6th of June Game - Bolt Action

As has been previously mentioned, the Phoenix Club intended to put on a game of Bolt Action at Wappinshaw last week. When it was discovered at the last minute that SESWC were bringing of a very similar concept - albeit a different scale and different rules - we switched to the big Napoleonic game previously shown.

As yesterday was D-Day, a couple of Phoenix Club pals [Paul and Graham] came to visit to play the game as originally envisaged: US Airborne versus local defence elements in Normandy.

As I also mentioned in the too-brief show report, my pic-taking mojo temporarily left me. My new flat isn't as convenient wrt laying out a large table as my old place, but there is a lot more light. I took advantage of this, and reinforced by some of the very helpful suggestions in a good article in issue 361 of Miniature Wargames giving practical tips for toy soldier photography.

The results were much better than I managed at the show - hopefully I'll be able to repeat this success at Claymore in August.

Here are a couple of pics of the table.

The buildings are by Conflix and EM-4. Tiles by Eslo. Bocage and matching roads by Mandertory - who are now making them for Battlefront I believe. 15mm scale - but work fine here. Craters and trenches by someone at Claymore! Drums/storage by Snapdragon. Railtrack by Hornby.

The forces are quite small - 500pts or so each. Germans matching the 500pts starter army from Warlord and the US Airborne rather heavy on support weapons and rather short on squaddies.

The officer commands from behind the reassuring solidity of the Hanomag.

The Heer peer cautiously over the hedges.

US mortar gets ready to provide support.

The US Lieutenant called in very accurate support fire from the mortar and howitzer all game. I know you need FOs according to the BA rules, but until those are painted it seems a reasonable house rule to allow officers to call in indirect fire.

Crunch at the Crossroads.

Some close-ups of a few of the lads. With the exception of the US light howitzer, these were all painted by Jim Brent - very well and at good prices. Jim sells via eBay and probably won't mind me pointing interested parties onto his profile: Jim's eBay profile and items for sale - Jim is a very good painter and knows his stuff. I think I might edge him in photography though.

The Germans did well in the early game, taking out one of the precious squads of US Airborne. The US commander then exploited the gap between elements of the German forces to concentrate fire - direct and critically indirect - on an isolated portion, swinging the game back in his favour. We find these rules give plenty of flavour and action, and I'm going to build my pair of forces up to about a 1000 points a side. More US Airborne squaddies on their way from Jim.

Thanks for looking. Full gallery at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46755253@N00/sets/72157633996168702/

So how many people came to Wappinshaw?

In respect of paying punters - we can make a confident estimate of:

 375

How did we come to this number? We have a cash total for ticket sales on the door AND we know how many tickets we have left and how many we printed.

It isn't an exact figure as we can't be certain tickets weren't used for other purposes, and our door total doesn't distinguish between who paid £3 and who paid £1.

That estimate doesn't include traders, gamers putting on games and of course the Red Shirts helping out at the show. The number is up on last year, and getting on for double that of three years ago - the last show held at the much smaller Woodside Halls.

A very few pics from Wappinshaw

I don't think I've ever been busier at a wargames show than I was yesterday! Had to set up a huge game on my own and manage it for the day. Normally I take 300+ pics at a show - and display the best 50-100 on this blog, as per the post from Carronade last month: Carronade Pics

Yesterday though, I had just ten minutes [usually I take 90+] to scoot round the hall to take some pics. Only took 50, and rushing is not conducive to considered and pleasing piccies AND quite a few of those were of the game I was running. So, below we have a very few pics of some of the games - my policy being that if I don't have a good pic doing justice, I don't share it. Outline report of my day at the show also below.

Gourock were running a 15mm ACW game - Shiloh.

The mysterious Glasgow Wargames Club [one of four in the city] were playing Full Thrust, a game nearing 25 years in age? The explosions were pompoms I think.

One of the participation games this year was by Kirriemuir, who travelled to the Crimea to bring a recreation of the Charge of the Light Brigade. 

The measuring sticks for the 600 seem rather short to me!

My pics for the AVBCW game by GDWS are pish, alas. They were using Bolt Action - after my first game of that I was struck by how it could very easily be used for small to medium AVBCW games and this team proved it. Their model of the People's Palace had interior decorating.

G3 were running games of their self-created Xtreme-G racing on a highly attractive circuit.

Bathgate brought THEM! This is a public participation game based on the 50's film. Great fun had by all who played it.

Flames of War is of course a widely known and played game. Nevertheless, many people still haven't tried it, and perhaps its ubiquity makes it challenging to start with? Using a simple/clean layout and small intro forces to teach the rules, an official FoW Ranger took pairs of new players through the system.

The day before the show, we found out that SESWC were planning to do a Normandy 1944 game using US Airborne and the [still unpublished] Chain of Command Rules from TFL. The Phoenix Club were going to use the same context using Bolt Action. Rather than cramp their style [the games were next-door neighbours in the hall], it seemed polite to throw something else together at the last minute - hence we switched to our Napoleonic game.

SESWC got through 5 games in the day - impressive.

Our other neighbour for the day was Dumbarton, who were playing Warhammer in a game emphasising the larger and more spectacular models for Elves and Ogres. Alas, my pictures for them were double-pish.

Slightly embarrassingly, a generous portion of the decent pics I took were of the game I was hosting on behalf of the Glasgow Phoenix club. I put this down to having plenty of time once the hectic setup was done - with 5 minutes to spare before the show opened. The rush left the French CinC in the midst of the Allied lines for the first two hours until I noticed where I'd left him!

Below - the massed lines of two armies. There is one further allied division on the far side of the town.

...and from the opposite corner. Three years painting on one 17x6 table.

As you may have observed from many of the pics I take at shows, as well as appreciating the spectacle and grandeur of a lovely game, I also enjoy the little details and/or jokes that appear. In a bid to be able to do this here in this game, I've 'won' a few vignettes via eBay.

This game was a hypothetical scenario of a Peninsula encounter between Wellington and Portuguese and Spanish allies on the one hand, and French supported by a mixed German division on the other.

Thanks to everyone who dropped by to chat. I hope you enjoyed the show.
My overall impression of the day is how quickly it went. Arriving just after 0800 there was a very short wait and something of a queue for traders until the venue representative opened up, but the Phoenix Club had enough manpower to assist getting traders and gamers into the hall in good time. Takedown likewise was efficiently done in less than an hour and business on the bring and buy looked brisk.

Personal financial damage was light [for a change]. I took advantage of having Warlord as a neighbour and snaffled a copy of the 100 Days supplement for Black Powder.

My thanks to the punters, gamers and traders who came to the show to make the day what it was. We're still developing, but I hope those who remember the show just three years ago will recognise how far we have come.

M.