Donner und Blitzen at Devizes

I went along to the "Attack" show at Devizes on Saturday helping to run a participation game with the "Wings of Glory Aerodrome". As usual a lovely day out, we ran a number of exciting games and managed to get a whole load of new players into the game (we were so successful that the traders who were stocking starter sets sold out completely during the afternoon!)

Attack is one of my favourite shows, mainly due to the number of old friends who attend. So I spend a lot of time chatting with people whom I probably haven't seen since the previous year. I also had a long in depth chat concerning an article that may be appearing in the wargames press later this year - watch this space :)

The high spot this year was of course the weather - a thunder and lighting storm that shook the building and had the power going on and off, torrential downpours, floods into the halls through the doors (and valiant punters - your author included - getting soaked trying to get the latched doors closed against the tide) and then the lightning tripping off the fire alarm, which blared out for the next hour or so. It sounds like a pain but it really was good fun. No-one will be forgetting the show in a hurry!

I picked up a few useful bits and pieces, including the new Tumbling Dice 1/600 lake steamer models (which will be appearing here once they are painted up in a couple of weeks time), a Japanese SPG in 20mm for my WW2 Burma Skirmish project, and a copy of the new "Jugula" gladiatorial rules. I'm reading them through now, and they look like a lot of fun (but a pain that you have to shell out another seven quid over and above the cost of the rules for a set of cards for each player - I'm sure there is a cheaper way of doing this). Anyway, something for me to try out with my small collection of gladiator figures and the Berkeley Vale crew in the autumn when I've managed to make up a small arena.

Rumble in the Jungle

One of the nice things about the Berkeley Vale club is that we get to play lovely looking games with great sets of rules. Most of the time.

Yesterday wasn't one of those times.

Last night's game was a modern African skirmish with a set of rules apparently being published soon. It looked lovely, nice crowded terrain, great buildings, figures full of character.

The rules were probably the worst set of skirmish rules I've ever has the opportunity to play. Bizarre mechanics, illogical activities, no "finesse", the best tactics to use were to line up and blaze away.

Alan indicates his view of the rules. Possibly scoring 1 out of 10?

Alas I didn't take note of the title of the rules otherwise I'd let you, dear readers, know so that you could avoid them in the (hopefully unlikely) event that they should ever be published.

But the game did look really, really nice**

** always end on a happy note :)

Project X is.... Steamer Wars

This morning I finally got "Project X" off the ground (only took 2 years) and published my first set of wargame rules myself rather than through a publisher. The subject (as a few readers will know, and well done to them for keeping it a secret) is the "Steamer Wars", the naval campaign on Lake Tanganiyka in 1914, and if you'd like to take a look you can find them on Wargame Vault here.

Its only a smally set, but it does comprise tactical and campaign rules, and is a snip at only £5 from Wargames Vault :) They were written the rather nice range of 1/600 models available on Shapeways from Northhead Miniatures

I'm sure that I won't find myself retiring in the lap of luxury on the proceeds, but its something I've been meaning to do for some time so I'm quite pleased.

And I think I came out OK :)