And finally a few items of terrain.

Old tree stumps and a fallen tree, all made out of oak twigs from the garden. I think oak twigs are the best for representing tree trunks as they wear well over the years and show interesting lumps and bumps!

A hasty defensive barrier of tree trunks and branches, with rocks and earth, the usual oak twigs and gravel from my basing material box. Useful for a whole range of periods.

 And these are some recently rebased figures (for the Lion Rampant/Dragon Rampant rules) for my Petaudia medieval/fantasy campaign.

Aquilinian knights (25mm Essex metal Medieval 1300-1450).

The Duchy of Aquilinia's national colours are blue and yellow.

Godlin wolf riders, all 25mm metal Vendel Miniatures (no longer available as far as I can tell). I'm not sure my painting skills have given the wolves fierce enough faces; some look rather like kindly household dogs!

Here are a variety of figures from my Fescennia (Napolenic "imagi-nation") campaign that I have just finished painting and basing.

A Nemean general of cavalry with his ADC. In my Fescennia campaign, all the generals wear modest uniforms while their ADCs are more elegantly attired, usually in hussar uniforms. The general is an old 25mm Prussian mounted officer metal one-piece casting (OPC) from Hinchliffe; the ADC is a 28mm Perry Miniatures hard plastic figure, put together from the spares box! Nemea's uniform colour is red.

A Nemean general of artillery with his ADC.

Being a more practical arm, the uniform is dark blue and the ADC wears a uniform similar to his general. The latter figure is an old 25mm Hinchliffe metal Marshal Blücher (one of my oldest Napoleonic figures, dating back to the 1970s!); the ADC a 25mm Wargames Foundry metal Prussian reserve mounted officer.

Nemean generals of infantry with their ADCs. Like the figures above, all the generals are 25mm Prussian mounted officer metal one-piece casting (OPC) from Hinchliffe and the ADCs are 28mm Perry Miniatures hard plastic figures, put together from the spares box.

Erymanthian general of infantry with their ADCs. The generals are 25mm metal Hinchliffe Russian mounted officers (OPCs); the ADCs are 28mm Perry Miniatures metal Russian hussars. Erymanthia's main uniform colour is blue.

An Erymanthian general of the guard, along with this ADC. The general is the same basic figure as the infantry generals in the previous picture, but with the head of a Russian Guard infantryman from the spares box.

An Erymanthian general of cavalry and his ADC. The general figure is an Essex 25mm Austrian mounted officer, but with a French dragoon's head from the spares box.

Arcadia has a brigade of troops known as the Foreign Legion. Unlike the rest of the Arcadian army, which wears white or yellow, this formation wears light blue. This figure is the general, along with his ADC; they, however, are in dark blue. The general figure is an old 25mm Hinchliffe metal French mounted officer (OPC); the ADC is a 25mm Warlord metal French lancer officer.

The Arcadian 3rd Grenadier Regiment. After a good dig around in the spares box I found I had enough pieces to put together this unit. All the figures are 28mm Victrix hard plastic French Imperial Middle Guard. In my Fescennia campaign, there are no grenadier companies attached to line regiments, only grenadier regiments, which have sixteen figures. Arcadian grenadier units do not have a flag, only a guidon in the regimental colour.

And finally, some Erymanthian light infantry from their 2nd Light Infantry Regiment. Being light troops, the uniform is green, in contrast to the normal Erymathian colour of blue. Like the grenadiers, their are no light infantry companies with the line regiments, only light infantry regiments. Each unit has sixteen figures, but they do not have a regimental flag. The figures are 25mm Hinchliffe metal Russian jägers.

