Last time at Salute Nick Dorrell and I brought the Poltava 1709 game and we had a blast on a 16 feet table and even came back home with an award (more about that here) – this year we will only bring a normal sized 6 feet table. However the loss of width we more than adequately gain in the depth of this project. This time we will bring armies created not by sweat and frustration like mine usually are, but instead two armies that was created by over 50 painters during the recent lock down – a true community effort and we would like show these armies. We have further put these into an Imagination setting where we have the Kingdom of Denswe in a war against the Tsardom of Siarus.
We presented the project at the Virtual Joy of Six in 2021 and will bring the armies to be displayed at the Joy of Six in July (not as a game but for our painters and others to get an opportunity to have a look at it in all its glory).
The idea is summarised above, but there are a fair few previous blog posts covering the project that you might want to check out.
Apart from the armies that were gifted by Baccus (link to them here) and sent to each painter, we have been given a wargames mat from Geek Villain (link to their webpage here) – they produce some amazing mats (I have 5 myself), and Nick will include a copy of his Twilight of the Sun King to the eventual winner of the armies, once we have finalised how we will “get rid” off the project.
However, we would like to include more and ideally the eventual winner will be given sufficient stuff to fold out the mat, put on the terrain and play with the armies. I guess we could throw in stuff we have lying around at home, but if you fancy and find the idea interesting for your business to get some small 6mm exposure and Spreading the Joy of Six then let us know and we might even tell people about it, we would be looking for (with the prefix – suitable for 6mm scale, or size):
Road
River
Hills
Houses / Churches / Wind mills
Trees
Hedges
Any other idea that might fit…
Happy to paint them up/base things to fit the overall look. If you are interested just contact us through the blog.
Anyway, looking forward to see you at Salute if you are going to the show, otherwise at Joy of Six (but just bringing the armies).
Went up to Bedford with Des on Saturday to attend the new OUSEing LARD event at the Kempston East Methodist Church Halls. In short it was another fantastic day enjoying a wide variety of Too Fat Lardies rulesets playing the period and not the rules. Meeting a lot of new and old friends having a blast.
Games on offer were:
I had the pleasure of playing Charley Walkers excellent Indian Mutiny Game in 1857 in the morning using the Sharp Practice rules in an interesting urban setting, with a mixture of troop types and exotic elements, including random events like holy cows, bombs, etc. The table is very immersive and the wonderful walls really adds to the overall experience.
The walls of Flyzabad had been breached ad the Khazi’s private army and mutineer allies under Subedar Abhinavin Asheet was pouring into the city to crush all vestiges of imperial rule. However, Captain Phil Macludgie and the ageing and rather poorly Sir Richard Fondler, marshal the remnants of the city’s European community in a bid to reach the North Gate of the City which is still held by a small force of Major Flushing’s loyal Sikhs.
I was controlling the Captain and Sir Richard and we did not manage to get to the North Gate but it was a really fun game and I thoroughly enjoyed it, a few pictures from the game here.
In the afternoon I tried John Savage’s What a Gangster ruleset, being an expansion of the upcoming What a Cowboy ruleset. It was really fun and the table was very immersive with John’s beautifully painted miniatures on a very nice terrain setting.
Well I took a few more pictures, so here we go in no particular order…
…and not to forget the nice special edition miniature by Paul Hicks given to each attendee.
The evening was spent at Brewpoint, a local brewery, before we had to dash of to take the train home. I think brilliant was a good summation of events. Thanks Ally for organising this and to all those who put up a game and of course all the people who attended and made it such a great day. I am already looking forward to attend the next one.
In other news I am still behind with some blog posts covering OML and the Joy of Six and some general hobby updates. But that is for another time.
A few days before Christmas I was invited to speak on Sean Clark’s podcast Gods Own Scale, where I covered some thoughts and reflections from the year that just passed (link below the picture, if you want to check it out).
It is always great to catch-up with Sean and it is well worth checking up his back catalogue if you are not already familiar with it.
Anyway as a kind of complement I will do a quick overview of some of the things I did on the hobby front this year (mainly an organised listing of links to blogposts). As always in doing the review I realise that I have been doing far more than expected.
