Salute with Tom (16/04/2016)

This report is a bit late as I’ve been away (where to will become apparent in the next post), but here are a few photos from our day out at Salute. There wasn’t any London Marathon registration or Doctor Who convention this year, just a Wedding Fair and a Buy-to-Let show to get in the food queue with. We arrived by cable car from North Greenwich for a change, which was fun but probably not for those with a fear of heights and easily swayed cable cars 🙂

Nice day for a cable car

First up are some photos from a game using David Brown’s upcoming ACW rules “Pickett’s Charge” and played by the author. The game was commendable in the fact that, apart from looking brilliant, they were actually playing the game, so we hung around for a while to see if we could pick up anything about the rules. They do look interesting, with less morale checks than General de Brigade and should be available later this year – I’ll definitely be getting a copy.

Antietam using Pickett’s Charge rules

Antietam using Pickett’s Charge rules

ECW Siege of Bristol game – the walls looked like they were used in a game of the Siege of Worcester at Salute 2011, but who cares? ECW is still one of my favourite periods which I’ve never gamed.

Siege of Bristol

Siege of Bristol

Winter War – lovely depiction of snow and ice.

Winter War

Winter War ship iced in.

Vietnam

Vietnam table

Napoleonics in both 54mm and 40mm – amazing brushwork.

54mm Napoleonics – awesome

40mm Napoleonics

40mm Napoleonics with Sharpe defending the bridge

I wasn’t sure that there were as many outstanding games as usual – this was probably down to the Steampunk theme which would have encouraged smaller skirmish games. Rules-wise, there were more things I was looking forward too which were released after Salute – Sharp Practice 2 and Dystopian Wars Fast Play for example. I did pick up a few rule books – Combat Patrol (yes, more WW2), the Saga campaign supplement, Blood Eagle (IHMN rules adapted for the Dark Ages) and the Black Powder ACW supplement. Those, plus a few vehicles from Plastic Soldier and Peter Pig and civilian from Eureka completed the shopping extravaganza. Probably not a classic Salute, but despite this I’ll still be there next year – and besides, there’s always a pint of Meantime beer to look forward to at the end 🙂

Shameless Kickstarter Plug

My friend David Pentland has launched a Kickstarter to fund publication of a book of his art commemorating 100 years of the tank. David’s art has graced the pages of the Ironfist Battlegroup series of rules and the Plastic Soldier Company kit boxes amongst other things, and I have the pleasure of seeing many of those paintings in the flesh when I visit him back home in Northern Ireland.

Sample spread from the book

If, like me, tanks are your thing then this Kickstarter is a real bargain with the pledge for the book and postcards set at £18 + P&P. Please feel free to pass the message on to you know anyone who may be interested.

Here’s the link to Kickstarter video:-

Thanks for looking.

Battlegroup South Bovington (04/07/15 – Tom)

Battlegroup Tobruk – the next supplement?

Overview of the large hall

Sherman used in “Fury”

Vickers VI

Char B

A13

End of the Road – Dunkirk

Churchill Crocodile

By a strange co-incidence (yeah right), I was on holiday in Dorset when this show was on. I’ve been threatening to go for years but never got around to arranging a weekend in the area. A wargames show in the Tank Museum was just too good to miss, so Tom travelled down from London for the day to meet me and away we went  – I’m still on holiday so I’ll keep this short.

I realised after I had left the show that most of my pictures were of the tanks themselves and that the only game I had snapped was the Battlegroup Tobruk demo. The reason for this was that I was too busy talking to the folks running the games or was admiring the figures and scenery on display. My favourites were a 40mm AWI Battle of Long Island game and a huge 28mm Arnhem Hell’s Highway game with the Irish Guards spearheading the attack.

Iron Fist Publishing had the same Dunkirk display game they had at Salute so I’ve included some photos of that to pad this out 🙂

 

 

Miniature wargames in 2014 and plans for 2015

It’s a bit late for a review of the year, but there you go. I haven’t played much at all since September, just Euro boardgames with the family at Christmas and New Year – my long-time gaming opponent Nick and my son have both moved away to new jobs, so the solo option is going to have to be explored a lot more. I’ve decided to come out of hibernation though with a review of the year and what plans there are for the new year.

