Website Back Up

The website has in fact been back up most of last night at the usual address of http://www.gywargames.co.uk

If there any problems let me know.

Website Temporarily Down

Hi all,

I am about to temporarily take the website down while a new server is installed. It should not be down for any longer than 24 hours. Will keep you posted should there be a problem.
This is mainly so that the server can host more than 1 website because it only supports 1 at the moment, which of course is the Grimsby Wargames Society.

Over the weekend I will post photos from my last visit to the club. Also I went to Partizan on Sunday with several of us from the club so my Partizan photos should also be posted soon.

Gurkha Justice Campaign update from Joanna Lumley

At midday today, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith made the announcement to the House of Commons that the Gurkha Justice Campaign have been fighting for for years. All ex-Gurkhas who have served more than 4 years in the British Army will have the right to settle in the UK if they wish.

After such a long fight, with huge ups and downs, this is a superb announcement.

We simply would not have won this fight without the massive, overwhelming support of all those who have supported our campaign. To the hundreds of thousands of people who have signed Gurkha Justice petitions, lobbied their MP, campaigned, attended rallies and marches - thank you so much to you all. This is your victory. It would not have happened without you.

The Government has now responded to that campaign after court cases, votes in Parliament, a huge media campaign and, most importantly, massive public support. I am delighted, and humbled, at what has been achieved by our remarkable team.

The whole campaign has been based on the belief that those who have fought and been prepared to die for our country should have the the right to live in our country. We owe them a debt of honour - a debt that will now be paid.

With warmest good wishes,

Joanna
www.gurkhajustice.org.uk

This message has been sent to those who have signed up for the Gurkha Justice campaign by signing at www.gurkhajustice.org.uk or on a printed petition for supplying your email address. You can opt-out of further correspondence from the campaign at any time by email to optout@gurkhajustice.org.uk

Thank you for signing the Gurkha Justice Campaign petition

Thank you so much for signing the Gurkha Justice petition, and joining our
campaign.

Already, tens of thousands of people have signed: an extraordinary response
in support of an extraordinary group of people.

We demand the full, fundamental change in law that will allow all retired
Gurkhas the right to live here. The Government's decision on 25th April
goes nowhere near far enough. Many thousands of Gurkhas who served our
country will still be refused the right to live here.

The High Court demanded new rules from the Government. The Government's
response has been awful. We must be clear. We want the right for all
Gurkhas who have served this country to live here if they wish.

To make the biggest possible impact, we really need more people to sign up:
lots more. We need to form one of the biggest ever campaigns to force the
to change their mind and to show our support for the Gurkha cause.

Your support for the campaign is a fantastic boost: thank you so much. But,
if possible, I need to ask you to help to encourage others to sign.

Firstly, ask all of your friends and colleagues to sign up to the Gurkha
Justice Campaign at www.gurkhajustice.org.uk - please do forward them this
email, or email or contact them directly yourself.

And secondly, you can now download a petition form for signing from
www.gurkhajustice.org.uk/gurkha_campaign_petition_form.pdf. Please download
and print some copies, and ask friends and colleagues who have not signed
on line to sign up. Please do pass it round (some friends of mine have run
street stalls asking people for their signatures - I'm not asking you to
go that far!) and return completed sheets to me at the address on the form
as soon as possible.

I will be in touch again in the near future with other ways you can help:
I hope you will be able to do so.

Finally - thank you again for your support. Together, we must finally right
this wrong.

With warmest good wishes,

Joanna Lumley
for the Gurkha Justice Campaign

This message has been sent to people who have signed up to the Gurkha
Justice Campaign at www.gurkhajustice.org.uk.
You can opt-out of further correspondence from the campaign at any time by
email to optout@gurkhajustice.org.uk.

Wargames at Club 27th April 2009

War on the Eastern Front again. This time between Mike Barnatt as the Russians and Dave Tuck as the Germans. The goal of the Russians was to make sure the Germans were not able to connect with their forces at the very top of the table.

It is my understanding that the Russians did not succeed in their mission. Sadly as I was preoccupied playing in a board game no other photos were taken of this game. By the time this photo was taken the game had finished with only the board game 75% of the way through.

Blitzkrieg Commander rules were once again used for this battle.

As above the photos of this WW1 game were done after sneaking off the board game for 5 minutes while waiting my turn to come round.

These days I try to take better pics with my digital camera aiming to take more "artistic" photographs - still working on that - which have a decent amount of light with more depth to them. Many of the photos on this post have a depth of F7.7 or more but not all. The lighting at the club has improved considerably at the club in the past year which helps plus I don't use a flash anyway and always use my camera's built in macro lens. All the photos on this post that have an F of 7.7 or more will be pointed out.

The above photo is of Mal Taylors WW1 Germans in a battle with Andy Hamilton's British. Here they are slightly dug-in. The photo is F7.7

Andy Hamilton's British were attacking the town. These chaps are quite literally on the outskirts.

This photo is F8.7

Mal's Germans scouting the town which the Germans were occupying anyway. This photo is F8.7

More of Andy's British descend towards the town. Things were getting a little rough for the British about half way through the game but apparently evened out later on. The end result was much more of a draw.

This photo is F9.9

Finally we get to the board game I have been banging on about all post. The board game pictured is Friedrich named after Frederick the Great set in the period of the Seven Years War.

Playing were James as the Russian and Swedish, John Ogden as the Austrians and Imperial Army and myself as the French. Mark was the Prussians and Hannoverians, who had the unlucky task of having to defend himself against the rest of us. Each player was allocated a certain amount of armies which were able to battle other armies. The armies are the round counters while the cubes are their supply trains. Each player had to achieve a certain number of objectives to win the game. In my case the French required to achieve 10 objectives.

Most of the French objectives were in Hannover. The small flat squares are objectives. As you can see I somehow managed to achieve my 10 objectives and thus I won the game. My last objective was protected by 2 of Mark's armies so in order to win it and protect it I had to battle his armies and win, which is what I did. The Hannoverians only had 2 armies while the French had 3.

Friedrich eventually finished just after midnight several hours after everyone else had left. I really enjoyed the game and would be happy to play it again.

The photo above has an F of 7.7 and shows everyone's positions at the end of the game. The French are in Red.

On the subject of Photography it has been noticed by me that the higher the F value of a photo the longer exposure it may require. Part of the fun is making sure that the photo is not overexposed - not too dark and not too light. The LCD display on a digital camera can be deceiving as it appears lighter on the LCD display than when it is downloaded. All photos taken above, as always, had an ISO of 80, the lowest ISO on my camera for the best quality photo.