New Stuff...worth a look!

I have had an odd few days, ticking along, minding my own business, and then I was hit by not just one, not two...not even three but FOUR cool new wargamey things all at once! Each alone is worthy of comment but I think they are all worth sharing with you. Take a look for yourselves and see what I mean.....

A Sheerness based trader - I know...who knew! I have spoken to him...his name is Steven and he actually exists...really! He has a website, although he took pains to say that this was a work in progress, that is very promising...he is even stocking Vallejo paint!! But it gets better...I have invited him along to the club where he will eventually bring along some stock for members to buy...especially the paint... take a look at http://wargamesolutions.com/

 Polly Oliver Castings - Remember them? The produced some very nice 15mm AWI figures back in the 1990's but closed in 1999.

The Polly Oliver 6lb gun and crew....nice

Well, they have been bought out and are soon to return to the wargame world! They have a website that is currently under construction and a new blog that promises to be useful. Plans are afoot it seems to add to the range but also to stock supporting items such as an extensive range of quality flags; their words....well, I say 'their', the company seems to be fronted by an enigmatic character call Polly Oliver...the lady herself perhaps? She writes the blog and answers the emails with a very personal touch. Something worth watching I think as Polly seems to have some definite plans! She has asked me to pass on details of the blog and encourage people to follow....and I never refuse a lady....so go take a look. www.pollyoliver.co.uk & http://meetpollyoliver.blogspot.co.uk/

Cool looking game mats - I actually fell over this company whilst looking on the web for something quite unrelated, but I am so glad that I did! look at this...

Neat eh? As their name, Space Mats & Battle Mats, suggests they produce space mats, several different ones, a sea mat and land mats. They are printed onto PVC it seems so are easy to clean and to store...just roll them up! I have invited the owner, Chris, to Broadside, we can only hope :) Chris also says he can make bespoke mats, oh the possibilities. The mats come in a variety of sizes up to 6 x 4 but he seems very flexible and customer related. Take a look at his site https://www.facebook.com/battlemats

Donnybrook: A new set of rules - Damn it! Like I need another bloody distraction!!!!! The League of Augsburg guys have brought out a new set of ostensibly late 17th C. skirmish rules.

They seem to run to the recent popular rule system of one point buying a fixed number of troops, from larger numbers of poor quality troops to small numbers of great ones; bit like Saga. I am told that they will work with almost any period and are gaining widespread interest very quickly. Now you just know where this is going, don't you? The trouble is that I do not think the current range of figures suits such rules, they tend to be a tad 'regimented' in pose, needing a rather looser, skirmishy look. I need to get a set and read them through to see just what is actually needed. This might be just the way I can deal with my worrying 'need' for something late 17th C. without going nuts.....who is with me? .....I can't hear youuuuuu........hello?

IT LIVES !

Imagine.....

       A roll of thunder..........

              A rain soaked night alive with lightning......

                       A howling wind tormenting the turrets of the obviously evil castle....

                                More crashing thunder and a lightning bolt that splits the very fabric of reality......

A surge of power bordering daemonic in intensity writhes through the incomprehensible workings of the damnable machine, dials spin, screens flash, restraining bolts scream; and then an eerie silence descends. The weary and soulless eyes of the operator, crazed by months of failure despite endless research and new experimentation, look up through the smoke at the now hated but curiously loved focus of his insane devotion. There is a delay, just a second or two, but for the near destroyed mind of the operator age passes age....and it appears! It is there, at last, alive and pulsing with a life born of anguish but so full of hope and potentiality that it towers beyond time and space. Yet all was so nearly lost, but for the change of that solitary line of code.........

It lives! 

IT LIVES!!

The operator checks again, to be sure. There it is. Oh it may look weak and empty now but in time.....in time it will grow! It will need care...and understanding of course...but what is that compared to the future it beckons? Life may be a mere Bagatelle, but this? Oh, sweet child of manic and selfless devotion....Oh, sweet child of your peoples hopes and dreams.....of need and desperation....hear our prayers.....

"...please do not get hacked again..."

Bloody websites! Is it me or are they a total pain in the arse? Yet what would we do without them? The MHWC website was killed off, as you may remember, a few months before Broadside 2013. It caused us no end of grief and the help we received from those being paid to offer such help was negligible. In the end the only option left for us was to start again, not something that any of the membership was remotely experienced with. So, as any good chairman should, I took responsibility. I am good at that, when anything goes wrong at home it seems that the responsibility is mine...or at least that I was responsible which adds up to the same thing....apparently.

The new club website  

www.mhwc.co.uk 

or 

www.miltonhudredwargamesclub.co.uk 

if you prefer a less snappy address to type, is now back. Ok, its not as full as it once was but I am working on that. I have two very basic pages in place and now an events calendar waiting to be filled in. The front page is a basic Welcome-Mat affair with the relevant info about who we are and what we do. The second page is for Broadside and this has several sub-pages being prepared to cover traders and clubs etc. Soon, I hope to have a links page for traders, the ever popular Polls will return (if I can remember how I got them the last time).

What would you like to see on the new website? I would love to hear from you all about what you think a wargame club website should run....what about what it shouldn't run? Come on Guys, get in touch and give us your ideas and thoughts.

Also, please pass it on that the website is back and that if anyone is interested in Broadside 2014 they now have a place to go!

Warhammer - the STD of wargaming....

I started proper wargaming at the age of eleven, having previously spent many a happy hour alone in my room with my toys wargaming in all but name. I am now forty seven and the bug has never died, if anything it grew and became all consuming, having other people to wargame with! I have had many a casual dalliance with various periods over the years, flitting between one thing and another as the interest arose and passion became inflamed...then casting that aside as the new love of my wargaming life appeared on the scene......is it me or is this post getting a tad saucy? Well, can't be helped, I am a man of great passion after all and I make no apology for it.

Anyway, as you know I have recently been involved in that 'Wargame Nasty', Warhammer, something that I have showed no previous interest in at all...good, wholesome, clean living boy that I am. I have sneered derisively at the mere thought of such a game and considered those that did play to be in the foetid pit of wargame debauchery, not a little odd and a tad...well...wargame perverted; there, I have said it. But now..........

I collected a small Skaven army, nothing too involved, I could give it up anytime I wanted of course. I read the army book, did a bit a maths and with my proper wargame mind calculated a point based army that was well rounded and militarily sensible and even plausible...apart from the magic spells options. It all got a bit runny after that.

Then I played my first game...actually, it was a bit worse than that...if I am truly honest dear reader. I actually fielded an unpainted army.......I know, I am sorry! I didn't mean for it to go as far as that, I really didn't you must believe me! ..... I played a warhammer game with an unpainted army that I owned and as if that was not terrible enough.......I enjoyed it. I'm sorry, I need to stop for a moment.........










OK. so I played my first game. I won. But more than that I found myself getting to like that simple way the game worked, the way one could build an army without the restrictions and the oppressive Victorian social values...even the strange magic element where you can blow up an enemy with a weird spell...or make it melt...or change sides....and that a game only lasted  for six simple turns and could have an actual result at the end of it......it wasn't complicated....the armies were fun, my Skaven have a very good chance of blowing themselves up at the drop of a hat and I liked it all the more. I arranged to play a second game at the next club meeting and I found myself looking forward to it.....

