A Wargaming Review Of 2014

A look back at my Year of Wargaming from October to September 2013-14, and as it opened I was in the process of changing jobs.  Having finished my contract with Wrexham Museum I took what I expected to be a temporary Christmas position working early mornings at Asda in Wrexham.  Nearly 12 months on and I’m still getting up at 5am to be in work by 6am at least three times a week – I must be mad.  I also added a fixed term contract tidying up Chirk Castle’s gift shops with the National Trust so I’ve managed to earn a reasonable bit of cash, but unsurprisingly it went the same way as the rest to keep the family ticking over and wargaming funds have been very thin on the ground! 

In addition to lack of funds to buy more toys my work schedule initially provided me with difficulty getting any wargaming in.  I found I lacked the energy to attend and play on Thursday evenings, with my very early Friday mornings at Asda following, as well as failing to find much time or energy for painting.  However, after a month or so it settled down and I’ve been able to go to most Thursday evenings and paint a fair amount still.  I’ve managed to paint a fair bit, although less than last year, and get in a variety of games throughout as well as playing in, and running, several tournaments.

 Painting & Modelling

In 2013 I spent most of my time painting one specific scale/army, which was my 28mm scale Royalists with the aim of getting them battle ready for the big English Civil War ‘Relief of Hawarden’ Gauntlet game.  This year I was only on the periphery in terms of number of models supplied for the Napoleonic Gauntlet game, and with less of a demand I painted far fewer models.  I did, however, paint more of a variety of pieces as various games systems lured me one way and then another.  A list would seem to be the best way to explain:

• 28mm Napoleonics - The gauntlet game saw me paint two battalions of 28mm Frenchies (it was to be 3 battalions, but I ran out of time) which I was destined not to use, but I have been able to put them on the table once since.  The 3^rd battalion had already been basically painted by Pete and now resides in a box with the rest to be updated the same as the other 2.  I found Napoleonic figures, after my 28mm Saga, Roman and ECW armies, to be quite time consuming which was probably why I didn’t make my 3 battalion quota.  While the period really interests me I ran out of enthusiasm fairly swiftly due to the detail required on each model and the fact that I needed 40 models per battalion.
• Saga - I got some use out of my Saga this year; it’s a very nice pickup game which requires few models, little setup and pack down, and plays quickly.  I decided their bases were too bland (the initial rocks and flowers combination was something I had never been 100% happy with), and I returned to them to re-flock the bases with a heavy coat of light green which was a significant improvement.  I’ve still got a box of unmade un-armoured Gripping Beast Dark Age warriors to add to these, and I regularly wonder about turning them into a force big enough to enter the Hail Caesar arena, perhaps facing Michael’s developing Normans.
• 28mm WW2 - As Bolt Action called I managed to paint a squad of 28mm Germans, but stalled before I reached squad two.  I made up a full list of what I wanted to buy to develop this into a decent sized force but was unable to find the funds for the purchases needed and I’ve yet to be fully grabbed by the game although it has a regular following at the Deeside Defenders.
• Flames of War British – Having bought the Open Fire boxed set last September I finally made and undercoated the 8 Shermans from it, and made the US para platoon, but only moved onto fully painting one Sherman.  I have purchased enough Shermans to finish the armour part of my list from Plastic Soldier Company (a box of 5 to take me to 13 Shermans), and bought the decals from a company called Dom’s Decal’s to make them look the part as a unit during the battles for Normandy.  I’ve also invested in the paints needed to finish them so when I decide to splash out on the supporting British infantry, and perhaps Stuart light tanks, I can get stuck into that.  It would be nice to have an alternative force to the Germans in FOW, even if its just to get away from being on ‘Tiger Phil’s’ side.
• Flames of War Germans – With Gauntlet past and looking for something else to do after painting Frenchies for several months I had a sudden revolution in painting speed and, spurred on by the carrot of an upcoming game, painted all of my Panthers, my Konigstiger, my armoured cars, my light AA support, and 4 halftracks!  Very pleased with the results too, worthy of a post in itself in the future.  All the models I painted I have had for several years and it was really nice to finally finish them.
• American Civil War - In 6mm, and plenty of models finished with my Union army reaching a large enough size to play a few games against/alongside Andy and Luke’s Confederate troops.  The quickness of painting Union troops at that scale was somewhat diluted by the slowness of basing them afterwards, but I have achieved that rarest of things: I’ve run out of models to paint!  Apart from a bunch of limbers I’ll need to buy a few more infantry packs to get going again, although that trail has gone quiet at the moment.
• Wars Of The Roses – Finally painted some of it my 28mm Perry’s plastics, and they didn’t turn out too badly.  37 models later and I’m now the owner of 2 units of bowmen and 1 of billmen, and while their first game was a defeat they didn’t disgrace themselves.  I’ve also made and undercoated the horsemen for the 2 units of mounted men-at-arms, and left the other box of infantry unmade for the moment.  I tried to go for a lighter colour for my WOTR troops in the hope of making them stand out, or perhaps blend in, alongside Aidan’s nicely painted forces for that period.  Although the Dip I used did dull the colours a bit I feel I succeeded to a certain degree.
• Odd Ball – Having dug out the Wild West 25mm figures for the bio-titan to play with I was enthused enough to paint a couple, and they were joined by a 54mm LGB railway porter and trolley which I had promised my dad I would paint for his garden railway rather too long ago.  I also flocked my GW hills because they no longer fitted the battle field covering.
• Air brushing – For my birthday in 2014 my parents did something no relative has done for many years and purchased me a wargaming-related present; a basic gravity-fed air brush, and most pleased with it I was too.  I’ve trialled it with a few models, but have yet to get the result, particularly in German WW2 camo, that I was really after.  However its getting a fair bit of use in October this year so results to appear soon I hope.  It has proved useful in undercoating a few figures when the spray isn’t available due to poor outside weather, but it does leave rather a smell still, and enough of one for SWMBO to complain!

