Wonderful Stories part 2

Opens to the strains of YES..... In his estimable Blog - Wargaming for Grown Ups Trebbian poses the question

Are Wargamers Boring?

Well it depends- stories about wargaming often are as I can surely witness..... A good few years ago OGUK used to have a stand at the show in Eindhioven in the Netherlands or this incident may have taken place in Essen Germany- certainly it was not the UK. Some years we'd put on games as well- unusual at the time as we were historically based and not All conquering Workshop junkies. I remember doing Dark Ages, Hundred Years War and WW2 games . After the show the evenings could get a tad convivial. - There should have been a sign saying

"Here Be Monsters".

On this occasion I found myself cornered in a restaurant by a Dutch Geezer who was boring the arse off me recounting his list of Workshop Victories. My eyes were glazing over, my brain turning to mush. I applied myself to my beer and looked about me in despair and at last gasp caught the eye of my savior. Todd Fisher - he of EHQ- also present- enviegled me into a more historical conversation. Sighs of relief were sighed and later after the meal Todd says to me in pure Chicargoan.

I was in a bar last week at home and caught sight of a biker guy I know sitting there looking deeply pissed. All of a sudden he cuts loose and wrecks the place. Just before he started He had EXACTLY the same look on his face as you had- so I thought I'd better rescue you

Thanks Todd you were not wrong. If you are a a show and see Jim the Painter - say to him

Pink Jacket

and even after a dozen of so years his face will screw up with distaste. This fellow was to put it mildly a complete tosser. For3 or 4 years we would dread his appearence. He'd demand to open sealed packets then scatter the contents- then ask why stuff weas missing. He'd usually do this at Salute when we had chaps 5 deep at the stand waving wads of cash at us. The last straw was when he demanded- never asked always demanded that I break open 2 packs of latex roads to give him the selection of bits he wanted. Now leaving aside the fact that this buggered up the product for other chaps his manner was so dammned offensive that- at Salute- I 'd had enough. No I didn't rend him limb from limb and dance in his blood- though for a fleeting second that was a possibility, I merely tore his credit card reciept in half and told him to make way for a bloke that wanted to buy stuff and never to darken my sight again. My restraint was admirable.

The other side of the coin.

Salute again. Two Spanish chaps are buying some toys. Both are spending sizable sums for the time. I start to process the first chaps credit card and it's rejected. The Spanish chaps is understandably dismayed. His friend gigglesand in a perfect Speedy Gonzales voice says

He- he he - He have no money

And then without a seconds hesitation hands over his own card to pay both bills. That of course is what friends are for.

Derby this time

- possibly my favouite story ABOUT wargamers and their foibles... Evening -after the show my team and I are booked into a Mexican restaurant of our aquaintanve along with our good friend Mike Mc Nally- now an almost famous Osprey author. A couple of chaps- aquaintances of Mikes inveigke their way into the company. In my memeory they are both Thirtysomethings overweight and bespectacled with the definite look of the- to use a splendid Americanism

pussywhipped

about them. So there we are in this eatery when I and Mike notice on a nearby table several Toothsome females of the species- proper eye candy forsooth!- Phoarr - may have been uttered- were enoying a meal . One- a Blonde as I recall in a fetching LBD- is ,to coin a phrase, having trouble with her puppies. It's pretty obvious to Mike and myself that they need restaint. Jim - with his back to the action curses under his breath, eyeing us balefully. Finally the young lady succeeds in wrestling them more or less back into harness and I take a moment to look and listen elswhere and am shocked- not to say aghast ! While all the monumental events has been proceeding these tow wothies - despite the fact that they had at least as good a view as I, had I realised, continued the conversation I had noticed out of the "corner of my ear" . What you may ask was this about- eye candy? Blondes? Sassanid heavy Cavlary.. A games a game lads but sometimes.... Jeez...

Wonderful Stories.

For those of us of a certain age and diposition the current continuing trend towards eye candy above all is at best lightweight at worst mind numbing. Rows of minor Z list celebrities with enhanced silicon knockers parade before us with the glassy eyed stare of the truly vacant (and that's just the blokes) . We are told that a picture is worth a thousand words and so it might be if your vocabulary is that of a ten year old - and a retarded 10 year old at that. No I'm afraid there are times when I'm reminded of the old fella who upon seeing TV for the first time opined that he preferred radio as the pictures were better. In Wargaming terms- we are supposed to OOH and Ah over the magazine eye candy and because we bask in its magnificence entirly miss the fact that the intellectual content is nil or less. These pictures are meant to inspire us. Gawdamighty!! Mind you at least the pictures are usually respectable. I have before me the book "The Wargame" edited by Peter Young published in 1972. It contains chapters by Young Grant, Featherstone , Chandler etc - all the Wargaming Luminaries of the day on famous battles Austerlitz, Gettysburg Agincourt- 10 battles in all and -with a few exceptions- the photographs of the wargames are horrible- even by the standards of the time they are at best average. The written narratives are fine enough- tasters for those interested but inexperienced if you like and on that level the book succeeds. Its succeeds with the stories it tells rather than the mediocre pictures it shows. The writing is far better than the eye candy. Wheras now the reverse is often the case which is a shame. While I am far from averse to a bit of eye candy whether it be in the wargames arena or otherwise it should never dominate, surely the story is the thing, every picture might indeed tell a story but the caption is always worth reading- or at least should be. Are we no longer capable of using our imaginations to conjure the pictures we need?. Or do modern publishers think we must be patronised or are too thick for long words.... The pictures should add to the story not BE the story.

