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Viewing 40 posts - 161 through 200 (of 348 total)
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  • in reply to: PAW 2020 – Plymouth Association of Wargamers #130852
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    Yes the cafe is still there. You can see the windows overlooking the main hall in my header picture.

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: All at Sea – First Games, New Rules #130317
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    Hi AOS,

    Honestly, there is no conspiracy going on here.

    Yeah the rules have some interesting concepts that attracted me in particular, principally the different types of gun and their capabilities rather than, as a lot of rules tend to do, a gun factor for the broadside of a particular ship type.

    This makes for a much more interesting game in small ship to ship engagements such as the ones demonstrated, but would be rather cumbersome once the numbers of ships start to get past ten or more a side.

    However there are aspects of the rules I don’t care for, particularly when it comes to movement, where turning and moving straight are separated into distinct activities and so I looked at incorporating my own changes using cards or, as I intend to do, chits, to activate and combining the movement into one sequence with the addition of a small random element to take out the certainty of distance covered as presented in the original rules.

    If you are interested in seeing more about the original rules, follow the link on my blog post below the picture of the rules cover to Ostfront Publishing and from there to Wargames Vault where there is a link to a short video showing a small game being played where you can see the mechanisms in action. The latter I found the most useful as I started to see what I liked and what I thought I might want to change.

    The compendium of ships and the different gun load outs is a work of passion and worth picking up just for the information nicely put together, and the rules give a game that looks straightforward enough.

    I hope that helps

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Target for Tonight – Op 5, Hannover #129658
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    Hi, thank you.

    Yes the random selection of crews and their capabilities adds another level of uncertainty to each op, which, with this one being in fairly close range and with a high turn out of planes, looked like a good opportunity for the bombers to cash in,

    In this case the poor target marking, and crew quality losses combined to make this a fairly neutral game, but an opportunity to increase the lead gone for Bomber Command. It leaves the campaign in an interesting position.

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

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    Hi Chaps,

    That’s very kind of you to comment and I’m so glad you enjoyed the journey. I’m not sure I can add much to the wealth of literature out there already covering the Peninsular War, but blogging allows an opportunity to point, those who want to look at these places, at some ideas about how to do it and in ways that can make them come alive.

    We are so lucky that these Peninsular veterans left us a treasure trove of first hand accounts of events at places that we can still see today pretty much as they did, and frankly I can’t really add much to that other than to point at them as a must have accompaniment when visiting these sites.

    The more of us who travel to Spain and Portugal to visit these places the more likely they will be saved for future generations of visitors and that would be a great way to honour the memories of those who fought and died there.

    Happy Xmas

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Black Seas Rigging Guide #127780
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    Great, I hope it proves useful.

    There are some key differences with rigging earlier periods where you don’t have a spanker sail with boom and gaff on the mizzen mast, so I would start with having a look at what others have done. I would imagine the rest of the set up would be broadly similar.

    Rod Langton has some pictures of his Anglo-Dutch models on his site, which look like he’s using the set set up, but you could always drop him a line.

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Strange Sail in Sight #127620
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    Thanks chaps, glad you like them.

    Next up, are some French 74’s and a rigging tutorial.

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Roman Dorset #126884
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    Great, glad it brought back some happy memories.

    Cheers

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: All at Sea with Black Seas #126725
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    Thanks chaps, much appreciated.

    Rigging these models is very straightforward and certainly not something that should put anyone off building them. Warlord have recently put up a video about putting on standing rigging which illustrates how relatively simple the process is. I will put up a step by step illustration on the blog about doing that and adding running rigging.

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: All at Sea with Black Seas #126618
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    Thank you Thaddeus, I hope you found it inspiring, as having made the investment, I guess your in and a journey of a thousand miles, as they say, begins with the first step.

    All the best

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Butler's Rangers and Iroquois Indians in 28mm #125124
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    Thank you chaps, the conversions are by no means perfect, but a good enough solution for the time being, and work well with the rest of the Perry collection.