Painted Vs Purchased Results

A lack of cash meant that I purchased very few models this year, and sold a few old ones to fund new purchases at Triples.  This has meant I managed a good Painted/Purchased ratio as I started to paint things I’ve had for years!

Purchased – 32

Painted – 167

Wargaming Shows

A less active year for wargaming shows compared with 2013 as out of three I had hoped to go too (Vapnartek in York, Triples in Sheffield and Gauntlet in Broughton) I managed only the one; Triples.  York in February saw me mostly penniless and I decided to wait until May and the annual trip to Sheffield instead, where my reasonable fortune on eBay on the day enabled me to spend a bit of cash, with the majority going on modelling supplies rather than models, with only 7(!) models purchased.  It was an excellent trip with 4 very good friends as Michael reappraised his driving role, and his large Ford Mondeo enabled us to fit Luke, Red and Aidan in the back, which looked much more of a squash than they admitted either during or afterwards! 

Gauntlet was, for me, an anticlimax because I didn’t get to go.  I was organised to take part in Aidan’s beautiful 28mm Napoleonic game, and I had even painted 2 battalions of French specially and booked the day off at Asda.  However a couple of days beforehand I had to pull out, leaving my models and scenery for use by those lucky enough to go, because SWMBO was feeling quite unwell and needed my help guarding the bio-titan. 

Gaming & Campaigns

Despite my best intentions being to focus on just a few periods rather than last years spattering of many games/periods/scales I ended up doing something similar.  Apart from dabbling in the odd Napoleonic fixture, wandering around the 15^th century with Aidans Wars of the Roses, and the 6mm American Civil War spluttering into life a couple of times I’ve mainly played the below:

