A New Project - Great Northern War Swedes

 My gaming buddy Nick has finally cajoled me into parting with some cash to invest in a bunch of Great Northern War Swedish infantry from the beautiful Ebor range. Regular readers will know that Nick and I have had a couple of games using Barry Hiltons Beneath the Lilly Banners late 17th/early 18th century rules - as has our mate Mark from 1866 and All That.  

These have proved to give a very enjoyable game, and in addition to 6 x 18 man infantry regiments, I have also purchased two packs of marching pike men, who will be painted in three lots of four to add to a few of my existing WSS regiments, to make them usable in the slightly earlier period. Just for fun, I also have the Swedish Mounted Command pack coming from Nick Wragg of Ebor.

In the meantime, I locally sourced two packs of ex Wargames Factory (now Warlord) hard plastic cavalry. The small on line business in Kapiti, just north of our capital city Wellington, only had one box each of the cavalry of the Sun King and cavalry of the Grand alliance - however, having bought the figures in their previous incarnation as generic War of Spanish Succession cavalry, I suspected the only difference between the packs was the artwork on the box and a small insert with some flags - and this proved to be the case.

So, while I await the arrival of my metal infantry from the north of England, and hope the value does not attract the attention of our Revenue Officers at the border, I have two dozen plastic cavalry to keep me busy....on top of the twenty odd Border Reivers from TAG, and around 120 War of 1812 Old Glory I have to paint for our "group" - I am starting to feel like a proper wargamer with mounds of unpainted figures!

And now I have tricked you into looking at my blog with one image of toy soldiers, here are a few more photos from day one of my wife and my weekend away walking around the Rotorua area of the central North Island!

 

Day One Walk One - very scenic water falls and river at Okere Falls

The path down to some caves at the bottom of the falls - a nearby sign indicated the use of the caves was unknown but it is speculated non combatants sheltered there during periods of tribal warfare, lowering themselves down on ropes

Looking out from inside the largest of the caves

This isn't a reason to close the gate that you see every day, even in New Zealand!

Day One, Walk Two - Redwoods Forest park, Rotorua

On a previous trip, our whole family visited this aerial walkway through the redwoods, so this time, we didnt bother doing it a second time.

Between walk two and three, we checked into out motel, which included this hot pool fed from one of the many natural thermal springs that dot the Rotorua area

Day One, Walk Three Lake Rotoehu between Rotorua and Whakatane. The path we followed is known as Hongi's Track after a Maori War chief who had his men carry their waka (war canoes) along it between one lake and another, so he could launch an assault on an neighbouring tribe(see Google/Wikipedia for more info!)

The "Wishing Tree" in the middle of the forest route to the lake.

We did of course spend most of our time walking through beautiful lush New Zealand bush, but I think I have probably posted more than enough images of ferns and trees, so I have left those details out on this occasion! Total distance walked on day one was around 18km. Evening was spent in the hot tub, with a cold beer and a good book - a pretty good way to recover from the days exertions.