A dungeon delving we will go.

Decorating your dungeon in this seasons must have.


Regular readers will know I am more of an Oldhammer Longbeard than a current GW fanboy, I like my fantasy bright and fun even when delving in dungeons looking for dragons to rob. I still have a place in my heart for a good old fashioned dungeon delve. I am currently in a small Pathfinder roleplaying group which I thoroughly enjoy, especially as I am not GMing, I can just turn up and roll my dice. Our current GM (my illustrious wargamer opponent) will readily admit he is not fully versed in Pathfinder lore and so has set the campaign in the old Warhammer World, a subject he and I both obviously have a lot of knowledge of, sometimes I have to bite my tongue as I know more than my character would. (The rest of our group are happily learning about this world and I don't want to spoil the surprises.)

Another reason I am happy I am not GMing is I can be lazy at learning rules. Pathfinder and D&D are systems that I have played, but I am definitely one of those players that is forever asking, what am I rolling? My illustrious opponent runs regular Rapid Fire games and again, I will openly admit I am no nearer to knowing the rules enough to play without constant support. One of the reasons I tend to write my own rules based on systems I already play, is because then I don't need to learn a new system. If there is a period in history I want to wargame and I have a ruleset that could cover it, why learn something new? So, why am I telling you all this? Well, I am beginning to get the GM itch again. I want to get the old Advanced Heroquest out of the cobwebs again, so at Colours this month, I bought some more resin furniture and as I painted it very quickly, I thought this would be an opportunity to give a thumbs up to this range, the Grendel Resin range from Coritani.

The first is what I bought this year, the armourers workshop, an excellent alternative to the plastic weapon rack that comes with the original Heroquest.

 Skaven and bulging Hero added to shot for scale.

Three pieces of resin furniture unpainted for £7.00 to me is a bargain. You can even buy them painted if you are a lazy painter. Next is a pub snug in three parts.

That Goblin is going to spill someones pint in a minute.

Every dungeon quest begins with our heroes meeting a random stranger in a dark and mysterious local tavern, well now we can that bar room brawl on the table. There is a nice medieval looking banquet table if you want to have that Errol Flynn moment with your Cavalier (that must be a D&D class, there was a Cavalier in the cartoon wasnt there?) you can swash buckles against the armies of darkness.

Shall I be mother?

Lastly, there is a Necromancers study. I am missing a piece in my photo, but there is also large torch against a wall display (see the website for what it looks like.)

 What this room needs, is a giant skull centrepiece.

I love these resin pieces, they take paint really well (something that resin as you know is notorious for not doing so.) so I will happily buy these unpainted and have them painted up in an evening or two.

Of course I now have to persuade the illustrious wargamer opponent and a few others to sit down for an evening and roll some D12's.

Newbury and Reading Wargames Society presents....

Colours 2018

It was a warm September day, a slight breeze and not a cloud in the sky. The perfect day to spend indoors with the backpack brigade. Yep it was Colours today.

As I have waxed lyrical in my previous post, this is my favourite show of the year. So I was up at the crack of dawn, baking some breakfast cinnamon whirls and bagging up some toy soldiers to sell. My illustrious wargaming opponent and I were nice and early at the front of the queue when the doors opened, so straight up to the bring and buy and we booked in our goods. I cannot emphasise enough how good a job the team do on the bring and buy each year. All volunteers, the efficiency in which they run it is a credit to the club. I know previously they have struggled to get it right, and I can say they now have it running like clockwork.

So, what did I buy? Well I didn't go crazy this year, it was nice just to enjoy the show and take in the demo games, but I did pick up a few bits.  Some bits of resin furniture from Trevor at Coritani www.magneticdisplays.co.uk. for my Heroquest games. I have bought from him before, nice resin sculpts, not too pricy and have that old school feel about them that is perfect for dungeon crawling.

I picked up a Chibi Raging Annie from Bad Squiddo and an Athena, Goddess of Wisdom to use in Ospreys Gods and Mortals skirmish game. For the same game I picked up some Footsore Vikings and a bag of less specific Black Tree design vikings from Mili-art.

