A Posh Neighbourhood

Apart from the stone commemorating the crash of Régis Deleuze the area around Houten is thick with castles that trace back to medieval times. The marshy area north of the Kromme Rijn was drained and turned into polder in the 12th and 13th centuries, soon followed by keeps of local lords.

The medieval keep of castle Sterkenburg
with 19th century additions

Like many of the remaining castles, Sterkenburg (ca 1200) now has been converted to a hotel/B&B. Apparently it was up for sale earlier this year for slightly less than 10 million euros (a bargain I'm sure). They do tours in the weekends. Tempting!

Castle Weerdensteyn with the moat and entry gate

But the real prize was the discovery of Castle Weerdensteyn, built around 1300 and hidden within a wood so it cannot be seen from any road. By chance we hit the path that passes it. The top of the keep is reasonably intact, but the base has been reworked in the late 19th century. Apparently it has been refurbished again recently and is still inhabited. Just shows that it pays not to stick to the beaten path.

Castle Lunenburg

Another reasonably well preserved keep, castle Lunenburg. Bombed in WWII because German vehicles had been spotted near it.

There are dozens more in the area so I'll be keeping my eyes open. With the fortifications of the Oude Hollandsche Waterlinie also in the neighbourhood and the remnants of the Roman limes, which lay at the Kromme Rijn, this is an interesting place.

Commemorating with my friends across the pond

Had  a very beautiful and interesting round of cycling yesterday. Surprising how much history there is to be found literally around the corner.

Commemorative stone for Régis Deleuze at his crash site

After 15 minutes we ran in to a stone commemorating the death of Flight Lieutenant Régis Deleuze, who crashed on this spot near castle Beverweerd in Werkhoven on February 25th 1945. Apparently engine trouble forced him to put his Tempest down. He crashed after hitting the top of the tree line in the background.

Régis came from either a French family of nobles. From his operational history is gather that he left France as is was being overrun by the Germans in June 1940 and signed up for the RAF.  In 1943 he joined 501 Squadron and brought down V1s aimed at England. He transferred to 274 Sqn early in 1945. This seems to have been  his first operational flight in the unit, from airbase Volkel in Noord-Brabant. Régis was initially burried in Werkhoven but transferred to Evere in Belgium after the war.

Régis at age 17 (from the website below)

As in the case of the grave of air gunner Hiscox I found in Beesel a few weeks ago, this stone has been adopted by a local woman, Yvonne Jager, starting when she was 10 years old. She lays fresh flowers at the grave four times a year. The lengths to which she has gone to retrace the family and former brothers in arms of this pilot are remarkable. Her story and that of Régis Deleuze can be found on this website. It shows once again that even a simple reminder can have great impact on individual lives and that many people still value the effort of allied soldiers for our freedom.

Castle Beverweerd, with 19th century fantasy decoration

The brick part at the centre of the picture is from the 13th century, with the later additions in white plaster. Apparently the castle is now inhabited by master forger, Geert Jan Jansen. He´s famous enough now to paint under his ow name. More castles on Wednesday!

Followers: 45 Reasons To Be A Happy Blogger #5

In the meantime we have had 6 new followers! Apparently my report on Crisis lured in a few new people.

#40 Donogh MacCarty, a fellow blogger on Land War in Asia, with an ongoing fantasy rpg and a postapocalyptic campaign.

#41 Remco de Groot, who blogs on miniatures in the broadest sense as well as Napoleonics in particular and also is involved in the organisation of the Dutch FIGZ convention.

#42 Robbie3rodiss. Sorry Robbie, I have very little to go on, so please tell me more about who you are and what you.

#43 Andrew "Loki" Saunders, excellent painter and one of the guys behind Bloggers for Charity (a worthy cause and booked for Crisis 2014)

#44 Tomsche, returning from his wargaming sabbatical and blogging at Societa de archeologia e cimeli

#45 Peter Bonami, an avid follower of blogs on all kinds of wargaming, but most of all painted figures!

