Bassett’s Broken Bits Bonus Box

You’ll no doubt recall this post from last year.  Subsequently I was contacted by a Mr Bassett who asked me not to publish his name again. So I won’t. Anyway, and changing the subject entirely, a few weeks ago I was contacted by ‘John B’ who mentioned that he had located another box of pre-loved plastic. Would I like it?  Well yes, obviously!

On arrival at COW last weekend he duly presented me with the box in the photo.  If anything this is an even more exciting collection than last year’s.  And yes, that is an Fw200 Condor on top  well, most of it.  

Once I’ve had a chance to sort through the contents I’ll post more photos. Some will be beyond rescue but the potential survivors will each be rated for completeness, desirability and work required. 

For the moment please entertain yourself and us all by naming as many models as you can identify. 

Thanks again John! If that’s even your real name. 

Conference Of Wargamers 2022

COW 2022 has been and gone. All the feedback I have so far had indicate is was a great success. My heartfelt thanks again to all those who contributed to the weekend.

Our usual venue being unavailable, this year we were at the Defence Academy Of The United Kingdom in Shrivenham. I’ve visited and indeed run games at Shrivenham several times previously. 

Attendees assemble for the conference opening. Photo by Tom Mouat. 

Left a bit, down a bit, fire!  In the same building was the tank room. Photo by Chris Ager. 

As a former Saab owner I was pleased to see this bit of the firm still going strong.

The tank room had a few new toys since last time. A fine AH-1.

BMD.  I still can't figure out how you get a rifle squad in there.  At least not in 1:1 scale.

A recently surplussed Tornado

The games were many and varied - here I prepare to distribute buckets of sunshine in John Salt's updated Neverwar game.  It didn't go all that well for the Sovs but I did at least manage to light up East Anglia.

Gettysburg - the Avalon Hill boardgame

Having been invited to help run a 54mm Gettysburg game later this month I’ve been doing a little reading up.  I have long been a fan of board games as a source of maps and research, even if I don’t often play such things.  However, I chanced upon a temptingly priced copy of this old AH game which has the right sort of complexity for me - not much!  

Last weekend I set the thing up to play through the Day Two (2 July) scenario. The board is undeniably pretty and the counters clearly printed.  I mostly took photos at the end of each pair of turns (CS then US) and shared them as I went along on a couple of WhatsApp groups. 

0600-0800.  The Rebs take Cemetery Hill….

…and fend off Yankee counterattacks. 

0800-1000.  More carnage on the hills, with the Rebs trying to maintain their foothold and fragment the US line. 

1000-1200.  The Feds looking a bit shaky but there are loads of the sods. 

1200-1400.  More carnage and a possible US comeback. 

1400-1600.  The font lines fragment. The white stripes on some units indicate that they’ve been flipped to their weaker side. 

1600-1800.  This is now a real slogging match with US reinforcements still arriving. 

1800-2000.  As night finally falls, some Confederate units go under. 

The final result was - on points at least - a clear win for Lee and his chums but it felt a lot closer during play. Really quite a nice game.  I particularly like the combat system where if you lose you retreat.  If you lose by quite a margin you take a step loss and by a large margin two step losses. 

And yes, I know I got some rules wrong (this is me remember!). 

My thanks to all those who gave virtual shouts of encouragement on WhatsApp - Paul, Mike, Diego and Russell. 

And finally, I’d be remiss in failing to mention Tim C’s impressive 6mm Gettysburg game he ran at the Joy Of Six show on the same day:

A welcome return?

 

I’m conscious that I’ve rather neglected the blog on the past few months. I’ll attribute this mostly to work which has left me disinclined to endure yet more screen time.  Anyway, I’ve had a couple of weeks away and have a massive backlog of game and holiday photos to share.  

Where have I been?  Well the photo above is a clue to one country. If you can name the two others (more photo clues below) you win the right to name some figures in a 1916 British ‘Pals’ battalion.  I know, not much of a prize but it is that time of year. 

Oh, and if I’ve seen or spoken to you since my return, you are disqualified!  

UPDATE 6 July:  So far we have Netherlands and Belgium  but what’s the third?