Archive for April, 2004

One Year On and some thoughts on Blogs

Thursday, April 22nd, 2004

It is exactly a year since I made the first post to this blog. Amazing how time flies…

I haven’t been very active recently as I’m still suffering the after effects of a virus and consequently haven’t been able to get any games in or get much painting done. I’m hoping to play a WAB game in the next week or so as my regular opponent has a new unit of Muslim Spearmen he wants to field as allies to his Crusaders.

I always find painting up a new unit a good incentive for a game. I’ve got a new unit of Norman Crossbowmen that have yet to see action (they are waiting for the rest of the army!), so I have to work out how to fit them into a WAB army as mercenaries and get them into action soon.

The launch of the Armies of Chivalry supplement for WAB has stirred our club into activity and plans are now under way for a War of the Roses campaign with each player contributing a small force. This way we should be able to start playing with just 40 or so figures each painted.

The choice of troops seems to have split fairly evenly between Front Rank and Foundry. I came down on the Foundry side, tempted by their sale of medievals, though I did pick up some cheap Brettonians on ebay to use as liveried archers.

WAB does seem to be catching on at the Guildford club. Although a lot of people still play DBM and DBR, there are more and more games of Warhammer ECW and Warhammer Ancients being played and it has tempted some of the members’ older Minifigs 25mm armies out of hding in the loft. Some of these haven’t seen action since WRG 7th edition!

A few other blogs have sprung up over the last year, but I have been disappointed that most of them are merely listings of other sites on the web. I’m sure that there is a need for such listings sites, but I would far rather read some more chat on the hobby.

The only thing close to what I would like to read is Mike Siggins’ Notebooks and he produces them very infrequently now. Or maybe it is just me and no-one else is particularly interested in people waffling on about their take on the hobby?

Anyway, two days to go until Salute and (hopefully) this year a much smaller dent in the wallet…

Posted in , | No Comments »

Quiet Time

Sunday, April 11th, 2004

I have been ill for the last few weeks and not managed much in the way of gaming or even painting. I managed to make a start on my Gripping Beast Norman army. It is probably 5 years since I bought the figures (at Colours), it tends to take me that long to get around to projects.

The one game I did manage to play was a small test game of Battlefront WW2 using my 20mm Early War stuff. The scenario was of a british counter-attack against a german held village (mostly because I haven’t managed to get my german transport painted up yet!).

The game was a little slow because we were still working out how the rules worked and feeling our way through the system. First impressions are that the system is a good one and that it handles combined arms games (with infantry, tanks and air power) very well. The basic unit is a squad and these are combined into maneuvre elements of companies, etc.

Enthused by the game, I have planned my forces up to three companies and bought a load of SHQ figures and Frontline vehicles to bulk out both sides. I must admit that I have become a bit of a WW2 vehicle junkie - there is something pleasing about seeing a game with a lot of transport on the table. But then, I’ve always liked to have limbers for my guns in Napoleonics!

Finally, a welcome to the latest two people to take advantage of our cheap hosting offer: Wargames Domain and Wigan Wargames Club.

Posted in | No Comments »