Friday 25 December 2015

Constance in Peril - Part 1 Menace on Motspire

David R. and myself manage three or four games of 40K a year. However, we wanted to try something different from the usual 1500 point one-off approach and agreed to link our next few games together in a campaign.


Saturday 19 December 2015

A Bushido Game and Deep Thoughts on 2016

With the club venue not available four of us piled round Mike's and prepared for some Bushido. Mike played Ed, whilst Dan tried out Joe's Savage Wave figures against my Silver Moon Trade Syndicate.

Saturday 12 December 2015

A Return to Napoleonic

It has been a very long time since I have played an historic wargaming (Flames of War) and a much longer time since I had my large collection of Napoleonic figures on the table. Dan recently asked me if we could give the latter a go and I was very pleased to oblige.

Above: Some of my 15mm terrain looking suspiciously like Spain.

Saturday 5 December 2015

Recent 40K and Bushido Games

Bushido - My Silver Moon Syndicate vs Mike B and his Ito Clan - Fifty rice points
The mission was The Messenger, where you nominate in secret a Very Important Model (VIM) which receives points for being alive, and in your opponent's deployment zone, at the end of the game.



Saturday 28 November 2015

Warfare - DZC tournament report + Other stuff

I took my Scourge along with three other members of the Orbital Bombardment Podcast crew, Mike, Joe and Ed took part. I recommend you catch Ed's video log of the two days available at their blog site.


Reading Warfare has been going for decades and is one of the longest running wargaming conventions in the UK but it is the first time I have been. It's current home is the Rivermead Leisure Complex in Reading. The Drop Zone Commander tournament, along with many others, was taking place in the main hall, along with a good sized trader's hall all the other available space at the venue was being used for tournaments (the Flames of War event was taking place in a squash court).
Game One -  Greg Joynson - PHR - Mission Targets of Opportunity - Draw 10 points each
A drawer, but I did have opportunities to do better. A Triton containing troops was left high and dry within the threat range of three Reapers. Unfortunately I went of to attack two Januses. This was a particular low point. And yes the said troops were the ones which held an objective in a building at the end of the game! Doh! A close game nonetheless. Many thanks to Greg.

Saturday 21 November 2015

The Very Big Little Game - Space Hulk - Now with added zombies

John C asked Dave G and myself to run another participation game at the club and we were happy to oblige. 

Saturday 14 November 2015

Sunday 8 November 2015

Totally Crit Open 4 - Day One of an Infinity Tournament

I spent this weekend in the company of the Totally Crit Infinity wargamers at their fourth open tournament. This was a six game, 300 point ITS event and had a dozen participants. My self imposed challenge was to do better than my one victory in their one day event earlier in the year. 





I took my vanilla Ariadna which were as follows:
      Group One:
      - Line Kazak, Forward Observer
      - Line Kazak, Forward Observer
      - Dog Warrior
      - Dog Warrior
      - Kazak Doctor
      - Line Kazak, Forward Observer
      - Line Kazak, Lieutenant 
      - Tank Hunter, Adhesive Launcher
      - Tank Hunter, Portable Auto-Cannon
      - Chasseur, Forward Observer

      Group Two:
      - Scout, Ojotnik
      - Scout, Ojotnik
      - Chasseur, Forward Observer
      - Line Kazak, Forward Observer
      - Line Kazak, Forward Observer
      - Line Kazak, Forward Observer
      - Line Kazak, Forward Observer

Saturday 31 October 2015

Woking Weirdboys 40K Team Tournament - Day Two

Woking Weirdboys 40K Team Tournament - Day Two

Day two of the team tournament, and thanks to Callum (our Captain) and David P. we had a plan for choosing our match-ups. Wow, we were in danger of taking this seriously! Despite this, I decided to not to get too involved in deciding who should do well against whom - my tactical and strategic know how is not really up to such close scrutiny. However, at least I remembered to put my army in my car before leaving my flat. Something that one of our team had failed to do on day one. I will not name names, but from now on, this will be known as the 'Boyd Test'.


