Mail Call!

Monday's Battle Among the Tombs with Richard is in the books.  A fun game, it was, but a story to tell another time.

First, though, a rare mail call.  This year, spending has been way down beside the arrival of a few books, an occasional Slingshot magazine, a few hex-and-counter wargames, and even fewer figures.  To shake things up, a trio of packages arrived on my doorstep this week.  Wargaming packages on the doorstep are always a welcome sight.  These were no exception.

What arrived?  Let's open the packages to see!

Tufts

Since 2014 (I know, I checked!), I have been regularly ordering grass tufts from Tajima1 Miniatures out of the UK.  My last order was in 2024 when I really backed up the truck and loaded up with many boxes of these excellent self-adhesive tufts.

Needing to resupply some of the colored tufts, I began a reorder.  Prices have certainly increased since 2024 but it was the sticker shock of postage to the US that kept me from pushing "Buy."  To add insult to injury, extra import duties would be charged on shipments to the US.  Even before the import duty was accounted for, postage was going to be over USD$30 for a small package!  At that point I closed the browser and went off in search of alternatives. 

After only a little searching, I found several vendors on Amazon who offered something similar at a fraction of the price.  In fact, the eight boxes of tufts shown below, delivered, were about the same price as the shipping charge from Tajima1 alone.  While these are not self-adhesive, they are about the same size as my favored Tajima1 tufts.  We will see how this goes!

1/100 Tanks

Always on the lookout for plastic 15mm Zvezda models, a pack of five PzIVs showed up on ebay a couple of weeks ago.  Luckily, I was able to snag them for a reasonable price.

1812 The Retreat From Moscow

Finally, and the piece de resistance was a small package from England.  In this thin package was the first offering from Paul Brook in his just released Battle Chronicles series.

This small format, 60-page book arrived courtesy of Reject Lee and Ray who helped in putting this title together.  Really a nice-looking effort of a similar size to Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame series.  I must admit that the footprint of this book is preferred to the large wargaming guides that Helion has been publishing.  The Helion guides, while beautiful and comprehensive, seem a bit unwieldy to read and use.  1812 is very comfortable in hand.

A cursory flick through the book reveals a pleasing layout and easy to read text.  The text layout is accompanied by handsome game maps and photos of Ray and Lee's gorgeous 1812 Retreat from Moscow collection.

Quite a nice effort.  Well done, guys, and THANK YOU!  Now, why was my copy not autographed???

Next time, hopefully a battle report from Monday's Battle Among the Tombs.