Going a Viking at Vappa! York Show Report.

And thus, the annual pilgrimage to Vapnartak, York Wargames Show came to pass on Sunday gone.

I arrived at Dave's bright eyed and bushy tailed in time for Shaun to (kindly) pick us both up in the car. We headed down the A1 with only one pit stop to stoke up the engines with caffeine. Many thanks to Shaun for the lift down- very much appreciated. And thanks to both Dave and Shaun for the banter on our travels (sorry about the slightly morbid subject matter on the way home- all I can say is that it's good to get it off one's chest! LOL ) 

The thing a really love about the York show is that it always features a gamut of high quality games on display and has a fantastic array of traders. In short it's visually appealing great for shopping, if a little heavy on the old wallet. The space is also just as important. Although it can be a little disorienting due to the many floors etc it is just the right size; not too big so's to miss the traders and games and not so small that it can be wrapped up in an hour.

It's one of my favourite shows of the calender.

I have to say that with a tinge of regret, that, compared to some years the quality of the games on display was down on the last few years. This was probably a fluke but I did notice that some of the space that used to be reserved for games was now taken up by traders. This in itself is no bad thing but I think that in previous years, the balance between quality games and traders was just right where this year, it seemed trader heavy. Of course, this is just my humble opinion. Add into the pot all the variables that one gets when putting on a show and the chance that it might be different next year.

As far as loot is concerned I pre-ordered 13 packs of the beautifully sculpted, full of character Iron Duke Indian Mutiny 'Mutineers' from Empress Miniatures. There are no duplicates at all in any of the packs which is a remarkable achievement and kudos to Mike Snook for commissioning such a wonderful range and to Paul Hicks, sculpting talent extraordinaire.

Here are just a few of the packs that are on the Empress site as of now. I believe the other eight packs will be going up this week some time:

To go with the Mutineers I also bought the new Unfeasibly Miniatures Blockhaus/Fort from their Exotic Adventures range. I've tried to upload a pic of the fort but the Unfeasibly site won't let me save the pic so all I can do is supply those of you who are inquisitive about it with this ;ink:

https://www.unfeasibly.co.uk/product/blockhaus-fort-outpost-building/

Last, but quite essential I bought some Magnetic Sheets and Paper from Corantini. It is conceivable that I might have spent even more money had Magister Militum had their range of resins present. As it was I couldn't see anything on their stand fit for the Indian Mutiny and I do like to see what I'm buying first when it comes to resin buildings.

OK, onto the pics of the games. As I said earlier I think the over all quality of the games had slipped and there were some notable omissions. I do hope that this is not a downward trend, I'm probably overreacting.

Comitatus- Late Roman Reenactment:

Curteys Miniatures- Cape Wars Participation Game:

The League of Extraodinary Kriegspielers- Bukhara 1920:

?????

This was more of a Display- great nonetheless!:

Leeds Militaria Wargames Society Club-

Dragon Rampant, They're Over the Walls!

Crusade Game (???):

Sci-Fi (???):

The Bunker- The Alamo Participation Game:

Bye for now.

Clubbing It! The Sudan

The Sudan:

The next best thing to a great looking Late Medieval game is a great looking Colonial game. The Sudan, like the Indian Mutiny, being especially attractive. To tell you the truth (don't tell my fellow Haggis Rampant players!) it was very tempting to slip through to the other room and try to worm my way into the game! The pics that follow were taken just before the Highlanders on the British/Egyptian left flank collapsed. Definitely a Valentine Baker moment as opposed Garnet Wolsley! 

It really looked like the players, Graeme Carrol, the aptly named Malcolm Gordon and Steven Hardy were having great fun playing the game. The miniatures were from the collections of the latter two gents mentioned above.

The game was certainly a spectacle and I understand it was the guys first foray into the Sudan using the Black Powder rules and are playing again next week so expect more pics of the game if I'm correct in my assumptions.

You should be able to read much more about the game and see many more pics on Steven Hardy's blog HERE very soon.

Bye for now.

Clubbing it! Haggis Rampant

Yesterday we played out the last game in our current campaign season. The randomly determined scenario turned out to be A Taxing Day which at least gave the fleet of foot Islemen a chance of gaining some Glory! Or so I thought.....

Basically the game was the usual mix of frustration as troops failed their activation rolls, typically my (effete) Fierce Foot lagged behind to play no part in the scenario (again!) whilst my Bidowers and Men at Arms of Foot legged it for the loot! A plan, though not by design which did actually yield some results as I managed to pick up two loot counters. Richard, my partner in crime got another so all things considered we had done quite well, for the Scots and Iselmen that is!

The English managed to pip us to the post with an extra point of tax and I'm quite sure that the three units of Hobilars and one unit of Mounted Men at Arms helped in this regard. The game was a bit of a weird one in that there was no actual melee and only a small amount of shooting with both sides being content to grab their respective loot and run!

We came to a gentleman's agreement that although the scenario had been completed we would continue to play and get stuck into one another which at least from my perspective was ore fun than the scenario! I guess that's the wargamer in me- we just like throwing dice don't we? LOL :>)

My 28mm (Fierce?) Iselman Leaves his `15mm Hearth and Home! :>)

My Initial Deployment; Some Things Never Change:

As Per Usual, my Bidowers Lead the Attack While my (so called) Fierce Foot Lag Behind with Positive Productiveness! 

We Tax the Locals! Hurrah!

Ariel View of Nige's Cavalry Based Force Already Pegging It off the Table with his Loot!:

The Culprits!

Bye for now.

Hastings Ruminations I

It's been in my mind a little; the so called Feigned Flight of (initially) the Bretons.... was this the case?

With the distance of the years it's an almost impossible question to answer. There is however another intriguing possibility.

To set the scene. The Bretons have panicked and with this a general retreat of William's army is starting to take hold. Harold, thinking the time is right to strike the killing blow orders a part of his army to persue. This is a very plausible scenario and one that may well have taken place. It would certainly account for the persuit of one of Harold's flanks into the boggy ground where they were to be cut down, probably to a man.

This does of course raise another question; who led the advance? From what I've gleaned thus far about the battle Gyrth and Leofwine, the two brothers Harold had present at the engagement seem to have died at a different point in time to Harold. Does this imply therefore that they were not with Harold's Bodyguard of Huscarls but spread throughout the battle line in order to stiffen the resolve of the Anglo Danes? If so (and with the actual evidence or lack of that we have I know that it's a big if!) then one or both of the brothers may have said the counter charge.

It certainly sets my imagination away. I can see a command vignette of Gyrth or perhaps Leofwine leading the doomed persuit in my minds eye.