Guess who's back...

It's been far too long. I read too many apologies in blogs for long gaps between posts, I don't know why, we aren't beholden to deadlines, sometimes life just gets in the way. I won't bore you with details, I've just been busy. So, on to the subject at hand, what have I been up to? Well, after finishing my Napoleonic British, I had a delve in the lead mountain to see what else has been sat doing nothing for years (yes years!) A long while ago I was inspired by seeing the film 300 (yep that is how long ago) to pick up some Spartans from the ruleset Wargods of Aegyptus from Crocodile Games. I loved the models, the rules didn't inspire me as much though, so they sat in the leadpile. Well, having picked up a copy of Ospreys Of Gods and Mortals, I now have a use for them, so the dust was blown off the storage box they were in and I finished them.

 King Leonidas and Champions

Champion, musician and standard

 The notorious shieldwall

 Casualty, or just taking a nap?

I have recently realised that if I ever want to wargame a period with the Illustrious Wargamer Opponent, or in fact with any other wargaming friends, it is best to have both sides of combat prepared myself. No longer do I rely on friends who assure me they are going to buy their own army for a system I suggest and get it painted up. If I want to wargame, it is much easier to have it all prepared. So, regular readers may remember I have also purchased Vikings back in September. Now, all us longbeards know, the only way to finish batch painting is to only paint the characters as a reward for painting the rank and file. Paint one unit, then allow yourself one special character. I have a bag of 24 Black Tree designs Vikings and ten or so Footsore miniatures Vikings all unfinished. I'm not going to apologise though, I have painted my characters.

 

Olaf the Bald

Warlord

Odin the Allfather

I really like the Footsore miniatures range but they are tricky.  A lot of the miniatures come with a seperate axe in a hand with a built in pin. The model then has both hands sculpted as well, I am guessing so you can choose to add your own choice of alternative weapon. This does mean however, that you have to snip a hand off the model then drill a pin hole in the wrist. I would not recommend these models to a beginner modeller. They are lovely sculpts though, I shall post pics of the rest when finished.

Continuing the self indulgence of painting individual models instead of any units that would be much more useful for wargaming, I have painted the two Giants in Miniature I bought at Colours.  (The Illustrious Opponent has however been muttering about writing some Victorian Era Lost World dino-hunting rules, so at least one of these may come in handy after all.)

 Alan Quartermaine

"Flash" Harry

Sometimes you have to remind yourself that you do this hobby for fun, try not to let it be a chore to get things painted and if you want to paint something that you probably will never put on a gaming table ever, do it anyway. I am probably never going to find a use for the next model I will show you, but it was fun to paint, plus I feel I must tell you it was a joy to paint a resin model that took paint easily, without having to be scrubbed in soapy water first!

Chibi Raging Annie from Bad Squiddo games. Sometimes you just want to paint a pink tutu.

Finally I finished another project I have had a while, well I thought it was finished a long time ago, the models in fact were in my glass cabinet. My four year old son was spinning on the chair in front of the cabinet, looking at the contents when he suddenly exclaimed, "Daddy, you've painted Captain America's shield wrong! It should be a white star in blue, you've painted a blue star in white! Silly Daddy!"

He then ran out the room, retrieved his toy Cap shield from his room and ran back in to show me how it should be done. Three things crossed my mind at this point. One, I am so proud to have raised a son that already has that level of knowledge in Superheroes that he can immediately work out something is wrong. Two, I immediately had to take said model out of the glass cabinet and fix the heinous error straight away. Three, I am horrified I got it wrong in the first place, what was I thinking? I should hang my head in shame. It is the second Captain America model I have painted in 28mm and I got the first one right!

The Avengers, with correct colour scheme on Cap. (It bugs me though that Hawkeye has once again been left out of the team lineup.)

The completist in me does want to finish the Avengers team by finding a Hawkeye to paint but as Knight Models have lost the Marvel licence I'm loath to pay twenty quid on Ebay for one model. Then where does it end, I'd need to find Vision, then possibly Black Panther...

