My New Wargames Room

I thought I should provide some photographs of my before and after, new wargames room. At the moment it is in a state of disarray due to me sorting through my stored magazines and wargames books.

 Like all self respecting men, I need to carefully catalogue my collection of magazines,unfortunately there are several more boxes to collect from a friends full of wargame stuff. Is it all relevant,thats the question.If you amble around the chaos, viewers will notice various wargaming treasures,well at least in my eyes. The small boxes contain my 6mm Napoleonic armies,covering all of the nations of the wars.

The cabinet contains the majority of my Seven Years war armies,minus most of the cavalry.Looking at them there doesnt seem much to show for the effort,but it was always going to be a lifetime project.

 

 The below photograph  shows my collection of old school wargames books,that I have collected over the last few years.They will be given pride of place when I get some shelving in the room.

 This photograph shows my main Napoleonic book collection,again I wonder why it took me so long to put together. Still they are nice to pick up and read the odd chapter from.

This is my temporary painting desk,which is a bit low for my taste,but it will do until I get my table built. I seem to have overdone the paint brush collection,but I do like a decent brush.

This photograph is of my dads plaque commemerating the second anniversary of the Battle of El Alemein.My father was in the Durham Light Infantry stationed in North Africa,he very rarely spoke of the war,but was very proud of the plaque.I thought it was fitting to place it on my wargames wall. Im not to sure what he would have made of my Italian army though.He must have known that he would have a wargaming son,as he gave me various uniform items obtained from Italian prisoners of war.

                                         

My intention is to build a 12 by 6 table,modest compared to our American wargaming cousins,but hopefully adequate for my needs.Across from this room is a guest bedroom,containing two beds, for any wargaming guests who get stuck for the night.
Hopefully I will be posting photographs of my new table very soon.

I'm Back.

Well I'm Back.


The last eight weeks have been a tad stressful to say the least.

Luckily my move to my new home went pretty well, and the weather was good.

I didnt realise just how much baggage you accrue until it has to be packed then unpacked, do we really need all this 'stuff'.

The next thing is how much you actually rely on the internet and not just for blogs.I was unable to do any online shopping and really struggled trying to get Bruce Springsteen tickets, I suppose thats progress for you.
 Openreach weren't exactly customer friendly regarding connecting up my phone line.
I dont think TWELVE weeks is a prompt service, and even then my builder put in the ducting for the line.

One shock I did get was that I had mislaid four of my terrain boards that I had earmarked for Smoggycon. By mislaid I mean left them outside of the Border Reivers show in Newcastle along with my hills. I had made the boards to take to shows and they were very good, really. It just shows you how much I had on my mind.So if anyone has seen four totally flat, four foot terrain boards as per my blog photograph, I would love them back.

Anyway onto Smoggycon.

I was really pleased that the Middlesbrough club took up the mantle from the defunct Stockton show.The venue is pretty good with decent parking. The show seemed busy with a fair turnout from the traders. This year John and I were determined to put on two games, one a Flames of war Normandy affair, and I, a Seven Years War affair to showcase our rules.

I couldnt really describe my game as a game, more of a mobile display, to hopefully inspire people, and get them talking about the game etc.

I think it worked. I certainly did some talking, and lost my voice.

Brunswick Hussars move to the front to counter the French advance. [ Hinchliffe one piece figures.]

Hanoverian and Hessian grenadiers showing how well they march. [ RSM and Hinchliffe figures]

Austrian hussars showing how its done [ Again Hinchliffe one piece masterpieces]

 French artillery train.[ Jackdaw miniatures]

Hanoverian Legion Brittanique.[ Dixon Miniatures,with RSM Hanoverian grenadiers in background]

John and his son Neil, put on a fine game, with a lot of armour, that certainly looked the part, once again John lost to his son.So nothing new there then. I only managed a couple of photographs,which dont really do the game justice.

John and I finally got Charles Wesencraft to sign our copies of his two books.I think Charles never really got the recognition that he deserved, as the books are an excellent read,and still very relevant.

Charles then proceeded to go through a list of queries he had re the 'Nostalgic Whim' rules.

