Its official. I was bad in a former life.

Well this last week has confirmed what I had suspected for a while now. I am definitely cursed. John and I played our inaugural 'Sharp Practice' game using his new figures for the War of Independence. I know I'm a bit sniffy about what I see as card table games but I must admit the rules were excellent and the game would have been really enjoyable if it wasn't for this curse. Need a one, throw a six. Dont throw a six, throw two sixes instead.  Wargamers who use these rules will know that a six is bad when one is throwing to save hits. My consistency at getting figures killed was impressive in a perverse sort of way, and dont get me started on the cards. At one stage I demanded that I be allowed to draw the cards and managed to draw only one rebel card for John's SEVEN British cards!

I purposely took the rebels because I thought the riflemen would be great to use in a small game. I was correct except they were wiped out in three moves. In fact it was fair to say that my force was literally wiped out due to my consistently bad dice rolling. I simply couldn't win an argument never mind throw a decent die. Screw the tactics I was simply a blight on my units.

So this next weekend is becoming a tad stressful as I prepare to take part in what is hoped to be the biggest wargame in the World. Waterloo, aka the Great Game at Glasgow University.
   My Young Garde are ready, my general is painted but in the back of my mind is this nagging feeling that I have a dice curse which will see me fall flat on my face.
 Worse is the fact that I will be using new figures AND newly purchased dice bought especially for the weekend. Everyone knows that new units never fight well and being Garde units the pressure is even more intense. What if they rout the first time they face some Prussian Landwher? The humiliation!
The actual event is shaping up to be brilliant, Professor Tony Pollard and his team appear to have done a sterling job regarding organisation. The weekend is packed with lectures, living history actors, a ball? and 23,000 28mm figures on a massive terrain using the Siborne research and sketches. What can go Wrong? Yep my curse. 

Anyway to take my mind of the dice I have completed a couple of cavalry units for my ECW project. They use a small number of second hand figures from the York purchase with new swords to replace the broken ones. [ Thanks Shaun] and new castings.

 I was also sent some old artillery crews by fellow blogger, Iain White so decided to paint up some more guns. They were a mix of old Mini Figs, Hinchliffe and a couple of very old Warrior castings. Wargamers can be very very generous people, so thanks again Iain. I love them.

I came across this fellow in an old box of scrap, so decided to paint  him up as a Parliamentarian general. Yes he is a bit basic, but I like the simplicity of the figure, it suits the real life general.

Talking of very generous wargamers, I received these six Spanish knights from Jason Williams who found these surplus to requirements. They originally were part of Mike Ingham's Wargames Holiday Centre collection although Jason reckoned they were older than that and had been part of the Gilder collection. Certainly some of the horses exhibited the beautiful oil, wipe off painting system.
So I did a little bit of touching up, added a few Spanish standards and rebased them. They now are part of my Spanish army for the Italian Wars. Thanks again Jason.

Yesterday was the Durham Wargames Club Open Day. The weather was biblical and travelling a bit problematical at times. The Durham club has been in existence since the late 1960's? and has a long history of hosting a wargames show. In the 1970's and 1980's they staged some big weekend events, most very successful some commercially disastrous. Now the open day is modest.

Its easy to criticise an event and I hold to the view that there is nothing better than a wargames show and appreciate they can be fraught with issues for the organisers so wont say anymore than that. Im certain the Durham members will have a debrief re yesterdays event which was very quiet and lacking in games to capture ones imagination etc.
Still they do organise a bring and buy which is a rarity nowadays and for some reason I ended up with a lot of painted Turkish renaissance Mini Figs and Hinchliffe figures which I hope to re paint and re base for my own Turkish forces. Funny thing being a wargamer!