And back to more pleasant tasks.

Well I think its time to return to more pleasurable pastimes. Painting time has been in short supply for the last few weeks, but I have managed to find time to complete a couple of units.First are some dismounted Union cavalry, I based these in open order, and then discovered that in Picketts Charge one can actually have the option of them being used as infantry in closer order. Not to worry,I like the open order.

The second unit I have finished are my Maryland Regiment, the Band of Brothers. I painted these up simply because I liked the state flag. That seems to be the extent of my ACW historical research. Colourful regimental history or uniforms. These figures are a mix of figures, but in the main Foundry. I am gearing up for my first ACW 28mm game next week, but have discovered that I have more Rebel units than Union. I'm not too certain how that happened to be honest, I suppose I do favour the Confederates, so I need to focus on the Union to get things right.

I will be attending the Border Reiver Wargames show in Gateshead on Saturday, which is a decent show. I need to offload some wargames ephemera without falling for the temptation to buy new stuff from the other wargamers trying to offload their unwanted things. Last year I managed to come back with more than I went with.
 I haven't been completely idle as regards wargaming and have been reading a decent account of  Fredericksburg and my favourite battle, Antietam. The common denominator being the poor showing by General Burnside. Hindsight is a terrible thing, but Burnside consistently performed badly at both battles. I am not certain how to accurately reflect the consistent poor showing of Burnside whilst allowing the Union a fair chance of success. Perhaps I should simply throw for his figure given my propensity for poor dice throwing.
                             What was it napoleon said about 'is he a lucky general?'

I Told You So;.....................................

Toppling statues? Here’s why Nelson’s column should be next

Afua Hirsch

And right on cue, some attention seeking Guardian journalist writes and article and appears on Channel Four News demanding that Nelson on top of Nelson's column be removed because of his alleged support of Slavery. So my posts re dinosaurs wasnt far from the mark, except she didnt dare demand we remove Churchills' statue, well at least not yet. I only wish I could predict the lottery numbers as accurately.

 So for all those Corbyn supporting left wing luvvies who are also paradoxically wargamers, perhaps it's time you thought deeply about both the hobby you love and the left wing views you have, because frankly I don't see how one can square that circle.

Oh and whilst on this rant, can I suggest we remove the saintly Nelson Mandela's statue and street names from all of England. I mean HE was a convicted terrorist unlike the Admiral who saved an entire nation from French Imperialism. 

Partizan, the August Show.

 Well yesterday John and I took the longish trip down to Newark for Partizan part Two. Neither of us needed to buy anything from the attending traders, so really it was about going to see what eye candy was on show from the games. I dont think we were disappointed in that there were several stand out games that inspired and encouraged me to do better. The location of Partizan has been documented many times now, but for me it is a very good location just off the A1. The only small quibble is that it is always hot inside of the large hall. Probably caused by the mass of attendees, the roof, and Global Warming. [ Just joking about that]

I thought there were less people at the show, but it is August, and families come first for some, so I found it more pleasant to amble round, acting like the looney on the last bus and basically talking to anyone who couldnt get away from me quick enough. I have taken photographs of my favourite games only, so apologies to all the other wargamers who put on some really good games.

My first game is from wargaming royalty, Simon Chick, Dave Andrews, Dave Imrie and Mark Bickly, who in my eyes are amongst the most talented painters we have. The battle was of Crecy, so what was there not to like.

My second is by the Derby Wargames Group, who always put on a great game.

The AWI game was a particular favourite of John and contained some wonderfully painted units. Steve Jones put on a great looking representation of the rebellion. Top quality painting with lovely looking terrain.

I particulary wanted to see Ian Smith and friends 40mm game. I know he had been adding to his collection, between holidays and golf. The whole game looked brilliant, with some top qualitity painting.

                                      My favourite Napoleonic unit, the Neuchatel Battalion.

Barry Hilton had travelled down with his Napoleonics which was great to see. 

Barry believes in large units, ie 32 cavalry figures, expensive yes but great to slaver over.

When Phil Olley announced he was putting a game on at the show, I was really pleased. 18th Century imaginary units painted to the highest quality.The whole game was an inspiration, and he had broght along his revolving windmill, a real treat for me.

