Enduring a Prolonged Tantalean Punishment

Ancient Greece? It’s taking the Myth….

So here we are at the beginning of October and I can honestly say that the last three months have flown by. Work has been very busy and the domestic round has been equal to this meaning that my hobby time has been less than I would like and even then not usually when I would like it! As is my usual modus operandi when faced with a lack of time I tend to withdraw into planning mode - and the last few months have been no exception.

The two big projects that have taken up a lot of my time recently are of course Eric’s WW2 collection and the humongous pile of boardgames I purchased to sell on. The latter went extremely well - there are a few items left but suffice it to say the disposal of the main bulk was both speedily and profitably dealt with - and in the short term has enabled me to lay in some supplies for future projects. The projects are of course the Xenos Rampant/Space Hulk idea, Aliens (I came very close to changing my mind about Aliens but have recovered from the rather rash ‘wobble’ of intent!) and the Commandoes/Market Garden. Market Garden would of course be using Eric’s stuff but to be honest, in the cold light of day the collection would hopefully have been sold on before I get around to fighting it! The Commandoes are a different issue as my idea around these has shifted slightly - for reasons that I will outline later in the week. I will not go into details but suffice it to say my Commnado fix will be at more skirmishy level.

I am waiting on an email from Warbases in respect of my 60 triremes so once they arrive I fully intend pushing them front and centre and ‘blitzing’ them in one fell swoop. No harm in being optimistic!

Developing the Portable Ironclads Wargame has stalled slightly but the main bulk of it has been drafted and when certain things have come to pass I shall punch on and finish it. As usual there are some models to be built - I still have around half a dozen partially assembled - to round out the ACW collection, including some terrain. I also need to square grid something for them to fight over!

I have everything I need for the 1943/44 Over the Reich “Mustangs” project other than decals and time to paint the 1:300th models so my birthday present of a copy of The Mighty Eighth was most welcome.

Similarly I also have everything I need for the 1914 ‘Not quite Madasahatta’ naval campaign in the shape of some 1:2400th Tumbling Dice loveliness - the model of S.M.S Scharnhorst is magnificent, as is H.M.S. Swiftsure and yes, I have both of their respective sister ships as well!

There is plenty to be getting on with and thanks to the great boardgame sell off I had a reasonable warchest to flesh out and realise some of more outlandish ideas such as….

….Aeronautica Imperialis and Adeptus Titanicus - I will leave that there for now.

I cannot complain about my project palette at all as there is plenty for me to do BUT - there is always a but - getting the time to realise them has proven to be really tricky.

It is the very definition of a Tantalean Punishment….

Birthdays and Blessings

Part of the haul. The paints and brushes came from my daughter - the latter was most welcome as my existing brushes are rather long in the tooth as well as being a little worn out - and the two books  came from my son. TheMighty Eighth will be really useful for my 1943/4 over the Reich Mustangs set up. Bless the pair of them!

It has been a while since my last post but work and life have been fully occupying my time leaving me with little capacity for the hobby in a practical sense. The 28th was my birthday and so I took the Thursday and Friday off to spend some quality time with Laurel and the family. It was nice for us to have a normal kind of day and so a trip out to feed the squirrels at the local nature reserve followed by a lunch was the order of the day. The traditional family birthday takeaway is scheduled for this evening and will be Turkish so we are all looking forward to that!

The prezzie haul was both magnificent and thoughtful and the plethora of good wishes I received from all points of the globe was quite touching - I am indeed a lucky chap!

Warhammer 40K Revisited

A sumptuously produced hardback containing a copy of the 10th edition rules for 40K, a history of the Tyrannical War, a very nice showcase of models etc, scenarios and the Crusade narrative driven rules - which you can rest assured will inevitably used for something GW may never have thought of!

