Charity Paras

Among the figures very kindly donated by members of SOTCW in support of Crisis Point's chosen charity were these very nice Brits.

Unfortunately, illness in January prevented me attending the Penkridge Wargames Sale where I had planned to offer them in one of my Crisis Point Lucky Bags.  Instead I decided to paint them up so they can be used in the game.  After the game they'll go onto eBay to be auctioned in support of The Forgotten Heroes.

In the game they'll become a patrol from 10 PARA(V) , probably to be deployed from my Special Forces Chinook.

Gauntlet 2013

Well, our Internet connectivity problems persist.  British Telecom insisted they could get us between 1 and 3.5 Mbps connection speed through their lines but have now failed to get us any connection at all in the two weeks since we took delivery off their “Home Hub”.  Meanwhile T-Mobile’s signal has dropped and I can only get a decent signal by taking the Mac upstairs to an inconvenient location in our bedroom or by perching it precariously on the window ledge in the study.  Anyway, until one of the cats knocks the computer flying, here’s an update on gaming stuff in the Land of Counterpane.

Early July saw Jamie and I over in Chester for our annual trip to Gauntlet, the small show run by Deeside Defenders.  This year we weren’t contributing to the SOTCW game other than as players.  Pete Jones and Will McNally put on three games over the weekend and Jamie and I played in two of them.

Saturday saw a Tunisia 1943 game using Rapid Fire! 

Somewhere in Tunisia.  German forces entering bottom right.

Jamie ran some attacking Italians whilst I had elements of a German Panzer Division.  Will, Pete and another local (sorry, can’t remember the name) ran British and American forces and a small number of ex-Vichy French holding two villages.

The French included some wonderfully characterful Foreign Legion who were paint conversions of the original 1960s Airfix Foreign Legion figures (the type before the ones I’m converting into early WW1 French infantry). This was very reminiscent of the late John Sanders’ Eighth Army models from the Airfix Guide and old issues of Airfix Magazine.

Foreign Legionnaires hold the first village as British recce arrives to help.

As so often when called upon to attack, I think I was rather too thorough in clearing the first line of defences and didn’t push forward aggressively enough.  I managed to clear the French from the First village but didn’t get forward quickly enough to prevent the Americans giving my Italian partners a bloody nose.

Senegalese colonial troops hold off the Italians.

On Sunday morning Jamie and I decided to play a little Song of Blades and Heroes.  On both occasions a party of Wolf Pirates was defeated by the Chaos Gang.

The Wolf Pirates arrive in dribs and drabs
to find the Chaos Gang ready for them. 

The Frost Giant fires a blast of ice at a Vormaini pirate.

Sunday afternoon saw us dragged back to Will’s table to play Longstop Hill (another Tunisian action), this time using the Bolt Action rules.  

I can’t say I enjoyed this one hugely.  Not sure why but I didn’t find Bolt Action did it for me.  I found the use of dice as markers intrusive, which is odd because I live with it for Cold War Commander.

Fiasco

Jamie and I are just back from a trip to Fiasco in Leeds to help Phil Gray run the First Corps/SOTCW participation game Operation Kutusov.

We spent a fair amount of time talking to people around the game but did get time for a little shopping.  Jamie bought a Pendraken Miniatures American War of Independence army pack (enough for two HOTT armies he reckons) and I bought a Hovels 25mm scale church.  I have a theory that you're not a proper wargamer until you own a Hovels church.

We also had a little time to look at the other games.

Pegasus Bridge

Lance & Longbow Society - Italian Wars

Third Afghan War

Route 66

Saturday morning to Chester and the Deeside Defenders' Gauntlet gaming convention.  I say gaming convention because it's definitely got the emphasis on playing rather than shopping.

Jamie and I played in Route 66, Will McNally and Pete Jones's excellent Vietnam War game in which our heroes were tasked with transporting a convoy of supplies through hostile territory to a US firebase.

Route 66 - the red strips are 'blinds'; which may or may
not represent enemy activity.

Will and Pete used a fairly simple set of rules and kept all of the calculation work to themselves making it easy for the the players to concentrate on fighting the battle rather than playing the rules.

