ABERDEEN MODEL RAILWAY CLUB EXHIBITION 2015.

Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th October 2015 saw my annual trip to the AMRC exhibition. As usual, there were a selection of well built displays with a smattering of interest groups and layouts under construction.

Long view of Elgin's layout.

Elgin's Cragganmore layout.

Another couple of views from the Elgin layout.

The first table encountered was the display by the Elgin Club. It featured a line from a whisky distillery to a mainline station. More in a future post.

This house is a veteran of several displays over 11 years.

Next up, Pentland Model Railway Group's Caithreay layout.

Lengthwise shot of the layout.

This is a family based group who tour all the shows. Indeed they had overcome a domestic crisis to attend the show.

Some detail.

Spot the famous TV character.

                    Some views of the Hardley Main Colliery layout. More of this in a future post.

View of the colliery.

View of the village.

Novelty!

Dundee MRC display.

Lego!

Fairground organs. These provided the background music on the Saturday. Not so much on the Sunday!

                                         

This layout was for sale. Didn't have the £450 to hand!

East Neuk MRC.

Aberdeen Wargames Club had three tables. These will be covered in a future post.

Waterloo using C&C Napoleonics with 20mm figures.

Mons Graupius using To The Strongest rules.

Battle of Berlin.

Battle of Berlin Bolt Action.

Aberdeen Modellers Club.

More from AMC

Scalextrics.

Mystery.

I ended up spending my usual amount on painting and other tools at the Squires stand. I also picked up some Vallejo paints and 4Ground terrain at ABZ Games. I attended both days because I had to pass some goodies to my mat, Iain, who had actually managed to get two days off to attend the show for the first time in two years.

It is always an entertaining day (or two) out. Next year is provisionally 29/30 October 2015.

PROTECT THE SENATOR! ST: ATTACK WING.

This was a variation on 'Protect the Chancellor' with a Dominion force trying to stop a Romulan senator reaching alliance negotiations.

David's Romulans took the direct route. My J'em Hadar attacked with two patrol ships from the left and a battleship from the right.The battleship took punishment, losing it's shields, during it's flight to intercept the senator's ship. The senator was in the act of beaming to the planet, when his ship was destroyed.

Late stages of the game. The battleship closes in.

The senator's ship uncloaks to beam him down.

Just in time for the battleship to roll its 7 dice. End of game!

THE NATURE OF THE BEAST.

Not having blogged for ages, I felt that the longer I left it, the harder it would be.

My return to blogging has been prompted by a question asked on a Facebook page, quoting a problem encountered in a game, stating that this blog was responsible for the questioner coming to the game in question. It brought home that the blog has a wider reach than the Facebook group that I have taken to posting to and has the ability to inspire others.

I have undertaken to post regularly again, Not the battle reports of the past, but just a few words an pictures to give a flavour of what I am up to.

Here a few photos showing recent activity.

Across The Dead Earth.

Battle is joined.

Wings of War/Glory

Star Wars Armada.

Warband.

The Undead attack.

Stalemate.

TARGE 2014.

Rather belatedly, here are my thought on Targe 2014, the wargames show held by Kirriemuir Wargames Club on 8 November 2014. 

I travelled down with Neil and Rick. After booking in my stuff for the bring and buy, we had a quick look round. I picked up some figures from Kenny at http://www.mutineer-miniatures.org.uk/ which I had ordered, even though they did not have a stand at the show. Great service! I got my mandatory shopping from  www.crooked-dice.co.uk/wp/product-category/miniatures . I also bought some 28mm figures for charity http://jjs413-thegen.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/doing-my-bit-at-targe.html.

After this, we decided that we would have a go at some of the participation games.Whilst waiting to let Neil & Rick have a go at the Leuchars Veterans 'Operation Chastise' game, spaces came up at a participation game of Chain Of Command, so we had a go at that instead. The scenario was Expanding the Mushkova Bridgehead from 1942.

Calculating the Jumping Off Points.

 This turned out to be a combination of participation and demonstration. We played for an hour and a half.

Early in the game, from the German perspective. The section that I am in charge of is readying itself to fight a Russian section beside the church, on the left. 

 I have the rules, but have never played. It was good to see them in action.

Mid game. Lots of fire fights and a German advance on the right.

We left before the end as we were having our traditional lunch at http://www.thrumshotel.co.uk/.

End game. German breakthrough on the right.
 

When we came back, the Germans had won.

Neil & Rick had a go at a participation game by the Angus Wargames Club showcasing Operation Cerebus, the Channel Dash.

The flight commanders.

Pre Game preparation.

Flights of Swordfish attack.

Close attack. Hits!

 Three photos of an Epic 40K game.

 The Iron Brigade's Operation Cherry Blossom, 1943 Pacific.

 Aberdeen's Battle of Benburb.

 League of Augsburg's Fraustadt 1706.

All in all a good show.

IN HER MAJESTY'S NAME: GAS, GAS, GAS!

The Wednesday game two weeks ago saw my Scotland Yard taking on David's Prussians in a 'marked for death' scenario.

Special Branch move to take some long shots at the Prussian leader, while the coppers keep the Doctor, my leader for the night, safe. 

A well placed gas grenade, fired by rocket launcher, lands amongst Special Branch.

The gas takes out my long range option.

The doctor is escorted to safety.

Another gas grenade lands close.

The doctor succumbs.
With my leader hors de combat, it is another victory to the damned Prussians.

With this being a quick victory to David, we had a deep discussion about gas grenades, particularly fired by rocket launchers, and how they are dominating games. We read and reread the rules and were convinced we were doing things right. We posted to the IHMN Facebook group and got a definitive answer from Craig Cartmell (no higher authority than the author!) that after the grenade launcher hits a spot, a separate roll to hit must be made against each target in the blast radius.

We will see what effect this has on the use of gas grenades in a future game.
  

DOING MY BIT AT TARGE.

Saturday was the annual visit to Targe, the show hosted by the Kirriemuir Wargames Club. Neil's return home co-incided with a show for once, so he kindly offered to drive Rick and I down

General view of the main hall.

View of the smaller hall.

Another view of the smaller hall.

 My main purchase at the show was around 100 old style Citadel figures from Jim and Hugh from SESWC who are selling off the wargames collection of their late friend, and fellow club member, Iain Holt, who died a year ago. All the proceeds are going to Combat Stress , so I was happy to do my bit. More about the latest in Jim's blog http://jim-duncan.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2014-01-01T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=34 .

Foot figures purchased in aid of Combat Stress.

The mounted figures find their new home.

I bought a case from http://www.figuresincomfort.net/ to hold the new collection. Camo boxes are back in stock! 

                This is just a taster, I will post with more detail over the coming days.