• Flames of War – I ran a 4 month (4 game) Western front late war ‘campaign’ between November and March which was really more of a tournament system and ended with the Allies winning.  Martin picked up the top award for the Allies and the tournament, and Dennis finished top Jerry.  Phil was the instigator of this by drumming up support for a FOW tournament in the first place which I then ran, and following the end of this he decided to run his own (mostly identical) tournament but in mid-war Africa.  It is still running and I’m waiting for it to finish so I can launch my own creation; a battle for Berlin!  This has meant my Flames of War Germans have been out a fair few times this year in various guises, and using some mid-war models I hadn’t used properly for years.
• Bloodbowl – Dumped out at the Semi-final stage in late 2013 by Paddy and his invincible Chaos Dwarfs.  I expect I should feel good that he respected my ‘talent’ not to give me any chance and I only saw the ball once in a 2-1 defeat.  Didn’t enter the 2014 tournament, too depressed!
• Dreadball – The Carbis Bay Buccaneers (Corporation and the only team I have!) have had a handful of outings, defeating Paddy a couple of times, embarrassing Laurent thoroughly, and teaching James the finer points of the game.  The one day special returned, and despite my hopes of going one better than my 2^nd place in the 2013 tournament I could only manage 3^rd due to a heavy defeat against Adrian’s Nameless.  Late 2014 sees the start of a full tournament run by Pete, first game to be against my old adversary Mark and his Veermyn.
• Saga – The Welsh have been active, in particular managing a couple of introductory games, and an excellent evening of multi player action at Michaels before Christmas.   I even set up and ran an evening-long tournament in Broughton which 8 players took part in, and which Michael won by virtue of having more whiskers on his face!  Good fun.
• English Civil War – A few games, including one big battle which I missed half of, definitely needs more use!

This has all turned into a ramble, and I need to do something more productive with my time, such as read up on Thursdays Dreadball rules and fixture!  Heres some photos.  Cheery-bye.

First air brush experiments.

28mm Germans and Frenchies.

First air brush panzers - not my finest work,

My Saga Welsh getting extra grass.

Battle of Oulstree - 6mm ACW.

My Union troops advancing.

FOW Panthers.

Carbis Bay Buccaneers @ the Dreadball tournament.

Big ECW bash. 

Wars of the Roses Troops.

A Wargaming Review of 2013

Its October so it must be time for another wargaming review with the end of my painting ‘year’.  Last years review was short because I had done little in the way of wargaming due to my job at the Imperial War Museum, however when this finished in mid October 2012 I decided I had neglected a major interest and threw myself into it. 

  

The Changing of the Guard

It has definitely been a year of change; since last October I have sold over 700 models of varying sizes and types.  The majority have been Games Workshop ones as old world of Fantasy/Sci-fi games make way for the Historical ones.  The ships of battlefleet gothic and the titans of Epic 40k were followed out of the door by the edges of my Imperial Guard collection, a whole bunch of Chaos Space marines, and my Bretonnians for warhammer.  eBay was heavily used throughout, although some pieces were sold at the RGMB as well.  This reflected my realisation that there was lots I wanted too do but couldn’t due to lack of funds, and lots I had not taken out of their boxes since we moved to Wrexham at the start of 2009.  Surviving the cull were the Skaven and Undead for warhammer, the bulk of the Imperial Guard for 40k, and the Necromunda and Bloodbowl bits.

In reply I took the opportunity to visit wargaming shows in York (Vapnartek, February) and Sheffield (Tripples, May), and blessed by excellent company I used the funds raised to purchase many historical models.  A Welsh warband for Saga came out of my trip to York (as did the Saga rules – courtesy of Red’s propaganda, and a particularly good suggestion it was too).  Following a very agreeable game of the Wars of the Roses against Aidan some more troops appears for that, and additional finishing pieces for my English Civil War Royalists were also added.  An additional period, and a new scale, was begun by the purchase of many little 6mm American Civil War troops, and I decided that my scenery collection had too many holes and needed a revamp with a number of new buildings and roads being added.  I also purchased my first Sci-fi models for years when I bought into Dreadball – a third new game this year after Saga and ACW, and a recommendation by Laurent which I have not regretted for a moment.  At the last moment I purchased my first Flames of War 15mm Germans for an age when I bought the Open Fire boxed set, and the purchased tally stood at 474.  Much less than the sold total, but, sadly after purchases of hobby materials, it cost much more than the amount I had recouped in sales.

In terms of gaming my habits have also changed.  When I finished my work in Manchester I decided to start going to the Deeside Defenders club in Broughton regularly, as well as the RGMB in Chester.  The latter is on a Tuesday and the former on a Thursday so I could do both with ease.  The cost of the two started to mount however, particularly going to Chester with petrol and £2.50 a night, while travelling to Broughton meant I could share a car and the excellent banter on the way there and back, and entry was only £1.  In the last few year the RGMB had become inundated with magic card players, and in the last few months it had reached a point where I could no longer find a table at 6pm, or space, or hear myself when I did, and the level of enjoyment (pressured by the knowledge of how much it was costing me) dropped off.  I decided to stop going to Chester for a period, but to keep an ear out and if it, and my finances, improved I could rethink.  Thursdays are now the gaming night of choice.

