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  • #63737
    Avatar photoPeter Berry
    Participant

     

    Yes, it’s that time of year again!    The Joy of Six 2017 is just a few weeks away and we thought you’d like to hear about what’s on offer.

    JOS17 will be held on Sunday 16th July from 10.00am to 4.00pm.   The venue is the spectacular Heartspace Atrium at Sheffield Hallam University.    This City centre location is near to cheap on-street parking and a hop skip and a jump or two away from Sheffield mainline railway station and travel interchange.  Entrance will be a measly £3.00.

    Right. That’s the boring bit out of the way.  What’s on offer?

    We’ve got some of the finest small scale traders in the world under one roof:

    • Baccus 6mm
    • Brigade Games
    • Britannicus Games
    • Commission figurines
    • Games at War
    • G S Miniature workshop
    • Heroics and Ros
    • Leven Miniatures
    • Rapier
    • Timecast
    • Wargames Emporium

    Plus a Bring and Buy.  We’re trying to squeeze a couple more into the show, so stay posted.

    Yes, that’s the retail therapy bit, but what about the games you ask?   Well, have we got some treats for you.   More games than last year and with a very wide spread of subjects:

    • Grantham Strategy and Gaming Club – WW2 8th Air Force
    • Robert Dunlop – Messines 2017
    • Per Broden – Lesnaya 1708
    • Per Broden – Sharp Practice FIW
    • Dan Hodgson – Waterloo
    • Wyre Forest Wargamers – Battle of Issus
    • Sheffield Wargames Society – Platoon Commanders War
    • RAF Cranwell gaming club – Mech Wars
    • South London Warlords – Neustadt Crossing 1985
    • SAD wargamers – Operation Crusader
    • Deeside Defenders – 1st Bull Run
    • Luton Lancers – Fall of Katzbach 1813
    • Cold War Commanders – Landjut 1989
    • Baccus 6mm – Salford 1642
    • Mailed Fist – Last Train to Berlin
    • MADgamers – Eastern Front 1700
    • Wakefield and District Gamers – WW2
    • SeaBee games – Operation Bargation
    • Britannicus games – Horizon Wars
    • Bradford Battletech Battalion – Battletech
    • Commission Figurines – Napoleonic
    • Wyre Forest Wargamers – Hold the Line (AWI)
    • Brigadier General Commands – Montelimar 1944
    • Andrew Brentnall – ECW
    • Wargames Emporium – Command Horizon

     

    Well over two thirds of these games will be participation events, so there will be plenty to do while you are the show.  We’ll have the usual masterclass in 6mm painting from Dr Mike and the ever popular seminar programme.

    There will be lots of good quality, wargamer-friendly, pig-derived food on offer.   What more could you want from a wargames show?

    I’ll be posting more details about the show and and the games as we get nearer to the date.

    As if all of this were not enough, we’ll also be running our ever-popular Baccus workshop tours on the Saturday before the show (15th July).  Places are limited and fill up very quickly.  If you want to book yourselves on to this year’s tour, please get in touch asap to reserve your place.

    #63755
    Avatar photoIain Fuller
    Participant

    I can’t wait! Those of us from the South London Warlords putting on a game are really looking forward to this.

    #64010
    Avatar photoMartinR
    Participant

    And I hope everyone will enjoy Sheffield Wargames Society game ‘A Platoon Commanders War’. I made up a special piece of Hexon terrain just for this game!

     

    "Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

    #65106
    Avatar photoPeter Berry
    Participant

    And here’s some details of one of the games you can see at the show:

    JOS17 Featured game – Waterloo 1815 by Dan Hodgson
    19th Jun 2017

    Dan has staged some wonderful games at the Joy of Six over the years. His contribution of not one, but two spectacular Star Wars games was a highlight of the show in 2016 , but this time round he has decided to come back to Earth with a large historical bump!  Over to Dan…

    ‘Dusting off the numerous box files it is long overdue for the Waterloo Project to finally see the light of day!  Nine  years in the making and almost ten years in storage,  this is a project, “The Battle of Waterloo”,  which has been an obsession with me since the age of five when I got my first box of Airfix soldiers!

