The Lord of the Rings SBG AAR - Rohan vs Isengard (Grudgematch)

And so here we are again, Andy and I facing each other down in what has become a personal vendetta for the Uruk Hai of Isengard. Following our last battle in the empty plains close to Dunland it became clear to Gandalf that Saruman had chosen to side with the Enemy in the coming war. Therefore rather than risk the ring falling in to his clutches, Gandalf enlists the aid of Eomer and his small force in rescuing Frodo and the ring.

Racing up the North-South road and passing through Tharbad Gandalf learns that Saruman is now taking a personal hand in the recovery of the ring and is leading his marauding band of Uruk Hai personally.

Obviously this bears no relation to the actual story; however we’re working on the assumption that after Gandalf discovered the truth about Bilbo’s ring in his search of the Minas Tirith archives he journey’s back to the shire via Rohan where he encounters Eomer. After he explains how King Théoden’s court has changed and the actions of Grima and his band Gandalf rightly realises that Saruman has betrayed them (he’s quite bright is our Gandalf). So no wizard battle at Orthanc but rather a race against time to prevent the capture of the ring before Frodo has chance to set off on his journey.

Board Layout

The board was laid out to represent the beginnings of civilisation near Bree with a smallholding in the north east, scattered trees and two small woods in the south east and south west and two hills on the south edge and northwest. We were playing a pitched battle so both split our forces equally with Andy deploying his first half 18” in, then alternating deployment 12” in.

Deployment and Forces

I took the same force as last time however Andy decided to counter Gandalf with Saruman, therefore dropped his Shaman, Uruk Captain, Berserkers and Crossbows. As we were playing a pitched battle we set up pretty much as a battle line, however Andy’s troll was forward of his line and Eomer and a couple of Cavalry were to the left of my line as a mobile reserve (with Gandalf supporting).

Opening Turns

Andy won the priority first and advanced his damn troll straight towards my Rohan Warriors. With a low Fight and Strength value my warriors would have a problem doing anything with the beast however I endeavoured to take it down. And therein lay my first mistake as I should have just sidelined the darn thing through clever use of control zones and one on one fights.

So instead I focused a blizzard of bow fire and throwing spears at it causing no damage whatsoever. Meanwhile Andy moved his Uruks up my left flank whilst Saruman supported the main attack in the centre. I dithered a little and placed my warriors and Gamling in poor positions in the middle which Andy took advantage of quite early on, pushing me back with his Troll and following up with Uruks so as to block my movement. 

Ignore the damn thing Ste, don't feed it troops

Mid-game

I managed to get Eomer into combat on the left flank however by this time Andy had outmanoeuvred me and pushed hard up the centre, and in a very clever use of Might points had called a couple of Heroic Combats that saw Lurtz carve a path from the rear to threaten Gamling in my front line. I say from the rear because I did manage to spot an opportunity to trap said Troll after Andy left a gap between it and his supporting Uruks. Hence the rather clever Heroic Combat that allowed Andy to smash down a warrior with Lurtz and then move forward freeing up the Troll to fall back should it not win the fight.

Meanwhile Eomer slew his opponent on the left however his fellow riders could only wave their rubber swords around in a feeble imitation of combat. Andy then won the next priority and plunged as many Uruks as he could into combat across my battle line. I responded by throwing anything I could into my left flank to try and rescue Eomer and had everyone else shielding to try and slow down the Uruk onslaught.

Meanwhile Gandalf and Saruman had a wizard duel, throwing Will points around like confetti as they tried to drag warriors around, sorcerous blast each other and just generally be a pain.

It’s the End!

Bloody Troll

I finally come to the realisation that my centre is crumbling and I can’t use Eomer as the surgical implement I intended as he’s getting sidelined quite nicely by Andy so I redirect him from the left to the rear of Andy’s battle line and use command to get him into combat. Hopefully I’ll be able to call a Heroic Combat, slaughter the Uruk and then charge headlong into Saruman. Unfortunately Andy has already spotted my cunning plan and moves his only unengaged model into Eomers way. And so I have the only bit of dice luck in the game so far and hurl a desperate throwing spear from one of my warriors at the standard bearer and slay him!

Woohoo!