The sections are
More 3D printing
Commissioning some 6mm miniatures
Sweden 1943 Project 15mm
6mm Projects
The Battle of Lund 1676 6mm and the 6mm Charity Project
Terrain Projects
Fantasy Ice Hockey 28mm
Other Projects
An Awarding Year – Caesar Award (Wargaming Blog 2021) and Best in Show at Salute (6mm Poltava 1709
More 3D printing
I continued some exploration of 3D printing and came to the conclusion after a lot of printing that I should stop just printing and just keep things back until I intended to paint stuff, avoiding creating yet another mountain – this time in resin instead of lead. On the whole I really enjoy using the printer and the result it produced – it has not really reduced the amount of stuff I buy but has given me some options for doing alternative stuff. Here are few of the stuff I did do.
I printed a few ships and Max and I had a blast playing a few naval engagement with them.
I also got a battle mat from Geek Villain for naval engagement (or wide rivers).
Some really nice details in these 1/2400 scale shipsI also printed up a company of “Sturmis”, the Stug used by the Finns in WW2
I also commissioned some 6mm miniatures to be used as commanders for my GNW 6mm stuff. I did 5 minutures in total, the one below shows Stenbeck at Helsingborg in 1710.
More about that here and the other miniatures that I commissioned.
Further Progress was made on my Swedish 1943 Project and I added some more tanks and armoured cars (well trucks). I also did a high level army list for O Group, the new game from Too Fat Lardies.
The only big 6mm project I did start in the year was the Forces in Holstein 1700 as part of the start of the Great Northern War. This offers two very colourful opposing armies and the potential for a very interesting wargaming experience – in reality there were no big field battles, but this project offers some exploration of this.
I also bought some already painted 6mm ancients that I rebased and quickly got my 6mm Ancient Punic War collection substantially increased. I also did a summary blog on a lot of the #6mmtips I have shared on twitter over the last few years. More on these projects below.
The Battle of Lund 1676 6mm and the 6mm Charity Project
This year I took the Battle of Lund 1676 to the Virtual Joy of Six event, I ended up doing a video to present the game and also talked about the Charity Project that was completed last year. There are some links to two video that was produced to support these projects.
I did a lot of terrain projects this year most notably I did a lot of clutter, or immersion markers as I prefer to call them, for the 1943 table, but there are some generic ideas you could use for other theatres and scales. I also did a fair few buildings and fields.
These projects has allowed me to create some really immersive battlefields, like this one. Here a little video that Des Darkin did showing off the table laid out using many of the terrain elements produced this year (thanks Des).
I did some further work on my Fantasy Ice hockey project and we are developing some alternative rules to use. More on some conversions and some 3d printed models below.
I received two awards this year, the Caesar Award for the Blog of 2021 organised by Little Wars TV and also the Best Game in Show (Presidents Award) at Salute for the 6mm Poltava 1709 table.
Here a video made by Alex at Storm of Steel covering the show with an interview with Nick and I discussing the battle.
Nick Dorrell, his Merry Wyre Foresters and I presented the Poltava 1709 6mm table at Salute yesterday and had a smashing day. We talked with so many people that came by of all ages, some knowing more than others about the period and the scale. We had a constant flow of people to our table up to about 1pm an after this it slowed down. For everyone that came to our table during the day I hope that either the table or our interaction with you blew you away, hopefully at least the former but I wish the latter too. I also, as always had great help from the family with the Better One and the Little One both making sure I got there and back safely.
The background (yes it says Joy of Six, that was the last outing it had before the Pandemic)
Here some pictures of it all. All miniatures are by Baccus 6mm, the miniatures are based for playing the Twilight of the Sun King rules but we have used them for a number of rule sets over the years. I have made a very short summary of the rules here.
The base rules and the Second Scenario Book covering the Great Northern War and the Ottoman Wars, there are also Scenario Books covering other battles of the era e.g. War of the Spanish Succession. There is also two other version of the Rules covering the TYW/ECW period (Twilight of the Divine Right) and the SYW (Twilight of the Soldier Kings).
Here some pictures of the table.
The Swedish March towards the Russian Camp
The Swedes are attacking the first redoubt
The Yakovetski Forest and the Monastery, with more intensive fighting around the redoubts
The Poltava Fortress, the Siege Lines and the villages burnt down by the Russians (Borrowed this one from Alex of the Storm of Steel Youtube Channel).
