An East wind blows

Another academic year has drawn to a close in its usual frenatic way.  With so much crammed into a truncated second half of term, I failed to meet my June posting target.  I haven't the time nor the inclination to speak of it here apart from one small matter that has directly influenced this post.  In the closing weeks of the year, the school welcomes pupils from sur le continent to attend, what is in effect, a summer school.  They bring a certain exuberance and joie de vie that I tend to actively avoid as I proofread reports and lament on another year passed.  However this year, one young gentlemen turned out to be a wargamer with a particular penchant for 'Bolt Action'. I happened to mention my meagre efforts with the 'Castle', the boards, miniatures and vehicles still stashed around the school, and once unearthed, the young chap looked wide eyed upon the collection and uttered, 'we should play a game'.

One section of the castle board was duly wrestled from its hiding place and witnessed a brief encounter between the German and Soviet armies.  Fast, furious and hugely enjoyable, much credit has to go to the young monsieur for that not only did he show great patience at my constant questioning, but also explained the rules in a second language!* 

*I like to think I was instrumental in the broadening of his language skills.

It has been a lean year on the hobby front, but I have always enjoyed a summer project and the prospect of catching up with friends to roll some dice in anger.  I had 'loosely' planned to host a return to the 'Congo', but given my all too brief initiation into 'Bolt Action' have decided to embrace a whole new adventure, cue audible groans from regular readers!  Having already amassed some WWII German forces, I thought I would look to find some suitable opponents and so, without any further ado, my new summer project will be...

...a 1000 point Soviet Army for Bolt Action!

I have to confess that this came as a complete surprise to me, but I happened to be reading 'Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad' by William Craig and had enjoyed the spirit in which the Soviets had played in our little encounter that it seemed destined to be.  I am approaching this project with some trepidation as a mass of troops, all wearing the same colour uniforms, sounds so far out of my comfort zone to be ridiculous, but I have enjoyed writing lists and amassing the requisite troops already having first broken my piggy bank.  

My hope is to spend the summer sharing a series of 'Work in Progress' posts as I try and put the army together whilst taking the time to reconnect with the neglected community in our cozy corner of the 'Blogosphere'.

I have even created a new WWII sidebar button, using the artwork of Gordon C. Livingstone originally created for Ian Clark's, Commando issue 2751, 'Grant's Grudge', 1994.