So on to combat and as Andyhas priority he decides the order of combats and promptly butchers nearly everything I have in contact. Even worse we’ve run out of time and can’t resolve the Eomer/Uruk blood feud nor get to the sorcerous duel we were hoping with Saruman and Gandalf.

Stand out moments in the game:

• Casting immobilise on the Troll only to have it win the combat against Gamling and 4 warriors!

• Saruman casting sorcerous blast on Gandalf, he then resisting it with his will and returning the favour, to then have Saruman resist it (proper wizards duel!)

• Lurzt using a Heroic Combat to free up the trapped Troll (damn him!).

*Rant Alert* - The Problem with Club Gaming

Ok this may come across as a bit of a rant however I feel the urge to vent a bit after Andy and my game last night. You see our gaming club is an over 18 type of affair, not because we don’t encourage younger gamers but rather because our lovely hosts (The Belgrave Social Club) is a place where alcoholic refreshment is served, and as such they have quite strict rules. As a consequence the average bracket of our gamers is probably about 30-40 years old with a mixture of professions and backgrounds.

Well last night was a pretty typical night with around 30 attendees and a wide variety of historical, fantasy and Sci-fi gaming being played in equal measure. I set up our LoTR SBG board in a corner of the room with the hope that we’d be able to play our silly little game in peace.

Ahh but it was not to be. You see both Andy and I are what you’d call social gamers, we enjoy the game itself, have a desire to win, however that is overridden by the desire to have a natter, game a story and in general have a laugh. There is very little competitive gaming going on although we do have the occasional cunning ploy. As a consequence we play quite slowly and are usually some of the last ones to finish and pack away.

So we’d got about 4 turns into our game the other night when we noticed that we’d acquired a small audience. Now if you know LoTR SBG once the forces clash you start playing a very intense micro management style wargame where you’re busy planning 2 or 3 moves ahead but also trying to adapt said plans for if you don’t win priority. This is the bit I like the most about the game and Andy and I get quite into it (there’s usually quite a lot of crouching over combats and trying to predict outcomes, control zones and priority), so as you can imagine it takes a bit of focus when you get to this point.

And now to the meat of the matter. We play games for fun however when you have a group of people heckling you from the sidelines it stops being fun! This is the point where your 40 years on this earth count for nothing as you are returned to the playground of your childhood where groups of children try to out do each other with the quality of their jibing! Supposedly mature, intelligent men resort to heckling as a means to prove how “cool” they are.

Now this is quite understandable considering the environment we are in, as we (and others around us) are playing games that simulate conflict where one side is trying to defeat the other. This whole process is very abstract from the actual reality of conflict, and rightly so otherwise we wouldn’t have much of a society if we all got together on a Wednesday evening to pummel each other into submission. However the competitive game itself puts people into a mindset that focuses their natural tendencies to compete with each other.

Now at this point I need to say that I’m being a little unfair to my club mates, as it would have been easy to turn round and tell them to cut it out, act their age or just p**s o*f, however nether Andy or I did that. I don’t doubt for a second that said heckles were intended as a bit of fun with no malice intended. However we said nothing (apart from a few choice swear words in their general direction), got on with the game, let it affect us and then had a bitch about it afterwards when they’d gone home. And that is wrong, as is whinging to the world about it on my Blog (or the tiny bit of the world that reads this!). However I am only human and this blog is not only for an audience but also for myself as a kind of journal that I can read back in later years. I know that one or two of my club mates read this Blog and I apologise for not speaking to them at the time (I’ll talk to you next week fella’s or drop me an email!). However the one thing I will suggest to anyone that reads this and finds themselves in the same situation (whether you’re the gamer receiving the heckle or the one giving it) is be aware of your actions and how they impact on others as what you may find fun could be received by others in a very different way.

So that’s off my chest, life is after all a learning experience that never ends and this is something new to file in the “things to remember” folder.

Sorry, rant over!

The Lord of the Rings SBG Battle Report - Rohan vs Isengard

Things have been a little hectic lately so it was nice to catch up with Andy, my regular Lord of the Rings opponent and continue our re-education in the game. We had been planning on running a Battle Companies Campaign (as I stated in recent posts) however the fickle finger of fate has intervened with those interested moving on to other more interesting games (apparently there’s a new edition of some kind of Sci-Fi game out now!!).