I played a second game with the unpainted army and already I had a very good understanding of the rules and could even run sections of it. I made movement trays for my large Clanrat units...I even offered to help touch up and re base a friends 15mm ancient army in return for some old Skaven models and it was then that it hit me; I was lost with little hope of a safe return. The true depth of my condition was brought home to me at this years SELWG, I actively encouraged my good, good friend to buy a warhammer army book and the beginnings of an Ogre Kingdom army.

As the title of this post states, Warhammer is the STD of wargaming.....its all just simple fun until you realise you have become infected, and then you get the urge to pass it on......

Broadside 2013 - An organisers tale.......

Well, that's Broadside over for another year!

Except it isnt, of course; we now start all over again and begin preparations for 2014 and even some work for 2015...should we all survive that long and judging by how knackered I am now I am not so sure. It takes a good week to get over each Broadside weekend; hence the lateness of this blog post. To be fair, I was also waiting until I had looked at the general feedback of other blogs and emails before typing but now feel the time has come...that, and the fact I can now actually sit up straight again!

All of the blogs you will find that talk about Broadside are really positive, everyone seems to have had a great time," saw some fantastic games, met up with friends and bought some cool gear"; what more can you ask of a wargame show? As the event drew to a close and we started packing up, plenty of happy campers came over and thanked me for organising the day and congratulated the club for putting on a great show. For me, this is the proof that the hard work was indeed worth it. Those people could have just gone home but they took the time to find me and those that couldn't find me sent emails soon after; all this means a great deal to me personally.

As for the show itself, there is little point me telling you all things that you will find everywhere else in Blogland so, instead, I thought I would share with you a little of what it takes to put on such an event, a bijou diaryette if you will. of how the show builds. The bottom line here is patience.....buckets and buckets of patience. And steely determination....maybe some decent Gin. And some Asprin.

Actually, better throw in another bucket or two of patience....

Are we ready for a long tale heroic deeds and derring do? Then pull on you reading socks and I will begin....

(Please not that this blog post is in no way meant as a criticism of our wonderful traders and visiting clubs, rather an tongue-in-cheek rant :) )

Lets us go back full circle, to this time last year and the end of Broadside 2012. By now I was already starting to receive one or two bookings for the next show, but was still in the process of debriefing sessions to identify mistakes and solutions. So many things happen all at once during a show it is important to get each issue clear in our minds. Most of these are very small and get dealt with quickly with little fuss but lef,t they build up into a gang with their mates and lurk about the place waiting to kick the crap out of you. Remember, we are a small club with less that a dozen members and so we need to make sure each guy is used as effectively as possible. Based upon the feedback and debriefings we re structure our staffing points to take problems into account. Now we start to contact clubs and traders again and a long period of communication and negotiation starts.

I email everyone that took part the previous year and offer them first refusal of their stand. We spend months contacting people, hundreds of emails go out but just a dozen or so are ever responded to. This can be very disheartening to the novice but we have come to understand that these initial emails are really seeds. We plant them and much later, if we are lucky, they bloom! Generally all at once, three weeks before the show, asking for space that has long been sold!!! The lack of initial response may be normal but when you organise such an event it cannot be relied upon. I sit at my PC and trawl through lists of wargame companies, contacting them all individually and inviting them to take part; day after day, company after company.

By about Christmas time I have a list of confirmed traders and clubs, usually less than half of what we need but those seeds will be sprouting soon. The insurance needs paying, the advertising has to be booked in (need to make up the ads of course) and pay for the hall. I now start to get the run of emails and phone calls asking for forms that have already been sent, questions about costs that are actually clearly printed in bold type of the very forms the caller/emailer has in their own hand at that moment and, amazingly, one call that was made just to check that the phone number on the form was for the show and for the booking in case I had missed one off. Now open the second bottle of gin....

And about now our club website was hacked and killed off...permanently. Thankfully, Brigade Models offer us a page on their site for the Broadside stuff and we make use of this blog and the Facebook page. Can anybody else hear that odd high pitched whistley sound? no?

By January we are really flying. Many traders do not even start to look at booking shows until late January so with this in mind we start the third round of mass emails. This is supported by dozens of phone calls to follow up leads and to make personal contact with the trader. This really helps and gives you the opportunity to encourage the trader to take part, a personal bond is created that is very much a part of the friendly nature of Broadside events. More forms need to be sent for those that have been lost or eaten by the recipients daughter's rabbit (I jest not) or that are on the recipients pc somewhere but they cannot be bothered to look so can I have another one sent to me please (again, I kid you not). This goes on in this exact fashion for several months. At this point you are now taking Gin and Asprin in equal measure in the desperate hope the headache goes away or you die, either option is by now very much on the table.

You really can't hear that sound? High pitched but kinda wobbly in the middle?

We now start the fun task of building the hall plans, positioning the various traders and clubs. The traders want various table sizes that we need to plot carefully so no two with similar stock are placed too close together. The clubs all have very different needs table size wise and we need to position those with similar care...like a tetris game that needs evacuation aisles. Of course, not all club and trader spaces are full yet so this plan is in a constant state of tweek and flux. This way we can keep a close eye on available space and know how many more clubs or traders we can fit in.

By March we now confirm the parking arrangement with the council (don't ask...just don't). The stuff that went on in January and February is now happening on a weekly basis rather than monthly. More phone calls, more emails, checking which club members are actually going to be able to help on the day, buying new signs, club shirts for new members etc etc. Just a few months to go and space is getting very tight. Sixth round of emals and calls, these follow ups are very useful as many have been meaning to get in touch but havn't got around to it yet. Can I have a form sent again please? (the fourth in one case). There is little Gin left.

Its ok, that high pitched noise has gone now, I think the purple chicken scared it off.

By April the emails and phone calls both in and out are an all day every day occurence. The fire fighting now starts, small problems start cropping up that need smart attention, issues with the hall, staff, trader needs more/less space. Club has no idea why you are contacting them about their game, they are not involved...are we? We are?! Oh, Bob/John/Thingy didn't say.... Trader desperately wants a trade stand, only need 6ft please fit me in....what do you mean we are already in and have booked and paid for a 12ft stand..really? oh, ok. Hall plans need urgent change as club game has now expanded to 12x8 but later that day they have changed their minds and the game so now only need 6x4! That purple chicken is eating the carpet! We order the tables, a major expense this year as the club games are bigger and more of them.

May. One month to go. Completely out of Gin and Asprin, I am sure the Purple Chicken has some but the bastard wont share. It now lives under the desk and has taken to whistling the theme tune to Dixon of Dock Green. By now we are full and the hall plans are finalised, several revisions to tweek layout for safety. I now email every trader and club with an individualised plan for the show. They are told in clear simple terms what hall they will be in, where to park and how to use the all important parking voucher, where they will be in that hall, what time they can get there to set up. They are told that their table will be clearly marked on the day and that on their table with that name plate there will be any receipts, sandwich chits and parking vouchers. I ask that they respond to that email so I know they have received and understood this important communication. Less than half respond.

Ten days to go. I now spend most of the day every day finalising plans, printing notices, receipts etc., I get call after call and email after email asking what time can I get there to set up - or - what do I do about parking - or - what hall are we in this year. I spend time under my desk bonding with the Purple Chicken. I have meetings with the hall staff to ensure we are all singing from the same sheet and they understand what we need done with the hall. They are supposed to lay out their own tables for us and make sure areas are clear. Hmmm.

