Wings of Glory Wins Best Participaton Game at IPMS Thornbury - Again

Another jolly day at the 2014 Avon  IPMS show at the Thornbury Leisure Centre which, for the second year running has included demo and participation wargaming organised by Craig Austin and the Lincombe Barn Wargames Club. As last year I took along "Wings of Glory" and, aided and abetted by the Avon Wing of the Wings Of Glory Aerodrome, we ran a very successful participation game.

And, whilst not wishing to blow our own trumpet too much we only went and won the award for best participation game at the show for the second year running :)

The challenge is on to see if we can make it three in a row next year :)

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 :)

Naval Wargames Weekend 2014

I've just got back to Shrivenham after day 2 of the Naval Wargames Weekend. As in the last four years the event has been held at the Explosion Museum of Naval Firepower now part of the National Museum of the Royal Navy). This year's show was in some ways smaller than 2013 and alas the "sleepover" element of the show is no more after a late-breaking museum policy change, but we still had a great time and some excellent games were presented.

Centrepiece of the show was Mark Barker and the Inshore Squadron with Trafalgar in 1/1200. This was quite simply awesome. Pictures do not do it justice. This game was also notable for having a Powerpoint presentation running in the background.

NWS regulars Wayne Pocock and Andy Jose fought out the battle of Tsushima in 1/2400 using Naval Thunder

George Street (accompanied by his absolutely gorgeous hearing dog) put on another Naval Thunder game, also in 1/2400 but using European ironclads form the 1860s to the 1880s. Very colourful!

Mark Backhouse and the Solent Wargamers ran different games each day. Saturday saw Mark's popular "Bread and Circuses" Roman dockside skirmish in 28mm using "Saga" rules - loads of fun and very popular.

On the Sunday the action moved to the Mississippi in 1862 with the battle of Plum Point, using the "Sail and Steam Navies" rules. Lovely terrain which was very quick and simple to assemble and looked extremely good.

Jim Wallman brought his Armada participation game. Fought out using his "Felicimma Armada" rules and using an eclectic mix of ships the aim of the game was for the English players to carve into a portion of the Armada and carry off booty whilst avoiding the gunfire (and the even more dreaded boarding) of the Spanish fleet. Loads of fun, notable for Jim entertaining a mother and her children with the game, all of whom enjoyed it, and a certain blogger who shall remain nameless rolling 23 on 4d6 when determining how much booty had been "liberated" - said blogger then legged it back to Plymouth for tea and medals (and a knighthood!)

Peter Colbeck staged a couple of games set off the coast of Tierra Del Fuego as Chile and Argentina squared off over the Beagle Channel dispute. the Chileans (quite correctly) emerged victorious on both days :)

Finally, Simon Stokes ran the NWS "Hunt for the Konigsberg" game from this year's Salute. Vert simple terrain (lichen on a sea mat) which looked great! Also some lovey 1/1200 models and a very exciting and fun game, enjoyed by all who played it.

 So, another couple of days of naval fun, and just about everyone looking forward to the 5th Naval Wargames Weekend in Gosport in June 2015 :)

6mm ECW

Just at the moment I'm away on a rather interesting training course at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham. ne of the people I've met here in John Salt, a name that will be familiar to many wargamers. John advised me of the existence of the DA Wargames Club so after  hard day's lectures earlier this week I wandered down to the old Theatre and met up with the gamers there. And what a nice bunch of chaps! I ended up playing in a 6mm English Civil War game that is part of the club's continuing campaign.

My relief column on the road....

As my compatriot's force stands firm in the next village

As it happened my command (a Parliamentarian relief column seeking to rescue the baggage train of a friendly force) didn't quite make it into contact by the end of the game and the baggage escort managed to fight off their assailants anyway, but it was a fun game and the home-grown rules that the club is developing worked very well and "felt right". They would also work fine with 15mm figures on 40mm frontage bases, as all my ECW stuff just happens to be. I came away with a copy of the rules and 'm now on their mailing list. So I might well be giving these a spin with my PP figures when I get home.

Melee around the baggage train. 

Bombs

I've been quite busy recently with work stuff and helping Laura with her new pony, but today I managed to get some time to do a bit of modelling. I'm looking at running some connected FLoB games at Berkeley Vale using my PP small ships and thought that a bomb ketch or two might be useful. one particular variety of these craft had the mortar located forward, the mainmast and mizzen mast set back to make space. Obviously a conversion was on the cards

Something a bit like this, but fitting in with the PP range, that's whats needed

The source model for the conversion was the "Small Ship - Schooner" from Peter Pig's "Pieces of Eight" range. I drilled a large hole in the foredeck, expanding the original hole there. the bottom of the hole was blanked and a scratch built mortar on a turntable added.

The foremast was located in the hole intended for the mizzen mast, and the mizzen relocated to a new hole drilled in the poop deck. To be accurate I should have sanded away the channels and made some new ones, but to be honest I felt it was a lot of effort that could have damaged the hull sides for little effort, so i decided to leave them alone. All in all a fairly simple conversion, not entirely accurate but in keeping with the style of the original PP models.

All in all I was quite pleased with how these turned out. All being well they'll be in action tomorrow night.