Sunday 10 July 2016

Boot Sales and Blocks

                                       

                                              From tiny acorns do mighty blocks grow....

As it is a Sunday SMWBO and I headed to our local boot sale for some retail therapy - or, to be more accurate, occasional therapy because it is only occasionally you find some retail to therapise over.....

Today was an interesting day for me as I added a copy of the above book to my collection. I did not see the TV series upon which the book is based but I confess to having a weakness for BBC 'book of the series' publications. As a rule they are good primers for the subject covered so I shall look forward to reading this in due course.

The next acquisition was rather more practical. In the picture above you can see two Jenga type blocks. That on the left formed the basis of my entire block army collection which has featured in countless games over the last couple of years (see the games folder to see what I mean). The two cavalry blocks should remind you of what I mean. If you recall I took the aforementioned blocks and had them sawn in half to form the units I needed. The block on the right comes from the two sets I picked up today and I am really pleased to get these as the size of the block will be ideal for use with Bloody Big Battles. The block measures 3" x 1" and so is an exact multiple of the suggested base size used by the rules. All I will need to do will be to get them cut - I am planning on getting a 1" square block cut off of each - and to tweak the existing labels to fit.

I should point out that the entire expenditure for this lot (and the book) was a mere £1.50.

So, block armies on a non-hexed playing area - for me that is hugely radical and no mistake!

4 comments:

Conrad Kinch said...

Are sure you can handle this kind of reckless expenditure?

David Crook said...

Hello Mr Kinch,

Luckily my financial adviser- SWMBO - keeps the defence budget under control so any such reckless expenditure is closely monitored....:-)

I am rather pleased with the blocks though.

All the best,

David Crook

Jim Jackaman said...

Good find. I'm liking the look of the blocks. Have to pinch that idea!

David Crook said...

Hi Boggler,

Please feel free - they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery although the use of blocks in war games has a long and distinguished history.

All the best,

DC