The long table was divided in two by a river.  On the nearside of the river was a village with we needed to pass through as it taking the trucks off road was likely to lead to them bogging down.  We decided to send our two M113 ACAVs into a flanking position so they could provide fire support whilst a squad of our infantry dismounted to attack frontally.

Unfortunately, the first blind that wasn't a blank turned out to be a trap.  An unlucky die roll meant that one of our precious two ACAVs hit a mine and was destroyed!  A significant dent in our firepower at an early stage of the game! 

The second M113 ACAV (centre) burns before we even start
to assault the village.

To the left of the ACAV an enemy MG and a squad of VC showed up and we were forced to debus two more of our six squads to engage them.

An NVA machine gun threatens the convoy's left flank.

We dealt with the enemy whilst a medevac helicopter was inbound to pick up the wounded from the knocked-out ACAV.

Suspiciously well-armed for a medevac but never mind.

Meanwhile, the lead squad successfully cleared the village despite it being full of VC.

The Brown Water Navy were a useful addition to our firepower.

Richard Baber and Rob Connolly wonder what's for lunch.

With the village taken to convoy pushed on towards the bridge.

Roofs restored now the enemy are destroyed, Will's hooches are
surprisingly effective for such simple cardboard and crepe paper constructions.

As the convoy reached the river a Loach overhead reported enemy activity in the forest and the Medevac helicopter suffered incoming small-arms fire and went down!

That's the downed Huey in the cloud of smoke by the river!

As the first elements of the convoy cross the bridge, the lead squad again
dismounts to rescue the crew and wounded from the downed Huey.

At this point Jamie was put in charge of the troops manning the Firebase and the cry of 'Sappers!' went up as the enemy launched a major assault.

I raced the one remaining M113 ACAV towards the camp gate thinking the vehicle's firepower could probably swing the battle our way.  Sadly, I hadn't accounted for the enemy's sole RPG-7 and my own ability to throw the worst possible score on a d10 at the crucial moment.  Easy Rider, having made it literally right to the wire, was knocked out by the incoming grenade.

Pete's pipe-cleaner RPG-in-flight zooms past the camp
perimeter defences to strike Easy Rider. 

Fortunately, though, we managed to fight off the enemy assault as the convoy escorts arrived just in time to shore up the camp's defences.

Route 66 was great fun and thanks are due to Pete and Will for putting on a great looking game and to Rob and Richard for having our backs when the gooks were all over us.  

I believe Sunday was to be Hue!  Jamie and I were sad that we couldn't be there.

The Big CWC Game!

Not content with organising a game for the kids on Friday I've today started making arrangements for a huge Cold War Commander game next April!

The event will be at Dungworth Green Hall, Dungworth, near Sheffield on Satuday 21st and Sunday 22nd April 2012.

The game will be a refight of the Battle of the Lippe and the actions around Roermonde from John Hackett's books The Third World War and The Untold Story.  I hope to get around twenty people taking part playing on at least eight full-sized tables.

To cover the costs of setting this up (hall hire and insurance mainly) I need to charge £10 per person for the weekend but any surplus will be donated to the local branch of the Royal British Legion as a contribution to their excellent work for HM Forces veterans and their families.

Please let me know if you can make it to the event because I need to know if it's viable so I can confirm the booking and make arrangement to cover the insurance costs.

Barnsley Pics

Some pictures of the SOTCW Barnsley event here:

http://sotcw.blogspot.com/2011/09/saturday-in-barnsley.html

Off to Barnsley Tomorrow

The life of the Events Co-ordinator for an international wargames society is perhaps not as glamorous as some would suppose but every so often one does get to experience the highlights.  And what could be more redolent of glamour than a trip to Barnsley, that jewel of the West Riding?

SOTCW will be "gathering" at the premises of Barnsley Association of Wargamers tomorrow to play the odd game and maybe drink the odd pint.

I've been suffering of late from the twin evils of pressure of work and demotivation brought on by society politicking so I've not done as much as perhaps I should have in terms of promoting the event but there has been a rash of volunteers to put on games so things shouldn't be too awful.

Maybe I'll manage to off-load some of the lead pile.  Maybe I'll come back enthused to get on with some of my old projects.  We shall see.    

