VCOW- Virtual Conference of Wargamers.

This last weekend I attended the Virtual Conference of Wargamers, organised by Wargames Developments. The usual format is a 3 day/ 2 night residential that has obviously been cancelled due to COVID-19. Although I’ve been a member of WD variously over the years I’ve never, for logistical and financial reasons mainly, managed to attend their yearly get together. But this years I could attend some sessions remotely.

 

I couldn’t make any of the Friday sessions so sadly missed the plenary lecture by Peter Perla but Saturday morning saw me participate in a virtual TEWT, Tactical Exercise Without Troops, based on the English Civil War Battle of Crepedy, run by John Curry from the UIniversity of Bath. It was very interesting to see the ground from eye level to plan a battle rather than the usual bird’s eye view of the table top. Gave me lots to think about for my own games.

I also listened to a couple of lectures, one deliverd by Professor Gary Sheffield from my old alma mater University of Wolverhampton, on the links between history and wargaming in his own career. This was followed by Graham Longley-Brown on his work on Defence and Recreational Gaming, including an overview of his work as a professional wargamer. Both were very interest and thought provoking, with my academic hat on however, I would have quibbled a couple of the points….

In the evening I got the chance to take part in a stripped down professional game that has been run for various US govt. agencies exploring US/Japan/China  naval confrontation in the imminent future. A fascinating glimpse of how things are done, I like think of myself as fairly up to date on military tech matters but I realise I do have a bit of a hole when it comes to naval systems.

On Sunday morning John Curry presented again, this time it was looking at his experimental archaelogy in storming a castle. This research forms part of his upcoming book on medieval history and wargaming. Very interesting and the experiments, sadly undocumented, sounded great fun, seemingly done some years ago before health ands safety got too onerous.

Sunday afternoon continued with accounts of lockdown gaming activities before being finished off with WD’s AGM.

 

All in all it was great fun and makes me really keen to attend the actual event next year when it resumes.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.

 

Progress Report: 2nd quarter 2020.

In the last three months I have painted 56 28mm miniatures but only 6 20mm ones. I finished 6 1/72nd scale kits and a single 1/56th one. I also read 30 books.

Cheers,

Pete.

In memory of John Dowman ‘Mausman’

Just before the COVID pandemic hit i was greatly saddened to hear of the death of John Dowman. I new him for many years through various forums where he always went by the name of Mausman. Today would have been his birthday and The Wargamers’ forum, of which John was a moderator, organised a build in his memory. John loved tanks, German ones in particular, and combat oin the Eastern Front, he also had an interest in experimental vehicles… all things I shared. Although he did get rid of his experimental stuff in the end I was happy as some bits made their way into my collection. He was a a talented model maker- for a short while he ran a resin terrain company with a friend. He always belived in getting things out of the stash and on to the table as quickly as possible- something every gamer can agree with I think.

For the build I decided to do a 1/72 Dragon E100 with commander from SHQ. I hope he would have liked it.

 

I used to meet up with John once or twice a year when me getting down to the wargame shows in Newark coincided with his shore leave (John worked on the diving side of the off shore oil industry, he tried to get me to be train as a diver once, the pay sounded good but rather dangerous, maybe if I were 10 years younger at the time…). I’ll miss my chats with him.

 

 

3D Printed Chemical tanks (reprise)

I was asked to re-photograph the Chemical tanks with something to give an indication of scale, so as it was not raining today I decided to take the oppertunity to grab a new Primaris Marines as well as a 1995 vintage Necromunda figure to give them some sense of scale.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.

From the Shed: Sci Fi chemical/ goo tanks

More bits from thinigverse that I have printed off and painted up. Should be fun for 40k themed games. I’m sure I can make up a Nurgle themed narrative campaign out of them too. The red one will do if anyone runs a Corpse Grinder Cult gang in the next Necromunda campaign too.

Cheers,

Pete.

Game Report: Falklands War Matrix game.

Last week I got the chance to play in another Matrix game- this time a rerun of the Falklands War of 1982. Again it was with the group from the Sheffield Wargames club but with a suitable socially distanced format through Skype.

 

Matrix games are really all about structured discussion- state and action and an effect with three reasons why it will happen and then the umpire adjudicates and in this case tells you if you have succeded or not. You are not limited to just yourself and your forces you can try and have an effect on anything.

 

The game was for seven players, Thatcher and Admiral Woodward for the UK, President Reagan and General Haig for the US, Galtieri for the Argentinians, As well as Pinochet and the UN being played. Each player was given their own briefing in advance. I was given the role of President Reagan with the basic tasks of ensuring that the islands were returned to the UK and offering some support too.

 

I played quite aggressively; with the US as the preminent economic power house I made sure to funnel supplies to the Brits (I knew they’d need them) as well as trying to distract the Soviets with naval exercises in the Med, hopefully to stop them meddling. I also gave Pinochet some cash to run month long exercises with his armed forces to make sure the Argentines were distracted there too. Am pleased to say that the game followed the history fairly well with the Black Buck raids, Exocets and the eventual recapture of the Islands all happening in more or less the right order.

The game was great fun to play- a good chance to do a bit of roleplaying too. Can’t thank Tim enough for running the game and the other players for making it so much fun. The format of the game worked really well over Skype too. Tim just set the camera up at the representationmal map whilst we presented our arguements.

With a couple of matrix games under my belt I’mm eager to play another one.

 

You can find Tim’s reports on the game here and here. The scenario is considered a matrix game classic and has been well recieved by a wide vareity of players and organisations, it is available in this book.

Cheers,

Pete.

From the Shed: German Tobruk Bunker

Using a free sample stl file from Digital Taxidermy I’ve knocked out this little bunker.

Based on a spare CD I’ve built up the sides with scraps of foam and sculptamold. Then followed with my usual basing techniques, textured, paint, static grass then finally tufts. I’m really pleased with how it turned out and will pick up more of the files in due course.

Although none of my Grandparent’s generation are alive at the moment and none of them were Normandy veterans (variously Far East, India, North Africa then Italy and Arnhem) I can’t help but think of them all today, the 76th anniversary of D Day, they were the greatest generation. My affinity with the campaign is perhaps strengthened by the road trip I took there with my father a few years back.

Cheers,

 

Pete.

 

From the Shed: 40k Scatter Terrain.

Some more little bits finished up.

Apart from the ammo boxes that are 3D printer the rest come frome the GW objectives kit.

 

Watch for them appearing in future Necromunda/ Kill Team battle reports.

From the Shed: More bits of scatter terrain… a cache and more tank traps.

Another quick post today. Been working on more bits of scatter terrain which will probably end up being mostly used for Zone Alfa. They are enjoable to paint and are ‘quick wins’ in terms of getting things finished. All of these bits were printed on my 3D printer.

First up we have an ammo cache… abandoned some where in the Zone it will make a nice objective marker.

I printed out some more of the tank traps too but this time I based them up and made them a little more over grown. It should make for a bit of  hard cover in the game.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.

From the shed: Creature Swarms.

One of the monster types that can spawn in a game of Zone Alfa is swarms of creatures. I didn’t have any in my collection and thought that they might be tricky to scratch build so I bought a few from the Reaper Bones collection.

 

4 bases of rats, and 2 each of spiders and beetles should be enough for my purposes. They were fun and quick to do too. The Reaper Bones models are made of a funny plastic but they took (brush on) paint well. I’ll be getting some more of them.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.