New Rapid Fire stuff

Spent recent wargames room hours back on 1/72 scale. I have a few Valliant Miniatures still half painted so have been trying to get these done for a late war scenario or two.

Something such as Caen I think. I picked up some of the new Italaeri fast build kits that can either be Preists or Ram Kangeroo's, so here we have a platoon of New Zealanders with their Ram Kangeroo transport.

Now an award winning game!

We ended a fantastic weekend by scooping the 2nd prize for best participation game! I like to think we raised a few eyerbrows of fellow gamers and also introduced wargaming to many new young converts to the hobby. Sadly we were too busy playing to realize we had won anything and did't get the official presentation, so we had our own! Part of the prize was 10% off anything we wanted from the trade stands so I treated myself to some 1/32 Napoleonics. The hope is that we can adapt the simple rules for horse and musket era battles! Watch this space!

Defending the cows

This Airborne drop saw US Airborne wind up in the fields with a mix of German infantry and fallshirmjager waiting in the trees for them. It didn't go well, British Para's came out of the church to assist them but they all eventually fell.

The battlefield layout

This shows how simple it can be. We mostly never play on a table this big but it was good to use a nice space. I'd love to do a huge game, just need to paint the figures!

Dunker Church

I aquired the Britains model of Dunker Church from one of the traders at the wargames show. It was an ideal piece for the games and we easily used the rules to have troops fighting from inside, firing out of windows and lobbing in grenades. In the final game on the Sunday two Allied Airborne units fought a retreat from the cow field into the church but later gave up the fight and came out under a white flag to a supperior German force. This photo shows Soviet gunners defending it from a Panzer III and motorized infantry in Opel Blitz trucks.

Note the chaps in the background engaged in a DbC Zulu game!

Battle Group North Show at Elvington (York)

So, the Yorkshire Coast Wargamers went en masse to this year's Battle Group North and took an array of games with us, mostly Db variants but also our hot of the press 'A Game of Toy Soldiers'. The wargames element of the event (it's primarily a military vehicle and re-enactors show) is held in the large hanger with the Lancaster keeping an eye over everything. It was the first time some of our rank and file had played it and it was great to see seasoned wargamers like Jordan get into it and embrace what it's all about. Throughout the day we played three games of different scenarios, all incorporating a cow field with my newly aquired Britains cows. The game was very popular with kids who were quick to grasp the rules and loved being able to 'play' a game rather than puzzle one out. We even had a kid of 2 years old playing! For some of them it was their first wargame and they loved it. I gave away a few play sheets to exited Dads who thought it was ideal. Some of the other wargamers were interested in buying the rule set so now I'm on with polishing them up ready to be made into a proper booklet. A very enjoyable weekend! I spent some of Sunday afternoon flying over York in a helicopter with a WWII veteran who was there for his 90th Birthday that day. A very special gentleman indeed, he was still as fit as anyone.