Best Wishes to All (version 2)

Ok this is the second time around for this post as the first time I managed to publish some code! Anyway here's the original post:

"I don’t believe in God”

What a weird way to open a post, but there you go I’ve said it. I don’t believe in God however I do celebrate Christmas. Isn’t that a bit of a dichotomy I hear you ask, well I suppose it is however I’ll elaborate further, you see I spent a good portion of my childhood in the Scouts and as such every third Sunday was spent at church as well as quite a few church parades and also bible studies. Now you would think that I would have developed a firm belief system after all this intensive exposure however just the opposite occurred. I started to see flaws in many of the arguments, in my teen years I read both the Bible, Koran and Hyperspace (by Prof Michio Kaku) and like many people agonised over my own personal beliefs and place in the world (being a teenager sucks sometimes).

Anyway to cut a long story short I ended up with the following personal view of Christmas and that is it’s a celebration of the good in people. If I can make the lives of both my family, friends, colleagues and people that I pass in the street just a little bit brighter then that’s what I’ll aspire to do. By assigning a particular date to something I give myself a personal goal, something to work towards and therefore Christmas is a target each year to be better! You could argue that we should be like this all the time however I think that for me I would lose focus without this deadline, after all I work better to deadlines.

I freely admit that faith in something (gods, science, people) can make humans excel and bring out the best in people and please don’t consider this to be an argument against anyone’s faith. We each have to reconcile our personal beliefs with the reality of living in a society of diverse beliefs and aim to negotiate our way through life without conflict negatively impacting others.

Anyway now that I’ve set the scene I have to say that I am thankful in this festive season for a number of things over the last twelve months:

1. That my children are happy and healthy.

2. That both my wife and I managed to move to the other side of the planet without any major hiccups. It’s been a mad year with a lot of upheaval however we’re still going strong and firmly putting down roots in a brand new country.

3. I’m amazed by the way that we have been accepted by Kiwi’s. Prior to the move I read a lot of horror stories about how ex-pats have made the move and felt excluded and marginalised however that has not been our experience. We have been included in peoples lives with open arms, and with our families being 12,000 miles away at this time of year we were at risk of feeling alone, however this is definitely not the case.

4. That people of have continued to read this blog. It sounds a bit silly but when your life is being turned upside down the fact that there are people out in the big wide world that are interested in what I’m doing in this crazy little hobby has helped to keep me grounded and sane (and connected to a wider community).

5. Big thanks to two gamers here in NZ, Scott and Ashley who have helped me restart my gaming, given me an understanding of the local gaming community and provided me with something familiar (rolling dice for fun!). They both have the same mindset as me and that is that life is too short not to have fun doing this hobby.

And so I wish all you lovely blog readers, bloggers, gamers, search engines and advertising robots that happen across this blog a very Merry Christmas!

Roadblock on Hells Highway

I’ve been buried in Lord of the Rings for quite a while now and felt the need for a little fresh air so when mate Ashley offered up a Sunday’s Flames of War gaming with his lovely collection I thought “Why not!”

I’ve been dallying with this ruleset for about 10 years now and never really bought in to it, I suspect because I’ve never had an opponent that wanted to play it for the same reasons as me (tell a story, re-enact a little history and to have fun!). So last Sunday I arranged a day pass from family duties and headed over to Ashley’s house for a little “dice time”. After shooting the breeze and having a cuppa (we’re both Yorkshiremen so there’s always going to be Tea!) we set to deciding what we’d play and which sides we were. As Ashley had found the old version 2 mission “Road Block” we decided on a Panzer Kampfgruppe vs an Armoured Guards Company. I tend to forget all the ratings etc so in essence I had:
Sherman CiC and 2iC
2x Shermans & a Firefly
2x Shermans & a Firefly
4x M10 17pdr
Allied US Para Platoon
Priority Air Support

Ashley had:
Panzer IV CiC & 2iC
3x Panzer IV H
3x Panther
2x Tiger
1x Walkure Platoon

I’m not going to explain in depth the mission as you can find it online, suffice to say the deployment was confusing (typical FoW wording!) with Ashley deploying his Panthers and Panzer IV’s on a road at one side of the board (it’s played length ways) and me ambushing with the Para’s and rushing up a Sherman platoon to support. Everything else was in reserve.

As you might expect the Para’s caused no damage to the Panzer IV’s however they were dug in 4” from the road and the Panzer’s were never going to dig them out on their own. The Panthers however decimated the Sherman’s, their front armour ensuring that the piddly little 75mm just bounced off while the lone Firefly was obviously suffering from some kind of middle ear infection and couldn’t hit a barn door from 10 yards.

Ahh but I have Air Support! Hmmmm, well it came in every turn and managed to only bail two Panthers throughout the entire game.
Then as my two remaining platoons came on they had to rush from the far board edge as fast as possible to get in to the game, the M10’s paper armour not really helping them that much against Panthers and the newly arrived Tigers.
Eventually the Firefly was the lone survivor from the starting Sherman platoon and in an amazing (and stupid) act of bravery drove to within spitting distance of a Tiger on the objective to get a side shot on one of those annoying Panthers, completely gutting it!