And now for something completely different! 15mm Thirty Years' War. When I began wargaming seriously in my teens, apart from 25mm Napoleonics and Ancients, my friends and I went for 15mm 17th Century (English Civil War and Thirty Years' War). One of my friends had got hold of a copy of the WRG Renaissance Rules by George Gush and bought some 15mm figures. In the end, we had Swedes, Imperialists, and Cavaliers, and Ottoman Turks. The friends are long lost (where are you now Graham and Richard?), along with their figures, but I kept mine and added to them from secondhand sales over the years. They were based some time ago for a set of home-made rules adapted from a set found on the Internet, but are still usable for Mr. Gush's rules, with a bit of adjustment. I do not say that they are the best rules for the 15th-17th Century, but they are certainly the best written set of rules I have ever come across in more than forty years of wargaming. They should be an example for all would-be rule writers to read! Anyway, I suddenly had the idea that I would like to start 2021 with a game from the past and unearthed my 15mm Thirty Years' War. So, turning to C.S. Grant's Programmed Wargames Scenarios, I set up a game from the first scenario and enjoyed a pleasant solo action. Here are some pictures (15mm are much harder to photograph with my little digital camera, so apologies in advance for the varied quality!).

The battlefield.

Pike and musket regiment. Figures are anybody's guess, having been bought pre-painted secondhand.

Artillery battery and supporting light horse regiment.

The command base has a homemade flag, somewhat Bavarian in colour and style?

Dismounted dragoons. Most of my trees for this scale of wargaming are homemade, lichen stuck on twigs and then a plasticene base, all made decades ago, plus a few commercial pine trees found at model railway shows.

More artillery and another command base.

Light horse regiments.

Pike and musket regiments with a unit of mounted dragoons in support.

A cuirassier regiment, mainstay of the mounted element of Imperial armies

during the Thirty Years' War.

The centre piece of the battle - a card German castle for N gauge (I think) railway modelling bought many, many years ago, but still one of my favourite terrain pieces.

A unit of crossbowmen rebased for Dragon Rampant/Lion Rampant. The figures are 25mm Essex Miniatures (except the knight, who is an old Hinchliffe 25mm metal figure). They are painted many years ago in the colours of one of my Mediaeval/Fantasy realms - the Duchy of Aquilinia - from my Petaudia campaign, but would pass just as well on a "normal" mediaeval battlefield!

My lovely wife has a tradition of buying me a wargames figure (or figures sometimes!) for Christmas. It is always a surprise what I get, but it is invariably something Fantasy for my Petaudia campaign. This year - a Storm Giant from Reaper Miniatures in hard plastic. It is probably the largest figure I have ever painted! Not being certain what colour a Storm Giant should be, a quick search on the D&D areas of the Internet suggested green or purple, so I went for green. Paints are all Vallejo. I always undercoat in black, then used various shades of blue for his kilt, with red leather and oily steel for his equipment, armour and sword, while the skin was dark green finished with flat green. The base is beer mat - a friend in the business once gave me 500 out of date ones many years ago which I am still using up, they are excellent material for bases and rarely warp - with a sand and grit covering and cork boulders, plus a few tufts of a commercial dry grass.

Some images of units I recently completed for my Fescennia campaign. They are for the forces of the Amir of Augeas, a country somewhat like early 19th Century Afghanistan, which lies within the Southern Confederation area of the continent of Fescennia. The Southern Confederation is a "work in progress" part of the campaign, being made up of several small states, each with an individual character different from the three main powers - Nemea, Arcadia and Erymanthia.

An irregular tribal unit. I have now finished three of these units. These are 24 figures strong, but with only a third of the figures armed with muskets, the rest being equipped with swords, daggers and shields for close combat. I intend to give them a bonus for hand-to-hand fighting. The flag is from that ever-useful site, Warflag. The figures are mostly 25mm hard plastic Afghans from Atlantic, a bit fiddly to put together with my big fingers, but a lovely range of poses and easy to paint. A few metal Wargames Foundry Afghans are amongst them as well.

The Amir of Augeas' Bodyguard Regiment. The idea is that the Amir, anxious not to get left behind in terms of military tactics and technology, has raised some regular troops for his army. These are his guard unit. The figures are 28mm metal Ottomans from Trent Miniatures (acquired from Arcane Scenery, a very efficient site for sales and delivery). I have given the Amirate a light green/yellow/purple colour scheme for their regular forces, in keeping with the idea that each power has a particular colour, or set of colours, e.g. Nemea is red, while Erymanthia is blue.

The Amir himself, a rather splendid figure!