    Back in the day when the concept of doing the battle at 1:10 was first dreamt of,  the only real choice was 6mm and at the time Adler Miniatures had a comprehensive range to faithfully represent the many and varied Allied troops alongside the more uniform Prussian and French forces.Years of research and hours of painting time meant that at last the dream of representing every battalion, cavalry squadron and artillery company/battery was realised.

    After one or two false starts the battlefield was then constructed, Kallistras’s Hexon Scenics was the final choice and a 14ft x 6ft battlefield slowly emerged. With Total Battle Miniatures Bicentenary range of buildings for the Hundred Days Campaign released a couple of years ago in 6mm the old 10mm buildings were sold off and the Project was complete! Then it was promptly packed away and shelved, space, or lack of it being the major obstacle.

    With Peter’s invite to bring it to the Joy of Six show later this year it gives me the opportunity to display the whole thing at long last and even get to play a game with all those 10,000 figs I so painstakingly painted 😊,  but what rules to use? Being a painter and not really a gamer Peter again came to the rescue, we would try out the new Polemos app! Thankfully when I re-based all the figures some years ago I used the, now-standard,  60mmx30mm and 60mmx60mm bases that the Polemos rules employ. Having never played a game I am looking forward to going through the mechanics of it under an expert guide. If you want to join in on the day and take control of a corps or division or brigade or just a battalion you will be most welcome.

    https://www.baccus6mm.com/admin/kcfinder/upload/images/JOS17/armies.jpg

     

    For hundreds more pics see my facebook page – Daniel Hodgson Reveille Studios’

    Dan will be ably assisted on the day by Chris Grice, the author of the Polemos Napoleonic rules.  See you there!

    #66314
    Avatar photoPeter Berry
    Participant

    One of the highlights of every Joy of Six is Per Broden’s annual exploration of his Swedish heritage as he stages wonderful games with a distinctly Scandinavian feel.  At the Joy of Six 2016 he went one further and produced two games.    He is repeating this feat this year, with two very different offerings in scope and subject matter.

    Here is what you can expect to see this year in Per’s own words:

    ‘Lesnaya 1708

    I, Nick Dorrell and the very decent chums of the Wyre forest Wargames club will be doing three battles (two that took place and one that could have been) from the Great Northern War covering the, from a Swedish perspective, ill-fated Russian campaign 1708 to 1709. Each of these battles will be presented at the Joy of Six show over the next three years.

    The campaign is the invasion of Russia by Charles XII of Sweden starting with the crossing of the frozen Vistula river in early 1708 and ends with the Swedish defeat at the Battle of Poltava in the Summer of 1709.  It is the beginning of the end for Sweden as a dominant military power in north-eastern Europe.

    The first battle is Lesnaya 1708 and is interesting as it is, in effect, an ambush by a Russian flying detachment, led by Tsar Peter himself, on a smaller Swedish army that is travelling through the forests of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.  The Swedish army is led by General Lewenhaupt who is escorting a supply column of more than 4,500 wagons to support the main Swedish Army.  From the perspective of doing the battle we need a lot of forest as well as about 40 or more bases to represent the supply column itself.

    In writing this the miniatures (from the Baccus range) are about 95% complete with a few more Russian dragoons to go.  The main thing remaining is the gaming area itself and a large number of trees is being finalised (there will be about 500 trees on the table!).

     

    Overall the forces consists of:

    ·         Russians, a few leaders and artillery as well as 10 bases (24 miniatures, on 60 by 30mm bases) of infantry and 57 bases of Dragoons (9 miniatures, on 60 by 30mm bases).

     

    ·         Swedes, a few leaders and artillery as well as 10 Polemos bases (24 miniatures, on 60 by 30mm bases) of infantry and 57 Polemos bases of Dragoons (9 miniatures, on 60 by 30mm bases)

     

    We will using Nick Dorrell’s adaptation of the Twilight of the Sun King Rules published by the Pike and Shot society, to play the game.

