Return of the Egyptians and Hittites

On the night of 26th January 2009 the Egyptians came back. Thought I had recalled taking some photos of a game before which used Egyptians however after searching the blog it appears no photos or game reports of such a game have ever appeared on this blog. So it means the game happened pre-blog. The Egyptian game with piccies will be reserved for last on this post.

Monday night just gone fellow grimsby wargamer Steve Walker dropped in with some of the new armies he had been painting up. He showed several of us some of his 15mm WW2 army which were Flames of War figures I believe. Steve let me take a photo of some tanks (above).

The tanks were: Tiger (upfront) and Crusader (at the back). As you can see there is an armoured car in the middle.
Steve has just recently started his own blog. There is a permanent link to it on the right or you can just click here:
http://panzerfaustepainting.blogspot.com/

Please drop by his blog and have a look.

Also that night Mark Alcock and John Ogden were having a 15mm Napoleonic game.

Mark was the French (on the right) while John was Russian (on left).

Both sides beginning building up their forces in the middle.

French and Russian forces battle for control of the Farmhouse. Notice there are more Russian forces here (front of the photo).

Close up of the Russian forces advancing on the French. In the end it was the Russians who won. The outcome of the game was not helped by Mark's dice throwing which was worse than normal. It only hindered him unfortunately.

Finally we reach the Egyptians v Hittites game. All the figures in it were Dave Tucks. Playing on Dave's side as the Egyptians was Dave and Ron Skeet. The Hittites side was Mike Barnatt and Tony Walmsley.

The scenario involved the Egyptians getting this Sphinx and a Mummy's Casket (picture to come) to the port. Think the game was partly inspired by an article in Battlegames magazine by Ross Mcfarlane about Persians v Assyrians. The terrain boards were the club's though other little touches like the Egyptian buildings, the Sphinx, Mummy and Egyptian boats were all Dave's.

Chariots on the Run....

Normally there are Pharoah's in these things however this fella seems to be a Pharoah size as he is huge! Look at the size of the casket compared to the size of the other men!.....

Oh Mummy!! Yep, there is even a Mummy inside. It is Tuck-Sun-Amun which translates as Son of Tuck.

A photo of the rules being used which were written by Dave Tuck. As far as I know I think they will be just for club use. These are similar to the ones the club already uses for Ancients. These one's in particular have been coined "Warmati" as they use elements from the Armati and Warmaster rulesets. Dave and Mike were just playtesting them for this game.

I am looking forward to tomorrow when I will be going to a wargames show I have never been to before. Vapnartak at York Racecourse. Never been to the Racecourse before either. It is possible it could be snowy weather while I am up there with several other grimsby wargamers at the show and will certainly be feeling really cold judging by the forecast. As usual my digital camera will do the talking when I get back for those of you who were not able to attend.

Let it Snow......

The Other Partizan 2008: 1st Carlist War

As finally promised here is the video to accompany the photos previously posted on my blog.

The Other Partizan 2008: The Edge of Bautzen 1813

As finally promised here is the video to accompany the photos previously posted on my blog.

The Other Partizan 2008: Ligny 1815

As finally promised here is the video to accompany the photos previously posted on my blog.

Wargames At The Club 19th January 2009

My first Monday night of 2009 at the club. Only dropped in this time. Hoping to get back to playing and joining in again soon. As usual, took a few pics of the games that were played. There were 3 games that night.

Dave Tuck (left) and Steve Mercer (right) were engaging in a 15mm American Civil War Battle.

Dave was the Union while Steve was playing as the Confederates.

Some of Steve's Rebs taking the long way round to the Battlefield.

The ACW playsheet. This is the advanced version of the playsheet that had been used in the October 2008 ACW game at Dave's house. Its report can be found here:
http://grantsgrimsbygames.blogspot.com/2008/12/battle-of-stones-river-1862-at-daves.html

Mike Barnatt (left) and Tony Walmsley (right) playing 6mm Ancients. Indians v Alexandrians (Greeks).

