Although I'd got my first whiff of the hobby via the Heritage mini games based loosely on D&D and the D&D itself, it was literally a month or so before I was finding out about historical gaming, which, despite what my other posts may convey, is always going to be every bit as important to me. For me, the two, nay three, if we give sci-fi it's own niche in the evolutionary ladder go hand in tentacles. I sometimes get typecast by folks as being a fantasy gamer who dabbles in historical, or the reverse. But the the truth is that I am a trans-genre, an oddity of my time I suppose, when gamers were in individual camps, sometimes quite vehemently and venemously so. I remember the first time I took the late Tony 'Spike' Atkin to Sheffield Wargames Society and he obviously and visibly had a good time, so much so that he was heard to quip that 'Wargamers aren't the wankers I always thought they were - well not quite as big wankers'. He did have a point I sup...

    Well, Vapnartak was , in my humble opinion (and you foaming at the mouthed fan-boys can bite me, if you disagree) was at the best bland. I heard more than just I saying this. My wife didn't even bother going to see her many friends in the hobby, which is saying a lot. Of course, if people come through the door and pay their £5 (cash only please) it's 'a great success'. I remember another great and now no more Northern show having a similar take on things whilst their Rome burnd and the bring and buy got fiddled... But that could never happen here could it? I confess that I looked at the list of traders and thought 'How bland...' and went twice around the tabletop sale, where, an entire section of tables were manned by dealers, who really should - if they were not already, and if so, I apologise - be in the main hall paying as traders, and incidentally filling some of the yawning chasm which I photographet just after 12:00 as we decided to call it an expensiv...

  As I grow ever older and tiptoe towards the grave whilst at the same time doing my level best to not catch the eye of the Reaper, who spells the end of collecting and playing with toy soldiers, by systematically going through my Filofax, editing the entries in the contact list, I feel ever increasingly like a dead man walking. Indeed, I have little doubt that there are a few people - most of whom never met me in the flesh - who would like to see the 'walking' part of that erased, because I say and write things that they don't like. Increasingly I feel like a revenant when at a wargames show, floating amongst the living. Felt perhaps, but unseen until another spectre of gaming past recognises a kindred spirit and we perhaps embrace and converse in ghostly conspiratorial tones about this ior that, sharing memories of when we too, were vital, young, kings of the world, our painted armies'ooooh'd' and 'aaahhh'd' over, trophies taken home to join others...

It's January, a time when I used to begin another 'campaign season' in the hobby by planning what I would like to buy at Triples in March. Alas, Triples no longer exists, but I do still plan a January to October 'campaign season' every year, for what it's worth, and I often begin with reflecting on how it was when I had £3 per week spending money and a head full of white metal dreams and printed paper aspirations. I had some excellent times in the early 80s, along with some awful times, but the latter took place in the  real world , so I wasn't really that bothered, because when life got shitty, I simply grabbed my denim jacket, hairbrush and whatever money I could scrape together, and went on a rampage in the world imaginary. Now, when I refer to Games Workshop in an 80s context, if you don't know what it looked like or that Warhammer was but a glint in a Nottingham accountant's beady eye back then, then go out an get a hold of 'The Dice Men...

 Well, it was off to Recon in Pudsey yesterday for the annual Christmas wind down day at a show we both enjoy. However, the show seemed to have less footfall, which seems to have come about since the even was taken over, and indeed the general feel of the show was subdued. Here are a few thoughts from a show veteran who was involved with Sheffield Triples in it's Imperial Period and who ran the bring and buy at that show for over 20 years as an independent service provider.   1. The mix of traders is piss poor with way too many MDF and 3D printing businesses.  2. Resellers are a fact of life these days, but when will a show organiser (particularly if they themselves are resellers) show some backbone and not just let in everyon who is selling the same corporate shite?  3. Holding a painting competition is a pointless waste of time when it's a single table on a landing, with two entries.  4. Anyone who remembers Recon in the 80s and 90s will remember how well laid...

Oldhammer... Or as we old timers call it , Warhammer is as we know all the craze. But, I think what separates the old sweats from the Johnny-Come-3rd-Ed-&-Afters is a 'vibe' which you don't just get from buying a set of rules and some over-priced old figures. Indeed as I opined previously, Citadel figures do not an Oldhammer army make. Let's take a couple of moments to look at what the middle of the road Warhammer 1st ed player looked like in 1982. I know there will always be exceptions, but there are some themes which ran deep in those days. First of all, most gamers were literate, dreamers and creatively minded. That may sound like a no-brainer, but believe me, the general intellect these days is not what it was in your local corporate gaming store. And that goes for the staff too, I fear... Secondly, there was a definite slant towards rock music, particularly progressive rock by the likes of Genesis, Pink Floyd, Marillion, Starcastle, Rush and YES. Now as...