It all started with a shortage of latex.....and went downhill from there.

 Last Saturday saw the first meeting of the T.W.A.T.S   for 2016 and I was in the chair. After a lot of umming and awing I decided on the AWI as the period for this game. Now my collection for this period is not exactly extensive but will suffice for a small to medium sized game- in 25mm of course or 28mm if you are under 40 or have 3 millimetre angst- Its all the same Dudes.
 Any how the weather was  pretty 'orrible so I decided on a re-fight of the Battle of Princeton,
 This was a smallish action in the AWII - large enough for my smallish collection to handle- with a few spare units left over..
 There were 3 battalions of British regulars against 2 brigades of Americans-  over half of the Americans being Militia of one sort or another- a good number of them rifle armed- which meant they could shoot - but being without bayonets at a disadvantage in a fight so the British plan was obvious- take the bayonet to 'em-
They do not like it up them ! (No neither would I).
 Present were your gentle Author Andrew the Tekkie , Floating Jeff(some of the time) Mechanical Shaun and new boy Brummie Paul  so a respectable turnout. Rules used were British Grenadier- the only local amendment being to lengthen rifle ranges a tad  so that they were one third longer than musket range which to me seemed a better proportion.
 So let .. er battle ... commence.
Right away it was obvious that the British had forsworn the direct approach- in other words the British fannied about. They did not even try to win the race for the farmhouse hill but allowed 1 American Brigade to take this position unfought whilst the second American Brigade made for Princeton. The 2 British Battalions covering that town skipped out of the way "in order to manoeuvre" and abandoned the Ravine, though to be fair  the second American Brigade was some distance off.

The British never really got going- perhaps the reason is obvious. 

 Mean while around the Farmhouse hill the Yankees were having fun picking off the British more or less at leisure only slightly daunted by the British Light infantry. The Large British battalion  bimbled about at the bottom of the hill and eventually decided to pick on the Militia battalion that was the American reserve. However to do this they took an enfilading volley from the much smaller American Continental unit on the farm house hill . This together with a volley from the Militia meant that- although they saw the militia off they were in no state to continue without some reforming as they had taken both casualties and disorder points.

The Brits could have reached the hill but didn't try.

Bimleing and more bimbleing 

 On the other side of Farmhouse hill... more bimbling- again the British taking enfilading fire this time from the Rifle armed troops on the hill - nothing serious really but the Brits simply did not get on with job .  Had they gone at the Yankees there would not have been enough survivors to take the news home but no... more Bimbling.

the inevitable result.

 the second American Brigade meantime sent its rifle armed companies into princeton to burn the supplies while the rest held the fencline for the inevitable British assault which never happened.. After Jeff left  to some personal stuff Andrew more or less packed it in.
As always Lunch provided by our hostess Jean was splendid and included Cake !
 Teachers report- Must Do Better.
 Next game- probably Moderns- more Andre the Tekkies thing...

Another Year another nadir?

Where does wargaming stop... and merely Gaming begin?

Iwas reading the latest issue of WSS the other day- not a bad issue but not one of the standout issues either- Main Topic - the Western desert- nice!
 Other bits not bad but the "game reviews"
 Oh dearie me- almost all the "games"( note the use of the term instead of rules)  were for limited fantasy or sci - Fi games.  The new Not 40k at all in any form A,N, Other sci-fi skirmish game  Antares got a sycophantic review- no surprise there but I worry about any adult who starts an article "I love 40k"  makes you wonder if he's past puberty yet?.
 However that was not the worst even if I include more bloody Zombies- which I wouldn't if I had a choice. No this months nadir was wait for it Tail Feathers-and aerial game with sparrow Raven Mice and rats. Give me strength! Now this game had a "suitable for 9 years upward" tag so its a kiddies game . Nothing wrong with that but should it be reviewed in a Wargames mag- rather than a general games mag such as Tabletop Gaming- which is surely where this game belongs. Or are the WSS going along with the current trend for infantilisation ?

