Weak willed wargamer, caves in again.

Wargamers are a strange breed at times and sadly Im no different. In my last post I solemnly announced that I had completed my small Wars of the Roses army and as looking for something else to paint. Well this unit of WOR archers was the result. I like to buy old and poorly painted figures to repaint as long as they are a cheap/fair price. These chaps were. I had bought this old knight a few weeks ago and wanted to place him in a new unit so thats my excuse which was a pretty poor one I admit. 

John had been keeping a new painting project secret during this lockdown and sprang them on me at our Sword and Spear battle a couple of weeks ago. Carthaginians. I quickly pointed up an early Republican army to face Hannibal and his conglomerate army.  

The battle was a cracker. Sword and Spear are a very clever set of rules that require some thinking and a bit of luck. My Romans contained a fair few poorly trained legionaries which caused them issues when they wanted to move but I would argue it reflected the Roman state at the time of Hannibal, lots of legions but most not to well trained up against a better led group of nations each fighting in a different style. 

Those damned elephants. I attempted to use my velites to weaken the pachyderm's progress but failed badly. They do pack a punch and look great on a battlefield. 

My general wisely hiding behind his best legionaries. Unfortunately his co consul was killed in combat on the right wing. My long history of getting my generals killed continues.

One doesnt have to be a genius to know a large angry beast hitting you in the flank wasnt going to end well. But what a game and lovely to see elephants on my table. So another close but enjoyable defeat.                             

I was bitterly disappointed last week when it was announced that Hammerhead which was due to be staged on the 31st July had been cancelled. Henry Hyde provided a valid excuse/explanation of the cancellation but whilst understanding the reason I disagreed.

 It was inevitable as we stagger towards national immunity that it would be very difficult to finally be released from lockdown and given how the governments fingers were burned during the Christmas debacle they are now overly cautious. 

My view is that given the average age of people who would be attending Hammerhead I would hazard an educated guess that a minimum of 90% would have received their 2 doses of vaccine by the 31st July. A cursory check by the people taking the cash at the entrance would have given a decent level of reassurance to even the most fainthearted of wargamers that all was safe. But no.

 Unfortunately the concept of risk aversion has inveigled its way into all aspects of our lives. Now before anyone jumps in and thinks Im one of those headcases who believes Covid is just a bad case of flu and created by the 'controllers' ie poor Bill Gates Im not. In fact I have a very healthy respect for the insidious disease having contracted it when the crisis first struck. But what I will say is that we have to make the last stuttering steps towards something like normality and cancelling events which could have gone a long way to showing us things were okay would have been a good thing.

  I will admit my judgement is a tad clouded by simply wanting to enjoy the interaction of being with other wargamers but by the same token we seem to have now entered a period of being transfixed by an unknown fear that is potentially manageable with a bit of common-sense and understanding the risk.

 I never thought I would admit that I miss the smell of unwashed bodies and barely washed tee shirts.