It is a tough day for the Swedes breaking through the Russian redoubts and more is waiting
And the final weak Swedish thin blue line vs the multi-coloured Russian line full of field guns and Russians (Picture by Duncan Weldon)
Anyway halfway through the day we were presented with an award from the organisers of Salute – The South London Warlord. I have to admit I did not expect us to get it, but I think it was about time not for me but for a lot of small scale gamers out there old a and new. I am certainly no one-trick pony and I do understand the merits of each scale as a tool for telling a story – the Battle of Poltava needed to be told like this, the Town that was laid under Siege by the Swedes to force the Russian to give battle, the dense Yakovetski forest was there so we could understand how some of the Swedish Battalions got lost in it, and one of the key surprises was the fact that the Russians had built 10 redoubts slowing down the Swedish advance, all this before the main battle and not possible to show in less than 16 feet at 6mm with a battalion frontage of about 60mm – it would be tough to do it in 28mm.
I take that any day, thank you!
In doing an inventory of the Units I had before the show I realised I had done about 20 bases of Dragoons I had surplus to my requirement and therefore thought I could do something for the hobby. Every person I noticed and judged being 10 years or under that came to the table during the day and showed some interest I gave a base. I had given away 15 at the end of the day and had a small talk with them and their Dad or Mum. They all now know the difference between a Dragoon and a Standard Cavalry unit during the period.
I did not declare this as I wanted to to make it as a surprise and I only had 20 bases and did not want to let anyone down. Anyway I wanted to do this on the back of dragging around the Little One to wargames shows since he was 5 years old and having him being occasionally either ignored or looked at like he was Satan himself. I, and more importantly he, cherishes the times when someone talked to him and engaged with him directly and got him involved. I just wanted to try to create a few of those moments.
If you are interested in the Poltava project there is a lot of posts on my blog covering various aspects of it, I think these are the main ones (the first two showing a lot of pictures of the set up).
Little One won a Bolt Action Starter Box in the Raffle – good day overall.,,,
Until next time
/ As always hope that was of some interest, I will let you know my plans for Salute 2022 in the next blog update – a more modest effort but more charitable I hope.
The Little One and I went to the SELWG wargames show today – it is our local show. We both had a great time and it always has a nice mix of games in different scales. Here follows a dump of some of the photos I took with some notes here and there. I do hope it gives some kind of impression of the games that were laid out (I may have missed a few of the games – sorry!).
First out Robert Dunlop’s fantastic Great War Battle of Gnila Lipa (the North Section) – the passion Robert has to his subject and these battles are inspirational. We had a good chat and if you really want to treat yourself go and listen to the 3rd episode of the Gods Own Scale where Sean Clarke interviews Robert – it is one of my favourite episodes of that and any other podcasts (link here).
6mm miniatures from Baccus using Spearhead WW1 rules.
Next up Mosquito strike Norway, it looked really fun!
It excited both young and the little bit less young!
A What a Tanker north Africa Table!
Lots of small detail on the table!
A Terminator Game – Man vs Steel! (we will come back to this one later)
A Game of Pikeman’s Lament set During the English Civil War (GLC Games).
Excellent hedges!
Real time Wargames always has some interesting stuff, this time Northern Frontier Game (“An’ go to your gawd like a soldier”). I bought their Italian Wars ruleset last year and it is still something I am thinking about doing!
Next Hydaspes 326 BC – I really liked the look of this game. Large impressive and some really nice units.
A game of Legion that looked as busy as London Bridge Station at 08:15 every bloody weekday! – the Little One loved it.
Milton Hundred Wargames Club put on a Kings of War Vanguard Game
This is the famous overview shot from the upper smaller hall!
South London Wargames put on their Darkside of the Moon game from Salute this year.
The rules!!
Lots of Dinosaurs…
Maidstone Wargames Society put on Dogfight 69, a X-wing (rule wise) inspired game during the 100 hours war, an aerial game showing the last piston-engine dogfight. This was a war in 1969 between Honduras (with Corsair F4U05s) and El Salvador (fielding P51D Mustangs).
The ever so Busy table of the Wargames Collector Calculator (that we have reported on before) – it was nice to see the guys again! This is the Battle of Little Big Horn, You can read more about this fantastic game here. The collector calculator are doing some really interesting stuff and when you have finished the Dunlop interview I linked to above go and listen to the one with Peter Riley of the Wargames Calculator. Peter was telling me about the book he is working on Building Rules for Gaming Battles (BRfGB) that will allow you to design rules for your own battles. “The aim is that these the rules will be playable and fun for all ages of player – from the grognards, through club players and the newbies. We are also hoping that clubs may see this as a way of engaging and enthusing younger players into the wargaming community. We hope that the rules wargamers will be able to generate from these guidelines will provide a simple, fast and easy way of getting people into gaming. If you have always wanted to design a game that you want to play from any period or if you like a particular battle then use these guidelines to design it.” (from their recent news section, more here)
Britain in flames and war is raging!