The Saturday before the show. Eight phone calls about parking/entry time/what hall between 8am and 3pm. At 4pm we meet at the hall to set up the show. Told the main hall in use till 4.30! It was actually empty with the lights off although the previous user had left large nets out, barrier walls etc. Oh, and the tables had not arrived yet. Tried to set up small hall but the large stage and other gear still in place. Duty manager and very small pretty girl from the centre arrived to sort out hall. It now starts to go runny. I explain how the hall needs to be set up, despite sending them annotated plans previously. I note the Purple Chicken has come with us and is wandering about the hall. The stage needs to be broken down and put into the store room...where the tables are. It all gets very confused as we desperately try and get the tables out and positioned as equipment is being put away to provide the space we need. In the main hall the tables have arrived but many are the wrong type! We manage to sort things out eventually and have just enough of the type we need to cover the game areas...phew! We are finished by 6pm and three traders are setting up in the main hall. Last job of the night, Mark and I place all the trader and club name plates on the relevant tables, along with parking vouchers, receipts, food chits and a small pack of Broadside 2014 flyers. Remember this last bit.

Sunday, D Day. I arrive just before 8am and things are already moving nicely. So far so good. the centre cafe has not put enough staff on despite my repeated warnings and are then thrown into near panic when I mention that the people here now are only the exhibitors...the public, between 300 and 400 of them, arrive from 10am. Two trader no shows by 10am, new plans in place to cover this by redistributing the table to avoid gaps. Minor dispute between two traders, dealt with quickly and problem solved. Seven, count them, seven traders and clubs complain they have not been given parking vouchers. Visited each in turn and showed them their vouchers with their name plate as explained in the emails they all got previously. Received apologies. Purple Chicken seen stealing packets of crisps from vending machine. Trader no shows now known to be caused by a broken leg day before whilst moving house and the other due to van break down on M25. Spent the day firefighting various minor issues, checking on clubs and traders...actually managed to spend thirty five mins looking at show for my self, first time in three years!

Best game in show award given to Deal Wargamers! Many thanks to our good friend Henry Hyde for being our judge for the day and Pen & Sword for being our show sponsor. And also, just as importanly, many thanks indeed for all those who took part in Broadsie 2013, be you a trader, club or visitor! You all go to make the show the success that it is rapidly becoming!

I got home at about 7pm. I then spent four hours going through all the cash, receipts, B&B forms, entrance demographic charts and reports. For those interested, Broadside cost almost £2500.00 to stage. Just 10% of our visitors came from our local area, 59.5% from Kent and 30.5% from beyond Kent.

I hope that this inside view of the show has been of interest and that you have seen a little of what running a show actually takes.

A 'Crappy Figure' rant...

I am sure I have mentioned this before in various posts, it is a subject dear to my heart....like acid reflux...but I am sooo sick of crappy wargames figures. But wait, I hear you all cry. We live in a free market economy Leofwine, you do not have to buy these crappy figures that befuddle you so; it would also save us having to read about your odd rants! Fair comment, but my issue is that the chaff is hidden away amongst the wheat and you only realise you have crappy figures when it is too late.

Let me give you some examples. Only the other day I was cleaning up some Gripping Beast Norman figures for my Saga force. You can buy a Saga unit as a sealed pack and here in lies the issue. If a company has some odd looking figures that they cannot get shot of because no bugger likes them, then what better way of clearing them out than by stuffing one or two into a 'unit pack'? In the Norman infantry/spearman pack you get the required eight figures, one is standing there with his shield on the floor and resting against his leg. The figure is nonchalantly leaning over his shield and all that is missing is a fag in his hand to give him that really accurate 'Bored Guard in charge of the latrine' look. Now, what use is such a figure on a wargames table in a dynamic skirmishing/battle unit? There are a couple of similarly 'Guardy' figures in this pack that really make me lose faith in Gripping Beast....and I really love Gripping Beast usually. Also, the crossbowmen are a real pain as the prods (the twangy bits of a crossbow) come as a separate piece to be glued onto the stock. These are not only fiddly but are starting to cast badly and are different sizes. Picky? Possibly, but I was already on a downer over the stupid spearman figures and the crossbowmen were the next lot to put together.

Let me now turn to Renegade. Now, I should make it clear that, as with Gripping Beast, I love Renegade. The figures can be a little large compared to some 28mm figures but they generally look great and are fantastic value for money. You can often get some fantastic deals from Renegade too, buy four of their eight figure blister packs and get a fifth one free, or by so many regiment packs and get another free. These generous offers on top of an already generous figure price and you get a brilliant deal. However, I bought the WW1German infantry regiment only to find that, yet again, the regiment packs had some bloody awful figures in them. Guys carrying boxes, officers looking like they were next in the queue for negotiable affection...just where would you use such figures????? The blurb on many company websites and flyer's states that the figures are meant for wargamers and collectors, to my mind this is a get out clause so crappy and unusable figures can be dumped into your pack! Now, I do think that there is a major difference between the more linear units of say the Napoleonic period or ECW and WW1. In the linear period packs where the unit is more formal and regimented in stance and look an odd looking figure can be hidden and may even be acceptable. Not so in a more mobile period unit...or is it just me??? Its ok, you can be honest. I am married to Mrs Leofwine so I am used to criticism.

Old Glory seem to have similar issues with some of their 15mm packs. A good friend and fellow MHWC member, Martin, uses them a lot and it is easy to see why. Martin has some lovely looking figures in his SYW and ACW collections and he likes a big unit too. But even he tells me that in the large packs these ranges are sold in he will often end up with a pile of musicians or some other figure you would ordinarily  only need one of. Just what do you do with these damn things?

Ok, these packs may well work out cheaper and provide value for money, but much of this is lost because you cannot use X number of figures and so have to buy extra packs to compensate. How many of you remember our early days playing with airfix figures? Fine when you are six and need to add a running narrative to your games and a suitable dynamic and expressive soundtrack (weeeee, booom aaarrgh, booom etc.) As we got older of course this change...a bit....and we needed more regimentation in our figures. The amount of figure posed doing something random and odd was a real pain then and so how pleased were we all when we discovered proper wargame figures....most of which you bought individually so no waste!! Is it me or are we sliding backwards a tad here? Or, worse given that I am now 1046 years old, am I turning into a grumpy old man???

Okay, rant over. Thank you for listening.

A Cavalier attitude or, what I did instead

I didn't get to go to Cavalier this year, wifey was ill and so I stayed home to comfort her...I am a nice guy after all. 'Ealdgyth', I said, for 'tis her name, 'Ealdgyth, if the pain gets too much fear not, for thou shalt not find me wanting when the time cometh-eth'. A smile crept over her face that said she was indeed deeply comforted...or it may just have been another bout of wind it was difficult to tell that day; poor little love. 'I am a dab hand with the ol' pillow my sweet and would not stand by whilst you suffer...'. A small tear ran from her eye so touched was she.....although, she declined my suggestion that it might be a good idea to practice a bit (emergency pillow always on stand-by, just in case).