So it’s just Andy and I at the moment so we decided on a 600 pts breakthrough scenario to let us flex our gaming muscles.

So to set the scene we have Gandalf, Eomer’s Rohirrim and some local militia trying to break through an Uruk reserve to rush to the aid of the beleaguered forces at Helms Deep.

Forces

Andy - 20 Uruks with Sword and Shield, 3 with Pikes, 3 Crossbows, 2 Berserkers, Lurtz, Shaman, Captain, Battle standard. Oh and an Isengard Troll (arghhhhh)

Me - 8 Warriors with Sword & Shield, 6 with Throwing Spears, 6 with Bows, 3 Riders with Bows, 4 with Throwing Spears, 5 with Hand weapon and Shields, Gandalf the Grey, Eomer on Horse, Gamling on foot.

(I took Gandalf the Grey as I don’t have the white model and I quite like him in his grey incarnation!)

Here’s the battle field with forces deployed

The scenario has a two stage deployment - half evil, half good, half evil, half good. So I had the opportunity to sucker Andy and choose my avenue of attack. Unfortunately Andy really didn’t have to worry as he won the roll off to pick table sides and chose the conveniently arranged defensive side with rocks and trees creating choke points that would funnel my forces on to his waiting Uruks. I weighted my left flank with archers, Eomer and 6 riders while my warriors march up the middle and right, my only hope being to time my assault on one of the choke points so I could maximise the amount of riders and warriors in combat. My only concern was the Troll being Andy’s mobile reserve however that would be Gandalf’s concern!

Opening Turns

I shuffle up on the left and open fire, taking down an Uruk and prompting Andy to move his Troll to the left in support. Eomer & Co float around the middle with the option of assaulting either the middle or left choke point. With Andy’s Uruks filling the spaces between it limited the number of cavalry that could get into contact. I really need that cavalry charge bonus to win the fights and knock the Uruks down, defence 6 is a real pain when you only have strength 3 troops so I need all the hit dice I can get. My warriors move up as Andy plugs the gaps. The Uruk crossbows move into position to try and kill off my cavalry but don’t hit anything, more training required!

Weighted left flank. Can Eomer and Co break through?

Damn crossbows and their high strength!

Uruks in position in the centre choke point!

First blows are struck!

Bloody Troll!

Gandalf decides to neutralise the Troll and knocks him down with Sorcerous Blast taking a wound of the heavily armoured behemoth. Andy decides to redeploy a little and moves more Uruks from the left to the centre as it’s clear that I’m going to avoid the Troll and try my cavalry on the infantry.

I move my warriors up a little more, getting ready for the priority next turn (if I’m lucky), after all Andy doesn’t have to move, he’s in the best defensive position with the terrain limiting the number of attacks from my cavalry and his great fight and defence value mitigating my charge bonuses.

So next turn, I get priority and we’re off. On the right I pile in with my warriors and a rider, slaying an Uruk as I charge in with a well thrown spear. I charge Eomer in with a rider to try and punch through the smaller of the two forces controlling the choke points however I get control zones wrong and Andy counters by throwing in more Uruks to beat Eomer down. They win the fight but Eomer’s high defence keeps him safe.

Last Turn (we chatted a lot so ran out of time)

All down to this priority roll, can I win it and move my troops in to support Eomer, dance out of range of the Troll and pick my fights on the right near the trees?

Nope!

Andy mobs Eomer and charges with his centre force as there’s little risk now that I can break through. Even worse in the subsequent fight Eomer will count as trapped and Andy has blocked my unengaged troops from supporting him. Surely my erstwhile opponent will now have his revenge on the B****rd of the Riddermark as there’s nothing I can do to rescue Eomer is there?

In steps Gandalf and, in a repeat of his actions in the Goblin Town scene from The Hobbit movie, sorcerous blasts an unengaged Uruk straight into the fight with Eomer, knocking everyone down and killing one Uruk. With all the models knocked down there is no-one left to attack Eomer (who is also lying on the floor dazed!).

Gandalf knocks everyone flying, and saves Eomers life!