Above: The Tolworth Team One Think Tank. Callum, James and Dave plan our next steps in game four. Their decision, three teas and one coffee, no sugar.


Saturday 24 October 2015

Woking Weirdboys 40K Team Tournament - Day One

Woking Weirdboys 40K Team Tournament - Day One

This was our first go at a team tournament. Tolworth sent two teams and ours was Callum as Captain (Tau), James (Daemons), Dave G. (Slaughterkin) and myself with Space Marines and an Imperial Knight. It is safe to say we did not have a plan when working out our best match-ups during day one, nor were we keeping a tally on how well we were doing during each round. Although a team event, I set myself the task of achieving at least one victory over the weekend. Not very ambitious, but this was a very competitive event with some very strong armies.


Above: Tournament organiser James about to dunk a Chicken McNugget. Afraid I do not know if it was in Barbecue Sauce, Tomato Ketchup or Sour Cream and Chive dip, the level of detail on this tournament write up is lacking, and for that, I can only apologise.

Saturday 17 October 2015

40K Tournament Army - Planning

Tolworth First Founding have decided to send players to a Woking Weirdboys tournament, and despite, my less than optimised list, I decided to go along. At least it committed me to making and painting my Imperial Knight, which has lurked unloved in a box since last Christmas.

Above: The bikes and 'heavies'.


Thursday 15 October 2015

One Hot Dog Free!


Words fail me. The item above now takes pride of place on my trophy shelf. For those of you who require an explanation visit the latest podcast from the Orbital Bombardment Team: http://dzcblog.blogspot.co.uk 


Saturday 10 October 2015

Reports from the Front - Recent Games

In recent weeks I have been very varied in my games. Drop Zone, 40K, Infinity, Super Dungeon Explore and even some role play with Call of Cthulhu.

Saturday 3 October 2015

The Big Little Game Three - Space Hulk Kill Team Revisted

The First Founding Wargaming Club has now moved to a new location, St.Paul's Parrish Hall, Hook Road, Chessington. (But not the St.Paul's Centre where I went first of all on Friday evening by mistake).


Above: In with the new.

Saturday 26 September 2015

Invasion September 2015 - Tournament Report

Saturday began with the six members of the Obital Bombardment crew meeting up in a cafe in Chessington, to enjoy a fry-up, and to discuss our hopes on the upcoming weekend. What was generally agreed upon, we were all stupidy excited! I recommend you go and visit the Obital Bombardment blog which will, in the fullness of time, have a more detailed account of the tourney, and those of us who occupied the higher tables. (Footnote - I may of got the mission order mixed up in the descriptions below).

Above: My tournament Scourge army on its scenic base.

Sunday 13 September 2015

Invasion - Drop Zone Commander Tournament Planning

At the last Invasion tournament I bought a 1500 point Scourge starter box. Although I have been using my beloved PHR since I was first introduced to the game, a recent spurt of painting enthusiasm, and being overcome with the novelty of the Scourge movement rates, I decided to try out the bad guys of the DZC universe. Perhaps only having one practice game, at the time of writing, is not ideal. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound!


Above: My red and yellow paint scheme.


Sunday 6 September 2015

Bushido - board completed and second game

It was some time ago that I was introduced to Bushido the game and I had decided to build my own two-by-two board. However, the decision to have a large water feature (in keeping with my faction's theme of trading) meant that its construction required more work than had planned. The problem was caused by the time taken for the water effects to dry. I used different makes of water effect resin and I layered it to thickly. Only myself to blame. However, the original plan of getting a muddy river bed did eventually work. A 4Ground rice hut, an oriental bridge from Sariassa Precision Limited, a river junk model from a pet shop (which was originally designed for the bottom of a fish tank), Plastcraft Games swamp walkway set, some model crates, and some ornamental pebbles, as additional scatter terrain, finished the board off nicely.


