War game Shows,what do we want.

Over the last few weeks, I've been working my way through my many war games magazines,basically looking for further inspiration,and one of my favourite reads are accounts of all the shows over the many years I have been gaming.

This got me thinking about the present.

 Personally I think shows,certainly in the North of England are becoming scarce, the next one for me is Triples in May. So that will be two since the new year. After that it will be Durham and then Newcastle,finishing in December at Middlesbrough.  Five in total. There was a time when I would have attended probably a couple more. 

  Being a man,I then began to list my all time favorite shows.

•  Coming in at number 5 was Salute in the late 1990's.
•  Number 4 was Claymore when it was based at Adam House.
•  Number 3 was a Durham show which must have been in the early 1980's staged at the University. [Thats if my memory is right]
• Number 2 was the Napoleonic Fair in 2000.
• Number 1 was any Northern Militaire.

So what was it about those shows that stuck in my memory. 

    Firstly the games,some were average,most however had something to take from them. Either the terrain,the way they were presented or the figures. But all had something to offer any gamer.

 The Napoleonic Fair had two giants of the historical world,Christopher Duffy and Colonel Elting. Both men were entertaining,informative and great at keeping a persons interest.

   Salute,Northern Militaire and Claymore had great painting competitions,and a real buzz about them.

While the show at Durham had a bit of everything.

   All naturally had trade stands,but the key for me,was the games,painting and personalities.

What do war gamers get now for their money.

 Rarely a painting competition,apart from Salute.

  Never any presentations from war game's personalities [define]

So that leaves the games and more importantly the traders.

   Without the traders,there probably wouldn't be a war game's show, as most people attend now to look and buy.Hence the shows emptying by 2.30pm. 

 I saw, I bought, I dicked off. 

The logical next step would be to do away with the games and just hold a trade fair. 

Maximum profit for the show host,and more traders per square foot.

 God help us if that were to happen. Because after that you might as well stick to the internet to buy figures and do away with any type of show.

I think Partizan when it first kicked off had a good idea,invite some good games,photograph them and put them in the war games magazine. What better way to encourage gamers to try harder.

 That incentive seems to have gone by the wayside,so how do we re invigorate the shows.

 For me it has to be encouraging competition between people putting on good games,with some sort of award. A painting competition again with an award. Decent cheap parking,and food,and perhaps a couple of people prepared to discuss and present something relevant to war gamers,ie rule ideas,painting techniques or whatever. As for traders, go for diverse quality,and help them by keeping the stall price fairly low to encourage them to travel farther.

 The photographs are from our Mollwitz game staged at Durham Wargames group many moons ago.

My Inaugural Game

This report has been delayed because of Blogger changing my settings,which are still not right,so this may be my last blog for a while.
Sunday was my christening of my wargames room,with a decent sized Old School Wargame,based somewhere in Northern Germany in 1756.
 John had taken a scenario from C.S.Grants book,called Chance Encounters, which was an excellent choice. The terrain was based around a river with three crossing points,and four players,myself,John Reidy,Colin Ashton and Paul Stevenson. We each had a nation,I had Hanoverians,John Austrians,Colin Prussians and Paul French. The rules were Black Powder. The killer was the commanders level of ability. On the face of it my rating of Decisive seemed pretty good. Wrong,I was allowed re rolls on failed orders,a second failure however counted as a blunder. This was to cause me a lot of agony throughout the game.
 The poor French had the worst rating which caused the French to meander across the table, The Austrians were ranked as 'Aggressive' and the Prussians were 'Hesitant'.I wont bore readers with a blow by blow account,especially as Paul has crafted something for one of the war games magazines.
The Prussians acted Prussian like and threw themselves across the river,unsettling the Austrians, The French struggled to deploy,while the Hanoverians just couldn't move!!! quickly. The blunders kept coming and I had the edifying sight of my cavalry scattering off the table,where they had to be shepherded back on the table. Things finally worked in my favour and I was able to flank the Austrians on the last move. The game was a cracker,the banter was good,and the look was a great incentive to paint more figures. Roll on the next game.

The Austrians quickly advanced to the river,ready to take the pontoon bridge.

The Hanoverian cavalry were caught unprepared for the Austrian onslaught.

This shot was merely to show off my newly painted Warhammer chapel.

A shot of my Brunswick hussars 'running away!

 The reorganised Hanoverian guard cavalry showing how to do things.

