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Showing posts with label 28mm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 28mm. Show all posts

Saturday, 10 January 2026

Battle of Lydden : Operation Sealion and other New Year activity

Plenty of hobby activity here in the Dungeon. First up, and always a good start to the year we resumed the Sealion campaign. Day 2 and the Germans are pushing North out of Dover along the A2, with the white cliffs and stiff resistance the Germans haven’t been able to open the port yet so to open the A2 towards Canterbury a strong force of Fallschirmjager have been collected to push up the road on foot. The Village of Lydden sits where the road cuts through the hills and the British have blocked the road.

Germans approaching from the south looking to open the A2 and link up with forces to the west, we nominally set three objectives, the railway station, and two houses overlooking the road through the village, one central and one to the West.
Both sides had a double move for troops coming in on the first turn, the Germans making the better of this deployment rushing units of paratroopers close to all three objectives. They have some support weapons teams but only very limited armour.
The British aren’t giving up yet and push infantry along the railway line and an AT gun upto the roadblock
At the other end of the village, Fallschirmjager move into the garage, the house over the road from the telephone box is the objective
The centre of the village the objective being the big house.
The battle for the railway station begins early and proves a key focus for both sides. The Germans have some heavy artillery support, to reduce the impact of this we agreed it would only hit on a six. Haha first turn it demolished the British AT gun, lucky for the British the Germans don’t really have any armour !
The British push forward an AT rifle team only to find the paratroopers have 2 flame thrower teams to help clear the village ! toasted Tommies 🔥
The fight for the railway station hots up but some lightheaded Germans choose to charge across the railway line only to be caught in cross fire and wiped out by the British defenders !
Germans reserves move up, whilst the British seek to outflank them with one of their two Vickers Tanks
The Germans have secured the western objective and just need to hold it now 
British infantry advancing through the village
Dash it the British manage to snatch the station when the two leading Fallschirmjager units both fail an activation test in the same turn , the Vickers tank can now be seen burning and the British are almost broken. They have even resorted to deploying the Beaverette ! In the end the station is contested.
At the west of the village the Germans have secured the house by the Junction despite a late attempt by the British navy unit, the other Vickers tank is also now burning.
The ‘big’ house has changes hands a couple of times, especially when the pinned Fallschirmjager unit in the building rolled a FUBAR and fled the village !!!! But in the end the objective is contested with British in the back garden. This gives the Germans a minor victory, with the only clear objective held and more troops left on the table.
Star of the show definitely goes to the German artillery, their 105mm Howitzer which we only allowed to hit on 6’s hit at least 4 if not 5 times during the battle. This caused a huge amount of laughter and fun even form the British commander 😂

I also played a game of CoC down with George, what a beautiful setup but the result was rather lacklustre from the Germans. George has covered the details on his blog so I won’t repeat here, but the scenario from the campaign is a really tough one for the Germans with very little scope for the Germans. We are moving the campaign on rather than slog this one out again and again.

And some painting since Christmas…

My first completed Perry Spanish unit marches into formation, extra Grenadiers as this will represent the 1st Battalion. More to come…..
I also have a desire to ‘complete’ my SYW collection so I worked on the second unit of Austrian Draggons these representing the 1st Regiment.
They only just fit in the Austrian cavalry box though 

Following Jon’s lead the pile of shame, thankfully much smaller…..
Here are the currently unmade 1/48 aircraft I have collected in the Dungeon six in total, I need to make some progress on these I think.

Well that’s it for the update in 2026, I have some thoughts about projects and battles/ campaigns for this year and I’m already on with prepping the Greeks I got at Christmas. More games planned in the next few weeks.

Thanks as always for taking the time to check out the blog 

Matt ❤️



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Tuesday, 23 December 2025

Almost Christmas post…..and that was 2025

Christmas is nearly upon us, the weather has improved which is good. The children are back making the house feel busy. I am managing some hobby time though between family stuff. A couple of things completed in the last few days.

This slightly silly terrain piece (planes don’t really crash like this !) but I picked up from the bring and buy at battleground. It is a single 3D print which had a small broken piece at the bottom of the box. Not wanting to make it too specific I have given it non-specific markings and will probably add some smoke when it is on the table.