A close up of some of the action in the 6mm Ancients game. Personally I find this scale too small for me and could hardly see anything even when I tried to look up close. Those lads have obviously got better eyesight than me.

Mike built this fort at home for his 6mm Ancients game.

A nice large War of the Spanish Succession game on our big table. The players were: Paul Robinson (Grimsby Mariner) as the French, on the left of the photo; Andy Hamilton (on right of photo) and Mark Alcock (not in photo) as the Anglo-Dutch.

An "aerial" view of the WSS action in the middle of the table.

Cavalry Melee between the French and the Anglo-Dutch.

The French won the entire battle. Read Paul's report here at:
http://grimsbywargaming.blogspot.com/2009/01/monday-19th-january.html

President Obama

I missed President Obama's inauguration speech yesterday but finally caught up with it today. It was a really good speech and well received by just about everybody. Before going to college yesterday I did manage to catch Vice President Joe Biden being sworn in.

Interestingly Obama used the same bible that Abraham Lincoln used at his inauguration on March 4th 1861 in the early days of the American Civil War. Presumably this was a symbolic gesture by Obama. Capitol Hill and many other parts of Washington had been built by Slaves. Slavery was in the Heritage of the First Lady Michelle Obama's blood. Apart from keeping the Union together it was Abraham Lincoln who eventually ended Slavery in the 1860's.

Here is President Obama being sworn in:



And his speech:

The Inauguration of President Barack Obama

The whole world is watching as a new president is inaugurated. The first African-American to become President of the United States. Some will say that he's the first black president but I don't judge him by his colour. His ideas seem a lot more conciliatory than George W Bush particularly on the International front. He comes across a bit more thoughtful and cool headed.
Millions have converged on Washington DC for Barack Obama's Inauguration not suprisingly. Over here the ceremony and speech will begin at 5pm (UK time) so I will catch it later as I am at college tonight. We all hope that things will get better from now on and maybe they will. So until Obama gets into the business of doing things including on the international stage we won't know if they will.

Below is a vid from The Daily Show about Barack Obama's rise to the presidency:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Barack Obama: Path to the Presidency

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

And another Youtube vid regarding those famous slip-ups of George W Bush who quite often was unable to electrocute his words correctly:

Wars of the Roses 29th December 2008

....at Dave Tuck's place. This was the last wargame I played of 2008. Playing in this game were Dave Tuck, Martin Buck, myself and Mike Barnatt. Dave was the Yorkists, ably assisted by Martin while I was on Mike's side. The rules used were Piquet.

As usual everybody throws dice at the beginning to find out what type of troops they have. Unlucky for Mike, mine turned out to be treacherous while his were both treacherous and Wrath. Mike was playing with more troops than me.

Mike and Dave setting out their forces.

View down the line of the Lancastrian forces with Mike (minus head) in the background.

These were the troops I was playing with.

The Yorkist forces.

Most of the action took place in the middle on our side of the table. There was some at the top, both controlled by Mike.

On the left, The Duke of Somerset I believe from the Lancastrian side. (Note to self: must try to remember the names of important historical figures in games).

My troops finally in melee. They had been treacherous little so-and-so's standing about getting shot at and twiddling their thumbs for a lot of the game. The enemy ended up coming to me as I had not actually moved that much all game.

Some more of my troops in melee. Mine are on the left.

In the middle you can see Mike's troops (upfront) struggling against the Yorkists.

My troops (with rings on). Despite taking casualties earlier in the game and being surrounded actually somehow managed to survive till the game ended.

At the end of the game my other troops were starting to feel a little under pressure.

The scoreboard. Basically it was used to determine how many units were needed before either side lost the game. Dave needed 19 units to lose the game whereas we required 18. Dave only lost 8 units all game where unfortunately we ended up losing all of ours.

