Page 3 in the Daily Record

Earlier this year I posted a report on meeting a very old friend while on vacation in the States.

http://jim-duncan.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/meeting-old-friend.html

One of the things Ed brought up in conversation was along the line of 'do you remember doing...'

I certainly did remember and I said I wish I had a copy of the picture concerned. Ed said no problem, my mother has a copy somewhere.

Ed has sent me a scan. Thanks Ed!!

I'll let the picture speak for itself, please feel free to comment.

Dux Britanniarum - Britons - Work in Progress

I have already mentioned that I'm already working towards playing Dux Britanniarum but I still have some way to go. I have made some progress with my Romano-British force although I'm trying to make them more British than Romano.

I started with an eBay purchase of two boxes of Wargames Factory Saxons, retailing at around £14.50 a box although I got both boxes including postage for £27.40. A good start at keeping the overall cost down.

Yes, I know they are Saxon and also from a period later than that covered by Dux Britanniarum but they are available, cheap, and will do fine for me.

These boxes supplied 32 each of armoured and unarmoured Saxons with separate heads, arms, weapons and shields. For the Britons I needed 10 armoured figures and 48 unarmoured figures so I have a bit of adjustment to make. I might also need some mounted figures but I will tell you about them later.

To start I need to have a Lord, two lesser Nobles and a Champion. These are probably the best equipped guys in the force so they have chainmail armour, helmets, shields and swords. They are singly based on hexes as they need to move about the battlefield and join other groups when appropriate.

I also need 6 Elites who are the personal following of the Lord so are also armoured in chainmail, with helmets, shields and hand axes. There weren't enough round shields to supply all the figures I used so they got Norman looking tear shaped shields as they were included on the sprues. Not quite accurate for the period but I think I can get away with being a bit loose here. The whole project is designed to get up and running at minimal cost as you will see in due course. In any case I can always relegate these figures to Foederati (who are quite mercenary) if better figures come my way.

The next group are the Warriors, unarmoured but with helmet, shield and mixed weapons, largely spear although some with sword or axe. I need 12 of these and possible another 6 as re-inforcements so I made up a total of 18.  I didn't have enough unarmoured bodies to make all that I need so some of them are armoured bodies modified into unarmoured ones by some careful scraping with a hobby knife and several thin coats of polystyrene cement. They're not brilliant but they will do.

The last major group of figures needed are the Levy. 18 in total, unarmoured with bare heads, shields and spears. I found that when I was basing these figures that the supplied plastic spears were very fragile and snapped as soon as I looked at them. I replaced all the spears with ones I made from some wire I had lying around.

I also need a variety of light troops, archers, slingers and javelinmen, in groups of 4. The bows were supplied on the sprues but I had to scratch build the slings and the javelins were shorter versions of the wire spears I made earlier.

You can see that the movement sabot bases are in a variety of finished and unfinished states as are the figures themselves. This is a work in progress report.

The final group of figures that I may need as re-inforcements are cavalry. 4 Shock and 4 Light cavalry which I will get from this box of Celtic Cavalry purchased at Claymore. It contains 12 horses and 24 riders, half armoured and half unarmoured.

So, there you are, a British force, in the making for Dux Britanniarum.

Once these are complete and my chum hasn't finished his Saxons I'll get on with the Gripping Beast Saxons that I bought at Claymore last week.

My Day at Claymore 2013

Claymore is Scotlands Premier Wargames show and is run by my club SESWC.

http://seswc.co.uk/2013/05/16/claymore-2013/

I toddled along, as befits a veteran wargamer to the show but unusually (most unusually) with a plan in mind. I wanted to leave the show with more money in my pocket than I went in with but also with a collection of goodies to further my wargaming enjoyment.

Difficult? Yes it will be, but with a good plan quite achievable.

The show is held in Telford College, Edinburgh although I see by the signs that they are called Edinburgh College now. I think there have been several college mergers recently.

It's a smart, fairly new building and a very pleasant change from Meadowbank Stadium of a few shows ago. On arrival I was greeted by a couple of the club kids (joking) who marshalled me to the car park.

Once inside I surveyed the main hall.

Then the Bring & Buy. It was very busy!

And then the second, sports hall.

I had my camera with me, obviously, but my plan was not to photograph everything, there's just too much with 40 traders and 30 visiting clubs. Instead I snapped a few things which caught my eye.

Kirriemuir Wargames Club caught my eye very quickly since I thought there was a completely bare table.

A closer inspection revealed the truth, Russian gun batteries lined the table and at the far end there was huge brigade of British light cavalry.

Yes, it was the Charge of the Light Brigade. "Onward, onward rode the Six Hundred, 5,4,3,2,1", the pop tune rattled through my brain until the six page handout promptly dispatched the 1964 song to whence it came from. The game itself was a little beauty, the Light Brigade was ordered by a collection of 5 players, a D10, and handfuls of 3 cards. Each of cards themselves was a line from the famous Tennyson poem and indicated a game action.

The rules themselves were authored by:

http://www.staineswargamers.org

I bumped into a few acquaintances, nice lads but I wouldn't want to bump into them down a dark alley :)

I spoke to a good few of the traders who are all very friendly. Here's Paul and Sally of Kallistra. I have a bucket load of Pauls figures as well as a shedload of his Hexon II terrain.

http://www.kallistra.co.uk/

The League of Augsburg put on a fantastic display. The Battle of Aughrim, 1691.

http://www.leagueofaugsburg.com/

Again, some nice lads. I shudder to think how many pairs of trousers young Dave on the left here has worn since I introduced him into the hobby many moons ago. He had a full head of hair then but probably was still in short trousers!

Nice figures.