Finally, I had to see if I could pick up a couple of giants in miniature from Wargames Illustrated (they are limited to 500 of each so they won't be around forever) I picked up a "Flash" Harry (mainly because it would amuse the Mother in Law) and an Alan Quartermain. I also grabbed a blister of 28mm scale pigs from Warbases  for a future project I will write about in the future.

The demo games had a couple of good tables of note. I didn't capture them all, but the following caught my imagination. Firstly, a 40mm scale table in full snowscape from Wessex games entitled Retreat from Moscow:

Next was a World War One table in 28mm presented by Adrian Shepherd and friends entitled The Race Across Idlib Provence.

A group call "Friends who like Rapid Fire" presented a most impressive display of 20mm WW2 vehicles much to the chagrin of my illustrious wargaming opponent who is in the beginning of the planning stage of doing his own Rapid Fire demo of Operation Goodwood.

A few Brits and the Hobby presented a demonstration of the Spectre ruleset. The giant scratchbuilt(?) tankers made an impressive centre to the table.

Overall a fun day out. However, I would say it seemed quiet this year. There didn't seem as many visitors. I dont know actual figures, but I didn't get as many backpacks to the face. This was reflected in my bring and buy sales, sadly I had to carry more items back home than I hoped. Anyone want to buy an original copy of Escape From Colditz?

Prepare the Colours

We're off on a lead hunt.

Even though it has been ten years since this grumpy old wargamer has worked in the world of retail, I have been on the odd occasion still been accused of being a little bah humbug at Christmas. I do however still get excited about one day of the year as much as Christmas, the wargame show.

Now my readership is across the globe so British readers, bear with me for a bit. In little ol' Blighty here most wargamers would agree the biggest show of the year is in London in April, Salute, hosted by the South London Warlords. My personal favourite of the year however is a little show called Colours, this year on the 15th of September, hosted by the Newbury and Reading Wargames Society. https://www.nrwc.org.uk 

Picture credit - https://newburyracecourse.co.uk


This is nowhere near as large as Salute but still a pretty impressive collection of traders and gamers all squeezed into Newbury Racecourse once a year in September. I guess it being hosted in my home town is one of the reasons I love it (No sweaty train journey for me, just a light stroll across our little market town.) But it is more than that. A lot of the traders have been coming for years, as have I, so although we don't know each other, they are as familiar as friends and some even remember my face.  Turn out is always good and the entire event is run by volunteers from the Society, a small team of people who do a sterling job every year.
The day is not just about shopping, I have made friends with fellow wargamers at Colours and the day is also an excuse to get together with some of them. We may not spend the day together (some are not as enthusiatic at getting up at the crack of dawn to get to the front of the queue as me) but the group trip outside the show to have lunch together in a local pub is also a highlight. (I shan't tell you what pub, it's a closely guarded secret I shall keep so that I don't have to wait longer to get served.) Venues for wargame shows are notorious for having food venders that could be described as slightly pricier than a grumpy old wargamer wants to pay, so our secret pub trip is always a delight. (more money to spend on toys!)

If you are going to a wargame show that doesn't have a handy pub and you don't want to pay for overpriced coffee and danish to keep you going, here is a first for a wargame blog, a recipe. I made these bars for a trip to birmingham for Games Expo and I can confidently say, they kept my energy levels going all day. Making them the night before a show is best.

Ingredients
1 cup (220g) of dates
1/4 cup (84g) maple syrup (make sure you don't buy maple flavour)
1/4 cup (64g) of crunchy peanut butter
1 cup (112g) of granola cereal
1 1/2 cups (135g) of rolled oats (porridge oats)

Chuck it all in a big bowl, get stuck in with your fingers and mix it together into a dough. Form into bar shapes (or if you are not particularly good at this, they look like turds.) Place on a sheet of greaseproof paper and stick in the fridge overnight. In the morning wrap each one seperately in tinfoil and stick them in your lunchbox. Don't forget to take your Thermos of tea or coffee too. Provisions sorted!

Just like Christmas, the days leading up to a show are spent in preparation. Colours has an always popular bring and buy stall, so I always spend some time going through my boxes of toys to clear out anything I haven't used in a while and hopefully get some pennies for. The show runners take a percentage of your sales but renting a whole racecourse for a day isn't cheap and its a guaranteed customer base, so worth paying. I regularly come home with a few pennies from selling off unused models.