A Year of Games

It has been a very varied year of games.  Whereas I used to play either Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, or perhaps Necromunda or Bloodbowl, and latterly Flames of War en-masse for long periods I found that often I was playing 3-4 different games (and periods) in a month.  This was helped by being at Deeside, where there were much more options in terms of historical gaming.  I’ve listed some of the games below:

• Bloodbowl – I made it to the Deeside competition quarter finals with my skaven in late 2012, and I’m now occupying the same spot so far this year, whether I’ll get any further is unlikely!
• Dreadball – Having started this new game I helped Laurent setup, and played in, a one-day tournament, coming a close second to Andy, who’d I’d shown how to play the game the previous Thursday!
• Blackpowder – I dipped into the American civil war a few times, and I am especially grateful to Will at Deeside for giving me the benefit of his time, expertise and 20mm horde to get a feel for the period before I plumbed for 6mm Union troops to face Andy’s Rebels in the future.  It was particularly enjoyable to play a game with an umpire (Will again), which added an extra level to the games.
• Flames of War – Several large battles ensued, whole day affairs which were mostly prompted by Phil who’s energy is worth admiration – he tends to start everything we do, and then someone (me?) makes his ideas reality.  I also played a few smaller games; fighting in the boccage against James was entertaining and different and worth doing again.
• English Civil War – using Pike & Shotte rules the highlights were an enjoyable campaign run by Aidan, and a spectacular punch-up run by Blue Team Dave over the Gauntlet wargaming show weekend, which was the stimulus behind much of my painting this year.
• Saga – I’ve used the Welsh throughout, with multiplayer games being the most common with normally 3-4 players around.
• Cold War Commander – I had two shots at this, enjoying the entirely armoured introduction more than the combined arms battle a few weeks later.

The Battle for Chester - from the English Civil War campaign season.

A less successful scenario for the Falase Gap in Flames of War.

The Gauntlet setup for the epic 'Relief of Hawarden' battle.

And again, with my fully painted Royalists pouring out of Chester onto the Holt road.

My Dreadball Corporation team - Carbis Bay Buccaneers.

All 10 teams from the one-day tournament.

Some of Will's excellent (and sizable) 20mm American Civil War collection.

I also seemed to have ended up playing lots of introductory games; explaining the rules to players who then tended to beat me thoroughly (Andy).  I can remember demonstrating Flames of War, Dreadball, and Saga to more than 1 person this year.  I’m hoping to play a little less variety and focus a bit more on a few specific games this year coming because I found that due to this jumping between periods I couldn’t get really into, or excited about, any one period/game, which affected my painting volume after July.

  

Painting

In terms of painting 2013 must surely be my most productive year ever.  A few major projects are responsible for this, and the majority of the 396 figures I painted in the period were done just for the single large ECW battle at Gauntlet, so I think I’ve much to thank Blue Team Dave for.  This focus upon only using painted figures at The Relief of Hawarden battle ensured that I finished entirely my Royalist army, more than 240 figures which were done at a rate of over 50 a month. 

Other projects included the painting of my entire Saga warband, 6pts (45 figures done, plenty more could be added in the future), my Dreadball team (11 figures and a ball), and finally my American Civil War 6mm stuff, which I finished 74 models of.  Scenery also took a chunk of my time, and Luke and Red were probably sick with my whinging about needing to find a 28mm church in York!  I did find a Norman chapel which was almost as good, and was added too by many feet of road, the repair and renovation of several older buildings, and some other extras such as ponds, a farm, and a bridge or two.

My first Union regiment from Wisconsin.

A bit of farm scenery for Flames of War.

The horse wing of my Royalist army.

The whole Royalist army of Lord Flasheart just before I finished the last few little details.

Some Saga, ECW and civilians on the painting table.

My initial Welsh Saga warband of 4 points from the Gripping Beast boxed set.  Its now expanded to 6 points.

What does 2014 hold?

Hopefully a new job for starters!  The lack of finance is really biting in and without Pete’s very generous lifts almost every Thursday I suspect I’d have to significantly cut down on gaming time.  Other than that I have a Flames of War campaign which I’m running in the autumn/winter months, and a Market Garden game in a week or so’s time.

