Going Back To My Roots

I find myself in a reflective mood, post the Colours wargames show, as it seems to me a time of the year when I take stock of things after the Summer has passed, with the onset of the desire for some Autumn and Winter campaigning and painting beckoning. Chatting with fellow gamers is always such a joy, especially when you meet kindred spirits, as I did once again this year.

I suppose maybe with the advancing years, our long lost youth holds many wonderful but, maybe somewhat rose tinted, memories of those halycon days. Certainly the Summer of '76 fits the bill for sure which was somewhat replicated this year, but just a tad warmer! So what was it about those days that I, and others too, seem keen to re-gain?

Personally it's just getting back to enjoying playing with the toys, having fun and not worrying too much about who won, how historically accurate our forces are etc. Afterall I can still remember playing on our driveway, with Airfix and Matchbox figures and models, with whatever we had to hand. Outdoors invariably became the Western Desert, indoors Normandy. We didn't worry about the fact that a Crusader MkII wouldn't have met a Tiger I in NWE, we were just happy to have something to play with!

I fear these days that certain sets of rules (I mention no names!) have almost brow beaten us into trying to get every OOB correct, forgetting the fact that this was only ever in theory on a piece of paper, but never reflected the reality of the situation on the ground. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me for some that fun of doing research and creating scenarios from it has given way to ready made 'plug-&-play' ones. Of course they have their place, but to me they are maybe too prescriptive for the sort of games I like to play these days?

So for many years now, I've wholeheartedly embraced the ImagiNations route, certainly for the 'Black Powder' period, which has been very liberating and, dare I say it, fun! Being able to use any toys I like, within reasonably historical constraints, has taken me back to those happy childhood games. This has now even extended to WWII and my South Glos and French Canadien forces, that were completely inspired by David in Suffolk and his fictional West Suffolks and there battles in Italy. We briefly chatted about this at Colours and how liberating I found this, especially for my narrative campaign approach to gaming these days. At some point the Cambridgeshire or Huntingdonshire Regiments will make their debut in Burma or the Far East

Well the wargames butterfly has been rather frantically flapping its wings here, as since buying the Sino-Japense War book, I have been actively pondering how best to game this. For many a year I have fancied getting a small Chinese force, but the recent video which mentioned L3/35's being used in Burma tipped me over the edge. Temptation is such a terrible thing! So I've ordered the Osprey book on Chinese troops 1937-1949 for a bit more background info before deciding upon which troops to buy. Currently I'm torn between using WWI Germans or British, with the Indo-China range a big favourite too. Being able to game in some different theatres with the Chinese and of course the Japanese is a big bonus. Then of course you've got the Flying Tigers for air support, along with some other cool aircraft that rarely get a mention, the 200th Iron Division and so on and so forth. Watch this space!

Whilst researching the above War, the Warlord era gave me an idea to sort of use that as an idea for another AVBCW campaign. But rather than Warlords per se, I thought that having Parish Councils fighting each other would certainly fit the background fluff and add a bit of a fun narrative twist to the games. 

Inspiration is coming thick and fast, as Browning's 'War of the Austrian Succession' has given me a good few ideas for some Rebels & Patriots type games, similar to the 'Wienerschnitzel Krieg' campaign I played last year. I didn't know about all the small scale actions going on in Moravia, Bohemia and Bavaria, with the Austrians sending in their Hussars, Pandours, Grenzers et all to wreak havoc, alongside the locals joining in. So with this in mind I'm hoping to paint up some more of my 19thC troops (I know, wrong period!) to play this out in the similar time frame to the Wienerschnitzel Kreig. Maybe even the same protaganists will appear again?

Having loved the Blandford ACW book, I treated myself to the Blandford books on the British Infantry and Cavalry 1742-1939, by Robert and Christopher Wilkinson-Latham. Although not as good as the ACW book, they do have a lot of ground to cover in comparison, so maybe I'm being a bit harsh! Having said that, they are a useful reference for my ImagiNations forces and nicely complement other books I have that feature within this time frame. 

Right, enough waffle for me and so time to get back to 'real life' stuff! Fingers crossed I might get some priming done later on today, to push some projects forward for use in some planned up coming games.

Thanks for getting this far and, if Blogger actually shows this up in Feeds etc, thanks for reading and any comments greatly appreciated!

TTFN.