He certainly got me thinking about things, and the assumptions that we had made regarding who would actually be using the rules.

I was then lucky enough to have a talk to one of my painting idols, Phil Robinson. Again Phil got me thinking about how I actually paint my figures and present them.

It was pleasing to see that he has got the wargaming bug again, although I couldn't get any of his beautiful 28mm figures as he had sold them all.
Its great to be back..................

Well its that time

Tonight seems a good time to put my blog to bed, pending my house move next week.
 I gave myself a bit of a shock moving my armies up my new house, there seemed an awful lot of boxes.
I dread to think what things will be like when I collect all my magazines and books that a friend kindly stored, for 5 years!
 Still I think its been worth the slog,certainly my wargames room looks worthy of my table[ when its built of course]
 One of the stresses of moving house is all the utilities have to be sorted, so I may be off air for a while pending my new internet supplier sorting things out, fingers crossed.
 I will however be at Smoggycon in Middlesborough, pending eather and any injuries I may sustain moving home.
Anyway, onwards and upwards.

The move gets nearer.

Progress has finally been made at my new home, after some pretty bad set backs.
My hope is to move to my new home in late November,pending any more setbacks and the weather.
So my wargame painting has slowed considerably.

I have managed to do a couple of personalites for my projects.These are Jackdaw figures,from Andy's growing range.

And these chaps are Minden personalities painted as Hanoverians.

My big dread is packing everything up again, and risking damage to my boards and figures.Still its hopefully the last hurdle with the nice prospect of putting together my wargames room after the move.

I was lucky enough to buy some nice Hinchliffe Hessians from EBay which I have been basing,to supplement my allied army,to face the French.

Blackpowder2 or the Arguement of Kings.

In Issue 26 of Battlegames David Brown wrote a very interesting article regarding the plethora of modern rules that have a fixation with speed. I found the article thought provoking especially as my sloth like brain had been pondering the modern rule writers fixation with taking away the thought processes of wargamers and replacing them with something else,.
 David Brown also hit the nail on the head about the lack of written orders and their replacement by a dice induced mega move.
Which little preamble leads me onto last weeks game.
  John and I attended Colin's for a SYW game [ Blog; Carry on up the Dale], Russians v Prussians.
The idea was to stage a battle using The Arguement of Kings. Now I have played Blackpowder since their release and truthfully find them playable and usually they make for a decent nights entertainment.
 But the game didnt sit easy with me. Initially I thought it was to do with me losing the game,but I normally take losing almost as a given nowadays.
 I think what it was however was the mechanisms that the rules use.
 Firstly I was in charge of the Russians, whose commanders werent the best, just average. The troops under their command were however acceptable and imbibed with slavic stubborness.
 I was however facing a fairly more nimble foe, led by far better commanders. Additionally the Prussians were classed as trained, veteran or Elite.
The game however seemed balanced,as I did have slightly more units.
 My first gripe was Colin throwing a very low score on his dice which enabled him on move one to march right up to my first russian line. Under the new rules,this was offset by his inability to fire aftersuch a move.
Right I thought, lets see how the Prussians handle close range, and first volley fire from two large units.
 The result was quite easily really. A hand full of saving throws and a little bit of luck and the Prussian first line was unscathed.
 On the other flank John had managed to throw such a high throw that he couldnt move his units, well apart from those in march columns. Very un prussian like. This was to continue for most of the night for John.
 Next Prussian move I had to face a close range Prussian volley, not nice to say the least.You can guess the effect on my average troops. Due to their stubborness they managed to hang about, but after a second ineffectual volley, I realised that I was better off just charging in,which I did. Not exactly how I understood the SYW to have actually been. It didnt matter my Russians just got shredded. When John finally got moving my right wing was already in complete disarray, and the Prussians by another decent dice throw had turned my flank while I had to stand and watch. By the end of the night, I had only three regiments left and two brigades fleeing. The roll call for the Prussians was the loss of half a unit of skirmishers, and ONE figure casuality on the right wing.
 My gripe, it just didnt feel right. Now its a bad trademan who blames his tools, but it got me thinking; what if the Prussians had been facing my Austrians. They dont have stubborness so on move two they would have ran from the board.
 Historically right,I dont think so.
 If the Prussians had been that good, how come it was called the Seven Years war. Lets be right Frederick was lucky to hang on as he did, only poor generalship allowed him off the hook, not super troops.
 I intend to expand on this thought. The game itself was nice to look at, spoiled by something that is becoming a trend in wargaming, speed at the expense of accuracy.       

