Wargamer show

Last Sunday I popped along to the Wargamer Show (http://wargamershow.tripod.com/) to see what it was like. I have been going to the Guards Club for quite some time now and know the show organiser, but this was my first chance to go along and I would have missed it entirely had Paul not reminded me at the club last week...

The Venue
The show was at the Great Barr Leisure Centre in north Birmingham, a location which unfortunately put the city exactly between me and it, so it was a fair drive over. On the plus side, parking was ample, spilling over from the Leisure Centre into a school playground. The show itself was in a large sports hall, which was filled with stalls without feeling too cramped, so points for that in my book. Food and refreshments were provided, although I did not sample them.

Traders
There were several traders as one might expect, along with a good sized bring and buy. It seemed that quite a few stalls were selling second hand figures and books, which worked out great for me as I was able to pick up several bargains. My favourite find, though, was a first edition hardback of Flashman at the Charge, in almost mint condition, for £1. Nice! During the morning I spent at the show, I made several circuits of the hall and picked up something each time. So the traders were pretty good as far as I was concerned!

Games
There were several games in the centre of the hall and, pleasingly, the majority of the people running them were happy to stop for a chat, something I have not always experienced at shows.

My 'game of the show' award (for looks at least!) goes to the Shrewsbury Wargame Society's AWI game, which was shockingly impressive. The terrain took 18 months to prepare and included amazing details including a scarecrow, washing line, fish in the river and an owl in a tree. My pictures, alas, do not do it justice.

The Guards Club had a large game of Hail Caesar (28mm) and a WW2 North Africa (20mm) game on, both of which appeared to be jolly good fun. I find that, while it is good to have the opportunity to see impressive display games, the Guards' games were quite indicative of what one might see at a club night, and therefore what a 'regular' gamer might play. So kudos to them for that. In fact that is part of the reason why the WW2 game won the best game award at the show.

Bonus prize for 'most figures on the table goes to this Napoleonic game:

Finally, an unfortunately blurry group photo at the Bring and Buy. From left to right: Paul's daughter and photographer for the event, Paul - event organiser and a most decent chap, and Maurice - custodian of the Bring and Buy and a jolly good fellow too.

My only regret is that I didn't take more pictures! I got a bit carried away with all the fun of the show and didn't even take a decent one of the whole hall. I guess that just goes to show how good it was!

All in all, the Wargamer Show was a highly enjoyable event and I certainly recommend it. I suppose to fend of accusations of bias I should offer a couple of points of critique, but the only one I can think of is that the website could do with more than a little bit of work. But I guess as this is my blog, you'll just have to put up with my opinion. If any of you were there, I'd be interested to hear your point of view.

I look forward to going again next year.

Update and musings on costs

I have been somewhat quiet over the last month and a half. The main reason for this is due to me being made redundant at work and having to frantically search for a new job. I have fortunately managed to sort that out in the nick of time, so am sufficiently 'relaxed' to return to thoughts of little metal men!

Last week GW announced the first items in their new Hobbit range to accompany the film (Out on 13 December, yay!). I was thinking that the starter set would be a good way to pick up some Dwarf heroes, but was a bit taken aback (if not entirely surprised) by the £75 price tag.

But this isn't a moan about that, rather it acted as a trigger to me thinking about the 'cost vs use' of my figures, particularly my Lord of the Rings collection. Thanks to eBay, this has been growing at a considerable rate. I mean, when I can get a handful of figures for almost nothing, why not?!

On the other hand, this has left me with a substantial quantity of unpainted figures bought on a whim. Which got me thinking, sure I have managed to collect them at a fraction of the price, but if they are not being painted and used, it is not just money spent for no reason?

This thought led me to a rather scary place, which was: Would I actually have been better off buying direct from GW? The premium prices would make me feel a need to 'justify' each purchase instead of just buying randomly because things were a bargain. As a result I would feel a sense of obligation to paint the figures and actually use them, instead of just adding them to the pile.

Of course, I may have just ended up with a more costly pile of unpainted figures, but I would probably have considered each purchase more. I don't think this rambling is actually leading me to a profound conclusion, but may be interesting to bear in mind for the future...

Anyway, I am hoping to have some more interesting posts for you all in the near(ish) future. Thanks for hanging around during my period of silence!

This is what I have to put up with...

So, following on from my last post I'm exciting about being focused on a couple of projects and prioritising them, but there is one slight obstacle to overcome... my filthy man cave....

