Battle of Oravais - Part 1.- blast from the past

First go with Black Powder 2nd Edition

Two brave volunteers joined in to give the 2nd edition a go.

See the pictures of the game in this blog post.

This is another un-finished battle report, that I'm now putting out, because why not. 

Salute 2019 Part 2. Battle of Däneholm Demo Game

Rebels and Patriots in Action

For the second consecutive year I had joined in to Dalauppror's international team to throw a visually

superb demo game (where people could actually participate) for Salute. See our exploits from 2018 here. This time it was the Napoleonic era and not surprisingly Swedish exploits in it. As I had already painted stuff for the Russo-Swedish War of 1808-1809, it was an easy (if not cheap, as my whole family of five traveled along) decision to join in. 

Celebrating the launch of Rebels and Patriots by Osprley Wargames

AWI AND BATTLE OF VAASA 1808

Several of us had had the opportunity to do play testing for this new set of rules coming from Osprey Wargames tomorrow! So we clearly had invented a way to travel to future!
Besides us play testers three more mates from club joined in to learn about the game.
Juha and Kalle hosted an AWI battle with and The Lament Ridge scenario from the book.
Me and Marko hosted a Russo-Swedish War 1808-1809 battle of Vaasa, that took place 25th of June 1808. This was also the next battle in our related campaign, which has been on hold for a while.

We started the event by distributing recently arrived rulebooks for play testers and then having a video call with Michael Leck (aka Dalauppror), co-author of the rules. He was at their club in Stockholm. We showed our tables and club and expressed our congrats on the publishing of the game.

531 and counting

Final rush for finalizing almost painted miniatures

Just like last year my December has mostly been dedicated to finishing half (or more) painted minis.

In this blog post I'm sharing the minis I've painted recently. On Novmber 11th I posted a post about having 420 minis finished this year. Now there 110 more and counting... 

I've also painted several models for the Harry Potter Miniatures Adventure Game, see them here

and terrain and Iron Hills Dwarves for LOTR, see them here

Shinto models for the Rising Sun (CMON)

Back to 1808 with a new player joining our ranks

Random encounter somewhere in Finland

Busy with many gaming related things, so just pictures of this game with a new player joining our 1808-1809 campaign Antti. For some reason Mac throws the pics into the blog in a random order...

Armies on Parade: Swedes and Finns of Napoleonic Wars

Army that lost Finland

Armies on Parade: Napoleonic Russians in 28mm

Covering all seasons...

Battle of Revonlahti 27.4.1808 - Report ready

Finnish attack continues

First, of course, in the words of Johan Ludvig Runeberg:

(for Gregori Tigerstedtille on the 50th anniversary of the Revonlahti  battle )

"Tunsitko joskus, joukoss' ihmisten

kulkeissas täällä elon tanterella,

kuink' outo voima, pakko sisäinen

toist' ihmistä voi toiseen taivutella?

Näet muodon, äänen kuulet, riemastut,

vaan et voit virkkaa, miks niin ihastut.

Mies oli Cronstedtilla väessään,

ilolla häntä vielä muistelenki;

ma vanhus olin, nuorukainen hän,

mut kummassakin meiss' ol' yksi henki.

Ma helposti ja paljon unhoitan,

mut Tigerstedtin muistan ainian.

Four warriors gathered again to pay our respects for the old glory of those soldiers and heroes, who fought to keep the archenemy at bay... Some of the pics are courtesy from Juha, thanks!

REPORT IS COMPLETED

Battle of Siikajoki 16.4.1808

Finns to the offensive!

All set for the next episode in our "Finnish War 1808-09" or Suomen  Sota -Campaign...

Ken joen rannall' on tuo miesi ylhäinen,

jok' yli vetten, maiden katsahtaapi?

Jo ryhti, huulten uhka, säihke silmien,

kädessä miehekkäässä miekka tulinen

urosta, sotilasta muistuttaapi.

Hän yksinään on, ilman seuraajaa,

mies nuori tullen mennen herrallensa

vain aika ajoin sanaa kuljettaa;

mut takan ja eessä kaksi armeijaa

veristä surmaa uhkaa toisillensa.

Hän tuosa näkee Siikajoen maiseman

niin kolkkona kuin ruumiin laudoillansa,

hän Suomen sodan muistaa vielä kolkomman,

häpeän, paon, hylyks jääneen kunnian

ja ryssäin pilkkanaurun takanansa.

Se syynä, miks niin synkkä otsa on,

miks varjo musta huolihunnun vetää

peitteeksi urhon jaloon muotohon;

hän näkee, kuinka Suomi, äiti turvaton,

nyt alttiiks jää, kun poikain miehuus pettää.

- Part of the poem "Adlercreutz" by Johan Ludvig Runeberg,

WIP: pictures added, report will follow...

Re-run: 16.4.1808 Battle of Yppäri

A Fighting Retreat

Finishing miniatures

1808 Reinforcements: Jaegers for Finns and Russians

As my painting goal for this year is to FINISH  (including varnish) miniatures, that I'm painting, I sticked to completing these Russian jaegers in a one go (= not leaving them almost finished). I also did the final touches for some Savolax jaegers, that had been "almost finished" since November 2016.

So here they are ready for the game tomorrow:

Some WIP pictures from the painting process:

Eagle Rampant: Battle of Virta bridges 27.10.1808

Babtism of fire for my Finns

Battle of Koljonvirta

For the last 6 weeks I've mainly been painting miniatures for the Russo-Swedish war 1808-1809 (after it Finland was ceded to Russia). So it was high time to get them onto battlefield, even if their painting is still mostly WIP. We played the so called "Koljonvirta battle", which is epitomized in Finnish national history as part of Ensign Ståls (Steel) poems by our national poet  Johan Ludvig Runeberg. 

Some info in English on the battle here

Warning: this AAR includes poetry in Finnish. You have been warned!

Mut toista tuli, törmältä kun täyttä vauhtia

riens' adjutantti Sandelsin, hevonen vaahdossa:

"Jumalan tähden, portaallen, aseihin", huusi hän,

"vihollisjoukon tiedetään täst' yli pyrkivän."

Päämiehelle hän lisäsi: "Te silta purkakaa,

jos voitte, muuten viimeiseen verehen taistelkaa!

Hukassa kaikk' on, taaksemme jo ryssät ennättää;

apua saatte, kenraali jo tulla lennättää."

Sven Tuuva

More Savolax Jaegers

New conversions for the Russo-Swedish War 1808-09

Check the pictures and how they were made,