Blucher - The Battle of Oslo

Part of the 2026 Nordic Film Festival, this excellent movie almost got away from me.  I was really pleased that I had the chance to see it, front row with all the full-on sound effects. 

Told in two interleaved parts: the 1946 military inquiry (shot in black and white) and the actual engagement in April 1940 (shot in colour)

The location and atmosphere really brought things to life as a setting to the command decisions faced by Colonel Birger Eriksen who was in charge of the Oscarsborg Fortress.

Being in the cinema with its superior sound really made an impression as the big guns in the fortress fired and the subsequent air attack by the Luftwaffe on the fortress.

A fascinating bit of history, but also with lessons for our time, particularly around being prepared.

Until 1940 Norway had been at peace for 120 years.

Railways of the World

I had played Railroad Tycoon thirty years ago and this game seemed very similar, but with extra chrome.  Of course it seems similar, it is just the latest version of that game (although for me I always think of Railroad Tycoon as the 1990 PC game of that name).

Anyway, Richard laid on this game for Russell (green), Jeff (dark red), Peter (purple) and myself (black).  Richard was yellow.

Very interesting dynamic in that earning peaks midway through at $25,

but as you get more VPs past 48 income starts to decline.

A serious problem if you have a lot of bonds to service.

Best of all this game is available on boardgamearena.com, but it is a premium game.

Classical Indian versus Scots

That's Scots 1418-1429AD run by a descendent, Mark Woods.

What's a mere two thousand years between armies?

The Scots have been out scouted and deployed in echelon 

between a bit of a wood and some broken ground.

No edge of the table shenanigans here!

A bit of a cautious advance.

Skirmishers are soon engaged.

Closing in.

Contact!

Elephants to the fore!

Pachyderms about to make pappadums of the Scottish heavy foot.

The Indian general announces as the remaining Scots flee,

"We gave 'em curry!"

Late War Spanish Napoleonic Infantry

Excessive Essex British infantry figures, a need for some Spanish units and inspiration from Military Dress of the Peninsular War.

I used a new Paynes Grey as the undercoat after a recommendation from James Fisher.

I think it worked extremely well with this uniform.

Note casualty base ready for addition of marker.

The inspiration!

Initial Muster for Vittoria

I've made a first draft of an Allied OOB for Vittoria and set out what troops I have.

I'm short eleven units at the moment.  20 SpLN are currently ready to be based.  

Next is to see what's on the lead mountain.  

I have left out artillery for the time being and also need a closer look at how the Allied army was divided into corps/wings etc, otherwise Wellington is going to be very busy. 

I will be lucky to get this completed this year, but there are other scenarios I can look at in the meantime.

I am pretty sure I have no shortage of French troops.

False Nose Job - A Scenario for Torpedoes and Tides

Mark B took on the job of a secret mission to XXXX and deliver XXXX.  It was all very hush hush.  For the mission he was given two British Power Boat 72' Motor Gun Boats (MGB) and a Vosper 70' Moter Torpedo Boat (MTB).  He chose to enter from the top left-hand corner.  One of the boats carried the XXXX which was to be delivered to one of the red beacons on the far coast.

A German patrol of two Raumboots and a Kriegfischkutter are out on patrol. 

 It is a moonless night.

We decided not to use blinds as we were under a bit of time pressure.

The German patrol easily spotted the intruders.

The Raumboots are somewhat under-gunned and the British boats are hard to hit...

However, one poor MGB was soon hit.

Was it a decoy?

While one of the British boats takes a pounding,

the other reaches the rendezvous point and starts to unload.

Whatever it is it is going to take a while.

Both sides now have a badly damaged boat.

The secret mission continues, but at a slow pace.

With one MGB now battered the Germans try to close in on the Vosper.

The captain of the other MGB must be telling the spooks to get a move on.

The captain of the battered boat has a plan.

Smoke!

With the unloading finally completed it is now necessary for the British

 to stop the Germans from sticking their nose in, false or otherwise.

More smoke hides the mysterious activities.

But both sides have scored additional hits in the confused night action. 

Mission accomplished.

Time didn't permit us to play on and make good an escape.  Also, I decided that the Germans needed to actually spot what had been delivered (they had three turns) and that the automatic spotting at medium range does not apply.

All in all, another exciting game of Torpedoes and Tides and a nicely different scenario.  

The mechanics used by TnT give an excellent feel for confused fighting as I am sure occurred with small boats coastal forces at nighttime in WW2.

Europe in Turmoil but no Great War

Richard brought out this game for us to play again.  He went conservative while I was liberal.  

An excellent game.  Occasionally the conservatives had a decent lead, but with no war the final scoring favoured the liberals mainly due to their strong position in France.

Took five hours to complete which is longer than normal, but then that is because there was no Great War to bring a sudden end to proceedings.