This all left me with a little spare time so I decided to familiarise my self with the Operation Squad rules again, in preparation for my game with Mark on Tuesday....only to find that they were missing! I thought I had lent them to club member Bob C. but no. Luckily, I did have a copy of the 'Modern' version of the rules at hand and a copy of the rules explanation sheet I drew up last year. I always get a tad confused on the mortar rules and didn't want to slow the game up. That took up a while and I am now better prepared....possibly...all I need now is some decent die rolls. Yeah, I know. I'm screwed no matter how well I know the rules. Mortars are a bit tricky to use in Op Squad. They can fire at a target in the open and in their own line of sight, so no problem there, but they need to be directed by the squad Sergeant and be within 20cm of him to hit anything else. The Sergeant must first 'spot' the target figure and then communicate that to his squad members, including the mortar crew. The mortar can then fire at the newly acquired target during its own activation phase....as long as the target doesn't move before the mortar can fire. Choosing a suitable target and getting good priority rolls is important.

That done, I took the dog for a walk in a local park I had not been to before and ended up considered the local topography in relation to the known historical features of the island (Sheppey). The park must have been part of an old estate although there are no obvious features that indicate a focal point, nor are there any obvious medieval manorial sites other than those still intact; it could be an Early Modern landscaped estate though, cool. Sheppey has a very interesting history and I think I have identified two possible sites for a conquest period Norman castle (other than the later one at Queenborough)...maps, field walking and aerial photographs can be so useful! There is a lot of history here that would be of interest to a wargamer for scenario ideas. Ah, the joys of being a wargaming social historian....anyway..........

So, after all of this (plus lunch, housework, a decision to paint up one box/unit of wargame figures a month, the realisation that I may have enough figures to build a modern British force for Operation Squad Modern Forces but actually not by about three figure types and a few trips to the lavy) I started getting the odd call from people telling me about Cavalier. It seems that club member Simon was seen ferrying box loads of kit to his car with a slight 'oh what have I done' look upon his usually happy face. Mark also enjoyed his run out and spoke to a lot of traders and clubs about coming along to Broadside; smiled a lot, handed out flyer's and booking forms. I have had three bookings from these already! Our good mate Ray, of Posties rejects fame, was having a good show, even sold some of his newly painted figures on the Bring & Buy. Sadly, he had his experience somewhat ruined when he realised that one of his items had been stolen! I dont think this is an issue peculiar to Cavalier but it is a risk with Bring & Buys; one of the reasons we chose to have a Flea Market system instead. Clint seemed to have a good show, bought a few goodies and spent some time chatting with wargame pals...as one does at these events. Clint also told me about one of the games being played at Cavalier. One club had been using 'Beneath the Lily Banners' but had discovered the rule set 'Maurice', by Sam Mustafa. They were so  bowled over by this set they now use it almost exclusively and highly recommend it....so I then spent the rest of the evening looking at on line reviews!! The rules are played using a set of special cards which make the package some £35.00!! Why am I looking at these damn things??? Because I have Screaming Rule Book Fever, that's why!!! Damn you Clint.....

My research into Maurice have shown it to be very interesting and would accommodate most basing systems. Players are forced into making decisions based upon the cards in their hand at the time, the ability to gain new cards and some clever mechanics that account for national characteristics. An aspect that I came across in one review particularly caught my eye. Player A was moving a formation of cavalry but player B was able to interrupt the move with a card. This card allowed player B to place a new terrain feature, in this case some boggy ground, in the path of the cavalry and thus caused them issues. This is the sort of thing that happens in battles, an order from higher up the command chain cannot take into account the exact ground conditions the units have to deal with....nasty surprises crop up often. What other rule book provides this element in a game? Quirky? Yes. Traditional? Not really. A good game? It seems so......just need to find a set on ebay that someone has given up on and wants rid. Anyone???

So that is what I did rather than go to Cavalier. Bet you all wish I had gone now! :)

The MHWC 2012 Christmas meeting

Oh Boy, where to start? Every club can claim a great meeting, one that stands out for a specific reason....fantastic win, thousands of figures, bizaar outcomes....this meeting I feel may have been quite unique.

We had a great meeting, our last of the year, and all...apart from Mark, I'll explain later....had a very good time; I doubt many of us had ever laughed so much. The trouble is that it was such an extraordinary meeting I have been struggling to write it up. This is my sixth attempt! I am going to have to start at the very beginning and let the story unfold organically. Cue wobbly fade-out picture and eerie music.....ooooooeeeeeeooooooooeeeeeeeeeooooooo etc

 ........Welcome to the Western town of Clubville. A festive little place caught in a snow drift and sporting a town Christmas tree (fully decorated and with working fairy lights thanks to Mark) and doesn't it look pretty? This was where we were to play out our gunfight, the scene was now set. I had even provided everyone with a home made Christmas cracker and instructed everyone that the wearing of the silly hats was compulsory....I am Chairman after all. As explained in the previous post, the game is driven by playing cards and the higher the card the better, Jokers trumped all. To help with the Christmassy feel I added couple of rule twists....whenever an Ace of a Joker were played there would be the tinkling a fairy bells and a Christmas Present would be delivered to one of the sites on the table; one of the houses, the tree or the Graveyard. If a player moved his figure onto the present he would be rewarded with a random prize to use in the game, a stick of dynamite, a reindeer, a penguin, a snowman, a cuddly polar bear or Santa himself!

Some of the tokens in play....note Santa looking as if he is surrendering :)

You wouldn't believe the trouble I had getting these figures at the right size! Each figure would give the owner a bonus, the penguin increased your initiative, the reindeer your movement, the snowman took a bullet for you and the polar bear gave one out. If you were lucky enough to get Santa then you could pick the bonus you wanted when you needed it. One use only these bonuses. Also note the present awaiting collection in the graveyard.

We almost had a full house for the meeting, so many I had to pull out of the game and umpire it, the lot of a Chairman. There are only 54 cards in a pack and with every player needing five we only just managed. I ran through the simple rules with the players, ensuring they were all wearing their hats and using the new club tape measures I had arranged for them all and had placed into the Christmas crackers. I am such a nice Chairman. The object of the game was to kill as many of each other as they could, a kill won you a specially made token and whoever had the most tokens won the prize, a milk chocolate Battleships game! And off we went.....and all seemed well, the game rolled along...Mark was shot dead almost immediately which did cause some sniggering. All such killed players returned next turn in a random location....and no, not as zombies either.

Our specially made Kill tokens, actually modified children's party badges...isn't eBay great?!

 Everyone was having a good time and the insults and laughter was already building to notably high levels when Maria called out from the hall kitchen that we had a visitor. A guy called John came over and said that he had come along for the meeting and was interested in joining. I introduced my self, gave the man a cracker and a seat at the game. I explained that, this being our last meeting of the year, we played one game that all the members could play together. He settled down and was soon chatting to the other members and asked about the club, were we going to write about the game in the parish magazine and so on. I said we might well do, we often provide pieces for such publication as we like to take part in the local community etc etc etc. and so in like manner all John's questions were thus answered...although John did look a tad unsure about something.

The game continued with more than the usual degree of one upmanship....just because you were shot by someone seemed reason enough to then seek that person out to return the favour; high cards were trumped, turns and initiative stolen, cries of victory and groans of defeat resounded....loudly and accompanied by more laughter and insults....and the sticky badges were being handed out as the dead were piled high and new John took full part. It was then, at the height of the raucousness, that Dave casually asked new John what period and scales he played. John didn't have a clue what he was talking about and said he had never seen wargames before...John, in fact, was there to be co-opted onto the Iwade Parish Council but had got the wrong day; the parish council meeting was the next evening!! This caused riotous laughter that was actually painful...side splitting in fact. To a group of wargamers already in a high and jolly mood (and with not a drop of alcohol in sight) this news stopped play with not a dry eye in the house. All those questions new John had asked had fitted our profile and activities and so the confusion, like a TV sitcom, continued until the truth was revealed. It could not have been written any better. New John, to his credit (and enjoyment I am sure) carried on with the game until the end and even gained a badge or two...along with a club membership application form. I wonder if he will come back? I wonder what he told his wife when he got home and she asked how his evening went????

