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.

Plastic is Good for wargamers

 Slightly off my normal SYW ramblings I thought I should publish photographs of my latest WW2 Italian reinforcements, ie German panzer 3's, courtesy of the Russian plastic figure company Zvesda.
 These 15mm beauties retail at £2.75 each and snap together beautifully.
 The thing I liked about them apart from their cheapness, was the track system, which is in one piece and well detailed.
 Overall the model is well worth a punt,and fits well with their expensive FoW collegues.
 Wargamers have differing views about palstic,but the way I look at it is that in a time of recession,plastic is a great way to get gaming [unless its GW] for a moderate amount of money. Zvesda are bringing out panzer 4's next. The range at the moment is only small,but all are well crafted. 

The show goes on [just]

Looking at the amount of time I have in a day,its no wonder that my painting has slowed somewhat, between retiring,getting a new job, and sorting out things at my new build time has been tight.
 I think its the only thing wargamers can agree on is the lack of time we have to do all things associated with wargaming.

Anyway I managed to paint up my latest addition to my make belive force, in the personality of this lady who will command the Ducal lancers [ job sharing and condensed hours permitting]
 I would like to think that in the mid eighteenth century such considerations were de regeurre.

I also managed to finish my Hanoverian combined grenadiers,who were actually a pleasure to paint,albeit slowly. Steve Hezzlewood did a good job of designing this figure,they do look the part.
I was slightly sidetracked again by buying the latest Minden Austrian and Prussian command groups,which are really beautiful sculpts in their own right.
 I am looking forward to painting them,but perhaps not as Prussians.
 They may not be as cheap as RSM figures,but they do have their own charm.
 Anyway the next unit is the Hanoverian horse guards,which will complement the Horse grenadiers.
 Tonight I am around John's for a game,where no doubt I will be given a bit of a thrashing.

05.09.2007

I have been very,very busy the last couple of weeks,what with attempting to sort out the trades for my new house,work in general with people merrily being horrible to each other, my up and coming retirement and the arrangements for my new job.
 Anyway I was checking my wargames book [everyone needs one] and saw that 5th September 2007 was the date that I started building my Seven Years War armies.
 God its been slow, certainly slower than I anticipated, mind I did have the deviation of a Flames of War Italian army followed by a small Eighth army interlude. Still I am back on track, well at least I'm painting again.
 I seem to remember that in September 2007 I had hit what could only be described as Wargamers Block, that is when you ask the question, 'what are you doing? why are you painting toy soldiers?  and the answer comes back, I dont know!
 I think in the last 40 years or so its happened three times.
 Luckily I recovered my senses and I realise what would I do without my soldiers, the answer is my life would  have a big massive void in it, and what could fill that void, football, golf, drinking, music, Cheryl Cole, possibly but I dont think so some how. [ her loss].
 Anyway to counter the block, I took up painting 30mm figures, in colourful uniforms, what can you say.
 What a lovely feeling to lose yourself in the uniform of the Royal Escosse
 or the English Gendarmes. I defy anyone not to be impressed by the skill of the wargames designers who produce the toys we collect.
 Going back to mention of my new home, the roof is now on , which allowed me to peruse my potential wargames room.  The table I can comfortably have will be an Old School wargaming 12' by 6', god do I feel a very lucky and privilaged person, still I have to build the table yet. Mind there are a few walls and toilets to put in first.
 Anyway, any gamer who hits that 'Wargmers Block' feeling, just ask themselves, what could fill that void if there were no more toy soldiers to paint and push around a table.

 All answers on a postcard please.

A minor diversion.

I think anyone who knows or has met me, realises quite quickly that I have the attention span of a knat.
 As evidenced by this group of Foundry figures that I painted,whilst painting Hanoverian Grenadiers and a half regiment of Perry hussars that I picked up cheap at Durhams show.
 A couple of the figures suffer from the 'orc' disease but mainly they are nice figures. Just what happened to Foundry? answers please.

 The last few weeks saw me able to attend two shows in reletively quick sucession, Triples and Durham.
 Triples as has been well documented changed venues. Personally I dont mind it,as I only got momentarily lost as opposed to my usually hopelessly lost at the university venue [even though John and I go every year] The show has lost something,but I cant really say what it is, I think the best description is BUZZ. Perhaps its down to my age, but somehow I dont think so as I really enjoyed York. I still managed to part with a fair amount of cash,but obtained some fine old school books to add to my library.
 Durham was well, Durham. I dont think it professes to be a show,more of a friendly open day,and a place to meet old friends and wargaming enemies.
 Again I managed to part with cash which was needed on other things [ like gas and electricity]

 

Both shows got me thinking about what I actually want from a show. I think most gamers go for the trade first, followed by a trawl around games that may interest them,and them some bait [ food] and then home, to peruse their purchases.

 Should we not be striving for more from these events?

How can they be improved? Do they need improving?

 Am I talking out my bottom...............

Personally I do think things need a bit of a shake up if we are to progress,otherwise we might as well call them trade fairs and kick out the games,which unless they are jaw droppingly beautiful are just by passed by the public anyway.

 I know as I have staged many games, and the effort rarely was worth the attention we didnt recive.

Mind I think a lot of it was down to the 'prejuidice against 6mm.

 Over 20 years ago Durham group staged what was tabled as a Napoleonic weekend, with living history, a battle, and wargames only from the Napoleonic era. There was an Imperial Garde band, and a book fair.

That seemed to draw big crowds of folk, and certainly the majority were not gamers.

 

 I have also been to a show where wargamers linked up with train groups, it was certainly different, but I dont think it was a sucess, Too much of a gulf was between the two groups, although the terrain used by the train people was inspirational.

 So whats the answer, a themed weekend or just a big trade fair like Salute.

 Now I have also attended Salute and was totally overawed by the event, and probably missed the best bits. I was too busy entering the painting competition and didnt get to see most of the games.

 I do think prizes should be returned to encourage gamers to put on top class displays.  You cant beat a nice cup to adorn the wargames room for a year.

 I also think guest speakers could be a consideration, and it wouldnt need to be an author, just a person that has something to say about wargaming and its many facets.

 Anyway back to the paining desk, to undercoat my latest diversion, a partly clad female Willie hussar! 

 What a bloke.