Also from the secondhand haul at battleground these ECW cavalry. Not sure on the make but they are quite old softer metal figures. Possibly Essex ? Anyway the riders are very slightly bulky but the horses match quite well with the others I have.
Here they are on the left, Peter Pig in the middle and Warlord epic on the right. They match surprisingly well , indicating once again that the warlord figures are really closer to 15mm than most people think. There was only one unit and a couple of odd figures in the bag but they make a nice extra unit.

It does give me that age old problem, as when they were placed in the box, there is no more space and I have at least 3 more cavalry units in the pile ! It looks like the ECW collection is going to move into its fifth box.

Finally I had mention some Christmas zombie games, the table has already seen some action, so I thought I would share a couple of photos of the current setup.
All vehicles are charity shop buys and looking for them is quite an addiction.
Are slightly larger battle is planned….
But for now my daughter has enjoyed rolling some dice in the dungeon which will do for me 🙂

And finally for those loyal readers who have made it this far I pulled together a short 3 minute ‘eye candy’ video of the games (most I think) that we have played in the dungeon in 2025. As to be expected no stats from me and certainly no hint of how much I have spent on my hobbies………just in case my dear wife stumbled across my blog by accident.



Have a great Christmas I will return to my Italian airforce work while the kids are out shopping 🎅🏽

Matt❤️



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Wednesday, 17 December 2025

Battle of Iuka September 1862 ACW

Monday I travelled across to play an ACW battle at Martins. He had set up the Battle of Iuka not one I was aware of but a good sized battle with three brigades per side as he had enough figures the soldiers and terrain are all his.

I’m going to leave it to you to read the background. But essentially both sides have sent a smallish force of three or so brigades to push the enemy out of the way. The terrain is very wooded and they basically bumped into each other. Historically the Confederates took the lead and were the more aggressive, but as I was playing the Union forces we thought we would get stuck in ! Just a couple of shots to show the action.

Battle field setup, both sides have a brigade in reserve to be brought in on a D6 roll. As it happened the Union side were much more successful in bringing their reserves on 
The main assault is focussed in the centre/right. Whilst the left wing of the Union force simply looks to hold their ground
Hoorah Union reserves arrive almost immediately giving them the advantage of numbers
Tough fighting but the Union drive the confederate centre back, but their forces are close to breaking beyond the small road in the distance
Eventually the Confederates bring on their reserves, much of the leading Union units are close to breaking a red ‘ring’ means the unit is shaken and close to breaking 
The Union reserves stabilise the position
And despite their own fatigue they are able to drive the confederates back who start to break and run back to Iuka. Good fun and a good sized and balanced battle which I will look to play again sometime.

A bit more painting time this week and I have managed to finish up some stuff
These were a Christmas gift from last year so I was determined to get them finished before next week, warlord figures which come with alternate heads, I put them on square bases as I have an idea that I might squeeze them into Spanish units in the Peninsular when I’m short of a base ? Obviously they can also be baggage or simple eye candy vignettes.
Just before I picked up all the EVW stuff at Battleground I had ordered some 15mm tents off eBay so I made a couple more ‘camp’ bases for the ECW. I’m not sure what to do with the other tents as I have too many now ? I guess if I painted them green they could be WW2 command tents. Otherwise I don’t have any 15mm stuff. I might even put a couple on the railway somewhere ? If anybody wanted a couple let me know.
Finally a proper unit painted for the AWI these were the last metal figures picked up ages ago at the York wargame show as part of a big job lot. Hence the unit has three musicians, two standards and an unarmed officer. But they work (just) as a unit. I think I might have one more plastic American unit in the box although I’m not really looking to expand the collection too much as I have enough figures to fill the table. I might just get some French though at some point.

We have another battle planned for tomorrow Edgehill ECW and I have been playing with the stats to give some historical feel to the battle. After that one more remote game before Christmas hits, when I am hoping to get some Zombie games played ?

In the words of a famous cartoon, ‘thats all folks’ thanks for looking

Matt ❤️






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Thursday, 11 December 2025

Freemans Farm September 1777 : AWI

Our AWI campaign has reached mid September 1777 so fighting is taking place in more than one location across the country. Whilst Washington is retreating from Brandywine, Burgoyne is in the thick of the Saratoga campaign.