Above: The completed table with terrain (sorry for the blurry photograph, but It was the best I had, to show you the board).


Sunday 30 August 2015

A Pilgrimage to Nottingham

Its been a over a year since I last went to Warhammer World, the Nottingham Headquarters of Gamesworkshop. Since then they have had a revamp to make it more of a visitors and gamers venue. The gaming area has been reduced, but the figure hall has been increased hugely and they now have a three new shops devoted to GW games and figures, Forge World and Black Library. Dave and I went along to take look, to play a game and to make some purchases. The 9.30 train from London St.Pancras took just shy of 2 hours to get to Nottingham and a walk along the canal took us to our goal.

Above: The parking style is a little to be desired, but then again who is going to argue if you take up two spaces!

Sunday 23 August 2015

Zone Mortalis - Kill Team - The Big LIttle Game Two

Following the success of our fist massed kill team game at the club Dave G. and myself decided to run a second big little game, this time based on some space hulk/zone mortal terrain I had built. A general invite was issued on the club's Facebook page and on the evening eight players plus Dave and myself took part. We had reduced the number of points available for each player and disallowed vehicles for this game.

Above: Generals make their plans.


Sunday 16 August 2015

A DZC Tournament Report - PHR Working in Woking

A trip to Working, Surrey took me to a one day, three game, 1500 point Drop Zone Commander tournament run by Ian C. at the Woking First Founding Club. One of the event sponsors was ibuywargames in Woking (http://ibuywargames.co.uk) and Ian S. Had some very good deals on offer for those taking part in the tournament. The day also featured an X-Wing tournament.

Above: My Post Human Republic Army ready for game one, apparently fuelled by Ribena.


Sunday 9 August 2015

The Totally Crit 3rd Open - A 400 Point Infinity Tournament


Following on from meeting my old friend Chris P. at the gaming convention in Birmingham I arranged to attend the Totally Crit (https://www.facebook.com/TotallyCrit) Infinity tournament at their club, High Brooms Working Men's Club in Royal Tunbridge Wells on 1st August. John B. was running the ITS event, who I had the pleasure of playing in Birmingham. The three games will be my first experience of playing 400 point Infinity games. Daunting stuff!
Preparations before game one.

Sunday 2 August 2015

Kill Team - the big little game

Dave G and myself have had a few practice games now of Kill Team and these have been a good laugh. So, we decided to open the floodgates and invite other like minded 40Kers to join us. A Facebook invite was sent out to the club members.

Sunday 26 July 2015

Board Games - two ends of a spectrum

The club was postponed on Tuesday night so I hosted a couple of games at mine. Ed and Joe had a game of Bushido whilst Dan gave Mike and myself our first experience of the board game Super Dungeon Explore.
Let the games begin.

Sunday 19 July 2015

De spair - The time of The D weapon is upon us

The title of this blog article is a little overly dramatic, but after my most recent 40K game I have the opportunity to feel the power of the D weapon, and for a non competitive gamer like myself, it was a little demoralising.

Imposing Knights. The Farseer? No, he spent most of the game trying not to join the party staying in reserve.

Sunday 12 July 2015

Bushido - My First Game

Let battle commence - Mike's board is coming along a treat.
The club venue was not available this week so Mike generously hosted a couple of Bushido games at his, and agreed to give me my first game using my Silver Moon Syndicate figures. We played 35 rice points.

Saturday 4 July 2015

Imperial Guard - a 5+ Armour save is plenty!

With Dave G and myself beginning to put plans together for a small Kill Team/Combat Squad escalation league for the club (Tolworth First Founding), I decided that if I was to use Imperials, I needed some lower cost grunts to help occupy the ground whilst my Space Marine Scouts took to the air in their Land Speeder Storms.