To the Strongest by Simon Miller showing the battle between Boudicca and Gaius Suetonis Paulinus (in AD 60 or 61?)
I just let this play a few pictures…
Crawley Wargames Club put on their fantastic Aztecs Game
Deal Wargames Association put on a really beautiful game showing the invasion of Elba, 16-20 June, 1944.
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Tonbridge Wargames club put on a Boxer Rebellion game.
Rome vs Sassanids by Newbury and Reading Wargames Society
Gravesend Wargames Club (yet again!) put on a fantastically looking game of Chain of Command – the objective being to get Vandy to his Command Post at St Mere Eglise Church (in Normandy). Vandy is of course Lt. Col. Vandervort that was played by John Wayne in the longest day!
We had a go at Playing the Terminator Game and it is always a blast seeing the Little One engaging with people, the rules and the game!
A big thanks to the gents from SEEMS for having us – we both had a blast and we actually won a game!
All I got were some late war Germans in the bring-and-buy (enough for two platoons and then some) and some 15mm WW1 Maxim Machine Gun teams I am going to use for those crap platoons, I meant late wave ones, in the Too Fat Lardies 1940 Blitzkrieg book.
The Little One was the big spender of the day but we got some 50% of the RRP deals for Legion stuff – too good not to miss!
Special mention and my favourite of the day goes to Shepway Wargames Club’s WW! game “You will be home before the Leaves fall”. I hope the pictures conveys some of the goings on…
Thanks SELWG, we had a fantastic day and we were especially delighted to see so many dads and mums having brought their children and were allowed to engage with the games.
I based the two German Platoons I made last week for the Swedish 1943 Tourist Season (this being the What-if German Invasion of Sweden in 1943) on Sunday evening. These are the Skytrex 15mm ones that form part of the first part of the Campaign – the Northern Approach through Dalecarlia. This part of the Campaign will be infantry vs infantry with limited options for heavier support (perhaps an armoured car for the Germans, etc). I have a few ideas that I think will work well in a setting like this. Anyway here they are:
Focus of the two Planned Campaigns
On Saturday I was invited to play a game of Chain of Command in Dulwich by Iain Fuller. This was one of the South London Warlords Saturday game days – they run these on the second Saturday every month – on this occasion a few Too Fat Lardies games were played. It was a really good game and although I lost I had the best of times. It was tense and hang in the balance more than once, more than a few bad rolls but then again a few good ones too. Chain of Command is a very enjoyable game! Below a few pictures from the day. it was nice to meet up with Iain Fuller and his chums, seeing Dave Brown again and having a chat with Rich Clarke. I may have a solution for playtesting the Swedish Campaign stuff thanks to Iain and Des – I will get back to you shortly.
The table for the Day – I and Iain were playing the Germans – we had a Panzergrenadier Platoon with three squads with 2 No. MG-42 each, we also had a Panzershrek team and Tripod MG-42 team as well as a Pz IV tank. We played against Dan and Glenn who had an American Platoon and a Sherman tank for Support. We were defending.
The Americans quickly got a squad into the forest threatening the defensive position. A squad of Germans were sitting on the first floor with their LMGs aimed at the forest – a dash would be daring and deadly.
Then came the tank
The MMG was set up in one of the houses covering the approach road.
All the Germans deployed in buildings at this moment
The Americans sent out a scout platoon provoking an activation of another squad.
A fierce fire fight broke out between two sections over the field.
In spite of overwhelming fire power the rolls did not favour the Germans this time and they ended up withdrawing to the forest to recover some Shock.
Glenn rolled really well at times! 5 and 6 to hit!
I rolled less well!
My favourite moments was the Pz IV shot…
….that made the Sherman smoke
What is superior firepower worth when you roll like this?
Americans advancing down the road towards the objective of their success.
Overwhelmed, unlucky the Germans slowly weakend!
Seconds before the Americans overran the Jump Off point and ended the turn! – game over.
I have been overwhelmed with the feedback on the Poltava 1709 table I put on at Joy of Six last weekend (see more here) and looking back at it and I think it is my best effort so far. A lot of people have asked me what I will do next year at JOS 2020?
Truth is that I do not intend to do a new table but instead revisit the first Great Northern War battle I put up at Joy of Six back in 2012, the Battle of Fraustadt 1706. I need to review the battle boards as they have been in storage for about 4 years (when we took it to Salute). I believe that a face lift will make them look stunning and it is a far more playable game than Poltava.
