IMPULSE BUYS.

Here are some impulse purchases from my day in town today.

Waterstones are consolidating their two branches in Aberdeen. The ex-Dillons store was closing  today. As well as packing up the full price stock, they were selling book, some shop soiled and damaged. I managed to pick up these two for 99p each. They are rrp £19.99 and £29.99 respectively. There were other temptations, but I resisted: one can have too many books!

I also picked up the first issues of these partworks. Not that I will continue with all, or any, of them. The model railway series is intriguing. It is 1:76 and will fit in with my 20mm 20th Century project, but the cost may be prohibitive (120 issues, normal price £7.99 per issue). At least I have a passenger carriage. All my other rolling stock are goods trucks.

Star Trek may be interesting if the ships are a constant scale and not just scaled to fit the packet. Dr Who was just impulse!

I have also found that Helicopter magazine is still on sale in WH Smith. The last two had the Allouette II and Puma models. These will be useful for my modern 20mm project. Picture of the Puma below.

 

Oh, and I did manage to take three boardgames and four PS2 games to the charity shop this morning.



 

DIXIE REVISITED.

After a barren week games wise last week, I manged games nights on both Wednesday and Thursday.
Wednesday was a reboot of our Songs of Blades and Heroes campaign. I will cover SoB&H in a separate post.

Rick was hosting on Thursday. A quick and simple game was needed after a long day's work, so Rick brought Dixie out of the loft. Dixie is a card game by Colombia Games. There were three sets for the ACW, Bull Run, Shiloh and Gettysburg. Rick wanted to try and fight a battle with each set. However, as it is about 10 years since we last played, unfamiliarity with the rules and growing awareness of the tactical side of the game made, what first appeared was going to be a fast game, end up taking the best part of 2 1/2 hours!

Two views of the game in progress. The USA (Rick) are in possession of the CSA centre and are contesting the CSA left flank. They won shortly after this picture was taken.

The after game chat on both nights was on future gaming direction. Although I had already realised that I have too much stuff, these convesations gave me clarity on which projects and games will never be used and can be moved on. That means an early trip to the charity shop tomorrow!

West Tank Barrier.

Not posted for a while for one reason or another (work & charity event). Not been able, or in the mood, to post.

Managed a game two Thursday's ago. As Aidan was not available, Rick and I did scenario E from Combat Commander: Pacific.

                                           Set up for the game, prior to deployment.

The US had to find a way to breach a wire and anti-tank barrier (hence the title) whilst mopping up the scattered Japanese defences. I took the US and Rick the Japanese.

This was a close, tense game, which we were unable to finish and abandoned as a draw.

The position halfway through the game. It was a 'time' trigger and Rick is shuffling his deck.

DBA: IS IT AS GOOD AFTER COMMANDS & COLORS?

Due to a late change of shifts for our host, our Thursday game was a quickly arranged night of DBA. We have not played this for a few years, thanks to the poplarity and simplicity of using DBA armies with Commands and Colors Ancients. How would we find it?

The first game was my Pre-Feudal Scots versus Rick's early Crusader army.

Rick Set up in and around a BUA whilst I set up in front of a waterway.

The game from my perspective. This was a low attrition game, with only one unit destoyed, until Rick's general's unit of Knights came off second best in a fight with one of my warband and was destroyed. Game to me!

The second game wasbetween Aidan's Italians and my Scots. This was a long game where  The Italian heavy infantry and knights wore my army down and I lost by having a third of my army destroyed. The pictures below show the set up and give a flavour of the game.

 

These were enjoyable games.  At times,experience in reading legal documents would have been useful, but to be fair we hadn't played for a while. Experience with C&CA shows that constant use means that even the lesser used rules become familiar.

 

Most likely, these will get an occasional outing as we can use the same figures for DBA and C&CA. Both Rick and myself  have invested in both games and I can see a DBA campaign being attempted at one of our gaming weekends! 

 

 

 

 

THE CONJURING.

Saw The Conjuring, finally, today. It was a bit down the list of films I wanted to see. The basic story is a husband and wife team of demonologists who investigate the supernatural force stalking a family.

I am always sceptical when I see the words 'true story' connected to a film. I have no doubt that the people involved in the events were based on were earnest and good people, but this is a silly film with a few genuinely scary moments.

It ticks all the boxes with the usual horror themes and events. It reminded me immediately of a number of films that I have watched in the past year. It was predictable and some scenes were unintentionally funny.

After all that I have said, it was well acted and the effects were well done. I did consider walking out at one point, but was glad I stayed. The ending, however, was incongrouous as, despite all that had gone before, everybody emerged into bright sunshine, with smiles on their faces as though the events of the previous night had never occurred. This is a common bugbear with many Hollywood films as there seems to be a reluctance to show the audience any type of ending apart from a happy one!

Not a ringing endorsement, but one for the DVD when it comes out.  

CLAYMORE 2013.

I have not been able to go to Claymore, one of  Scotland's two big shows, for about 5 years. This year, I was in Edinburgh to comiserate with a friend as he had recently turned 50.

I had spent the Friday in Edinburgh doing the usual Museum visits, taking in Phill Jupitus at The Fringe and having a good meal. This was the Saturday morning view of Edinburgh from my my window.

The show has changed venue since the last time I was there. It is now held in the Granton Campus of Edinburgh College, in the North of the City.

Here is a general view of the first hall shortly after opening,

                                             Zorndorf 1758: Gourock Wargames Association.

 

                                                  Albion's Trumpet. 1939 VBCW. Solway.

                                  French Invasion of Dahomey: Durham Wargames Group.

 

                     One for Del! Them! by the Bathgate Wargames Club. Saw this at Falkirk in May, but lack of battery power stopped me taking to many photos.

Dunfermline Wargames Club with a Sci Fi game based on Memoir 44/Commands & Colors. This was a public playtest.

The Inverness Club put on a late 1944 game. The cotton wool represents the early morning fog.

                                          Dux Brittaniarum game.

                                          Gourock Club's Piquet game.

                               

 

           Glasgow & District Club's Bolt Action Game: Raid on Tito (Bolt Porn for Aidan!).

                                                              Dystopian Wars game.

 

                                  Angus Wargames Club's Dead Man's Hand game.

                                          One of these has inspired a future project.
I spent a lot of money but didn't buy much. I picked up some basing material from Magnetic Displays, terrain from S&A scenics, plus a few other things (including. I picked up some 1/300 B17s and German fighters from the bring and buy and that was about it.

The venue was bright and spacious with great catering. The signage between the halls could have been better. The bring and buy was well set up, but got a bit static throughout the day, as there was not a lot of stuff to be sold.

Hope to go back next year.