Looking longer term I would like to finish my 6mm American Civil War army to a reasonable size, play in another Dreadball tournament, and play much more Flames of War – possibly revamping my German army for the latter which has had no work done on it in nearly 2 years.  Finally I feel there is unfinished English Civil War business to be seen too by my finished Royalist army.  Another campaign season would be excellent.

On the painting front – could this be the year my painted defeats my purchased, aiming for it to be so.  American Civil War and Flames of War to the fore.

Welcome to 2013 - and Work In Progress.....

Another year dawns, and another attempt to get back into my stuttering hobby, while hoping all those I was playing various historical games against haven't lapsed into work-related doom like I had, or simply got bored and gone off to do something else.  So far the signs are good.

The initial plans for gaming in the early part of 2013 are three-fold:
1]. Get stuck into those dastardly parliamentarian scum and trounce them from the fields of North Wales and Cheshire (although they can keep Penketh, I'm really not interested in that area) in the RGMB English Civil War campaign - By The Sword Divided (http://btsdcampaign.blogspot.co.uk/).
2]. Get in more games in general, to which end I've set up opponents at Deeside defenders for my Flames of War germans to cross swords (or is that 88mm barrels?) with in a couple of weeks in January.
3]. Get modelling!  I was very successful in building and painting my Romans and some Royalists at the beginning of 2012, but with the change in job in May it petered out and did not return.  I need to regain the willpower to paint - and only one thing will do that; an enthusiasm for a project/period (new models help also).

I succeeded at the end of 2012 in selling off a number of old Games Workshop models, most notably a couple of Battle Fleet Gothic fleets and Epic 40,000 armies, and with a few more GW models still waiting to be sold this will hopefully provide me with the financial muscle to get something going.  I hope to wield this muscle at a wargaming show soon, either York (3rd Feb) or Sheffield (May sometime) beckon.

Onto The Project.  I actually want to do a number of different things, listed below:
Napoleonics - French with scenery in 15mm
American Civil War - Both sides in 15mm with scenery (priced at £200 just for the models so far!)
Wars of the Roses - Yorkists in 28mm
English Civil War - Expanding a couple of units of Royalists in 28mm
Scenery - 28mm generic; water features, roads, buildings

However, my financial muscle and time isn't going to stretch to all of them, so the early recipient of my attentions is the English Civil War (ECW) and scenery.  I particularly want to slightly expand my army to make it more viable in Pike & Shotte, with my dragoons needing horses, my horse brigade needing support, and my army as a whole needing paint.  They also need extra scenery for my personal collection.  A church is a big target, plus hedges, walls, roads and any water features - ponds, rivers etc. All these pieces should be generic enough for using in a variety of periods, including WOTR, ECW, ancients (within reason), WW1 and WW2, and some (e.g water features) for using in a variety of scales - such as for my FOW germans or the Napoleonic french.

Next down on the list is the Wars of the Roses (WOTR), which I already have a number of models for, and which don't need a huge number to make them into a useful force to supplement Aidans forces for this period.  I received a couple of books on the subject for Christmas, and a boxed set of the Perrys mounted men-at-arms (brothers are very useful things!) which I'm looking forward to reading/gluing respectively.

Actual work in progress currently?  Umm, none really.  Although I've a few pieces of models standing round waiting for me to decide what to do with them.  I'll take a picture of an updated Royalist army soon, and perhaps even the WOTR troops waiting on the painting desk.  Game of FOW tomorrow night at Deeside (against Alex and his British paras - urgh, bad memories of the Ardennes game last year), and one on Tuesday against Luke and his Parlimentarians, heartily looking forward to both!

Edit; forgot to put the purchased/painted line in, pity really because it looks rubbish!  Oh, and why is my adsense adverts displaying Match.com?  Tripadvisor I can understand but really??  *Sigh*

From 1/10/2012
Painted: 0
Purchased: 52

Work In Progress - 2011-12 Review

I've just remembered that my tally for painted vs. purchased models was started on the 1st of October 2011, and as such I have passed the annual point without a final update!  That could be because very little has happened since I finished the Romans back in May 2012.

