Doncaster 2021

I've just been told off for not posting anything for a while, so here's a brief report on the 2021 "Wings of Glory" weekend that took place at the South Yorkshire Air Museum in Doncaster a couple of weekends ago. I was suitably put in the mood by attending DSEI at the Excel Centre where I got to see lots of really big toys, and on completion I headed North.

The event takes place over a weekend at the air museum, with three games run on Saturday and the "Ace of Aces" super-melee on Sunday. This is how it played out

Game 1 - Wings and Waves of War 

I ran this game, in which a pair of British CMBs are seeking to sink a stranded German U boat. Support is provided by an 80' Motor Launch (its really just a distraction), and both sides have a variety of seaplane fighters to try and destroy (Central Powers) or protect (Entente) the CMBs. I've run this before and its quite popular since the aircraft are unusual and Rod Langton's 1/200 surface craft are quite attractive. Points scored for each enemy plane downed, if the Entente sink the U Boat (get within 1 firing ruler's range) each player scores an additional point, Central Powers players score apoint if the sub survives. 

This was a REALLY close fought game. The CP were distracted by the ML which ultimately cost them the game, since they wasted a few attacks damaging it whilst the CMBs closed. A W-29 shot up one of the boats and a W-12 caused havoc on the other but in the end the last CMB closed to launching range with only 3 damage points remaining. There were quite a few "Bang" cards drawn, with Tim (aka "Flying Helmut") exploding twice, much to his frustration (players whose aircraft were shot down could come on in a new crate after sitting out for a turn. Tim very kindly sent me some photos from the game, I was too busy running the game to take any of my own

Game 2 - Sails

In this game I'm driving a French frigate. My orders are to recce a Spanish port on the coast of Africa and a coastal silver mine further along the coast. I have another frigate in company with the same orders driven by another player. There's a British frigate, a couple of Spaniards, some locals (who turn out to be rebels), a(suitably black painted) pirate and a British frigate about. My French frigate oppo recces the port then goes "off piste", shooting at the British frigate (we aren't at war), then runs aground and it then boarded, captured and burnt by the locals. The British frigate has a run in with a local frigate and the pirate and is sunk. I sail across the board, recce the silver mine, turn about and exist. Not a shot fired, mission competed 100% (I would have given the pirate a few broadsides on the way out but the game was called before I had a chance).

Lovely terrain :)

Game 3 - Whirlwind Attack

My first proper game of Wings of Glory WW2. I'm flying two Westland Whirlwinds, aiming to bomb and sink a German fuel tanker escorted by two S Boats. There are four Fw190s flying top cover, I have 4 Spitfires covering me. I run in, drop bombs, get shot down by the superfantastic AA on the S boats (!) but discover I've put four bombs into the tanker and it sinks. Game over. We we-run the game, I get to drive the tanker and S Boats as the air wargamers want to see how a naval wargamer conducts a defence of a high value unit.  So I deploy and manoeuvre the S Boats such that they stand between the Whilwinds and the tanker so I get to shoot at them before they reach their bomb release point. I shoot one down, draw rubbish damage chits against the second so it gets to the release point but its bombs only cause minor damage, then my AA shoots it down anyway - plus two Spitfires that got too close. Those S Boats are MEAN (and of course ahistorically powerful, but c'est la vie)

I love Whirlwinds :)

So ends day 1

On the Sunday we play the Ace of Aces game, 12 players a side along a long, thin table. SE5s for the Allies, Fokker D.VIIS for the Central Powers. 4 points for a kill, lose 2 points if you are shot down. I end up facing a player who may or may not have been keeping an accurate record of their  damage (its all hidden), get a stupid number of jams, shoot down the same player (he's been shot down by someone else in the meantime). Not the greatest of games for me this time but plenty of banter.

Ended up 5th overall, won a mint condition Sails of Glory HMS Victory special pack (I didn't realise at the time that I hadn't got one before, and so it was the only missing item in my SOG collection), then depart for the long drive home.

