Wargaming Blog Excellence Award

Tags

Wargame, Wargaming

The other day, I was greeted with a message from the very gracious Dagger and Brush bestowing upon me a nomination for a Liebster-style “Wargaming Blog Excellence Award – Let us smite evil together!” I was most pleased to have been given such praise especially from a blogger that I hold in such high esteem.

Still being somewhat of a neophyte in the world of blogging I had no idea what a Liebster award was, I mean, when would the voting take place? After consulting the omniscient Google, I found this helpful article all about it. For those as ignorant as I was, a Liebster award is given from bloggers to other bloggers to recognise and help promote their sites, a rather philanthropic idea I’m sure you will agree.

So on to my end of the bargain, firstly my answers to the questions set by Dagger and Brush:

1. If you would become emperor of the world what would be your first decree?

Although I know very little about World politics and have even less desire to hold so much power, If made Emperor of the World, I would decree that all Third-World debt be written off. I cannot see how these countries are to improve their lot if the First World countries hold these seemingly insurmountable debts over their heads.

2. What is it that you love most about war-gaming as a hobby and why?

I had an interest in military history from a young age and as a young lad, would play with 1:72 toy soldiers all the time. I was, however, from a generation more interested in computer consoles (of which I did not possess) and therefore I did so alone. After hitting my teens and discovering girls and rock and roll, I left the toy soldiers behind and didn’t pick them up again till my mid twenties.

The point of this little story is that after discovering war-gaming again as an adult I was able to pursue my interest with other like-minded people and have made many friends, including some through this very blog. So the short answer is the companionship and fun times that war-gaming has brought into my life.

3. You are sent back in time and end up in a period of your choice. However, the time machine is destroyed in the process, and you are here to stay.  Which period would that be and what would you do after you arrived?

Although I have a deep-seated interest in military history, I’m a generally peaceable bloke and if I could pick a point in history to go back to, I would pick North America / Canada before it’s discovery by Europeans. I admire and respect the culture of the native American peoples and would happily look for a Forest Indian tribe to adopt me so that I could immerse myself in what I believe would be a rather peaceful and idyllic lifestyle.

Now for my nominations for “Wargaming Blog Excellence Award – Let us smite evil together!”:

Quirkworthy: Jake is an amazing game designer, with such titles as Dead Zone, Dread Ball and Dwarf King’s Hold (amongst many others) to his name and I am grateful to be able to call him a personal friend. His blog is full of thoughts from a game designer’s point of view as well as game reviews and on-going support for his games.

Plastic Panzer Addict:  The most impressive output of wargames miniatures I have seen on the internet, I mean it, this guy is a one man factory! His constant updates of additions to his ever-expanding 1:72 WWII collection boggles the mind, and his battle reports are always worth a read, with great photos of his excellent miniatures and terrain throughout.

And finally my questions for the nominees:

1. What period, scale and manufacturer did you favour when playing toy soldiers as a child? (Mine was 1:72 scale Matchbox WWII)

2. What was your best war-gaming experience?

3. If you had to ‘fight the tank’, which period, crew position and tank would you choose to do it in?

A Brave New World

Tags

French & Indian War, Tinpot Revolution, TinPot Tea-party, Wargaming

Real life can often get in the way of my hobbies, including this very blog and I have been pondering how best to commit myself to post more regularly in 2014. I will endeavour this year to write at least one post every month and in this I hope my friend ‘the Old Guard’ will be of much aid.

We have decided to have a gaming session once a month, so this is the perfect opportunity for me to write about our battles. I will also keep posting about what I’ve been getting up to whenever time and inspiration permit… Welcome one and all to the inaugural Tinpot Tea-party!

One cold day on the Frontier

The Old Guard and I got together on a wet and windswept afternoon for a spot of tiffin and an introductory game of Muskets & Tomahawks. I cobbled together a force of Canadian Militia and for himself he summoned a Mohican war party. We each rolled for objectives and so the story unfolds…

Canadian militia have been hastily formed to repel an Indian raiding party.

At the other end other of the village Mohican raiders are busy…

putting the building to the torch and readying to storm the door.

The Canadians spot the raiders and make ready to fire!

The Battle

My troops were given the ‘Engage’ objective to destroy 2/3 of the enemy force whilst the Old Guard’s Braves received the ‘Raid’ objective in which he had to burn down the buildings. Unfortunately for me the scatter-dice rolled for deployment put me some distance from two of the buildings, whilst the other was within spitting distance of the Indians!

My Canadians made steady progress toward two buildings on their right flank as the Mohicans put the wooden shack to the torch and managed to counter attack one group of Braves, giving them a volley before brandishing tomahawks in a fierce charge and destroying them to a man.