My particularly favourite unit on the table, decked out in Aston Villas colours, an imaginary regiment of horse grenadiers. Great regiment crap team.

Dave Docherty has been building up his Sudan armies for a while now and for me have reached perfection level,a balloons, an armoured train, loads of fuzzy wuzzies and now the flashes of led lights to represent the flash of rifles. A lovely looking game.

Im not an expert on the British Civil War, but this group had a lovely train, so it was a great thing to look at, well for me it was.

Shaun Lowery and the exiles from the Durham Wargames Group had traveled South with his ACW collection. He put on the Battle of Port Republic. Shaun has a wonderful collection of figures, that rarely sees the light of day, a fine looking game. I have known Shaun a longtime now, and yesterday he showed me why wargamers are a decent group of people, when he kindly gave me a painted unit of Zouaves that he had surplus to requirements. I just need John Ray to donate me his collection and my faith in wargamers will be cemented forever.

                               It was great to see Paul Stevenson playing with the group.

And finally, my personal favourite game, which was a participation game. Certainly not the biggest, and not packed with figures, but it contained, Gendarmes [from Steel Fist], flags by Pete Smith, some lovely looking buildings and of course it was based in the Renaissance period.The game was using Sharp Practice, a skirmish set of rules, yet it looked a lot of fun.

                                     The lads even had a cracking Da Vinci tank.

 As I have explained there were many other good games, but I have only listed my favourite games. Even though I didnt have much to buy, I still managed to spend money, on figures I didnt need,especially Steel Fist figures.
So a good day out all round. The only quibbles I had were the price of the tea, but hey wargamers need it.
  And finally I see they are still pushing the bollocks about attendees not wanting to be photographed at the show. It just seemed so, needless to me, but what do I know. Although I would love to talk to someone who actually doesnt want to be photographed at a wargames show, now that would be an interesting way to spend an hour.

Postscript to The End of the Dinosaurs.

Well I'm back from a holiday in the land of the free where between theme parks and eating
unfeasibly large amounts of food I watched the furor breaking out in Virginia. As I touched upon in my last post regarding the future of wargaming, a countries history no matter how unpalatable is in the process of being socially engineered by various special interest groups in order to suit their purposes.
 I don't seek to condone the death of the girl protester and the needless deaths of the two state troopers but watching the images of protesters tearing down the memorial to the Confederate fallen it frankly sickened me, simply because these so called liberals are acting as badly as the dangerous clowns in the KKK. Both are contemptible in their behaviour and frankly deserve to be placed in a room together to sort out their stupidity without affecting the lives of the majority of ordinary people who just want to get on with life.
 Trump has been pilloried for comparing the two sides, and it was interpreted as a clumsy attempt to justify the behaviour of the KKK. I dont think Trump is clever enough to attempt that and in fact naively tried to articulate what a lot of onlookers were thinking, namely that one side was as bad as the other.
   So where does it end? Clearly the 'liberals' will prevail becaue they usually shout the loudest and the Liberal Elite have more power, so the Confederate memorials will disappear one by one. Perhaps that is for the best, but why stop there. Because after such rage, a new target will be looked for. I fully expect to see college students holding a book burning ceremony of all books charting the history of the conflict and God help any author who has written a balanced book about the rebellion.
 The revisionists will have a field day as they re write the conflict to suit their political narratives.

  So what has this to do with wargaming? Well as I have stated before we are an easy target for such protests. Lets be right the title War and Gaming stick in the craw of inadequates looking for offence and given the effect of Social medja [sic] I fully expect some shit to come our way eventually.
  Ultra modern gaming is a case in point, fighting a game involving the Taliban or even Isis is just too good a target for some of the worthies on the Internet, and don't mention the Indian Mutiny, or the first war of Indian Liberation as I have seen it called recently?
  Given how this country follows the USA in everything, I can see our precious Snowflakes lassoing the statue of Churchill, or Queen Victoria and attempt to pull them down. I mean one was a Warmonger and the other was the Oppressor of the Indian sub continent.
 There is no defence to ignorance, so baton down the hatches and carry a very big stick, just in case.
Oh and I had a wonderful time in the USA, by the way.