3rd War & Conquest Tournament Part 1

I thought I would be smart and set off at lunch time on Friday hoping to get to Grantham Premier Inn in daylight, I don't baulk at the cost when it comes to my comfort, I had no sooner hit the motorway than I ran into torrential rain and a sky that had come straight from Mordor, I therefore almost did drive all the way in semi darkness with high winds and rain to boot. Stewart and I settled into the bar and one by one most of the other players turned up, we slowly but surely annexed several tables and most of the chairs in the bar. As usual insults, exaggerated claims and past disasters were brought up in quick succession as we all preened ourselves for combat on the Saturday.

Tony, Rob, Ian, Stewart, Declan, Me, Jenny, Dan, Paul, Andy, Phil, Dave H, Tom, Reece, Adam, Dave T, Lawrence.

We arrived at Foundry early on Saturday morning helped unload the cars and had tea while Dave and Phil set up the tables, a pep talk by Phil followed and we were off.

My troops in the foreground with the Spartans in the distance.

  My first game was against Andy Duffel and his (or rather Phil's) Spartans, I was using Greek City States (again Phil's), I had fought Andy before and he likes to keep a unit in reserve, so I saw an opportunity again to quickly run forward, smash his front line and cruise to victory, simples. Before not too long he had destroyed or caused to run all my right flank units, cavalry, skirmishers and a Hill Tribes unit I had been hoping for great things from. The Hoplites clashed and I began to lose, if I remember correctly even my general died, my first game and defeat stared me in the face. As happens a lot in W&C the pendulum started to swing away from Andy and he found himself on the back foot unable to press his initial advantage as I clawed my way back into the game. The game was a fixed number of turns and as it looked like it was all over I left two units sitting when I should have moved them towards Andy's routers, this would have ensured Andy did not rally them and given us a draw, but I didn't so he won 26/21. A close game, the last time we fought it was 19/18 against, but I was pleased, I had almost turned things around and could at least blame my right flank for my woes.

The Spartans up close and dangerous.

 My second game was against Ian and his Carthaginians, I unexpectedly received reinforcements for being rubbish, a claim which my lawyers are perusing as we speak, I might add though that the reinforcements were a bunch of rabble with pointy sticks whom my hoplites refused to speak to. On to the game, the armies looked evenly matched but oh boy, was I wrong about that I am still a bit shell shocked. My plan was to hurl my phalanx straight at them and count on my heavy armour and combat ability which was impressive, again the Hill Tribes let me down on the right and again it went south, but Ian's cavalry could not get around me. The lines clashed and at first my boys drove the enemy back, things looked good, then in came Nellie the elephant, in the same charge as it destroyed a winning hoplite unit my other right flank one failed its morale and fled. The beast then swiftly did a pirouette and stomped my remaining two, again victorious units, the thing destroys your rank bonus, your push and shove bonus and it disorders you, I had one slim chance at the beginning of the game to send it crazy but failed. I was distraught and then in came the rabble to the rescue, the very last unit of my army to still be standing and they eventually finished off the wounded beast with their pointy sticks, they had also helped destroy an infantry unit, well done guys, I felt my honour had been restored.

Greeks to the left, Nellie on the right.

 Despite having suffered a catastrophe I did kill enough Carthaginians to get 26 points out of the game, the eventual score being 26/51.

My surviving line about to be rolled up.

My brave but doomed men, my eager 'rabble' behind about to hit the enemy in the rear.

 That was it for the day, overall I had had two good games albeit one was frustrating, but obviously not as frustrating as one competitor who wailed loudly, disbelief in the tenor of his voice, "beat by slaves with sticks!"

Four games in action.

A beautiful Viking cavalry unit Jenny received as a birthday present.

Arab cavalry on the loose, this army was superbly painted, a sin to lift any of them off the table.

There you go, the end of the first day apart from the highly enjoyable recrimination phase at the bar later that evening.

Off To The Wars

This afternoon I am putting together my army list, packing my stuff and also the Romano-British army my son has decided on for the weekend at Wargames Foundry, I have no need to march at dawn so will have a lie in and head off after lunch, which should put me at the bar in time for the beginning of the good natured banter.