    Autodidact-O-Saugus, yeah sorry about that. The AWI stuff is a relatively small diversion, to allow me to play some Sharp Practice when the fancy takes me. Once done, the Praetorian Guard and Sarmatians will be back.

    cheers

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Target for Tonight, Manheim, Op 4 #124516
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    The technical advances roster is shown on the AAR with each new kit or technique listed in the order they became available, first to Bomber Command, then the German response and then a Bomber Command emergency response, if any.

    Of course just because a technical advance happened on a certain date, it might still happen or it might be delayed based on a die roll for each side. I rolled up the sheet when we started the campaign and I know when the technical advance will happen. With the Cyberboard module it is simple keeping a record of changes as the campaign progresses.

    Something like H2S II and new airborne radar sets will still take time to become universal and I will dice to establish which aircraft get fitted when it becomes available gradually increasing the chance for it to be carried as the campaign progresses.

    This is where a campaign is much more interesting than a one off game, as one side with a technical advantage tries to make the best of it while that advantage lasts.

     

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Target for Tonight, Manheim, Op 4 #124431
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    Hi,

    Yes indeed, this game was a complete contrast to the three that preceded it and the crews that were lost just added to the points lost on the night.

    Crew selection and number of planes tabled for an op is randomised, along with the weather and nightfighter crew ability so there are plenty of variables for one game to be quite different from another. We had several spoof raids draw off fighters in the last game, but that didn’t happen here, so the nightfighter threat was pretty constant.

    This last game really sets up an interesting position for the second half of the campaign as Bomber Command gets hold of some H2S II ground radar sets and the Nachtjagd get hold of some decent airborne radar sets.

    cheers

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

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    Thank you, glad you enjoyed the read.

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

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    Hi Brendan,

    Thank you, glad you enjoyed the read.

    I think it’s about time the ‘galloping at everything’ tag was binned along with the ‘British line overcomes column with firepower alone’ nonsense and that more rules for the period started to reflect that. I am still amazed how long lasting the tag has been and can only think we have the Duke to thank.

    General Lumley in the family, what a nice link with this part of British military history. I think he, Paget and Le Marchant are my top three British cavalry commanders for the period and it would have been interesting to see how good Lumley was had his career continued.

    cheers

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

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    Thanks chaps, glad you enjoyed the read.

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Roman Legionary Cohort #122614
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    Thanks chaps, much appreciated. The next cohort on the plan is some Praetorian Guard, which I am really looking forward to doing.

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Clotted Lard 2019 – Devon Wargames Group #122613
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    Thanks for your comments chaps. It was a really fun day with great company and some excellent games.

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

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    Thanks for your comments chaps, and I hope those that missed the fun this year can get along in 2020.

    Cheers

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Visit to the 24th South Wales Borderers Museum #120023
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    Thanks Willz, I know Steve will appreciate the comment.

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Target for Tonight – Berlin, Op Three #118465
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    Hi, thank you.

    Ok – yes the game models both nightfighter and flak attacks and injuries to crew members. In fact we had one bomber caught in searchlights and hit by flak losing their mid upper gunner when the hit landed on the fuselage, causing all the crew to test.

    We track crew losses purely for the chrome of writing up the AAR. It is in the rules specifically because the game is aimed at a squadron level with players taking an aircraft or two. We are playing at a higher level with commanders running 5 to 10 aircraft and we are running a campaign with the whole of main-force bomber command where the fate of individual crew members and replacements is not the remit of our commanders, it being assumed replacements of aircrew were more than adequate and with Victory Points deducted when experienced and better crew are lost on an OP.

    The idea being that unacceptable losses should be reflected in the victory point tally at the end of an Ops period in the campaign.

    I get your point about doing this with a computer or phone app, but I’m a figure/model wargamer and I just love having toys on the table, and this game does create a lot of drama to go with them.