To add to the general hysteria Mark spent the entire game either dead or with no usable cards in his hand and Clive, in an attempt to navigate past a chair, instead fell full length over it whilst still keeping his party hat on. The game became several smaller and more personal actions as vengeance was sought in various quarters and ended with poor Mark deciding to use the only cards he could to move his figure and the Santa token off the table to end his misery. Even then, with the shotgun armed cowboy leading away a Santa with arms raised in seeming surrender, the silliness continued. Several people wondered what Mark's figure intended to do with poor Santa and you can imagine the scenarios these over excited wargamers came up with! Certainly not a game for the ladies.

The game was eventually won by Bob who had managed to kill five or six cowboys during the evening leaving him the clear winner. Several wondered whether Bob's American roots had something to do with it but all agreed that the game was a great success....except for Mark perhaps. I know it took two days for my laughter induced headache to go away! I may have cracked a rib too.

Memoir '44

Hi JFaria, welcome to my blog!

Every so often the term 'Memoir 44' appears on the Wargames Miscellany blog, a board game that Bob is quite fond of it seems. I am not a huge boardgames fan myself, although that is not necessarily true; I just never seem to play any is probably more accurate. Some of them are so expensive I would rather spend the cash on figures, but so many look good. I have a copy of War on Terror: The Boardgame! that I roll out occasionally and I do enjoy that, so I wonder what is stopping me?

Anyhooo, having seen the various boards and expansion packs available to Memoir 44 players on Bob's blog I have to admit my curiosity was piqued. I then noticed that you could download 'Memoir '44 Online' via Steam, the online games site. It was free too, so I gave it a go and downloaded the program and was impressed. Whilst the download is free you will need to buy points to play games but these are very, very cheap and you get 45 to start with. i have played a dozen games and have loads of points left, another 135 points will cost you just £4.00. The game plays exactly as the boardgame would but with the added bonus that you could play people from anywhere in the world. The game is simple enough to get to grips with and the basic rules very straight forward. The interesting thing for me is that the board is divided into three sectors, left centre and right, and the actions you can perform are dictated by cards that only allow you limited activations. For example, you may have a lot of pieces in your centre and right sectors but most of the cards you end up with will only activate units in your left sector; or vice versa, its all quite random. As you play one card it is replaced with another so things can change turn by turn.

Combat is worked out by rolling a number of special dice marked with an infantryman, tank, grenade, flag and a star. All units roll the same dice but the number rolled depends upon range and cover etc. so, if you are attacking a tank unit, for example, and get to roll four dice you will kill one model in the unit for every tank or grenade symbol you roll. Flags make the unit retreat one space and stars are misses. If you roll an infantryman against tanks then that is a miss, a tank symbol against infantry is a miss; grenades kill everything. It is a simple but elegant system.

Thing you can do is download the game and see for yourself, I can heartily recommend it....so much so that I am now seriously considering buying a 'hard copy'! Prices vary wildly I have noticed so do shop around if you are ever tempted, Amazon seems the best option so far.

Just thought I would bring this natty download to you attention, it has got to be worth a look. And, if anyone out there plays Memoir '44 the board game, let me know what you think of it.

Ashleigh Leofwinesdottir

It may come as a surprise to you all to learn that despite me being a anthropomorphic personification I have children, Ashleigh Leofwinesdottir and Anthony Leofwinesson. When they were both younger they used to dabble with wargames, shows, the odd board game, warhammer 40k, even DBA...they even had their own armies! But, as they got older, they turned away from the dark side...found 'normal' things to do, like boyfriends / girlfriends, driving licenses....

Then came Broadside 2012 and the Armourfast Make and Take a Tank table. As a small club we don't have the numbers to cover all of the event roles so we rely on friends and families to help us out. Ashleigh volunteered to help out at the Armourfast modelling table and exposed herself to a new dose of Dark Side! She really enjoyed helping the kiddies making their model tanks and has now got herself a pile of tanks and an odd reputation amongst her friends. She has really got into the whole model making thing, I suspect that painting tanks may well be on the radar too but I very much doubt that playing would ever be on the cards...the light side is strong in this one....

 

Ashleigh Leofwinesdottir (left) & Anthony Leofwinesson (right) helping the shows younger visitors

(Tuesday 3rd July additional :- Have been getting it in the neck from daughter about horrible picture! Apparently, it is awful and should be burnt as it makes her look geeky...or something. So I have added a second picture from the show that should keep everyone happy. I wont be removing the first picture of course, as a father I must not be seen to lose ground on my decisions even though I am reminded that she will be choosing any rest home I survive long enough to make it to.)

Ok, second attempt to be a good Dad and post a nice picture.

This is all good, its nice to see your children doing something positive with glue after all, but it gets better. This new found joy in modelling, and as a dad I can honestly say that we are well on the right side of young girls, modelling and plastic with this one, has interesting benefits. I have been dabbling with plastic figures myself recently and I have to say that I find them really annoying to clean up and put together, Ashleigh tells me that she loves it and would be pleased to put my Wargames Factory Marlburian figures together for me; how cool is that? I am seeing her in the next few days and will talk her through what I need and how they go together, I need to be really careful here as these particular figures come with so many helpful options confusion may reign....and I hate getting wet! Get it? reign, wet...no? Please yourself.

Welcome to the lobby of the dark side my dear...help yourself to cookies and plastic cement :)

Victoria Concordia Crescit

Today is the day!!!

The new Arsenal home shirt has been released.....and here it is!!

Isn't it great!

I am happy to say that the shop wasn't displaying many other team shirts today, why would they?

However, I often have to speak to store managers about a very sensitive subject, the selling and displaying of a certain other team shirt. we all know that Tottenham (actually an anagram of 'whats that &%*£ing smell') exists but like animal porn we choose to ignore it as the social and moral hole that it is. Given this, I was surprised and dismayed to note that shops had this so called teams shirt on open display...where even children could see them!! I know, disgraceful. On one occasion they were even right next to the Arsenal shirts....the sleeve of one actually brushing against a medium sized away shirt for the 2011/12 season; can you imagine such horror? Obviously I moved the Arsenal shirts away as best I could and immediately drew the attention of this appalling situation to the manager. I have to say that he was not that helpful, didn't seem to care that his staff were so poorly trained and careless with the shops image. So I photographed this terrible thing and sent it, along with a long email, to the stores head office. I expect a reply and a heartfelt thank you for bringing this matter to their attention. It has been a few weeks but they are busy and no doubt the internal enquiry into how this happened is taking time; as it should. I will let you know the out come as soon as they get back to me.

So, be aware the next time you take your children to certain sports shops, you may want to scout it out first.  

Leofwine on Facebook

Following the interesting social networking developments we have experienced over the last few days, it occurred to me that I am not making enough use of these free resources. So, I thought I should fiddle about a bit with my facebook page....who said an anthropomorphic personification wasn't real enough for his own account?...and started getting organised. Not as easy as it looks.

