the Sun King rules and bringing over some of those 6mm I “used” to dabble with.

I decided to go for the variant of Gadebusch scenario in the Great Northern War scenario book, I put this on at Joy of Six, a few year ago.

However this time I am going for a Summary board and replacing the Danish force with a full Saxon force and making some bespoke river/marshland board to represent the terrain. You can read about the actual battle here.

This the map fromm the book…

I did not feel that the rivers I had worked well and wanted to cover the marshlands as well, so I set about making a small river system for the game, with some vinyl floor planks, some acrylic adhesive mixed with brown paint and sand.

The final set-up, well worth adding the river sections.

Then pack it all up in my Swedish handbag.

Everytime I lay out a table with 6mm stuff I fall in love with the scale again, look at that…

Anyway some more pictures from the game…, this is not an AAR, but in summary.

The terrain tough and will break up the Swedish Advance and timing is important, the bombardment from the Saxons also served another problem to the advance,
The Swedish mobile light guns did a great job as they did in the real battle, and
It was somewhat in the balance but the Saxon morale broke after a successful attack on the left flank.

In other news I finally finished these old Holger Erikssson models, a little bit bigger than the 6mm stuff. They are lacking some detail here and there but an absolute joy to do.

So did Des like it and the rules, well I believe so?

“I had never played anything like them, but once I played a few turns and with Per being a good tutor, I got into the swing of things. The terrain was awful to manoeuvre over so a unique battle to try and fight. Ready for the next game now!”

Go and follow his adventures on Twitter – always tinkering with his collections and sharing some great stuff.

/ All the best, hope that was of some interest.

Hobby Round-up of 2021 – An eclectic mix

On 30/12/202130/12/2021 By The OneIn 15mm, 2mm, 6mm, Charity Project, Doctor Who, Finnish Winter, Continuation and Lapland Wars, Games played, Great Northern War, Holstein 1700, Ice Hockey, Judge Dredd Miniatures Game, podcast, Scanian War, Shows, Silver Bayonet Scania 1677, Stargrave, Sweden WW2, Terrain, WW25 Comments

A few days before Christmas I was invited to speak on Sean Clark’s podcast Gods Own Scale, where I covered some thoughts and reflections from the year that just passed (link below the picture, if you want to check it out).

https://godsownscale6mm.podbean.com/e/episode-40-the-one-with-per-broden-again/

It is always great to catch-up with Sean and it is well worth checking up his back catalogue if you are not already familiar with it.

Anyway as a kind of complement I will do a quick overview of some of the things I did on the hobby front this year (mainly an organised listing of links to blogposts). As always in doing the review I realise that I have been doing far more than expected.

The sections are

More 3D printing
Commissioning some 6mm miniatures
Sweden 1943 Project 15mm
6mm Projects
The Battle of Lund 1676 6mm and the 6mm Charity Project
Terrain Projects
Fantasy Ice Hockey 28mm
Other Projects
An Awarding Year – Caesar Award (Wargaming Blog 2021) and Best in Show at Salute (6mm Poltava 1709

More 3D printing

I continued some exploration of 3D printing and came to the conclusion after a lot of printing that I should stop just printing and just keep things back until I intended to paint stuff, avoiding creating yet another mountain – this time in resin instead of lead. On the whole I really enjoy using the printer and the result it produced – it has not really reduced the amount of stuff I buy but has given me some options for doing alternative stuff. Here are few of the stuff I did do.

I printed a few ships and Max and I had a blast playing a few naval engagement with them.

I also got a battle mat from Geek Villain for naval engagement (or wide rivers).

Some really nice details in these 1/2400 scale ships

I also printed up a company of “Sturmis”, the Stug used by the Finns in WW2

More details on this here

Got a 3D Printer – made some ships and tanks

Commissioning some 6mm miniatures

I also commissioned some 6mm miniatures to be used as commanders for my GNW 6mm stuff. I did 5 minutures in total, the one below shows Stenbeck at Helsingborg in 1710.

More about that here and the other miniatures that I commissioned.

Some Command Bases for my 6mm GNW stuff

Sweden 1943 Project 15mm

Further Progress was made on my Swedish 1943 Project and I added some more tanks and armoured cars (well trucks). I also did a high level army list for O Group, the new game from Too Fat Lardies.

More about this project here

Swedish Infantry Battalion for O Group (1943M Organisation) – Part 1

Davidsson and Goliath – Dalarna 1943

Progress on the Sweden 1943 Project and a new Wargames Podcast

6mm Projects

The only big 6mm project I did start in the year was the Forces in Holstein 1700 as part of the start of the Great Northern War. This offers two very colourful opposing armies and the potential for a very interesting wargaming experience – in reality there were no big field battles, but this project offers some exploration of this.

I also bought some already painted 6mm ancients that I rebased and quickly got my 6mm Ancient Punic War collection substantially increased. I also did a summary blog on a lot of the #6mmtips I have shared on twitter over the last few years. More on these projects below.

