Border Reiver 2015

South of the Border,
Down Gateshead way.
That's where I drove my car,
Where guys I love, came out to play.

OK, cut the crap, there's no love involved, just a bit of camaraderie (is that a real word?).

http://borderreiverwargamessociety.blogspot.co.uk/p/border-reiver-wargames-show-2015.html

After a couple of hours of trouble free motoring I arrived at the Gateshead International Stadium.

I turned up before the show opened so I sauntered in via the open and unguarded fire exit to see if any of my trader chums were in need of a hand to carry their goodies in. Nope, all done there. I spied a couple of old chums setting up their display game but they had everything to hand as well.

I wandered over to the ticket desk and the guys there told me (with a smile) if I wasn't a trader or a demonstrator I was breaking their health and safety guidelines and I would have to leave. After a wee chat with them I retired to the canteen and gave in to a bacon buttie and a cup of tea. (Bacon is off my normal menu but what the hell, I was south of the border.

As soon as 10 o'clock came along I joined what appeared to be a very short queue waiting to get in. It started to move slowly and on turning a corner saw that the queue was twice as long as I thought it was and on turning the next corner (there was a lot of corners) it had doubled again. All of which was a good sign for such a small show.

Note: (For the Gateshead guys) At Claymore we also have a queue at the opening hour but prior to the doors being opened we have a couple of guys who pre-sell tickets to those in the queue which makes the queue disappear rapidly once the show is opened.

Once I was officially in I had a chat with a Gateshead guy called Robin (I think). I told him that this was the first show I had been to in a good while where I wasn't running a charity stall. I was here to see the show itself which is very hard to do while doing the hard sell. He said I would have been given a table without question if I had asked but no, I want to be a wargamer again.

The hall was already buzzing, traders doing their business, wargamers rolling their dice and all that jazz. The sodium lighting in the hall was horrendous making everything appear yellow. Photography was going to be difficult.

In my time honoured tradition I focussed only on a very few games (I'm not Henry Hyde) and in particular those which caught my eye for one reason or another.

First up was my old pals from the Dumfries club. They were demonstrating an episode from the Battle of Spotsylvania, the Mule Shoe Salient using the relatively new Longstreet rules.

(See how yellow everything looks)

A hoard of Yankees (about a brigades worth) were attempting to storm a defended hill in Rebel hands. Here's some of them waiting at the edge of a wooded area.

The Southern Gentlemen waited patiently on them.

I passed the battle later on in the day, here is the view from the other direction.

A leisurely paced game as the Dumfries guys, like me, took every chance to have a blether rather than roll more dice or play a card.

Here's a closer view of the attacking brigade.

The next game that caught my eye was a naval game set in the Russo-Japanese War.

This is the Borodino leading the Russian line.

Just count them funnels.

The Japanese, lead by the Mikasa (looked like the Mikasa, sailed like the Mikasa, so must have been the Mikasa) patiently awaited the Russian advance.

Come on you at the end, get into line!

The game was presented by the Tantobie Warfare and Tactical Society.The rules in use were Battlefleet 1900, free from the following link. I must have a look at these sometime.

http://www.wtj.com/games/battlefleet_1900/

The ships are from Old Glory and are 1:600 scale.

http://www.oldgloryuk.com/data/catalogue_pdfs/old_glory_shipyard.pdf

Tiger, Tiger, no, not another warship game but a tankie game. Falkirk District club put on their  'Get the Tiger game, or perhaps, get the Sherman game'. A good participation game, drew a small crowd, and more importantly young gamers. (Well, you've got to get them interested in the first place).

A well thought out game but handicapped a bit by tabletop clutter. Come on guys, sort that.

Some of the clutter was interesting:

And informative:

Here are some details:

This clutter would have been better on a noticeboard.

Here's a well painted Tiger sporting a gaming accessory.

A victim (Sherman) ambles forward.

Zulus, Thousands of Them (a few hundred anyway) attack the invading red coats. Maybe the red coats were invading Zululand, does it matter?)

This game was presented by Westerhope Wargames Club (somewhere up the left hand side of the A1). Small but perfectly formed, they say.

Small but perfectly formed Zulus do a bit of 'Strictly' prior to a tangle (tango) with the Brits.

Just as small but even more perfectly formed the British Jury awaits the first dance.

