GWS on Grimsby Telegraph Website

Last Tuesday morning, the 21st September 2010, I emailed some photos I took at the Grimsby Wargames Society to my local paper The Grimsby Telegraph. To date none of them have yet been published in the paper but however have been put on display with other reader’s photos on the Grimsby Telegraph website (see left). It was mainly to see if this approach would work whilst at the same time hoping to raise the club’s profile. After all, someone might see a photo of some games at the club and try to track us down on google.

These 2 photos from a recent Rapid Fire! game will probably be on the website for many weeks as they will move along slowly on the slideshow the more other photos are added to it.

I therefore encourage other Grimsby Wargames Society members to send their wargames photos, with a caption, to the Grimsby Telegraph. For the details on how to do this read the Grimsby Telegraph: Your Pictures page. Those members who do wish to send some photos: Do not resize them! Send them at the original size they were downloaded from your camera.

It is my intention to keep on sending some pics of games at the club every few weeks to the Grimsby Telegraph and we’ll see what happens.

Rapid Fire! game 20th September 2010

Andy Hamilton and Mal Taylor played a Rapid Fire! game. All the figures and vehicles in this game were owned by Mal Taylor who also set the scenario.

The scenario was that the Germans had to keep the road open so that their troops could withdraw down that route. In this game Andy was the Germans. To begin with Andy had a few companies of Germans.

Mal then sent in his paratroopers using those famous gliders of his. Mal’s gliders have been in the Rapid Fire! books as well as having been to many a wargames show such as the shows at Bovington Tank Museum.

As you can see 4 of Mal’s Gliders were in use in this game. Things were not going well for Andy, however, he was allowed reinforcements……

In the form of Panzer Grenadiers which appeared at the top of the road (nearest the wall) before dismounting them to attack the bridge.

Andy was determined to retake the Bridge….

 

 

Andy also had some Recce units come on shortly after the Panzer Grenadiers.

Sadly, as time was getting on, I did not see the final result of the game though it was highly unlikely that Andy won. He certainly put up quite a fight in order to try to achieve his objective.

The Gliders were not the only aircraft in this game. There was the Dakota Bomber (see left) and a Typhoon also in use.

Click on the thumbnails below to see a few more photos of this game.

 

 

 

Cavalry Encounter 20th September 2010

Mike Barnatt and Tony Waumsley had a 7 years War game using Tony’s 15mm figures. Tony was French whilst Mike was the Prussians.

They were in fact playing a Scenario called Cavalry Encounter from a recent issue of Battlegames.

In this the French had to enter from one side of the table (bottom right in the photo) whilst the Prussians had to enter from the other end. The French had to keep the road clear so that they could move their forces through.
Unfortunately as the French did not achieve their objective they lost the game. There was lots of rallying and plenty of melees but ultimately the Prussian forces stopped them.

At the same time John Ogden, Paul Robinson of the Grimsby Wargaming blog and Mark Alcock were having an extremely lengthy discussion on WW1 rules. I was hoping they would get their figures out and play a game but they were so engrossed in the discussion it never happened. To hand they had the rulesets To the Last Man, Through the Mud and the Blood and Schwerpunkt, which our own WW1 club rules are loosely based upon.

The 2nd South Carolina String Band

Following a link shared on Facebook by a friend I discovered the 2nd South Carolina String Band. After listening to their sound and music, I actually thought they weren’t bad at all. In addition having an interest in the American Civil War, listening to the 2nd South Carolina String Band was a bit like going back in time. The 2nd South Carolina String Band plays on American Civil War instruments, the songs they played and more importantly, the way the musicians would have played them at that time in history.

A few of their songs are below. The first song was actually sang at the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, in a field not far away from the battlefield itself. The 2nd song was sang exactly a year later in roughly the same location.

If you like these guys they have their own website. For a preview of their site click on the screenshot on the left. Their website address is http://civilwarband.com/

New Terrain being built at Grimsby

Over the past few months at the Grimsby Wargames Society, Andy Hamilton and Mal Taylor have been building our new terrain boards.

It is my understanding that there will be around 26 pieces of new terrain although the types of terrain and the period they are designed for has yet to be decided.

Having watched both Andy and Mal create the WW1 Trench boards, I will be looking forward to their eventual finish.

The photo above is of Mal Taylor using a gluegun to glue some grass/shrubbery and stones etc onto an unpainted terrain board. It was taken on 13th September 2010.

As you can see from the photo on the left, the next stage will be to apply a dark brown “wash” to the board.

The Other Partizan 2010: Heated Exchange

In this Heated Exchange Scenario, presented by Paul Darnell of Touching History at http://touchinghistory.blogspot.com, the town of Olite is being held by Sharpe’s 95th rifles and a small horde of Spanish Guerillas who are defending the bridge.

For this demo game Paul Darnell was ably supported by Ed (in the blue checked shirt), who is also another blogger. His blogger profile is here. His other blogs can be found here: http://modelmacedonianarmy.blogspot.com/  http://blackpowdergaming.blogspot.com/ and http://modelromanarmy.blogspot.com/.