The weather forecast is not brilliant and I hate driving in the rain, however I will at least make it in daylight, coming back on Sunday night of course will be a different kettle of fish but hey ho, you have to make an effort.

Regular readers of the View will be disappointed on Sunday as obviously I will be at swords drawn from 9am until 5pm, however look on the bright side, no moans, besides the world has passed me by this week with not a lot to complain about. Part of the reason is that our living room is once again a building site and we will not have access to the TV for maybe another month or so, as I do not read newspapers I am may as well be on a desert island, four star of course none of that build your own farm stuff.

I have put the white flag up on Max Hastings' spy book, I have struggled to get half way through, and it is a weighty tome, but I can't find the will power to pick it up again. Thankfully two new books dropped through the door from Helion Publishing, 'Green Leader' which recounts the Rhodesian response to a heartless terrorist attack on a civil airliner, I have an interest in this book as I drew the maps for it. The second volume the one which I have chosen to read first is entitled 'Liddel Hart to Joan Littlewood' by Brian Bond, I was intrigued by this book when my wife was asked to index it, I caught snippets and immediately knew this was for me. The book is a study of British military history and in the main deals with our attitudes to WWI and WWII, I like debunking and this book debunks many things we take for granted about both wars.

 Before I leave here is a link to the cockpit conversation of 'Green Leader' warning the Zambians not to interfere as his forces shoot up several terrorist camps in Zambia.

Nice Night In.

I said I was going to have a moan about army lists, but I have decided not to bother, there will be changes to the WAC lists over the next few months and I suspect the Dark Age lists especially will alter quite a bit, so I am looking forward to that as I believe they will become more historical, which I personally prefer even if it makes my armies harder to use.

I built my Romans to a particular list and find that the 'normal' Scarab list does not allow some of the troop types, specifically the cataphracts, as I play within the WAC guidelines at tournaments I have to prove that the troop types I use should be incorporated in the lists, this I still have to do and will do after I have painted the troops in question. It has made me think a little more of army lists, when I decided to build a Romano-British army I simply went ahead from a list, I also read several texts about the army/period as I did so, enough to get to a stage where I question what exactly would a Romano-British force be like and would there actually be an army which could be called such. The period must only have lasted around one hundred years at the best although I think this pushes the limit, so was there actually a British force which still held to Roman military principles rather than putting something together in order to defend a locale once the proper army had left?

I don't think army lists are wrong but I do think they should be more specific rather than cover a general period, my own Roman army is based around 180-190 AD, to simply call this an Early Imperial Army and stretch it from 100-200AD does not work, the army of 100AD would be different from that of 200AD and as you move away from 200AD to 250/300AD it starts to become a rather different beast entirely. The generality of some lists are fine and if you are prepared to live within those restrictions to game then fine, but if you are also interested in your army and research said army Romans or not then you should be prepared to back up your list and use it no matter what.

Is that still a moan about army lists?

Anyway I am home alone again and have sat through 'Ant Man' and thoroughly enjoyed losing myself in the fantasy, it was great fun and there were some excellent tongue in cheek cameos. I love superhero movies and comics and I am well pleased so many are coming to the fore at the moment, I am looking forward to Batman vs Superman and Suicide Squad in particular.

I am drawing almost thirty maps for a new book called 'Noise of Battle' I am unsure of the author as I am working through the commissioning editor but it is a memoir and I find the maps I am drawing very poignant as I interpret the authors personal recollections on the page.

The map above is especially worthy as it shows where the author received a wound, although he dismisses it as a 'small' wound.

This map shows the personal nature of a small action in NW Europe in 1945.

Franks for the Memories

 Well I sit here shell shocked after a battle which saw the cream of the Saxon army decimated by the Romano-British and my elite troops laid in heaps of dead. As I said previously we had two battles this weekend to get in the mood for the tournament next weekend, it was mainly a training exercise for my son who is taking my Romano-British so he could hone his army to a fine edge.

