The Battle of Marathon

No - I'm not dead - just been rather busy with one thing and another for the past couple of months. I'll try to fill you in on recent gaming activity. In July Martin Rapier and I refought Marathon using Phil Sabin's Strategos rules and my 6mm Baccus figures. A spurt of painting activity early in the summer had increased my collection of Hoplites and doubled my Persian infantry.

I ended up commanding the Persian Army (like they needed another handicap!) and we went with the historical deployment as set out in the Strategos book. This is seen from the Persian side above.

Early Persian sucesses were swiftly reversed as the (much) better quality of the Greek infantry began to tell. Finally the survivors ran for the boats and began an apprehensive voyage home wondering how the hell to explain it all to the King of Kings.

Triples 2009

This years outing to Triples (in Sheffield, for those of you who don't know!) featured our new game Sturmstaffel. In this participation game, up to 6 players take the part of German 'volunteer' fighter pilots defending the Reich in up-gunned and up-armoured Fw190s against a formation of B-17s.
The favoured approach was the frontal assault, turning after passing through the bomber stream and picking off the damaged and crippled.
Sturmstaffel kept us all (me, John Armatys, Jerry Elsmore, Nick Mitchell and Martin Rapier) busy throughout the weekend. I reckon that we had over 100 players in total!
Other highlights of Triples included the MAD Gamers participation game of Isandlwana (by reflex I just shouted 'Zulu') which Martin and I played late on Sunday afternoon. Suffice it to say that there were no British survivors and that one om my Impis captured Lord Chelmsford's colours. The game provided an interesting contrast to my last 'visit' to Isandlwana (also using Baccus 6mm figures) at Wayne Thomas' games day in late 2007. On that occasion I was the only British survivor - saved only by a Flashman-like headlong flight with the colours wrapped round my quaking body!

Operations hampered by bad weather!

Gaming activity over the past week consisted of Martin Rapier's offering of Operation Blockbuster as a Megablitz game (see more on Martin's 'The Games We Play' blog). John Armatys and I made convincing tired Germans while, for the Allies, Nick Mitchell got stuck in to the fighting while Jerry Elsmore struggled with traffic control and logistics.

Martin provided virtually all of the (20mm) toys while I mechanized the Canadian infantry in a Kangaroo and a de-frocked Priest. I knew that Kangaroo would come in handy. I really should paint the other one! I also unleashed my Ersatz rail gun - see photo - can you guess how I made it? (Cue cries from the cheap seats of "badly!")

I also managed an Airsoft outing on Sunday. This saw the debut of my new G3A3 rifle which achieved a few long-range 'kills'.

The weather hasn't really restricted me (not being a soft southerner) although I did call off a business trip to Somerset on Thursday. Other than that my Honda CR-V has taken me everywhere I pointed it including, on Sunday, across a snowy field! Only to be greeted by my dear friends Andrew and Heidi muttering "Bloody show-off!"

More airsofting planned for this weekend, but I'll try to do some painting too.

Vapnartak

Made a rare spur of the moment decision to attend Vapnartak in York yesterday. A pleasant little (but growing) show held in the racecourse buildings. I'd not been for 3 years so it was a nice surprise to find parking easier than I remembered. A decent range of traders were present together with a good range of games. Some good stuff on the bring & buy too. I finally bought a load (150+) of 20mm Italian Paras and a few (40) US Paras for a knock down price late in the day. The Italians will be plundered and the remnants sold on when I get round to it (let me know if you need any) but the US Paras are sufficiently nice that I'll probably keep them. The fact that there are enough of them to man a full Megablitz division helps too...

Over the weekend I managed to finish off the current batch of 6mm stuff. The Soviet SAM-2 and SAM-3 look as if they escaped from the 'Thunderbirds' props cupboard, while I look forward to the 'Thin Skin' and 'Fan Song' radars being jeered at when they finally appear in public. All of these are CinC models, by the way. The Arctic Front MR Rgt looks well too. All of the toys are either GHQ or CinC and the bases are flocked to match my 'winter' Hexon. I'll post some pics in the fullness of time. I'm thinking Norwegians next - infantry in Volvo Bv202s with a few frosty Leopards. I'll not plan too far ahead in case readers expect me to finish stuff in this lifetime.