Mafia magazine?

Unusually I received a copy of Wargames Illustrated in the post the other day. Now I don't advertise in this and hadn't seen a copy for over a year. Now its no longer the FOW hose magazine  but its still in thrall to a certain extent to the Warlord- Perry axis and the rest of the Nottingham Mafia. Now this does not automatically make it a bad magazine- you just have to be aware that it has an axe to grind. Indeed as far as articles went it wasn't bad at all once you filtered out the subliminal advertising so ignoring the review of Warlords big AWI  plastikrap boxed set- glowing as you'd expect and the article on tank modelling- using a Warlord model naturally  then there was actually quite a bit of reading though personally I still find the shazam - kapow design style of the mag a bit  too "in yer face pal !" for my taste . The pages sometimes just too busy and the concentration on the one true size(28mm of course)  But on the whole I've seen a lot worse and again overall the mag was a bit better than the last time I looked....

Flawed- perhaps but interesting.

By Gum it's been a week for magazines. This morning MW dropped on the mat so  to complete the trilogy here we go.
  Don't be put off by the front cover which is pretty nauseating orcs and thingies equally  don't be put off by the 7 pages of club directory- I find that according to this document there is only 1 club in County Durham whereas I know of at least 2 others not including the T.W,A,T,S.a and had never heard of the one that IS listed- C'est la Guerre!
The main article is a discussion about Airfix- specifically their new WW2 skirmish game which actually looks as if it has some nice ideas in it. It is card driven and comes out in May- and should be a good introduction to WW2 if that is your thing. The tone of the discussion was a bit childish in parts - all about the games you played as a kid- and trying to re-create them for your kids - why ? Kids do their own thing man. What is this obsession with children.....
However moving swiftly on Dan Mersy  gave us the benefit of his thought on Dragon Rampant- his low level fantasy version of Lion Rmapant- now funnily enough if I was going to do Fantasy this is the way I'd go  free-form not tied to any  silly "universe" and with jokes in. Indeed I'm almost tempted to re-start my Dwarfs- in 7 man units of course....
An article on the Alamo siege  I'll not pass comment upon - mostly because I'd have to check up my Alamo references of which I've more than a few- Back in the day Peter Panzeri fought the Alamo assualt at 1 to 1 using our Alamo range in 28mm- at the Derby Worlds and we do ranges for the Texas War of independence in 10mm 15mm 28mm and 40mm.
There are also a couple of Dark Ages scenarios for the hard of thinking- not bad of themselves  but a bit light on actual info- but being the Dark ages there may not be any ....


So Dudes you pays your money and takes your pick. I just wish more of the offerings were not aimed at 10 year olds is all.

16 tons and whaddya get- another year Older ...

I suppose nobody remembers Tennessee Earnie Ford these days .........
 Unfortunately I did.. now I can't get the bloody tune out of my head ....

So 2015 is gone - done and dusted over, finito benito !
 What next?
 2016  of course
 So what's appearing ?
 Speaking from an OGUK perspective first  I'll be adding 2 new aircraft to the range in the next few days- an F-86 Sabre  Flown by lots of different air-forces from the 50s to the early 70s with combat service in Korea and Pakistan. Also I'll have the Mig 15  which also saw extensive service in Korea and yes a Mig-17 is on the cards for later in the year.
 In terms of  figure models I have a few more 40mm Wars of the Roses to add to the range- these have been a while coming  but should appear by the end of this month. There are 4 more armoured Men-at -Arms and 2 more Longbowmen. These will be available in packs of 2 for a fiver a pack. So no more expensive than the more outrageous 28mm these days and cheaper than a good few.
 I'll also be re-releasing the currently unavailable ex-Jacdaw 40mm Thirty Year War  miniatures. These will be added to the Romanoff listing for the same period. This will mean that the whole range - Foot, Cuirassiers  Horse and gun and crew  will be available again.