The International Force in Holstein 1700 – Part 3 More Danish Cavalry

The International Force in Holstein 1700 – Part 2 The Danes

The International Force in Holstein 1700, a new 6mm GNW project

Rebasing an 6mm Army and another Nightmarish model from Fenris Games

Some Random 6mm Advice – Part 1

The Battle of Lund 1676 6mm and the 6mm Charity Project

This year I took the Battle of Lund 1676 to the Virtual Joy of Six event, I ended up doing a video to present the game and also talked about the Charity Project that was completed last year. There are some links to two video that was produced to support these projects.

Joy of Six 2021 – Roll a One Links to Youtube

Lund 1676 and the Charity Project at Virtual Joy of Six 2021 on 4th July

Lund 1676 – Ordre de Bataille (OdB) and Ratings for Twilight of the Sun King (WIP) at Virtual Joy of Six 2021

Terrain Projects

I did a lot of terrain projects this year most notably I did a lot of clutter, or immersion markers as I prefer to call them, for the 1943 table, but there are some generic ideas you could use for other theatres and scales. I also did a fair few buildings and fields.

These projects has allowed me to create some really immersive battlefields, like this one. Here a little video that Des Darkin did showing off the table laid out using many of the terrain elements produced this year (thanks Des).

A bit of Swedish CoC this afternoon. @Roll_a_one inspirational table.#chainofcommand #spreadthelard #toofatlardies pic.twitter.com/Hfy5XCKwfo
— Des Darkin in the Shed O War (@DarkinDes) December 4, 2021

Re-Clutter your Life (#Terraintober Immersion marker Project) Part 31 – Summary of it all.

More 15mm houses for the Swedish 1943 Project and some easy DIY tiling for your models – Part 1

£3 Door Mat or a Field for your Wargame

Further Explorations with the £3 Doormat -Yellow Fields

Fantasy Ice Hockey 28mm

I did some further work on my Fantasy Ice hockey project and we are developing some alternative rules to use. More on some conversions and some 3d printed models below.

Fantasy Ice hockey – The Lizards of the Coast

Fantasy Ice Hockey – Converting some Blood Bowl Miniatures to skaters

Fantasy Ice Hockey – Getting a Skeleton Crew

Other projects

Those were my main activities for the year, here some of the smaller projects that was done

The Silver Bayonet (or Spurs) in Scania 1677 – Part 1

Would you like a jelly baby? – Doctor Who Miniatures Game Plans

Gloranthan Trolls and Trollkin in 6mm (Saga age of Magic)

Planet Pot soldiers and 6mm Gloranthan Saga Magic Project Starting

Revolution on Planet Pot – first thoughts on a Stargrave / 5 parsecs Campaign

Judge Dredd Miniatures Stuff (Warlord Games) project – some pictures

The 6mm Charity Project and Spawn of Speed’s Tour Bus – The Slaying Hawk – Part 1

Some more Sci-fi and Mutant 1984 stuff

Our first outing of Stargrave

Neo Men for Mutant 1984, or an excuse to get some Ork (Cow)boys on the table

Virtual Grogmeet 2021 – Mission in Mos Mosel

An Awarding Year

I received two awards this year, the Caesar Award for the Blog of 2021 organised by Little Wars TV and also the Best Game in Show (Presidents Award) at Salute for the 6mm Poltava 1709 table.

Here a video made by Alex at Storm of Steel covering the show with an interview with Nick and I discussing the battle.

A Triumphant Salute – Battle of Poltava 1709

Caesar Awards 2021 – Rolled a Six

And of course the sad news about Mike Hobbs passing earlier in the year, miss you mate!

The Brilliant Mike Hobbs

A Triumphant Salute – Battle of Poltava 1709

On 14/11/202114/11/2021 By The OneIn 6mm, Great Northern War, Shows, Towards Moscow Triology, Twilight of the Sun King Rules21 Comments

Nick Dorrell, his Merry Wyre Foresters and I presented the Poltava 1709 6mm table at Salute yesterday and had a smashing day. We talked with so many people that came by of all ages, some knowing more than others about the period and the scale. We had a constant flow of people to our table up to about 1pm an after this it slowed down. For everyone that came to our table during the day I hope that either the table or our interaction with you blew you away, hopefully at least the former but I wish the latter too. I also, as always had great help from the family with the Better One and the Little One both making sure I got there and back safely.

The background (yes it says Joy of Six, that was the last outing it had before the Pandemic)

Here some pictures of it all. All miniatures are by Baccus 6mm, the miniatures are based for playing the Twilight of the Sun King rules but we have used them for a number of rule sets over the years. I have made a very short summary of the rules here.

The base rules and the Second Scenario Book covering the Great Northern War and the Ottoman Wars, there are also Scenario Books covering other battles of the era e.g. War of the Spanish Succession. There is also two other version of the Rules covering the TYW/ECW period (Twilight of the Divine Right) and the SYW (Twilight of the Soldier Kings).

Here some pictures of the table.

