Forum Replies Created
-
At least it’s in the right place now! The figures are still on the stocks I’ll post some piccies when they’re finished. What I’m kind of envisioning for the Crimbo Wargame is the Wild Bunch walking into the square full of Mapache’s overhung scumbags and starting the ball. We’ll be using FFofL, so Pike and his bunch can open fire first action, then storm the table mounted MG in their second.
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
When I was younger and Herself was at work and the kids at skool I loved listening to the silence as I painted! These days I almost always have music playing quietly, film soundtracks mostly. Music from war films when painting cammo, tanks and wotnot, Sharpe/Waterloo when painting crossbelts and facings, westerns when painting Cowboys and Injuns… sad, innit!!!???
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Thankfully some of ’em survived the genocide of the Great Air Rifle Discovery Wars of 1970!!!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
I thought I’d cracked it with those rotating disc thingy that recorded how many hit yer little men had taken… experience proved ’em a pain in the arse to use, you spend more time fiddling with them than fighting the battle!
Beads on spears are great if you’re only recording a unit’s status, but we found no escape from different coloured dice to record hits/and status. I bit the bullet and multi based with a foxhole for a 10mm dice, all on one stand… seems to work OK for our shaky, gnarled and arthritic germans*.
*german bands…. hands.
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Our first experiments blowing tanks up was a banger glued inside, a burst of flaming lighter fuel as a source of detonation, the result was a stunning bang and nowt left of the tank. Metikulus research and experimentation lead to a far better method, glue all the tanks down on something solid before they went bang… a steppe/back bedroom of wrecked armour that made Kursk look like a bunfight!!!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Ah yes! The Great Air Rifle Discovery Wars of the 70s! My mate and I decided that shooting at Action Man in a moving Jeep would be fun. We weren’t completely stupid though. The Jeep ‘pusher’ had an upturned wheelbarrow to duck back behind so he didn’t get accidentally shot…
Thank **** for you and Harry, I’d thought it was just me! (actually you sound well ahead of us on the health and safety front!)
Christ no! Yours Truly is a war criminal of the first rank!!! Hollow cast, painted lead soldiers, including them RAF Firemen in asbestos suits, wooden topped Guardsmen… all mown down in their prime, nary a one given quarter. Down the brook from our back garden I can still see the riverside slaughter ground.
Did I learn the lessons of my misguided youth?
No…. add to the slaughter my lad’s A-Team, Playmobile Wild West and first issue Star Wars figures/collections when Daddio introduced him to joy through firepower…
little bleeder could shoot like Burks’s by the time he was knee high to a rifle butt, but never had any toys to play with, and it’s all my fault!!!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
A lot of the Airfix, I am ashamed to say, perished in the great air rifle discovery wars of 1970.
When you think of the priceless artefacts we wantonly destroyed in Great Air Rifle Discovery Wars of 1970…
we should get done as war criminals!!!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Looking sharp Harry! Very nice lines on these. What scale are they?
They’re Corgi diecast approx 1:144 scale, wingspan’s about the width of your hand. Wing Commander Grant’s lead Mossie is fully tickled up with guns, tailwheel and prop tips painted. The other two will head for the paint shop as soon as they land!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Looking forward to how this turns out. I had a similar idea a few years ago but never got round to it (no surprise!) http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2011/03/633-squadron.html
Looks good does that. Our game will be along the same lines, till it gets to the actual bombing. 633 Squadron’s Mossies have been fitted with the new, top secret, Mk. XXVII bombsight!!!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Happened to me a couple of week ago. Sent an e-mail to this address and all was well within the hour.
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
So, you see what you’ve done? I’m not sure whether to thank or shake my fist at you!
I don’t like to do this, it makes me feel really guilty…
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
SWD is an Eaglemoss resin casting…
https://shop.eaglemoss.com/doctor-who-figurines-collection/special-weapons-dalek-figurine
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
At dawn Ivan’s motorised infantry find the bridge completely undefended…
Well concealed BAOR tanks open fire from their hides, these lads aren’t just anybody, these are Harry’s Chieftains!
The Russian armour meet a quick end, but not before causing casualties to the British infantry.