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...

King George commands and we obey...

I was very aware as I began this blog, of the many other blogs that begin with rampant enthusiasm and lots of posts, then fades away to nothing as the demands of life get in the way. I was determined therefore, to keep that from happening in this instance. So to the few regular readers of this blog, I can confirm I am not done yet.
I have been suffering from Napoleonic fatigue lately, I have been reading Cornwell, as well as watching Sean Bean's Sharpe again. I have been reading Friedrich Lindau's memoirs as well as reviewing a book on an alternate Waterloo history for Wargames Illustrated online. My painting table has half painted Prussian Cavalry and I am still drafting my Napoleonic rules.
So when my esteemed wargaming colleague and I had some time to play a board game, it may surprise that I chose Campaign.

A simple set up, this game is like chess meets risk. Your playing pieces move differently depending on their type, extra pieces are gained by taking over key strategic towns. It can be a frustrating game, my opponents General piece was seemingly invincible as I couldnt manuever any nearby pieces next to it to prevent him from marching about the board taking over Prussian towns. My own lack of tactical ability however can be the only reason I inevitably lost the game but I would play it again. I do find it strange to have a Napoleonic era set game without any British involved, although some people do say we Brits over inflate our contribution in the true history of the war. Our game was also made more fun by my youngest deciding the board was too flat and needed some added terrain in the guise of trees, boulders and dinosaurs.

 My opponent then suggested that an improvement would be painting up some models better represent the playing pieces. However I am not starting painting another scale of Napoleonic models at the moment.

Getting my soldiers on the table

Regular readers will know that I have been painting Napoleonic British in 28mm. Now as we all know, these models are not just intended to sit in a foam tray in a cardboard box, I need to get them on a table. As this project has been going on for some time now, I have had time to look into and purchase various rules. Painting Space Marines then playing with them is easy, you buy a copy of Warhammer 40,000 and away you go (although these days there is the argument of which version of those rules are best, if you aren't playing in store, why not go back to 2nd edition? I loved the Dark Millennium add on rules.)
The problem with historical wargaming, or maybe the advantage, is that there are countless rule sets out there. 

As my models are 28mm scale and I learnt to wargame through warhammer, I really wanted to play something closer to 1 model equals 1 man than 1 equals many. Now, obviously this is not actually practical unless we go to a skirmish level, using something like Sharpe Practice or Chosen Men. The problem with these rules however, are that I really won't get a full table of models without meaning the game will take days to play. 

Going up scale, we have Warhammer Historical, Waterloo. Now it has Warhammer in the name, surely this will feel familiar, after all I am a massive fan of the Legends of the Old West Warhammer Historical rules too. These rules feel like what I am going for, but they are just slightly too complicated. We played them, but I just couldn't get my head round TAC points and when models are removed as casualties. It left me and my fellow gamers scratching our heads, wondering if we got it right or not. Also, the first models I painted were my British Riflemen (I will openly admit all my historical wargaming is heavily influenced by totally inaccurate fictional versions from movies and tv.) These rules meant I would only be fielding about 8 models from my lovingly painted green jackets.

Neil Thomas has written an excellent set of rules called One Hour Wargames, which have a chapter on the Napoleonic era. These are excellent rules but a little basic for what I want to do. That is obviously their intention and I will probably use them at some time when I do only have an evening to play. Especially as they are also designed for the smaller table. I also feel these rules would easily scale up to a larger table and are simple enough to not slow down play. I do however want to have a little bit more complication by including some congreve rockets. (Wargaming has to be fun after all, what's more fun than misfiring rockets?)

My own crude Congreve rockets conversions

All this leads to one conclusion, I am going to have to write my own rules. What I am looking for is something that falls between the rule sets I have. Another reason is learning wargame rules is hard, it is very difficult to learn a set a rules from reading them. Just like boardgames, we all find it easier when someone else shows us. It is extremely difficult to to fully convey the authors intention in a readable rulebook.