Fraustadt 1706 – The wintery table as laid out in 2012 – It is my second favourite table I have made so far and my favourite GNW Battle.
Further I want to revisit some of the miniatures and take it up a notch overall, I also want to add some more wintery trees (increase the density of the forest) to the table and a few more terrain features. It should not be a too big job.
I already have a lot of trees to add that wintery feel to the table. This from this year’s Christmas Battle. Some Danish vs Swedes using Maurice rules – more about that here.
In addition we are going to take the Poltava 1709 table to Salute in April next year and have already got our table accepted. I have a few improvements I want to do with regards to some of the features to improve the overall feel of the table – I think the Siege lines could be best done as a single piece and filled with some more people. I would also like to add some more life onto the walls of Poltava itself as well as some further smaller details (like some actual gates for the fortress and some guards for the Swedish Camp).
Finally, I would like to use the Fraustadt table to test a few sets I have not played with before and see how they work – especially Gå-På.
However I have a plan for Joy of Six 2021 when I would like to do a Battle from the Scanian War (1665-69)! I got myself some of the new Sun King range from Baccus at Joy of Six. It is an interesting period in Swedish history with a King (Charles XI) who needs to step up and deliver during the war and realises what a shaky ground his empire was standing on following years of neglect by the regency council who had rules the country for 12 years until Charles came to age. After the war he sets out to take back control from the noblemen and strengthen the countries defenses and military might. This is the key reason to the ability of the Swedish army to be as powerful as it was in the Great Northern War.
I will discuss this in more detail at a later date, but currently I am leaning towards the Battle of Lund 1676 (another wintery battle) but have not yet made my mind up.
All the regiments on both sides have different Uniforms with a wide colour variety, this is the biggest appeal to me. I still intend to base them in the way I have based my GNW miniatures (60 by 30mm bases) as I am relatively fond of the approach, I may however base the cavalry on (30 by 30 bases) to represent a squadron instead of a base being 2 squadrons – but I have not yet made up my mind but looking at some of the paintings from the era makes me want to recreate that feeling with smaller blocks of cavalry than infantry.
You can find more information about the Scanian War here.
There are two books I do recommend for the Scanian War Period in English (thinking about it there are not many others!):
Charles XI’s War – the Scanian War between Sweden and Denmark, 1675-1679 by Michael Fredholm von Essen. It is, I think, the military history overview of this wars. I have a number of Swedish books as well but I think this is my favourite overall. Here is a link to it https://www.helion.co.uk/charles-xi-war.html
The second book can be a little bit harder to get hold of and is Scanian War 1675-79 Colours and Uniforms by Lars-Eric Höglund. It contains information of the Swedish uniforms, standards and organisation of the period.
You can find some more on the Sun King range from Baccus here.
This will be a slow project and will probably not take off until after the Summer holiday, but if you are interested you can follow this journey and the other madness on this blog, by:
Basically the same as usual but without the Tricornes
This is really cool stuff!
On reflection there are plenty other projects I need to crack on with that are well developed but not yet nailed. Hopefully I will be able to complete these sooner than later (I wrote about some of these in the 2018 year end Roll a One Accounts – here).
Some Poltava 1709 bonus stuff
The Meeples and Miniatures Podcast has a special place in my heart and over the years it has given me a lot of pleasure whilst doing a lot of my hobby work (yes there are others that I really like too, like the Veteran Wargamer, the Lardy Oddcast, the WSS Magazine podcast, the Wargames Recon). They are also very nice people and very god friends and it was a joy to welcome them and two of the guest commanders, sorry presenters, to my table at Joy of Six again.
I am blessed with a fantastic family and my wife and two of our children joined me at Joy of Six this year – it has become a little bit of a tradition going up north doing some sight-seeing on the Saturday and then Joy of Six on the Sunday. The Better One had taken some pictures on the day of the table that I really liked – I was to excited by the grandeur of it all whilst she zoomed in on some of the details. I hope you like them too.
Putting on a table at a Wargames Show does not go very well with trying to cover what is available on the day, I had a short lunch break and then attended a panel with Guy Bowers and Neil Shuck – that was my day! I had a little ego-trip with the Poltava table in an earlier blog here, this covers most of the other fantastic games on display.
It was fun to be on a panel with podcaster legend Neil Shuck and Guy Bowers who has made Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy into arguably the best damn wargames magazine in the world. I felt like the odd one out, but I am not really known for being shy so I had fun with it. I think the sessions will be published and I will provide a link on the blog later and leave it at that for now.
