Carronade Charitable donation of £411.84

This year we decided to support a charity as part of the show.  One of our members works for Shelter and he gave us the attached information on a project they are running

Shelter is running a three year project to provide a Housing Support Service in Partenrship with Scottish Verterans Residences and also provide support to Scottish Veterans Residences to help them improve the housing advice provided to ex-service men and women.

The main aim of the work is to support tenants in the Scottish Veterans' Residence at Whitefoord House in Edinburgh to successfully re-settle into permanent accommodation and also to imrove their resilience, living and coping skills and to avoid future episodes of Housing Crisis/Homelessness. We would also assist veterans to access the residence where appliciable to help stabilse their lives with a longerterm goal of independent living. Many of the ex-service personnel we help have been out of the service for 20+ years and only started to suffer health or mental problems later in life. These grousp of ex-service personnel are not well recognised or catered for and while some help was available it was scant and patchy and not aimed at providing longer term stability in their lives. Shelter feels that the cornerstone of stability is a home to call your own and that remains our overarching aim.

This work is funded entirely by donations so every penny helps and thanks for giving this work your consideration for support.

A total of £137.28 was raised mainly from the members of clubs who were putting on games with some contributions from members of the public as well.  The Falkirk Club have matched this on a 2 for 1 basis, hence the total donation was £411.84 to this very good cause.

Personal Impressions of Carronade

First off I must declare an interest – I am on the organising committee so may not be totally unbiased.

Having been involved since the start back in 2006 this was rather a strange event for me.  I had caught a dose of the lurgey on the preceding Wednesday and things were not much better by the Friday when we get in to the venue to set the halls up and welcome the first traders.  I had some stuff to drop off which I managed to do but then felt rather guilty at leaving when I then left the guys to it. 

Old friends Mark from Under the Bed and Graham from Graham's Wuerkshoppe always set up on the Friday and then come over to our house stay.  A night out at a local hostelry is the tradition and although it was maintained I was on tap water all night which was not so good for the morale!

The next day I dragged my sorry arse along to the show, once again later than usual.  One of my jobs is to do the rota for club members.  I had left it very late and although I had posted it on the club forum no one had seen it.  Cue fumbling attempts to retrieve the list via my blackberry.

The show then opened and we were absolutely mobbed.  Only one of the three people I had planned to be on the door was actually there but another volunteer stepped forward and I also took a place and helped out.  There were 300 in by the end of the first hour and I felt my spirits start to rise.

Having handed over door duties I then went for my first proper look around the show.  It really did seem to be buzzing by that point.  We had a record number of traders (42) and games on (39).  Well over half the games were public participation and most of them had attracted a good selection of players which is great and once again adds to the atmosphere.

I picked up a copy of Check your 6 which I have been promising myself for a while and also made some purchases at the flea market.  We helped pioneer flea markets (where the seller rents a table and sells his stuff himself) and it has been a great success over the years.  It is interesting to see that more and more shows are adopting this approach over the traditional bring and buy.  From our perspective it is much easier to organise and means we do not have to worry about that perennial problem of theft.  For the seller it is cheaper (we only charge £2 an hour) and they have the freedom to display their wares and manage their prices as they wish.  The great advantage for the public is the ability to haggle!  Another benefit is that as table hire is by the hour the offerings are refreshed a number of times.

It is always good to have a chat to wargames chums and although the organisational side can make that a little difficult I did manage to speak to a few people.  Brian (see post on Washington Wargames Club) had made it up for the first time and enjoyed the experience.  He stayed the night  to make a weekend of it.

I decided that it was to be kill or cure and purchased Scotch Pie and chips from admittedly rather basic catering facilities.  I took them upstairs to give Gary a spell on the flea market desk.  In three quarters of an hour a sold one table so it was not overtaxing.  I left not cured but at least still alive!

I had planned to play a couple of games and the Lechars kamikazie set up together with Kirriemuir’s charge of the light brigade both caught my eye.  I passed however and in fact bailed out before close of play at 4pm

Overall impressions?

Like I said at the start I am obviously biased but I do honestly believe that for a show of it’s size it is very difficult to beat.  What really makes it for me is the games put on by the clubs.  They are always of a high standard and generate a lot of interest.  It is great to see so many people taking part in the participation games.

Of course without the traders we would not have a show and we are very grateful to their support over the years.  The flea market and the painting competition both add an extra dimension to the show.

Any areas for improvement?  I would be grateful for any comments to that effect as we are always looking for new ideas.  The catering is pretty basic (although acceptable) but that comes with the hall.  We are starting to reach the limits of what we can do in the space but I don’t think there are any better venues in the area.