I have a link on this blog to the facebook account but it has been the devils own job getting the damnable thing to reciprocate!! Anyway...think it is sorted now. The idea is that all interested parties can now be reached or, indeed, reach us at the MHWC. We should be able to spread the word about Broadside far easier and more effectively. This post is a test as much as anything else.....I wonder what will happen when I press the Publish button.........

Blogging from my mobile phone

It seems that I can now add posts to my blog from my mobile phone...how cool is that?
If I happen to be at a show, shop, club...or even the loo, I can post items of wargame interest there and then.
Ah, the wonders of our modern age! I wonder how often I will actually remember I ca do it?

Saint Valentine, me and Brixia 45mm light mortars...

Appologies. This was to have been written and posted last night (15th) but there was some terrible things going on in Italy that were distracting me and causing severe depresion...not to mention some a$&! of a Millwall fan that kept texting me with comments about those terrible things.

Anyway.

I do not have the same kind of relationship with Saint Valentine as I do with Santa. Whereas Santa is good enough to call me, albeit whilst I was out so Maria takes his call for me and passes on messages, Saint Valentine simply ignores me. Not once have I ever been bothered by his presence, or even received one of his rather tacky and over-priced slices of rain forest corpse. This is somewhat helped by having a wife endowed with all the depth of emotional feeling of a saucer and my being, I am reliably informed, an annoying fat git with a face that looks like somebody had tried to put out a forest fire with a screwdriver. So, when by chance our club meeting was set to fall on Valentines day I was not too concerned. However, it seems that others were. One member after another got in touch to say they couldn't make it as they were doing something that night, candle lit dinners and trips to cinema or restaurants....I know! Appalling way to behave. Who would turn down wargames for a mushy, commercially driven and highly implausible day of romance? Quite a few as it turns out.

I did try pointing out that, like Christmas, Easter and any other Abrahamic based religious festival, it was all made up....at best the stolen and sanitised version of earlier pagan rites they couldn't stop people celebrating despite them being silly and ineffectual anyway. That it was no more than a commercial ploy to empty their wallets should have settled it and that once they explained all this to their partners, who would understand and see the error of their girlie ways, everyone would be happy. One wife actually emailed me to say that her husband was no longer allowed to come out and play as I was a bad influence! I dont know....you give them the vote...............waste of good racehorses.....

So, on February 14th just four of us were allowed out to play but that was fine. I had arranged an 'Operation Squad' game between my German Fallschirmjager and new Italian paras and as two members had not played before the small forces at hand would work out well. I set out an encounter battle, a fairly wooded area bisected by a road along which stood five ruined houses. The squad that controlled the most buildings at the end of play would be deemed the winner. Andy and Alex took the Fallschirmjager whilst Phil and I ran out the Italian Folgore squad, and great fun we had too! Well, me and Phil anyway.

Phil tool half the squad, those sub-machine gun armed troops, to assault through a large wood to a building at its far edge. I took a Breda light machine-gun and the Brixia 45mm mortar, along with a spotter. We kept the mortar behind a building but put the spotter and the Breda into the building to control it and the ground in front of it; a very successful deployment. Andy advance his section of the Fallschirmjager squad through a narrow wood to cover their approach opposite my building. They were spotted and the order to fire the mortar received...it then got messy. The Brixia fires two rounds a turn and the first landed in the lap of Andy's command figure killing him outright; ok, the dice were on my side this day. the other round helped sew confusion. During the game I was able to drop plenty of rounds into this small wood and given that Andy's figures were bunched quite closely chaos ensued. I managed to kill a couple of figures would another and pin yet another all for no loss.

Phil had a trickier task through the wood, Alex was going to be waiting at the other end for a start. Here the fight was more evenly matched, both took pins but slowly Phil managed to get the upper hand. Judicious use of grenades, dogged approach play and shooting wounded two of Alex's figures whilst a nippy little run and grenade lob killed another for very little in reply. All in all things were looking bad for the Fallschirmjager however, time was running out (the hall heating was broken and we were all freezing to death) and so the game was ended. Each side had control of two buildings so, despite the Italians very strong position, the game was called a draw. If it carried on for another couple of moves I am confident that the Italians would have carved out a brilliant and decisive victory. The Germans had three dead, three wounded and a pinned figure whilst the Italians had but a single wound and one pinned figure.

In all it was a great game and the Brixia 45mm mortar worked out brilliantly. Ok, it might not work again next time, dice being what they are, but this first outing showed some promise. There are still a couple of rule points I need to check out but I still remain a firm advocate of Operation Squad. We are to look into running a large WW1 game with the rules with three or more players a side, each with their own individual squads; essentially, a platoon a side. The idea so far is that the Germans will be assaulting a Belgian village. Each attacking player and squad will be given a fixed task/section of the village to deal with and paired with a Belgian defender. Each pairing, despite all pairs being on the same table, will fight their games at their own speed, which should make things interesting! I shall tell you all about it when it happens!!!!

Stupid Colours

One aspect of wargaming that always frustrates me is the painting of figures. Painting has to be done of course, no matter how many figures are waiting in various drawers, cupboards, boxes.....and it is not as if I am particularly bad at it. I have turned out some very nice looking units in my time, things that I am very proud of, its just that I do not get a major kick out of the act of painting. It is so time consuming but it is the only way I am ever going to get figures done, I certainly cannot afford to buy in such services. So, I bite the bullet and just get on with it and, on the whole, make quite a good job of it.

However, part of my problem, possibly the lions share in fact, is my colour blindness. Before you ask, no, I can see colours. I do not live in a grey scale world by any means, its just that many colours look the same to me whilst others are completely indescribable. For example, purple, mauve and other such colours are just words to me and I couldn't begin to describe or even identify them in a line up. Reds, greens and browns can get very confused and I have to be careful not to mix them up. Given the number of shades of colour available in paint pots these days, dozens of every possible colour, I can rarely ever tell them all apart. I can see a bright red and not mistake it for a bright green but when the shades starting approaching the middle ground and the dark end of the spectrum I am lost. This is one of the reasons I often buy paints where the lable tells me what the colour is for rather than what it is; Snakebite Leather, for example. I have often had to ask a sales assistant or a person with me at the time, to describe a colour for me, tell me how much lighter/darker is it compared to something I can see. Sadly, this is when you realise how much of a vocabulary there is with colours, a personal almost coloquial bias that can make the task of vocalising a shade an interesting excercise.

This can sometimes be worked around of course, once I have settled on a colour for a particular job I can hang on to it, a certain red for a specific uniform etc., and buy a couple of pots at a time. The trouble really starts when I try and cross over to a different project but keep the same paints, who can afford to have a different set for each wargame project? 'Which shade of green will be needed here', is a well used phrase with me and every time I will spend hours working it out, trying to remember what I have used that particular pot for in the past or does the colour name offer a clue? This assumes, of course, that I can actually see and identify the colour I am trying to imitate in the first place! A picture of painted figures, photograph of an old uniform, anything like this can be less than useless as I often can't see what the colours are anyway. And, if I ask someone to describe them I usually get a very unhelpful,'.....well, its a sort of reddy, greeny brown...' or some other baffleing concoction of words.

Lets not go into the joys that can be highlighting....a sad, sad tale of ending up with figures that are less highlighted than re painted in a brighter shade! Can't see where I have been you see? I know, very sad...and costs a fortune in paint!!!