This also a good moment to thank my followers on Facebook/Networkedblogs (an easy way to follow me):

Nick Luft. If brains were sexy, his one would melt the Arctic. He doesn't mind sharing his thoughts on a wide range of topics and pictures and is a great host and conversationalist

Diederick van de Walle. Latin Lover. And Great Friend. Named Most Promising Politician of 2014 for three consecutive years.

Richard Hands. Roleplayer, megagamer, medieval history buff and popular culture treasure trove. When he talks, I listen

Jan Kees Mol. Repressed wargamer, history buff and prove that all cynicist are secretly romantics. I sometimes wake up at night thinking he is shouting at me from the goal


Barbara Mounier. Old schoolmate, witty and smart. Handy guide to Germany, books and plain talking.

Tony Mcnally,  firmly in the now when it comes to military matters, with an particular interest in the homefront

Paul Hedges of Paul´s Bods. He likes to get medieval, and he likes it in 1/72 plastic

Ray Roussell, of Don't Throw A One, and Francis Lee, aka The Angry Lurker, two of Posties Rejects and the guys behind Ray & Fran's 20 hilarious questions


ps I try to do my best to provide correct background info on my followers, but I sometimes make mistakes. If I have made a mistake in your bio, please let me know (eg in the comments) and I´ll fix it.

Spiel Essen 2013, part 2: the games I played

Here's the second part of my Essen experiences, consisting of the games I played, so with a little more hard info on the games. Look here for Part 1 and the Polish section is coming up.

Nate Hayden after a long day explaining his game
which sold out quickly

Nate Hayden's Mushroom Eaters 3D experience is singular, but the road is the destination. As you progress on the board through your trip, you face numerous challenges costing you physical and mental strength. This can turn your trip into a bad trip. You have some control over where you land, and you can regain strength at some points or learn mantras to protect yourself, but it just ambles along with us finding out where we were going.

There Are No Rats In The Wall! We've been Enjoying this unpretentious but effective bluff poker game with a Lovecraftian twist by Henning Poehl. Perfect for playing in the bar.

At the end of a game of Warlock

I had some fun playing Warlock by Quined, it had some interesting scoring mechanics and the combination of tile laying and deck building. You have to play cards from your hand to be able to place one in the 4x4 grid before you. Where you place them determines how much they are worth at the end. It's mostly multiplayer solo, although you can destroy other players' cards if they're unprotected (by dragons). Rules were not always intuitive but Warlock will play smoothly after one game.

ASiE after a dozen rounds

In a world where royalty are really the Ancient Ones, revolutionaries and anarchists are also saving the world from the return of Chaos. Your agents roam the cities of Europe to assassinate royals and control resources. As your identity is hidden, the other players don´t know which side you are on and since the game is lost by the side with the player with the fewest points, it becomes abit of a gamble who you attack. It’s great to see Martin Wallace slowly exploring the possibilities of combining deckbuilders and boardgames, and it is surprising not more people have latched on to this. I love how A Study In Emerald integrates cards and board, theme is fun, but we only played a dozen rounds or so. Hard to tell yet how good it really is.

Defence value 7, attack value 6  and because
of the double 3,   I got another turn

Masters of Revenge by Serious Poulp has a cool take on the manoeuvering of martial arts. I liked the numbers on the sides of the cards determining your attack and defence values. This created an interesting dynamic as you moved around looking for a weak spot in your opponent´s defence. Regretfully, it was overpriced. Nevertheless, I will have a look at their 7^th Continent kickstarter which is a choose-your-own-adventure-game that uses tiles rather than a book.

Leonardo by Ghenos is a fun light game where you gather resources and build machines by moving one of the three figures around the board. But if you are late in the turn, chances are another has moved that figure first. That makes for an interesting guess, giving you the occasional euphoria of outsmarting your opponents.

Corto got me by the great art work and the direct conflict. There´s character cards and events which allow you to mess with other players tiles and affect the scoring. Scoring is for characters you have killed, groups of characters you control and point particular to a story line. It is really a pretty abstract tile laying game, even if cutthroat, and it irked my friends as it didn’t have a narrative as you would expect from a game about a comic book. But if you don’t care about that bit, this is one of the prizes this year.