Ed’s own report of the demo game he helped put on with Paul Darnell can be found at his Black Powder gaming blog here.

Personally I really liked the terrain and was quite impressed with the actual figures. The Buildings were really nice too. More information on the scenario can be found on The Touching History blog post Watch out the Spanish are about. Click here to read Paul Darnell’s Partizan report of the demo game. In the past I have been aware of The Touching History site and their games but perhaps not given them the attention they deserved. In future I will do.

Below are some of my photos from the Touching History game:

The Other Partizan 2010: Kings of the Sun

This game was one of the most interesting and colourful at Partizan. The figures and buildings, especially the pyramids, were brilliant. The period was slightly unusual.

Kings of the Sun tells the saga of Mayan refugees in search of settlement. After experiencing savage defeat in battle the leaders of an ancient mayan tribe decide to escape across the Gulf of Mexico to build a new community on the coast. However the land they have chosen as their home has already been claimed by a hostile tribe of Native Americans and their enigmatic leader Black Eagle, who refuses to withstand intruders.

This game was put on by The Bunker at http://www.thebunkergames.com which, at its Bunker Wargame Holiday Centre regularly puts on wargames events and is now offering single wargaming sessions. 

The Other Partizan 2010: Ardennes 1944

One of the best displays in the show was this Ardennes Recreation, due to the way its wonderful snowy terrain had been created.

It looked really impressive on the day. The Germans were attacking from the River (left) whilst some US Paratroopers were occupying the buildings next to it. Allied forces had been despatched to stop them.

All the figures used in this display were by 1st Corps

The Other Partizan 2010: Leignitz – April 9th 1241, The Mongols vs The Poles

To my knowledge it is not the first occasion that Curteys Miniatures have put on a display at a Wargames show using their Mongols. Nevertheless their figures were nice to see again.

The scenario was Leignitz – April 9th 1241 which was written by John Bianchi. Figures supplied by Curteys Miniatures. Figures painted by Phil Turner, Shaun Bryant and Simon and Michael Curtis.

Flags by Fluttering Flags. Mongol Gurs by Grand Manner.

Although I liked their Mongol figures, I found the colour and detail of the Poles really caught my eye. Here are a few more photos of the game:

Club Wargames 13th September 2010

On this occasion that I paid a flying visit to the Club I had, most unusually, forgotten to charge up my digital camera so took photos with my Nokia 6303 instead. There were 2 games plus a historical boardgame being played:

Steve Walker, Malc Johnston, Martin Buck and Dave Tuck were all playing at WW1 Dogfights using a ruleset based on the Knights of the Sky rules. All the planes used were Dave Tuck’s.

 

 

 

One of the German planes: The Gotha Bomber….

 

 

 

 

Mark Alcock overseeing the historical Boardgame “2 de Mayo” being played by Ashley Mann and Jason Whitfield. “2 de Mayo” is based on the terrible incidents of May 2nd 1808 in Madrid when civilians in Madrid, along with some Spanish army units, rebelled against the occupation force of Napoleon’s troops. More information on the game can be found here:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36522/2-de-mayo

Mike Barnatt (left) playing with Tony Waumsley in a Scottish Civil War game. Tony’s forces are the Covenanters whilst Mike’s forces were those commanded under the 1st Marquess of Montrose with some Irish forces to help.

Historically this battle would have taken place between 1644-45 when Montrose’s forces won a series of battles over the Covenanters.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Its my Birthday today! Without giving away my real age, I will say that I will be once again 21 for the 17th time or is that 17 again for the 21st time? Either way I look younger and feel younger than my genuine age.

It’s common knowledge that Doctor Who is one of my favourite programmes, so here is some classic Doctor Who for your enjoyment…..Well, its classic now, it was actually for Red Nose Day….(cue extremely cheesy evil laugh)……

Club Wargames 6th September 2010

It was my intention to come down to the club to join in in a game but due to the fact I was late arriving I ended up watching the chaos and destruction instead.
There were a small assortment of games: Warhammer, Wars of the Roses and War of the Spanish Succession.
Above you can see Dave Tuck’s godson James playing Ron Skeet at Warhammer. It was a basic Space Marines v Space Marines battle. From what I could gather, James appeared to be winning.

Dave Tuck (on left) was playing Mike Barnatt at Wars of the Roses. Mike was the Lancastrians as usual with Dave being the Yorkists.
It looked like them Lancastrians were getting another trouncing before I left…..

Below are a few more photos of the WOR game:

In this War of the Spanish Succession game were Mark Alcock as the English and Andy Hamilton and Mal Taylor as the Austrians using Andy’s Austrians.
Things were not looking good for the English when I left due to its commander’s poor dice throwing (not throwing high dice) which once again had reared its ugly head.
Here a few more pics of the WSS game:


This last photo is a close up of some of Andy Hamilton’s Austrians which are admired by all the club members, myself included, for the way Andy has based and excellently painted them.