This all came to a head this weekend. I decided to have a go at my 28mm ww2 Italian paratroopers. Despite the lack of painting guides (thanks to those of you that offered me resources, very much appreciated and helpful) I had a chat with a few people and felt quite comfortable about how to progress. At least I thought I was. In the end I could not even decide upon the colour to use for the base of the camo pattern! Usual problem, couldn't identify it and couldn't match it with what I had. After several attempts I consulted with my good mate Mark and we came up with a plan for me to try....it didn't work of course, I just couldn't see it, I even tried swaping the order of the colours to see if that helped...it made it worse! I just could not get the colours right nor even the patterning in the end. One figure was launched across the room and I was ordered by the wife to pack it in or else! And then, if things were not bad enough, Arsenal gave away a penalty and it was all down hill there too!

All in all, it was a crap day and nothing worked. I had spent hours and got nowhere fast. A complete waste of a day. But, now, I have reached a conclusion. There is no point me trying to paint camoflaged figures, none what so ever. Bah. So, next time you are getting annoyed at a paint job that is going wrong, spare a thought for us colour blind wargamers!

self publicity!!

A shameless plug for this post. I have just self published a kindle ebook called; 'The Three Tiddly Pigs....and other happy tales for children you don't like much'. Its really a bedtime story book as described below.

Fed up with boring, fluffy and cute Bed Time stories with boring, fluffy, cute animals doing boring, fluffy, cute things? Try some truly horrible Bed Time stories to entertain truly horrible children…and their truly horrible Dads.

Caution – These stories contain fluffy cute things and some extreme violence! 

It is now available from amazon kindle store for just 77p. My wife hates it....so it must be worth a look!

You can find it here,
 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Tiddly-other-children-ebook/dp/B006V1KRM8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1326047298&sr=1-1

Stupid January

Welcome to my newest follower, Colin Hagreen!

As the title of this post suggests, I do not like January. Its not just the near endless list of expensive birthdays I have to fight my way through just after Christmas, it just seems to be like starting all over again....like painting that Scotish bridge. Its all so depressing.

Still, on to more important things! The 2012 Broadside wargames show can now be seen on the horizon, and not as far away as it seems. Sunday 10th June is set to be a great day of course but there is so much to do before then. The MHWC is only a small club too, some eleven members, and so the workload is a little thick in places. Club member Simon is organising our game for the event, club Secretary Mark draws up the hall plans and fits everything together like some large version of Tetris, club step-member Clint is contacting the clubs and organising the games, club step-member John is organising the DBA tournament and everyone gets together the day before to help set out the hall. I pick up the remainder, particularly contacting the traders; not a task for the faint hearted.

The traders are, arguably, the most important aspect of a wargames show. Get this part of the event correct and you are nearly there but, it is no easy task. It is a bit like herding cats with ADHD! I have lost track of the number of emails I have sent out, the larger percentage of recipiants never reply at all. These initial emails have to be repeated every month and backed up with phone calls. Many traders are so busy they simply forget that they have asked for information or simply do not get around to sending back their forms. Having run a small wargame business many years ago I do understand their problems and try my best to work with them. Slowly, the forms and cheques arrive and the show begins to take shape. We had some thirty four traders last year, most of whom only confirmed their attendance three or so months before the event...one was just three days before! All of which makes it very hard to order the extra tables you need at the very least. So far we have eighteen traders with a few more promising cheques and forms. This week I have contacted another thirty plus traders to remind them of the event and encourage them to take part. Experience shows that things will work out in time and with enough of these politely phrased emails and phone calls but you always worry.....Add to all of this the dozen or so clubs all needing extra tables.....dont even ask about the parking arrangements in a town that thought it important to suddenly charge for parking on a Sunday!

And then there is the magazine advertising, insurance, signage, flyers, catering, visitor parking, club and trader parking (I know I mentioned this above but it is such a problem it needs mentioning twice), tax...yes tax! Running such an event opens you up to all sorts of fun things such as paying tax...which of course means that the everyday club acounts become very interesting indeed. Believe it or not, every club should at least be registered for taxation purposes whether it runs a show or not. Take a look at the HMRC website, heady stuff indeed.

Then you need to find bodies to help out and make up the member numbers, we are fortunate that wives and friends are willing to help out and man (or Wife as the case actually is) the entrance areas, we have two given the nature of the venue. Others help set up or act as marshalls, others even help as tournament umpires and the like. Given our low numbers we all have a hard day starting at 7am and ending at 7pm....then I spend a few more fun hours working out the cash and stuff! Oh, and make sure you have enough cash for a float and have drawn up a rota so all of your limited personel resources know where they need to be and when. The MHWC guys were brilliant last year and all worked their socks off, everyone was surprised when they realised how few of us there were.

But, and here is the bottom line, we all enjoy it. Yes it is hard work for very little profit, breaking even is about normal, but we actually get to go to a show and meet people; traders, clubs, other wargamers. Our little club gains a reputation and we attract new blood....well, one new member from the last show but that is a start. My hope for this year is that we attract more members of the general public, for there lies the true source of new wargamers.

Oh well, back to the emails! I hope to see all of you at Broadside....hint hint

Santa, Me and Brixia 45mm light mortars...

Hi The Teston Rifleman. You are my tenth follower! Many thanks and welcome to my blog.

I popped out for a haircut yesterday and upon my return my wife told me of a phone call I had missed. Seemingly, Santa had called me to discuss my position in the whole 'good boy / bad boy' stakes. Due to many passed instances of naughty, my account remains in defict despite my recent efforts, and, therefore, I would once again not be receiving any gifts this year; just the annual carrier bag of reindeer poo strewn over the car.

The news was not all bad though, Maria was good enough to fill out the required yearly report form and it seems I could be back into the good book within a few years; of course I was happy to pay santa the required £25.00 form fee. I didn't want to appear ungrateful and Maria was good enough to pass it on for me. I have to say Maria has been very helpful on this issue and I will buy her something special as a thank you for looking out for me.

Given this news I decided I should buy myself a little something. A browse through ebay found a Warlord Games 28mm Italian Para Brixia mortar to add to my Operation Squad unit. I won the auction and got the still packaged unit for less than a fiver including postage, a good saving on the £7.00 list price. The figure quality is good, I do like the Bolt Action metal ranges, but the mortar itself is going to be a pig to build.

The pic above shows a replica weapon, you can imagine the fun I will have sorting out the support structure! The pieces are tiny and I can see me using language during the build that may well keep me in Santa's bad books for a while longer.

 
The Brixia is an odd weapon, quite ahead of its time in concept but complicated to manufacture, prone to breakdowns and used faily under-powered shells. That said, it was very portable and could lay down an impressive amount of fire. The firing mechanism used a magazine of charges (the rectangular box sticking out of the top of the barrel) to launch the shells, meaning that the team could very quickly saturate a target area and then move away, advance etc.

In the Operation Squad list for the Italian Para unit (these, and others, can be found on the Operation Squad website and forum) the two man mortar team costs 100 points but increases the breakpoint by one. The weapon gets two shots per fire but with a grenade sized template for the area of effect, unlike the mortars of most other nations that get one shot but a double sized effect area. I have a feeling that that the two shots may be more adventageous in game terms but only time, and my dodgy dice rolling, will tell.

