Books, Buildings & Bases

A bit of a pot pourri post, covering a mix of things that has been going in the background, so without further ado.

Books

Having got a bit more storage in the games room, whilst shifting piles of books that had lain the floor, I realised I was starting to run out of new titles to read. Whilst I still have a few left, I knew I wanted to add to the mix so that I had a bit more variety of reading material to hand.

I know Max Hastings is not to everyones taste, but I read this book whilst on holiday and found it a great primer for a more detailed book by Stephen Fisher, that I will read at a later date. As with all of Hastings books, I found it an easy read, but one full of useful snippets for the wargamer, many of them revolving around C&C, which I personally really enjoy in my games. 

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, as I'd not read anything by Al Murray before, but boy did this turn out to be a brilliant read. By concentrating on one 24 hour period in Arnhem, he really brings to life the sheer chaos that ensued during the battle and frankly how poor the allied planning was. As with Hasting's book above, full of really useful detail and information that I will certainly refer back to for when I finally get around to gaming this seminal campaign and action.

Whilst browsing for new reading material and ideas for games, I came across this book which looks to be a really good read. It is certainly a conflict that I, and suspect most other gamers, know very little about. Having another outlet for my Japanese forces is a bonus and I ordered some buildings from Pendraken that will, to my eyes at least, pass muster for use in China, but also Burma too. I'm certainly looking forward to reading this in due course.

Another War I only have passing knowledge of, but I thought it would be great to get more au fait with it, given my interest in the 18thC and the SYW in particular. I've just started reading it and am enjoying it so far. Some reviews found the language to be a bit stilted and academic, but not the case for me.

Buildings

I've gone a scale down for all of my games for more years than I can remember, with my first port of call being Battlescale and the Leven Miniatures range that Steve, brought on board a year or so ago. I have a mix of both, so tend to try and match with my existing buildings as much as possible.

An Italian church (Leven Miniatures) that is really nice and certainly impressive size wise compared to the other buildings I have, Primarily I wanted it to be the dominating point on the planned Italian hill town i would like to make and it certainly fits the bill as far as this is concerned.

Frischermont Chateau (Leven Miniatures) will form quite a few functions within my games, namely as a chateau for WWII, as a monastery for any period and finally as an impressive walled farm, inpired by those imposing ones I've seen in Austria. I'm not sure how i'm going to base this, but might leave it as seen, soe that I can play with the payout depending upon the period being played and what I want it to represent.

Whilst I have a windmill already, I wanted one that look more in keeping with my Italian buildings and terrain. This one is by Battlescale.

Bases

With the cooler weather and after my recent Belgium 1940 game, I was spurred on to paint some bases that have lain in the queue far too long, sadly a common theme with me!

British 2 pdr ATGs and a Bofors AA gun.

A German Flakvierling and an 88.

A German Pak 38 and Pak 40.

Italian 65mm infantry Guns.

It was nice not only to spend time painting, but also to finally get some of these much needed items finished and ready for the games table. Still more to do, but I'm not far off finishing the core British and German WWII Infantry forces, so that will be my focus hopefully in the coming weeks and months ahead.

Fingers crossed I can get the table set up for the final Greco-Italian War 1940 campaign game in the next few days, but no rush to do this as I know I wont get chance to play the game probalby until the weekend.

As always, thanks for reading and any comments greatly appreciated!

TTFN.

Colours 2026 Show Report

It's early September, it's the start of Autumn, so that must mean it's time for my annual trip to the Colours wargames show, held at Newbury racecourse. Even though the traffic was unusually busy for the time of day on the M4, I still arrived about 10 minutes before the doors opened. As always it was good to see a large queue of people waiting to get in, which is not only good for the show, the traders but of course for us gamers as it means the show is in rude health and likely to continue for many a year to come.

Once inside, I took my time to have a bit of a wander around all three floors, just to see what is on offer, alongside my normal stop at the book stands, but more on that later. But first I know most people simply want to see the games on show, so without further ado here they are. Apologies if I get anything wrong, as there were some no-shows and some of the games were not as per the floor plan. First world problems and all that!

The Lance & Longbow Society, with their skirmish rules, 'By Oath Sire'. Too much table clutter for my liking, but good to see the game actually being played!

Company of Makers, with a mix of Sci-Fi skirmish games.

Interesting to see this banner and the funding provided by HM government.

Standing Ready Games? with some 1930's action going on.

Bataille Empire and 'The Battle of Fuentes de Onoro'.

Liverpool Wargames Association and Spartan vs Greek City State, 15mm.

The Pike & Shot Society and some 28mm ECW. 