 ...and from across the Pond??
I know Blue Moon have bundles of new 15mm planned- pictures of the Dacians have appeared on the Old Glory News Desk Imperial Romans and possibly Sarmations are about the place as well. Can't be more specific than that currently as Blue Moon tend to time new releases to coincide with the 3 big US shows Cold Wars, Historicon and Fall- in - which appear in that order through the year. There are some new Napoleonics due- Hopefully I'll get them with my next shipment- due before York show  Swedish Hussars , Bavarian Chevau- leger and the first of the Duchy of Warsaw range- check out the Old Glory Newsdesk for more info .

...As for Myself

Well no NEW  projects but continuations of those I'm already doing as the fancy takes me. More "Shinyloo" obviously, lots more ECW- the target is to get representative units for all the main combatant armies as well as having larger forces  in general. So maybe I'll reach 300 finished  royalist cav this year plus all the rest and possibly actually get the scots onto the table

Some of my 60 or so finished Covenanter- just need to get the flags on them..

Some more Moderns in 15mm definitely. Yet currently I'm painting some Stadden AWI for our next game. We'll be using "British Grenadier" so I suppose I should read them
 Gawd I hate reading rules .......

I may also get a few more NW Frontier items finished.

No the main thrust will be ECW - but as ever there will be diversions into other areas.
 Blog posts- well the idea will be to continue to think about what we do and why  rather than becoming simply drones for the GDD's
 the Resistance will live on!

Lifes Rich Tapestry ....

So let's get a few things straight. 

 Someone once said "Life is a minestrone" (Actually it was 10cc- the rock band- a couple of whom went to my Grammar school - but several years ahead of me. Fallible memery says one of them was a prefect who gave me a clip round the ear and a detention for doing something nefarious- which I've forgotten but there you go. Part of the minestrone or indeed lifes rich tapestry).
 Which early digression doesn't prove much one way or the other but may point towards diversity, a nod to that famed rich tapestry and perhaps a way of life that back then was normal, now would be seen as positively primitive with anguished calls to Social Workers and threats of legal action.
 So what is my point- Life was better in the 70s?.
 Not a chance! Neither real life nor Wargaming life. In some ways it was freer certainly- Free Speech actually existed in the real world rather than being merely a concept you pay lip service to until you hear something you don't like. (Such as the calls to Ban Trump and Fury  because of their very unpalatable remarks (Doesn't Trump and Fury remind you of a bad Music Hall act of the Le Petomaine type!!). Personally I'm with Ian Hislop here- let 'em spout and then rip the piss- though he put it more carefully than that- but of course he meant present another view, argue your point. Discuss ,reason debate think, present a new argument. Something else that was actually encouraged back then- at least it was at my University. Though it has to be said that the first seeds of "Ban everything I disagree with"  was showing its ugly head by the early 80s if not before.. So paradoxically it seems that we now have many more ways of saying things - but far less to actually say. Hmm  Still trying to work that one out ....
 In our hobby as in life the idea of debate has become somewhat unfashionable. For me this is deeply unfortunate- now I'm aware that there are various forums out there but they all seem to consist of pissing contests between egos of varying sizes or collections of snide remarks by tossers who wouldn't dare say the same face to face rather than reasoned debate.
 I actually recall being ejected from one Yahoo group for NOT calling the "Lord Moderator" a Nazi- (but daring with others to discuss thing he didn't approve of- I was told "this isn't a Democracy" - "Well B******s to you" thinks I(exit Villain sneering!)
 Which once my ire had passed made me giggle rather more than somewhat. simply because of its sheer bloody arrogance.
Now here I adopt a different attitude and style- chaps can say mostly anything they want- as long as it doesn't break the law or frighten the horses!. There are comments on this blog that I disagree with and have angered me a tad(being accused of misogyny for one) but rather than delete them I of course let them stand- Free Speech is too precious for fits of pique- especially as it is becoming so unfashionable.. Of course you have to be prepared to put up with small- minded spite but Jeez! if you are in the Trenches you get shot at- Shoot back Dude/ Or as my Ethics teacher put it- Question everything!.
 Now for me that holds in our hobby as in life- think about it- Why are todays rulebooks so pretty- it is BECAUSE they have fewer actual rules in them?
 Why are identikit skirmish games so popular- when soldiers are cheaper than ever- I can think of several answers some all or none of which may be correct
 Why is the Sci-fant genre so popular perhaps 3 or 4 times as popular as "traditional wargaming"  especially when many of the games  seem to be far far more limited in scope than the open ended possibilities of the Historical genre?