My folly was in failing to secure the buildings with my other two units who then watched the Indians run past them and burn the buildings down from under my nose!… Oh well, lessons were learned and I thoroughly enjoyed facing off against the Old Guardsman, he’s a spiffing old bean and always most pleasant company.

Overview

As both the Old Guard and myself are relative newcomers to this rule set, it being my first game and only his second, I balk at giving comment. It seems like a fairly straight forward game and I do like the unit coherency rule which allows you to spread troops out a little more than some skirmish games (up to their movement allowance).

I would have liked to have found out a little more about how officers work, I gather that they can influence friendly troops in their immediate vicinity but Militia Officers have the scout rule which I didn’t take the opportunity to find out about, remiss of me I know, hopefully I will get the chance to investigate a little more sometime soon.

Tale of the Tinpot

Tags

Tinpot Revolution

I decided that, after my ‘2 years of the Tinpot Revolution’ post and with the anniversary of my 31st year on this earth yesterday, that I would tell you a little story of the roots of this little character of mine…

Crying Havoc

Over the years I have played in several bands but one in particular holds a very special place in my heart. The Skanx was a punk-rock cover band that my good friend, ‘Charlie’ Dave’, formed in aound 2006-07 and I joined on bass guitar sometime later.

I have had an all-encompassing love for music since I was young and I enjoy listening to all kinds, but I had only a cursory knowledge of punk-rock, having only listened to bits and pieces on the radio, so the chance to find out more about the ‘Punk Revolution’ of the late 1970s was most welcome!

And what an eye opener it was! I loved the pure power and intelligent lyrics of bands such as the Clash, there go-getting attitude and D.I.Y mentality, motivating people to get up and do something about making their lives better.

I believe the true ‘Spirit of Punk’ came from the grey and bleak wastes of ’70s Britain’, living under the threat of the Cold-War and domestic upheaval, with unemployment, union strikes and conflict in Northern Ireland, Punk was a musical ‘Call to Arms’ of the youth of that generation; it was saying ‘You have a voice and you’re the architect of your own destiny!’

Answering the Call

After having been given a CD full of tracks to learn, I went to the rehearsal rooms where I met ‘Guitar’ Dave, his wife Jools and son ‘Billy’ Bob who are wonderful people that I have great affection for, and also the lead singer ‘Shauny’ who is the most ‘Punk-Rock’ bloke that I know!

After one of the first gigs that I played with The Skanx, my girlfriend of the time mentioned that I didn’t look right on stage; the other guys where ‘proper’ punks and I just didn’t look the part. Not the most glowing piece of feedback! But it was a fair comment all the same, so I had a little think about it and decided to create a ‘stage persona’ for myself!

I proceeded to get my hair cut into a Mohican and bleached (as the picture below shows the bleach never really took!) and after a chance encounter with an alternative clothes shop in Great Yarmouth (of all places!!) I had a military style jacket to wear. My love of playing soldiers as a child ( I even had my own little uniform!) has never really left me and so it seemed only natural!

Bob ‘Skanx’

After I had played a few more gigs with the band, Jools mentioned that she thought I should wear a kilt, I thought it was an excellent idea and as ‘Guitar’ Dave had one that he let me have, I had became a Highlander and now all that was needed was a musket!

Up till this point I had been using one of the instruments that I built (pictured above) and this may sound strange, considering I used to hand-make instruments in my spare time, my personal taste is more toward the more rough, beaten-up look and so I built my very own Franken-Basstein!

My chosen weapon.

I absolutely love this bass, it will always be my favourite and most trusted instrument, and it isn’t even as old as it looks! I did a bit of ‘antiquing’ on it with a chain!!

It also has key features such as an old left-handed neck bolted on to a right-handed body (Well spotted in my last post Mr Arkie), lots of ‘cool’ stickers and a block of MDF mounted under the strings ’cause my plucking hand kept falling off the ‘skinny’ pickups!

Demobbed

I had some wonderful times with The Skanx and made some very special friends, all of which, came at a very important time in my life personally and so it was with some regret that I eventually chose to leave the band.

Little did I know, as I hung up the old uniform and ‘musket’, that It wouldn’t be the last I saw of this character…

I’m back!!.. the internet is so bright and shiny!!

Having moved house recently, I have been offline for some time. Now I’m back with new ideas and bags of enthusiasm!! I will be sprucing the place up and bringing in some of the new projects that I have been working on for the last few months. Keep your peepers peeled for the (TinPot) revolution 2013!!!!

Hello and welcome!

Hi there and welcome to my blog. In the following pages I will be updating my Graphic Design Portfolio, showcasing my creative writing projects, past and present, designing wargaming scenarios, writing reviews and everything else in between!