Lots of lovely figures on display.

I always like to see a fortified manor house, as I want to make one for my games one day.

An idea of how big the table was. 

INWTS Games & 1940 Norway naval battle. This seemed to be very popular.

The Society of Ancients, Guagemela, using Impetus 2 (that will make Jon Freitag happy😉!).

A lone Persian showing a certain 'sang froid'.

Oxford Wargames Club, Bloody Big Battles, The Wilderness 1864.

Figures from Pendraken (10mm).

Leggetts and the 'Siege of Maiden Hillfort'.

Shepway Wargames and War of the Roses. I didn't clock this was the WotR until editing these photos!

A lovely castle.

Ditto the figures.

Beaconsfield Wargames and Sharp Practice?

Nicely done cobbles, maybe with embossed wallpaper?

Lots of lovely terrain, which caught my eye for my planned Italian hill town.

Wargames Association of Reading, DBMM & Cunaxa 401 BC.

Deeprose Games & 15mm Peninsula War.

Too Fat Lardies & Vexillarius Ancients?

It would appear to be the Battle of Marathon.

Southbourne Table Top & Boardgamers, Club 1813 (clever title!).

Ecorcheurs & 'Will the Portcullis Fall at the Castle?' A nice game, but they were struggling to see and manouevre the miniatures when I took this photo.

Lots of great terrain once again.

Sorry, but no idea on this one.

Anschluss Wargames & 'A Small Town in Russia'. they always do a really nice small game to demo their rules.

Sadly no idea on this game.

Table Top Battles & 'The Battle of Schleswig' in 15mm, using grides for movement etc.

Grey Company & 'Amon Hen'. We used to play these rules a lot at the club many years ago.

Peter Pig and their 'Bloody Barons' WotR rules.

Rapid fire demo game, France 1944 by the look of it.

My 'loot'. I love these books and from a quick flick through, this looks to be all I hoped it would be. Another project looms...?

Thoughts on the Show

In the end I spent 3 1/2 hours at the show, much longer than I normally would do. I decided to take my time and just wander, rather than feel the need to whizz round and get back home, which I normally do. This made the day much more enjoyable, allowing me take it all in, chat with people etc. So in no particular order:

• Having had a wander, I sat down with Chris, Dave and Dr Mark Smith (General Lee) to play BBB and The Wilderness 1864. Even though I was comprehensively beaten by Mark, it was a great game and, as always with BBB, you get to appreciate how much terrain affects your actions. It was good to catch up with the chaps after the Waterloo game and to chew the cud as it were.
• My bright yellow hoodie did the trick and I was happy to meet David from Suffolk, for a brief, but very pleasant chat. It's rare you get the chance to meet fellow Bloggers FtF, but when you do, you realise why you follow their Blogs, because we seem to share similar views and thoughts on our wonderful hobby. Sadly I didn't get to meet him again, but there is always another show or online.
• The show has plenty of seating, which is we know, is not always the case at shows. The venue is bright and airy, so being able to take a break in pleasant surroundings is such a treat. Other shows take note!
• Books. Despite having been going to Colours for many years now, I'm always amazed at some of the pricing on show and the differences between the sellers. Some of the prices have to be seen to be believed, especially for many books that I know are cheaper online and come with free delivery. 
• This always seems to be a show for buyers, with the games coming in second place, compared to say Partizan which is the other way round. There was certainly a lot more Sci-Fi and 3D printing on show this year. Pendraken were noticeable by their absense, but will be back on the show circuit next year. I did notice that no-one was selling dice, tokens etc compared to other years, ditto rulebooks unless they came from some of the big boys. Maybe this simply reflects the online buying habits that are so common these days?
• The show did seem busy, after the usual scramble for products on the lower floors, as by lunchtime, the top floor was more busy than usual, which again is good to see. Even when I left at 1.30pm, some people were still arriving. Good to see the show doing well again after a few years when it was looking so good compared to others around the country.
• I think it was a good mix of games, with large and small on show, with those show stoppers and ones you could put on at home or at the club, with no trouble at all.
• This year I noticed a slightly younger demographic, possibly as the result of more Sci-Fi and Fantasy being on show, with families in attendance and the kids seeming to have a good time.

What Next?

Well I have the final scenario for the Greco-Italian War 1940 all fleshed out, so it just remains for me to get things set up so that I can play it. After that I need to see what takes my fancy, but September is looking busy on the Home Front, so I;m not sure how much time I'm going to have for anything gaming related, other than reading books.

Right, enough waffle from me. I hope you enjoyed this and as always, any comments greatly appreciated, assuming Blogger allows you to see this!

TTFN.