The guns, the guns

I see my resolutionto keep the blog up to date is flagging already! Oh well.

After our efforts at Triples I took a small colonial game along to the club last week to help everyone unwind without too much mental effort. This was run using my colonial version of Battle Cry and which looks a lot like Rudi Geudens Afriboria, but is somewhat simpler. I rolled up a scenario, the British attacking a Mahdist hilltop position, but the Mahdists didn't skulk and hide, they came charging down on the British. The Brits never really got a chance to deploy properly before the Mahdists were all over them, and although they shot down hundreds, their right flank collapsed and the Mahdists were into the baggage train in no time. A shattering defeat and a very quick game!

I've meanwhile been working on some of the stuff I bought at Triples. First priority was all the WW1 heavy artillery, I really didn't mean to buy quite so much, but I need it for my COW sessions. Irregular Really Useful Guns, a variety of 6" (ish) howitzers, they all went together reasonably well although I had to resort to plasticene for a couple of the Schneiders. The guns themselves are painted up and I'm working on the crews. Unfortunately I hadn't noticed that I've been supplied with early war French gun crews rather than German ones. I couldn't be bothered to send them back and wait for replacements, so I hacked them around a bit and now they are a passalbe representation of Germans in field caps. Well, I'll paint them field grey and see if anyone notices.... The 2mm stuff is on hold until I get these sorted, but they will be up next. I did a quick check of the castings and they are astonishingly crisp.

Speaking of COW, I've finally booked my session in. I'll be running Drumfire and a mid-late war corps level trench assault. I'm hoping to run it as a split session, with the senior comanders coming up with the plan in the bar and then run the attack a day or two later. It may be a bit ambitious, but we'll see. Paddy Griffiths is threatening to run an 'Oh What a Lovely War' game including dressing up, so I have spent some time seeing if I can assemble enough bits to look like a WW1 uniform. My olive green utilities and shirt don't actually look too bad, coupled with a repro haversack, biggest problem is headgear, as however much I pretend, a Mark V helmet with hessian cover still doesn't look like a WW1 tin hat. I do have my pith helmet I suppose. My 1980s era puttees aren't long enough to go up to my knees either. Oh well, have to have a think about that.

Looking for helmets led me into a terrifying new stream of madness..... WW2 re-enacting. Well, the gear isn't actually that expensive, and it looks cool, and I 'need' a WW1/WW2 helmet, and and and. I'll have to see if this is a passing fad, if it isn't then the poor old wallet is going to take quite a bashing. It will of course be an ideal excuse to buy an SMLE, and a Bren, and a Sten and even a Thompson. Judging by my internet searches, the prospects aren't looking good.

When not drooling over uniforms, webbing and WW2 weaponry, I managed to fit in the Sheffield Half Marathon. Ran it in my best time ever for that distance (sub two hour), which was very pleasing.

Triples 2010

Not done much gaming in the last couple of weeks, I was away at Easter and nothing much happened at the club this week although we had some useful conversations. It was however Triples 2010 this weekend at its shiny new venue at the English Institute of Sport. There were a few minor niggles, but in general it was a really good venue, spacious and airy and a welcome change from the Octagon Centre. The traders I spoke to all seemed pretty pleased and the numbers were good.

WD Display Team (north) put on our new game, 'The End', covering the last year of WW2 in Europe. I could only go on Saturday, but the game was well received and we ran it many times, leaving all the umpires with rather sore throats! I had already ordered a load of 2mm Horse & Musket stuff from Irregular and I supplemented it with some WW1 heavy artillery from their Really Useful Gun range. I also picked up some dirt cheap Roco tanks on the Bring & Buy (for AK47) and haggled a bit for a hardcover version of CS Grants 'From Pike to Shot'.