More Moderns

I've finally got around to doing some infantry to go with those tasty Charlie 1s I did a month or so back. I have even kind of sorted out an organisation. each stand will - depending upon game level represent either a platoon or a section so a base unit will be 4 stands ie Platoon HQ and 3 sections or Company HQ and 3 platoons. HQ stands or "Command stands" in CD ese will have less firepower. At the company level a "Weapons stand" can be added at platoon level such are more likley to be in the Fire Support Group.

So the first pic here shows a "Company" with attached weapons stand

The next show British troops patrolling the streets of Ghob City in southern Harraq sometime in 2003 (What I hear you cry is this a fictional country- well yes sort of but NEVER an imagi-nation -abominable term) Harraq is of course to the south of R'hagidistan.......

A small firefight between the British and Harraqi Republican Guards.

More British troops . Two companies with most of "Support Company" - which still needs a command stand and an 81mm Mortar stand and probably a sniper stand when I work out how that will fit into the higher level game. In theory the battles in "Harraq" will have tanks APC's Helcopters the lot using Orbats taken from CPQ and similar."Harraq" will be a tougher nut to crack than its erstwhile origonal of that I'm sure.

Counting down to D Day

Well the Drabant 298mm stuff has been ordered up so I should have them in about 3 weeks with luck. All the way from Moscow. Rather than ramble on here are pics of 3 packs painted up - by Nick Bokarev -

So currently there are 5 sets with more to come. There are also some more 40mm releases which I'll be adding to the OGUK website when I get them. Price for these 28mm looks like being £6.20 per set- a little higher than I'd hoped but still in line with several home grown makers who are around the same price or more exspensive.

More 40mm Wars of the Roses.

It's been a good while since I blogged last- whatwith assorted shows and other fol-de -rol. Work as ever gets in the way. What !I hear you shout" but you LIVE in the Sweetie shop" "Pecisely !" I reply "sometimes you get sick of the little lead gits". "Man " as I have opined previously "shall not live by Wargaming alone" Nevertheless I have been slowly adding to my 40mm Wars of the Roses collection. Making new figures which - assuming I iron out the bugs -will in the fullness appear as catings added to the range. To be fair I'm really only converting existing figures but those few I've done look fine so I'll do them again as masters for future release. So here is a picture of a small punch up somwhere in Northern England in the 1450s between the Percies and their rivals the Nevilles

and this one a close up of the Hurly- burly

The 2 long flags- standards in heraldic parlance are of course by John "the Flag" Hutchibson and are printed cloth. I'm a great fan of John's flags for my money they are the best you can get. I had to make 2 figures especially to carry these spendid standard.

More Dark Ages from Drabant

Yet more previews of the up and coming Drabant 28mm dark Ages range

Fron the top- Saxon archers- well they'd do for almost any dark age archer types I can see them in Carolingian a or other germanic armies just as easily. Saxon Command group - I particularly like the horn player unlike many you see he does not look like he's sucking on an overlarge stick of rock ! And Finally some very tasty- eastern looking Vikings. All of these will come with separate weapons and shileds where apparoriate- see the picture of the Saxon weapons in and earlier post. Now I must get back to actually doingf some painting and photography.

Phew... that's 2 down.

Man I'm knackered.. 2 shows in one weekend is what Jim the Painter calls a "f****N hard shift" Saturady at the new venue for the Border Reiver show- of which dear reaqders I am the sponsor- not too bad at all give or take the odd organisational glitch by the chaps who do the actual work- as if a sponsor is ever supposed to do more than get out his chequebook and let the light of his countenance fall upon the event. Nevertheless those annoying little glitchjes apparently associated with a change of venue will be sorted out for next year. The venue itself is far better thabn the arena - it actually has light and doesn't small of stale beer and wee wee which the arena sometimes did. It was a tad on the warm side as sportshall shows tend to be- its the left over negative waves from all that leaping about after shuttlecocks and the like I supose . So after that little lot load up the gear nip back home for a few hours kip then up at first sparrow cheap and away down to Partizan at kelham- about a 2-21/2 hour trip is God is kind - which He was so there at 8 in the forenoon and unload again - bit more of a bugger as Kelham is for unloading but not insurmountably so . Show pretty crowded and some tasty looking games but to time for playas there is work to do in the stygian gloom- not enlightened by the fact that some of the venue power points are out. Still sorted in the end and all's well which is what counts. One point of interest Saw a copy of the now Dutch owned "Wargames Soldiers and Strategy magazine and you know I was pretty impressed. Hadn't seen a copy for over a year and last impressions were a bit mixed. This one was a deal better not only was it pretty it acutally had stuff in it to read and didn't talk to me as it I was 14 . The eye candy was not there as a cover for lack of actual content. There was interesting stuff in it . I'll be keeping an eye on thisa one- Perhaps even spending a few quid of my advertising budget ! Right now back to stock checking all those 15mm Bluemoon so I can re-order them from the US factory... Ho Hum.. A Traders work is never done... Always remember what you Dad taught you... If you can't take a joke you shouldn't have joined