Coastal Station

The SOTCW game at Gauntlet in 2009 needed an Italian Navy coastal watch station in a house overlooking the sea between Maiori and Vietri. At the time we managed quite happily with a model provided by Will McNally, which was just as well because I've only just finished the model I was meant to provide!

The model is built of foamcore and plastic card on a hardboard base. The brickwork on the end wall above is from one of those bases that come with the old Matchbox (now Revell) tank kits.

The windows, door etc are from a Wills pack of building accessories - very handy for this kind of job.

As usual with my buildings the proportions are determined by ensuring that the building fits neatly into a storage box I had available. In this case, a Clarks shoebox (child sized).

When I was sick and lay abed...

A nasty cold and sinusitis have left me lacking in energy and I've got very little done over the past week or so. Hence the lack of postings here.

I did, however, whilst recuperating, manage to put together a Fujimi SU-85. I've started painting it but it still needs pin-washing and dry brushing. The crew figure is from Blitz - I keep a supply of assorted tank commander figures for any vehicles I fancy building.

I've also returned to a building a started a few years back. It was meant to be completed for the SOTCW Salerno game at Gauntlet in 2009 but never got there.

The building was to represent an Italian Naval coastal watch station that stood next to the coast road between Maiori and Vietri. I've gone with the idea of a building perched on a rock outcrop with a ramp up to the door.

The orange colour is just that of my pot of textured masonry paint; the final building will be rather more tasteful!

Those Projects

I've mentioned my projects for this year so I suppose I'd better set them down so I can be held to them.

The earliest deadline of all is for Gauntlet in July. I said I'd build some terrain (20mm Peking, 1900). Maybe the Mongol Market?

In August a group of us are off to Melrose in the Scottish Borders. This gives me the ideal motivation to complete my Border Reivers armies for HOTT. These, a force of reiviers and the Wardens men in hot trod, are 15mm from East Riding Miniatures. I've had them for years and, to be honest, I don't like them. They're poorly sculpted figures and they aren't encouraging me to get them done.

The Wolf Pirates need finishing by November if they are to be entered in the Guild's Group Build competition. however, I intend to take them to Berkeley in the first weekend of September so an even earlier deadline applies.

Finally there are a couple of projects that have no particular deadline associated with them. I want to learn 19th Century Principles of War as I think it might be the set for me when it comes to using my 6mm Franco-Prussian War figures. They're pretty much all done (a few General elements need finishing) so I just need to learn the rules and set a date.

Then there's Polemos GNW. I plan to run a fictional early 18th century Russo-Turkish campaign but again I need to learn the rules first. there are also a few figures left to paint. I think I'll set up a game with what's done now, though, and finish the rest later.

Wargames - the new rock & roll?

The line-up for Cornbury Festival was announced today. Although I'd happily see Bellowhead any day, Imelda May's always worth seeing, and I'd go and see Cyndi Lauper, none of the headliners (James Blunt, The Faces, Status Quo) excite me. The result is that Stella and I will be giving Cornbury a miss this year.

What this means is that I can go to Gauntlet 2011! Yay!

I know the SOTCW guys are putting on a Boxer Rebellion game. I'll have to find out what they still need in the way of terrain or figures.

Tankstelle

We, the group that seems to have become an unofficial SOTCW display game team, played a fun game of Cold War Commander at the Hammerhead show today.

Pics of the game can be seen at the SOTCW blog here:

http://sotcw.blogspot.com/2011/02/crossing-lippe-august-1985.html

However, the game also gave my new German petrol station a first chance to grace a battlefield.

The model is made from a laser-cut kit by Najewitz Modellbau from Germany. It and the electricity pylons from the same source easily attracted most of the "where do you get the... questions".

Design Innovation!

In a major departure from previous Land of Counterpane practice (and following Tom Zunder's advice) I have instituted a major revision to the design of this blog. You can now see two buttons linking to the other two blogs I administer!

The SOTCW Events Blog is used in developing games to be put on by members of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers. We're currently working on a Boxer Rebellion game for the Gauntlet show in North Wales in July 2011. Dig back through the archives, though, and you'll find details of previous games too.

Andreivian Tales details the events in our fictional Black Sea coast nation. Several games over the past few years have explored the history of the 1990s civil war in Andreivia. Next I might be going back to explore Andreivia in the 18th century.