I decided to take only some elite Saxon cavalry and concentrate on my infantry which I fielded in large numbers, the British decided more or less to do the same, however their left flank looked decidedly weak and I thought a swift advance would lead me to victory. I don't know which objective Stewart had but I had to kill two expensive units, these I thought were the cavalry and I gave up with this idea as his Comitatus were out of my reach, so I would simply crush his army.

First battle deployment, Saxons on the left.

His deployment allowed me to advance against his left which I tried to do at great speed, despite throwing in extra dice to achieve this I never once won the initiative, it was a warning unheeded about the future. Stewart tried to reinforce his left rather than merely shorten it and my first assault was a hammer blow as three of his infantry units ran from a combination of combat and failed morale, in the words of the famous football commentator "It looks like it is all over....." mmmm.

British left in trouble.

 Then of course the rot set in, the bleedin' Franks whose only job was to remain in the centre and threaten the one British unit left, decided to run away, this let the British cavalry attack a beaten up unit of mine, which would have been better running, but no, they decided to be brave and continually stood up to the cavalry, not enough to beat them, just enough to stop any of my other units hitting the cavalry. I was in a bad position on the right, I couldn't get any of my men through due to the Franks and the six men and a dog who refused to die or run. I could see the way things were going and it wasn't good, the pendulum had begun to swing in the direction of the British. Meanwhile my left flank was being overwhelmed. 

A sad turnaround.

 My poor White Horses were left to be hit in front and flank, miraculously they threw snake eyes to stand fast just as the game ended, this meant I was narrowly defeated by 19 points to 22. I was more than annoyed with my Franks once again, they made no effort whatever to stand and fight and abandoned their comrades to overwhelming odds, defeat from the jaws of victory.
 

Dark Age slaughter, the White Horses fight to the end.

 Our second game on the Sunday was my fault entirely, I changed my army list and went for quality over quantity and two elite foot units and an armoured Duguth unit, I hoped to break a British flank with them and then roll it up. I didn't think things through my objective was to rout 75% of the enemy. I mucked about at the start and again did not win any initiative so Stewart quickly threw his line forward and took the centre, this allowed him to win the game without any combat at all, I was in no position to contest the centre as I had put all my effort in on the flank. Damn!

Second battle, Saxons on the left.

 We decided to continue and give my army a chance to contest the centre, I was obliged to throw my troops at the enemy line, this proved more than unproductive and I could not dent the shieldwalls backed up with long spears. My guys tried their best but were repulsed everywhere they charged. This was a disastrous game from my point of view, I did nothing right and suffered the consequences.
 

Disaster.

So there you have it, two defeats, one I blame entirely on the Franks and the other was my own fault. I shall have some things to say on the army lists and give you more insight into the workings of both armies in a future post.

You may or may not have noticed I have added two more pages above, one is an article on the fall of Constantinople in 1453 which was supposed to go to a magazine but I never got around to it as they changed their content and the other is an Old West scenario based on the real bank raid on Coffeyville in 1892 by the Younger Gang.

View From The WIndow

Windy, wet and damp, I can see the far ridges at the moment but I suspect that will end with the rain showers which are promised, outside the Post Office is a mess as my living room walls are in two big bags at the front and we are the talk of the village at the moment. People are desperate to know what we are doing, one rumour is that the house is subsiding. What is happening is that the living room walls have had the old plaster removed back to the stones and it will be replaced by lime plaster which will allow said walls to 'breath' and prevent damp. The only problem with this is that each coat takes a while to dry so we cannot use the living room for maybe two to three weeks, also I cannot get a painter until January, but I will be only too happy to sit with the new plaster until then.

I know I am a bit late but I cannot let Halloween or 'Trick or Treat' as it has turned into pass without comment, I hate it! I have never liked it nor have I ever went 'guising' myself, bothering people of an evening to get an apple or a couple of sweets, of course things have changed and you can buy all the 'candy' in handy bags and supermarkets are full of horror things to adorn your front door, bushes, roof and pathways. In my old house we were never bothered because there were no children in the neighbourhood, it was a main road, but after moving and having a sweetie shop the doorbell would never cease between the hours of five and eight, despite again not a great many kids in the vicinity. Kids taller than me with a black bin bag over their heads would hold their hands out for cash, the other hand probably held a Smith and Wesson .45, stuff the sweeties mate. Despite the danger of wounding they were told politely to 'get off my land'. Now before you judge me as a miserable old Scotsman, I do not mind any kid who is local, lives within a couple of houses, meets my height requirements (see chart on gate) and visits between 6 - 7 pm and is overcome with joy getting a couple of chews. But as for feeling besieged in my own house, lights off and running silent for one night of the year that's one night too many.