Puppets moving out of their spawning points

Although an older release, I don’t want to leave out Puppet Wars, which we played and enjoyed a lot. The miniatures are brilliant, but require some glue and paint to bring to life. The game plays fast and furious (especially if you put your leader out in front). The basic mechanics are pretty simple, but the special abilities of the dolls (especially the combos) make this a challenge to master. I might just buy it some other time for the heck of it.

Nice minises, nicely painted

Blücher at the Burgtor

It is time to set the spotlights on Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, the charging Hussar general who once believed he was pregnant with an elephant (true story!). That didn't stop him from some prodigious feats on the battlefield while in his seventies and of giving Napoleon and his marshals a few bloody noses.

The Burgtor, or Castle Gate

This is the site from where he made the leap to national hero. On holiday in Hamburg last summer, we made a day trip to Lübeck and the nearby beach at Travemünde. When you enter the town from the east, you do so through the Burgtor.

Commemorative plaque on the wall of the gate

In the autumn of 1806, with the Prussian army in flight from its humiliating defeats at Jena and Auerstädt, Blücher was one of the few that kept ahead of the furious French pursuit. On November 5th his troops reached Lübeck and he set out to prepare the city for defence.*

The Burgtor from a slightly different angle

Next day the French attacked the city and managed to enter through the Burgtor, which was defended with little competence. Desperate counterattacks failed to throw the invaders back and Blücher's chief of staff, Scharnhorst was taken captive. The general himself managed to fight his way out of the city with the remnants of his force. However, on 7th November his men and ammunition were exhausted and there was nowhere left to run as they had entered Danish territory. The general realised that further resistance was futile and accepted a French demand for surrender.

The fight for the Castle Gate from a contemporary  print
(wiki commons)

* Some of you will know that Lübeck was then still an independent city. Blücher demanded access to the city from the city council. The French sacked Lübeck as they would have any defended city, not knowing that it had been against the wishes of the population.

Crisis Loot

Okay, so I brought some stuff back with me, despite all the talking.

Some books for my Waterloo project. Although I have more than enough books on the Brits already. But on the Fields of Glory offers a battlefield guide and A Commanding Presence focusses on logistics. I'm a sucker for logistics.

Bought at very reasonable prices at David Lanchester

Three Ospreys about the 100 Years War. A project for 2027... or 2028. Teenage dreams since reading the Thea Beckman Geef Me De Ruimte trilogy.

Gained at the bring & buy

You must be worrying whether I bought anything wargames related at all and I can set your mind at ease here. I bought the hard copy of Chain of Command plus some dice, counters and the jump off points. Yes, I have the pdf version, but I like giving these guys money. They won best participation game award at the show and well deserved for the Hardest Working Men In Showbiz.

To the right is the Crisis complimentary miniature in the package (will fit in somewhere in my slavery & maroons project) and a bunch of Japanese 16th century civilians. They will fit well with any stuff I might ever do on samurai.

Purchases from Too Fat Lardies and Dave Thomas

I also added some 1/72 Stuarts, M3 halftracks and a Jeep to my American WWII forces. Too bad that I didn't like the SHQ 20mm Americans and almost nobody else makes them. Given the flood of Germans, Soviets and British I find this lack of love for the Americans in 20mm and 28mm (excepting the US paras of course) surprising.

Very spirited discussion around amateurism and professionalism in the wargaming hobby on the Dutch Miniature Wargaming facebook page (not just due to my post here). My mind is brewing with ideas. Damn! I have no time for that!


ps more beautiful pictures of Crisis at Little Lions and Modus Reg Magni Momenti

A Wasted Crisis?

So yesterday I had a wasted Crisis, but in the positive sense of the word: three Leffe Blond got me quite happy in the late afternoon. But it was mostly talking to some people I had been looking forward to meet.

Leo explaining the Samurai game to Bert and Jan-Willem

First of all, I had great time in the car with Dick, Michel and Hans, discussing games and possible purchases. Dick, thanks for the lift! At the TFL stand I finally met Sidney Roundwood, who was very generous in more than one way. Can´t wait to get to the UK once more. There's a not so flattering pic of us on the Pijlie's blog. That post is a nice reflection on Crisis as well.

