My Big Fat Greek Wedd.... err sorry I mean My Big Fat Blog Plug

Much like all you lovely folks out there in Blogland I follow a number of blogs on various different subjects. I find it interesting to read the activities of real people that choose to share their thoughts with the world without the interference of an Editor or Marketing Manager filtering what they can and can't say (such as magazines).

Therefore I'll begin by plugging fellow gamer and all round interesting bloke Mike and his blog Trouble at T'Mill.

His blog primarily covers wargaming in its many forms however he does occasional wax lyrical on a number of diverse subjects ranging from local history to mathematical probability and its probably the more esoteric posts that make his blog stand out above others.

Also much like a number of other blogs he is currently running a prize giveaway for hitting 100k hits on his blog. Obviously the giveaway is aimed at a) rewarding his loyal followers and iii) generating more followers however I'm feeling particularly mercenary today and also want some Lord of The Rings Figures which are the giveaway for day 2. So head on over to Mike's blog, check out the rules listed on the day 1 and try and bag some loot. Oh and say hi to Mike.

Warhammer on a budget.

Have you ever had the urge to do something just to see if it can be done.  Well thats the subject of this post and begins over two years ago when i decided to abandon Games Workshop following the release of Wargaming for Dummies... err I mean Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th Edition. Since the release of that weighty but vacant tome I've played Wfb 8th twice and purchased nothing other than a tin of chaos black spray and stocked up on Devlan Mud wash.

Anyway getting back to my original topic a friend of mine at my local gaming club runs a WFB tournament every year called the Pennine Pillage (it's based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, middle of the Pennines). It's a low points competition and is always good fun so I decided to enter this year however I thought I should do something a little weird.

So this was my self appointed challenge - at a time when a GW fantasy army costs as much as a medium sized nuclear reactor, how cheaply can I put together a 1500 pts army.  Now in previous editions this would have been a doddle - old hands at the game will surely remember the days of between 3 and 5 model armies (argh Tzeentch chariot mage craziness). But that's not for me, I wanted something that was fair and would be interesting to play with. So I could have cruised evilbay, Mantic or even the Bring And Buy at conventions and shows but I thought "no not hard enough".

So how did i overcome this mammoth task I hear you ask. Well first of all I picked a force,  namely daemons as I have the book and for reasons that shall shortly become obvious the models should be easy to source. Then the evil overlords of GW nastiness released a new edition if the army book. As I'm not willing to sell a kidney to by the darn thing I plugged for borrowing a copy of a mate whilst writing a list using Battlescribe (you gotta love it).

Then on to buying the minis.  Here's where it got  fun:

• Five packs of  kids toy insects - £5
• Balsa wood for the bases - £2.10
• Cheap auto spray - £1
• Sand for texturing - free (i nicked it from the the park)
• Paints - Old GW Paints that had dried out.
• Flock and base dressing - some leftovers from a terrain project (so kind of free).

So far so good. All I gotta do is convert it, paint it and label it so my opponents know what the heck each unit is. Below are a couple of pics of the task in progress, I'll post more as i get out completed.

Tanks for the memories!

What a stupid post title. Maybe I’ll change it, or maybe not seeing as this is published and you've all read it already. Doh!

This is another of my Bolt Action models, this time a 1/48 Hobby Boss Sherman painted up for my fledgling US force (fledgling because this is the only member of it!). Its currently standing in as support for my British as my Tamiya Cromwell is in various states of undress and isn’t properly attired to attend the ball. However I'm quite happy with this as a first attempt at painting WW2 28mm scale armour. The one thing I've got to get the hang of is using weathering powders, there’s only so much you can do with paint and ink and this tank looks a little bit to new to have seen much service.

Now I'm off to get some of my FoW Germans, ECW Parliamentarians, IHMN Scotland Yard and Bolt Action Tommies done. Wow not much really.

Triples 2013

On a lovely wet Saturday afternoon in May I found myself tearing down the beautiful M1 motorway (or highway for my colonial cousins) on my way to Sheffield Triples 2013. It is apparently the norths premier wargames event, and who am I to challenge such a lofty statement (north of England, not world!).

Anyhoo I arrived distressed having just got rudely propositioned by some young scoundrel in his german automobile for my rather saintly driving and luckily bumped into two of my erstwhile colleagues in the gaming fraternity. Lucky because all three of us were lost and with a little luck and blind wandering about managed to find the venue (we went the opposite way to the trail of gents with carrier bags proclaiming all manner of gaming goodies just acquired).

Triples is held at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield and I have to say its Hugggggggggggggeeeeeeee. Two halls of traders and demo games. However large the location it was very spacious and maybe was a little under-attended for the size. I was there primarily to pick up two things

1. My lovely pre-ordered Davco WW2 ships from Skytrex. As they’re selling off that side of the business I thought it prudent to get them while I can. Roll on the refight of Sink the Bismarck!
2. To purchase In her Majesty’s Name, Victoriana steampunk rules written by Craig Cartmell and published by Osprey.