What is BBC3 actually for or who is it for, because it is not for the average white British male, the week before last it went looking for the racist heart of Britain and went to great lengths to prove the theory but actually failed quite miserably. This week it turned its attention on the Sexists among us, yes, you guessed it they were all white, British and male. Some woman stood in the middle of the street and shouted obscene drivel at people having their lunch sitting quietly in the sun, what the intention was of this exercise was beyond me. It did show some perfect examples of sexists which even I thought were prats but I have to say if you are a woman and you fall for the kind of verbal diarrhoea these pretentious idiots spouted then you only have yourself to blame. I have been around a long time, I was also in the Navy as you know and have been in very 'blokey' environments with all kinds of people and I have never heard one person talk the same nonsense this lady took as everyday sexist banter practised by us all. BBC3 also brings us all this new, with it comedy which is not funny, comedians who no one has ever heard of, journalists from the school of YouTube and all at my expense, it is time this TV licence went the way of the Dodo.

Bonfire night has also been and gone, another old tradition sinking almost without trace, I know you have heard it before but when I was young every family bought their box of fireworks, went out into the garden on the 5th November and lit up, the next day we went around searching for the used rocket sticks. I cannot remember if there was an age limit back then but I never seemed to have a problem getting packets of bangers, amazing how much fun you got out of a loud bang. Now with each passing year the whizzes and bangs are few and far between on the 5th, and if you want to enjoy a bonfire you have to go to an organised one, stay up to 30 meters away and wear goggles, anti-flash protection and never have a smile on your coupon while waving your insurance card. Even these are dying off due to the pressures of policing and insuring against the usual idiot who tries to throw him/herself into the flames every year, no one has ever done that, well they might once they get over the fence and through the bouncers.

Early November and already you would think Christmas is just around the corner, is it Denmark where it is against the law to advertise Christmas before December 1, or is that just wishful thinking on my part that some corner of the civilised world is sane.

Weird War

Club night and a real winters evening, dark, dank, wet and cold, there are a huge amount of leaves lying about on the approach to the club and I continually worry that I am going to end up on my backside with soldiers everywhere one of these evenings. I can at least rest safe in the knowledge that the money not being used to clean the pavements is being spent wisely by the Council in saving Lancashire from some horrendous eco crises. As usual I digress, the club game last night was Dystopian Wars, something I have heard about but never played, I have seen Simon's collection and it is impressive, the models are wonderful and he has painted them with care and attention. We were having a naval game, I was the Royal Navy of course as suited an old veteran and he was the Russians.

As I had not a clue about the game or rules and Simon hadn't played for at least two years we kicked off with two starter fleets, we each had one battleship, three cruisers and eight small ships in two squadrons along with an air squadron, I chose torpedo bombers, Simon took fighters. Each fleet has its own characteristics, the British have long range gunnery but the Russians have 'ablatov' armour, I could have spelt that wrong, which you have to knock out before you can hurt them, Simon assured me it was nothing but it was much better than nothing.

My fleet prepares to meet the enemy.

 For some reason Simon split his fleet on deplyoment and left his three cruisers out on a limb opposite my whole fleet. I decided therefore to go straight at them, despite being warned that the Russians were also built for ramming. Tooled up for that they may be but Simon turned his cruisers towards his battleship not my line, I opened fire and managed to sink a cruiser with some extraordinary shooting, not long after another Russian cruiser went to the bottom. By this time I had almost lost all my small ships with one lone survivor of a squadron keeping up the best traditions of the RN by bravely, but foolishly attacking his battleship at full speed. My torpedo bombers made a quick attack on a destroyer screen and sent one to the bottom before making for home but falling foul of Russian fighters on the way.