At the well attended meeting with members of the Dutch Miniature Wargames facebook group, I spoke to Julius, who will be off to Turkey for four years. And Fred, who's just moved to Amersfoort. I finally  handed René the copy of Okko I promised him a year ago. It was good to see Leo, Arvid, Jan-Willem, Bert and Joop having so much fun at the Samurai participation game at the Karawansaray stand.

Arvid on the right, also in explanatory mode.
Joop on the left composing a Haiku

Gerrit told me about the differences between paper, wood and resin buildings. Duncan had noticed my purchase of Haïtian revolutionaries and maroons and was demanding a follow up article. Jasper divulged that the book on the Duke of Alva that I'm looking forward will be presented in Madrid in three weeks to to one of his offspring. The most awesome news I got was that Neil had taken two young kids into his care. A very brave and very admirable thing to do!

I spent much of the afternoon getting to know Mats and Jos in the bar. Discussion ranged from maroons to 17th century flags to the Hoeken & Kabeljauwen to public relations and the raising of somebody else's kids. We seemed to agree on the 'state of the hobby' which is characterised by many willing to create valuable things for nothing and many willing to pay too much for very little. Think of the brilliant stuff put online for (almost) free and the prices people are willing to pay for GW stuff.

That is not a market in which many people can make a living. For most of the miniature manufacturers, rules designers and small publishers it is more a work of love in their spare time rather than a good living. The hourly 'wages' are only acceptable because it is something they love doing and the recognition they get from buyers and players. That also means that their web shops are occasionally badly done, that they have no presence on social media, that you can only pay cash at their stands. All of that costs them customers.

Some small shops will keep coming and going. Occasionally one will rise above the amateurism and take a significant slice of the pie, like Fantasy Flight and Z-Man in boardgames or Battlefront in miniatures. But Mats was right when he raised questions on the long term future of wargaming if miniature manufacturers, writers and publishers fail to link up to the experiences of new generations of gamers.  It's not lethal to the hobby I guess, but the Golden Age we seem to experience right now, might be one that doesn't last forever.

A better look at the beautiful table

This blog is characteristically short of images. I just didn't take many as I spent more time talking that walking aroudn. You can see all the pretty stuff at the blogs of Little Lions and Paint In.

A Lonely Wargrave, or not so lonely

Found last week on the cemetry of Beesel, Limburg. On the eastern bank of the Maas (or Meuse, as the French say)

The grave contains the body of  RAF air gunner, Flight Sergeant H.J. Hiscox, a New Zealander whose Lancaster crashed in July 1944 a few miles away on the way back from a bombing run on Homberg in Germany. There is a webpage in his honour.

As you can see, the grave is well looked after. One of the people we met there, preparing the cemetry for All Souls, told me a woman had been tending the grave for several decades now. Kids from the village learn of his history, also through the stories of his former comrades in arms. It is good to know that even this lone soldier is not forgotten.

This area along the Meuse was in the frontline in from Market Garden until the Allies crossed the river in early March 1945. The cemetry also contains a grave of three local victims of the war, a father, his 12 year old son and his aunt, killed by a grenade or shell (the Dutch word granaat can mean either) in November 1944.

In those last months of occupation the Germans rounded up 3,000 young men from the western bank of the Maas to work in German factories. 120 of them didn't return.

A commemorative plate on the church in Nunhem

Never Waste A Good Crisis!

It's been a few years since I've been to Crisis in Antwerp, or any wargames convention, but I am looking forward to this one.

I look forward to meeting people. I don't see my club members in Delft too often lately, so I need to catch up. I will also look forward to play in Peter & Petra's new demo game, or at least have a look.

But Sidney Roundwood will be there, and I look forward to meeting him in person, as well as Stefan of Monty's Caravan.

There will also be a meetup of the Dutch Miniature Wargaming facebook page, so in case you hadn't heared about it, come and have a chat at 13.30 hours at the Karawansary booth.

Anyone not listed above who follows this blog or wants to shake hands for the heck of it, gimme a shout in the comments.

Puppet Wars minis painted and demoed by the guys
next to the Wyrd Miniatures booth at Spiel

Oh yes... games...

