The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Wargamers

It has been a rather busy weekend and as a result the planned play test of my version of Memoir of Battle at Sea has not taken place. I had a number of administrative tasks to tackle for this that took rather more time than I had anticipated so I took the decision to postpone this until next weekend when I shall be fully prepared.

The weekend did yield a few highspots (and heaven knows I needed something after the deluge of misfortune this week has thrown up so far!) as my visit to deepest Basildon furnished a number of items I had been after for some time. Firstly I have managed to acquire some Winsor and Newton acrylic paint - a 60ml tube of Cobalt Turquoise which is as close as I have seen to the blue used in the manufacture of Hexon blue terrain tiles. I needed to get this for my ship bases going forward rather than the old Humbrol enamel Matt 25. Me using acrylics? Whatever next?!

I also managed to get a pack of assorted sizes of balsa wood and some wooden craft sticks - rather like double sized ice lolly sticks - which will also come in very handy. The best part of the day though was when SWMBO spotted that a branch of the Past Times chain has opened in the main shopping centre. I dived in there like a shot and came away with one of their 'Town in a Bag' sets of wooden childrens toy buildings. I have been after a set of this for ages after having seen it used extensively in Bob Cordery's various 20th century games but without success so was very pleased to get one of these (I wish I had got a couple though!). The contents include everything in the picture above (except the 18th century 10 - 12mm plastic figures from the board game Risk whch I put in the picture for size comparison) and some other pieces e.g. the vehicles, people and livestock, which I have set aside for my grandson for when he is about 5...................;-)

The buildings are very basic and many of them are detailed only on one side but having said that, they are ideal to set up villages and towns etc quickly and cheaply. They are very stylised and so will offend the purist but have an old school charm all of their own. The buildings would suit 15mm figures at a push - even my Peter Laings look a little on the large side compared to them - but I think that 10 or 12mm look ideal with these. Seeing them alongside the aforementioned Risk figures (of which I have three complete boxes worth) has certainly given me much to consider in respect of 18th century 'imagi-nations' but that, as they say, if for another day/month/year/decade (delete as applicable)!

The price for this bag of goodies was £5.62 which is an odd price but they should have been £7.50 but had 25% off. For seventeen building, nine walls and five trees that is not bad at all.