Okay, that sounds a bit dodgy, but you know what I mean. Once more the place is a mess, so as a motivation I have decided to show you all the extent of what I am dealing with. Along with useful annotations! (Hopefully you can see the letters I have added in red...)

To start, the left side of the table. Usually reserved for figures I am working on or a secondary project. Currently, it is occupied by:

A) My Starship Troopers project. Not stalled, exactly, but it has sort of become swallowed up by the mess of the rest of the table so it is almost indistinguishable. I could do with finding storage for the figures and freeing up the tray from assorted paints and half finished hedgerows so I can use it for other things.

B) A plastic tower which has been there for months. A SST Brainbug which is far too big for 15mm. A unit of Warhammer Beastmen who don't currently have a home. Small plastic bags from various models. The lesson from this is not to use my table as a dumping ground for things I should really put away as soon as possible.

C) Paints, toothpicks, dice and, errrrrr, a shot glass for absolutely no reason whatsoever except that I once put some water in it to dip my brushes in....

If you thought that was bad, the right side just gets worse...:

A) Recent eBay acquisitions I have not done anything with.
B) A bag of counters I am too lazy to put away
C) Tape, glue, water. There for the same reason the counters are...
D) Bits and pieces. There are a cut up Dalek and Weeping Angel which are going to be made into objective markers for a Doctor Who game I have been planning.
E) Barrow-wights, old Citadel Chaos Dwarf Bazuka Team, spooky trees and left over WW1 I was unable to sell on eBay.
F) A Gondorian Knight Standard Bearer which I bought from a friend but have done nothing with (you know, like almost everything else here...)
G) A hidden treasure! Two packs of old WEG Indiana Jones Miniatures. I don't want to sell these, but keeping them means I should really paint them, which in turn means I need to buy a bunch of Nazis for Indy to fight! (The potential new projects never end!)


I did have some more pictures, but they are less interesting and merely add to the horror. I really need to find the time to tidy this up so I can get cracking on projects again. The rest of the room is covered in boxes of games and DVDs. Unfortunately these act as convenient platforms for me to deposit rules, modelling materials, boxes of figures etc etc, so it isn't even like the table is all I need to deal with.

So, urge me on with whatever words you deem appropriate. I can only hope some of you have a similar problem and I am not alone in this terrible situation!

New season new rules...

I don't think I am the only one, but when the season  changes I always feel like playing a different/new game or revisiting one I haven't played for a while. At the moment this looks like the following list:

1. Pirates
2. Gothic Horror
3. French & Indian War

When I think about it, there is usually a reason for certain games coming to the fore of my mind. Pirates is there due to Monkey Island. I got this game as a child for my Birthday one October and the first section, set in a perpetual night on Melee Island, has always has always had a wintry feel for me.

Gothic Horror is a new one for me, due to having just returned from a holiday in Whitby (Anyone who does not know why this should be the case should google Dracula). We had a fantastic time and left wanting to go back as there was so much more to see. I'm going to hold fire on this at the moment though as I am not sure any of the current horror rules really meet my needs (open to suggestions if anyone has them though).

Finally, the French & Indian War. Again, a slightly convoluted reason for this, but it (again) stems from my childhood and memories of watching episodes of Hawkeye with my Dad before going out to help rake up the fallen autumn leaves.

It is this last one where I succumbed, aided in no small part my the arrival of an email from Maelstrom games giving a whopping 30% off. So I paid about £8 for the "This Very Ground" rules from Iron Ivan. I think that is entirely justifiable for that price. I'm not even sure I will actually get round to playing them, but perhaps at some point....

In other news, I have been thoroughly enjoying the new X-Wing game from FFG. I have yet to play a 'real' game yet, but the solo learning games I have played have been good fun. Here's a picture to prove it!

I have also been loving selling old things on eBay as it means I could plonk down the cash for several ships without feeling the pain in my bank account! It takes a bit of getting used to for a game hoarder like me, but the results are well worth it!

Fog on the Barrow Downs

Well, it is time to return to my Lord of the Rings campaign! The scenario was more fun than some write ups have led me to believe, but that might have been because I was trying to play the Hobbits 'in character' rather than have them gang up and hunt the barrow-wights or other such nonsense. Anyhow, it was a fairly close thing with an added sense of peril knowing that any deaths could last through the rest of the campaign!

So with out further a do, here it is:

There you have it. I really thought Pippin was gone for good, but he managed to make a 50-50 die roll to pull through. All the pictures are from the game in progress, except for the last one, which was staged for the purpose of the narrative.

Hope you enjoyed it. Comments welcome as always.

