Looking forward to.....

Next year is the 40th Anniversary of me starting gaming. I was 11 and although I'd come across Featherstone and Grant in local library it wasn't until I came across a copy of White Dwarf 53 in the newsagent where I did a paper round that the wheels were really put in motion.  

With the money from my paper round I bought figures from Black Donald's in Waverley Place in Aberdeen. When my Birthday came round in July it was the owner who suggested I got Warhammer I had plenty of figures to play by then. 

A trip to York for the Summer holidays meant that I stumbled across the Little Soldier in Gillygate. There I got 15mm Napoleonic Brits and French and copy of the Newbury Napoleonic rules. Whilst I liked Fantasy and Tolkien my interest in History was racing to catch up. For a while it would have to take a back seat as my mates were only interested in fantasy games and RPG's but I never looked back. 

I want to mark the anniversary and use it as a theme for my games this coming year. 

I'm going to build two small fantasy armies based on Tolkien's Middle Earth in the First Age and  Glaurung the Dragon. This ticks the fantasy box.

 I will put on a game of The Ziggurut of Doom from the first Warhammer box. Originally this featured Dwarves vs Goblins. But I will use Conquistadors and Aztecs. This ties in my fantasy gaming beginning to my desire for historical games.

I will be finishing and publishing my next Scenario Book - Feud. This has been expanded to cover Corrichie, Tillyangus, Craibstane and The Burning of Corgarff but also the intrigues of the Earls of Huntly and Errol with the Spanish, the Bridge of Dee Affair and the Battle of Glenlivet. This covers my love of history. I'm at the editing stage for the text and need to test the "what if" Bridge of Dee game between the Earls and James IV and the Glenlivet scenario. 

The other project for 2024 reflects where I am now. It will be a refight of the Battle of the Windmill during the Patriots Rebellion in Upper Canada in 1838. 

Four projects for 2024. 

As I write this we are in Lossiemouth hopefully for a bit of peace and quiet and a change of scene. Our favourite place. But there will be a game, I hope, and certainly something else to share before the year ends.

Napoleon and stuff.

 Saw it last night.

It wasn't as bad as I'd been led to believe. But it was a wasted opportunity to tell the story of Napoleon and Josephine. That's a pity because that would have been entirely possible with the components Scott had. Focusing on that story entirely without the battles would have made a better film. 

But there were too many gaps, too many flaws for me and by the sounds of it most of the folk who were talking as they left the cinema felt the same. Most groups had one or two people explaining the missing bits or highlighting the holes. That is perhaps the issue, many people going to see it will have an interest and know enough to feel it lacks something. Had it been the plot of Bridgerton no one would have minded.

He didn't listen to the critics either....

Don't bother with the forthcoming 4hr streaming version, watch this instead.

The snowball fight is more historically accurate than Ridley's battles! 

The Trailer for Ferrari looked good though. Wonder if racing/car fans will react the same way.....

As Thursday was a much needed day off I was in Banchory to play with John and Eric. Eric's scenario for Zona Alfa was very good. John and I had to infiltrate the zone to so that a Tech could retrieve some kit from the wreckage of a downed aircraft. By tying John's team down in crossfires I was able to get my man in about first and get my hands on whatever it was we were being paid to retrieve, no questions asked. ZA is a neat little system and you can go as straight or weird as you like with the Zone. I look forward to more games.

Friday is also a day off.....and I think I shall get the glue out and maybe do some Aztecs. 40 years ago a party of dwarves fought some goblins on a ziggurat when the first edition of Warhammer hit the shelves. I reckon Conquistadors vs Aztecs would make a good version of that scenario. As I was 11 when I got Warhammer the following year it will be 40yrs of Wargaming for me in 2024. A wee tribute methinks.