Harry’s lads unleash the full might of the Battlegroup and Ivan’s assault is smashed, he looses all his vehicles and their commander, Major Akim Lysenko, is captured and stands disconsolately by the roadside as Harry’s Chieftains thunder over the bridge!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Ivan has broken through with an elite Guards battlegroup and is rushing the river crossings. Motorised infantry have occupied the wood on the left flank supported by armour. On the right flank an infantry attack is forming to take that bridge too. Overhead is a fierce combat for air superiority.
Scratch British units race to contain the Russian thrust…
But, something is wrong with our bloody tanks today?
The Empire strikes back!
A shower of RPGs whoosh from the wood, the British APC explodes and Ivan crosses the left flank bridge. On the right flank the British tank commander’s excellent firing stall the Russian infantry attack.
Seeing the enemy motorised infantry on his flank, the British tank commander’s brayn goes wonky, he rushes from an excellent hull down position to retake the bridge. It ends in tears very quickly…
As night falls Ivan pushes on, he knows that a dawn attack on the next river crossing will have broken the enemy front completely.
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Yep, it is, but they’ve also done a blackpowder version and the latest version is sci-fi called:- ‘Fistful of Lead- Galactic Heroes’.
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
It was a right laugh from move one to the end. We used the ‘Fistful of Lead’ rules, next game we’re having a pop with your ‘Squad Hammer’ rules.
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Better piccys of the individual units…
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
In a flash of electric blue light and a loud electronic pulsing Zeg (the red pepperpot with gold lid) and his followers materialise from the cities two transmatting stations and set off on patrol. Zeg’s crew enters a bunker and get into a blasting match with three very irate Cybermen. A point blank exchange of blasters shred the Cybermen who, surprisingly, take two two of Zeg’s patrol with them…
At the other side of the city the searching Daleks find the electronic code to enter the main control room. One of them goes to check a small bunker to see if Davros lurks therein. He doesn’t, but one of his bodyguards does, and Zeg’s bloke gets malleted…
The Daleks enter the main control room (note the stunning floor mural) and then it all really kicks off bigstyle! They discover the Doctor and Sgt. Benton’s U.N.I.T. section. Squawking maniacally at the sight of humans and their greatest adversary the Daleks get down to it. Under a hail of blaster fire the humans leg it for the transmatt machine to escape. The U.N.I.T. rocket launcher man, the one real threat to the Dalek armour, is targeted as Sgt. Benton puts up a valiant rearguard action to hold off pursuit…
At the sight of the humans the Dalek ‘prime directive’ is activated. Installed by Davros at the Genesis of the Daleks, the directive, to exterminate the Doctor and any human life wherever it is encountered, draws the furious pepperpots like moths to a flame, not even Zeg can resist it…
The Doctor operates the transmatt machine (note:- transmatt machines must have an operator on the control panel for it to function) and a lone U.N.I.T. soldier is saved. The Doctor then succumbs to a barrage of blaster fire…
Davros has laid his trap well. With a slight electronic ‘swish’ the door of the only bunker not searched opens to reveal Himself and another bodyguard. Davros legs it toward the other transmatt machine as Zeg and his lads give chase…
Davros’s bodyguard fights a delaying action agin Zeg, good as the bodyguard Daleks are, they’re no match, for the mighty Zeg…
Davros sits in the transmatt machine as his sole remaining bodyguard races to the operating console, too late, Zeg arrives and blows his melon off!
Alone, Davros sits in the transmatt machine, Zeg gloating in trumph, draws out the moment of his victory. Then there is another of those flashes of electric blue light and loud electronic pulsing thingys, so common to Skaro. An image is burned into the retina of the Dalek’s eyestalks…
Davros has taught his creations all they know, but as is often the way of Evil Overlords the Universe over, he hasn’t taught them all he knows. A final flash of electric blue light and loud electronic pulsing reverses the image and he is gone…
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Yep, the Doctor, Daleks and Cybermen are Corgi. The U.N.I.T. lads are seventies Britains Deetail SAS.
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
holy carp! How much did you shell out for those?
The best price a Yorkshireman likes shelling out most… nowt!!!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
In the good old days we had games every couple of months that started about eleven in the morning. We had a break for tea about five-ish then battled on till half seven, upped stumps and went to the boozer. Massive battles with a couple of thousand figures a side… happy days, don’t think mi’ back and knees could take it these days!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
I don’t know if it were a deliberate decision (everyone was brave on the day?) but there was only one VC awarded for the actions on D-Day, Stanley Hollis WO2 Green Howards on Gold Beach. So 6th airborne may have been overlooked, but so were lots of other people. As for the rest of the campaign – dunno, look forward to your junk sorting – sorry: in depth research!
