OK, admittedly I've been in this hobby for over 4 decades, so I've seen a lot, but at the same time it's felt like two minutes have passed. However, I've noticed that there are many companies who are now considered 'old school'  and 'lost' who are still in business and what's more produce miniatures which can still hold their own with, if not beat to a pulp, more contemporary models. Essex are of course wee known still for their 15mm lines, but I remember when they were pushing their 25mm ranges which were (and are) well detailed, clean castings with a lot about them to like. Their adverts were great, because you always found something new to spend your money on. I have never fallen out of love with them, and their horses are amongst some of the best you will ever see. Remember that these are 30-40 year old models, but they don't look dated in the least. I have 140 of their ECW cavalry in my current New Model Army because they still hit the mark

 As you may have noticed, I've been searching high and low for a copy of the almost mythical 'Encounter 1' sci-fi rules. These go back to the days of home produced, made-with-love-and-inspirationrules. This set of rules was inspired by the opening boarding action in Star Wars - That's the original first film - yeah that long ago. What's more, they were written in my home town by the mega-corporation that was Starfleet Studies. Well, I got one, but at an eye watering £50 for an A5 booklet. And that was after I negotiated them down from £100... Yeah, I know, I know!   This got me thinking, after reading the latest Wargames Ilustrated which celebrates 400 issues, and in which there's a thumbing of the nose at the early days of gaming, even claiming that reading the older magazines, it was impossible to tell which rules people were playing to and that rules were poorly produced. Well, as many of my generation will tell you, we knew what rules we played, and there wa

     The Giants have launched on Kickstarter this weekend and after 3 days are 45% funded. Check them out here: SHOW ME YOUR BIG BOYS!  

Well, having taken delivery of some new and shiny terrain from Last Valley and the Tree Fellahs, rather than waiting for my wife to complete her 900 or so, Bicorne ECW, we thought we'd play a game using my New Model Army, split down the middle. In the end we could only get 60% of it on the table, but we had a really good game. Simply put, one of my infantry units was mauled by devastating fire and routed. This in turn, coupled with some of the worse die rolls I ever made, led to panic spreading amongst the army with a total breakdown and rout. It was a shocking defeat, but the gods were against me ths day...