The mighty Russian battleship with strange, round, destroyers.

My own battleship, typical RN, ugly but functional.

What with the introduction to the rules we ran out of time, at the end my battleship had taken a pounding but my three cruisers were virtually untouched, on the other hand Simon was down to one cruiser and I had managed to remove the extra armour on the battleship. My hope at the end was if my battleship could get the initiative it might manage to damage the Russian enough for the cruiser squadron to sink it, which would leave his cruiser overwhelmingly outnumbered, but that's one for the pub recrimination phase, I do miss that part.

There you have it, a good game and despite being a sci-fi setting the naval warfare was pretty good and better fun than my last run out with the WWI fleets. Elsewhere there were a couple of Bloodbowl games, SAGA Cross and Crescent and a run of Blucher. I was intrigued with the pre-battle movements of Blucher and thought this a good idea, but the rest looked like a game with toy soldiers as do many systems/rules these days.

Online banter is building to a frenzy as the WAC Tournament approaches, insults are being thrown around and no one is crazy enough to throw a boast into the ring, at least not yet. Defending champion Jenny is the one to beat in the Dark Age tourney while it is up for grabs in the Classical. Dave Toone, organiser and sculptor has turned out another fine individual figure for those attending, his best yet I think.

I am on my way with the Praetorians, those spine shields were a real challenge, very 'footery' for an old guy with bad eyesight. The way the figures are made I decided for the first time to do the shields separate and then glue them on once the figure is complete, I will have to decided on the eventual colour scheme tonight. I am thinking of going with a white tunic and a red or blue cloak, the red because my Romans don't have a lot of the traditional bright red on them and maybe blue to fit in with the shields. Blue also being my favourite colour, of course it would be signalling ; trustworthy, honest, loyal, wise, sincere, reserved, quiet, reliable and responsible, who writes that muck...... mind you....

View From The Window

I'm fairly late today for no other reason than I only have a few things to do today and all day to do them in. It is very quiet out there this morning, not much to see as there is a mist hanging around, it is slightly damp but not cold, I know this as I have already made a trip to the bin with the remains of last nights Indian takeaway and I took special care not to let the glass bottles jingle too much in case neighbours get the wrong idea, damn recycling. Washington House remains unsold as I suspect it will until at least Spring next year, it does not look its best in this kind of weather being (in my opinion) an unattractive building anyway.

At the beginning of the week I felt a sore throat coming on, in fact it turned out to be a throaty cough and not the harbinger of a cold as it usually is, and all jokes of 'man flu' aside it has been a week of hell, especially at night, as soon as I lay my head down it starts, coughing and spluttering into the wee hours, I averaged around three hours sleep for at least five days. I bought lozenges, pastilles, cough medicine, Night Nurse, drank hot toddies and neat honey and nothing worked, despite what it said on the tin. Have you noticed none of that stuff works, Lemsips, muscle rubs, indigestion remedies, absolutely none of it, you have to get stuff a chemist will not give you, doctor stuff, to have any hope of relief. I pleaded for antibiotics and after four days am still waiting for the miracle pills to kick in.

The fallout from illness.

 And as if I didn't feel bad enough I decided to watch 'River', a police drama as I was sitting around during the witching hour doing nothing else. The 'hero' was so depressing and boring I felt my will to live shutting down, I only just managed to get to the 'Done' button in time. On the other hand I tried the new police drama 'Cuffs' set in sunny Brighton, a Brighton from another dimension I presume as I am sure no one from the town would recognise the TV one. Almost within the first ten minutes we had a police force recruited from a ridiculous melting pot of political correctness with almost every ethnicity and sexual preference keeping us safe, and the few baddies that I stayed around long enough to notice were of course white males.

Have you heard the one about the racist fruit basket? Just when you think things cannot get any worse along comes a story which beggers belief, in America, and don't laugh if you don't come from there, have a good look around at your own country. Marching bands in the US give other schools presents at some point and this particular fruit basket was labled as 'racist' as it included amongst other fruits, watermelons, pineapples and coconuts, the first thing that jumps into my mind is 'I don't like coconuts' not 'RAAAAAACISTS'. Sadly this kind of thing is no longer unbelievable.