Anyway another great show – thanks to all the lads from the club who make it so but most importantly thanks to the public for turning up.

A few photos

 

The main sports hall.  There is another slightly smaller hall that also has the canteen in it

 

View from the stairs of the passage between the two main downstairs halls

 

The flea market

 

The painting competition

 

The other upstairs hall - we may be able to make more use of this

 

 

More traditional eye candy here http://ironmammoth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/carronade-2013-wargames-show-report.html here http://balkandave.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/carronade-13.html and here http://wappinshaw.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-falkirk-show-carronade-was-held.html

 

The organisation for the 2014 show starts next week!



Antonine’s Folly 2013

On the 28^th April we held the first of the Scottish Impetus tournaments of the year at the Falkirk Club’s venue in Grangemouth.  12 players took part in total, 9 from Falkirk and 3 from Dunfermline.  There were at least 4 new to Impetus tournaments but such is the easygoing nature of tournament wargaming up here none had any issues.

I organise this tournament and being a simple sort of chap I like to keep things straightforward.  The first round was done on the principle of historical matching and thereafter the Swiss chess system.  There had been a certain amount of discussion on the Impetus forum for and against the 2013 competition amendments so I decided we should stick to the 2012 version.  Then there was the matter of terrain.

To be frank I don’t like the Impetus tournament pick your own terrain system.  I think it gives veteran players, who ponder these things, an additional advantage over novices.  So I decided to go with fixed terrain.  I have an old book of maps done by tabletop games which I find works well.   There are 100 of them with each giving the option of close medium or open terrain.   I get a club member who is not taking part in the competition to roll, firstly a percentage dice to pick the map and then with a 25 % chance for open or close terrain and a 50% chance of medium.  On the day tables are allocated randomly.  To make it easier to avoid anyone playing on the same table twice we set up an extra board, so in this case 7 rather than 6.

So the tournament was held and, for the most part, much merriment ensued.  We have in our number the current world champion and he was expected to sweep the board as usual.  However going into the final round my luck had held (playing two novices) and I found myself a rather distant second to the great man himself, but nonetheless in with a chance.

Dax was using a Lithuanian army filled with javelin armed light cavalry which had earned him two 130 to 0 victories.  My cunning plan was to face him on the close terrain board and after 3 attempts to pick a table sure enough a rolled a 2 to choose the ‘table from hell’.  Stage 2 of the cunning plan was to split my force in 2.  I was worried that my infantry would prove too easy for Dax to pick off so I hid them in the right corner as far away from the action as possible.  Stage 3 of the cunning plan was to funnel my 4 units of impetuous knights, led by the general, around the hills and woods on the left, pin his cavalry against the terrain and if possible take his baggage.

How did it go?  Well I at least gave Dax a run for his money.   The terrain did hamper him significantly and I got pretty close to breaking his last line of defence and having a chance to take out the baggage as well.  In the centre my general got in some lusty bows against the Lithuanian C in C.  On the cohesion test Dax threw a 6 for his unit.  This then meant there was a threat to the general.  A throw of 10 or more on 2 dice could have been enough to win me the game but sadly that was not to be, and Dax finally ran out a 120 to 10 winner.  At least I had succeeded in taking some points from him!

As always I was more interested in playing than taking photos but I did manage to get one shot of all the players in the second round, so here goes.  The squeamish may wish to look away now …(just kidding guys)

 

Frazer v Dax, Yuan Chinese v Lithuanian

 

 

My Feudal English facing off against Marco's Eastern Romans

 

 

Marco surveys the scene

 

Richard C's Berbers v David's 100YW English

 

Russ's Patrician Roman's v Richard B's 100YW English

 

Chuck v John, both using British and Welsh Kingdoms (on table 2). For some reason I can't add the shotof the game between Doug's Samurai and Andy's Teutonics but there they are in the background. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three posts and some snow

I have been involved in three events in the last few days

The Antonine's Folly Impetus tournament on 28th April

The Carronade show on 11th May

The wargaming element of the wartime experience at the National Museum of Flight today the 12th May.

I will post a report on each by this time next week (says he with great conviction)

I will leave you with a recommendation.

I recently played my first board game in over ten years 'A few acres of snow'  depicting the tussle between the British and French colonists of North America.  Highly recommended by me- but for reviews by people who know more about board games have a look here http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/79828/a-few-acres-of-snow

A great start to the year – what next?

I have done Vaparnak, Salute and the Viking exhibition at the museum.  This weekend we have an Impetus completion, on May 11^th it is Carronade and we are then putting games on at the Museum of Flight!  Add in visits to Dumbarton and Washington Wargames clubs, Worlds at War and the usual Monday nights at the Falkirk club and it has been pretty intense.

