An Old Site, A New Blog, and Great "Eye Candy"

Image borrowed from "Phil's War Cabinet", just a taste of what's behind the curtain.

For those that already know of him, Phil Olley is something of an inspiration to many gamers and modelers. For those that aren't familiar with Phil, or his efforts, he has a web site called "Phil's War Cabinet" here that is a "must see" at least once a week for many of us. His collection of period buildings, hand-made terrain, and absolutely glorious figures qualify as "eye candy" of the highest order. In addition to his own armies (which include many "private" figures sculpted by the talented John Ray), Phil is the current "keeper and curator" of Tony Bath's old collection of flat Ancients figures and Stuart Asquith's collection of old plastic Spencer-Smith miniatures. Phil founded the League of Augsberg Group and is a regular gaming partner of such luminaries as Angus Konstam, Barry Hilton, Stuart Asquith and Charles S. Grant (in fact. many of the games between Phil and Mr. Grant featured prominently in Mr. Grant's recent books "The Wargames Companion" and "The Raid on St. Michel" as well as in the various "Tabletop Teasers" articles in "Battlegames" magazine).

Well, it seems that Phil has decided to take a "leave of absence" from his regular pursuit of the early to mid 18th century and delve into the Thirty Years War, with an accompanying blog, "The Breitenfeld Blog", to be found here. Phil's initial plan is to focus a little before our period of interest, specifically on the period 1629-1634; from the point just before the arrival of Gustavus' Swedes up to the Battle of Lutzen. However, knowing Phil's love of all things French, I would not be surprised to see this interest expand after he fills out his initial rosters.

I am gratified, as I hope Ralphus is, that Phil has decided to include our humble blog under his list of "Online Resources and Sites of Interest", as well as the home page of the Early Modern Warfare Society (the Xenophon Group), here, which includes the excellent articles on the French of the Thirty Years War (and somewhat beyond) by "Louis Quatorze" friend and frequent contributor to my own posts, Curt Johnson.

I hope our readers will join me in welcoming Phil to the blogging community and follow his efforts. I know I will, if only to see what painting ideas I can "borrow" and what marvelous new character figures John Ray sculpts for him.

Bill