Thursday, 3 February 2011

A Sharp Intake of Breath at the Battle Cry of Defeat

I managed to get to Modelzone yesterday lunchtime (the branch closest to my office is in Holborn) and was able to acquire the appropriately sized balsa wood, a replacement saw blade for my trusty X-Acto (this was long overdue as the blade I had been using was over 25 years old!) and some green putty. I was hoping to see if any more of the Zvezda early WW2 Russian Front kit for 'the Art of Tactic' was available but sadly not as yet.

I am now in the position of being able to continue the great ACW build-fest and so will resume work on the CSS Baltic and the USS Essex this evening. The USS Vindicator will now have to be put to one side as the spare parts I planned to use for her - specifically the angled superstructure - are in fact too short so will need to be used for something else instead.

The sharp intake of breath came about as I reviewed the collection built so far - now at 19 models as I completed the fourth Cairo class gunboat at a little after 5:30am yesterday morning. They are looking pretty impressive (if I say so myself!) and I am really looking forward to building more of them, getting them painted and based and using them in the game or two.

I also played my first game of the new edition of Battle Cry last night at the club and it was tremendous fun. The game is subtly different from the original version - the command cards have a few changes to begin with; not to mention the increase in artillery models in a unit and infantry firepower - and plays very smoothly with the all important period feel being enhanced as a result of these 'tweaks'. My thanks to Steve for the game and Mr Fox for organising the action. The scenario was set in Arkansas and the heavily outnumbered gentlemen of the South, under the command of that celebrated bob vivant, wit and raconteur: General Ignatious Gaylord Crook, lost 4 - 2 on the night, although the Union did have four other units down to a single figure each!

Great fun and hugely enjoyable.

2 comments:

SteelonSand said...

You had me going when I saw the word 'Defeat' in the title; thought there was a crisis brewing - glad to hear it's still on track - Ah, the Holborn Modelzone - I remember when it used to be a Beatties - those were the days......sigh..... I think today it can be useful for paints and the odd bits and bobs, just wish it dumped all the toy cars and sold pure Wargaming kit!

David Crook said...

Hi SoS,

No crisis - only a lack of time due to work - the curse of the wargaming classes! I agree about Modelzone although their sale can sometimes be quite good. Can you remember when the Holborn Beatties was in fact where McDonlads is? That is going back to the early 80s!

All the best,

DC