Trumpeter Salute 2026

This past weekend was the annual Trumpeter Salute wargaming convention.  Arthur and I attended the full weekend, including hosting our Hunt for the Mad Trapper game on Friday night and a game of 02h00 on Saturday morning. I'm going to do a separate report for the Mad Trapper game as there is a bit more background to go with it.

Here is the table layout.  I almost always forget something - this time it was the game mat.  Fortunately, I was able to set the village up directly on the table. As we playtested several times, once again the game was the Capture scenario with Partisans as the attacker.

Germans on patrol in the village plaza.

German feldgendarmerie on patrol.  02h00 gives feldgendarmes a slightly different profile than regular Wehrmacht sentries.  In order to make a simple distinction between the two types, I've put all my feldgendarmes in greatcoats.

Partisans approach stealthily.

Including Odette who stays hidden behind the patrolling Germans.

Feldgendarmes engage one of the partisans in a firefight.

The feldgendarmes fare poorly in the exchange, but the alarm is most definitely raised!

Meanwhile the partisan leader has located the German officer inside the building with the green shutters.

German sergeant gets into a close-range firefight with the partisan sergeant.

Sneaky partisans are sneaky.

German reinforcements rush into the village, but they are too late!

By this point in the game, all the partisans had fled except this one.  The German dog handler pinned him as his comrades came up to assist him.

Lisa also ran 02h00 - this time it was an LRDG raid to try to assassinate Rommel.

The designer of Close Quarter Battle was on hand to demo his game.  It's based on 1980s-style Hollywood action flicks. This scenario featured the heroes breaking up a drug-smuggling ring on the docks.

Some Napoleonic-era naval action with Wooden Ships and Iron Men.

Chris Leach showed off his ECW Control to Catastrophe game.

Cameron hosted a two-part Pegasus Bridge game using Force on Force.

The North Shore Gamers had a very beautiful WWI game based on a 'what if' British attack on Aqaba.

Sam and Owen had a two-part (afternoon and evening) big Chain of Command game.

And finally I got to play in Legion's Crystal City Galactic Heroes game.  I led the crew of the Swinetrek (from the Muppet Show) to victory over the mutated chickens.

All in all, a great weekend!

Expanding Italian Village

 As I prepare to host a 02h00 game at the upcoming Trumpeter Salute wargaming convention next month, I realised that my Italian village was a bit too small.  Accordingly, I placed an order with Sarissa Precision for a few more buildings to fill up the space. Sarissa was great and I had the MDF models in my hands in 10 days.  I got a two-floor house, a slightly larger two-floor plus terrace and balcony house, a corner tavern and a set of low walls.  

First up is the two-floor house, with a Nanarchist for scale.

The roof and upper floor lift off to allow access to the interior.  The reference model is now a Pulp Figures housewife!

As a bonus, the upper floor can be excluded to make a single-floor house that matches the Brigade Games houses already in my collection.

Now here is the larger house.  

This house can also be disassembled to allow interior access.

And again a shorter building can be assembled.

Finally, here's the corner tavern, currently visited by a couple of partisans.

View of the ground floor interior.

As with the others, this one can also be a single-floor building.

All three buildings have plain side walls.

This allows them to be assembled as a terraced street.

For fun, I quickly set up my village to see how the Sarissa MDF buildings compare to the Brigade Games resin buildings and the Um Bum card buildings.

Everyone loves a parade!

Hannie (and Herr Flick)

 Hannie Schaft was a member of the Dutch resistance during WWII.  As she was known as 'the girl with the red hair', I did my best to paint her accordingly.  She was a friend and colleague of Truus Oversteegen and her sister, Freddie (coming soon!). 

From Grey for Now Games, here is Herr Flick (I've named him for the comic character from 'Allo, Allo rather than for Herr Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark).  

It is a bit tricky to paint him dressed all in black and still show some sort of distinction between his layers.  It doesn't show clearly in these photos, but his leather overcoat and hat are a bit glossy, and his suit underneath is matte and a little bit grey.  Regardless, he is ready to lead the investigation to find resistance members like Hannie!