I shall post progress updates for my Italians as I can. I am having issues with the camo patterns due to my colour blindness issues (stupid WW2) but my good friend Mark is helping identify the right paints. Looking forward to this project, just got to fit the damn thing in amongst all the others!!!!

Infamy at Christmas!

Welcome new followers Geordie and Norman!

What follows is a tale of infamy so appalling in its appallingness it will leave you all aghast and shaking your heads in disbelief....and just before Christmas too!

The club Christmas game was set to be a jolly affair, a few survivors desperately searching for car keys in an underground car-park full of zombies. The first player to find a set of keys, locate the car they fit and that could then drive that car out of the car-park would be the winner; and get a tin of 'Heroes' sweeties to boot! Who knew that such a bounty (different tin entirely) would cause friends to lose themselves and turn to the dark side of wargaming....stitching up your mates, leaving them stunned and imobile whilst surrounded by nasty zombies????

Well......all of us would obviously, we are gamers after all and a little odd at the best of times.....

Me - light coloured base with yellow stunned marker, surrounded by nasties and only narrowly missed by a swerving car!

My plan was to make my way towards the car-park exit, search the few not-yet-zombie bodies for keys, search for the right car at that end and thus need a shorter drive through less bodies to escape. Simple. My character was a 'Heavy', which I am told was pure chance and in no way meant to be a reference to my size, a character that was reasonably good at stunning zombies and quite hardy. My plan was good, I made my way a good way up the car-park whilst others floundered about and generally got in each others way. I found keys quickly and was making my way towards a few cars, minding my own business, when I was brutally...and with malice aforethought...attacked by a fellow character after my car keys!! I know! Alex had found a fire extinguisher and used it to keep me from escaping...then viciously attcked me leaving me stunned...both physically and emotionally...It was only the arrival of several zombies looking to take advantage of my static state that drove him off. Stunned as my character was, he was defenceless and before you could say 'Look out! there are several Zombies behind you...doesn't the one on the left look a little bit like Barry Washboard from when we were at school? I wonder what he is doing these days, I had a crush on his sister you know, even though she had that odd squint and only one ear.........', I was feasted upon!!

Me, with hat made by Alex...the smile masks my tears!

This caused no small amount of merriment as you could imagine, I was even made a hat with 'I'm a Zombie' written on it but, I would have the last laugh! I would be resurrected as a mega zombie and could have my revenge, once I had shaken off the stunned marker, obviously. All I needed to do was roll a 6 on one of two d6.....five bloody turns and not a single six! The best part of ninety minutes spent stuck in one place and letting everyone else come close to getting free and winning the game (like Millwall). By now, four players had found cars and were driving like maniacs for the exits, crashing through zombies, losing control and missing the exit ramp. At one point my mega zombie was in great danger of being run down by one of three cars all heading in my direction! I was only saved by one car crashing and Alex...YES ALEX...jumping into a car and casually reversing his way onto the exit ramp and heading for the win. The final insult was that I was asked to draw the tokens to see who went first in the last round...given my lack of movement and luck, and guess what? It was I that drew Alex's token first and allowed him to win with no impediment. Bugger.

This was, despite my understandable angst, a great game that everyone really enjoyed. It was fun and engaging, allowing everyone to get involved as a club. I must thank my good friend Clint for organising the game for us. He built the car-park, using a paste board table (brilliant), painted all of the figures and created the scenario all with a few weeks. I did have a lot of fun as I am sure you can all tell; Alex was a worthy winner in the finest traditions of the club.

For a less biased account of the game, take a look at Clint's own blog
http://clint-anythingbutaone.blogspot.com/

WW2....what on earth am I doing????

Three more followers! Welcome, welcome Ray, Mark and Brummie!!

Dear follower, you may have read an earlier post here regarding Operation Squad. WW2 has never really been a wargame interest for me but of late I have found myself buying figures, albeit a few at a time as my ebay account allows. This is almost entirely due to the Operation Squad rule set, I like the mechnics, the scale of game, the interactions between the players.....and I appear to like them enough to have ended up with several forces. Each squad consists of up to a dozen figures and operates as a true squad, no tanks or planes or other out of scale complications; this is a true skirmish game.

My metal Fallschirmjager squad is now complete with four extra anti tank figures I got for my birthday still to do. I am not entirely happy with the painting, sort of got the camo pattern wrong...a bit anyway...but they work. I recently found some undercoated German infantry figures on ebay and picked them up for a song. The seller seems to have sold off the extra figures he had left over from a project, most being the plastic Bolt Action ones, so no fiddly figure making first! I am not in love with them though, they fit in with my metal figures size and heft wise but the weapons are very skinny. A quick look through the Operation Squad squad lists soon highlighted the issue of weapons, my new figures were mainly armed with KAR98's and not enough of the MP40's and stuff. But that is OK, Warlord games sell a sprue of extra weapons that I can use to outfit a squad to the required level for just £4.00, I shall order one straight away, I paid so little for the germans that even with this cost I am still well ahead.

........except......with Warlord Games an order has to be a minimum of £10.00! RUDE WORD.

A look at my ebay account showed me that I had just a few extra pounds left available, I could buy something else and build up the order. Long story short...I ended with ordering a squad of Italian paratroops as well.......I know, I know.........lets not even get into the number of figures I already have to paint, Ancient Greeks, Marlburians, Pirates, secret project figures.......

But the worst of it? I have absolutely no idea how to paint Italian Paratroops! I have trawled the internet and found a few examples but nothing helpful. The Warlord Games site has a picture of ready painted figures but none close up enough to really be much help....add to that my colour blindness issues. Again, I know, I know.

Has anyone got and ideas for me, all help greatfully received!

Stupid Super Glue!!

The title says it all. This is not my usual story of me firmly fixing myself to the table or a base of four 28mm English Civil war pikemen (hospital visits twice within three weeks with figures from the same unit in 1990).

BTW - welcome to my second follower! Hi Clint!!

I get through a lot of super glue, not the posh stuff, the 'twelve tubes for a quid' gloop you can get from Poundland. Its not perfect of course but what is for a quid? I only use the stuff for sticking figures to coins for painting and bases. Works well on coins, holds the figure down well enough and breaks away nicely when strategically tapped with a pair of pliers when you want to remove the figure for basing elsewhere. All went well until I glued the figures down onto their game bases, 40mm x 40mm mounting board. several of the figures didnt want to stay on the bases so I had to be a little more liberal with the glue than normal. I have done this hundreds of times with dozens of different makes of super glue so this held few fears for me...although my wife voiced her usual concerns for the coffee table after last years...unpleasantness?

The figures took ages to stick but I was patient and left them for a good while; experienced you see. This time however, the glue oxidised onto the figures! Each one was pure white from the soles of their boots to the hem of their tunics!! I have had some very minor occurences of this previously, an odd spot or two, but nothing like this. Even the tops of the figures had been dulled, a slight dusting that would have been bad enough on its own but this looked an awful lot like disaster. The cure? More patients and a couple of dozen cotton buds dipped in water, each carefully used in a gentle circular motion to rub off the white stuff. It took hours of careful, painstaking effort to clean the legs of each figure. Even then they were far from perfect but at least they had black boots, white gaiters and red breeches again; all a little more dull than I would have liked.........

Be warned, look out for the yellow Extra Strong Super Glue tubs sold at '99p Stores'. At least be careful how you use them and how much you use.
Stupid super glue.