     

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Peninsular War Battlefield Tour #117262
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    Hi Ken,

    Great, glad you enjoyed the read, and plenty more to come.

    cheers

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Peninsular War Battlefield Tour #117126
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    Thank you, glad you enjoyed the read.

    Just go careful, before you know it the Peninsular War can drag you in and there’s no coming back.

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Roman Legionary Cohort 28mm #116820
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    Thank you chaps.

    AOS – you’re more than welcome, happy to share the love, although I can’t take full credit for the mud on the shields as the magicians at LBM go to the trouble of producing their shield decals all battered and with a dusting of mud on the bottom edge. The only thing is is that you have to make sure the shield is the right way up when you stick it to the figure!

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

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    Thanks for your comments chaps.

    The Welsh borders are a really lovey place to do this kind of walking with loads of history in glorious countryside and when the weather is kind an opportunity to get plenty of fresh air.

    Cheers

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Partizan 2019 #114999
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    Thanks Willz, glad you enjoyed the post.

    All the best

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Target for Tonight – Nuremberg #114547
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    The bomb lift is my own addition and adds another layer to the pre-game planning stage alongside the fuel load and weather.

    The bomber groups will automatically refresh between ops with new aircraft and replacement crews randomly selected from a prepared list of sixty different options. Again to keep things simple, I took the view that Bomber Command were not hamstrung by the difficulty in replacing their losses in aircrew or aircraft and during the time of the Berlin campaign actually grew in capacity with ever more squadrons converting to Lancasters, whilst the Nachtjagd were held at roughly the same numbers.

    The Victoty Point system is there to abstract the tipping point when losses outrun the replacement pipeline and/ or the loss of will to persist with the campaign in the face of a poor return on investment. The VP abstraction has to be there because as stated the attrition rate is designed for a game at the squadron level rather than the overall campaign level.

    Yes there is a VP score for shot down nightfighters.

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Target for Tonight – Nuremberg #114502
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    Well I find WWII air warfare an itch I have to scratch every now and then and so I decided a long time ago to put this collection together around these rules in their first incarnation and now I have the time, inclination and a bit more reading around the subject to bend my mind to making them a slightly more immersive game and have added a few more models to produce a game that is really easy and fun to run at club in between the other stuff I like doing.

    Your thinking reflects my own in terms of better reflecting aircraft losses and I have put together an increased cost in lost victory points according to crew quality from -2VP for a novice crew lost to a whopping -5VP for an elite crew. The idea is to keep points costing an op relatively straight-forward and then simply dividing the total accrued VPs by the number of Ops to come to an average that informs on how well things are going.

    I am still not totally happy with the bomb lift construction yet either so have put in a few slight changes to that for testing in the next game, so onward and upward as they say.

     

    Cheers

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

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    Hi DSG,

    Thanks for your comment and glad you enjoyed the read. I rather hoped this series of posts would inspire others like me who have been contemplating getting to grips with CoC but never quite got around to doing it.

    I have to say the investment in time has been well worth it and we as a group have had a lot of fun getting into them, including our host, who is very familiar with them but has had the fun of observing our learning journey and the inevitable errors in play coupled with a growing awareness of playing a better game taking advantage of the force specific rules and game mechanics.

    That said the rules are very unobtrusive and produce a very believable game that feels very much like the small battles that you can read about and populate most of the accounts written by veterans.

    The maps are simply those produced in the Lardies scenario book, 29 Let’s Go, part of a series of CoC campaign books and which are well worth getting hold of if you don’t have them.

    Cheers

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Dacian Warband 28mm #113500
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    Hi Jeff,

    I’m glad you missed me!

    Well as my old Ma and Pa used to say “variety is the spice of life”.

    The base colours are the same as per my tutorial on the blog. I tend to put all my pictures through a photo editor to help enhance things and sometimes the colours can get a bit ‘enhanced’ depending on the conditions I had when the picture was taken, which in this case was a sunny morning which added to the photo lights

    Cheers

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Salute 2019 – South London Warlords #112318
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    Thanks chaps, glad you enjoyed the read.