The final total stands at:
Painted - 246
Purchased - 152

So overall a very good result.  The purchased numbers were boosted by an extra 46 due to some Wars of the Roses purchases at Tripples, with the Romans fulfilling the rest of the sequence, and a box of Royalist horse in there too.  In terms of painted models again its 170 Romans in there - a whole army - along with two English Civil War regiments and some artillery and an officer.  I also found time to painted up a 15mm farm, some hills and some more tree bases, as well as fixing a number of trees to expand my scenery collection.  I also purchased a new carry case and enough foam to carry and store my Romans, Royalists and Flames Of War collection in from Figures In Comfort.

The first two thirds of the year were very good from a modeling and painting point of view, partly due to the amount of free time I had available.  I found a real enthusiasm to complete my Romans, and the Winter Of Discontent ECW campaign at the RGMB helped with the Royalists.  The last third from June onwards was more of a disaster because my work/life balance took a massive hit from a new job that didn't work out due to the length of the commute.

For the Future: Key factors are influencing the wargaming outlook fro 2012-13, mainly the financial restrictions which mean my purchasing power is weaker than the Liverpool forward line.  This means whatever I'm doing has to be unbelievably cheap, funded by sales, and preferably using models already in my collection.  With this in mind the immediate drive is towards the Wars of the Roses,which I've found to be of interest and I'm currently trying to make my box of 40 Perry miniatures men-at-arms and archers.  After that my Royalists need attention and flags!

So, starting again from 1/10/12 for 2012-13:
Painted: 0
Purchased: 0

2009: A Wargaming Review

For me, from a wargaming point of view, 2009 was the year of Flames Of War. Up to the start of spring Games Workshop systems had dominated my modelling, painting and gaming for nigh on 14 years, with 40K standing particularly tall with my Imperial Guard. My Bretonnian’s and undead were relatively successful in Warhammer, and Necromunda, Bloodbowl and Lord Of The Rings also received portions of my time, and FOW had just started hammering on the door in a quiet but insistent kind of way.

Warhammer Campaign: Isle of Chelonis
The year started in traditional style with a Warhammer campaign seeing my Bretonnian’s take a boat trip to the “Isle of Chelonis”, where their nobility were promptly decimated by some dark elves. After this humiliation the peasantry managed to embarrassed some high elves, and defeated a green wave of orcs. A final death match punch-up between Lords turned out to be slightly one-sided when everyone else brought a dragon or a Shaggroth and my Lord brought a horse, and the tired peasants headed for snail land as the Isle turned out be a Kraken which had come up for some air and vanished.

Follow the campaign here: http://www.chester-gaming.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=401

Quote of the campaign from the master Mr ‘Shaggoth-Production-Line’ Fazey, on the subject of swords in stones, or this case an altar: “Nurse! The Elves have taken the wrong pills again! Hmm, I like the sound of the altar- but there's a sword in it. So I won't pay full price- 'cause it's damaged.”


The FOW Evolution (also known as “The Story of The Growth of FOW and my Amazing Garage”)
At the start of 2009 my FOW German forces were quite small. Lead by the excellent platoon of 3 StuG’s, it included three platoons of infantry, some 88mm guns, a platoon of Marder III’s and a lost group of half-tracks which I couldn‘t legally use, hardly world beating and barely a 2,000pt force. However, they saw a massive expansion this year, including artillery, numerous platoons of infantry, Panzer III’s, Tiger tanks and many, many trucks. From having a Grenadier Kompanie, I expanded to an oversized infantry company, and a large Panzer grenadier Kompanie which had the option of riding in trucks or half-tracks.

The two main reasons for this expansion was firstly that I was inundated with opponents at the RGMB. Previously the enemy had consisted of a British Guards Infantry Company (Aidan), and a small Russian continent (Red). However by the middle of ‘09 the Guards had gained an Italian arm, and the Russians had turned into a behemoth of staggering proportions, as well as having a sideline in the form of a Desert Rats Motor Company. Even the Finnish (Nathan) turned up to cheer on proceedings, and further support for both the British (Ian), and the Germans (Peter B) was not long in coming.
The second main reason my enthusiasm for FOW was came when I moved house and acquired (sadly only for seven months) an amazing huge garage. By the end of April the first FOW campaign at the RGMB was afoot, and my gaming now took up both Tuesday nights in Chester, and Thursday nights in a garage on the edge of Wrexham. The Russians established themselves as the main protagonist, and an arms race began.