 If I write my own rules using methods my local wargaming group already understand, we will more likely spend a day enjoying a wargame, than constantly referring to the text of a book written by someone we have never met. The age of the internet has helped this a bit, authors can now easily answer queries via the internet. One of my favourite current rulesets that I have taken the effort to learn is Rogue Stars from Osprey, mainly because the author Andrea Sfiligoi is so willing to discuss his rules on Facebook. But nothing is more useful than having the author of a ruleset in the room to immediately answer a query, interpret his intentions or fill a gap in the text.

This did at first seem a daunting task. The most I have done so far is write extra "houserules" for systems already in place. As I have mentioned in previous blogs I have written my own sci fi version of Advanced Heroquest and a WW2 version of Warhammer Legends of the Old West. I have been confident that these would work as the hard job of the bare bones of the system is done for you. This would be more of a challenge. Luckily help is at hand.

This book comes in very handy. The authors are experience wargame writers. The book won't do the hard work for you, but it answers a lot of questions I had when I first thought about writing my own rules. It not only goes through the mechanics of writing rules but also how to identify the language of rules writing. If it is something you have not done before it is a tricky writing style to master. All I have to do then is some playtesting, but that is the fun bit.

And finally....

Now I am going to talk about something that the purists will baulk at, so if you like your wargaming perfectly historically accurate,(surely you have realised by now that is not me.) look away now.

Seriously, I don't want to upset you.

You aren't going to like this.

Right, now the grumps aren't reading I'm going to make a suggestion. Now, don't get me wrong, there is a time for historical accuracy, the educational benefits are clear to see, but sometimes wargaming has to be a bit fun. So I have taken some inspiration from this humongous tome.

You could break a toe dropping this book.

If you haven't read the book, Mr Norrell goes out with the British army to see what he can do in the Peninsular wars. After being ignored by Wellington for a period, he eventually assists the army mainly by magically conjuring up nice flat roads for them to march on, then removing them afterwards so that the French cannot take advantage. I love the idea of having a Gentleman magician on the table, accompanying the Officers in doing what he can to stick it to ol' Boney.
Obviously I need to give the French something equivalent. Now, in the story there arent any magic users on the French side, but I came up with the idea of giving them a Necromancer, perhaps a mysterious bearded stranger from Eastern Europe? He could raise up units of recently deceased Imperial Guard to shuffle across the battlefield. I just need to purchase some Perry plastics and maybe some Mantic zombie sprues. It's been a while since I've done some kit bashing...

Rattle dem bones

Why do you have so many dice?

One thing that all us gamers have in common is our dice. Yes there are games systems that use cards, (Kobolds and Cobblestones from Osprey use poker style rules to resolve combat.) I have taken part in a roleplaying session where players took a piece from a Jenga tower every time their character did something risky, but most modern wargaming systems use dice to introduce that random factor into games.

It wasnt always this way, Little Wars involved cannons firing wooden dowels and close combat was resolved by comparing the numbers in each opposing side. These days though, most wargaming tables have a pile of dice cluttering up one corner (or the whole table sometimes.)

I must pre warn you, the following image may be upsetting to fellow gamers...


Brace yourself


It isnt pretty...


here it is...

This is what happens when your offspring gets into your carefully organised dice collection.  My youngest loves to play with the dice, I really don't mind, it really has helped him with counting. I remember to this day using wooden counting cubes in school, I'm just giving him a head start.

We all have different dice for different uses, not just the obvious differently sided dice. We use tiny dice as to indicate how many hits a character has taken, giant wooden dice to indicate what turn we are currently on. I know some people that have a different set of D6 (six sided dice) for different armies they have, green dice for their Orcs, red dice for their Napoleonic British. 

I have lots of dice for another reason, dice hogs. Yep, you know who you are  people. Somehow every time these players need to roll a dice, they reach for the furthest dice they can find on the table. (no matter how large the table) The result of which means all the dice gravitate towards them as the day goes on. My own personal solution to this problem is just more dice. If there are enough dice on the table, then there is always suitable dice within reach.

