Adventures on the Wargames Table

Inspired by George over at "Musings on Wargaming and Life" I'm taking a brief look back over 2019 from a gaming perspective... It's certainly been quite a varied year of painting & modelling projects!  World War 2 has been the front runner with my DAK army getting ever larger.  Plenty of new additions for my desert terrain too.  Really enjoying this project.  Plus I dipped my toe in to Eastern Front gaming by starting to pick up a few figures for a Russian army.  Some of my "French/Belgian" scenery got a bit of a makeover and several new buildings were added.  I have quite a lot of scenery for this theatre but it's still good to keep adding more; Colin at Charlie Foxtrot keeps me well supplied with kits.  Also, my existing WW2 forces (Paras, Panzergrenadiers and British Regulars) all got a few bits and bobs - no army is ever truly complete! I briefly dallied with Warlords of Erewhon but after a couple of games I decided that it wasn't my thi...

Every year in July Battlegroup South host a splendid wargames show at the Bovington Tank Museum .  This year the show overlaps with the excellent "Bossfest" run by Scott from Boss Minis .  Now in it's fourth year, Bossfest actually actually runs from Thursday to Sunday.  Basically a group of easy-going, like-minded wargamers camp in a woodland clearing and play a wide variety of wargames and boardgames in the huge marquees.  In the evening there's music, a camp fire and (to be frank) quite a lot of beer and cider too! What a beautiful place to camp and play wargames! The weather this year made the event a real treat.  The secluded location really makes you feel like you're getting away from it all. Charlie Foxtrot does "glamping" ;o) Colin kindly let me share his tent.  It's an "air bridge" tent - basically the traditional poles are replaced by air filled beams that give the tent it's rigid structure.  Peg it out, pump it u...

It's the last weekend in January so it must be time for the Crusade show, hosted by the Penarth & District Wargamers! This year there was a new venue and IMHO it was a massive improvement. The show itself was superbly organised and the club members were hugely helpful in terms of loading/unloading, etc. As with many wargames shows there were a number of re-enactors. This fine fellow, from the 41st Regiment of Foot , was a pleasure to chat with. Colin and I couldn't resist playing with his musket! Present arms!! The musket had to be prised from his arms!! The show itself was fairly busy throughout the day and it was a real pleasure to catch up with some friends (Hi to Chris, Stu, Scott, John and Dad-John, etc!!). It was also good fun to wander around and have a chat with a few of the traders; having done quite a few shows now you really do see how it's a community of its own! I managed to have a quick wander around with Chris Harris (see his excellent YouTub...

It’s that time of year when we as gamers tend to look back at what we’ve achieved and then waffle on about future plans for new armies, grand scenery projects and glorious conquests!!! Well, I’m no exception ;o) so here we go... What have I achieved this year? Attended my first Bolt Action tournament and had a blast! Competitive? Yes it was, but in a very open and friendly way. Played Kings of War – some superb games especially in Steve’s man-shed and with the Cornish crowd :-D Participated in a superb Bolt Action campaign with Orange Dave (ok, the finale is still to play but the five games we’ve had so far have been awesome!) Completed a number of very enjoyable scenery projects, e.g. the Charlie Foxtrot Brasserie, the CFM Signal Box and a scratch built railway, etc. Took part in several gaming weekends with friends – always great fun! Kept my painting ticking along by completing a WW2 British Para force plus added a few more units to both the Panzergrenad...

I expect many of you will have already seen the Facebook advert from Gripping Beast about their forthcoming massed battle rules "Swordpoint" ... Well, I'm rather intrigued by this. Penned by Martin Gibbins etc along with all the creative input from the GB team, it has to be worth a look! There was a demo of it at Salute, but I couldn't make it along this year. There's also some vague info from Guy Bowers on the WSS blog here . In the FB comments/replies there's talk of books of lists, etc. They've supported SAGA very well so it looks promising for Swordpoint. Talking of SAGA ... The campaign supplement "Age of the Wolf" was previewed at Salute and will be available generally next month. I'm very excited about this too. SAGA has been crying out for a campaign system and if this review is anything to go by then it looks very promising indeed. Also, in the FB discussion were comments about a forthcoming Arthurian supplement for SAGA....