So in summary the M10’s were obliterated (as you’d expect), the first Sherman Platoon was obliterated (as I expected), the Para’s just hunkered down and took the pain (as you’d expect), the M10’s couldn’t go toe to toe with the pride of German armour and were obliterated (as you’d expect - they had nowhere to hide and no sneaky rules) and the Air Support did nothing (the Typhoon was actually a light summer breeze). So from that you would surmise that I won’t be touching FoW with a barge pole for the near future, however I’m happy to say that I will definitely be playing it again as the game was a blast, my opponent was fun to play against and the spirit of the game was the right one.

I’m still firmly bought in to LoTR/Hobbit gaming however I can at least have some variety on my painting table and, when diaries align can have some dice rolling fun with someone of the same mindset! So expect to see a little more FoW battle reports soon (ish!).

Oh and incidentally I should mention that all the models are Ashley's, painted by Ashley, the terrain is Ashley's and the pictures are Ashley's! Basically I just turned up, played and then buggered off!

Second Challenge Entry - Ships!

It turns out that this challenge lark is actually hard work. Oh no not the fun bit of painting up my toys, no it's the bit about writing my entry on time!

Anyway now that it's published on the challenge blog I've reproduced my entry for the bonus round "Cold" below. Be prepared to learn a bit of history!

The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a World War two naval battle fought between Germany and Britain on 24 May 1941. There were six ships involved, both German ships, the battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen were attempting to break out of the confines of the Baltic sea into the Atlantic to raid allied convoys. Shadowing them were two cruisers, HMS Suffolk and Norfolk whilst the battlecruiser HMS Hood and newly commissioned battleship HMS Prince of Wales waited for the opportune moment to strike. However when the British ships finally did pounce HMS Hood, pride of the British fleet was catastrophically hit and sunk with the loss of 1415 lives,  only 3 of her crew surviving (Ted Briggs, Bob Tilburn and Bill Dundas).Due to gunnery malfunctions the Prince of Wales then broke off the engagement however they did cause some damage to the Bismarck that forced her to flee toward a friendly port (Brest). And so was set a race against time for the Royal Navy to avenge their loss and regain their reputation as masters off the seas!
"How is this related to the bonus round theme of Cold" I hear your all ask. Well the battle I describe took place in mid May in some of the worst sea conditions the crew of the aforementioned ships have ever experienced. All three survivors of HMS Hood came close to death from the icy sea (Ted Briggs spent three hours in the water and was near dead from hypothermia before being rescued by HMS Electra).

So I present to you the protagonists of the Battle of the Denmark Strait!


All six ships are 1/3000 from the Davco range stocked by Skytrex. They're pretty good on detail but are no match for the GHQ equivalents. However as I'm only dipping my toe in the naval wargame genre I'm quite happy with how they turned out! The battle ensigns are just laser prints of images sourced online, the ships themselves being based on lollipop sticks.

Uruk Hai scouts

No I haven't disappeared, I've been concentrating. "On what " I hear you all ask. Well like some kind of demented masochist I've entered the analogue hobbies fifth painting challenge and as such have been busy beavering away painting like a madman to get stuff submitted in time!

My first entry to my first challenge are some of Games Workshops Uruk Hai scouts from their Lord of the Rings range. These are the metal versions that have been lingering about for ages on my painting table and, since I moved to NZ and have finally found both my painting mojo and an opponent who plays GW's LoTR game for fun rather than to win I thought it wise to use the challenge to get some focus into my painting activity.





And it's only good and proper that those pesky scouts have a leader who can not only fill them with cuddly warm thoughts on doing their (evil) duty but also provide lunch - Ugluk!






These boys should get their first outing soon against whatever Scott dreams up to kick my butt (I'm certainly not the tactical genius I pretend to be!). However I'm sure it will be fun.

The Hobbit – The Battle of Five Armies

If you don’t want to know anything about his yet look away now…………. 

POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS - POTENTIAL SPOILERS 

Now that’s out of the way I’ll continue. Way back in 2001 I managed to talk my better half to come to the cinema to watch a movie adaptation of a little known book – The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring. Luckily she quite liked it and fast forward 13 years we now live in New Zealand where the films were made. With the release of the final Hobbit trilogy – The Battle of the Five Armies I was eager to finish off the run that started 13 years ago and 12,000 miles away.

So calling in a favour we arranged a babysitter (our good friend Vanessa) and hightailed it over to the local flicks just in time to miss the rubbish trailers and see the lovely thank you trailer that cast and crew and had made to finish off this last instalment of the Middle Earth story (what else can they adapt, The Silmarillion ????). I had chosen the cinema by the following very extensive criteria:
- It's close by
- The screening was in Higher Frame Rate 3d
- It's close by
So we settled into the very average comfort level seats and I tried to get the 3d glasses comfortably positioned on my normal glasses. Then we both settled down to watch the movie magic.