So, I can confidently say my collection of dice has a practical reason, but I can wholely understand why some people just like to collect them. The tactile nature of them, just holding a handful of dice before rolling them is fun. Its no coincidence that people use Gem dice when playing D&D, its almost a physical representation of the treasure their characters are on a quest to retrieve. Some people take it further and collect dice purely as a hobby. I briefly joined a Facebook group of these people out of curiosity and I can confidently say I love their enthusiasm. Like stamp or coin collecting, any new design (or a rare miscast) is desired for their collection. One wonderful soul has even designed a categorisation system that I applaud for its wonderful attention to detail. (visit his amazing website here ) I eventually only left the group in a fit of self preservation as I slowly began to find myself more and more tempted to start buying dice by the pound. (That is not an exaggeration, you can buy by the pound.)

(I don't apologise for use of the meme, it was too good to not include. Credit: Dungeons and Dragons Memes page on Fbook.)

There are the players who claim to always roll badly (my Pathfinder character regularly rolls at least three 1's a session.) I've seen players throw dice across the room in disgust at the number of failed rolls they've made, I've seen youtube videos of dice being "punished" with hammers for somehow being responsible for the death of a beloved D&D character, I've seen players swap out their dice to try and restore some luck. The truth of the matter is, we all roll badly, we all roll well. I'm not going to suggest all dice are perfectly balanced, (there are ways to test that involving saltwater) but don't blame the die, blame the GM.

I don't have the space where I live to have a massive gaming table, once a year I have a cull of my models to clear space for the inevitable new purchases but I can never have too many dice.  Although remind me of this post when you catch me swimming in dice Scrooge McDuck style...

The end of an affair

Or how I still can't not walk in to a Games Workshop.

Previous readers will know my first GW purchase was a copy of Advanced Heroquest. My first store purchase however was a few years later, a Necromunda gang. Sold to me on the promise that I would just need that one small gang of models, one simple purchase that wouldnt break the bank and I could play this awesome new game.

Not a perfect rule system, Necromunda however was awesome for its time. I of course later bought the box set, all that multi level terrain and the multitude of models in the core box set was a perfect example of how Games Workshop earned its reputation as the "Gateway" to wargaming.

All except I think one of my fellow wargamers started with painting Citadel miniatures. I was drawn in to this community and found my people. I could tell you minutae detail of the stories behind Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, I went to Games Day, I even applied for a part time job at my local store (I didnt get the job, but I am now kinda glad I didnt. Painting to deadline? Not for me, see my previous post!)

As I have become a grumpy old gamer I have fallen out of love with Games Workshop though. I don't want to start an anti-GW rant, there are plenty of those all over the internet, believe me. I just genuinely believe they have lost some of us older gamers. Maybe this has always been the case, there are teenagers now going to their local store every Saturday without fail just like I did, maybe I am the problem, maybe I don't "believe" anymore. Have they really become "over priced and share holder led", or were they always that way and I didnt know any better? Of course they have to gear their product towards selling you new models every week, they have staff to pay and shops to rent.  Maybe I have just matured in my tastes, or maybe I just miss the old days?

My favourite days of the year are day trips to wargame shows. It doesnt surprise me that some of favourite companies have ex GW staff running them. Warlord Games started by John Stallard and Paul Sawyer (affectionally known to us oldhammer players as the non politically correct "Fat Bloke") has a very familiar GW feel to its business model, I am particularly fond of their alternative history WW2 game Konflict 47. Alan and Michael Perry of Perry Miniatures are the Rock Stars of wargaming in my eyes, I love their Napoleonic range but my favourite model I have is a Salute special of an American Civil War general.

Hasslefree Miniatures gets a special mention as the nicest family in Wargaming. They are always my first visit at Salute each year and I love everything Kev White sculpts, I would even go out on a limb and call him the best sculpter out there right now. If I remember correctly, Kev used to sculpt for GW, he is so prolific at sculpting that following him on Facebook is a must to witness his talent.

