Most of the ‘haul’
I spent a rather pleasant afternoon yesterday at the Lee Valley Leisure Centre for SELWG - the show organised by the South East London Wargames Group. Before getting into the heart of this post I should mention that I did not take a single picture of of any of the games - excellent though they were - simply because I only had my phone with me and rather foolishly it did not have much of a charge left in it! To be honest my show pictures tend to be variable in quality so I shall leave it t others of the blogosphere to share theirs!
For me it was all about meeting up with gamers and just chatting about gaming related stuff . I had an interesting conversation with Nick Huband and David Barnes of The Ragged Soldier blog abut Peter Laing figures and of Bob Cordery’s Portable Wargame system. We also touched on conversions of Airfix figures, Spencer Smiths and other esoterica - all good stuff. Both David and I encouraged Nick to turn his hand to blogging as his collection of Peter Laings thoroughly deserves to be seen by a wider audience - they are quite simply wonderful to look at. I am visiting his house later in the week and will get some pictures for the blog.
Unassuming looking but make no mistake, this is a true classic!
That very nice Mr Barnes presented me with a copy of ‘The Big Show’ by Pierre Clostermann. As a pilot of the Alsace squadron and attached to RAF, Clostermann served from 1942 until the end of the war in Spitfires, Typhoons and Tempests and his account is a thrilling one, albeit laced with the remorseless toll taken by high intensity operations and the loss of friends to enemy action or accident. I am delighted to have this book in my collection so once again many thanks to Mr. Barnes.
The Haul
I picked up a few bits and pieces I was after but sadly not all. The two supplements for 0200 Hours will be useful - I had a need for some Partisans and the Desert Raid set will come in handy for use with Undaunted: North Africa. I picked the Undaunted: Reinforcements expansion - this is the second edition of this set as it has addressed the previous issue with different card backs from the base games - for the extras contained therein including a solo system which will be handy. I passed on Undaunted: Stalingrad but did pick up Undaunted: Battle of Britain which I am really looking forward to trying out.
As usual for me at these shows my usual condition of entry is whether or not Dave Lanchester is present as I routinely help him pack up at the end of the day. Filling a transit van full of books and display paraphernalia is a physically demanding undertaking and so my shoulders are feeling it this morning! I only found out yesterday that he was involved in the testing and deign of Bruce Quarrie’s Napoleons Battles in Miniature - the original orange coloured Airfix magazine guide. How about that then?
All in all a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
In answer to the question posed in the title of this post - SELWG O Again? I would have to say a wholehearted yes!
13 comments:
Very nice, especially the book!
Glad you had a good day Dave!
Hello there El Grego,
I was rather pleased - the book especially - and am looking forward to getting some paint on the figures. First up though - more ACW ships!
Undaunted is a great game and does not need a lot of setting up - having the dedicated solo rules helps as well.
All the best,
DC
Hi Ray,
It was a great afternoon out with some cracking looking games. There was a lovely looking Western Gunfight I was quite taken with.
All the best,
DC
Looks an interesting haul.
Interesting if Nick Huband does start blogging his Peter Laing collection and games ...
Hi David, it was great to see you and chat, and to meet Nick - yes, he really should put those Peter Laings up on a blog!
You are very welcome to 'The Big Show', it's a great read - as you already know!
I look forward to see ing what you do with 'Undaunted' and '0200'..
Hi Mark, Man of Tin,
The haul was very much a case of ‘rounding out some corners’ although the Battle of Britain game was a kind of spur of the moment thing.
I am looking forward to seeing Nick’s collection and will continue to urge him to set up a blog about it!
All the best,
DC
Hi there David,
It was a pleasure meeting up and many thanks for the book! I used to have a paperback version of it but that disintegrated due to excessive reading and I never got around to replacing it.
Undaunted is of a scale that suits me and with the solo rules in the Reinforcements pack I hope to get more use out of it for sure!
0200 Hours will be a while away but one has to strike whilst the iron is hot!
All the best and thanks once again!
DC
My first visit to SELWG since it moved to Lee Valley. I was really impressed with the venue - very bright and spacious. Good collection of games and traders but I was a bit disappointed with the layout of the B&B given the large space they had available. The only drawback for me is the location (South East??) - anywhere that requires 50 miles on the M25, even on a Sunday, is a bit of an issue.
Hi Jeremy,
My own journey from Rayleigh took me around 50 minutes and included a short burst along the M25. A 50 mile trip is a far more serious undertaking but I am thinking about Partizan next year - in my case any long haul trips require careful planning around ensuring that there are people at home!
It was is a good show although it felt a little subdued to me - maybe for the SELWG crew being so far from their geographical and spiritual homeland influenced the feeling!
All the best,
DC
I recently picked up the undaunted reinforcements set to go with undaunted North Africa. Not had much chance to look at it yet - still painting bits and pieces for our ww2 1940 sea lion game at Warfare..
Hi Mike,
The Reinforcements look pretty useful - there is a solo option along with cards including those in the original releases all with uniform ‘backs’ - I should mention that the I have the reinforcements second edition as the first used a different shade on the reverse of the cards which meant that they stood out somewhat!
Good luck with the painting - I seem to have acquired a plastic mountain of sorts…;-)
All the best,
DC
I am an Undaunted "groupie"
The Art is too nice not to
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