It's the weeekeeeeeend!

Insomnia is fun isn't it?

No?

Bugger...

:D

Well, here I am planning more gaming japery, and also saying goodbye to historical mass battles. I'll be doing a lot of large skirmishes from the Middle Ages through to the 1980s, and of course the terrain available is both high quality and very varied, so it will look as awesome as you'd expect from here at the Dark Tower.

I am looking for more narrative style gaming, on a large scale in terms of scope and play area, but what I'm not looking for is simply pushing around rather generic feeling blocks of figures I've become somewhat jaded with in the last 8 months or so. Cards on the table: at Christmas I played one of the most unsatisfying and indeed boring games in 43 years. 

Spending six hours in a defended position, just shooting at an advancing enemy was, well, boring. I could have simply used MDF unit footprints instead of figures (splendi dthough they were). Perhaps that would have been a better way, with all the players attacking a pre-programmed opponent, rather than two human-driven sides.

I've had to make some hard decisions in coming to this conclusion, but in actual fact it's been an interestimg process. 

I have a burgeoning ECW skirmish collection, which is almost complete, and of course the excellent Serenity Flatts, Western collection.

I'm considering doing something I first thought about in 2011, and building a collection of 28mm Smugglers and Revenue Men as well as some late 17th century Pirates. However, being me, the setting for the latter will be along the Gannel where Arab slave raiders were raiding Cornish settlements with little successful resistance from the Crown. 

I'd direct you to 'White Gold' by Giles Milton.

Rules-wise, I'll be using the excellent Once Upon A Time In The West Country rules, thereby feeding my Old School needs.

The vast amount of my time and effort will be spent on Fantasy gaming, and I am now planning the next thousand+ figures to follow the 3000 currently on the workbench of my painter.

Speaking of my painter (and I suggest that if you have a painter, you do the same), he actually prefers fictional figures to historical, so it's a win/win scenario for all involved, really.

I've been listening to the unsurpassed BBC adaptatiion of The Lord Of The Rings this week, and it reminded me that whilst I have a large castle as well as a superb wizard's tower, I have forgotten to buy any seige weapons. That has to be rectified, so I have asked my sculptors to come up with assorted mangonels, trebuchets and ballistae along with fantasy crews.

One of my friends has declared that he needs some mammoths in his armies, so it seems that as before, the zeitgeist effect has kicked in and the 'big lads' are looming on the horizon, via the collective minds of those bitten with the Fantasy bug.

I've also found a lovely battering ram to lead the Orcish-led assaults on the fortifications of the settlements of the Goodly Alliance:

 

 

This will be one piece I paint myself. Now, let the record show that I am not a fan of 3D prints, but this model has me breaking my own taboos. 

As if you had any doubts, I'm really having fun again, with the way things are going now, as is the Memshaib, even though she's still quite an ill lady at present.

The sheer amount of creativity and positive attitude at present, is palpable, even across the aether of the interweb, and that's a sweet place to be, let me tell you...

It's so refreshing to be unfettered and free of the prejudices of the Historical Gaming Nazis again. I am beholden to no club or 'official line', and that is something I had lost touch with down the years. If people really embraced all of the potential for excellent gaming and escapism that can be tapped, simply by not becoming set on one type of gaming, then I truly think our hobby could be so more.

Yes, I know I rant about this a lot, but truth be told, it's something I've never been able to see through the eyes of the mono-gamers.

When I ran Dungeons & Starships, we would run 12x6 foot games right there in the store, most weekends, and certainly at Bank Holidays, when we would close the store but host some fantastic games with players of all disciplines just turning up for the craic. It ws truly a grteat period in my life, even though the end nearly ended me.

Then we had roleplaying nights with a smaller, more select group (and by 'select' I mean hardcore gamers who would get on with the game, rather than just chat ). This was a time before every game store had public gaming tables in it. For us, it began with an experimental 'coffeee morning' on Tuesday when trade was normally slow. 

 

We put out pots of good coffee and croissants, and lo and behold, word got around. Students would come in for some free food and gaming, and eventually, we had regulars who were taking their day-off on a Tuesday to come in and game.

 

It was fantastic. Dungeons & Starships had increased sales and we all had fun.

At this time, it was still owned by Chris Harvey Games, but the coffee morning was paid for by myself and the Memsahib.

One fateful Tuesday morning there was knock at the back door and in walked Chris Harvey himself.

 

He had noticed what was going down with the increased figures on Tuesdays, and drove up for a look-see.

Well, he saw a store, and the back room which was my own private gaming area (part of the perks of the job) filled with customers, stuffing their faces and playing games, as well as doing some shopping.

I'd done this on my own initiative you understand, so Chris didn't know what I was up to.

Well, he asked Kayte and I to join him for lunch, but fearing a bollocking in the offing, I made the excuse that I was busy, so Kayte would have to go alone (yes, I was a coward :)  )

About two hours later, they returned, and well...

Chris loved what we'd done and the result. He even gave us a weekly budget to keep it going - and I kept my job! DAMN! I'd missed a slap up pub lunche - More fool me.

Chris Harvey was one of the pioneers of the gaming hobby in the UK, and is often overlooked by the 'historians'. Let me tell you, he was a gentleman of the kind you rarely encounter in this hobby, old school, but in touch with the gaming world, which could catch you a blind sider if you weren'y careful.

 

 Each of his stores - like the original GW stores - had a unique feel and was the fiefdom of it's manager.

It took me a while to adjust to this, despite my maverick streak.

As Chris once told me, he gave me a lot of rope to hand myself, but I'd probably break my legs before the noose could tighten.

As I said, a gentleman.

Well, the sun has just risenabove the houses, so I guess I better go and boild some eggs for the pack of Scotties I live with, and grab a coffee and a crumpet for myself.

Enjoy your weekend!

TTFN