We call it there, both of us laughing and swearing for good measure. I had started to move some of my warriors towards Andy’s board edge however we got caught up in the personal vendetta the Uruks have with Eomer from previous games and both forgot the objectives. Andy then insisted we roll for priority to see who gets up first and thus can fight the lying down models and guess what………..I won.

Eomer leaps from ground as Gandalf shouts “take up arms, fight!”

So the rematch is set for next week, will Gandalf, Eomer and co make it to Helms Deep in time to relieve the defenders or will the Uruk rearguard catch them and exact their revenge on the Horselord?

Note: Apologies for the unpainted models, I’ve had a lot on however these are now at the front of the painting queue.

Ok, I got Liebstered!

I know, I’m a bit late for the most recent round of Liebster(ing) however I have a good excuse which I’ll explain in another post or two later. I’ve never received a Liebster and therefore I’m quite thankful to my fellow bloggers that believe my humble efforts to catalogue my hobby are worth the accolade. Firstly I’d like tothank my agent for the opportunities he’s been able to find, then the Director for taking a risk on an upcoming actor…..(sniff), then my mum for (sniff), always (sniff, whimper) believing in me (sniff, whimper…….floods of tears a la Gwyneth Paltrow).

Ok enough of the silliness. Below are my answers to the current round of 11 questions. As I’m late in actually answering them and have limited net time at the moment I’m unable to nominate any well deserving blogs for the award as nearly all the ones I follow have already been nominated (some quite a few times it seems). Therefore I’ve decided to provide links to some of my favourite blogs and a little summary of their content. Hopefully this may attract them more readers and broaden the circle that is the Blog community.  

And now the questions

1. Why did you start blogging?

It seemed like a good way to keep a record of my hobby achievements. Sometimes you forget some of the great painting (or not so great) that you’ve done over the years so my Blog was an attempt at keeping a journal and motivating myself after a bit of Hobby slump.

2. If you could change one thing about the wargaming hobby, what would it be?

The weird perception that you must play what is written down in the those holy tomes that are rules manuals. You don’t have to play the rules as written, you can play and write what you like! If something doesn’t work or fit your story then change it. Oh and playing “balanced games”. Stuff that! Lets have some unbalanced games that tell a story. Abandon points values and just play what feels right. Oops, that’s two isn’t it.

3. What is best in life?
My wife and kids.

4. Do you want to live forever?

Nope, I’m looking forward to grey hairs, growing old disgracefully, grumbling about the “youth of today” and telling my grandkids how it was in the good old days of 3rd edition Warhammer and life before Kickstarter

5. Fame or fortune?

Fortune, I don’t want the attention but the cash would come in handy

6. What miniatures are you most proud of having painted?

Like most people its usually the most recent however I have done a little “pressure” painting over the last few months and as such they ended up as gaming standard. I really like my Rohan models however I’m getting the urge to go back and tinker with them. Oh and my 15mm FoW US Airborne, although its a shame I can’t seem to find an opponent who wants to play the damn game for fun rather than all tournamenty (it’s a word!).

7. How do you deal with burn out?

Hobby burn out? That’s easy, play fight with the kids on the living room carpet, building lego cars with them then having a good chin wag with the better half. Always puts me in a better mood and things into perspective.

8. Why is a raven like a writing desk?

Blah, its too easy nowadays to hit up Google for answers to obscure things like this. I kind of miss the bad old days of not knowing things.

9. Star Wars or Star Trek?

I honestly thought I’d have said Star Wars however I ummed and ahhed over this one for a few days and I can honestly say Star Trek. And it’s a really simple thing really, I loved playing with those little 1/7000 ships you could get more than the Star Wars toys, I found the action figures too fiddly and unreal whereas you could zoom your Enterprise through the air chasing that Klingon Bird of Prey and imagine you were on the bridge issuing orders.

10. If you could only buy from one miniature company from now on, which one would it be?

I want to say Perry however where would I get my LoTR figures from. Oh hang on it doesn’t say I can’t buy second hand……..

11. What is your favourite takeaway?
What ever my tongue is craving at the time (as long as its veggie!)

And now the Blogs.

This is a snapshot of some of my favourites however don’t just take my word for it, visit them and decide for yourselves. Oh and this is in no particular order

http://troubleatthemill.blogspot.com/

Mike is quite a prolific blogger as he aims to blog once a day on his hobby activities which often feature TFL games, various Dark Ages systems and occasionally diverging into statistics, heraldry, podcasts and literature reviews.