Where did all the thinking go??

Shiny Sawnies......

So finally another small unit for the "Shinyloo project takes shape. These are in therory the Gordon Highlanders

30mm Gordon Highlanders Waterloo campaign... sort of...

Purists will point to the kilts and shout Yah Boo Sucks doundtless but  they are as close as I can get - though the yellow overstripe is a tad on the vivid side.

A night out in Belgium....

Remebering the action of the 42nd at Quatre Bras made it obvious to set up a pic with thecurassiers mixing it with the GordonsNo doubt the Gordons are uttering the famous Scottis War cry - heard on many a field- at least by me- of
 See you!  Has ye mither got a sewin' machine- Tell her tae Stich THAT !"
 or 
"Getyfu-Ya Basa! " - usually when grasped by an enemy.

Highlanders are a mixture of Stadden- a couple of Minot and some Foremost and despite differences in height and style all live happily together.  .

Germany reunited Early ... almost

Saturday 5th december 1985 - well 2015 really but it was 1985 in the pub  where we meet- just for the day you understand.
 Theatrical Steve was in the chair and decided to run a Cold War goes Hot game in 20mm  scale using a variant of Rapid Fire. Now I've given  the origonal  of rules a proper kicking in the past so maybe I was just a tad dimayed.
 As it turned out my fears were almost groundless. Such issues as I had were quite minor.
 Forces involved were West Germans-(FDR)  with Leopards and  other assorted tasty hardware- including Marders and suchlike stiuff. Panzer Grenadiers with all sorts of clever tools hanging off them - Well Nice. Not to say Tasty ... and the East Germans of the DDR with all sorts of Russian Kit with which I'm more familiar. T- 72 T55  BMP 120mm mortars off table 122 mm Artillery   Hind Helicopters  etc etc.
 Needless to say I took the West Germans....
 Our objective was to hold a  rossroads vital to the East German advance- a full report of the action is on Tantobie Internet Tattler where there are some fine pics of Steve collection

http://tantobieinternettattler.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-only-thing-that-will-affect-it-is.html

I'll not  repeat the Comminist Propaganda  but suffice it to say I was on the whole pretty well impressed by the way the game ran. Steve did a good job even though Andrew Von Tekkmiester commanding the DDR forces  was uncannily jammy - until the last couple of turns- flying a Sagger down a narrow alley up one of my Leaopard 2s was  just beyond belief at one point I was doen to 2 operational Leopards out of 6  and it looked a distinct possibility that the Freedom loving peoples of the FDR would join the Workers Paradise of the DDR with all those big butch  lady shot- putters to keep 'em in line.
 However the sheer terror of this proposition got the panzer Grenadiers into action - pinching out the enmemy infantry lodgement and shooting up the DDR tanks with Milan Missiles.
 It was still looking distinctly iffy though until the DDR artillery spotter failed twice to establish comms with his off table 122 mm guns- which had he managed this would have sorted out my infantry good and proper. However he didn't so we were able to hold on to the objective by the skin of our fore as it were and sort of gain the day- sort of ....

The DDR approaches... Hordes of 'em ..

and Approaches .....

meanwhile the Good Guys sneak about in the hedgrows....

still sneaking ....

