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.

Back to where it all began

 On Saturday, my wife, son and I went to see the Ray Harryhausen exhibition at the gallery of modern art in Edinburgh. 

Ray's iconic and groundbreaking special effects, in The Valley of the Gwangi, Mysterious Island, the 3 Sinbad movies, Clash of the Titans and, of course, Jason and the Argonauts had me transfixed as a kid and have remained with me ever since. They chimed with a love of dinosaurs, mythical creatures and Greek legends which I had as a kid in the 70's and which led to D&D and fantasy role playing games in the 80's and still resonates with me today. 

In the days before blue screen, green screen and cgi - Ray's monsters ruled...and even today their movements and their basic design informs and influence moviemakers and figure designers. 

The exhibition runs until the 22nd of Feb and I really can't recommend it enough. A few years ago I saw the Kubrick exhibition at the design museum in London and while that impressed me with the exhibits and insight into Kubrick's processes and obsessions it had nothing on this. 

Spread across the rooms of the 2nd campus building the exhibition includes the earliest of Ray's models and his influences in illustration and film. As you move through the rooms you encounter not only the creatures of the movies lovingly preserved by the Ray and Diana Harryhausen foundation, but Ray's wonderful incredibly detailed scene drawing (each a piece of art in itself) and descriptions of how he designed, built, animated, and filmed them. 

All the classics are there.

Unleash the ?....

w/real feathers

Eohippus Sketch

At times, I got down on my hands and knees to look into the cabinets and stare at the detail.....and I was not the only one. Kids of all ages were doing the same as some were introduced to the creatures for the first time and others saw old "friends", like Pegasus, Talos or Son's of the Hydra's Teeth. (The toy versions of which apparently caused problems for parents and the museum gift shop staff as neither knew they glow in the dark leading to scared kids when they awoke up in the night!).

As you can tell I loved this show. If you have the chance - go see it....if not buy the book and watch a movie on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and you'll be smiling from ear to ear....just as I was.