WW1 again!

A full report of this game (played at the Sheffield Club on 20/01/2010) has already been posted by Martin Rapier on his blog (The Games We Play), so I'll try not to duplicate his efforts. Suffice it to say that the game was part of our continuing efforts to find the 'Holy Grail' of a playable WW1 Div/Corps level game. I think it worked.

Again we had 3 divisions - from left to right British (me), British (Jerry Elsmore) and French (John Armatys). My photos concentrate on my division (which was the most successful...)

Below we see my troops (accompanied by some of those new-fangled tank things) overrunning the German front line. Before anyone asks, the tank is indeed the old Airfix faithful (I have three of them).
Next we see my follow-up brigades about to brave no-mans land (and the German barrage). Nice to see another appearance from my 'Harry Tate' (RE-8) on the look-out for Jerry guns.

Towards the end of the game now, and my chaps are overrunning the Jerry communication trenches. We could have had a go at the second line but, well, orders are orders.

The same scene from a different angle (the RE-8 perhaps?) I wonder what will change in 1917...

My Kingdom for a halftrack

Following Bob Cordery's recent blog comments about the Ian McKellen version of Richard III (set in the 1930s), I was remembered that I have seen and taken photos of some of the AFVs used in the filming. The vehicles formed part of the Budge Collection whose Retford base hosted a MAFVA event in the mid-1990s. Sadly, few of my photos seem to have survived but they include a vehicle which was definitely in the film.

Below: Not a German Sdkfz-251 but an ex-Czech Army OT-810 APC. This still bears the markings it wore in the film.

The interior of the OT, looking in through the rear doors. Having subsequently sat in a BMP it looks positively spacious!

An ex-Polish (?) T-55. Very dusty.

A rebuilt T-34/85. Despite the Russian script this too may be ex-Polish as I recall Budge bought 10 of them (maybe there was a deal if you bought them by the company) which arrived complete with all the external MGs swathed in grease but fully functional in the 10th tank.

Finally, the only other photo I could locate was of this AMX-13 light tank.

The only purchase I recall making at this event was an unissued East German steel helmet - the first, as it turned out, of many military silly hats.

More weather!

To give you an idea of how quickly the snow fell, the following photo was taken only about 48 hours after my previous post. I finally dug out my car on Thursday. The hardest part was pulling the doors open... The construction of a snowman inevitably took place, complete with Bundeswehr surplus beret and cool shades. He has been named 'Gunter' on account of his passing resemblance to one of my airsofting friends.

Happy New Year - more snow and new Airfix!

So far 2010 hasn't produced any gaming activity and today I'm back at work! More snow fell here over the weekend but happily I've not had to travel anywhere.

I justify the inclusion of this photo as it was taken from the window of my wargames room!

Over the weekend I did some work on a silly game involving motorised 20mm scale tanks. Not for the first time the acquisition of some silly new toys is driving (literally) the development of a game. I'll post some pics when we've had a proper playtest.

I think the big news so far this year is the list of new (and re-)releases from Airfix: www.airfix.com/new-for-2010/

These include 2 versions of the Bedford QL (QLD & QLT) which appear to be developments of the QL in the Refuelling Set - finally Airfix makes the conversion the rest of us have been knocking out for 30+ years! Very welcome though. Nice to see that the prices of some kits includes a donation to 'Help for Heroes'.