Normally for this kind of game we use  Combined Arms- which is, so I thought- a higher level of command - basic manovre units being companies of- say 3 or 4 tanks or IFVs . This game felt a lot more down and dirty with units representing squads or platoons- or so I surmised from the look of the thing. It transpired however that  each Marder with its 7 figure singly based squad represented a COMPANY. Now don't get me wrong but I'm afraid an infanrty company operates very differently from a single squad and had different tasks and assets.  This was a failure of the rules - though not as it happend the game. We both(players)  thought that the game played much more low -level that the  "command detactment" you get with Combined Arms was not there. However having said that, as a lower lever smaller action game it worked well  very much "bottom up" rather than the "sort of Top Down" you get with Combined Arms.
 I definitely fancy another bash and this lower level will suit my  15mmAfrican collection .....which will need beefing up a bit
Now both Andrew and Steve are more knowledgeable on modern stuff than I  so they did have a tendency to speak fluent acronymic of which I understood just over half. I even attempted to  put an ATGW up his FOO in his BDRM  but as was typical of this day didn't get the dice roll needed.
Mind you the fine Ale and Food more than made up for any dice malfunctions- it always does - Jean Once again our Thanks.
As it happens we had another prospective member visit our group-   . Now Paul is into re-enactment and is a member of several groups but freely admists to being a newbie at this wargaming lark- his only experience being several games of Bolt Action at another local "gaming group"  who actually may be the complete anitheseis of the TWATS- but I may be doing them a disservice. However from Pauls conversation it did deem that Bolt Action was the only vaguely historical game they semm to play- all the rest being SCI-FANT and the accent being very much on "the gamin' innit"  Their website(which I did check out) being all X-wing Warhammer  and 40k and other  knowledge -free  dice rolling contests with lots of Shazam Kapow  and very tournament heavy- so not our style at all.
 Now Paul -despite being a tyro wanted more historical stuff in his games and is busy building  Waterloo period Napoleonic British in 15mm with French to follow.
So it is of intrest to see how different ours and Pauls and indeed many bloggers views are from the those of the WSS survey. It's pretty obvios that - according to the survey competive  head to head plastic is in vogue currently - though I'm still unsure how 40k X-wing etc is "wargaming"- gaming certainly- miniatures gaming very probably wargaming ?? not sure as there have not so far been any wars involving X-wing fighters or Space Marines.... so the most popular periods don't actually exist .... what does that say about a good half of our ..."bretheren?"

Controversial MOI !!

So last Saturday saw the Battleground show in Stockton on Tees- in the posh bit with the pretentious street names "University Boulevard and "Council of Europe Boulevard" - Give me a break it looked like a cross between an outdoor shopping mall and an East German  Housing estate- but a good bit tidier.
 We got our gear in quite easily this year- Leon had got more doors opened and the whole look of the show was far better than last year with better games and better lighting.. There was little of the boutique games - Introverts R Us that was such a feature of last years show. I only saw one unplayed  'orrible board-gamey thingy - half a dozen plastic men on a card map- no-body there no idea what it was. Didn't care either.
 It was whilst I was checking out the Westerhope Clubs Colonial game one of their number claimed I was "Controversial"
 What little  Moi  !
 Of course the gent was absolutely right  both controversial and provocative. I hope that is part of the point of this blog , I think many of us take our hobby too much for granted and need to think about what we do and - at least some of the time WHY and just possibly articulate the why a little better- see Andrew the Tekkies new Blog- Tantobie Internet Tattler
http://tantobieinternettattler.blogspot.co.uk/
 for his view on the lack of  articulation - not only in our hobby but in general..
 Personally I don't get this  what is so difficult about acting like a human? I know fear of public castigation plays a part in our hobby at least and that some blokes seem a bit shamefaced about what they do, but surely that is a hangover from past times. Or are we entering a new Intellectual Dark Age  where knowing ANYTHING  about anything - except perhaps the plot of a currently popular Soap- Opera - is seen as not  correct or appropriate.
 However back to the show. Actually it was a 3 hour event- the hours from 1 pm to 3 pm  were mostly dead. I could tell this simply because I was walking about instead of working. The hours 10am to 1 pm were not exactly hopping either but there were people in the hall - the stats apparently say over 400 - but not all at once- not including the demonstators and traders of course. I'm not convinced 200 yes 300 maybe but if 400 some must have only stayed for 15 minutes.