Oh and he’s quite good on snippets of hobby news!

http://scrivsland.blogspot.com/

A wide range of era’s and systems played here. Scrivs also manages to churn out an unbelievable amount of painted models as well as being a decent bloke and good sport when it comes to games.

http://shedwars.blogspot.com/

THE site for terrain ideas, Erik is always putting together buildings, castles, churches, railways, rivers and mountains. His gaming table is something to behold, and even better he has his own shed!

http://bigredbat.blogspot.com/

Massive ancients projects, usually seen at UK shows demoing his To the Strongest rule set and contributor to Wargames Soldiers & Strategy. Inspirational!

http://legatuswargamesarmies.blogspot.com/

Prolific blogger with many offshoot blogs however the Legatus posts here regularly and most often than not on non-hobby related topics, usually relating to his many travels. Always an entertaining read, irrespective of the topic.

http://scottswargaming.blogspot.com/

Currently Scott is focused on Lord of the Rings themed gaming with a rather enviable focus and hobby skill. His terrain boards are great, not sure where he finds the time but he can be relied on to impress. Check out his Watcher in the Water board.

http://fiendsinwaistcoats.blogspot.co.uk/

Victorian gothic themed blog with interesting and usually out of the ordinary posts. Recently there's been some nice reviews of artworks and model builders. Always worth a read.

"Ere, Sarge. There's a bunch o'Jerries hidin in them there trees!"

As previously mentioned I took part in our club's recent Bolt Action Campaign Day themed around the fall of Germany at the end of WW2. Now I won't go in to how well or badly I did (very badly…..!) however part of the reason for taking part was to support the organiser (mate and club member Geraint) and try and promote a less competitive style of play for Bolt Action within the local community i.e North of England.

Anyway I did have a nice British regular platoon lined up which I am quite familiar with however late in the day I volunteered to switch sides due to a couple of cancellations (there's that support thing I mentioned) and thus ended up playing Germans.

Now that would be great if I had any painted up Germans to play with however mine were languishing way down in the painting queue behind The Fellowship, Rohirrim, Uruk Hai, some VSF villains, 15mm US armour, 28mm Jomsvikings, Warbases Warehouse, Sarissa Buildings, 15mm Matilda II's, Perry DAK, Perry 8th Army etc etc etc, ad infinitum!   So as you can appreciate not a high priority.

However needs must so I set to with a vengeance and in the space of 5 evenings managed to get a full platoon with supports completed as follows:

Leutnant & NCO
3x 8 man squads with SMG, LMG and Panzerfaust
MMG
Medium Mortar and spotter
Sniper
Stug III G  

The only thing missing was an armoured car however as luck would have it I painted up an SdKFZ 222 for Geraint last year so I cheerfully demanded he cough up and loan me the offending article.  

So without further ado here are a few pics to satisfy your picture cravings!

Stan Hollis Memorial Fund - can you help?

See below. This was was originally shared by Dave over at http://onemanhisbrushes.blogspot.co.uk however it deserves to be shared as widely as possible and hopefully this travesty can be rectified!

Oh and if you get chance read a few more of Dave's posts, a jolly good read.

Stanley E. Hollis VC 1912 - 1972

"The only serviceman to be awarded the Victoria Cross on D-Day June 6, 1944, for his actions at Gold Beach, La Rivière, The Mont Fleury Battery and Crépon, during the Normandy Invasion of Europe."An immensely brave and modest family man, born at Archibald Street, Middlesbrough, on September 21, 1912."A never-to-be-forgotten leader, protector and inspiration to his comrades."© Mike Morgan, author of the authorised biography "D-Day Hero: CSM Stanley Hollis VC".

CSM Stanley E. Hollis of the Green Howards/Yorkshire Regiment was the only British serviceman to be awarded the Victoria Cross on D-Day, June 6, 1944.Sadly, his gallant actions are almost unrecognised in his home town of Middlesbrough. This Memorial Fund has been established to rectify the oversight and erect a suitable memorial.Can you help to make this a reality? Currently at £115,000 out of a target of £150,000 - Official site link - http://www.stanleyehollisvcmemorial.co.uk/home

The Trouble with Rubble!