A short while ago I posted about having acquired a copy of the GW Leviathan boxed set containing some 72 models - 25 Space Marines (including a rather large Dreadnought) and 47 Tyranids. I have since added to that by acquiring the ‘Ultimate Starter Set’ which includes a further 12 Marines and 32 Tyranids. I then took to eBay to obtain a further five man squad of Marines to round out the set up. The Ultimate Starter Set includes some rather nice terrain pieces along with a copy of the core rules, a bag of D6, a sheet of transfers for the Marines, a 40K Handbook and a couple of plastic measuring sticks aka rulers to the uninitiated! Just to complete the line up I also invested in a copy of the book you see above in order to flesh out the back story of the table top action.

The handbook and core rule book from the Ultimate starter set. 

Am I insane? No, but I am not averse to making use of stuff in a variety of ways above and beyond that which the designers intended! Seriously though, I will happily play 40K or Space Hulk or Combat Patrol but I have plenty of other rules available for the genre - man versus insect-like alien.

On the face of it the expense for this may seem daunting but when you sit and think about what you have got for what you laid out money wise there is an awful lot of material that compares favourably with more mainstream historical topics. Figure wise I probably have rather more than I will need but no matter - the excess can be readily disposed of. For now though I have to shoehorn this into the project list and therein lies my problem. Time - or lack of it!

I am looking at a kind of ‘Starship Troopers meets the Zulu War’ kind of thing with this lot, featuring elements of the book and the film with that of the ‘historicity’ of the Zulu War. 

In the words of the song “Its my party and I’ll try if I want to”

Many a gaming project has embarked on far shakier foundations….

 

Back from a Break and Going Commando

A Potters signature cappuccino - very nice with a shot of brandy as a boost! 

This will be a post of two parts - but not two posts! 

Laurel and I just got back from a three day all-inclusive break at the Potters Resort, Horton near Great Yarmouth. Essentially it could be best be described as a pimped long weekend. We had a lovely relaxing time - the weather was remarkable - and the main takeaway was that Laurel had overcome her reservations about staying away and longish car journeys. Due to her spinal surgery she has real problems with her left leg if it stays in the same position for any length of time as well as standing on it for more than around five minutes or so. The drive to the resort was around 105 miles which we split in two easily enough so she was relatively comfortable. 

The resort has a huge number of activities one can take part in - archery, bowls (indoor and out), wall climbing, crazy golf, pitch and putt, craft sessions, laser clay shooting, 10 pin bowling, darts, snooker, pool, swimming, segways, the gym, bingo, quizzes and a nightly entertainment program - mainly cut down West End shows but executed to a very high standard. The staff were helpful and friendly, the food OK (standard all-inclusive level) and the drink selection was expansive and included many premium brands which was a pleasant surprise and duly taken advantage of by yours truly….

A couple of the things we really appreciated was that you were assigned a table for the duration of your stay - ours was handily located for the entrance - and also that as well as the buffet option for meals there was also a selection available via waiter service, again very handy for us as Laurel is mindful of the space her wheelchair requires. She is quite manoeuvrable but prefers plenty of space around her. As an aside she became quite adept at freewheeeling down the entrance ramp that led into our accomodation!

It was a most welcome break and the first time we had been away (aside from a one night stay away last year about 10 miles away) since Laurel’s surgery. It was lovely and yes, we will go again at some point and will try out rather more of the activities (at least I will, Laurel has already said that the pool and the craft sessions work well enough for her!).

Going Commando

Brigadier Peter Young will need no introduction from any of the readers of this blog! Acquired courtesy of eBay for the total sun of £9 and with a very definite idea in mind….

By virtue of the fact that I am sitting on rather a lot of Britannia 20mm beret wearing British Commandoes  I have been indulging in one of my perennial flights of fancy and have opened a bit of a Pandora’s box of ideas. Naturally this led to a swift check of eBay for some, ahem, research material - the results of which you see above. You may recall that on the back of Eric’s Rapid Fire based WW2 collection I picked up a copy of the rules as well as checking out the Rapid Fire website which, even if Rapid Fire are not your thing, is well worth taking a look at if you are into WW2. I also joined the Rapid Fire Facebook group where I made the acquaintance of Don McHugh.

Don is a very knowledgable and helpful chap (as indeed are many within our gaming ‘band of brothers’) and in answer to my question about British Commandoes - my WW2 ‘special forces fix’ has tended to be paratroop related - he pointed me at the scenario you see below. This is available as a free download from the Rapid Fire site and is really good.

