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Memory Lane Part 27: The Transmetropolitan Teenage Gamer In The Cold War Era. Parte The Seconde

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  But, in Liverpool, was the Golden Temple, the Taj Mahal, the Melnibone of the North for gamers - the actual (cue echoing voice) GAMES OF LIVERPOOOOOOOL!  There was, back then more to life than what later became the Lead Triangle, with the exception of Tabletop Games, which I will not have a bad word said about because the irascible Bob Connor, was another of those Gentleman Gamers we just don't see anymore. Many a kid left his store with a few more models than they thought they could afford, but by god he was grumpy, and the shop was a passive smoker's wet dream. Ah me... But back to the Big Sleazy that was Liverpool.  Games Of Liverpool, took a monthly full page advert in White Dwarf, and boy did they cram it full of stuff. They used such a small font, that you needed a magnifying glass to read the advert. But it was worth it. They stocked stuff that even the Sheffield GW, which before the great purging, was so full of games that it took about a week of day...
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Memory Lane Part 26: The Transmetropolitan Teenage Gamer In The Cold War Era. Parte The Firste

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    The odd thing about my early years, was that despite the fact that my parents were overly strict and overbearing control freaks in the rest of my life, when it came to gaming, because I was mixing with improving and wholseome characters, I got a lot of freedom.  Ask to go into town when here was some kind of minor Left Wing/CND protest and I would be confined to barracks, but ask to travel 30-100 miles on a quest for games, and that was OK, as long as I let my parents know by publuc phone, when I had arrived and when I was returning home, laden down with booty which even the original Games Workshop could not provide. For a short day out, we would go  by bus or train , to  Doncaster which had The Stamp Corner, ostensibly a philatelic supplies specialist, but which also stocked Minifigs and Hinchcliffe figures and the entire range of Osprey books, which was amazingly useful when it came to Christmas and birthday, as my father worked in Doncaster and, worked wi...
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Just Do It Right - Go LARGE!

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 I really don't think that beyond the 45+ age bracket now, we will see traditional wargames template continue. Now, I do like the odd skirmish game, but for me, as someone who grew up on war films on Saturday & Sunday nights, reading, no osmotically absorbing, accounts of heroic battles, sweeping offensives and grim last stands by a few brave men in the face of thousands of opposition. And to be honest, that's the way I've always rolled, both as a club and stay at home gamer. I also think that there's a sweet spot for terrain, a point at where it's believable but not overdone. Hell, if I want super detail, I'll build another model railway or maybe start collectin vintage William Britains model gardens (look them up, they were great fun, even if you had to keep schtumm about them because back in the day, a boy building a model garden was obviously a closet homosexual in the eyes of his peers). Speaking of Britains, my generation made use of their wonderful 1:...
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Memory Lane Part 25 : '86 - A Hell Of A Year And A Year Of Hell

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 Well as I begin this latest instalment, I have 5 days left of my holiday and whilst I've been quite pleased that I've got 3 off my 4 sci-fi forces finished, I don't feel rested. Still, as this is really a 'catch-up' for holidays lost last year, I can do some proper resting when I take my Summer holiday. Such, as they say, is life :) I apologise for this out os sequence trip down memory lane, but recently 1986 keeps popping up in various ways, and it 's got me remembering that '86 was a time of big changes and trauma for me, which, would  lead to me meeting my wife eventually and stirring the next part of my gaming life into action. In late 1985, I'd moved with my parents to a semi-rural area, out of the industrial suburbs of Sheffield, and I'd not reacted well, to the notion of one bus every hour, and a 45 minute journey into the city centre. Don't get me wrong, I hiked and camped a lot, and since the age of 9 had been out and about with school ...
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Now, Let The Holiday Really Begin

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 Well, the first 8 days of my 23 days of holiday has seen me complete two more sci-fi forces, and now I am painted out and need a rest. Still, I'm amazed at how much of the project is done. I have about another 80 infantry and 19 VTOLs to get done and then I begin on the terrain and starships to populate the table and create a starport in 15mm.    I've also been snowed under by the arrival of hundreds of 28mm Zulus as well as a second Roman legion and another Celtic army. I also need to sort through around 300 early slotta Chaos Dwarves which represent the last lot of fantasy to be sent to my painter.   I've been mulling several things of late including the stratification of the hobby from the days when I and my peers set forth, and the dogpiling when people fail to follow the nerd herd and dare to have a contrarian opinion, but they can wait for a bit longer as I am having me some fun in the sun for a couple more weeks.   TTFN 
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Holiday Edition

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 Well, I am on a 3 week break, and so I've thrown myself into getting another of my 15mm sci-fi forces completed. I completed the vehicles for the Unified Systems Military Command company a couple of weeks ago, so now I am working through the 78 infantry who will crew them. The figures are Ground Zero Games, Pan African Union models which I like as they have that 'Striker/Traveller' mid-tech infantry look, which is the aesthetic I feel most at home with, and always will. As you will recall, I am trying to recapture the look and feel f the stuff I had and wished I had in the early to mid-80s, as well as the paint work. These are not showcase armies, but reimaginings of childhood stylings and armies, and if you like them, great. If you don't - great, knock yourself out. Not literally of course becaus ethat upsets the darlings who see every comment as a cause, not remembering that they are in no way obliged to look in here at all. But I digress... I have put in around 11 h...
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