I was hoping to score some 20mm US WWII minis, but that seems not so much of an option. I also hope to pick up some Darkest Africa stuff from Foundry for my maroon project. Maybe some books on the Napoleonic wars, eg Stephen Summerfield's books on the Prussians.What about some steam punk minis? Or a reasonably priced copy of Puppet Wars?

Of course I could let myself be persuaded into joining whatever new project boils up among my fellow Murphy's Heroes.  You can see where this is going...

Spiel Essen 2013 part I

Yes! This was a good year to be at Spiel in Essen. Even if there wasn't a great game to swoon about, and even if we had a last minute cancelation (with Douwe as a great substitution) and others were experiencing distractions form real world troubles.

Well, if you say so...

The new layout in the three halls and galleria was an improvement. It felt more spacious even though there were more people than in previous years (according to the Spiel website).

I must say I was also pleasantly surprised this year with effort made by most demo people. The Poles have made a great effort over the past years, but there were more examples of passionate people trying to win you over. For example the guy at the La Mame booth who really knew how to sell Coup to me. Rare to see such enthusiasm. Small designers tend to take all of that burden upon themselves, but demo people can be worth gold, if only to relieve the pressure.

So, what about the games? I´ll start my Essen report with impressions of the games I didn´t get to play. Next will follow my experiences of the games we did play. The Polish games will be in a third and last post.

Some neat balancing mechanisms in the deck management of Kampen om Norge were explained to me by one of the designers, who hung around the Spielbär stand. The Germans have to win 6 victory positions before their deck runs out, while the Norwegians can reshuffle if they want. The Anglo/French also have a limited deck.

It is only because I can’t be fooled into buying another 2 player wargame that I didn’t buy it, but this game genuinely seemed to tackle the most difficult campaign to wargame: Norway 1940. It combines sea, air and ground troops, in a very big area. It is probably hideously expensive to order it from Norway. So it will probably never gain a wider audience. I think that’s a shame.

Origin from Matagot is a civ game, where the shape (length, colour and thickness) of your figures determines their characteristics as you expand over the world. Didn’t hook me though.

Concept from Repos is in the line of guessing games such as Pictionary, but here you have a board of images that helps you to describe your subject. There are hardly any rules in the box and very little stuff. It’s just that I am fascinated by communication between different cultures and the problems of translating abstract concepts, so I bought it anyway.

My friends tried Uwe Rosenberg's new game Caverna, and it is mostly an easier, fantasy version of Agricola. Resources are not so tight.

Canalis from AEG continues the Tempest series. It is a tactical tile laying game.

Northwest Passage from Matagot looked interesting, with the retreat and advance of frozen ice driving the players on... or back. It’s tile laying and action taking. I would have liked to try this.

Russian Railroads lacks armoured trains to make it interesting. But then again, I don’t like train games. If you want armoured trains: buy Corto!

The guy at the Asyncron stand did a great job explaining l'Aeropostale to me. You run one of the first airline companies to encompass the world in your network of postal and passenger services. Nice theme & artwork, but would have liked to try it. That might have clinched a buy.

Hard to figure out why Madeira was making such an impact. It looked like the next ‘trade to impress the prince’ game. We couldn't fit into a table to try it. Probably for the better.

I only had a quick look at Ace Detective by Richard Launius. The investigation issue is dealt with by you putting the most clues on the suspect with the most clues at the end of the game, a mechanism we also saw in Android. The story-telling aspect is just the optional addition of players rewarding each other for story telling and this is also a well known mechanism. But both mechanisms have their weaknesses and didn’t fire me up to come back and find out more.

Had Suburban Dispute explained to me, and the background story is interesting enough, but I just couldn’t see it being fun for the full length of the game (2-3 hours)

Seven Swords (based on the classic Kurosawa movie Seven Samurai) by Xenos looks good and sounds good. The mechanics are interesting and seem to create a nice dynamic and tactical options. However, I just fear that the rulebook will be as badly written as Luna Llena and others from this company. Guys, get your ffing act together! You have interesting themes in the Ameritrash genre, but if you can’t write a decent rulebook I just can’t bring myself to recommend you to others. Bloody shame!