So what did I think?

Errrrrrr….

I was rather disappointed to be honest. For some reason I can’t get in to the flow of a film that starts straight away. I know that all three movies are an extension of the same story however it does kind of feel like you’re walking into a party that’s mid-way through and everyone expects you to laugh at a joke that you didn’t hear the start of (oh and they’re all drunk whilst you’re stone cold sober!). Now this is probably my issue regarding vibe but I like to get warmed up by a film so I can enjoy the subsequent climax (no rude pun intended), however this starts off with the big battle between Bard the Bowman and Smaug. It’s all too sudden and in your face. 

Then there’s the issue of Higher Frame Rate. Purely from a technology point of view I understand the benefit, the added realism from the quality of image transports you into the movie as though you are there. However, i know it’s a film, I kept expecting to turn my head and see Peter Jackson directing the acting and to see the sound guy handling the boom mike. It spoiled my experience of the journey into a fantastical storyline, I want to be transported away from reality for a few hours and just enjoy a good story however the realism made it less like an adventure and more like a fly on the wall documentary. 

But that’s my fault for seeing it in that format. CGI was rather conspicuous in its prevalence, there was rather a lot of it and at times it spoiled the experience however this view may simply be because I saw it in HFR. I remember seeing Desolation of Smaug and complaining about it, yet once I watched it through again on DVD I thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe viewing the film in a traditional sense rather  than in an advanced format meant that I could connect with it better (does that make me an old fart?) 

Luckily the acting this time round was pretty darn good, I thoroughly enjoyed Thorin’s paranoia, Bard was enjoyable as the reluctant hero and Billy Connelly hamming it up as Dain. There were no obvious dramatic pauses whilst an actor waits for the blue screen to catch up or blatantly obvious lines.  However it didn’t distract from the fact that for a two and half hour film not much actually happens. There’s a big battle, some fighting, a bit of character acting, then some more fighting. In hindsight I would agree with the naysayers in that it should have been only two movies and not three.

I’m glad I saw it, my wife got to catch up on some sleep (“where did those Dwarves come from, I missed it as I was asleep”!) and the actors involved certainly didn’t embarrass themselves. It’s just a shame that it was dragged out in to three films for the sake of the movie studio making a few bucks. I guarantee that many of you that have now seen the movie thoroughly enjoyed it and this is not an argument against your enjoyment, just my view based on a lot of different aspects that I found difficult to reconcile. Will it stop me buying the Directors Cut limited edition Blueray special blah blah blah…..probably not!

Clearing The Decks

So as the start date of the painting challenge approaches I find myself tidying up my painting table by simply painting everything on it! This isn't as exciting as it sounds as I've managed to crank through a big chunk of the part painted stuff recently, thus leaving only half finished (and half realised) projects to complete.

"So what have you got to complete Ste" I hear you ask? Well I've got a shed-load of little terrain projects that just never seem to get done, the first of which I like to refer to as "bags of stuff". You know how when you find that annoying hole in a metal mini or the big gap when gluing models together and you go to fill it and end up mixing too much green stuff!. What do you do with it?

Well I've always tried to use my excess in useful ways, I've just not always been successful. Now just to put things into context let me say that my sculpting skills are pretty mediocre to say the least, I can just about get away with filling gaps and sculpting fur or the odd hair extension so when it comes to excess green stuff I’m not that imaginative. So in the interests of not dragging things out here are the results of said sculpting experiments that have been loitering on my painting table for the last 2 years!!!

Also loitering about and which falls into the “clearing the desk” category are these rather nice (naff) boxes which I picked up at Pudsey Recon 2012 from someone second hand (I forget who).
And last but not least a few of the Renedra barrels that I bought at my last UK Wargames show (Triples) before moving to NZ. They don’t fit together very well however as a bit of battlefield terrain they work ok.

And here's the fruits of my labours all crammed together and being defended by a rather grumpy dwarven pirate (for a sense of scale!)
Now then, I only have one more thing to finish off on the painting table and I'll be all set for the challenge!

Gondor & High Elves vs Mordor & Isengard

So last week a carefully chosen select few of New Zealand’s most able gamers gathered for an evening of LoTR/Hobbit gaming hosted by the redoubtable Scott of www.scottswargaming.blogspot.co.nz.

I didn’t take any photo’s or manage to keep track of the action very well as I was having too much fun however Scott has done a very nice report of the action, it was hosted by him in his “War Room” at Chez Bowman and therefore all bragging rights accrue to him accordingly!

So why not head on over and check it out - http://scottswargaming.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/to-death-lotr-four-player-doubles-fun.html

Oh and big thanks to both Roly (purveyor of the fine blog Dressing the Lines) and Brian (purveyor of some fine LoTR tactical knowledge!) for a fun evening’s gaming.