I received some very bad news shortly after getting to Claymore. The news thankfully came from Jack and not someone more "random" where I learned that my friend and ye olde SESWC compatriot Derek Hodge had suddenly died shortly before the show. Derek was a lot of things to many people (all good!) and always warm to new members of the club, a very good friend to older members and always, I repeat always, a very honest guy. A lovely member of our community now sadly lost but more than anything a solid friend now most grievously lost to us all. Last I saw Derek we spent a good hour or so dis ..read more

We set out some old terrain at the club that we plan to tart up a but, mend damaged corners, repaint scuffs and repairs etc. As we went through the set up we decided to throw in a Trojan war WAB game this week too! It would be rude not to. The miniatures from the collections of Matt Boyd and Martin Gordan. Piccies- all "clickable and large files for those who want to see the details. (Left click, Open Image in another Tab, enlarge.)  The AAR/Bat Rep will be available sometime post Thursday ..read more

Once again, while we were setting out a snap shot of the game we have planned for The Other Partizan on October 13th of this year at Newark Showground I managed to find a few minutes of my time to pop next door and get some snaps of The Italian Wars games that have been going on. In some ways, I'm conflicted as we're having a great time playing WAB on your usual table (though we could try to play some of the newer rulesets!), my absolute favourite "period" for history, pageantry and miniature painting is of course The great Italian Wars. The game was put on by Jon Sev ..read more

I had expected to get the full Warhammer Ancient Battles Punic War Campaign scoop written and published as of now but real life, as usual, has forced my hand to slow. For now, I thought a few pictures of the event might satiate anyone's appetite, at least for now. All images are clickable and for full size please right click then enlarge on image. Punic event round 1 "Romans do well (115.5) carthage less so (71.5)... Rome captures ballearics and votes emergency fortifications to narbonensis. The carthaginian senate voted to raise additional taxes to reward its generals with more f ..read more

Just a quickie as they say! (apologies!) Whilst I was in the other room playing, you guessed it, Warhammer Ancient Battles (other Ancient rulesets are available!) in a last ditch attempt to get ready for the weekend, a WAB Punic Wars campaign (more to come on that later) I was very pleased to see a lovely collection of Italian Wars miniatures lining up in the main room ready for some rather serious pike and lance action. The Italian Wars are certainly one of my main passions when it comes to toy soldiers so I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to get in a few snaps. Plating were Conrad Cair ..read more

Last night we played the last session in our Repo roman vs Seleucid brawl. I say brawl with intent as that is what it came down to in the end.  Below you can see the results of the Seleucid (unmanned Matt Boyd!) Scythed Chariot having seen off the Spanish (actually Roman mini's) Cavalry. The Scythed Chariot having rolled a one, a good thing in this case as it meant it survived the impact and was ready to make another charge!  One daring unit of Hastati eventually hit the Phalanx and I think the combat was drawn. This ought to work out well as the Phalanx striking first would event ..read more

It's been a week or so since the samples of the Saxon Ceorls and Greek Hoplites from WIP Miniatures popped through my door so it's about time I got around to writing that review I promised. Having expected the miniatures to be a little smaller (thinking back to Dave's The Miniature Company sculpts) I was pleasantly surprised. I've been eyeing the miniatures up on their website for a good while now. It's never easy to tell what sort of miniature you're getting until you have it in hand so reviews like this are important. So, the first thing I noticed was the very clean casting. There ..read more

I attended my favourite show Partizan last weekend; it is without doubt the UK's premier wargames show in terms of the overall high quality of the games. Durham Wargames Group were there with our collaborative effort, The Battle of Fulford Gate, a game I put on roughly 20 years ago for SESWC at the wonderful Claymore show in Edinburgh and a game we revisited a week ago at the show.  I was (by order of myself) allowed an hour away from the game, as we wanted to keep the game going as the day progressed, which unfortunately only allowed me to capture pictures the games that well.....  ..read more

 Just a few pics of the game we had on the table last Thursday before all the carnage started ..read more

Just a few pics of week two- a shame really as the battery in my camera died on week one and I was looking forward to posting up an AAR for this epic battle. In the end, I think the Seleucids got the better of the Mauryan Indians.  All the images are "clickable" should you desire a decent gander!  ..read more