I asked Chat GPT to create an image of British soldiers in Normandy 1944 in the style of an IWM photograph. One should have a Bren gun and they should be in action. WTF is this…

We are drawing close to the end game in our Scottish Corridor campaign for Chain of Command. It's coming down to the wire, with victory within grasp of either side. First, the Germans must try to take Colleville....can they do it as the first attempt? thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...

I ran four participation games of a Chain of Command scenario set on Saipan in 1944 back in January in the Lard Zone at CanCon in Canberra. Pleased to say, it's now available as an article in the most recent issue of Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy #138.

We are back to The Scottish Corridor campaign. This is the eighth game of a possible twelve, so we are coming down to the end game. Much hangs in the balance, but the Germans must make progress in this game to keep up a hope they can stay on schedule. thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...

Been a bit quiet lately, with my regular opponent travelling overseas, but it doesn't mean I haven't been beavering away on a few projects. thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/10/proj...

I’ll be running four Chain of Command games in the Lard Zone at CanCon in Canberra in January. If you fancy some gritty, late-war urban combat on a 20mm table, this might be of interest.

Great looking house. Just saying 😉

Appropriate time of year to be reading this. Entire forests must have been consumed printing it, but to call it comprehensive would be understatement. I think it’s in 9 point and at 500 pages, that’s a lot of words. Half way through and excellent so far.

The next game in The Scottish Corridor campaign for Chain of Command sees the Germans take a second crack at pushing the British out of Mouen. They have the numbers, but it didn't help them last time. Full game report here: thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-...

I picked up two dozen of Eureka's 28mm Ragged Continentals at the MOAB show in Sydney last October. Finally getting around to putting paint on them. Lovely figures, full of character.

A few German style buildings to add to the collection, they've been a long time coming, for too long my 'German' tables have resembled Normandy. No longer. thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/09/germ...

Finally getting around to adding some German style buildings to the collection. These are 20mm MDF from Sarissa Precision. Added stuff like chimneys, thatch and roof tiles. Now my German tables can start to actually look German, rather than Norman.

Game 6 in The Scottish Corridor campaign for Chain of Command and the British mount a local counterattack to delay the Germans. It's a return to Le Valtru, where British fortunes have been mixed. A short and very sharp encounter.... #spreadthelard thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-...

New buildings for Germany and the eastern front. Tinkering, as usual, with a few Sarissa 20mm MDF buildings. Two German farms and barns and two of the Russian townhouses. Planning on playing the CoC campaign Westwind Konigsberg. Did it with Normandy buildings the first time. #spreadthelard

Enjoyed a long chat with Richard Clarke from Too Fat Lardies talking about Chain of Command, the blog and particularly the game reports. It's on their Patreon site (and currently only available to subscribers). www.patreon.com/posts/tactic...

The Scottish Corridor campaign continues. The panzer grenadiers are showing how capable they are of inflicting casualties on the British and morale has slumped accordingly. Can the British manage to stall the Germans, but avoid paying a heavy price? thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-...

Found an excellent use for a spare figure from a set of British engineers from AB Figures. Wasn’t sure if there was any use for a man hammering in a sign. Then I read the new rules for Mines in Verges in CoC v2. End result, one new game marker and one less unpainted figure in the lead pile.

The Scottish Corridor campaign for Chain of Command continues and we move back to the opposite flank, where the Germans continue their push into Le Valtru. The British held them off the first time, can they succeed at the second attempt? #spreadthelard thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-...

Bots will be bots. I shouldn’t be too surprised that a game report entitled ‘Escort Duty’ gets picked up by a bot that then posts a comment with links to a Turkish escort agency. I’m not saying there aren’t wargamers to whom that’s of interest…..I just don’t think that’s why they visit my blog.

Hoplites sir, thousands of ‘em. Well, 1200 to be precise. Big game set during the Greek Punic Wars on a 15x6 table with an awful lot of figures. Our host really knows how to put on a monster game….

Having added extra figures to my HYW we had enough for a 300pt game of Midgard using the Agincourt lists from @mogsymakes.bsky.social. We went for a very historical scenario of the battle to see how well the rules would play out against the historical result.

More Chain of Command markers now that v2 has inspired me to upgrade. These are for AFVs this time. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary, just an attempt to have things blend in more with the table and yet still serve their function. thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/07/afv-...

While I was painting Saxons I took the opportunity to paint more armour, this time Perry HYW French men at arms. I’ve always wanted to do bigger battles and have several Perry boxes of unpainted figures. Now as good a time as any to paint them. Why? Trying to do Agincourt using Midgard on Friday.

So, we make plans, we embark on projects, we finish projects, we fail to finish projects and then sometimes a project just comes out of nowhere.....a gamer's tale. thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/07/saxo...