You'd think that making some rubble and building wreckage for wargaming would be relatively simple. I mean we spend lots of time painting our models, then we move on to carefully and loving crafting buildings and scenery so you would think that broken buildings would be the opposite of all this care and dedication. Just smash up some bits of wood, rock, plastic, old models then cover a piece of scrap hardboard or card with glue and scatter liberally. Splash on a coat of paint, random dry brush and hey presto - rubble.  

Well I thought the same but no it was not to be. You see my gaming club, The Pennine Raiders (the website ain't that great so don't Google it!) regularly holds various tournaments and events and was recently the host for a Bolt Action Gaming Day themed on the fall of Berlin (and Germany in general). As you can imagine the there were a number of skirmishes/battles in built up areas during WW2 so we needed some ruined buildings, which we do not have an abundance of. In steps club member and Wargames Tournaments proprietor Ed (http://wargamestournaments.com/) who designed some ruins to our spec and promptly made a ton of mdf prepainted ruined buildings for the event.

Now they looked great, nice and easy to build (but time consuming when your making 30+ of the darn things) and populated two 6 x 4 boards nicely. However upon reflection Geraint (the TO) and I noticed that once laid out the boards looked remarkably clean. In steps Ed again with several cardboard boxes of off cuts from other commissions and so with 2 weeks to go I set to with PVA and a pile of rubbish (no offence Ed!).  

Now referring back to the start of this post, it turns out that it isn't as easy as described. Firstly I had to sort through and find the most appropriate bits from the collection of junk (once again no offence Ed) and make several piles of the same size bits.

Then I made various random shapes as bases from the scrap mdf in the box, and smoothed out the edges. Then I set to with PVA liberally slathering said bases to seal them, then sticking down some larger pieces of scrap as the foundations of the rubble and slowly building up with smaller pieces. Once it had reached an acceptable height for a 28mm model to hide behind I tailored them with easily identifiable pieces such as doors and railings and other bits that would give it more of theme rather than just a pile of junk. More PVA, a scattering of sand and railway ballast and off to the oven it all went to gently bake (it doesn't make a nice cake but it certainly dries the PVA quickly).  

Once dry it was time for 3 coats of black spray (my usual cheapo automotive spray!). This time I let it dry outside otherwise my better half would be a little annoyed that the oven now smells of spray paint. I left everything overnight and the following day mixed up varying shade of grey from my artists acrylics and dry brushed the heck out of them. Only thing left was to pick out some timbers and doors with a little burnt umber and they were done.  

And so what I envisaged as a quick afternoon job whilst sat in the garden watching the kids playing turned into a mammoth 3 day slog of PVA stickiness, sand and broken mdf everywhere and bad spray paint smells!. That'll teach me to volunteer for things. And then to top it all off, with only a week and half to go I volunteer to swap from Allies to Axis to balance things out because a few players pulled out. I know it doesn't sound like much until you realise that I have a completely unpainted German army!   So in the next post I'll show you the end result of my 5 day paint job!. I say it quite a lot, but its true I guess - I work better under pressure.  

A journey into the past - I’m Ten Years Old Again!

Well obviously that’s not actually true however I certainly felt it the other night. You see the small town I live in has a few charity shops that do rather well, however it differs from a lot of other UK towns and cities in that the regular shops on the high street have not gone out of business and seem to be doing quite well. We have a nice selection of family owned businesses and one or two large chain stores along with the usual assortment of banks so the charity shops don’t dominate the shopping. Anyway I digress, “why did you feel like a kid again” I hear you ask. Well on a recent scan through the DVD section of one said charity shops I spotted something that I last saw when I was the aforementioned age.

Nice building, great grounds.