 The upshot of the charge,was a reform in the corn fields.

 A shot of the steady Prussian advance.

My poor hussars,brace themselves for a French heavy cavalry onslaught.

 My Hanoverians cross the bridge to flank the Austrians.



 The Austrians,cling to the pontoon.

 My Hanoverians,just prior to a nasty surprise from the Austrians.

 The charge of the Prussian heavy cavalry,which halted the Austrians.

 First volley from the Hanoverians.

The figure responsible for all the blunders.

The steady Prussian advance.
 
Thanks to Paul,Colin and especially John who once again created a great sets of problems.

The figures keep coming.

I am determined to shrink my metal mountain,by hook or by crook.
 So the last couple of weeks I have tried to be more disciplined in my painting,and it seems to have paid off.I have finally finished my Jackdaw French Guard unit,seperate arms and all.
 I found these a bit hard to paint,but I do like them.
 I also dashed of a unit of the Hanoverian British legion,and also I repainted a unit of Hinchliffe Austrians,that I picked up a while ago. The figures were cheap at a pound a painted casting,and now that I have touched them up they look pretty decent. The Jackdaw figures are so big that I couldnt fit six figures on the base, but I like the irregular look, the French guard,werent the best when it came to dressing,during the Seven Years War

  

I also did a few of the Jackdaw British personalities, and after buying some Foremost horses, I painted my Imaginary! Duke,resplendant in the yellow of his ducal arms.

After checking my painted units,and the metal mountain I have decided to concentrate on mounted units,as I am a bit light of these. These chaps are Jackdaw French Dragoon types,again big figures,but full of life.

Finally I have been painting casuality bases to stand behind the units, these bases are really good value at 60 pence a base,with the casuality numbers going up to 12,so plenty of scope for slaughter.

So all in all a fairly productive month,just another half ton to paint,before this project is completed.

I am mainly watching;

I am currently cat sitting,so between eating copious amounts of chocolate,and swilling tea, I thought I would take time out to watch my latest dvd purchase, 1612.
 This film is a Russian film about the Time of Troubles, prior to the start of the Romanov dynasty.
 It is in Russian,with sub titles, but strangely I thought it added to the film.
 I got a tad confused about the hero's ability to go from downtrodden serf,to Spanish speaking warrior,
 [ but remember Orlando Bloom in that crusader film] and I must admit I liked the film.
 This film is a 15 rated, god knows how, the scenes of gore are pretty graphic,especially the scene where our hero discovers chain shot.
 On the record, I love Polish winged lancers ever since Taras Bulba ,and this film has got them in respectable quantities. The costumes are pretty accurate, and the battle scenes are well done.
 If you need a bit of Renaissance encouragement,this film is worth a punt at £6.00, thats about 4 Foundry figures,by my reckoning. 

Monday was my birthday..

My birthday was on Monday,I wont say how old I am, but the clue is in the amount of nasal hair I can now grow.Anyway to celebrate that,my wifes' birthday and the house warming we held a party at the weekend.
Invited was various people from numerous walks of life. The interesting thing for me,was the reaction from the male guests,when they entered my war games room.

Ive been very protective over the years of my hobby. I have always worked in what are perceived as macho type jobs,and the last thing I needed was some smart alec remarks from some co worker,which would have inevitably led to problems. As I have matured I am less circumspect,and frankly don't really mind anymore.

 Anyway,it was interesting to see the reactions from people,questions such as,how do you play,what are these chaps,how do you paint them,etc,etc.
To be fair even taking into account simple politeness,the reaction was good.
My point is, war gamers don't spread the word sufficiently enough anymore about the hobby.
Years ago, I staged an exhibition in my local library,in the hope it would drum up interest,the mistake I made was it was a static exhibition. Needed is someone to be present to take questions,and generally drum up support.
 I would argue that there are a lot of people out there who are looking for a hobby,but there is very little information about to point them in the direction of wargaming.Oh sure there are several magazines,how many people know that. There are still a fair number of shows,but who are aware of them,only wargamers I would argue.
 Anyway,I received some nice presents for my birthday,most importantly a regiment of Stadden Prussian Grenadiers,and what giants they are.I cant wait to paint these fellows.
I also received Dr Summerfield's The Saxon Army in the Seven Years War. What a cracking book this is.
 I have always had a soft spot for the Saxons throughout their troubled history,from the Great Northern war to the Napoleonic wars. This book is full of beautiful plates of the army,and shows the various uniforms adopted by the army from the mid 1700's onwards.Well recommended.