Assuming the date doesn't change to the end of the month I'll be there again next year. I've already started 3D printing the special models for the game I'm planning to run....

Merchants for "Sails of Glory"

Some more models that I printed a while back but only just got around to finishing. These are a couple of examples of Henry Turner's HMS Bounty model rescaled to 1/1000 and then shrunk a bit more so as to print a medium and a small merchant.

Bases are made from laser cut MDF and Perspex, sourced by Chris Haigh (aka "Capn Duff") on the Sails of Glory Anchorage, and the ship cards drawn from the anchorage files area.

Well done to Scotty for getting in the way of the third photo :)

There is something unusual about these prints - which is that they are one piece prints. I assesmbled the hull, bowsprit, masts and sails in Microsoft 3D Builder and then printed as a single entity, just to see if it was possible. Setting and removing the supports was "fun" but ultimately successful. I may give it another go with a larger ship to see if having more space to work with helps. Painting is also "fun", but overall I'm happy. Both need to have their paint jobs completed but I wanted to get these up sooner rather than later to show to someone who was interetsed.

Indefatigable and Anson for "Sails of Glory"

You could be forgiven from the paucity of posts here that I've been quiet during the "lockdown". Far from it! For a start I'm working full time, mostly at home, and my work days seem to be longer than when life was office based. But I'm also busy 3D printing and painting in the quiet hours, and I'm VERY behind schedule in posting pictures of my new bits and pieces here.

To start to make amends, here are a couple of 1/1000 prints for "Sails of Glory", The ships are razee 44 gun heavy frigates , Anson and the renowned Indefatigable, famous in ral life as one of the ships commanded by Sir Edward Pellew, and in fiction as being one of the ships on which a young Horatio Hornblower served. I've always been fascinated by the razees so when  saw that Simon Mann had posted a suitable model on Wargaming3d there was only one course of action (link to the model here)

I printed a couple, one for Indy, the other for Anson, and found some suitable ship cards and mats on the Sails of Glory Anchorage (you can find them here). I was wary as to how the sails would come out but I was pleased with the results. A couple of rather nice models I think, now awaiting the lowering of the quarantine flag before they can go forth into action.

WMMS 2016

Today I headed to the midlands for the WMMS show in Wolverhampton. It is a jolly, friendly show made notable for the annual sounding of the fire alarm and everyone trooping into the car park. At least this year it was sunny and warm out there, and the alarm was cleared in double quick time :)

As usual I was helping out with the "Wings of Glory Aerodrome" participation game, which also had an added "Sails of Glory" table. As is often the case a slow start, but once us gamesrunners start to play the punters come out of the woodwork and we played several very active games of each. Good fun as usual.

I had a short(ish) shopping list and came away with a small pile of goodies, including a copy of "Bloody Big Battles", a stash of Zvezda german and Russian trucks and some Peter Pig kubelwagens and infantry to round out my Eastern Front "Skirmish in the Snow" setup (of which more in future posts). I also made a purchase at the Bring and Buy which brought back memories from 30 years ago :)

It was also good to catch up with some old friends, especially Steve Blease who I haven't seen for ages - good news from him on the growth of Hysterical Games and some other things which the world may hear of one day :)

There were some lovely games on display this year, and also some nice kit from the local WW2 re-enactors (this year their 37mm anti tank gun tripping hazard was replaced with a rather nice motorbike on a trailer)

Doncaster - Day 2

So, the second day at Doncaster and after a lovely breakfast we closed up at the air museum for more games. I played Chris Haigh's "Frigate race" game, pitting my HMS President against four other ships in what was supposed to be a race around all the islands but ended up rather shorter than that.

Other games included an Operation Pedestal WW2 game and a WW1 seaplane game with the Germans trying to sink a British submarine.

The lurgy did its best to kill me off during the morning so I called ENDEX and headed home at lunchtime, but I did manage to finish off the Vulcan part of my weekend with a visit to the aircraft's hangar at Robin Hood airport for some happy snaps :)