Introducing Battle Chronicle: The Retreat from Moscow

 

Last weekend marked the beginning of a brand-new miniature adventure, and it feels good to finally lift the fog of war just a little.

I’ve been working with Paul from the Pazoot Channel on a project called The Battle Chronicle. Paul has been deep in rules-writing mode, while I’ve been handling playtesting, staging the games, and—alongside my mate Ray—capturing plenty of photos and footage as the project starts to take shape on the tabletop. What you’re seeing in the pictures here is our first big playtesting session, where ideas stopped being theory and started becoming desperate little struggles in the snow.

So what is a Battle Chronicle? Each one is designed as a self-contained narrative skirmish mini-campaign. Inside a single booklet, you’ll find a complete skirmish ruleset, four linked scenarios, and a tightly focused historical theme that drives the action forward. The goal is to create something that feels like a story unfolding, not just a series of disconnected games.

The first Chronicle is set during Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. The focus is on survival: stragglers clinging together, shattered formations, collapsing morale, and constant hard choices. It’s built as a cooperative experience, with players working together against an automated enemy system. In play, that has already led to some wonderfully tense and unpredictable moments—exactly the kind of drama this period deserves.

For Ray and me, this project has also been the perfect excuse to finally put our Retreat from Moscow collection on the table in a proper, story-driven way. Instead of one-off encounters, we’re seeing units carry their scars from game to game, and decisions in one scenario ripple into the next. It feels closer to history than a casual pick-up game ever could.

If you’d like a quick glimpse of how it looked in action, I’ve posted a YouTube Short showing moments from this very session. And next week, I’ll be releasing a longer video where I talk in more detail about the playtesting process, what we learned, what broke, what surprised us, and why playtesting is such a crucial part of building any set of rules. There’s plenty more frostbite, panic, and last-stand heroics to come.

Does accepting free products change how honest a review can be?

One of the quiet but powerful forces shaping modern hobby YouTube is the rise of free review products. Rulebooks, miniatures, paints, tools, and even entire games are regularly sent to content creators in exchange for coverage, often with the promise of an “impartial” review. On the surface, that seems harmless, even helpful. After all, it lets viewers see new products without having to buy them first. But beneath that surface sits a much more complicated question: Does accepting free products change how honest a review can be?

In this video, I explore that tension from the perspective of a historical tabletop wargamer and miniature painter. Over the last few months alone, I’ve received more than a dozen offers of free products to review, including three different 3D printers, despite never having used one on the channel. I turned them all down, not because they weren’t generous offers, but because they would have pushed the channel away from what it’s actually about. Accepting a free product doesn’t just mean opening a box; it means committing time, energy, and creative focus to something that might only be there because it costs nothing.

That’s where the real danger lies. Free products don’t automatically make someone dishonest, but they can quietly distort priorities. They can pull creators toward what is being offered rather than what they genuinely want to explore. In a hobby built on long projects, deep dives, and slow creative work, that shift can be damaging.

The video also looks at the other side of the argument: are reviews of things we buy ourselves really more objective? Paying for a product doesn’t remove bias; it just changes it. We all want our purchases to feel justified, and that can colour how we talk about them. Whether something is free or bought, what really matters is transparency, context, and a willingness to talk about both strengths and weaknesses.

Throughout the discussion, I argue that trust in the tabletop and miniature painting community doesn’t come from pretending money and freebies don’t exist. It comes from being honest about them. Viewers deserve to know whether something was bought, gifted, or part of a larger collaboration so they can judge the opinion for themselves.

If you care about historical wargaming, hobby YouTube, and the future of honest reviews in our niche, this video digs into a topic that affects us all, whether we realise it or not.

Interview with me on Pazoot Wargaming

Ray and I hit the road and headed down to Dover for what turned out to be an absolutely fantastic day of gaming, filming, and hobby chat with Paul from @Pazoot-Wargaming. If you’ve watched Paul’s channel, you’ll know how full of energy and enthusiasm he is about all things tabletop — and meeting him in person was every bit as fun as we’d hoped. From the moment we arrived, the welcome was warm, the tea was flowing, and the conversation quickly turned to miniatures, rulesets, and all the strange and wonderful stories that come with this hobby of ours.