Therefore, I put together a standard squad, with some extra figures and optional special and heavy weapons, from the bits dumpster.
 My Cadian infantry platoon figures with lots of options.

Tuesday 30 June 2015

Bushido - The Silver Moon Syndicate

The game of Bushido continues to intrigue me. My first purchases for the Silver Moon Syndicate are made and painted (see below). However my custom built gaming board has had to take a back seat and the themed dice tower remains an idea for a later date. I have tried to watch some battle reports on you tube, but it is obvious that this game is still quite niche, and the game mechanics have yet to sink in. I may try and get my first game, or at least a run through of the rules, with someone from the club soon.

Now they are all made and painted I just need to find out what they do!
My recent Infinity purchases have now been completed. These should be sufficient to design my next list up to 400 points.

Ariadna Dog Warriors, Sniper with AP Sniper Rifle and Brigadier Bruant 
Happy wargaming. 





Saturday 27 June 2015

Infernal Backed - Congratulations to Wartorn

Well done Wartorn on reaching the £15000 target on the Kickstarter for Infernal. Personally I have lined myself up for two factions and the electronic rule book. Along with my other projects I have begun to put some ideas together for some Infernal themed terrain which I intend to feature in a future post.

The Doctor will see you now!

Sunday 21 June 2015

Cannons to the right of them

It is safe to say that scratch-building is one of my passions in the wargaming hobby. I certainly like the challenge of building something that is a bit different from what a manufacturer had in mind themselves. In the past, for 40K, I have constructed Stormtalons, a Stompa and a Skullhammer (see below) for the sole reason that I could, and normally in some cases, because the model had not been released yet. My only problem, that the version I construct is probably a little bigger than first planned, although not normally a problem for Orks!

Available in any colour, as long as it is red.

Tuesday 16 June 2015

Don't Stop That Infernal Noise

On Tuesday night the Wartorn crew brought their figures and rules down to the club to introduce some of the members to the game of Infernal which is currently on Kickstarter (see an earlier post for the address to the Kickstarter page).

Monday 15 June 2015

Projects in Progress - Bushido and Infinity

So our trip to the Birmingham tournament gave fresh impetuous to my Infinity habit and our club members became aware of the game of Bushido. Meeting my old mate Chris from the Totally Crit Infinity podcast (give it a try out) was a really excellent bonus. I will be looking to take part in a future tournament over at his club. I know that they are planning a 400 point event in the future, so I needed to think of the changes/additions required to my Ariadna list. Based on the fun I had using one werewolf in my games, I decided to buy the two Dog Warriors boxed set.

Sunday 7 June 2015

A Wealth of Experience so Poorly Used

I have been Wargaming for a number of decades now, and in all that time you would think that my experiences would have taught me a great many things about the art of generalship and how a wargame can be won. Well yes, but my problem,  can be described as follows:

A tournament - time to put on the game face.

I so enjoy the activity of wargaming I forget, or just fail to do, the things which would bring about victory. Example, I can spend a whole turn planning some brilliant tactical manoeuvre, but in the next turn forget to carry it through because I suddenly get distracted by something, for instance, realising I had a slim chance of shotting and killing the enemy's warlord. 

Monday 1 June 2015

Wartorn Games Kickstarter

Just a short message to make you aware of a Kickstarter being run by the good people at Wartorn Games who you may remember I mentioned in my review of Salute back in May. The link is:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/778845804/infernal-horror-miniature-skirmish-game?ref=nav_search

Go a take look.

UK Games Expo 2015 - My Experiences

(Dear Reader, you would have received this blog a little sooner, but unfortunately my computer skills deserted me, and I managed to lose the draft. Doh!).

So myself and friends from the Orbital Bombardment podcast jumped in three cars and went to the UK Games Expo 2015 at the Hilton Metropole Hotel at the Birmingham NEC. We stayed for two nights and this was by far the best way to drink in the atmosphere (as some of my colleagues did!). And I must say thanks to all the organises, traders and other attendees who made it such a great event. We all had a very good time. Although I have never been to an American convention, like Adepticon or Nova, I imagine it would be something like this centred around a hotel.

