All Ahoo.

An artist's impression of the Kinch household over the last few days. His charity is only exceeded by his draughtmanship.

The Kinch household is all ahoo at present and there is a great deal of packing, sorting, putting away and boxing up taking place. There are some big changes coming, I can't quite own up to what they are just yet, but hopefully that will alter.

It looks like Mrs. Kinch and I will have to move house shortly, with Mrs. Kinch moving home while I will be living an itinerant existance for a year or so. We've been planning for this for over two years, but it's all come to fruition with astonishing suddenness.

Now while all this means that there will be major real life changes coming, the more proper subject for this blog is what those changes will mean for my wargaming.

Firstly, a great deal of my stuff will have to be packed away and scattered around the various family homes, so that I will be unable to get at it for a while.

Secondly, I won't be free during the evening to ramble down to the pub and partake of Thursday evening wargaming. The Halberdiers will continue as it is mainly a weekend and internet based thing, but my involvement in other forms of gaming will be sadly limited.

I reckon my gaming will take three forms over the next year.

1. Roleplaying.
The Halberdiers & a sometimes game of Call of Cthulhu.

2. Memoir '44
I bought the carrying bag for this game a few months ago and packing gave me the opportunity to try it out. For a bag designed to carry two copies of Memoir '44 and copies of the Terrain Pack, the Eastern Front and the Pacific Theatre, it actually holds two copies of Memoir '44, two of all the above supplements, extra map boards and the Mediterranean supplement, as well as the Air Pack and Hedgerow Hell. I thought I was mad to spend that thirty odd quid on a bag, even one that came with a new map and scenario, but Richard Borg has always justified my faith in him and it emerges yet again he was right.

For those of you not in the know Memoir 44 is a light Second World War boardgame that plays in about an hour. Commissioned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Normandy Landings, it has been a great success and now has supplements that allow you to refight battles in the Mediterranean, Pacific and Eastern theatres. Two copies of the game allow you to play a six to eight player variant with chain of command rules that have greatly enriched our wargaming over the last few years.

Playing the new breakthrough variant with Fitz over the last few days has rekindled my interest in the game; as it's slim and portable I think this will be forming a large part of my wargaming for the next year.

3. Figure painting.

My new years resolution in terms of figure painting is paint more cavalry. I've been casting my eye over the new Tabletop Teasers book and I lack the squadrons required for most of the Teasers, unless of course, I play them with my 2mm Napoleonics.

That might be cheating a little bit, but they are eminently portable and I can fit all the figures, terrain, etc that I need in a small box that I can take to the pub...

...maybe just for the bigger games.

One of the advantages of spending weekends at my inlaws will that I will sometimes have access to an honest to goodness table, something I can genuinely play games on, rather than the small coffee table or the floor option that do duty at present.

I could probably get some of the smaller teasers off the ground with 20mm figures if I use small units, eight troopers to a cavalry squadron and sixteen men to a battalion of infantry.

My medium term, six month, goal is to paint enough small squadrons to play a few Teasers and finish at least one full cavalry regiment for both my British and my French forces.

My long term, twelve month, goal is to paint sufficient figures to field two small forces for Charge! These will be individually based, so they will also be useful for the Halberdiers and for other games.

I have a fair start made at these, but think I shall make more progress for having a plan.



A Small Army of All Arms for Charge.

One mounted General Officer and two mounted Aide de Camp.

Two regiments of Foot each consisting of.

One mounted Colonel.
Three Captains.
One Ensign.
One Regimental Sergeant Major.
Three Sergeants.
One Drummer.
Forty Eight Other Ranks.
One Pioneer
Two Pack or Bat Horses.

One regiment of Light Foot

One mounted Colonel.
Two Captains
One Regimental Sergeant Major.
Two Sergeants.
One Bugler
One Pioneer
One Pack Mule
Twenty four Other Ranks

One regiment of Cavalry

One Colonel
One Trumpeter
Two Captains
One Ensign
Twenty four Troopers.

One Battery of Guns.

One Mounted Battery Commander
One Officer
One Sergeant Major
Ten Gunners
Two Guns
One Caisson