A game of Jugula which went unfinished – sigh

The totals for the year are 9 games with an opponent and 4 solo, which isn’t bad especially as they were all in the first 9 months. Field of Glory:Ancients and Saga were used over Facetime as an experiment, as well as being played face-to-face. Dreadball, Ronin, Judge Dredd, Dead Man’s Hand, Panzer Grenadier Deluxe & Chain of Command Espana all got a run out along with the first 2 games in a Dux Britanniarum solo campaign.

10mm WW2

This year, I’m looking forward to the new “Dreadball” rules, Sam Mustafa’s new game “Blucher”, the Lardies Chain of Command Moderns, “Daisho” (the Japanese fantasy adaption of “In Her Majesty’s Name”) and “Beyond the Gates of Antares” from Warlord.

Dead Man’s Hand Renegade

So my target is to play 12 games this year and blog about each of them. They will probably be different rule sets given my inability to concentrate on any one thing for too long 🙂 and will have to be suitable to give a good solo game as that is the way things are going.

1. Marlburian using Die Fighting 2
2. Muskets and Tomahawks with larger forces
3. Sword and Spear Ancients
4. In Her Majesty’s Name
5. American Civil War using Field of Battle 2 (perhaps)
6. Pulp Alley
7. WW2 Panzer Grenadier Deluxe in 15mm
8. Napoleonic naval using ”Blood, Bilge & Iron Balls” – still outstanding 🙂
9. Fantasy battles using “God of Battles”
10. Continue the Dux Britanniarum campaign
11. Field of Glory:Renaissance
12. Chain of Command – At the Sharp End campaign in Normandy
13. Saga using the Welsh
14. Lion Rampant
15. Jugula (not solo obviously)

I realise that’s 15 🙂 but it’s ambitious target and something will no doubt have to give. Also, the allure of new rules which will inevitably be picked up at Salute and Warfare needs to be taken into account 😉

I’m not going to go through my board wargames for this year in a separate post as they were few and far between, but my thanks go to Gary and David for 2 excellent games of the magnificent “Kingdom of Heaven” over Vassal.

Have a happy new year.

More Jugula

Miniature wargames in 2013 and plans for 2014

Rebel Cavalry in the Longstreet game

So we reach the end of a pretty dismal year for the number of miniature games played. I commented  last year on how much skirmish gaming had become the norm with us, and that trend continued this year with some excellent games of “Saga” and new kid on the block, the impressive “In Her Majesty’s Name” from Osprey. “Muskets and Tomahawks” got a bit of a look in (but not as much as I would have liked), while World War 2 games of “Bolt Action” and “Chain of Command” allowed comparison of these two platoon level rule sets – currently “Chain of Command” is favoured for the next game, especially in light of the Spanish Civil War lists for CoC currently being published by Too Fat Lardies on their blog. The author of the lists Jim Hale has provided a useful index to the lists as they are published:-  http://arlequinsworld.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2013-12-30T13:56:00Z&max-results=1. Now is the time to build this baby I think!

Lancia fiamme (“flamethrower”) at Bovington – my Empress model kit is currently awaiting assembly

I only achieved one target out of the 9 from last year’s to-do list (playing ACW Naval), but then “In Her Majesty’s Name” did come along at Salute and took all my painting and playing time in May. After that, illness prevented me from doing much, though I did manage to finish painting and re-basing my 15mm Celts in time for a “Field of Glory:Ancients” run out in November – the only big battle game of the year as it turns out. There were a further 2 aborted attempts at larger scale battles, both rulesets written by Sam Mustafa – “Might and Reason” and “Longstreet”. The reason the games weren’t finished was nothing to do with the quality of the rules, just life getting in the way.

Might and Reason WSS using the “Sun King” rules expansion

Though mentioned in last year’s post, the Raiders supplement for Dux Britanniarum has not appeared as yet, but rumours are it will be out in February 2014. Not a problem, as I now have a pile of painted Scots and Irish for Saga which will do nicely for Picts when the need arises.

Irish Raiders

So, the top 10 games to play in 2014 are:-

1. SCW using Chain of Command
2. 15mm Marlburian either using Might & Reason or Die Fighting (which has had some WSS changes published of late)
3. Napoleonic naval using ”Blood, Bilge & Iron Balls”

4. Fantasy battles using “Hostile Realms” (Piquet) or “Kings of War”

5. In Her Majesty’s Name (got a new company for Xmas)
6. Dux Britanniarum with Raiders supplement
7. ACW using Longstreet
8. Muskets and Tomahawks with larger forces
9. Field of Glory:Ancients
10. Dreadball sci-fi sports game (Xmas present)

Have a happy New Year.