Anyway a few pictures from the “car window”, there were many tables on offer showing a range of games and periods. I did not get a snap of all of them. I hope this give you enough to perhaps search for them on Google to get more detail. Also I did not include the trader details, but if you go to the Baccus webpage it should be all there if you need.
Napoleonic 1813 – Commission.
Allied intervention on the RCW 1919 – MADgamers. Always something different and interesting. Masters of the convention game.
A small beach party – Sheffield Wargames Society
Target Saigon 1975 – Nick Overland
Riot – the Brexit years – Doncaster Wargames
Swordpoint: Rome vs Persia – Gripping Beast.
(Jaco)bite sized Culloden – James Mitchell. This was my favourite game of the day!
Gods of War: Lee – GM Boardgames
3d Printed 6mm by GM Boardgames
Chariot Racing – Grantham Strategy and Wargames Club. One of those fun games – I took a detailed shot but I messed up!
Normandy 1944 – Mailed Fist. A lot of detail and very effectful terrain.
Battle of the Little Big Horn 1875 – Wargames Collection Calculator (the Little One spent most of the day with these guys – thanks for making it a good day for him) – It got the Little Ones Medal of Merit for the Day!
Battle of Kolin 1757 – Legion of Blokes – Special mention of the Day for overall impact, full of new Total Battle Buildings
Warm… sorry Cold War Commanders – Perrier Ridge 1944 – always fun stuff! Big detailed tables.
One of my true inspirations in the hobby! Battle of Hoth – Dan Hodgson.
The Battle of Vimiero – Kevan Baker, effectful use of Kallistra tiles, and a nice shine on that river.
Tough Day at Bad Deynhausen – Chris Sharp and Yorkshire Renegades. Everyone was smiling and having fun – a good sign!
Normandy 1944 – Tony Morphet & Mike McKnight. A lot of detail and looked great!, very effectful!
GNW Siege of Viborg – Luton Lancers – very nice dense blocks of troops and the game was tense and fun! Two GNW battles at the same show – hooray!
I have had the pleasure of being next to Robert Dunlop on many occasions what a legend and yet again a wonderful recreation of a WW1 battle this time the Battle of Gnila Lipa – we never have time to have a proper chat but I feel somewhere that we must be some kind of soul brothers. Always inspirational stuff.
In addition a video was put up on youtube that does a brilliant job in showing what was going on, by Storm of Steel Wargaming (thanks for this Mate!):
I had the pleasure of attending the wargaming event Operation Market Larden 7 (OML7) in Evesham last weekend. I was going to go to OML6 last year but things conspired against me. Luckily, it was whispered, this one was the best one so far.
I arrived the evening before and caught the end of the drinking session at the hotel where the day would be held and a small contingent of us ended up in a pub for far too long – but good times were had.
OML7 is one of the many Lardy Days that are being arranged by various Lardy Ambassadors in the UK and also in many places abroad. Basically there were 12 games being played on the day and each participant played in two games (one in the morning and one in the afternoon). I did take some random shots but have to admit that I was a little bit like a child in sweetshop on the day and focus on the games. I had none of the stresses of a show where I put on a table or where my compulsion forces me to run around and find new shiny. The only thing to purchase were an excellent collection of old books that were being sold to support the Combat Stress charity – I bought a few.
The games played were, of course, all using the Too Fat Lardies excellent rule sets and although the lion share of the Games were using the Chain of Command (CoC) or Sharp Practice 2 (SP2) rulesets, there were also individual games using; I aint been shot Mum (IABSM), Bag the Hun (BtH) and Dux Britanniarium (DB).
I played in an excellent game of WW1 East Africa action as Lt Beaverton in charge of a supply dump on the Shore of Lake Victoria and a force of some Kings African Rifles, a few regular british and a Vickers Team. I was further supported by a platoon of Belgian Force Publique. The Supply dump was being attacked by a company of German troops. Very well Umpired by Bob Connor and the table looked stunning.
In the afternoon I played a Bag the Hun scenario controlling some mighty machines of the Italian Airforce in a joint German and Italian attack on a convoy (somewhere near Malta in 1942) defended by Hurricanes Our side had B109s and Stukas (with bombs) and Machis/CR42s and SM79 (with torpedoes). It ended up with classic dogfighting, bombs immobilising the ships and some torpedoes in the water hitting home but not on the main objective – the tanker – but it was great fun. This game was put on by Geoff Bond and we flew Mike Hobbs wonderful 1/600 Tumbling Dice aircraft – some excellent decaling going on there.