It was a great game and all thoroughly enjoyed it. Dave as usual kept us hydrated and made a good dinner for us all. His hospitality is hard to match. However I would like to add...

We'll get ya next time Tucky....:)

The Other Partizan 2008: The Edge of Bautzen 1813

This game focusing on The Edge of Bautzen 1813 was put on by The Old Sergeants Mess. Set in 1813 the idea is that Napoleon's forces set out to destroy the Russian and Prussian combined forces and off to Bautzen they went. The demonstration focuses on the events of 20th May.

These photos were the first photos taken of the day. They got better as time went on...Some video footage was also taken and will appear soon.

The Other Partizan 2008: Ligny 1815

My favourite game of the show at The Other Partizan. The Battle of Ligny, June 16th, 1815 put on display by The League of Gentleman Wargamers. The League of Gentleman Wargamers are part of the League of Augsburg. The terrain for this game was made by Adrian Howe. The figures are all from the collections of Kevin Calder, Peter Nicholson, Adrian Howe, Peter McCaroll, Barry Hilton and David Imrie who are all members of the League. Other members of the LOGW are Dale Smith, Colin Jack, Dave O'Brien, Brigadier Charles S Grant, Andrew Nicholson, Andrew Thomson, Steve Shaw and Angus Konstam. The rules used for this game were Republic to Empire by Barry Hilton.

The game was covered in detail with great photos (not by me) in a recent issue of Battlegames.













As always the figures and game by the LOGW as well as The League of Augsburg are excellent and recommend anyone going to see their games.

There is a little video footage to come. It's the closest to seeing it "live".

The Other Partizan 2008: Perry's 1st Carlist War

Last year I accidentally misplaced some of my photos from The Other Partizan 2008 on September 7th 2008. Here is just one set of them from the Perry's 1st Carlist War display game. There are more photos to come from other games.

Some monks in the nearby Monastery.

A close up of some Cavalry.





Richard Tyndall of Newark Irregulars took a shot similar to this before I took mine. Was stood next to him at the time.

Some video footage of this game was taken. It will reappear later.

Great Grimsby Gaming Group

The Great Grimsby Gaming Group as they call themselves are technically not part of the Grimsby Wargames Society but play at the club on Tuesday nights. The group has contributed quite substantially financially to the club's income for many years now which is just one reason we like having them here. They are a friendly, lively bunch. On any one night there could be up from 35-40 people in the building. We can't match that on a Monday night. Along with a few others who play on Monday, I signed up to become a member of the group about a year ago.

Yesterday I revised the page on the group that I had displayed on our official website (see pic above). There are more photos to upload to the site and bring those galleries up to date. More will be taken this year. It's not practical to do the same thing for the group that I would do for the Grimsby Wargames Society so I'll just take some pics every few months of some interesting games. The most recent photos I took from one of the group's game nights were taken on 8th April 2008 - some of which are below. Only took first names of the players too. If you want to find out who they are you'll have to come down on a Tuesday night.......

This is from a game called Aeronautica which at the time was being played by Ken and John.

A game of "basic" Warhammer 40K, at the time being played by Rick, Danny and Stef. I say "basic" as there are that many different rulebooks to do with various creatures etc in Warhammer.

Another photo of that same 40K game.

Warhammer 40K Codex. Playing were Olly, Glenn, Steve, John, Glen, Les and Liam. Those Games Workshop figures have always been good but those tanks and other machinery look great.

Some figures occupying one of the 40K Codex buildings.

These busty ladies will not only trim your hedges but possibly give you a haircut too. Judging by their clothing you might even get a free spanking...if you like that sort of thing.... 40K Codex again.

These are Tombkings from Warhammer 40K belonging to Tom.

These fellas in the house are Aaron's Dark Elves.

The name of this game escapes me at the moment however it involves several fleets or groups of ships attacking each other. I believe these belonged to Chris Duncan.

Since these were taken my photography has improved as has the lighting in the club so any future photos will be much better than these.