Between filming and gaming, Paul made sure we were extremely well looked after — let’s just say the food was far too good to resist! All in all, it was a perfect wargaming day — great company, great games, and plenty of laughs. Huge thanks to Paul for hosting us!

#BoltAction #Wargaming #Miniatures #TabletopGaming

Moscow & St Petersburg Opolchenie

More units for my collaboration project with Ray are getting finished as part of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Our joint Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow in the winter of 1812 project is coming together and both of us have been getting lots of units completed.  

In addition to the regular Russian army, the Tsar could call upon a huge number of volunteers to provide reserves and garrisons, and even fight alongside regular infantry. The Opolchenie militia enrolled over 220,000 men in 1812 and became a vital element in Russia’s defence. During the French retreat from Moscow, the Opolchenie were increasingly used to pursue the French and in front-line roles alongside regular units, which were by this time tired and depleted. The training was rudimentary at best with an emphasis on musketry and the charge. 

These two units are Front Rank figures and represent some of the better-armed “Jager” Opolchenien equipped with a rudimentary uniform and a Musket. There were also some mounted units armed with lances and other foot units armed only with a Pike and an axe. These would often follow up the Jager units and some sources refer to these troops as ‘foot cossacks’. Although initially used only for reserve roles they were increasingly used to fill gaps in regular troops. What they lacked in training they often made up for in bravery and ferocity in melee. 

Both units have a Kaftan-style jacket and trousers, and a backpack with black belts which wouldn’t be out of place in a regular Jager unit. The Moscow Opolcheine are dressed in brown with a tall fur hat, while the St Petersberg militia are in green with a soft cap similar to the infantry forage cap. In both cases, they display a brass cross symbol on their headgear, a symbol of their loyalty to the Tsar. 

I think I am going to buy more Opolochenie although I think my next lot will be the pike-armed variety plus some cavalry… yet again I am expanding the army before I have finished painting the first batch! 

Painting Together: The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

This week I am talking about the benefits of painting together to get projects finished.

Collaborative painting, whether that is sitting down with friends or taking part in a competition like the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, can boost productivity and keep the paint flowing. I have painted whole armies during previous challenges, sometimes two at a time! This year I'm tackling something new but I know that whatever I start will be finished by the end of the competition in mid-March.

 

The Secret Project Revealed!

Several months ago, I was planning to paint three armies for 1066. I'd purchased all the miniatures, started working on the army lists and basing options, and found a set of rules that I was excited to try. Then I had a call from Ray. "Fancy working on a collaborative project?" he asked. "What about the 1812 Retreat from Moscow?". Before the phone call had finished, I had already made my first online purchase. 

This is a period that I have wanted to do for a long time, but the idea of taking on the whole thing single-handed was daunting. I've never painted any Napoleonic figures before, and aside from fantasy figures for D&D or Frostgrave, I rarely paint anything in 28mm. So from the beginning, this was going to be a huge but exciting challenge. And of course, the best forum for a challenge of this nature is the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge which starts in a little under two weeks. 

I have taken on painting the Russians for this project, and so far I have purchased a mixture of North Star figures (from their Muskets & Tomahawks range) and of course from Perry Miniatures. Both Ray and I want to use Sharp Practice II for this project so unit sizes are small (8 figures per unit in most cases). That suits me just fine because I am moving outside my comfort zone where I normally paint 6mm or 15mm figures. 

Although we have not yet been able to get started on these armies, we have been able to get a lot of prep done before the Painting Challenge starts on the 21st of December. However, a significant portion of my army is currently in the hands of my wife, who is giving me the gift of Cossacks and Russian artillery this Christmas. 

And what has happened to my 1066 project? Well, the tree armies are mounted on sticks ready to be primed, but will now be completed after the Retreat from Moscow. I will complete them in time, but I can feel the chill wind of the Russian Steppe calling to me. I have to say, buying 28mm in large quantities for the first time in over thirty years has been quite a shock to the wallet! Three 6mm armies for 1066 have cost half what I have already spent on this new project, and there are still a couple of extra units like the Opolchenie Militia and Hussars that I haven't purchased yet. 

Hopefully, I can get the first figures for this completed quickly (I have some time off over Christmas, so I can get more painting time!) and of course, I will post updates here and on the Channel as the project comes together.