    My chats with the traders I met with left me very enthused for the future with some great new product ranges and game ideas in the pipeline.

    Cheers all

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Rebels & Patriots – Devon Wargames Group #110959
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    Thank you OB, we found both sets of rules are highly entertaining so I hope you have as much fun as we did.

    All the best

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Romano-Dacian Battle Casualties #110742
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    Thanks chaps, glad you like them.

    Cheers

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Dacian Warbands 28mm #110112
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    Thanks Jeff, much appreciated. Isn’t this daft hobby a lot of fun?

    Cheers

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Breached Walls Tutorial #108094
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    Great, I’m glad you found it useful

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: The Table is back with New Terrain Items #106209
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    Thank you chaps, much appreciated.

    Happy Xmas

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: French Indian War and Plains Indian War #105357
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    Hi Jeff,

    Thank you. The colours look about right to me being about 6’6″ by 6’2″ if you work on the men being of a similar height. I did a bit of homework on them as I had to resize the pikes supplied with the finials which are described in the regulations as half pikes at about just short of 10 feet in height.

     

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Three Castles Walk – Part One #103608
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    Thanks Willz, glad you enjoyed the read and part two to come.

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Guilford Courthouse – Devon Wargames Group #102124
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    Hi Brendan,

    I assume I am addressing the Brendan Morrissey in which case I have a couple or so of your titles and well thumbed they are to.

    Thank you, the figures are indeed Polly Oliver, a collection I put together back in the day and was fortunate to be able to sell to another club member and good friend, so still get to play with them on a regular basis. I plan to move up to 28mm in the future as the old peepers struggle to work in ‘God’s Own’ scale these days and I find myself in the contemplating rule sets stage of planning my future collection.

    I think I should caveat my reply by first stating that I come from the point of view that rules are rather like shoe sizes, in that just because you take a size 10 and I take a size 8 doesn’t invalidate either size, it’s just that one size suits another person better than the other. So from the perspective of RAFA and AWI rules in general, I to look for more theatre specific rule sets and have often been rather unsatisfied with either, as you say SYW or just as commonly Napoleonic specific sets being ‘shoehorned’ around the AWI and to some extent, the War of 1812.

    I suppose I approach the AWI alongside a big interest in British involvement in the Peninsular War and have always been fascinated in the similarities and key differences between the two periods of significant and interlinked tactical practices used by Crown forces in both eras. Just recently I and a friend have spent a lot of time playing the Napoleonic cousin of RAFA, namely Over the Hills (OTH) and so we, being AWI fans, were very interested in getting copies of RAFA when they emerged to compare and contrast with all the reservations covered above. They are quite different in many respects and we have had to unlearn a few OTH principles to get up to speed with RAFA which I think is very positive.

    I put together a top line review and thoughts after our first fumbling attempts at getting to grips with them on my personal blog, link attached.  http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2018/09/rise-fight-again-new-rules-for-fighting.html

    When I say ‘fumbling attempts’ I should also stress not to read too much into how long it took to manoeuvre forces about the table or where they got to at game end as with our play test and the game reported here both sets of players were more interested in seeing the rule mechanics at work rather than focusing on any game result, with a lot of conversation as we went along, and perhaps the title for the post should read Guilford Courthouse Like, but I didn’t feel that scanned very well. In this game, two of the players have little interest in the AWI but were interested in the core mechanics with a view to getting the ACW set which they have now both decided to do based on this one game. Don’t ask me to comment on ACW because that is rather beyond my ken or interest.

