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Take that... And This... Aaaaand THAT!

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    Back in the day, before Games Workshop was a one trick pony, we gamers of all stripes would scour the pages of White Dwarf in search of the next hit of the hobby drug. Whilst GW itself stocked most things, it was Games Of Liverpool that had some of the most interesting stuff in the shape of the Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) line with titles such as MERC, Swordbearer, Bushido and the eye wateringly complex Aftermath and Space Opera. The FGU lines were always good looking (check the Space Opera line) and often, just that bit different to other offerings. Bushido, was a meticulously done game set in mythical Japan, and packed with detail so dense as to be capable of giving you a headache and word blindness in 4 minutes 32 seconds. FGU also produced what has been arguably to this day, the best superhero game in the shape of Villains & Vigilantes. Stirring stuff... FGU is still going strong and at the weekend, Roger asked me if I'd listened to latest Grognard Files podcast which
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This Was The Way... Or, Fun With Shoplifters

 This morning on the national news, there was a segment reporting on the soaring levels of shoplifting in the U.K (the secret is to make the shops out of heavier materials of course) and I had a flashback to my time running (later owning) Dungeons & Starships in the 90s. We had very tight stock control, and so I can be pretty certain that we had two - yes two - instances of shoplifting. In both cases, the goods were recovered - but in different ways as I shall relate here. A few weeks after the store opened a young lad decided, one Tuesday morning to try and make off with a few packets of the new (this was the start of that particular scourge that is CCGs) Magic: The Gathering cards, but was caught, given the fright of his life and let go. 'Let go?' I hear you say. 'By YOU?' you rightly cry out. Well you see, I'd seen the lad passing by a couple of times with his grandfather, a very stately and proud Indian gentleman of the old school, in I'd say his 70s. So
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It's Been An Equitable Life, Henry

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All things considered, it's been a fair and equal life I've had in gaming, hence the play on that old tag line for an insurance company here in the UK. I'm very much in the Autumn of my life now and I started in the Springtime, so I have seen and experienced a lot of what the young discuss with sagelike certainty these days, first hand. I have been lucky... Of course, you way not see the description of first setting eyes on a certain model to be anything these days, but over 40 years ago, that kind of thing could be awesome and indeed, jaw-dropping. I recall the first time I saw the Ral Partha 'Sprite' models, tiny little figures in puffed sleeves and slashed hose, one holding a swod in both hands, the other riding a muntjack deer. What made these special was that at a time when I was just getting to grips with enamel paints and gloss on everything, Pete Armstrong (may he rest eternally at peace, or knowing Pete, repose in an outrageously debauched manner) was paint
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T.G.I.F

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 THANK GYGAX IT'S FRIDAY! This week, I've racked up a stupid number of hours at my desk, to the point that I am staying out of my studio all weekend. The massive workload means that I am going through audiobooks at a fair clip, and I have put two books by food writer and critic Jay Rayner to bed and I am well into White Heat by Dominic Sandbrook, whose mix of political and social history I really enjoy. This latest volume covering the 'Swinging 60s' weighs in at just under 40 hours and is very enjoyable indeed. I've been thinking a lot of my previous life as a game store owner in the mid to late 90s, as 2025 sees the 30th anniversary of being offered managership of what became my own store a few years later. I thought it might be interesting in future posts to write honestly about my experiences in that and how it almost ended my marriage and indeed almoset ended your correspondent's time on this mortal plane. That said, it was also arguably the greatest time I
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Sometimes I Wonder How Companies Stay In Business...

 It's pretty well known, that I embrace the 'go big or go home' ethos when it comes to wargaming. I'm also not the kind of person who buys armies incrementally. No, I go into it full-on and buy all the lead in one fell swoop, so a project will average £2500 for the figures alone. Now, let me say that several companies I deal with are generous , offering discounts for bulk (not to mention that fact that I am a bona fide business) and I will, where practicable poay them by the least cost-incurring method. Now, this week, I proposed an order with a weel known company at the 'boutique' price bracket and was informed that some of the 3rd party items they stock were going out of stock but if I was willing to accept some substitutions the order would be no problem. I agreed. Now, some 3 days later, I was contacted to be told that it was not possible to fulfil the order in full, it being about 20% less than I needed, and could I get back to them as to whether I would li
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Like A Cur Returning To It's Own Vomit... Or, How I Rediscovered My Love Of Pike & Shot... Or, Oh My God, I Can't Stop Whistling That Theme Tune

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    It's been a while, but I finally think I'm coming out of a fog of indifference if not denial regarding pike & shot gaming. It's old news about the causes of my decision to turn my back on the first period I ever really got my teeth into, so I'll not belabour you with a recap, but I really, really never thought I'd rediscover that love. So, now I find myself like a dog returning to it's own vomit (a wise action in my opinion - always check what's come up or gone down) throwing myself ever more enthusiastically into the pike and shot era. But why? I hear you say... Well, there we were schlepping and schmoozing around The Other Partizan the other week, I being focussed on looking at AWI stuff and the Memsahib collecting the usual tariff of cuddles from old friends. But then, disaster struck... Firstly, I ambled over to my fellow countryman and wargaming standard bearer, Ken Reilly, A.K.A 'The Yarkshire Gamer' who had his Great Italian Wars stuff
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The Blues, The Reds and Black Leather

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 Well, this week has been a busy, busy one workwise, but it's also seen me get some serious lead added to the collection. Firstly, I received the first of what will be many, many figures from the hands of Neil Shearwood, in the shape of 2 squadrons of Oxford Blues and a couple of generic brigade command stands for my Williamite Wars collection. Although I show them here in their gloss state (something I always do) they are destined to to be matte to match the rest of the collection: Once the memsahib bases them, they wil join the ranks out in the games room. My plan is to periodically add to this collection as broadly speaking, it's plenty large enough for a 6 player game, already. I'm commissioning Neil to paint around 800 AWI next, and they will be gloss varnished as I think they'll really 'pop' and have a wonderfully old school vibe to them, like the stuff I saw in the magazines and at shows in my youth. Then, yesterday, my sworfd & sorcery painter 'B
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