It's Wednesday - yes, it's still Wednesday because as the title suggests, the days were longer and besides, I loved Wednesdays. It didn't take me long at all to get into the hobby up to my neck. I'd been playing fantasy stuff - I was an early adopter of Warhammer in it's first edition, and also converted a set of D&D mass combat rules in White Dwarf, and having joined SWS, I was finding my ways in ghistorical gaming quite nicely with older member trying to get me interested in sundry periods.  Now, understand back then, there was none of the talk of factions and stupidly fluffed-out rule books, with special dice, battle boards and other such absolute fuckwittery. No, this was a time of good honest, manly rule sets which did not have to pander to a snowflake generation in order to get sales. You bought a set of rules to play a ganme within a given period. You didn't have to find rules that catered for the fact that someone believed they were a unicorn trappe...

 As I have already related, I was introduced to to Sheffield Wargames Society by the late Steve Roberts, and this was where I really started to find out the 'dark arts' of wargaming. The roleplayers were a gret bunch, but they sort of lived in a bubble, oblivious to the wider gaming world, apart from those 'old sweats' who were 'there' when Dungeons & Dragons came along and who'd already been wargaming for a long time. Now, the wargamers were an interesting bunch, generally older than the roleplaying mob, proper 'grown-ups' with jobs and homes and families, all heady stuff to a teenager. I'd been going to the club for I'd say 18 months or so by 1984 being born late in the year and therefore not reaching the requisite 14 years old until late 1982, but I used my time well. I was introduced to some of the best known 'characters' on the northern wargames circuit, many of whom were part of SWS. SWS specialised in competition wargaming,...

 Now, I am far from a Games Workshop Fanboy. True, I was indeed the first customer of the Sheffield branch back in the day and true, I did almost spend more time there, than at home, but over the years, I've really not been that bothered by the whole Grimdark thing because I grew up in a time when starships on TV were on wires, and the insides of them were gleaming and bright. I played a fair amount of the original Rogue Trader when it was released and had some fun games. Alas, 40K also carries with it some rather nasty emotional baggage, as it sort of coincided with the break up of my first 'adult' relationship  at a time when I was emotionally pretty screwed up. That said, it was also there when the whole thing came to a head. My girlfriend at the time was becoming more and more, well, 'unhinged' having been caught several times sleeping around with my friends and thereby destroying those friendships either permanently or at least for 30 years or so at best. Now, ...

 Tuesdays... What are they good for? Well, until 1984, I'd have said very fucking little, if you'll pardon my frankness on the subject.  But, in 1984, after 2 years of being more permanent than a modern staff member, hanging around Games Workshop was paying off. I was becoming a 'face' or as Marillion put it a 'a toupee on the cabaret scene' and I think I can very easily claim that there were very few as committed to the dissolute gamer's life as I, for better or worse. On the school holidays, I would be outside GW an hour before they opened, watching the staff go about the business of sorting shelves, indulge in the first coffee of the day - it would be 84 when I first actually got offered a coffee one morning; surely a sign that I had 'made it' - and watch them grinning and pointing at something outside in the cold. Apparently that was me... It was early one morning when I heard Pete Berry - arguably one of the finest GW managers of all time, altho...

 Well, I have been crazily busy having worked 9 straight days so far, but I need to ease back a little. Over the weekend, I was hit by that pain in the ass depression, I've been prone to for 21 years which hit's its high water point after my dispute with Sheffield Wargames Society in 2015. Working like I have been is not the best way to deal with it, but thankfully I'm pretty much over it now and starting to look at gaming stuff again. I'm fortunate because I can see my mental state slipping when it crops up and I have mechanisms to cope with and learn from it. I know I'm lucky to be able to do that, but it does leave me somewhat surly and unwilling to engage with people.  But it does not stop me doing my job, because then it would have won. My days may be longer as I have to deal with my internal dialogue running a systems check, but better that than hide behind and because of depression. But, I digress. I'm mulling over whether I should add Russians to my Grea...

 It must be the change of the seasons, or just the fact that the models and period are so interesting, but I've taken a second look at the Great Northern War, having previously made an aborted attempt a couple of years ago. Of course, I am going with the excellent Ebor Miniatures ranges and have decided that I'll start with Swedes and Danes rather than the standard Russians. Now that doesn't mean I'll not be collecting Russians, because of course, I shall after Christmas.  I normally don't buy anyththing after October 31st, picking up in January, but I broke my own 'purdah' rules and decided 'What the Helsinki!' ordering a few models to get me started. I went with 12 guns and crew, 30 regiments of cavalry and 50 regiments of foot, which should give me a nicely sized collection based around the Battle Of Helsinborg. In the new year, I'll probably add 15 units of Russian foot and 20 of cavalry. From there I have no other plans, but I'm sure I...

    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 ...

 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...

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...

 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...