Random news

Somewhere between my last post and now, I seem to have picked up a 50^th follower, so a big welcome to him!

Thought I’d just post a few bits and pieces as it has once again been quite some time since my last post. I don’t know what is going on with my time at the moment! So let’s see what kind of news I have for everyone...

The Cull

Well, I have finally bitten the bullet and opted to sell some of my stuff that wasn’t seeing much action. First out the door (and on to eBay) was my 28mm WW1. Why this? Well, the uniforms are pretty drab and I am struggling to paint 28mm as it is! Secondly, the cost of trench terrain to sit on top of my table is fairly prohibitive in the scale (unless I opt for Amera stuff). Also, tanks. £25 for an Old Glory MkIV is a cost I am not wiling to bear. Also, I have decided that if I want to play a big game and get the full impact of the period then 15mm is the way to go for me. It will make the whole thing cheaper, easier to paint and more likely to actually get on my table.

The Heresy

After getting all excited about Warhamer Fantasy Battle 3^rd Edition, I am sorry to say I find myself more and more drawn to 4^th Edition. Now, I still regard 3^rd as a fine game and will continue to play it, but the more I think about it, the more I realise that, like it or not, 4^th was ‘my’ edition as that was what I would see in issues of White Dwarf when I was a youngster. Plus I am more and more drawn to the content of early army books (Skaven Doomwheel, I’m looking at you). So that is where I currently stand. Fortunately I have a copy of the rules, along with Battle Magic and Arcane Magic at my folk’s house, so I just need to collect them and I am ready to go. Sorry 3^rd edition...

The Resurgence

Well, resurgence may be too strong a word, but I have finally got round to painting the Barrow-Wights, Tom Bombadil and Goldberry for the next scenario in my Lord of the Rings Campaign. That should hopefully be played this weekend. I am also thinking of cost effective ways to make a multi-part, close approximation of Weathertop for the scenarios that follow.

The Bonus

I have been lucky enough to be testing a new version of a popular rule set and am happy to say that it is looking pretty good. Hopefully we will see some more news on that over the next month or so.

Finally, I've taken up the tiniest part of the dining table to play little LotR skirmishes. As no blog entry is complete without a picture, here is one!

So that is about it for the time being. I also need to update my other blog (link) as I am ready for the first scenario for that. Guess I have just been too busy over summer!

HO scale buildings

A few days ago I bought 6 'HO Scale' buildings on eBay for a little under £6. Not bad. But when I unpacked them, I found that 2 were clearly smaller than the others and really didn't work with my 15mm. Now, I have no knowledge of HO scale except that I have read it can vary widely and, for the price I paid, I am happy I got 4 usable buildings.

The purpose of this post is to show the buildings next to some figures and invite some discussion on the subject of using HO scale for 15mm.

First up, the church. This, along with the following house, look wooden and handmade, which surprised me as I expected them all to be plastic. I quite like how it looks. a sticker underneath identifies it as by "Vau-Pe" and having been "Made in Western Germany". I don't know if this is being used synonymously with "West Germany" and just suffering slightly in translation but, if so, it seems to be quite old! Note the spire/bell tower is not in the picture as I was mainly trying to show the scale with the figures.

The second building is a house in the same style of construction as the church. This is by RS and has an ink stamp underneath clearly stating it was "Made in West Germany".

Next up is a 'building under construction' made out of plastic. I have seen this advertised elsewhere. I like this as a variation on all the fully built buildings I'd normally have on the table.

Again, based on the size of the door/windows, this one works okay with 15mm figures.

Last from the 'good batch', a smaller plastic house.

Again, it seems to scale well with my figures and will be useful for games in rural areas. Of course, most of these buildings are 'European' rather than 'American', but such things will not stop me from using them for my zombie games.

Now the difficulties begin. This was actually the first building I opened and it made me fear the worst for the whole lot before I saw them:

Aside from looking like it came out of a Kinder egg, it is clear that no one 15mm in height would be able to fit through that front door!

The last one looks like a kind of Alpine barn I have seen in Europe, but is also woefully small:

I am very interested in hearing if other 15mm gamers use HO scale buildings and what their experiences have been. I have a feeling that the smaller two are actually of a different scale and were described incorrectly by the seller but, having read about the amount of variation and not having any real knowledge of the scale, I don't feel sure about it.

Ideally, I'd like to gain a clearer idea in my mind about what an HO scale building 'should' look like. If they are generally like the first four, than I will be keeping an eye out for more eBay bargains.