The Trenchcoat wearing "Harby" has been given horns by yours truly with some clumsily added green stuff.

My wife has an excellent way of describing my relationship with GW. They are like a terrible ex partner. I tell everyone I am over them, that I want nothing to do with them, but every now and then we bump into each other and I only remember the good times. I know they are bad for me, I know there are better products out there, I know their game systems can sometimes seem unbalanced and possibly even geared towards selling more products than making a fair game. Yet I will still pop in and say hello and have a peruse. The staff are always lovely, they are conveniently just round the corner if I need some Goblin Green, if it is still called that? (I miss the old paints, where's Brazen Brass gone?!) and if there were no Games Workshop this hobby may not be in the renaissance it is now.

I said I didnt want to do an anti-GW rant and I hope I haven't. I'm still keeping my stack of Warhammer rulebooks and I will still buy every new Dan Abnett novel when it comes out. (I could write another whole post about my love of the Gaunts Ghosts saga.) When my boys are older if they want to wargame I'm not going to refuse them a trip to Games Workshop, I shall just have to start saving now for it.

Maybe I should hope they want to take up sports instead.

Why did I decide to paint kilts?

How I learnt to love painting redcoats.

My Grandfather, a veteran of WW2, didn't really talk about his experiences during the war, something I really don't blame him for. The one story I do remember him telling me was of when a bomber returned from a sorty with it's hatch not fully closed, the offending obstruction being an unexploded bomb. A very long piece of rope tied to the release mechanism and lots of fingers crossed and the crew and the plane survived to tell the tale.

 

Why I am telling you this? Well, although he really didn't want to remember his wartime experiences, my Grandfather did introduce me to historical wargaming. I learnt to play chess against my Grandfather, an excellent teacher, he got the exact balance of being a challenging opponent, but not putting me off the game. I still have the copies of Stratego and Campaign that we played and I was entrusted to take home with me. (I wonder now if he already had them or bought them with the intention of gifting them to me after our game.)

We built an airfix Hurricane kit together (I later discovered he had been a mechanic of the real thing.) and then one Sunday afternoon out came a box of humbrol paints and the Battle of Waterloo in 1/72 scale. My Grandfather had painted some of them already, and he showed me how to very carefully paint more. (Including leaving them on the sprue for ease of handling, a habit I still to this day know is the right thing to do, but yet still get over excited and unclip and glue before painting on many an occasion.)

So, I was dispatched home that night with the box of paints and soldiers with the promise that I would finish them under parental supervision.

  

Fast forward 20 odd years and I'm perusing the wares at a wargame show. My wargaming colleague is buying some French 28mm Napoleonics from Front Rank miniatures. This reminded me of the promise I made to my Grandfather and so my first purchase of this period is made. I may not have finished the 1/72 models, but I would paint a Napoleonic army of some sort. This very slowly done task has taken me at least ten years. (I am a very slow painter and get distracted by new shinies all the time.) My final task was painting Highlanders in their finest Black Watch tartan. It has become a bit of a running joke in my wargamers group and my long suffering wife rolls her eyes at the mention of them, but finally I have finished them. 

My Dad has since found the original airfix set for me, although even I admit I might struggle to get them done (as my father in law admits, an increase in age correlates with an acceptance to give up on trying to paint smaller and smaller scales.) but I would like to think that if my Grandfather were still with us, he would appreciate the achievement and accept that I had at least performed the promise in spirit. I won't pretend to be anywhere near expert level at painting, but I like to think en masse they look impressive enough.

 The models are a mix of Front Rank, Perry and Vitrix miniatures. The Front Rank models being metal have that great feel of weight and durability. I could not however have afforded this entire army without buying some of it in plastic. My wargaming gang have yet to decide on a rule system, I would say this is the era I have the most rulebooks for and yet we still may end up writing our own.

(Now, no-one tell my wife about the unpainted Prussian army in my to do pile.)