Picture below - A room of happy board gamers

Saturday 23 May 2015

Game Reports - Infinity and Zone Mortalis

Game one - Infinity 300 points game. My Ariadna against Nathan's Panoceania. We played the Supremacy game from the rule book - 4 quadrants, each with a console.



Sunday 17 May 2015

Custodians - a small modelling project

Reading books always inspires. I am so aware that the release of a new 40K Codex can result in me entering into dangerous and expensive waters. However, on this occasion, the re-reading of the Horus Heresy Novel, The First Heretic, has lead to a fairly small project. Also my recent introduction to the world of Kill Team/Combat Patrol has made me appreciate that small is beautiful. So the inspiration was there to build some Custodians.


One of my favourite books, The Horus Heresy Collected Visions provided the source material.


And for the models I used a Grey Knight Strike Squad, Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard, a Dark Angel Chaplin from the limited edition Dark Vengeance and a deep delve into the bits dumpster.


And what to transport the Emporer's finest, well my Forge World Proteus Land Raider was looking for worthy passengers. It has been in my collection for a few years now looking for a unit of merit to transport. What could be better.



Happy Gaming.

Sunday 10 May 2015

PHR Food Court - A Piece of Fan Fiction

Dear Reader,

I have now been writing my blog for two months and I am very pleased to say that I have just passed 1000 hits on the site. Thank you for reading my scribbles. (Thanks also to Dan for my new banner). To celebrate the achievement I have entered the arena of fan fiction (see below). As always, I would be very pleased to hear any comments you have about the blog's content. Happy wargaming.

The PHR Drop Ship Veltoria had arrived above the atmosphere of the planet. Preparations onboard were being made for a swift and well planned invasion. A famous general once said 'an army marches on its stomach', and this adage was well known in the kitchens on the 'Velly'; the crew's nickname for the ship.

The catering staff of Food Court 17 began to get ready for their next set of hungry arrivals. As always the Catering Manager gave a short pep talk before the shutters went up and the newest member of the staff, Catering Assistant Third Class Andreson listened intently to the speech and had to admit to himself that he was a little excited to get up close to the soldiers and various pilots and crews of the PHR's finest war machines. His mentor, Catering Assistant Second Class Retmeire was less enthused having seen this cavalcade of post humanity many times before. For him any magic the day had in store had been lost long before now.

Standing at the serving hatches with serving utensils in hand Andreson and Retmeire watched as the very distinct personnel of the PHR armed forces entered the food court. Retmeire gave a running commentary.

"See that young rabble over there in grey fatigues? They are Immortals. Was there ever a more misnamed group."

"Why?" Asked Andreson.

"So that gullible idiots join up. One of the rarest things onboard ship is an old Immortal." Retmeire then pointed out how the young recruits went to sit down next to a group of Sirens, and as usual, the ladies were unresponsive to their lame attempts at pick-up lines.

The shift continued and it became clear to Andreson how stereotypical everyone was. Menchit crews enjoyed barbecued spare ribs and the larger than life Hades pilots made slow trips to and from the all-you-can-eat-buffet without a care in the world. In stark contrast, those in the flying outfits belonging to the Triton squadrons look permanently nervous and when someone dropped a metal tray on the floor they were almost out of the door before they realised it was one of the Immortals playing a prank. Andreson felt sorry for them, and decided to give them larger servings at the next shift.

Time passed, and the tables slowly began to clear as the various groups returned to their embarkation areas. Andreson asked Retmeire about a group who seemed in no rush to move. "Angelos crews" was his short answer. Later still and Andreson was wiping down tables when there was a commotion at the door. The Angelos crews looked up expectantly. Several pilots, in various states of dress stumbled haphazardly into the hall. A member of the catering staff explained to them that everyone had gone already, and the pilots left in the same rushed manner as their arrival.