*The Swedish March towards the Russian Camp*

*The Swedes are attacking the first redoubt*

*The Yakovetski Forest and the Monastery, with more intensive fighting around the redoubts*

*The Poltava Fortress, the Siege Lines and the villages burnt down by the Russians (Borrowed this one from Alex of the Storm of Steel Youtube Channel).*

*It is a tough day for the Swedes breaking through the Russian redoubts and more is waiting*

*And the final weak Swedish thin blue line vs the multi-coloured Russian line full of field guns and Russians (Picture by Duncan Weldon)*

Anyway halfway through the day we were presented with an award from the organisers of Salute – The South London Warlord. I have to admit I did not expect us to get it, but I think it was about time not for me but for a lot of small scale gamers out there old a and new. I am certainly no one-trick pony and I do understand the merits of each scale as a tool for telling a story – the Battle of Poltava needed to be told like this, the Town that was laid under Siege by the Swedes to force the Russian to give battle, the dense Yakovetski forest was there so we could understand how some of the Swedish Battalions got lost in it, and one of the key surprises was the fact that the Russians had built 10 redoubts slowing down the Swedish advance, all this before the main battle and not possible to show in less than 16 feet at 6mm with a battalion frontage of about 60mm – it would be tough to do it in 28mm.

In doing an inventory of the Units I had before the show I realised I had done about 20 bases of Dragoons I had surplus to my requirement and therefore thought I could do something for the hobby. Every person I noticed and judged being 10 years or under that came to the table during the day and showed some interest I gave a base. I had given away 15 at the end of the day and had a small talk with them and their Dad or Mum. They all now know the difference between a Dragoon and a Standard Cavalry unit during the period.

I did not declare this as I wanted to to make it as a surprise and I only had 20 bases and did not want to let anyone down. Anyway I wanted to do this on the back of dragging around the Little One to wargames shows since he was 5 years old and having him being occasionally either ignored or looked at like he was Satan himself. I, and more importantly he, cherishes the times when someone talked to him and engaged with him directly and got him involved. I just wanted to try to create a few of those moments.

If you are interested in the Poltava project there is a lot of posts on my blog covering various aspects of it, I think these are the main ones (the first two showing a lot of pictures of the set up).

Poltava 1709 at Joy of Six 2019 – the Grand Finale of the Towards Moscow Trilogy (TMT)

What is up next? Great Northern War, Scanian War and some Bonus Pictures of Poltava 1709

All revved up and ready to go to Joy of Six (2019)!

Progress on the Poltava 1709 Project – Siege Lines and the King (TMT)

Progress on the Poltava 1709 Project – Trees, tree Bases and small rocks (TMT)

Progress on the Poltava 1709 Project – Total Battle Village Tiles (TMT)

Progress on the Poltava 1709 Project – Plush Foam Fields (TMT)

Progress on the Poltava 1709 Project – Playing with Matches (TMT)

Progress on the Poltava 1709 Project – Redoubts and Casualty Markers (TMT)

Progress on the Poltava 1709 Project – the Swedish Camp (TMT)

Poltava Town done (TMT)

Some progress on the Poltava Battle and Grand Thoughts (TMT)

Nordic WW2 Movies, Cossacks and Kalmucks at Poltava 1709 – Towards Moscow Trilogy (TMT)

Gearing up for Poltava 1709, painting some Horse Grenadiers & the Swedish Breakdown – Towards Moscow Trilogy (TMT)

Little One won a Bolt Action Starter Box in the Raffle – good day overall.,,,

Until next time

/ As always hope that was of some interest, I will let you know my plans for Salute 2022 in the next blog update – a more modest effort but more charitable I hope.

Gloranthan Trolls and Trollkin in 6mm (Saga age of Magic)

On 31/08/2021 By The OneIn 6mm, Fantasy, Saga5 Comments

I presented some Morokanth I had painted in the last blog (just published yesterday) for my diversion doing some Saga Age of Magic in Glorantha (although this will no doubt include other type of fantasy armies in the end). It has made me rather inspired.

The rules are a few years old and they have been sitting like a problem waiting for a solution and I am happy to have found one. I love Saga because it is different and we have played many Dark Age battles with rules – I have at least a 4 point army in 6mm for each faction. However this is fantasy and doing it with a Gloranthan twist will be great.

So at the moment, you can get the following from Rapier miniatures.

Morokanth, full range from skirmishers to heavily armoured and armed, also chariots (man-drawn) and herder with herd men (See the last blog post for a few of these codes, here)

Scorpion men, nice compliment to a chaos army, there are four codes, including command, spear/shied, spear and feral with claws.

I did use some Scorpion men in a crazy game we put up at Joy of Six using the Dragon Rampant rules a few years back (more here)

Bison Riders, enough to build some nice charging buffalos!, these are the sculpt in the range.

I did paint up a fair few some time ago in a previous blog update (more here). There are also some Greens for the Broos there worth checking out.

I talked to Paul at Rapier today who has a whole load of ranges in various stages of production, as I showed in the last blog, Trolls are one of these. When I ordered the Morokanth, Paul kindly provided me with some trolls. I got a few each of what will be released and made a small caravan set as well as some bases I will use for Skirmish – I will do an order to create the Saga Armies later when they are issued.

Here they are: