Jemima Fawr’s Review of 2022

Once again, as in my Review of 2021, I’m sitting here bewildered, wondering where the hell the year went.  I’d love to say that 2022 was a far better year, given the shit-shows that were 2021 and 2020, but I’m glad to see the back of it, to be honest.  Here’s to a far better 2023…

Happy New Year (unless you’re Russian) and Slava Ukraini!

For the benefit of my Russian readers (all of whom only post in the spam folder, to be fair), I’ll start with the best model kit to be released this year…

Despite everything, it’s been a pretty good year for me on the wargaming and painting front.  On the negative side of the balance-sheet, I had originally planned to do a Napoleonic demo game with my mate Paddy for our usual ‘Battlefront Wargamers UK’ group of chums (we always met up annually at the much-missed Bovington show for a WW2 game using Battlefront: WWII rules. The last time was in 2020, with my Murfreesboro game), but I had to cut back my show-visiting and demo-gaming plans.  Nevertheless, the lads did another very nice refight of my Battle of Rots 11th June 1944 scenario at the Warfare show in November.  I’m hoping they might eventually send me some photos and a batrep…

However, on the positive side, I did manage to get down roughly every two weeks to the thriving and ever-growing Carmarthen Old Guard wargames club.  Having long-outgrown the previous venue in the middle of Carmarthen town, the club this year moved to its brilliant new venue at the community hall in the Carmarthenshire village of Five Roads (Pumheol).  The club has positively boomed as a consequence, with roughly double the membership and double the number of games being played every Thursday evening, plus the added bonus of the monthly Big Game Saturday (The third Saturday of every month).  The club has also managed to massively expand its collection of club-owned terrain, meaning less to stick in the car every week!

My rate of painting has been good, but fairly aimless this year.  In 2021 I had several definite projects to work towards, so probably smashed all my previous records in terms of the number and monetary value of models painted: 963x 15mm Foot, 114x 15mm Horse, 17x 15mm Guns, 588x 10mm Foot, 82x 10mm Horse, 21x 10mm Guns and 13x 10mm Horse-Drawn Vehicles.  That weighed in at £1,080.23 at 2021 prices.

So how did I do this year?

Here’s the rough outline of my painting efforts for 2022.  Most of the pictures are clickable and will take you to the relevant article, though some of the pictures don’t have a related article yet.

I started the year with the last piece of Phase 1 of my new French Seven Years War army, the Royal-Nassau Hussars.  These were actually painted at work on New Years Eve, but were too late to make it into the Review of 2021! 🙂

Having spent most of 2021 painting Seven Years War and American Civil War figures, I had a sudden urge over Christmas and New Year to paint some Napoleonics.  I actually painted these French Young Guard Cavalry before the end of 2021 and they were counted in my review of the year, but I didn’t photograph them properly until January 2022.

Some very quiet, lonely night shifts over the New Year were spent painting a unit I’ve wanted to paint ever since I started wargaming.  I’ve no idea why it took me so long to do them, but I finally finished my Pavlovski Grenadiers.  However, these models are slightly controversial, so follow the link if you missed it.

Then there were some more Napoleonics; some truly epic German heavy cavalry regiments in the service of Napoleon: The Saxon ‘Zastrow Cuirassiers and the Westphalian 2nd Cuirassiers.

These Napoleonics were painted with our planned demo-game in mind and I also made a start on the four regiments of French Artillerie de la Marine, who were to supply some of Napoleon’s finest infantry during the 1813 Campaign.  However, the change of plans meant that I only got around to finishing one of the four units.

These were to be my last Napoleonics for the year, but I’ve got a lot more lined up for the near future; As well as the Artillerie de la Marine to finish, I’ve got Saxon light cavalry, Cossacks and even some Swedes all lined up, waiting for the brush.

With my Napoleonic demo-game plan binned in February, I immediately went back to finishing some Seven Years War armies, or at least painting enough troops and in a suitable mix of troop-types to actually field them in a game or two.  I started with the Reichsarmee cavalry.  I already had one regiment painted during the 1990s, but three more regiments had lain in the Lead Dungeon for 25 years and it was time to get them done!

Having filled that capability-gap in the Reichsarmee, it was time to fill some gaps in the Prussian order of battle, starting with a couple of Frei-Bataillonen.

Then some more Prussians, including a few battalion guns, grenadiers and Feld-Jäger.

With some scenario ideas in mind, I still needed more Reichsarmee infantry, so added another five battalions.  With such a colourful variety of uniforms, flags and fighting ability within the Reichsarmee, it’s impossible not to love them and I’m itching to get back to finishing off the army (yes I do have ALL of them in the Lead Dungeon, waiting to be painted!).

While I was on a roll, I added two more battalions of Imperial auxiliary infantry to my Austrian army in the form of the Mainz ‘Lamberg’ Regiment.  These fellas eventually fought WITH the Reichsarmee, but weren’t actually part OF the Reichsarmee.

With Phase 1 of my French SYW army finished earlier in the year, it was time to finish Phase 1 of the British-Hanoverian-Allied army and get them on the table for a game.  I’d already completed the infantry in 2021, but the cavalry, artillery and general staff still needed painting, so I made a start on the British artillery.

Then came the British cavalry.

I also painted some Hanoverian cavalry regiments such as these, the ‘Breydenbach’ Dragoons.

Then the Hanoverian artillery.

And lastly the Army HQ; Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick and his staff.  There’s still lots to add to this army, such as a lot more Hanoverians and Hessians, then Brunswickers and more artillery, as well as the second wave of British forces that were added after the Battle of Minden.  I thought I might cheat however, and use my Prussian grenadiers as Hessians and Brunswickers… They didn’t carry flags and the uniforms are VERY similar, so who’d know…?

Then in June I decided to do a mega refight of the Battle of Leuthen, so needed yet more Prussians, starting with yet more grenadiers and the Garde Regiment.

The Guards were then followed by more Prussian cavalry.

I also needed some Austrian bits and pieces for Leuthen, namely half a dozen battalion guns and some Hungarian generals.  I’m still going to to need to paint yet more Austrian guns in the next fortnight for our forthcoming Kolin refight.

With the Kolin refight in mind, I decided to paint a new Saxon Carabiniergarde Regiment.  I did originally say that I wasn’t going to replace Doug’s old Carabiniergarde, but I had some Austrian cuirassiers going spare… Sorry Doug… 🙁

Also with Kolin in mind, there are presently 48 Prussian hussars under the brush (here are the first 12, which I finished last night).

For reasons I can’t quite remember, at the end of the summer I suddenly decided to dig out my 28mm AWI collection.  That then prompted a blessedly-brief flurry of painting and purchasing from the Perry twins, which taught me two things: 1. I really hate painting 28mm and 2. They’re SO much more expensive than when I last bought some!  Anyway, I started with this Wargames Foundry Continental howitzer and crew.

Then I did this regiment of Continentals (2nd Maryland, circa 1777) that’s been waiting in the Lead Dungeon since 2008.

I realised that I’ve got a few gaps in my collection; I needed a battalion each of British Light Infantry (including skirmishers) and Grenadiers to finish off Cornwallis’ Elite Corps, some more British cavalry, more Continentals, more militia, more American generals and more artillery for both sides.  So after three months of bloody slog, I finally managed to finish the 2nd Light Infantry Battalion and 2nd Grenadier Battalion…  Did I mention that I hate painting 28mm…?

Lastly, I painted five American generals just in time for our planned Brandywine game on 17th December (which then ended up being cancelled due to the bloody weather…).  I was FINALLY then able to get back to painting my beloved 15mm and the remaining unpainted 28mm AWI (a box of plastic Continentals, a pair of British infantry battalions, the Hessian ‘Rall’ Grenadier Regiment, the 16th Light Dragoons, the Hussar Troop of the Queen’s Rangers and some artillery for both sides) went back into the Lead Dungeon and will probably remain there for another ten years…

So to the scores on the doors for 2022:

Total painted 15mm figures: 308 Foot, 274 Horse & 19 Guns.  Total painted 28mm figures: 90 Foot, 5 Horse & 1 Gun.  Total monetary value of painted models at current prices: £737.60.

So that’s a considerable decrease on last year’s totals, but the value of models painted does seem to have broken roughly even in terms of money spent on models over the year, so I’m not in ‘painting deficit’ and it’s a much better total than most previous years.  I think I’ll need to set myself some clear goals and targets for 2023, as I always work better toward a deadline.  Of course, the total expenditure doesn’t include glue, paint, brushes, flags, bases, rules, research materials, etc, as those are essential expenses…  Oh and £40 on a board-game; the excellent The Great Crisis of Frederick II…

Which brings me neatly to wargaming…

AT LAST in April I finally finished the Quick Reference Sheets for Tricorn, my SYW conversion of Shako.  As discussed here many times, we originally played Tricorn some 25 years ago for a grand, worldwide War of Austrian Succession campaign, but after digging out in 2020 it needed a lot of refining before anything legible could be posted here.  My sincere thanks to my band of play-testers; both in the 1990s at W.A.S.P. and more recently at The Carmarthen Old Guard, but most notably to Gareth Beamish for developing the original ideas and to Phil Portway, the Shako guru, for helping me polish the final draft version.

They do say that a procrastinator’s work is never done… I WILL post the full notes for converting Shako to Tricorn here very soon!  Honest…

All this rules-wrangling at the start of the year meant that we played a few test-games of Tricorn, some of which never appeared on these hallowed harrowing pages.  One such game was the Combat of Pretzsch 1759 (above) played against Lewys, which was a historical refight, so I should get around to posting it up!  Andy and I then played another historical battle from the same campaign; the Combat of Zinna 1759 (below):

Andy and I also finally got the French and British-Hanoverian-Allied armies on the table for a non-historical game (below).

These two armies came out of the box again in December, for another non-historical game to teach Rob the rules (below).  I think these are probably my two very-favourite wargames armies.

With Tricorn finally finished to my satisfaction, I went a bit berserk in May and organised a campaign based on Frederick the Great’s 1757 invasion of Bohemia.  Historically, this campaign led to the bloody battles of Prague and Kolin, but our campaign wasn’t nearly as violent, resulting in the fairly indecisive Battle of Münchengrätz (below), before the Austrians (Andy) managed to manoeuvre the Prussians (Phil) back out of Bohemia.

While something of a damp squib from a wargaming point of view, the campaign did serve a purpose in that it was a good playtest of the campaign system and provided much food for thought for further campaigns.  The game also served to bring everyone up to speed with Tricorn and so on the day of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, we played an EPIC refight of the Battle of Leuthen 1757 (below).

For me wargaming is 99% about refighting the great battles of history and Leuthen was definitely one of those!

Following Leuthen, I fancied getting some Jungle Green out of the box, so we played a WW2 scenario I wrote many years ago, covering the last stand of a company of Indian Paras, delaying the Japanese advance on a remote mountain-top on the India-Burma border (above).

The urge for 20th Century drabness soon passed, however.  As mentioned above, during the late summer I suddenly developed a need to get my 28mm AWI collection out of the box.  Most of the flags had faded rather badly, so I got a load of replacements from GMB Designs and then went on yet another major re-flagging exercise.

This time I gave them a coat of gloss varnish, followed by a matt spray, so they will hopefully stay looking as good as the day they were printed!  With the troops re-flagged, a lot of them were soon on the table for a refight of the Battle of White Plains 1776 (below).

At the end of September we did a refight of the Battle of Bunker Hill 1775 (below), which again was bloody good fun.

As mentioned earlier, we plan to do some more big AWI games in 2023, so that MIGHT prompt me to do a little more 28mm painting, especially where my collection is deficient in certain troop-types required for certain scenarios.

In November I broke out the Napoleonics for the first time since March 2020 and did a small French v Austrians training game (below) in preparation for a much larger game on the following Big Game Saturday.

The large game that followed was a refight of the Second Battle of Caldiero 1805 (below), which is a scenario I wrote during Lockdown in 2020 and which proved to be just as bloody and indecisive as the historical events.

Other games played this year include a couple of Napoleonic games with Phil Portway using Shako 2nd Edition rules, a couple of games of classic Space Hulk again with Phil and six games of The Great Crisis of Frederick II against Andy James, which saw me lose (as the above-mentioned Frederick II) every single game, including on one memorable occasion, losing within 15 minutes of play when the Mighty Swedish Empire marched south, took Berlin, liberated Saxony and cut Fred’s lines of communication…

Again I ask myself the question, ‘Is this perhaps the right hobby for me…?’

Other articles on the blog this year included some more delves into the murky depths of my figure collection, starting with this apparently unique model of Napoleon, sculpted by Tony Barton of AB Figures fame:

I also profiled the Hessians in my old 28mm AWI collection, starting with the Grenadier Battalions:

Then the rest of the Hessian infantry:

And lastly the Hessian Jäger and artillery:

I also dug out some old photos of a refight of the Battle of Germantown 1777 from 2009:

I managed to write or adapt several scenarios during the year; namely the Battle of Kolin 1757, the Battle of Leuthen 1757, the Combat of Zinna 1759, the Battle of Breed’s (Bunker) Hill 1775, the Battle of Castiglione 1796 and John Fuller’s Last Stand at Point 7378 (India 1944).  We managed to play most of these during the year, but Kolin and Castiglione will have to wait for 2023.

I sadly lost two major figures from my past wargaming life this year.

Last January we lost Sidney Jones, who was unquestionably THE main motivator in my formative wargaming years.  Originally from the Midlands, Sidney settled in Pembrokeshire following service with the Royal Artillery in the county and became a founding member of the Wargames Association of South Pembrokeshire (WASP).  He and his son Chris gave me my very first ‘proper’ wargames (Napoleonics, of course).  I can still remember every one of our games together and I can recall all of his beautifully-painted 25mm Minifigs regiments like they are old friends.  I’ve also never seen anyone paint figures more exquisitely using the ‘black-lining’ method.

Sidney was also the grand master of the Campaign; his WW1 naval campaign remains one of the best wargames I’ve ever played and he was a truly magnificent, Machiavellian Louis XV in my War of Austrian Succession campaign of the 1990s (or as he said “I’m not playing the King, as he’s above mere politics.  I’m playing his Evil Advisors.”), while playing by mail from his new home in Bavaria.

Thankfully, Sidney’s legacy lives on in all those wargamers he inspired at WASP and particularly in his son Chris, who remains one of my dearest friends, and his wargaming grandsons Rhys and Iwan.  Thank you, Sidney.

Secondly, I just heard this week that John Tuckey had passed away in July 2021.  John was a stalwart of the UK show scene during the 90s and always put on some of the most gigantic and most magnificent wargames ever seen!  I sadly lost touch with John some years ago (as often happened before the age of social media), but it was always a pleasure to wargame with him, whether at Partizan, Warcon, his own fantastic little show at Marston-Magna or in the massive Christmas games at his house.

John was a retired RAF Group Captain and had originally been a pilot, but was medically downgraded from flying following a hard ‘wheels-up’ landing in an Avro Shackleton.  Talking to me about the crash, he said “Nothing concentrates the mind more than the sound of forty-eight prop-tips passing through the cabin just behind your seat!”  Per Ardua Ad Astra, John.

Looking ahead to 2023, my plans revolve once again around SYW and Napoleonics, though this is subject to sudden and whimsical change, as always!  I’ve already mentioned two planned refights, but I’ve also got my favourite Napoleonic battle, Dennewitz 1813 lined up and with that in mind, I’ve just bought some Swedish artillery to replace some missing items in my Swedish Corps.  Then I plan to finally finish the Reichsarmee and it might then be time to expand the SYW French and British-German Allied armies and finally start painting my new SYW Russian army that’s been growing in the Lead Dungeon during 2022.

Oh and I WILL finally write the long-promised Part 9 (the 255th Indian Tank Brigade) of my Burma Armour series!  I might also start dumping my absolute ton of random orbats and organisations onto the blog, including those for which I don’t have a painted army, as it might interest someone (that was always my intention).  And there is still so much stuff that I’ve photographed and still haven’t yet posted…

Well I’m on the night-shift tonight, so I’ll be seeing in 2023 with mild depression, a jar of turps* and some more Prussian hussars for our forthcoming Kolin refight.

* A cheeky vintage; full-bodied with hints of oak and roadkill, with a smoky and ultimately fatal finish.  Ideally paired with takeaway found in a town-centre bin and shared with friends under the overpass.

Nevertheless, I hope that everyone who has survived reading this far is able to take up the slack for me, have a merry evening and a Very Happy 2023!

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

JF