I hope to keep up a good level of gaming for the rest of the year, but I suspect not to that level. I am already in a Mordhiem campaign and the Dux Brittaniarum one should hopefully restart in May.  I  also hope to get involved in a campaign of the reconquest of Majorca and WW2 naval /air fighting in the Med in the early war years.  Plus at least one game in my Peloponnesian Wars and 1513 campaigns as well to keep them ticking over.

However the other thing I need to do is focus on tidying and organising the attic where all my warming gear is – it is an absolute mess.  I also want to get some painting done.

Painting priorities are

The next game – I want to get sorted a bit in advance of each game and get to play with as many painted figures as possible

28mm 1960’s British and adversaries – I hope to buy a few more at Carronade

28mm Freikorps - once again buy some at Carronade

28mm SF – finish my Pig Iron troopers

15mm War of the Triple alliance – these are largely painted but need to be organised and magnetised as a minimum

28mm Tudor – there is a lot of work involved here but I want to try and pick these off a unit at a time

I also want to try and do Mortimer’s Cross this year in 25mm – most of the figures are painted but I need to do some research, organise the armies and probably paint up a few more

And finally

I picked up an Imprest Bradley and some28mm Iraqi insurgents and US troops a couple of weeks ago – perhaps a project for 2014 though?

Impressions of Salute

35 years wargaming – first Salute – my impressions

2013 was my first ever (and possibly only) visit to Salute.   I thought I would share my personal thoughts on my visit.  Some of my impressions were positive and some negative, but I am no way having a go at the organisers – they put on a unique event which adds much to the hobby.  It would be foolish to expect it to be perfect and no one else would share my interpretation of perfection in any event!

The only reason that I made it this year was because I was fortuitously able to combine it with a work trip, so the transport to and from London was paid for.  I arrived at Heathrow at about 7pm on the Friday and negotiated my way across London via the Heathrow express and the underground. 

As an aside I must say I found the London Underground staff very helpful, much better than I remember in previous visits, which made the cross city travel easy.   I had booked a decent room at the Excel Novotel and arrived there after 9.  It was early to bed and early to rise in anticipation of the day ahead.

The Novotel is an excellent hotel by the way and only a couple of hundred yards from the venue. I enjoyed an excellent breakfast with stunning views over the river.  I took the opportunity to check my bearings in the centre itself and found the entrance where some of the people putting on games were arriving.

 

The Excel as seen from the hotel - its pretty close

 

I went back to the hotel, packed and checked out to get to the centre some time around 9:30.  What a difference!  There were two queues one for pre booked tickets and one for cash payers.  I was in the cash payers queue for the best part of an hour.  I struck up a conversation with another two guys (sorry I have forgotten your names) and so the time passed pleasantly enough but it took the best part of an hour to get in.  Later, when talking to one of the traders, he said that the event was dead for the first hour which he found very frustrating.  I know the answer cannot be simple but the time spent queuing was the first negative.  A suggestion would be to abandon pre paid tickets, still have two queues and process them simultaneously?  Or have more stations to process people at the entrance.  Or let prepaid tickets in half an hour early. Something anyway.  Not that I am suggesting a solution is at all easy .

Once in I dropped off my case and tried to get my bearings.  My intention was to savour the experience, play some games and have a look at some of the traders.  I really started by just wandering around trying to soak up the atmosphere.  What struck me the amount of space. Most shows struggle to fit everything in- not the case here.

I looked for some of the games that I wanted to play but came up against two problems.  One was finding them.  I quickly become disorientated had to keep referring back to the (excellent) floor plan.  Then as I found them the they had all already started. I made the decision to try and book a slot at the one where the write up in the programme had attracted me the most.  This was ‘Drop the Bridge’ by the North London Wargames Club.  On inquiry the next game was due to start in three quarters of an hour, so I agreed to come back then.

This left me some time to browse traders, chat to some friends and look to see what else I might want to play later.  I even bought six Salute dice for £1- I fancied a T shirt but deliberately had not bought much cash with me and wanted to keep it for any impulse purchases.  The one trader that really caught my eye was Antenocitis range of SciFi vehicles, but I resisted temptation.

Getting back to the game I found that they had taken lunch and the next game was not going to start until one, but that they would definitely hold a place for me.  This gave me another half an hour to wander around and also grab some lunch.  I thought the in house catering was good quality, perhaps a little pricey but not bad for London.