Well that's enough of Border Reiver for today. I retired to the canteen with a few of the guys for yet another blether. A passable Cornish Pasty and a few chips bolstered me sufficiently energy wise enough to drive home in the sunshine to ponder my goodies acquired on the day. Two and a half hours of driving this time as there were a few 'Sunday' motorists out a day early.

First up was another Warband Army pack from Pendraken, High Elves this time.

I hope to get these based up in Warmaster style and also have sabots more suitable for Warband.

Here are the sabots from Pendraken.

And some more 100 x 50 mm bases as I will be scratch building some sabots.

I also got some dice frames.

And some game markers.

Finally I got some pansy coloured paints for the High Elves. I've never done High Elves before so I think some pansy colours will help my lack of artistical eye.

I unbagged the High Elves to peer at the castings. Here's what you get in an army pack.

I'll get 8 Warband units out of them but also 5 Warmaster fighting units and some command.

The spearmen are regularly irregular or maybe irregularly regular.

What do you think?

I would have started painting them straight away but I have these to finish first.

Some 'skellies' complete with scratch built standards.

And these:

Peely Wally Barbarians just needing a bit of colour.

There are some other photo reports of the show at:

http://herkybird-richardbradley.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/border-reiver-2015.html

and

http://justaddwater-bedford.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/quick-border-reiver-show-run-through.html

and

http://westerhopewargames.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/border-reiver-show-report.html

and

http://nevermindthejankers.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/border-reiver-show-photos.html

and

http://blenheimtoberlin.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/border-reiver-2015.html

Border Reiver - A Taster

I was at the Border Reiver show in Gateshead this morning.

Exhaustion prevents me from presenting a blog report.

Here's a little taster:

And:

More tomorrow.

Buffalo Soldiers

There was a Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America,
Stolen from Africa, brought to America,
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.

Queue Music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEpSBsUjY-0

What do you get from one packet of Bison Riders by Pendraken?

Well, you can get a Warmaster unit.

And a second Warmaster unit.

I am planning to use these in my Pseudo-Orc Warmaster army, as boar riders.

So that is half a brigade.

With an appropriate sabot base (I hope to get some this weekend) you can also get a Warband Bison Riders unit.

And another one.

Or, I can get a slightly better Warband unit (with a different sabot base).

This will leave me with two bases unused so the obvious answer is to buy some more. This will give me two more Warmaster units (making a full brigade) or a total of three fully manned Warband bases. Another purchase for this weekend then.

Ghost Riders in the Sky

Well not quite but I just watched this on YouTube and it sort of fits ... well maybe not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zol906ltPU

Back in the real world of wargaming I have just finished a unit of 'riders', Pendraken variety. I wanted a fourth unit of Undead Cavalry for my Warmaster Undead collection. Prices are ridiculous on various auction sites £10, £15, £20+ for a pack that originally cost a fiver.

The originals look like this.

The 'new' Pendraken Undead Riders start off looking like this.

A touch of Milliput and a splash of paint makes them look like this.

These cost £4.50. Good deal?   I think so.

Here's them both together.

How did I do?

I must get some more of these. (Hopefully at Border Reiver coming up soon).

http://borderreiverwargamessociety.blogspot.co.uk/p/border-reiver-wargames-show-2015.html

Ersatz Empire Knights

I have a Warmaster Empire collection.

Their best troops are the Knights.

Here is one stand of them, you need three stands to make a unit.

I acquired these secondhand unpainted as part of an army sized box for £45 which was a bargain indeed. I know a friend recently sold a similar sized army for £150.

I like bargains.

Being a true wargamer I want more.

On various auction sites these sort of figures go for £15, £20, £25+ per unit not including postage. I would be reluctant to pay that sort of money. In fact I wouldn't pay that sort of money at all.

I bought a box of Kallistra Teutonic Knights.

They look like this unpainted.

Painted as Teutonic Knights they look like this.

Not quite what I was looking for but a little bit of clipping, a touch of filing, a modicum of drilling, some baling wire, a drizzle of milliput and a paintjob they look like this.

How did I do?

A bit of a transformation, do you agree?

Now, back to the bargains.

If I were to aspire to having, say four more units of Empire Knights I would expect to pay around £100 on an auction site, plus postage and assuming availability and lack of competition.