The other preparation is scouting out the traders. I do this for Salute as well, going through the list of traders and perusing their websites, maybe even making the odd pre-order for collection (the best way to guarantee you aren't disappointed by something selling out.) On this note, I have compiled a handy list of hyperlinks for you of traders that are expected at Colours. The list is on the Societys page but without hyperlinks. I made this list for my own reference and so thought I would share. I hold no responsibility for these traders being there, or for any I have missed, I am just working off a list of names from the Society webpage and then googling as best I can to find a live website for the company. I have also ommited some sites that seem to not be as secure as my browser would like, so for the sake of internet safety they have been omitted.

 https://shop.ancient-modern.co.uk/
https://www.baccus6mm.com/
https://blotz.co.uk/
https://www.charliefoxtrotmodels.com/
https://www.colonelbills.com/
https://www.conquest-games.co.uk/
http://www.crooked-dice.co.uk/wp/
https://www.davidlanchestermilitarybooks.co.uk/
http://www.deepcutstudio.com/
https://eaglefigures.co.uk/
https://em4miniatures.com/
http://www.empressminiatures.com/
https://firepowergames.com/
http://glenbrookgames.co.uk.websitebuilder.prositehosting.co.uk/
http://www.greatescapegames.co.uk/
http://www.gringo40s.com/
https://shop.groundzerogames.co.uk/
https://www.grubbytanks.com/
http://www.hamandjam.co.uk/
http://www.heroicsandros.co.uk/
https://www.hystericalgames.co.uk/shop
http://www.tinytintroops.co.uk/Instant_Armies.htm
https://www.kallistra.co.uk/
https://www.magistermilitum.com/
http://www.magneticdisplays.co.uk/
https://newlinedesigns.co.uk/
http://www.parkfieldminiatures.freeservers.com/
http://www.paulmeekins.co.uk/
https://www.pe2collectables.co.uk/
https://www.theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk/
http://www.productsforwargamers.com/
http://www.rapierminiatures.co.uk/
https://www.secondthunder.com/
http://www.shqminiatures.co.uk/Sitefiles/main.php
https://badsquiddogames.com/
http://www.tumblingdiceuk.com/
http://www.wargameterrain.co.uk/
https://www.sarissa-precision.com/
https://warbases.co.uk/
https://www.wargamesillustrated.net/
https://store.warlordgames.com/
https://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/
https://artofwarshirts.co.uk/
http://www.abcbrushes.com/
https://barwellbodyworks-shop.com/
http://www.battlezone-miniatures.co.uk/
https://www.debrisofwar.com/
http://daveswargames.tictail.com/
https://elitewargamesandmodels.com/
https://www.essexminiatures.co.uk/
http://www.gamesofwar.co.uk/
https://www.helion.co.uk/
https://www.krmulticase.com/
https://lancerminiatures.com/
http://www.lastmanlastbullet.co.uk/
http://www.lesleysbitsbox.co.uk/
http://www.propworkshop.co.uk/oakbound/
http://www.peterpig.co.uk/
https://www.possessedgaming.co.uk/
http://www.sgtsmess.co.uk/
http://www.tablescape.co.uk/
https://www.ehgaming.com/last-valley-scenics-wargame-scenery-terrain/
http://www.tigerterrain.com/

Phew, that was an effort.

Apologies if they are incorrect, if it wasn't pretty obvious I had the right site, I have just left it out. Please refer to the Society site for the official list.

 There are some new names I don't recognise here, but very briefly, these are of note:

Bad Squiddo, go see Annie for realistic, clothed (I know shock horror!) female miniatures, take her some dandelion leaves for her Guinea pigs too.

Lesley's bits box, if you are looking for that obscure old GW miniature, go ask Lesley, I don't know where she gets her stock, but she works miracles sometimes.

KR Multicase, why spend all that money on toy soldiers and not store them safely! They do custom cases for so many different things, even 00 scale railway (I know, apparently some people like trains.) if they don't have what you want, it may be worth asking, they may be working on it for the future.

Deep Cut studios, if you don't have a mousemat gaming mat for your table, buy one now. It is worth the investment, they are also really good for putting down on the table for card gaming, I know some of you out there like to play a bit of Munchkin sometimes.

Anyway, so I'll see you there...