My next negative was the toilet facilities.  Of the 3 potential ones only one was open.  I had to have my hand stamped before going to use them as there was also a car park entry/exit through the same door.  With that number of people one set of toilets is not enough.  I also object strongly to having my hand stamped.  No-one else seemed to mind so that one is probably just me.

Finally the game!  What a good one it was too.  Steve, Ray and Ian (I think – sorry if I got any of your names wrong guys) helped four of us through the scenario.  A flight of Sturmoviks escorted by LAG 3s where attempting to bomb a bridge.  A heavy concentration of flak and my 4 Bf 109s were tasked with defending it.  The rules were simplified Wings of War and we all had an absolute blast.  I failed to get my fighters on until turn three but  then raced in causing some real damage and shooting two of the light bombers down, whist losing two fighters.  With the help of the flak we nearly held the Soviet hordes at bay but Robert managed to time his bomb run precisely and boom! up went the bridge.  This game was definitely the highlight of my visit.

 

The Soviets begin their mission to destroy the bridge

 

What of the other games?  I had a chat with the chap running 'Grace O'Malley - the Pirate Queen' where the kings men were trying to smoke out a pirates lair in late 16th century Ireland.  A case of truth being stranger than fiction and I liked the simplicity and the fun of the scenario. 

 

 

The English attack the tower as a galley brings reinforcements for the pirates

 

There were many other games of varying quality but nothing really caught my interest for long.  There was a huge representation of the Battle of Waterloo manned by chaps in period uniform but to be honest it left me a little cold.  I have never been fond of tables set up purely for visual effect – I like wargames to involve gaming!  I also took a membership pack from the Pike and Shot Society – I will join sometime this year I promise.

Towards the end of the day I revisited Antenocitis stand and bought a power armour suited figure which had caught my eye earlier.  That, the dice and a couple of pained second hand figures were my entire purchases for the day, a grand sum of £18.99.

I did not stay until the bitter end but made my way back to Heathrow, had an excellent meal and a couple of pints and then headed back up to Scotland arriving home at about 11:30pm.

So – pros and cons.

Pros

I have always wanted to visit Salute and now I have.  That just leaves Historicon.

I liked the spacious feel to the venue.

More traders than you could shake a stick at.  It was not their fault that my wish list was short and funds low.

Lots of games to take part in- I am sure if I had tried harder I could have done more than one and the one I did play was excellent.

Enjoyable conversation in the queue

The catering was fine

Cons

Bluntly the cost.  Even with my employer paying for my flights it cost me £250, not much of which was on wargaming products.
 
The spacious feel came at the cost of the buzz that surrounds smaller shows

Finding it difficult to get into games

The queue, the queue. And thrice the queue.

The facilities and accompanying stamp on the back of my hand.

Overall impressions – would I go back again?

On reflection I have mixed emotions.  Salute is different to any other wargames show I have been to before, both in scale and feel.  I am glad I have experienced it so on balance a positive verdict.

I would like to end by congratulating the organisers for hosting such a complex event.  I would go back again in principle but to be honest I will probably find a better use for £250 next year. Still - never say never.

Visit to Washington Wargames Club

Washington was my first club, I joined back in 1978.  In the old days, before the internet, finding a club was pretty much a hit and miss affair.  I was actually on the top deck of a double decker bus reading Donald Featherstone’s ‘solo wargaming’ when I was spotted by Brian who came over and had a chat and invited me along to the club.

I had many memorable games there, made a lot of friends and made the transition from being a small scale collector of figures and potential solo wargamer to a fully fledged club gamer with a significant pile of unpainted lead.  I gained my lifelong interest in 25mm ancient wargaming, starting with WRG 5^th, graduating to 6^th and adding Warhammer Ancients and FOG.  Many other games were played including some impressive Christmas games.  We ran a local show, Warrior, for many years.  I served as treasurer, games organiser and chairman in my time so managed to put something back in to balance all the enjoyment I got out of being a member.

35 years later, having moved to Scotland, I am no longer a regular but do try and get down occasionally.  Last Saturday was actually my first visit for nearly two years but it was as if I had never been away.  It was 25mm ancients again but this time with Impetus.  Peter fancied giving the rules a try so I brought down Feudal Spanish and Andalusians.  We managed two games, with Peter winning the first game and me the second.  Guess who joined in the first game to also try out the rules – yes it was Brian.  He is hoping to get up to Carronade this year so I hope to see him again then. 

Hopefully it won’t be another two years before I get down again.

 

Not a particularly good photo I am afraid, but that is Brian sitting down and Peter with the tape!  Saga, FOG, Command and Colours and Heroclix were also played.  I nearly forgot - it was also great to see another mate of 35 years, Gary, playing WRG6th with Bob.