    The game, and it’s very uneven progress, is being reported on the roll a one blog (rollaone.com) – you can follow it there and see if we make it over the finishing line in July. ‘

     

    So game number one, is another of Per’s GNW epics.   His second production couldn’t be more different both in scope and subject matter, although I do detect a little Swedish influence creeping in…

    ‘The Skirmish at Lechnagha in the Year of 708, since the birth of Suecia, during the Gigantic Northern War  700-721

    A black arrow with red feathers suddenly hit one of the pack mules and it fell violently to the ground as its legs gave away to the heavy load it was carrying. This was shortly followed by hideous laughs and taunts from the surrounding forest – the same damn laughs he had heard so many times before. With the black and red arrow signature there was no doubt what was coming next.  Prior Lewen Hauptmann of the Knights of Suecia, threw his red cloak over his shoulder, raised his warhammer and turned to his men and screamed; “Get ready for the Greenskin’s attack! Push them back to their rotten holes! Give no pardon as it shall not be given to you! From earth they have come and to dust they will go!”.   He pulled down the visor of his helmet and gave a short prayer and looked around at his men – ironclad battle hardened Knights ready to fight to their last dying breath. “For the Glory of Suecia, give us your strength of battle!” he yelled out the blessing and his brothers responded concurrently; “We accept your strength”,  to complete the linkage to the divine plane. For a moment a reddish glow could be seen from their swords and spears as they were imbued with the spiritual power.

    The Prior reflected for a moment on the stupidity of this wretched mission and how he had been forced into it by the Knight Marshal Carrophlus following his failure holding the Fort at Narvay.  He had chosen to spare his men from slaughter and made a deal with the treacherous Steward of Polesh, Arghaust the Strong who, he was the first to admit, surprisingly had let them go after opening the gates. The enemy had grown stronger under the combined leadership by Arghaust and the mighty Warboss Pethor the Brute, a tall Orc whose organisational skill, cunning and patience was remarkable for his kind. Pethor had manage to organise the Goblin and Orc rubble into a formidable fighting force. It had only been a matter of time before the Fort would fall and enough of his brothers had already been slain and reinforcements had not been forthcoming. The Fort was of limited strategic importance and he had chosen to live to fight another day.

    As penance for this “disloyalty”, in addition to the demotion to Prior, he and his surviving men had been ordered to bring supplies to  the cut-off townspeople of Lechnagha. He had no retinue of servants, squires, men-at-arms or Sergeants as was the custom for these kind of soul purification missions. It had been a hellish journey through Goblin infested forests with constant harassment. He had lost half the men they started out with and only half of them still had their horses.  If their calculations were correct they were only a few miles away from the Town itself.  It had a small regular army garrison and since he had felt the presence of evil watching them for the last few days he had sent a rider for some enforcements. But now that seemed to have been in vain. He thought back on the situation at Narvay and how his death there would have qualified his name into the songs of the minstrels but instead he was facing death here in the middle of this despicable forest – for what?

     

    He was quickly brought back to reality as yet another arrow hit another mule.  He looked around and could see Greenskins on both sides of the road riding their growling dire wolves closer.  They always got excited at the beginning of the fighting and intensified their laughter, reminiscent of that of a raving lunatic, that normally stroke fear into their opponents.  However, this was not what frightened him the most, it was the otherworldly scream he could hear from within the forest itself.

     

    This is a participation game using the popular Dragon Rampant fantasy wargame rules by Dan Mersey (played to satisfaction not perfection). The main purpose is to have fun but also to showcase that 6mm can be used for games normally associated with the larger scales not just replacing individual miniatures with bases of many (like we did for Saga last year) but also scaling it down and still being able to enjoy a game.  With a 2′ by 2′ board (the size of a small coffee table) playing in centimetres instead of inches is in fact like playing on 4’6” by 4’6″ board.  We figure if you can have a few blokes taking a flag for a walk representing a regiment in some scales, why not do skirmish in 6mm?

     

    We (the Little One and I) will run a few session over the day (with up to 4 participants each time) and welcome anyone to have a go.  1 to 2 players will control the Knights and 1 to 2 players will control the Greenskins.  It will serve as an introduction to the rules and we will limit each session to about 45-60 minutes (including a high level rule go-through). We happily mix fantasy miniatures from Baccus, Rapier, Irregular Miniatures, Perfect Six and Microworld on the table.

    We have blogged about 6mm skirmish extensively on the roll a one blog (rollaone.com) – I will bring some of the other miniatures for other periods for you to have a look at should you wish. ‘

    For those of you who didn’t already know, the Joy of Six will be taking place on Sunday July 16th  from 10.00 to 4.00pm at Sheffield Hallam University, S1 1WB.  Entry will cost £3.00.

    See you there!

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