Bank Holiday Rambling

 Hmmmmm 24 hours of the holiday left, so I am in two minds about painting some more Afghan commanders or sitting in a chair with 'English Journey' by J.B Priestley to whom I am distantly related on my maternal side.

The gaming room has all the terrain in there now, along with the first of my figures. We also added 4 nice new chairs for the oldies to sit and catch their breath inbetween games, and installed the security cameras covering the compound and games room, which our five dogs have been testing for the last 48 hours. I swear that one of them knows that he triggers several claxons if he moves in a certain way - Little git!

As I type, I am up in my studio listening to Radio 4 and looking at figures. I am being drawn to Wars Of The Roses and French Indian War, but nothing's certain. I'm just looking for inspiration. 

Common sense - and Roger - tells me that really I should go with Muskets & Tomahawks for FIW, but I am drawn like a moth to a flame to large battles. I'm just not really wired for skirmish, unless it's Once Upon A Time In The West Country.

I'm drawn to the idea of bright uniforms and ordered lines, fighting in the American theater along with irregular units, skipping through the woods, disorganising the lines of battle.

AWI, feels a little too 'sterile', but I guess there's always the option of the American War of 1812... You see why I say that nothing is certain.

I was listening to the Grognard Files podcast where the guest was Ian Livingstone. I recall when he and Steve Jackson would visit the fledgling GW stores, and they really were friendly and approachable. They seemed to genuinely care about the promotion of the hobby, rather than just the bottom line. GW stores had their own feel and identity. They were similar, but certainly not 'cookie cutter' stores. If you went into Sheffield, there was a definite historical gaming and Runequest vibe. Manchester seemed a way more fantasy orientated store. They were similar, familiar, but the staff were a big part of the sould of a given store.

I was really impressed with Ian's description of the management style as 'horizontal' because I clearly remember that back then, the staff were encouraged to really get involved. Sheffield store was a hostspot of ideas and enthusiasm with Pete Berry of Baccus and the late, great, painting maestro Pete Armstrong as well. When Leeds opened, you could find Tony Cottrell's inspirational kit bashed vehicles in the cabinets, but that was later on.

The one thing which stood out, was Ian saying what a success WHFB was. Oddly, the day before, I was sat having a coffee with my friend Pete.W who is like me a 40+ year veteran. We were reminiscing about how Warhammer flopped so badly at fisrt that there were copies of the rules and Forces of Fantasy stacked in their hundreds at the front of Sheffield store at £2.99 per copy. We'd both - on our own initiative - bought the game on release, read it, and been at the time, singularly unimpressed.

We then bought it again when it was all flogged off cheap, so with the greatest respect Ian, 'recollections may vary'.

I'm still really excited about the forthcoming 'The Dice Men' the book about the first ten years of GW, written by Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson and Jamie Thompson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu1aCyrBQXU&feature=youtu.be

You can pre-order it here:

 https://unbound.com/books/games-workshop/

It's a full colour, A4 tome of 288 pages with loads of unseen photos of the early days of the Golden Age of Gaming.

Well, I have run out of coffee, which signals that it's time I signed off, and got back to looking at toys.

TTFN