Border Reivers, Newcastle.

Well yesterday was our appearemce at Border Reivers in Newcastle.
Inevitebly it rained, as it has done every year, but it didnt seem to put too many people off.
 There has been criticisms in the past re the poor lighting, but this year seemed far better. It didnt really matter because I have some decent halogen lights,that I use.
 John,his son Neil and I put on a Flames of war game based in the desert in 1941.
I was a bit concerned because due to heavy demands on my time I couldnt really do any specific terrain, but had to use my generic show boards.
 I think they looked alright,and we got a lot of questions so we must have done something right. Oh and the Italians actually won,so that was a first.
I did enjoy the game,and not just because of the victory.

Looking around the show,there were some decent bargains in the bring and buy, including someone selling some of my old 6mm Russian napoleonics. I nearly bought them back.
I had to buy the civilain pack from Jackdaw miniatures, and Andy showed me his new Jackdaw Austrians, the grenadiers are excellent, full of character and style, and no seperate arm.
He also had a painted british regiment on show, which were very fine, and also 21st century Willie like if you know what I mean.
 The French line cavalry are due next, hey ho, more expense.
 Talking to Dave Thomas, he managed to virtually sell out of his plastics, turning in a very good profit. Dave was having to do an emergency order to get some more stock for Partizan today.

Also on sale was the Zvedva 15mm range which also sold out quickly. I think wargamers are realising the value of plastics,especially when they are detailed and made of rigid plastic.
I forgot to mention Pendragons latest product, plastic trees,which are very good and also very reasonably priced,check them out if you need decent quality trees. A good venture.
 I bumped into Charlie wesencraft at the show,who was again still bemused by the sucess of the re release of his two wargames books. He was saying that he has a set of corps level Napoleonic rules ready,but doesnt know if he should try to get them published.
Now that would be £30 I would be happy to pay.
 All in all a decent show. I tried not to buy anything, but managed to still come home with Charles Grants latest SYW book, a couple of magazines, and some more figures.
The mountain continues to grow.

Desert buildings created by Games of War from Seaham County Durham, definately recommended.



Well its been a while...........

This is more a note,to show that I am still about;
The last few weeks have been quite stressful to say the least, retiring from a job I have had for 32 years, starting a new one, ending up in London sans the riots, becoming a grandfather again and having to make copious decisions about my new house, which is moving on at a fair rate of knots.
 Oh and apart from that suffering from a ricked back courtesy of a too enthusiatic desire to chop down some trees at my new garden.
 So where did wargaming fit into this? Well its been very hard. I did manage to purchase a lovely horse driven carriage for my SYW armies.I have always admired scenarios with a coach involved,and I couldnt help myself when I saw a Britains one for sale. The next question is, do I repaint it.
 John convinced me that we needed to exhibit a game at Newcastle on Saturday, so we will be trotting out an Italian/ British encounter in Libya,circa 1941, this will be followed at Smoggycon by two games, one being my SYW armies facing Colins horrible Prussians, so no pressure there then. Mind it is also about that time that I hope to move into my new home,so definately no pressure there.
 As a typical wargamer,even with the welter of things going on around me, I still managed to pick up some new figures, Minden Hamoverians, because I wanted them! even if they are well down the list of things that need painting.
 Why do we do this, what drives us to want more figures that we will struggle to paint and game with. The smart move would be to buy painted figures,but I have conflicting feelings about this. If I won the lottery,I definately would get someone to paint for me, but even then I think I would struggle to identify with the unit. Painting seems to bring the figures to life for me, probably because I have spent so long painting the things.Mind my favourite units always rout first,or never follow what I want them to do.