 Starting about 12.45 the hall emptied so fast I thought someone had shouted "Free Beer".

 Mind you the games looked good. I'd opine that overall  they were the best I'd seen at a North-East show this year and possibly last year too.. See various other blogs for photos including 2 on my blog list- Carry on up the Dale and the Independant Wargames group.  but there are several other reports about. All comment upon the quality of the games so it is needless for me to add anything here.

Yet there was a serpent in Eden.

To maintain the show  organisers need the Trade- after all our fees pay for the hall. I doubt- despite the opinions to the contrary that a show without the trade could fly- would the gamers actually pay a proportionate cost of venue hire or the  demonstrators?  Experience says not. Now I'm aware that some  non-traders think that we should just turn up so they can look at stuff  even going so far as to only take samples and little stock. I've heard it called a "Marketing Opportunity" this had some merit in a pre-Internet world but now?  Anyhow  how do you market to an empty hall ? And who pays?
 Now don't misunderstand here I don't expect to make money at every show some days are just not your day but it seems odd that for the past 2 years Battleground has been botton ranking show in my personal league. This year by a larger margin than previously - yet its predecessors in the same area were not always propping the rest up by any means  and, visually speaking, they were not as good looking and were often in far worse venues.
 So what is it about shows in that bit of England north of York but south of Berwick in the second decade of the 21st century.? I know I'm not the only chap who sees this-  other traders at the same event  had a far  worse day than I did- one chap taking less than 40 quid all day and another- who had not done badly the previous year called this show a "savage Re-adjustment". Others were expressive and more brutal r  but less eloquant!!
 Nevertheless shows in other parts of the land do not seem to suffer this- even shows of the same size- Falkirk for instance. Partizan has been suffering a bit but  that should change with the new venue. Salute and Donningtonat the other end of the scale, move on . York ,in the middle so to speak,  is splendid. Now obviously you get fluctuations up one year down the next - it can take a whikle for new stuff to move through the ststem- like  out new Napoleonic Transport range or the new Bavarians Swedes Saxons Danes and Wurtembergers- to which the Swedish and Danish Cavalry and gunners  available by the time you read this. .
 here
 http://www.oldgloryuk.com/15mm-napoleonic-minor-nations/50/210/583/609

 Are NE gamers wedded to workshop and similar kiddies games ?-
The evidence of the show games says not and that goes for all 3 of the NE shows I attend..
Yet I'm told 10mm fantasy is popular- never seen a game yet. (As an aside Why- if you are going to do Fantasy surely you want the WOW factor of big dragons and large well finished models that surely is the appeal of Fantasy- but if your WOW pieces are smaller than a 25mm cavalry figure don't you lose the point rather or is that just me??)
Having said that by no means all wargamers I know go to shows- several of the TWATS were working  and have to make arrangements to get to any shows and other blokes in different parts of the country do 1 or maybe 2 shows a year at most or even none.
 These are questions I pose rather than have answers to.
Equally  mail order to all points is steady- I do more business with Finland that I do in the NE and even those countries that had a far worse recession than we did are improving- business with Spain is up by 52% France and Italy  by about 15%. Even the USA buys ranges from me  that are not Old Gloryor that we produce here- like the aircraft for example.
 So why in the NE are we seeing lower show attendences?
Another point- most shows I do -especially those from York and South  I usually have pre-orders for. Chaps have made sure they get the stuff they want- and of course take advantage of our "6 for5" deal where they can. This does not often happen at NE shows- except Durham where we don't Trade .....???
Currently I'm not sure I'll go back to Battleground. If I do it will be with a smaller stand which means I'll have to leave stuff behind ....
 I'm going to have to think about this