As a Scot all this healthy stuff annoys me!

 I can't leave this alone today, the animal rights nuts are suing a photographer who happened to leave his camera lying around for a monkey to pick it up and accidentally take a 'selfie', the PETA organisation want the royalties and rights to the photograph to belong to the monkey. The said monkey of course is somewhere in a jungle unaware of his notoriety and burgeoning riches, so instead of lynching the poor photographer can't we just agree that if the monkey will send his bank details the photographer will simply deposit the cash, end of.

Cheese!

 Naomi Harris the new 'Bond Girl' has, now that she was obviously successful at the audition and the filming has finished, decided that 'Bond Girl' is a demeaning term, pity she didn't stick to her principles before she took the job.

There was something else which particularly annoyed me this week about how scientists spend years and oodles of money to come up with the blindingly obvious, like cows fart, salt makes you thirsty, people love bacon sarnies and the world is indeed round, but I can't for the life remember it amongst all the other stuff which has enriched my week.

On Parade

Despite my debilitating sore throat I stepped up to the mark and completed the Auxiliary cavalry, I really like these guys for some reason, they just seem to click, the officer is a bit wooden but I can live with that, the horses are really nice and I think the green colour scheme works just fine. I have attempted to get the next unit, Praetorians, ready for priming but I can't really shake the doldrums at the moment but I am hoping after last night I am on the mend.

Auxiliarium Equitum Dimittit

 I also managed  while I was basing the cavalry to coat those garish desert hills and terrain pieces with some of my 25 kilos of sharp sand, I also put the odd tuft on the surface and I think you will agree they are much better.

Now that's desert.

As I have some spare time I decided to show you a picture of the new mat and while I was at it muster the troops as they near completion to give me an idea of how they look en masse.

'Sands of Time' desert mat.

  And here are some close ups of the battle line, no parade pansies here, just veterans of the Twelfth 'Thunderbolts'. I suspect they will be finished around Christmas or just after so I intend to enter them in yet another War and Conquest tournament, a friendly in February which friends are organising. I really need to fight more battles with my favourite Romano-British army, I have gone Greek as you know for the next WAC tourney instead of Dark Age, so perhaps back with King Arthur in May. Mind you I am enjoying playing with the Saxons against the British (and my son) during our warm ups for November.

 

 

I should be back at the club on Tuesday for that Dystopian Wars game although it is getting a struggle to set out on such miserable cold, wet evenings, also next weekend is our last 'training' games before we head off to Newark on the 13th.

Another Red Letter Day

I didn't get to the club the other night as I am still suffering badly from this damn throat, so much so that I have got a doctor's appointment for this afternoon I am going to lay it on thick to hopefully get some antibiotics and put an end to it.

The mail man knocked on the door as he always does, but this time it wasn't the usual guy and he handed me a large parcel, it was my desert mat, something I was not expecting for at least another week or so and then a second postie brought me the latest in the Walking Dead volumes.

The best thing of all was an email from Bev Kreuger at The Last Square in Wisconsin, some of you American readers may know this game store, who informed me that she had approximately £94 in royalties for me from sales of my scenario books. She explained that TLS had suffered from the banking crises and they had now turned the corner and as she was stock taking she found that she had sold her remaining stock of our scenario books and she wanted to pass on the money to myself and co-author Ryan. It was a very pleasant surprise and what an incredibly honest woman.

The Last Square logo.

I am hoping to work on my terrain pieces this afternoon and get some photographs over the weekend with what I have of the Romans on the new mat.

The Celts and Other Stuff

I am at a loose end at the moment due to the missus being away and suffering from my debilitating cold however I watched the BBC series on The Celts as it was recommended to me by Matt at Wargames Table.

I have actually met several people through the years who insist they are Celts from Devon to the wilds of Lanarkshire despite recent DNA testing which gives us more of a Scandanavian leaning amongst other influences, Genghis Khan would you believe for instance. So I don't personally see myself as a Celt, Scots yes, Celt no.