Lord Lovat, Peter Young, green and red berets - what’s not to like?

The action is largely infantry based and pits the British 1st Special Service Brigade (the S.S. Designation was soon dropped for obvious reasons) against a German infantry Division. No Tanks involved although a couple of SPAT vehicles made an appearance. 

It is a tempting undertaking although I have also been looking at the Special Service Brigades in action in the Adriatic and Italy. Special forces in WW2 are certainly something I have an interest in and with the figures I have my disposal would certainly make this a viable undertaking, due in part to the modest number of figures required.

Besides, exploring the wartime career of one my favourite wargame authors is never a bad thing!

Time is (still) my greatest adversary….

“Fights on!”

I have not been able to get a huge amount of anything constructive done over recent months, mainly due to work and Laurel’s ongoing medical saga  - disposing of boardgames and Eric’s collection has taken up a lot of what free time I have - and indeed, all I seem to have been doing is stockpiling material and building up a project list of things to do when I am able. In a way this is good news as I have accrued plenty of variety - always important for my wargaming butterfly - so will certainly have no excuse for being bored. Just to depress myself I decided to sit down and draft a list so, in no particular order….

Developing the Portable Ironclads Wargame

Building some more ships and stuff for the above

Triremes - models, rules and painting some 60 odd ships

Another Glorious Day in the Corps - painting and playing

Shogun - doing something with the models at some point

Xenos Rampant - that is what the 40K stuff is for

Aeronautica Imperialis - 40K in the skies

Mustangs - 1944 over the Reich

ACW/Pony Wars/Old West  - Wofun to the rescue

1914 Naval - Madasahatta style

Something for Steamer Wars

Operation Market Garden - using Eric’s stuff, assuming it has not been sold!

Flying Colours - age of sail stuff

Combat infantry - 1944 NW Europe and 41 to 43 on the Eastern Front

Like I said, plenty of choice but as the title of this post says - “Time is my greatest adversary!”

One day….

Triremes Ahoy!

The component parts. Thanks to the suggestion of Kaptain Kobold the angle of the oars was reduced from 45 degrees to 60. I also took the opportunity to reduce the over length. The two sizes of cardboard strip are designed to go on the outriggers as either leather screens or more permanent wicker sides.

A slightly angled overhead view

The view from directly above showing the outriggers to good effect.

At long last and after several self inflicted mistakes I received the final version of my plan for a simple MDF trireme that would be no longer than 4 cm. Martin at Warbases must have the patience of a saint as this simple model has so far taken some four attempts to get right - mainly down to my skill (or lack of) as a draughtsman. Anyways, the final version you can see above so it now means that my planned Salamis project using a slightly ‘pimped’ version of the rules found in Richard Nelson’s book on the battle can enter next phase.

I am really pleased with this simple model and so the order will be going in for the sixty models I need for the battle. I will also need to think about some terrain and the all important hexed cloth (2” across the flat sides if you are interested).

There are plans afoot in respect of organising a battle pack to made available from Warbases but this is very much in the early stages so watch this space.

Rapid Fire Operation Market Garden

I came, I saw, I bought a copy….A cracking piece of work it is as well!

Well that has solved a variety of problems! I picked up a copy of the above to see how it would translate into a kind of mini campaign and I am happy to say that it certainly did not disappoint! This is a very neat piece of work that ticks all the boxes for me. 

There are 6 scenarios starting from the breakout by 30 Corps up to the ferocious fighting in Arnhem itself. There are also some 16 forces organised for Rapid Fire to go with the scenarios. The thing that struck me was that all maps are gridded in squares equalling 12” which, in my ‘bath tubbed’ world, would translate very nicely into in the Portable Wargame. Even the formations can be tailored into strength points so what’s not to like?

To be honest it has made me think about the campaign in a different way in respect of how I would game it. I have all the figures I would need, albeit on a temporary basis, from Eric’s collection but I have a couple of ideas to play around with.

More to follow….