    You mention British Grenadier rules of which I have a first edition copy and a set that I never really got into as I really like the DP aspects of recording degrading of units but I never found them right for me, wrong shoe size I guess. That said I really like the concept of an overall measure of ‘fatigue’ incorporating a combination of disorder, combat losses and morale failure in one factor. I really fell in love with this concept using Carnage & Glory computer moderated rules that manage the process so well and feel that the system used here in OTH and RAFM is as close as I have found with a paper based/bone rolling set. This idea of fatigue is the core engine to the series of Stand to Games rule sets, around which theatre specific concepts are drawn.

    Thus when manoeuvring rapidly or with poor quality troops close to the enemy, fatigue loss can be a penalty, however players have a choice to move units more slowly, sacrificing speed for maintaining fatigue, or allowing officers and NCOs to manage the stress caused by proximity to the enemy. The fatigue score (FS) is a moving feast throughout the game affecting units and their parent brigades and army, with a degrading to zero causing unit/formation loss. In terms of combat, maintaining the best possible unit FS is key to being able to inflict and absorb FS casualties, thus rallying and careful manoeuvring is a key aspect of the game.

    The system above helps illustrate how the game can model differences between using militia and better quality line troops, posing different problems to the commanders. Not only that but fatigue inflicted on units can be rallied off, but when fatigue in caused it is also applied to the parent brigade/army and this fatigue cannot be rallied off and so formations and armies start to approach break points simply through accrued battle fatigue.

    This basic core has then been modified with period specific rules that seek to model unit, army and terrain characteristics that can impact the fatigue still further in negative and positive ways. I know the authors made reference to looking to capture some of the key points raised in Mathew Spring’s ‘With Zeal and with Bayonets Only’ and so command ranges are reduced quite noticeably compared to the Napoleonic set which seeks to emphasise the broken or command restricting nature of the terrain together with Spring’s point that unit commanders were very likely to have to act somewhat independently when out of contact from a higher commander. Thus out of command units very often will act as required, but very occasionally will not.

    You mention specifically militia versus regulars and I can assure you that regulars will see off militia quite readily as happened in this game and the previous, however taking them on frontally as was demonstrated and moving rapidly to contact can incur FS penalties which may impact later in the game, as rather knackered British formations stagger forward to meet a third line of US regulars. What I like about the system is that it presents choices to the players with potential benefits and costs which if mixed with some objective priorities really can force some decisions and possibly a bit of risk taking. In this game we had a more cautious possibly plodding British attack with militia forced to relocate from one side of the field to the other due to the British choosing that option. Personally if I had set the parameters I would have kept the historical set up and put a time penalty in to get the British into a Cornwallis frame of mind and get stuck in with Devil take the hind most.

    The Force Specific rules are pretty much what you would expect to see in an AWI set with the emphasis on British firing, charging and steadiness and the US with riflemen, elite continentals and militia specific rules that yes can affect movement but using ‘Bush Fighters’ can allow them to do a firing number on the British and then relocate to another part of the field, to rise and fight again.

    The core FS system can really encourage the players to think about husbanding some of their forces, keeping a reserve and or looking to manoeuvre a defender out of covering terrain into that more suitable for the attacker by using rapid movement.

    Thus as a player very familiar with the Napoleonic set I and others came away with a positive feel for the changes to the core system to produce a much more AWI feel to the game and offering enough to make me want to play them again.

    The only minor negative from our perspective is that we will need to write up a QRF more suitable to our way of playing but we did that for the Napoleonic set so I am about a third of the way into that task and I will need to replace those Napoleonic style brigade record cards.

    I hope that helps

    JJ

     

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Guilford Courthouse – Devon Wargames Group #101580
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    Hi Norm,

    Thanks for your comment. Yes indeed, the game engine is as was but I really think the chaps have adapted it nicely to reflect the theatre the rules are aimed at. Well worth having a look at.

    Cheers

    JJ

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

    in reply to: Viriconium Cornoviorum – Roman Wroxeter #100576
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    Great, and thank you for the comment. The coins were a nice treat and I bought three so I can give my sons one each.

    http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk

Viewing 40 posts - 161 through 200 (of 348 total)