You see my flirtation with the wonderful genre of fantasy started when I moved from primary school to middle school (way back when the UK had a three school education system). I loved my primary school, it was large and modern, huge playground, lots of playing fields and surrounded by greenery and trees etc. As you can guess there wasn’t a huge amount of children in attendance so you felt like you were one of the “Big” kids all the time. The classes were about 20 kids so the teachers had a lot of time for you on an individual basis. It was great. Unfortunately as the education system moved to a two tier system the school was deemed "unsuitable" to the pupil increase this change would entail and thus it was eventually shut down and demolished. And now it’s just a waste ground that’s slowly getting overgrown. Grrrr

Anyway I keep digressing. So I moved to middle school where there were more pupils and I (and my friends) were no longer the “Big” kids. The usual jockeying for position ensued, new friendships were made and the complications of social interaction for pre-teens began. Being a rather large and gangly child, and coming from a council estate I was subject to some rather unpleasant treatment from those posh kids from the supposedly posh primary schools I mentioned earlier. However as I said I was rather large (i.e tall) and therefore this unpleasant behaviour didn’t last long as the threat of being squashed by me was a little bit more than the posh kids could take.

So there I was, big school, a little bit alienated and trying to clumsily make friends. I was never good at sport, I wasn’t particularly confident or good looking so things weren’t looking too promising. And then like the proverbial Golden Fleece I discovered something that would change my life forever - THE SCHOOL LIBRARY. Here was a whole world of adventure, stories, pictures, excitement by the bucketload. And what was the first book I checked out? The Hobbit by a certain Mr Tolkien.
I devoured the thing in two days and hungry for more I hunted for something else by this mysterious author. I asked the school librarian and she said she knew just the thing but would have to order it in. I waited patiently for a week, then impatiently for another week, then I started to despair and she got bored of me pestering her at break time. Arghhh school holidays coming up and I still hadn’t got this mysterious book. Then as I was about to go to my last class after the afternoon break before we broke up for the autumn half term I passed by the library. And lo, there it was, a thing of beauty -The Lord of The Rings. All three books and appendices in one volume. It was like a house brick, my school bag weighed a ton.

I devoured, consumed, absorbed every page in five days. My journey into the magical world of fantasy literature had begun. My parents were baffled as my older brother was football mad, my younger brother constantly climbing trees and trying to escape parental supervision. Neither of my parents read books, they’d never read Mr Tolkien’s books and found my obsession unfathomable. I didn’t care, this was something that made sense to me, finally my imagination had somewhere to go - I battled trolls and goblins, found treasure, journeyed over mountains and through forests all within the safety of my own imagination.

I returned to school and sadly returned this magical book, the librarian asking if I liked it. I gleefully replied “Yes” and she pointed me in the direction of A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin, Magician by Raymond E Feist and a whole host of others, I met a few like minded souls who were also reading the same books and friendships ensued. My path was set and led me to where I am today.

However returning to the title of this post and the inherent question of why did I feel ten again, well the next school holiday after reading the Lord of The Rings was Christmas and way back in the early 80’s we didn’t have many TV channels so Christmas TV was a big deal, everyone bought a copy of the Radio Times so they could find out when the big movies were on. As I said earlier my parents didn’t really get my interest in fantasy but they did (in their own way) try and find me things of interest, so one afternoon just after Christmas day I was planning on playing out with some friends when my Mum says “Stephen, why don’t you stay in, there’s something on TV I think you’ll like”. Hmm weird thinks I but as she had moved the little portable television into the bedroom I shared with my little brother (who was trying desperately to escape the garden by climbing up a tree to jump the fence) I thought it must be something good.

So I settled down with a glass of dilute orange juice and a digestive and waited for this mysterious program.

Two hours later I was excited, giddy and just plain happy. A cartoon that was not really a cartoon. My favourite book brought to the screen. Yes its incomplete but Ray Bakshi’s version of The Lord of The Rings was the first time I saw my imagination and Tolkiens amazing words in motion!

And this is why I felt ten years old again, finding it in one of the charity shops mentioned at the start of the post was like finding gold. Sitting with a dilute orange juice and a digestive biscuit I relived one of the happiest memories of my childhood and the stresses of my adult world just disappeared, for two hours I was a kid again. It might not be the greatest film ever, it’s not even the full story but that’s not the point (at least for me). It’s a reminder of why I play these games, paint models and read everything I can find. It’s a memory cue, much like the smell of home baking or freshly cut grass and it takes me back to a simpler time. I won’t say happier because I am happy with my life, but it was a period of my life that was free(er) and when something triggers that memory it makes my adult worries fade, just for a while and sometimes that’s all you need.