Andreson went over to Retmeire, "who were they?" He asked. Retmeire looked up, "Athena pilots" and added "always late".





Friday 8 May 2015

Critical Engagement - A one day Drop Zone Commander tournament


I had had a number of practice games prior to the Drop Zone Commander tournament (Critical Engagement) at my local club. An outing against Joe's Resistance did not go well. Lesson learnt - Sirens do not last long against the new flame weapon stat line (Dodge this!). As Mike says "they must use some brand of knock-off flammable hair product". By turn five I only had one Immortals stand remaining - Not good.

In a civil war engagement against Pete's PHR, I suffered a narrow loss, mainly because of my failure to use my Mercury Drones properly and therefore, not get to a focal point late game. However, prior to the match I had changed my normal list, and went with Menchit's and pulled the same 'burnt hair' trick against Pete's Sirens.

My most recent practice game was against Mike which highlighted to me the importance of target selection and being able to estimate how much shooting is required to cause a model to be removed from the table (there is no point in having losts of wounded models in your opponents army, you must concentrate on one model until it is removed). So with Mike's help my final list for the tournament was composed as follows:

Commanders: Battle Vizier (PHR Standard Roster) 1499 Points

Hand of the Sphere - 276 points
Command Squad: Zeus(Battle Vizier), Odin, Neptune

Battle Pantheon - 166 points
Battle Squad: Phobos x2, Neptune

Battle Pantheon - 300 points
Battle Squad: Menchit x2, Neptune
Angelos Squad: Angelous x2, Immortals x2, Nepture

Immortals - 261 points
Immortals: 2x Immortals, Triton A1 Helios Squad: 2x Helios, Neptune

Immortals - 261 points
Immortals: 2x Immortals, Triton A1 Helios Squad: 2x Helios, Neptune

Pegasus Group - 235 points
Mercury Drones: 4x Mercury, Triton A2(+Stealth Missiles,
+RN-5 Skyhammer), Triton A2(+RN-5 Skyhammer) Sirens: 2x Sirens, Triton A1



Sunday 3 May 2015

Mayhem 2015 - A one day 1500 point 40K tournament

Mayhem is one of two 40K tournaments run by my club each year. It is a 1500 point competition with three 2 hour 30 minute games taking place over on day. The turn out was lower than usual due to  difficulties in securing the venue, but the 16 or so competitors made for a relaxed and good natured event. It was nice to be able to get to talk to a great many friends and discuss armies and the hobby in general.


Above: The days competitors begin to prepare for a days gaming.

Sunday 26 April 2015

My Day at Salute 2015

I think it is safe to say that Salute has become the premier wargame show in the UK. I have being going to it since Kensington Town Hall was the venue back in the eighties. And with most years since that time the numbers attending seem to increase. Queuing has always been a fundamental part of the experience and this year was no exception. Due to my usual lack of planning I had left my on-line ticket purchase too late and had to buy a £15 ticket on the day (rather than the £10 on-line cost). However, standing in the 'more money than sense' queue did allow me to see the queue busters queue rapidly lose patience with the organises plan for gradual admittance. At roughly 23 minutes past 10.00am the organised lines decided they had had enough and all remaining people in the queue just made a beeline for the entrance. No harm done as far as I could see, but perhaps more planning next year is required.

People. These on the left, not bored by having to queue to get into Salute, were now queuing for Forgeworld

Saturday 18 April 2015

Kill Team/Combat Squad - Short and Sweet

Kill Team/Combat Squad 40K games are new to me. Two club mates invited to take part in a 350 point game. I won't go into details on the rules, but the major change to a traditional game is that models act as individuals rather than in squads or platoons.