The day was excellent and I met a lot of people which whom I have had interaction with on Twitter and other social media – I did not manage to have a proper chat with all but I really appreciate the ones I had. I do think our little Twitter corner is a wonderful place. Normally, I judge an event on how many “arseholes” in the allegorical sense I meet, and I have to admit I met none. Just some excellent games being put on and people having a bloody good time playing them.
The evening entertainment offered a nice curry and later some more beer drinking at a local pub with a small but cheerful crowd.
A big thank you to Ade Deacon, his family and friends who arranges the event, and to the Too Fat Lardies crew (Nick, Rich and Sid) and all the other wonderful people – good stuff.
I need a pretty good reason for not coming back to OML8.
The Little One wrote a blog entry last time around about his day at Salute (you can find the link here) and I said I would do the same but have not repeated the stuff he already covered (like the games we played!). A lot of people have read that one and engaged in making comments on the blog, twitter, Facebook and various wargaming forums. It is really encouraging that the hobby is so welcoming and happy to see youngsters amongst it ranks, so thank you all from the Little One and I.
For me Salute is about impressions and meeting people, In summary I felt Salute this year being spacious, having a lot variety in type of games being presented and we did have a good time – we always do. There were games that could be played on a 2 by 2 mat and there were games on very large tables, some were very simple others were pieces of art, some were storyboards conveying the passion of a period, others were bland but functional. It reflects my gaming in a nutshell as for some projects I go absolutely mad and for other projects I just want to get it on the table and play – although I do have a LUDO set with a Green, Yellow, Red and Green “fire team” somewhere.
As always we wandered around and met a lot of nice new and old friends including Henry Hyde, Mike Whitaker, The Too Fat Lardies (Rich, Nick and Sidney), Simon T, Iain Fuller , Ken Eccentric!, Dave Hickman, Neil and Josh Shuck, Peter & Dave and the other Wargames Collection Calculator crew, Mark Backhouse, Guy Bowers, Michael Leck and his Nordic Crew, the Berrys, the Space Vixen crew, Friends of General Haig, Dave Brown and then everyone I forgot as well. I wanted to run into Big Lee but I failed, hi Lee!
Between the talking, playing a few games with the Little One, doing some limited shopping and picking up some pre-orders from Baccus (from their 6mm Great Northern War range) and Gripping Beast (the New Saga supplement and a few of the custom dice), I took a few pictures of things that interested me during the day.
I just thought I put a few of these pictures here, with a few comments where appropriate. I hope this reflects a mixture of easily achievable as well as more inspirational long term projects.
Lutzen 1632 (Friends of General Haig), Stunning set-up and you can find the story about this table on a very inspiration blog here. It is one of the most famous Battles in Swedish history and would end up in a Victory but also the death of the Swedish King (Gustavus Adolphus).
Windmills and Black Powder a winning combination. I really like the teddy fur mat with the roads incorporated. I always wanted to do one but have not tried it yet – it would be fun to do a mat for some Kursk tank battles or something like that.
The excellent Black River Debacle, by Ged Cronin. With the text taken from the handout “The Governor has gone up the Black River (a tributary of the Red River) to inspect some warehouses. Meanwhile his wife, an amateur botanist who is quire headstrong, has wandered off looking for butterflies to improve her collection. Soon it becomes apparent that the black flags have abducted the Governor’s wife. The Black flags have done this to try and lure the French into an ambush as revenge for the loss of one of their commander’s, Liu Yung-Fu’s, favourite lieutenants. Meanwhile the Black Flags have also taken a box of jewels from a Formosan merchant. The French have heard word of this. Also, the French have heard a rumour that the Black Flags have a giant ceremonial cannon that is inlaid with gold. Can this be true?”
Some excellent detail on this table
Everything just worked nicely together
Inspiring stuff
That looks superb!
I think this was one of my favourites of the day in terms of visual impact. There was so much detail to explore.
Another nice scene from a modern game set in the Helmand province. I shows the amazing effect of some clutter that could easily be used for a range of periods. In this particular case the vehicles narrow down the time stamp.
World famous Henry Hyde taking some pictures of the beautify Ligny 1815 out on by Dave Brown using his General d’Armee rules.
Ligny 1815 would become Napoleon’s last victory and his opponent was no other than the Prussian Field Marshal Prince Blucher. Even I know the importance of the Prince’s arrival at Waterloo, so the bittersweetness of the Ligny loss did not last long.
Now I know from friends who play Napoleonic games that General d’Armee is a fantastic rule set. However with a fantastic table like this, who really cares.