I bought three blister packs of Teutonic Knights from Kallistra. These will give me four units of knights once modified as above and will have cost me £15.

That's a bargain!

My Day at Claymore 2015

Like all good things Claymore has come around again and I'm glad to say that I was able to be there (again). Unconfirmed attendance numbers seem to be at least 782, up from about 680 last year. Never-the-less an improvement and I also thought that the floor plan was better making it feel a bit more open and less busy.

http://seswc.co.uk/2014/10/claymore-2015/

I ran another charity stall as before and can only say that I exhausted not only myself but a few passing wargamers pockets. Net profit for the day will be around £600 mostly going to Combat Stress and SSAFA.

I was not able to take any photographs on the day but there are some here (thanks R1ch4rd).

http://thewargamingmagpie.tumblr.com/

Click on the little 'magnifying glass' icon on the top right hand side of the picture to enlarge.

I will try and list more here as they become available. (Come on photographers, help me out here).

http://leagueofaugsburg.blogspot.ae/2015/08/claymore-2015-zippin-up-ma-boots-and.html

https://www.flickr.com/photos/asienieboje/sets/72157656322939048

My purchases on the day were limited to a set of rules, some lead, some more lead and a roll of magnetic tape. I won't mention the chips and the hamburger.

I bought WARBAND, a new-ish set of rules from Pendraken. I hope to use my Warmaster and my Hordes and Heroes (Kallistra) collections with them. Their base size is nominally 100 x 50 mm but I think you will be able to use 80 x 40 mm which you can make up with multiple bases from the above ranges.

I also bought two army packs from Pendraken, well they had a deal on, two army packs at £27 each and a set of rules valued at £16 for £65, a no-brainer for me.

http://www.pendraken.co.uk/Warband-Fantasy-Rules-p7177/

The Army Packs I selected from those available were Undead and Barbarian.

That's a lot of lead.

I plan to base the Undead in Warmaster fashion so they will look a little like this.

Not quite as densely packed as the GW originals but once they are painted, based and ranked up on the tabletop they will be fine. Another no-brainer for me compared to the potential cost of picking up Warmaster units via various auction sites.

There are three Warrior units in the Army Pack totalling 75 figures in 26 variations of pose. Add in a few figures from the Command unit and you will get three units based in the Warmaster style (3 x 40 x 20 mm). I might try and be creative and make some standard bearers to better assimilate the Pendraken units with the GW ones.

Three Warrior packs, 75 figures, mostly clubs, swords and spears, a few axes, some shields, some no shields.

The Archer pack is 25 figures, 7 variants. This will be enough for one Warmaster archer unit.

The Rider pack is 12 figures in 10 variants. Just enough for one Warmaster cavalry unit. Again I will need to be creative with a standard bearer.

The Command pack and the Necromancer pack have 5 unique figures each. I'm not sure how useful these will be in a Warmaster connection but I will probably use them to pad out other units.

The Catapult pack has two catapults, fairly generic, could be useful in lots of places depending on the crew.  I haven't read far enough into WARBAND to see how they are used, give me a day or two. 8 figures, 3 variants.

I'm not sure what I will do with the Barbarian Army Pack at the moment but I'm sure I will blog about it when I do.

My other lead acquisitions of the day were three packs of Kallistras Teutonic Knights and three packs of Wars of the Roses Crossbowmen. These will be converted into Warmaster compatible Empire troops in due course. Watch this space. These packs are nominally £6 each but you can get 6 for the price of 5 so £5 a pop. (Think, a Warmaster compatible unit for a fiver).

My final purchase of the day was a roll of magnetic tape from Magnetic Displays. My regular readers will know what I do with it.

http://magneticdisplays.co.uk/

A nice chap, wargamer as well, bought my hand made dungeon, modular, multi-room. I can't see me getting a sufficiently large enough gaming crew together to make use of it again so it had to go.

Can whoever it was please contact me as I have found a piece of it on the floor and it is pining to be rejoined to its compatriots. I may also have a few other bits and pieces that you may like.

So at the end of another wargame show, I am happy, I am hoarse from speaking to so many people, I am footsore but not quite as bad as last year, I met many old friends, made a couple of new friends, made a few business opportunities for the future, and another few quid in the charity fund.

Thanks to everyone who attended my charity stand.

Roll on the next one (well as soon as my feet feel better).