Wednesday 25 September 2013

September 2013 News Round (no John Craven - guaranteed)

A bit of a random blog post this one, just a quick round up of my travels, past and future, plus a chance to win some every nice goodies from some jolly nice bloggers.

So first up few very generous give away competitions:

Terrain For Hippos - although non hippos will also find the advice very useful and easy to follow:
Annual Terrain Compometition Prizes

Anne's (Now not so) secret give away:
Double Triple Secret Give Away including extras:
"This give away is being sponsored in part by author Patrick Hatt. You can find Mr. Hatt's Amazon Writers Page at http://www.amazon.com/Pat-Hatt/e/B00AGFMYVC."

Chris Stoesen at Wargamer's Odds and Ends is offering a chance to win figures, 15mm armour and other material. I was planning on buying his Italians in Russia scenarios anyway so I'd prefer it if no on else entered, thanks.
Lets try give away

Future Travels
The coming weekend 28th and 29th September see the Derby/Donnington Show which used to be held in early October and in Derby. I'm easily confused so I'll hopefully be attending on the Sunday with friends. If you see three rather rotund gentlemen all wearing glasses, one with too much hair (Ade - aka Wargaming For Fun), one with crazy hair (my brother) and one lacking any hair (me) plodding round clutching numerous plastic bags full of metal and plastic goodies, that will be us. We should be easy to spot amongst the typical wargaming crowd (cough, cough). Please feel free to say hello and if you want to ply us with free figures, drinks, cash and chocolate even better.

I've actually been quite busy over the last few weeks (although judging by the lack of updates on this blog it would be hard to tell). The stinkers at work keep insisting that I actually work a full day, every day, five days a week! Therefore my interent access has been limited. The inhumane rotters.

Past Travels
My brother and myself managed to visit the recent excavation of the WWI model of Messines battlefield built on Cannock Chase recently. Interesting blog entry (here). I already have some images on my Twitter feed but I hope to upload better quality images some time in the future.

Other Stuff
The Great Round Tower (although this is not the name I came to refer to it as. I'd like to keep this blog PG rated so you'll have to ask me in person if you want to know what it is) is very nearly complete with just the base needing to be covered in grass and flock. Its only taken me just over a year but it should be finished in a week or two. Hopefully my brother and myself will be visiting the inspiration for the model over the weekend, Skenfrith castle. So if you're in the area and hear someone repeatedly shouting something like "oh fudge! I can't believe I missed out that detail." then that will probably be me.

If you've forgotten or have no idea what I'm talking about here's a reminder:
Great Round Tower WIP

Wednesday 4 September 2013

Our First YouTube Bolt Action Game

aka "Hello Mom, I'm on the telly."
Well not quite. Last weekend my old mate Ade invited me over to the heart of sunny Shropshire to visit the Man Cave. This is actually a large purpose built shed at the bottom of his garden which for most people in the UK is probably the next best thing to a dedicated games room in your home.

From this battle-shed Ade has been playing and recording wargames, mainly Warhammer Fantasy and Warmachine, just for his own amusement and to share the results with the wider community. Slowly but surely Ade has built up a loyal following of over 4600 YouTubers (or whatever the proper collective noun is) which is growing exponentially. He has been wanting to branch out and cover more game systems for quite a while and seeing as we are both collecting WWII figures at the moment he thought it was an ideal opportunity to play a few games of Bolt Action, the WWII skirmish ruleset from Warlord Games.

The main purpose of my visit therefore was to record, hopefully the first of many, a couple of games of Bolt Action. Regular readers (hi mom) will realise I rarely, if ever, mention playing games on this blog. This is because I'm primarily a model maker/painter/collector so if you looking for an in-depth report on tactics, formations etc. then you'll have to wait a while until I can fully comprehend the game. If however you'd like to watch a relaxed game between to old mates then watch and enjoy.

Wargaming For Fun - 1st Bolt Action game*

*Be warned the video contains implied strong violence against toy soldiers, poor jokes, light hearted banter and heavy midlander accents (well mine is thicker than black puddin').