The programme was pretty good and the historical bits showed the producers were not happy to rely on the usual ten men on a 1/10,000 scale and careful editing showed the battle scenes at their best. The programme was presented by Alice Roberts and Neil Oliver and as you know Neil gets stick about his long hair, and the atmospheric shots where he glides about in the shadows etc. and true to form Alice gets no slo-mo shots they all belong to Neil. You get an overall picture of the civilisation then an episode mainly on Vercingetorix and one on Boudica (I don't know what the proper form is anymore). Vercingetorix gets a raw deal, captured and slung in prison for six years and then publicly strangled, so much for the noble savage, didn't cut any ice with the Romans.

Pretentious moi?

While I am on about the meedja I watched a film on child soldiers in Africa the other night and it turned out to be a good watch, very atmospheric, well made and obviously fairly brutal. I couldn't help but fell sorry for those caught between the different factions who all treated the civilians as fair game and with off the cuff violence. That most versatile and charismatic actor Idris Elba plays a leading part as the commander of a battalion of young boys.

I have one more for you, it is one I mentioned a year ago on my return from Korea, "Roaring Currents" or sometimes known as "The Admiral", there is an english language version out now and if you like watching a good battle you really need to see this. I have dug a little into the battle (Myeongnyang) and of course the film makers have put their own stamp on what happened, nonetheless it is a magnificent piece of cinema. One scene in particular stands out for me when Japanese boarders try to make their way across gangplanks onto the flagship and are hurled back by shrapnel blasts. Twelve Korean war vessels against about 133 Japanese warships plus several hundred transports, however what you are not privy to is that Korean warships could carry from 26 to 50 cannon and the Japanese at most two, they relied mainly on boarding tactics, they were also larger and better constructed, even so, a magnificent victory.

FIASCO the Show

We got to the show about half an hour after it opened, having got the map to the hall the main thing which stood out was the number of games on display, it was very small, and once inside the hall it looked in the main to be a traders convention. This was a shame as I had been looking for some games to give me some inspiration, the quality of most of the games was pretty poor to be honest or the standard you would see on a decent club night. Only one game in particular stood out for me and it was part of the battle of Kursk fought with Bolt Action rules on a beautiful terrain, but although I approached the table on several occasions and at one obviously took pictures no one spoke to me or looked like wanting to. The other well constructed game was just outside the main door and was a big WWII Western Desert game but again the guys were more interested in playing than engaging anyone who showed an interest. I had a word with Simon and Michael Curtis of Curtey's Miniatures and 1st Corps and wished I had all the time and money in the world to build armies with their wonderful figures but sadly I don't, but I might end up fighting against them in February. They did speak at length about the effort involved in bringing their 'road show' to a convention and I can see some time in the near future where we will only have one or two large trader and wargame shows with local shows going back to showcasing the hobby alone, if at all.

A demo of Guild Ball, a fantasy football game.

Eastern Front

Eastern Front

Eastern Front.

I did manage to spend around £60, I got some primer and jumping ahead some Iranian flesh paint for the Sassanids next year. I also saw a lot of desert terrain and bought some hills and rough ground from S&A Scenics which I will sprinkle with my sand to match the Roman bases, I also got a small marsh/oasis from the Last Valley which I will also redo with my sand, that should be more than enough for now. Bringing up the rear is some magnetic tape and a bunch of spears which I have run out of at the moment.

The Swag.

Nothing to do with the show but my Suicide Squad comics have turned up and I have started the first, and it is pretty good, as you can see by the covers Harley Quinn seems to be flavour of the month at the moment, looking forward to the movie.

View From The Window

I am sitting awaiting a lift to the FIASCO wargame show in Leeds, as well as the clocks going back my early bird impression is also due to a throaty cough which has robbed me of most of my sleep the past two nights, why do these thing always get worse at night. Strange view this morning, it is damp with grey clouds but there is sun there, that watery sun I told you about, and it is showing the last of the green in a nice colour, as if the fields and plants have just been jet washed.

