A Nice Dollop of Nostalgia.

I was lucky enough recently to purchase some more Wargamer's Newsletters. This time from Italy! These covered the years 1968 through to 1971.
 Issue 111 was of particular interest as Donald Featherstone documented that he had suffered what all wargamers suffer from that is waning enthusiasm.
Luckily for us,he naturally recovered and then listed what had occurred to lift his waning enthusiasm. What I found of particular interest was the amount of television interest wargaming had generated.Sadly I never saw the programs,as  I was in the throes of discovering girls,and rock music, with my wargaming filling only the odd hour of the day. Anyway I hope these scans are readable,as I thought they were of great interest to all nostalgic loving wargamers,ie me.

My Second Game, on my new table.

If someone had once said to me that I would be gaming Second World War,and actually collecting them I would have shown my backside in Woollies window.But it happened. Firstly John went daft for Flames of War,and I thought collecting the Italian army was a good idea. So for my second game and to show how down with the kids I can be,John and his son Neil brought their extensive mid Flames of War armies to my house for a large thrash.
 With guest Paul Stevenson, and myself as confused second in commands we re fought an encounter in France circa 1944. I think the best way to sum the game up is that poor Neil was lumbered with me on the German side,and my troops then proceeded to fight very un German like, not so much a Blitzkrieg advance,more a crab like saunter.
Luckily I was facing Paul, who had a mix of Americans and some standard British infantry and more importantly some poor dice throwing.
Poor John got a bit of a battering from Neil's Panthers, who caused a lot of damage to the main British attack. Somehow however the luckless allies, managed to suffer only a minor defeat  from what seemed like a complete drubbing at one time. Overall a moral victory for the allies,but still I'm classing it as another win for me.

 One of my 88's which hit nothing all game.

 John sends forward his crocodiles

 Neil, was very proud of his pipe cleaner smoke trails on his rockets.

 John sent in his Typhoon,which should have been titled Buffoon for the damage it caused.

 The final throw of the allied dice,the Sherman reserve.Things were pretty bad by then.

 Still it was a great day,with lovely figures,and some good banter. What better way to spend a Sunday.

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.