The Battle of Freemans Farm is fairly well known as it pits too fairly equal armies against each other in what is effectively a ‘meeting engagement’
The scenario which I have used previously is taken from Black Powder rule book 1st Edition.
The table setup, I have enough figures now to provide all the relevant units and to increase the size of all the regular/militia units up to 16 man units which for rebels and Patriots means they only reach half strength at 8 rather than 6 men and therefore have greater resilience. It does mean the table/battle is a little bigger than our normal AWI battles. Hamilton and Morgan’s Brigades will start on the table, both sides have a further two brigades to bring on at their discretion. The only limitation for the Americans is they must come on on one of the two roads as the area is quite thickly wooded. So onto the action…..

Hamilton starts his brigade towards the stream and opens up with his artillery.
Morgan’s sends out his Rifle armed skirmishers and awaits support 
From turn two it starts to arrive with Poor and Learned’s Brigades, now for the Americans they had a choice where to enter but Benedict Arnold decided to feed both reserve brigades down the same road towards Freemans Farm itself. Whilst the Rebel skirmishers can be seen exchanging shots with the advancing British the road is also getting quite congested. In fact the Americans suffered a number of early activation failures which put them on the back foot and threw their reserves into a bit of a mess.
The British continue to advance and with the Americans seeming hesitant they use the cover of the word and the extra time to drive over the bridge whilst their is no opposition
British reserves with Fraser’s mixed brigade arrives along the road, with nothing in front of them they advance as quickly as possible, looking to outflank the American position
The final British reserves Von Breymann’s brigade of Hessians arrive and advance towards the bridge.
Already the American position is looking slightly precarious they are spending time reorganising their brigades which have become entangled.
Given the extra time Hamilton forms his leading regiments into line and advances upto the edge of the wood 
The British reserves are a long way form the action but already their light troops are crossing the stream
The hessians continue to demonstrate at the bridge, they need do little more than tie down the Americans around the Farm as the weight of the British attack is going to hit further to their right.
The American regiments at the T junction on the road get their first volleys away, but the British are looking ominous firmed into line.
Still the Americans are struggling to get their troops into order, they actually break one of the British regiments who are driven off the battlefield, but the British artillery now has a clear view of the Rebels and they open up across the open ground. The Americans have little answer to this pounding and suffer on the road.
Finally the Americans are in something of a defensive position along the road but the British have concentrated at the T junction and the Americans are struggling to hold.
The British are beginning to outflank the Americans, and in this part of the field have numerical advanced age as well.
Eventually the pressure breaks the front American unit, and the weakness of the American defensive position is revealed with the next regiments in line weaker Milita !

Learned’s brigade has taken up a strong position around Freemen’s Farm, but they are matched by the Hessians who exchange fire across the bridge.
In a bold move the American charge into the wood to drive off British skirmishers, but the remaining elements of Poor’s Brigade are driven back, in a single turn three American Regiments are forced to flee the field and the American left wing is collapsing.
Suddenly the American centre is gone as well and their position is untenable as the British bring more and more numbers upto the road. Arnold decides to save his army and orders a full retreat from the field. Hoorah Burgoyne has won a famous victory.

Well that didn’t play out as expected, the attempt by the Americans to concentrate backfired and they ended up caught in a poor position the tables turned and they had little choice but to give up the field to the British who really were flying today. A fun battle which we will revisit again at some point. Particularly pleasing to see the British manage to get into line and give the Rebels some volley fire which apparently they don’t like one bit !

Between gaming I have kept up the painting although these are the only figures to be photographed
Again bought at the show last week, amongst my ECW haul we’re a fairly random bag of Musketeers. They are pretty old sculpts Essex perhaps and slightly bulky but I wanted to use these as first fire markers. So have have quickly painted them up and put them on single bases.
Here are a couple performing in front of a unit. Once the unit has fired they will be removed. These will look aesthetically better than the white cotton blobs previously used. At a push they might get used as a couple of troops of Musketeers if I don’t have enough.

Finally I have been  testing out/ refreshing my knowledge of my Zombie Walking Dead rules in anticipation of a game over Christmas. The plan will be something that looks the part but I used the paper sheet for the test.

That’s it for now but another game set up for tomorrow where we are back to Sicily 1943 with the Americans advancing against the Italians again !

Thanks as always for thanking the time to check what I have been upto.

Matt ♥️KBO


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