Adventures on the Wargames Table

As you will surely know it's 100 years since the Battle of the Somme began. Lutyens monument - Inscribed with names of 72,246 men with no known grave Let's take a moment to pause and remember those of all nations who fell on that day... and the many days that followed. If you have the opportunity then I highly recommend a visit to this extraordinary and moving memorial. There is also a visitors centre that is worth seeing. If you'd like a little more information then the BBC have a couple of interesting videos here and here . Lest we forget.

On Saturday I had the privilege of being invited to a day of gaming in the superb shed of Wargames Table chum Steve. Even better, he kindly set up a game of Kings of War, supplying both sides along with Easy Army lists! Thanks mate! :o) Armies drawn up for battle Steve offered me the choice of armies, Kingdoms of Men or Orcs & Goblins ... since my WFB days I've always had a soft spot for the gobboes so that was an easy choice! :o) Steve's Orc & Goblin army is made up mostly from GW Lord of the Rings figures and I think it looks marvellous! Send forth all legions!!! For the Kingdoms of Men, Steve used a combination of historical figures. Looking good eh!? Stand fast men! I haven't played that many games of KoW yet so I was a little apprehensive about muffing it all up, but Steve gave me a quick refresher of the key points and we set to. One of the great things about KoW is that the rules are very intuitive and elegant, but they're not so simple...

Apparently there's been some sort of vote going on ... !?!?! ... Anyway, let's not worry about that and instead look at some toys! :o) Mortars are (IMHO) a 'must have' for any World War Two force. So here's one for my British regulars. Unusually for me I've mounted the figures on separate bases... not sure why? I just sort of did it :-S But I'm happy with the result all the same. In Bolt Action you can add a spotter to a 3 inch mortar team, so here he is with binoculars at the ready. Thanks for looking!

I needed a few extra Paras to bulk out some of my sections. We often play games with limited armour so there's plenty of points to go round for more men, even relatively expensive elite troops like British Paras. Here they are. Last one over the hedge is a rotten egg! No! Back this way chaps! Keeping an all round look out for Jerry We loves painting camo ... don't we precious? :-/ My painting recipe can be found here if you're interested. A lovely figure I've had for ages is the Warlord Medic, here he is. Rushing forward with morphine and bandages at the ready! I probably ought to paint some sort of armband on him - I had assumed that it would be sculpted on the figure but it's not. Whatever? He even has a little mug on his backpack - after all who doesn't feel better after a nice cup of tea? Thanks for looking!

What better way to spend a free Saturday than with friends at a great wargaming venue (BIG @ Bristol) pushing toys around the table, rolling dice and generally chewing the fat? Exactly! So that's precisely what Orange Dave and I did yesterday. Our Duel in the Sun campaign is ticking along nicely so we decided to go for two more games in one day. The first is an amphibious assault where the allies are landing on the Italian mainland. Since I'd been victorious in the second battle of the campaign (having successfully held up the allied advance across Sicily - but only just!) my troops had plenty of time to prepare the beaches. Here are Dave's superb scratch-built landing craft sailing across his equally excellent seascape. I expect those brave chaps are feeling a little queasy! Life on the ocean wave? No thanks! Here's the beach ... bunkers, trenches, sandbags, minefields and barbed wire ... and not an ice cream van in sight?!? Welcome to Italy! Dave, bein...

I'd been using the Vickers from my British Regulars to support my Paras, but they deserve one of their own don't they? Here it is. As with the Para mortar, I've affixed them all on one base and added some scenic stuff. Digging through my figures I found this flamethrower (Warlord). The figure is a little slim compared to the Artizan figures but matches reasonably well I think. I picked the chap with the bandaged head to accompany the flamethrower as lacking a helmet he appears slightly shorter than the other figures. Thanks for looking! :o)

My Paras really needed some fire support so here's a 3 inch mortar. With these 'team' weapons I generally prefer to keep all the figures on one base. It looks more natural and allows room for a bit more scenery. It does mean you have to track casualties with little markers but that's not exactly onerous. If you're interested then you can find out a lot more about mortars here ;o) The Paras also needed a proper Forward Observer to rain shells on the enemy! (In Bolt Action this is a free - and very welcome - addition to most British forces) I haven't added a radio aerial as they always seem to break off. I assume the extensible cover for the radio backpack protects it from the elements and maybe makes the knobs and dials easier to see and use? Thanks for looking.