So off I trundled, cash burning a hole in my pocket, my eyes greedily taking in all the lovely toys when I behold something insanely brilliant - remote controlled tank battles. I’ll let the picture do the talking. 

A quick peruse of the bring and buy and it was on to purchase my goodies and I have to say the Figs for IHMN are lovely. They’re being released by Northstar however the rules are relatively open to allow you to use any manufacturers figures. In fact that’s kind of what attracted me to the game, the freeness (is that a word?) of the system. Included in the rules are a number of Adventuring Companies however the rules provide the mechanism to create your own and its this aspect that appealed to the latent roleplayer in me. Who’d have thought it.

Anyhow I’ll chuck up some pictures as they progress. I’m quite looking forward to it and am currently dreaming up my Consulting Detective’s arch nemesis, Professor………?

Below are a few pics from the demo games on the day.

 A nice Battlegroup Kursk game.

Napoleonics

Thirty Years War?

 Apologies for the crappy pictures, my phone doesn't seem to like taking them - go figure!

Oldhammer - Just a case of “when I were a kid?” nostalgia?

Recently a small public limited miniature wargames company with a turnover of £131m released a new edition of one of their core games. This new edition featured a number of changes to the rules and as a consequence the way that games played out. These changes resulted in a number of more mature players deciding that they wouldn’t play the new incarnation and began looking for an alternative. Thus Oldhammer was born!

Now the whole ethos of Oldhammer is to play Warhammer 3rd Edition. Sounds easy doesn’t it, nothing to complicated about that I hear you say, unless of course you want the rulebook. Now this is where it becomes tricky because the rules have been out of print since 1992 however I believe you can possibly acquire a pdf download, whether that is legal or not is a different matter (on your head be it!). Luckily I have a copy of the rules and even better this is the first wargame I ever played back in 1988. It is also the most complicated edition of the game that said small company ever released. If you pop on over to the oldhammer blog (link above) you’ll see lots of info. Even better there’s an Oldhammer weekend being run at Foundry in Nottingham - http://warhammerforadults.blogspot.co.uk/p/oldhammer-eventfoundry-2013.html

Also there’s a nice little summary of one man’s (I believe he’s male!) move to Oldhammer here

http://warhammerforadults.blogspot.co.uk/p/why-is-it-called-warhammer-for-adults.html

Anyway (the most used word in blogs after “so”) this isn’t my reason for the post. I actually want to give my own view of Oldhammer and its place in my gaming list. You see I did play a lot of WFB 3rd  as a teen and really enjoyed it however I view the game and my memories of it as a place in time rather than a product. Going back to playing it would be a little like trying to relive those memories and place myself back in that point of time and I’m a million miles away from where I was back then. Additionally I’m not sure I have the time at the moment to relearn the rules and then teach said rules to anyone unfamiliar with it. Please note I’m not debunking the edition nor dissing the guys who have revived this as a valid ruleset - and by valid I mean promoting to other players and building a community that wishes to play and support it.

So all I’m trying to say is that for me it would be reliving my past and would sit firmly in the category of nostalgia. Now back to the first paragraph of the post and the changes made by that not inconsiderably sized PLC to the game I loved. I’ve decide to revert back to 7th edition. There are two reasons for this.

1. The books are still available second hand
2. I really enjoyed it and still know the rules

Now I’m sure there will be people who argue that the game was broken, too easily manipulated or too limiting in its options. And to that I say “its my hobby and I’ll play the way I wish”. If something doesn’t work then I’ll change it and make sure that the people I play are wargamers and not powergamers. I was always rubbish at tournaments anyway. I enjoy the story of the game, the dynamics or trying to defeat numerically superior opponents or just trying to survive.

Therefore in conclusion to this rather rambling post I’d just like to thank Games Workshop for finally setting the threshold that I am not willing to cross and opening up my mind to alternative hobby solutions. And in answer to the title of this post - Yes it is (for me) and unfortunately a number of years have passed since that wonderful memory and I don't want to disappoint myself in trying to get it back.

The king is dead, long live the dead king!

Bolt Action Tommies!

Well I don't post that often and thats mainly been because I've been finalising my college course. Well now that thats over I can start uploading stuff and boring the crap out of anyone that might end up reading  this page.

Anyway back on to more fun things, I've found myself playing quite alot of Warlord Games Bolt Action rules recently. Its revived my childhood interest in all things World War 2 and resulted in a lot of discussions on the Bolt Action Discussion Forum on various aspects of the history. The game itself is fast and fun and relatively easy to learn and play.


Anyhow without further ado here are a few of my painted Tomies ready to get stuck in to the dastardly hun (can you tell I'm approaching it in a Commando comics stylee?):

This is my initial platoon led by Subaltern. I've gone for the complete cop out of block base colours and the Army Painter Dark Tone dip however it seems to be working quite nicely. i really don't have time to focus my attention on the models however once the core of the force is put together I'll start getting some characterful models in there, for example currently there are no rules for a company Padre however it would make a very nice addition.

Until next time!