A few more wounded senior leader figures for CoC. When a leader takes a wound that effects him for the remainder of the game I’ll replace the original figure with one of these. Glorified game markers essentially. Conversions of various AB and PSC figures. #spreadthelard

A quick Chain of Command Replen Point for my Japanese. More spare figures from the Airfix Jungle Outpost, the gift that keeps on giving.

Back to the Scottish Corridor campaign and the British mount a limited counterattack to disrupt the German timetable. We return to the site of our first game at Bas de Mouen. The game was short, but I wouldn't say it was sweet. #spreadthelard thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...

Russian guns in a Sydney park, a case of 19th C recycling. Surplus captured guns from the siege of Sevastopol were sent around the empire, these are not the only ones I’ve seen dotted around Australia. Ex-Russian naval 36 pounders in this case.

The Ibis. From holy to lowly. To the ancient Egyptians it was sacred. To the modern Australians it is the ‘bin chicken’.

The publication of Chain of Command v2 has inspired me to dig into the spares box and make up markers for a few of the new mechanics – like objective markers and Replen points. thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/07/obje...

An update of a popular post on how to deal with panzergrenadiers in Chain of Command, now that CoCv2 has added a few more tactical options to the tool box. Whether you consider them overpowered or just powerful, they are not invincible. thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2018/12/deal...

A Plastic Soldier Company 1/72 Churchill that's been sitting in the paint queue. No longer. I have one of most variants, but needed two of the same for a recent Scottish Corridor game (I was going to proxy a CS 90mm gun, but didn't need it in the end). This time I'll be ready with the right one.

It seems I'm on a never ending quest to improve my game markers, or more to the point, make them serve their purpose and be a lot less conspicuous on the table as game markers. So, here I go again. thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/07/game...

I don’t know how you ‘accidentally’ end up with a Saxon warband, but I’ve managed to do it. I started off making 6 slingers from a Dark Age Warriors box for my Germanic tribes. Decided I might as well make and paint the rest in the box. Suddenly I’m ordering more. It’s a sickness, I tell you.

My notes on what has changed in Chain of Command v2. Hopefully useful for players of v1 making the transition. It's not a review, just a list of changes to help remind me of what is new/different, but I thought I might as well share it. #spreadthelard thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/06/what...

While the UK swelters, Sydney has the winter it pretends it doesn’t have. Sure, it’s not a northern hemisphere winter, which is just as well, because the city is built for summer 😱

A quick return to The Scottish Corridor with our second game. Now we shift to the German attack on the western flank of the salient. Can the British do a little bit better this time or will the panzer grenadiers prevail yet again? thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-... #spreadthelard

This has been the most popular post on the blog for some time, with 40,000+ views. It seemed timely to give it a refresh and bring it up to speed for the publication of CoC v2. Warning: CoC veterans are unlikely to find much they haven’t seen before. thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2018/07/chai...

Made up a couple of Replen Pt markers for Chain of Command v2 so we have them available for The Scottish Corridor campaign. Raided the spares box for suitable figures and ammo boxes. Will probably do a couple of generic ones too but seeing as I had the figures this was quick and easy #spreadthelard

Introducing a new player to Infamy, Infamy! at the club last night, that said, only my third game, so still on the learning curve. Great to get my German tribes on the table for a suitably violent encounter with the Romans.

With freshly printed copies of Chain of Command v2 in our hands, we embarked on The Scottish Corridor campaign last week having held off until we had the new rules. The report of the first game report is up on the blog (fully v2 compliant!). thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-...

Made up six figures from an unused box of Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors. Then thought, why not make up the rest? Could be useful for various rule sets if based thoughtfully. Decided to multi base, as figures are a bit average. Now I sense the project might get out of control..

Having completed the CoC PSC Operation Martlet last year we now return to Scottish Corridor but with a difference. Now we have CoC v2 and so we turn a new corner, looking forward to it.

Put together all my completed work so far for my Germanic tribes project for Infamy, Infamy! I have to say, I've really enjoyed painting these, probably because the figures have no webbing or other fussy accoutrements of later period soldiers! thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/06/germ...

It can’t all be about painting little soldiers, sometimes life intrudes, in the best possible way. A weekend celebrating my grandson’s 3rd birthday up on the NSW north coast. Late autumn, apparently.

A game report on our second ever game using Infamy, Infamy! from Too Fat Lardies. A chance for me to use the recently painted Victrix Germans too. #spreadthelard thetacticalpainter.blogspot.com/2025/05/infa...

My freshly painted Germans get their first tabletop outing playing Infamy, Infamy. Very happy with the way they looked, which is just as well, because their (my) performance against the Romans was less than stellar. A wargamer’s tale! #spreadthelard #toofatlardies

More for my Germanic warriors for Infamy, Infamy, in this case a group of wailing women to act as a rally point. Lovely set of figures from Foundry.

If you see this post a tank.

A few more bits and pieces for my Germanic warriors for Infamy, Infamy. A mix of Victrix plastics and Foundry metal. #toofatlardies #spreadthelard