Wednesday 24 February 2021

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.

28 comments:

  1. Beautiful looking country ๐Ÿ‘ yes you can only call yourself a true wargamer when you have a proper lead/plastic mountain. Join the club you are not alone ๐Ÿ˜€

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Matt...I must admit I have been feeling a bit left out as others describe the boxes and cartons if unpainted figures in their possession!

      Delete
  2. Beautiful country, indeed! I don’t know why but I always figured a redwood forest was a uniquely Northern California woodland. Looking forward to your new project and the growth of your lead pile. My lead pile is like an Old Growth forest similar to the mighty redwoods.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jon...I think the redwoods are imported...they are Seqoia, which I believe are the same ones you have in the Pacific North West? I think the GNW project might be a slow burner till the Ebor figures arrive.....

      Delete
  3. Thanks for the tour photos, not only interesting, but a mighty relief from looking at all our snow. Interesting area.

    Good luck on your new units. Always thought it a great period.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks your comments are appreciated. I have resisted the new period for quite some time but the Ebor special deal made his figures less than a pound each, so too good to resist any longer!

      Delete
  4. A nice new project Keith...
    I can’t imagine your lead mound being there for very long... I think mine has been there so long it is at the point of becoming a national heritage site .

    As ever New Zealand looks delightful...

    All the best. Aly

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My lead pile might be classified as a biohazard...

      Delete
    2. Cheers Aly...I hope my pile dies the become a semi permanent feature like some seem to be!

      Delete
    3. Should read "does not become"......

      Delete
  5. A nice new project Keith and a period that is slowly gathering interest across a few Blogs and forums, which is good to see. Nice to have your scenic photos too as, if things go to plan, we may be back to some form of normality come Summer here in England.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Steve...it's a period I know very little about, so far...that will have to change of course! Yes it does seem as though rolling out the vaccine is the first part of the Covid response the the UK is doing well, so hopefully the opening up plans come to fruition.

      Delete
  6. Very much looking forward to whatever falls out of this project, both the figures and the rules interest me and seem to be finding widespread favour.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Norm. Yes, I gave enjoyed Beneath the Lilly Banners so far and hope to have more games in the not too distant future. I have ordered a few books via our library service to give me some background reading.

      Delete
  7. The scenery there is beautiful. Thanks for making me disatisfied ๐Ÿ˜‰. You are very lucky.

    Good luck with the new project. It’s a great looking period.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you...it was your own occasional posts about walking around your area of London that inspired me to the occasional reference to our walks, although they do seem to have become less "occasional" recently! I am looking forward to getting stuck into the GNW.

      Delete
  8. The Great Northern War is one of my favourite periods. After Swedes and Russians you can branch out into Danes, Saxons, Poles, Cossacks and even Turks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Neil...my foray into GNW is going to be a limited one ...my mate Nick already has Russians and Danes and he intends to di Swedes too...and doubtless over time, anyone else with a pretty uniform for him to paint!

      Delete
  9. Great new project, Keith. The name of it sounds cool "Great Northern War" - how can you not like it. Cool terrain scenes as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Dean...yes it's a good name (nearly said a great name!) for a war, but one I know next to nothing about so far. Glad you enjoyed more of my NZ scenery too.

      Delete
  10. You tricky devil! Suckered again am I! ๐Ÿ˜€
    Good luck on your new project. It’ll help that you have a regular game bid to grow the genre with.
    War games factory are a very hit and miss range of figures. Here’s hoping that these cav are a hit! ๐Ÿ˜€

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahaha....gotcha Stew. I already have a few Regts of the plastic csv in my WSS collection and I think they are ok...not great but at a third of the cost, I can live with OK.....

      Delete
  11. I love the Swedish uniforms across most period Keith, but I think the GNW is probably the best so I'll be looking forward to seeing what you do with these, once all the figures have arrived.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Funny Lawrence, my brief research seems to indicate a bit of "sameness" in their uniforms...mostly seem to be blue coats faced yellow....infantry and cavalry...but I guess no worse than Brits all in red coats....

      Delete
  12. Really enjoyed seeing your photos and an interesting project begun too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Great acquisition, Keith! Seems like you’re going to be a little bit busy with new toys:)

    ReplyDelete