Marching columns…
Stunning Jungle terrain on the Too Fat Lardies table who were doing a Malaya Big CoC (Chain of Command) battle. I took these pictures before battle commenced – it looked peaceful and beautiful. That Buddha statue in the background is one of those details that sets the scene and gives that sense of location.
You can find some inspiring stuff on the build of this at the Lardies webpage here.
Excellent…
The units all lined up to fight!
Peterborough laid on a IABSM game at Omaha Beach. Looked really fun.
Hard work getting onto that beach! The table gave a nice sense of the battle field. I went to Omaha beach a few years back and it left me with very strong emotions in just trying to imagine the hell of being there on 6th June 1944.
Some games were presented just like the are out of the box – that works too. I think this was Mantic Games Hellboy?
Some coffee table sized games with enough immersion to draw you in.
This terrain looked like something from my back garden – bloody brilliant!, the Game Arcworlde by Warplogue Miniatures.
Crawley Wargames put on a Aztec game that looked really fun.
Even a wooden fort, cocktail sticks and some patience!
Warlord Showing off their two naval games – first Cruel Seas, and then…
… the new age of Sail Game “Black Seas”,
Naval Wargames Society put on a Stingray game that looked really fun, and like many other tables there were Children playing and having fun. There was a lot of Children at the show and I think this is a good thing.
Wild in the Streets – Gang Fighting. I bought their Death Metal team on a Kickstarter that is on its way. Again fun on limited space.
We watched the Burrow and Badgers game for a while. I did not appreciate that it was playable on such a small table. It looked really fun. Wonderful models.
Street Wars with Funky Skull Games, really liked the compact but effective terrain. Really nice.
Red Alert by PSC games looked fun. I am resisting getting this one at the moment. I think it comes with the mat in the game? – I hope you can iron it?
I think those ships would paint up really well.
Another Command and Colors game especially for Jay Arnold. This was a very inspirational table.
This is how you play it!
I did return to the Lutzen table at the latter part of the day
Fighting was fierce!
I seemed to be drawn to small city scapes? This being the Carnage City Chronicles Miniatures game.
Really cool….
A Seven Years wars table, the team was on break and the gentleman guarding it had no idea what it was about. Tricornes are enough for me to stop for a while.
In doing some browsing on the net I think it was laid on by Rafael Fonseca & Friends And was a Seven Years War battle, where the French and Allied forces attack the Prussians.
I do not know what is so special with Tricornes but the armies of this era, to sound a little bit younger than I am, really Rock!
Flags and straight lines, warfare in a more civilized age!
Battle of Bauge 1421 was put on by the Lance and Longbow Society
Nice little scene
The Warlords put on (at least) two cool tables, this one showing pilum against pike…
…and a fabulous game on the moon…
The background blur was – The Moon: 2039. Play as US and Chinese forces in secret but deadly missions in the difficult, dusty, cratered terrain and in just one-sixth gravity. But are there other forces in play…?
More from the Pike and Pilum battle!
Beautiful terrain from Oshiro. A Gothic horror game using the Fistful of Lead System, by Wiley Games.
World Class terrain!
Real Time Wargames always put on a nice show, this time some 10mm action on the North-West Frontier.
Nice hills and the game was looked fun too!
Boudicca vs Romans, Mancetter 61CE, To the Strongest Rules!
That is a battle line of 6mm proportions (if that makes sense)
But with 28mm detail if you look close enough (wonderful, effectful, I wish I had the time and patience to do that one day! – I will stick to my 6mm for now)
It is always nice to see Michael Leck and crew. He serve the Battle of Danholm 1807 using his new Rebels & Patriots rules that works as well in a Scandinavian themed setting as in North-America!
I ended up chatting and with only two photos – I suggest you check Michaels blog Dalauppror (A good start is in the link here)
Wings of War or Wings of Glory, this Looked fun!
Bad Squiddo Games offered a little oasis to sit down and do some colouring. The War Peegs stuff looks fun and hopefully the rules will be out soon (you can see the vehicles on their website, here)
Aughrim 1691 was a part of the Williamite Wars in Ireland 1688-1691 by Crewe & Nantwich Wargaming.
It was a fantastic looking table from a conflict I knew nothing about – now I know a little bit more.
I also have to say that the new WW2 Vehicle ranges from Baccus is something special and well worth a look and I think good value for money.
We also got a little appearance on the Too Fat Lardies Oddcast, you can listen to it on youtube (link here).
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