The Bathgate Wargames Club had yet another interesting game. "THEM". The town of Morvalant is in danger from giant ants, someone has to stop them. The driving forces in the Bathgate club are Slim Mumford, a veteran wargamer indeed (curiously absent when I came around with the camera) and Alan Hamilton MBE TD. Here's Alan centre stage with giant ants in the foreground.

One real surprise I had on the day was to bump into an old friend, Paul Henni, whom I hadn't seen for many years. Here he is with his lovely wife Lynn.

Paul is one these people with an unfettered imagination and he and Lynn have come up with a fantastic game, Magic Maelstrom.

http://magic-maelstrom.blogspot.co.uk/

My head hurt just looking at the game board so it probably is great fun to play!

The final game which caught my eye was "Divine Wind" by the RAF Leuchars club.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafleuchars/stationfacilities/wargames.cfm

These guys always put on great games, this one was a bunch of kamikaze pilots having a go at US carrier.

As you can see appropriate head gear was worn.

And there were an appropriate amount of toys on the table.

Now, back to the plan, remember the PLAN.

I swiftly purchased the GOODIES I was after.

A box of Gripping Beast plastic Saxon Thegns.

A box of Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors.

These will form the bulk (hopefully all of it) of a Saxon force to be used with Dux Britanniarum.

A box of Wargames Factory Celtic Cavalry which will supply a small cavalry unit for my Dux Britons and leave a few bits for the spares box.

Some Dark Ages shield transfers as my eyes cannot cope with fine detail these days.

Some Howard Hues paints from Magister Militum. You can never have too much paint!

Many of you will know that I scratch build most of my bases and many of those have magnetic features so I got some additional supplies from Trevor Holland.

http://www.magneticdisplays.co.uk/

I received a surprise FREEBIE from an old club friend. A shoe box.

The contents were interesting.

These will appear in a future post, trust me.

So, back to the PLAN.

The above goodies cost the best part of £100, par for the course at a wargames show for me these days. I still left with more money in my pocket than I arrived with!

Remember the Bring & Buy.

I put in a few painted figures I will never use and a considerable number of boxed games which I will probably never play again. I got around £300 back less 10% to my club.

Apart from a smile on my face and a bundle of goodies to be getting on with I also have a bit of spare space in my cupboards and sense of well being as a few others will be thinking (knowing) they got a bargain today too. Well done the lads behind the tables in the Bring & Buy, good marketing!

The best bit was seeing and speaking to the many many friends I met at Claymore today. What a great hobby!

Am now somewhat in a modicum of discomfort. My feet are literally killing me. A long day on my feet has done something to them.

All Quiet on the ... Saxon Shore

Things have been quiet here on the wargaming front recently. Distractions at the sporting level and unseasonally good weather have stopped all play in the wargames hut.

However, things are still moving in the background.

I recently purchased Dux Britanniarum by the Two Fat Lardies and have been nibbling away at creating forces for a game.

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=21

I'm trying to collect suitable figures, on the cheap, and will report as such in a later post.

Meanwhile, here is what I'm supposed to be doing.

Maybe a Generation Thing

We were out for dinner with friends last night at a local restaurant.

http://www.birdcageeskmills.com/

The waitress (young) took a drinks order before the meal and I asked if they had cider.

Yes, she said, we have flavoured cider, peach, pear and apple!

Is it me or is it a generation thing?

Please don't tell me that as you get older you also get old fashioned. I've heard about the 'grumpy' bit.

The meal was excellent by the way.

Mouldy Old Mould

Well, hopefully not!

I have an internet chum, Bob Cordery, who amongst many other things has an interest in 54mm wargaming. Look at Bobs blog for information.

http://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/send-another-three-and-fourpence-better.html

I thought I had a Prince August mould buried somewhere in my lead mountain so I offered it to Bob, assuming I could find it. Not only did I find it, there was not one mould but three, the instruction sheet and the original box. Now, how often does that happen?

Here is the box lid.

And the instruction sheets.

Close inspection will reveal that both a standing body and a marching body are included as well as arms for a sword armed officer and a rifle armed ranker. Various heads will allow guardsmen in bearskins (please don't call them busbies), home service and foreign service helmets and a peak cap.

A conversion to a standard bearer would not be difficult.

I'm sure that Bob will be able to make good use of them.

Meeting an Old Friend

I had an opportunity during this years American vacation to visit a very old friend whom I hadn't seen since 1980, yes that's 33 years ago.

Back in 1980 I was the Chairman of my wargames club (SESWC) and the Secretary was a keen young chap called Eddie Harding. Eddie left the club that summer and with the rest of his family emigrated to the USA and we never heard from him again.

To cut a long story short last year I managed to make contact with Eddie although he has matured into Ed now. We made arrangements to meet up, in Chicago, next time we were in America and that meeting took place last month.

We met in the bar of a very busy Chicago restaurant, the Gene and Georgetti Steakhouse 'http://www.geneandgeorgetti.com/'  and I recognised Ed by his eyebrows, they had not changed one little bit although Ed had a few wrinkles and a few grey hairs that were not there in 1980.

We had a long long chat over a fantastic meal and I managed to tell Ed of some of the club stories although one evening is far too short to cover over 30 years. I presented Ed with a club T-shirt on behalf of the current club, a Runners-Up medal for Renaissance Wargaming which Ed won during the year that he left (I would have presented it to him at the 1980 AGM had he been there) and a unit of Dixon 7YW Prussian Musketeers.

All in all it was a very pleasant evening, both our wives were there though who knows what they spoke to each other about, Ed and I were too busy reminiscing.

I am hopeful that Ed can get over to the Old Country sometime in the next year or two as I am sure that there are still a good few of the 'old dogs' in the club who will remember him.