It is almost a confession to my reader who
might like to be brought up to date as to what has been occurring for me in
wargaming.
I attended Little Wars in Adelaide as
planned and experienced a great weekend. I really enjoyed catching up with old friends like
Nic Robson from Eureka Miniatures and making new ones. The hospitality provided to me by Marcus Tregenza
and his fellow members of Group North, was first class!
Over July to September, the real World
intervened resulting in me becoming a nationally accredited mediator.
During this period, I also had to prepare for
my participation at MOAB in Sydney over the October long weekend. This required the basing of three 15mm and
two 28mm armies – fives armies, madness!
To accommodate the transportation of these
armies, I decided to drive to the event, especially as I had just spent over
$2,000 to have the clutch in my car replaced!
I faced the drive with some trepidation, but the car performed really
well and though tiring – 13 hours driving to get to the motel at Miranda late
on Friday evening and then 12 hours return drive on the following Tuesday, the
long weekend was enjoyable.
I elected to play in the two day DBA
competition professionally organized by Stephen Webb. The first day, the games are based around a map
campaign, its theme changes each year.
This year was a Successor Campaign, set between 320 and 315BC.
I fielded the army, commanded by Antigonos
(DBA Bk II/16(a)). I experienced my
usual poor dice rolling, particularly in critical rounds of combat. It is difficult not to become disheartened
when rounding two six to ones in the same round of combat!
At the conclusion of the campaign, I had
managed to loss six games out six. My country had been invaded and conquered several times over. The winner of the campaign was Adrian Williams.
My spirits rallied that evening, when I
gathered with Greg, Mark, Phil and David to consume a carnivore’s delight,
washed down with a very nice red at the Gymea Tradies’, great venue, excellent
company couldn’t ask for better.
The next day saw another six games of DBA
contested, this time it was to be historical matched pairs. I fielded Feudal French (DBA Bk IV/4(b)) and Early Muslim North Africa and Sicily (DBA Bk III/33). Unfortunately, after six games, I ended with
one draw, one win and four losses. So,
it was another trip to the Tradies to drown my sorrows with Greg and Mark. We also watched the NRL Grand Final, though I
still can’t work out why people like the game, its not like its rugby!
On Monday, I competed in the HOTT event
organized by Victor Jamusz. It was to be
my first games of HOTT. I had previously liaised with Victor and Terry Webb, in the US, for this event to be also the
first leg of the internationally contested Good, Bad and Ugly tournament (‘GBnU’). Thanks again Victor, for allowing this to occur!
Though there was a smaller than expected
turn out, I enjoyed the experience greatly.
I particularly liked finally meeting Alan Saunders in person. I have enjoyed his blog for quite some time.
As for my gaming, suffice to say, it was a marginally better day with the dice.
The GBnU requires some explanation. It is an annual event, run over a number of
legs, where competitors play in local competitions, but the final results are
combined, with the outcomes of other legs, to produce an overall winner, and
other place getters. So, this year, the
first leg was played in Australia, followed in no particular order by other
legs played in Glasgow, Coventry in the UK and several US sites such as
Nashville and Austin. Terry did an excellently job in developing this concept, well done that man!
The theme for GBnU this year was Childrens’
books and movies.
The following are some photos of the
event. I must state that these are
perhaps the worse photographs I have taken with my camera. I can only blame operator error!
 |
| The competitors: Rear rank: Greg Kelleher and myself, Front rank: Victor Jamusz, Alan Suanders, Michael Chellew and Martin Stewart |
The first round, I
went up against Greg’s Saxon armies, so a battle of shield walls was contested. Greg’s armies were based upon the books
written by Bernard Cornwall. I quickly
lost my warlord and it went down hill from there.
Whilst this game
was in progress, on the next table Alan and Victor were battling it out on
Mars, using Alan’s imaginative armies, based upon the John Carter/ Baroom novels
written by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
I must say I liked
Alan’s creative terrain and seventies style tie dye terrain surface!
On the third
table, Martin’s Napoleonic French and English, which he painted when he was
eleven, were fighting it out!
I’m continually amazed at the
imagination and creativeness that gamers bring to HOTT!
Round 2 and I went
up against Victor, using my Clan War based fantasy samurai, the Mantis Clan
under Yamamoto against the Ratlings or Nezumi under Tchickchuk of the Tattered
Ear pack. A close loss with me losing
Tchickchuk.
The sharp of eye will note that the basing task I set myself was not meet, but at least they are fully painted figures.
Whilst this was
going on, Michael fielded his Daliks against Greg, who used Michael’s Teddy Bear
Pirates! The pirates are manufactured by Eureka Miniatures.
Round 3 and I was
up against Martin and pulled out a rare win in the virtual last throw of the
dice, Wellington had fallen!
Round 4 and I was
up against a very experienced player in Alan.
An interesting game that though I lost I felt like I had learnt a lot
about HOTT!
During this game,
on another table Victor fielded his Orcs.
All in all, an
entertaining day of pushing lead!
Since MOAB, I have
been again busy with real world activities, but I have managed to get myself
some great gaming mats manufactured by the US based Cigar Box games, through
its excellent Australian supplier, Campaign Books and Games Logistics. Shayne is a great person to do business with, I can't commend his service any higher!
In other posts,
I’ll be setting out my purchases for the year and the status of the projects I
have engaged in over the last twelve months. I have achieved mixed
results, but after my first year of this blog, I’m still gaming, and I’m back
painting again and enjoying it!