Flames of War Campaign: Liberating Leningrad
This was a ’fantasy’ campaign that was fought over two Axis of Attacks surrounding the besieged city of Leningrad in 1943, it represented the series of attacks that had replaced Operation Citadel after the 6th Army had been successfully withdrawn from Stalingrad (told you it was fantasy). It turned into a slogging match, mostly between Russians and Germans for the town of Novgorod, and the Allies managed to claim a minor victory at the end of everything. Interestingly the Italians were at the centre of each major turn of the tide, and I include their entertaining take on the campaign:


“The sides: Allies: Brits, Russians, Italians
Axis: Germans, Fins, Italians

The objective: The Allies are pushing west to take some random town nobodys ever heard of, whilst the Axis are pushing east for exactly the same reason.

The kick off: After a bit of scrabbling for the ball in the centre circle the flow of play took the two teams west to the German goal line, and came close to a soviet victory. Luckily the Italians turned the tide for the Axis forces, and both teams set off east (in a big unsightly scrum with lots of kickin and punchin) . The German forwards proved almost unstoppable as they ploughed through the allied defences. However just as they entered the penalty box they met the Italians coming the other way(who thought they'd heard the whistle for half time and had swapped ends) and the tide was turned to cries of "Go Lazio!" and "Avanti Savoia!". As the Axis forces were pushed back the campaign turned into an ugly punch up more or less on the centre. When the final whistle blew the Axis had kept the game in the Allied half of the pitch, but had had more players sent off (tho not for lack of tryin on the part of the Italians) . That sound about right?”

Follow it all here: http://www.chester-gaming.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=552


Other uses of the Amazing Garage
Included a huge day-long Warhammer battle of good vs. evil, as the Empire and High Elf troops, of Aidan and Red respectively, took on the Undead and Skaven (my lot), allied to the Goblins (Chris Fry) and some Chaos Warriors (Chris Fazey). It all produced a highly entertaining battle which sadly the forces of Evil lost, although not by much. And this being despite a truly spectacular High Elf collapse and the Empire general abandoning his ally!

Read about it all and see the pictures here: http://rgmb-stonebridge.blogspot.com/search/label/Warhammer




To 40k or not 40k….
This was not the year of 40k, despite the appearance of the new, long-awaited, Imperial Guard Codex. I was reliably informed that this codex would right all the wrongs, and put the Guard on a par with their greatest enemies (I might even stand a chance vs. the Necrons!). I rushed down the shop to pick up my copy, and there the excitement ended. The book was excellent, and the rules indeed appeared to do what was promised, but other campaigns and games snatched away the limelight and few games were played.

Months later, and following much playing of FOW, I tried turning back to 40k, but found the experience quite disappointing. Even a huge battle in which I got to use all 8,000pts of my Imperial Guard army was only exciting until I had to start moving the troops, my defeat left me so despondent that not even a battle report was forthcoming! However the imagery remains a strong draw, so despite plans to sell several parts of the army I will probably return to it in 2010.




Tuesday Nights and the end of the year
The RGMB meet on a Tuesday, but in 2009 so did virtually everything else! From birthdays and anniversaries, to holidays, and in particular works meetings. From going to the RGMB every Tuesday my attendance became erratic at times. When even the snow and illness chipped in at the end of 2009 I finished the year with missing five Tuesdays in a row, and this, combined with moving house for the second time in the year and losing my amazing garage ended my gaming season early.

In fact after the end of the FOW campaign gaming in general became quite disjointed because I was missing so many Tuesdays and no campaigns were happening. Late in the year a late-war FOW battle for Caen began, but ended soon after due to the participants work commitments (and possibly because the Germans were winning!). Hopefully this will began again sometime in 2010.

The Prospects of the New Year
2010 looks to have the same disrupted pattern as the end of 2009. I will be travelling to York to take part in the Vapnartak FOW mid-war tournament on the 7th of February, and there is a 40k campaign beginning at the RGMB in late January, but I am due to be a dad for the first time in April, and I’m sure this will combine with work to make it a very quiet year on the gaming front. At least I might get some more painting done!