I decided to take a selection of my work-in-progress Harlequins. I took two troupes with a Starweaver fast skimmer transport for one, and the other was accompanied by a Shadowseer.
Harlequins doing their best to be inconspicuous

We managed two games during the evening, the first featuring one moveable relic objective (which needed to be taken off from your own table edge) in the middle of the table, and the second, featured three standard objectives whose final position was set by using the scatter dice. My opponents took two very different forces; one with 20 Dark Angel Space Marine Veterans (Kanan) with a selection of special a close combat weapons, the second a Adeptus Mechanicus force (Dave G.) based on a Inquisition henchman force with numbers on their side, and the occasional heavy weapon and specialist, such as Death Cult Assassins.


Above: The Mechanicum hordes


Saturday 11 April 2015

The Bridge of Sighs - A Maelstrom Battle Report

So Dave R. Agreed to come over for a Maelstrom game of 1850 points. He took his Iyanden Eldar army (which has won a painting trophy at a local tournament in West London in the past) and I took my trusty Iron Hands. We decided to have a game on an unconventional table.
The big bridge
The Small Bridge

Saturday 4 April 2015

Infinity The Game - A Learning Experience

So Tuesday night was club night. And Mike (MegaMike) managed to drag himself away from his beloved DZC and agreed to have a go at Infinity, a particular favourite of mine.

Infinity is a skirmish game set in the future (Manga inspired), which benefits from a lot of scenery, in comparison with a 40K battlefield, and only requires 10 or so figures per side to play.

My fondness for Infinity is based on a number of reasons. The overall look of the game is very appealing and the models are very pretty. I like a tabletop that is interesting to look at, and Infinity game play certainly benefits from lots of terrain, be it buildings with plenty of roof access or scatter terrain to hide behind. I also enjoy the ability of the game to tell a story and for individual models to take on a character of their own. And to just round things off, the fluff and the artwork contained within the lavish rule books is superb.

Panoceania - Knight of Santiago to the fore

However, for beginners there are a couple of elephants in the room that need to be considered. 

Sunday 29 March 2015

Back in the Day: Why is my Hobby Wargaming?

I started this blog almost a month ago, and I continue to be pleasantly surprised how much it has encouraged me in a hobby that I was already very enthusiastic about. A friend told me, with a smile on her face, that blogging was just an attempt to validate my own existence (a bit dark I thought). There might be some truth to this, but I would like to think it also disciplines me to carry through with projects I start (always a problem for me) and I would like to hope that people are interested and/or inspired by what I present. Another positive for me personally is that I have seen an improvement in my own writing ability (if not my spelling).

So why wargaming? When I was 10 years of age (in the early 1980's) my uncle took me to Earl's Court in London to a model exhibition. I vividly remember seeing, and being engrossed by, a WWII Pacific wargame being demonstrated based on a the U.S. Marines landing on a Japanese held beach. The wargame was being played on a sand table, and I particularly remember being told how the Americans had shot down one of their own planes because it had failed to respond to the F.O.F. (Friend or Foe) radio message (a D6 roll of 1 no doubt).
My first, and favourite Wargaming book

There isn't any aspect of the hobby that I don't enjoy. Painting, model making, scratchbuilding, admiring other people's work, tournaments, the social aspect, meeting new opponents and old friends, playing competitive games or fluffy games. The only thing that has escaped me so far is campaign based games, but only because I have done so little of this.


Above: From my collection - The first Citadel Space Marines painted as Crimson Fists.

My first wargame was played on my Uncle's patio with WWII 1/72 plastic model kits from a toy shop. Living in west London, I remember a few shops where you could buy toy soldiers in London, Gamers in Exile - near King's Cross. A shop in Kensington - where they had cardboard boxes full of metal Napoleonic figures. A shop in Kingston - where I first became aware of Gamesworkshop and Citadel Minatures. There was also Ork's Nest - still going strong in Central London. And, my favourite of all, the original Gamesworkshop store in Hammersmith, where I can proudly say I played a Warhammer Fantasy Game, my Skaven against Undead.