I am home alone again for a week and despite having given the impression this is exactly what I was looking for, rattling about the house on your own is, well, lonely. No dinner ready when the PO is closed, no coffee and a chocolate at 10, no one to listen to me vent my spleen at the News. But then again, no one to tell me how to prepare my soup, to remember and put the right bin out, discuss kitchen designs or write a list out for our visit south for Christmas; socks, toothbrush, seven dresses for three days, fourteen pairs of shoes, warm coat, cold coat etc. So on balance I will survive.

My lift is nearly here, scratch the above, it is now grey mist and pouring with rain, stay indoors weather really, brrrrr.

I'm back. You probably don't have a shop, but I do and it is not like the old days, when we went into a shop we did not touch anything, we stayed within command distance of my mother or father and dared not move. That dear readers has changed, what we have now is the mother either harassed or unconcerned that she has kids in tow standing at the counter saying "Don't touch Jayson" while looking at me and oblivious of what Jayson is actually doing. Normally that is picking up the greetings cards and putting them back in the wrong place or putting them in a neat pile on the floor with me glowering at him. Or maybe it is Chardonnay-Shiraz seeing how fast she can spin the card holders all the while ignoring the pleas from the parent at the counter not to do it, who again rolls her eyes at me in a "what can you do" kind of look. Well you can smack her for a start my look says back. Occasionally, like Popeye "I canst takes no more" and I shout at Jayson or Chardonnay-Shiraz only to face a look which could kill, how dare you shout at my angels! Well I do dare if you cannot discipline them yourself and I remain content that once they leave the shop that's it, but mummy or daddy have to live with them.

Chardonnay-Shiraz unhappy at something or someone.

Who exactly is the word unwaged supposed to help, at the show today you were either waged or unwaged as I suppose '£2 concession for the unemployed' is judgemental though true, but isn't unwaged just as bad, because we all know whoever asks for it does not have a job.

I chose a documentary on BBC iPlayer entitled 'The Forgotten Army' which was introduced by Griff Rees Jones, so naturally I thought this was about the 14th Army in Burma and Malaya, that turned out to be untrue, it was nonetheless a fascinating story of two West African divisions fighting for the British. What it failed to mention or brushed over was the other people in the title, the Indians, native allies and British who were also there. Again it rather pointed the finger at us as having done something wrong, the Africans were not treated well but nor were the rest of the 14th Army as the war ended no matter what their nationality. You cannot impose 21st Century mores on the past and his comment that he was afraid he and his generation had a fixation about WWII was rubbish, of course we had a fixation with it, five years of bloody warfare and a struggle to overcome two fearsome enemies. I still have a fixation for it and I am not afraid to say so.

The Last Kingdom

This is a hot topic with us wargamers at the moment and has been long awaited by Dark Age fans, so, having seen the first episode and being a pain in the bum for pointing out historical faux pas what did I think.

Before we get to that let me say that until recently the only book of Cornwall's that I had read was one on the American Civil War and it was dreadful, I took up his series about his view on King Arthur and it was OK, I read two and am not bothered about reading any more. I have read historical fiction and read a great deal when I was younger and it was all better than Cornwall's or at least that is the way I remember it.

I also have to agree with some points of view that if you are going to turn out an historically based series and have to spend money please spend it on the right stuff, you can pick up an Osprey book if you are Googley challenged. I can forgive a lot but getting the costumes wrong is really pushing it.

Having said all that I thought it was pretty good and I enjoyed it and I look forward to more. We have to be thankful for what we get as amateur historians and wargamers in the way of bringing our periods to life, sure we can get real bummers like the White Queen but we can also get stuff like Vikings and this which in the end are historical fiction not historical fact. Leave your brain on the kitchen table, grab a beer and simply enjoy something for enjoyment's sake for an hour, then put your brain back in, if I can do that with Braveheart........!

I do wonder why we cannot produce wonderful historical dramas covering the Scottish Wars or the Wars of the Roses or even the events leading up to 1066, storylines with strong characters, battles, love affairs, murders, treachery and everything in between, and all home grown. Why?

This is something at last for me and my licence money for which I normally get nothing.