The Higher Ground Revisted.

I'm starting to warm to Steve Eardley's column in Miniature Wargames, I dont know whether he does it intentionally or not,but he certainly gets you thinking a bit,throughout his monthly column. Not so much about wargaming,more about what makes each wargamer tick.
His latest column is regarding Solo Wargaming,which is great,some people have no option,others do it by choice,fine.
 But somehow he manages to introduce other elements of his theme about 'class'! and 'respect'?
This follows on from his last entry about 'elitism' in wargaming.
 All I can think is that somebody really must have p*****d him off in a former life.
Its very easy to criticise people who make the effort to put pen to paper [do we still do that?] and write something for a wargames magazine, but I dont think elitism ,class and respect are issues in wargaming. Or am I being naive.
 I may be wrong but his theme seems to be,that there is a wargaming elite,made up of people that have very large beautifully painted armies of very expensive figures,on wonderful terrain. No doubt they exist,god knows that if I won the lottery I would be commisioning like mad to create wonderful large armies.
 The first time I read Charles Grants book, the Wargame, I was so jealous of the figures and the set up,similarly when I went to the Wargames Holiday Centre,I came back pretty demoralised about what I would never attain. But you get over it, and aspire to do better. Look at Barry Hilton's wonderful games,I wouldn't call them elitist, more an ideal to reach for.
 I'm grateful that Mr Eardley has given me something to write about,because this thing about class has been circulating for a while,in Britain,especially in politics. The Labour party,batter the conservatives about their 'toff' backgrounds whilst conveniently forgetting that they came from the same elite system. It shouldn't be about, ''he's a toff,so he can't possibly know what the 'ordinary'people really aspire to'', it should be are these people capable of getting us out of the mess that has been created.
 I went to a grammar school,and was classed as a 'swot and a snob' by other kids from my village. I ended up a labourer in a brickyard, so much for the idea of privilege. Its he person not the background that counts.
 I did have to laugh when Mr Eardley stated that '' WORKING CLASS and proud of it, I refuse  to recognise class distinction.''  Well surely that's what he is actually doing by stating he is working class.
 I think you would be hard pushed to find an actual definition of working class in todays Britain. I have always thought of myself as working class, but I own a nice house and have nice things,so is it now measured by income,because if thats the case how much income. Do we define it by the figures we buy,or the scale we use,because I use all scales, and enjoy collecting Garrison figures,because they are cheap.  Its the person that should be measured not their upbringing.
As regards respect, I am totally at odds with his pronouncement that everyone deserves respect and doesnt have to earn it. My concept of respect,was by measuring the actions that an individual does in their lives. I have encountered people over the years,who couldnt spell the word and certainly didnt deserve it. Is that wrong,probably,but in the context of wargaming,I have yet to meet a gamer that didnt have something worthwhile to say,or have producded something that wasn't worthwhile per se.

 To reinforce how working class I am, I had to show units from my, Plastic, vintage Brettonnian army, bought unpainted for a halfpenny and a silver sixpence an eon ago [when I worked down the pits].

 Here's me praying for more inspiration from the wargaming elite,god bless them.

 Again apologies about the rant,but thanks for  'The Higher Ground'

The Battle of Wagram,archived photographs.

I recovered these photographs of my restaging of the Battle of Wagram,staged in 6mm.I dont think Durham Group will mind me using photographs from the game I palyed at their club. I know the trend is now to use Baccus figures,which are very good,but I always thought Irregular Miniatures were the leaders in 6mm gaming.

 Ian Kay has always been amenable to casting figures that you needed,and I always liked the practicality of six figure bases. Ian also cast solid blocks of infantry,which when painted are very effective.I use these blocks for my later 1813 Prussian army.

 Rules wise,John and I always opted for quick rules,which captured the sweep of the Napoleonic period,so we naturally opted for Volley and Bayonet.I still think they havent been bettered,even after all this time,but thats just my opinion,so it doesnt really count for much.

 If I remeber rightly,the Austrians were bludgeoned from the field by weight of numbers and the better quality troops,after a stubborn fight. It was probably the right result.

 I have always tended to make specific terrain for all my 6mm battles,and I look forward to dragging out my Borodino terrain,where things are much harder for the French.