This is the thing I’m kind of banging on about. We get summat right (D-Day), for once, and there’s one act of conspicuous gallantry award. There was seven Victoria Crosses awarded in France/Belgium in 1940?
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
There was a peculiar twist to VC awards to airmen in the first World War. At least three VCs were awarded, not for a single act of valour, but for long and meritorious service; to Captain Albert Ball and Majors Mannock and McCudden. If memory serves I believe Leonard Cheshire’s award was for the same kind of thing in the second?
Getting back to Normandy/Arnhem, some years back I contacted the Airborne Forces Museum, for information as to any VC recommendations put forward for 6th Airborne in Normandy, I’ll try and search out the reply in my piles of junk/priceless artefacts!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Yes mate, they’re still available, all the figures are Flames of War ‘Team Yankee’ 15 millis.
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Whoa, steady on tiger! I’m not belittling the VCs awarded for the stand at Arnhem. Are you aware there was more than a bit of bad blood between members of 1st and 6th Airborne at the time, about this very subject?
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Yep, is that why we always dish them out more…
when we’ve had us arses kicked!!!???
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Last Crimbo wargame with the Dynamic Dunderheads. We did the ‘treasure hunt’ from the Charles Grant scenarios book. Tickled up for a bunch of Scalphunters (Dunderhead 1)- v- 7th. Cavalry (Dunderhead 2) to find and capture The Great Lame Beaver (Yours Truly) and his war party, who’d legged it from the reservation.
Trouble with the Dunderheads, being brayndead old farts, is that they take things a tad literal, becoming mission orientated to the point of obsession. Much toing and froing took place, upside down map reading, much head scratching at complicated clues which wouldn’t have taxed the melon of a five year old ensued…
till Father Crimbo popped out of a wigwam and blasted Custer’s Bluebellys with his Bazooka!
This kicked it all off and within minutes ‘treasure hunt’ was forgotten. The 7th. killed all the Redskins, killed all the scalphunters then rode off, triumphant up Monument Valley, column o’ twos, to the ringing chorus of Garryowen!
We repaired to the Occifer’s Mess for a gallon of Tetley’s and a debrief…
Dunderhead 1…
“I’d have won that if you hadn’t CHEATED, you didn’t follow the clues and then shot my men!”
Dunderhead 2…
“Cheated! CHEATED you say! Which part of ‘wargame’ don’t you understand. it’s not like you haven’t been at it long enough!”
The Great Lame Beaver…
“Kirk to Enterprise… for fook’s sake, beam me up Scotty!!!”
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
We had a vicar at my old club who was a notorious cheat, the result of which (apart from not going to Heaven
) meant that no-one wanted to play him. Other members were border line cheats, but were just about tolerated, as the feigned shock when we pointed out their ‘transgressions’. Many years ago my mate was training for the priesthood… holier than an Aero bar he was! He once had a Jagdpanther covering a bridge my Shermans were endeavouring to cross. As he made mincemeat of A squadron, B’s Firefly immobilised him (roll a secret D6 for how long the crew were stunned). I saw the secret roll (accidentally, honest guv!) and knew I could cross the bridge and scuttle into cover before the Jagdpanther smartened himself up… I blew the charge and the dastardly Hun opened fire, blocked the bridge with a burning Sherman, and won the game. I was so shocked at a prospective man of the cloth cheating his way to victory i didn’t have a rant in me… even when we got in the boozer for the post-Mortem!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Look at all them thin, gormless looking, blokes with beards!
Brings to mind a little story.
I’d arranged to meet my daughter at Sheffield Triples when it was held at the Octagon. She rocks up to the counter where a mate of mine was selling the tickets…
Herself…
“Is mi’ Dad here yet?”
Fat bloke, with beard, selling tickets…
“Wot’s he look like?”
Herself…
“Fat bloke with a beard.”
Fat bloke, with beard, selling tickets…
“You’re going to have to narrow that down a bit, it’s a wargame show.”
Me, slithering from cover and into range…
“Afternoon Missy… the bar’s this way!”
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
that was great, really enjoyed reading the AAR… just like the film!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Some of my most cherished memories as a modeller are of trying to copy the conversions of the 54mm Aoirfix Napoleonic figures, into either, the 7th Cavalry or Charge of the Light Brigade Troopers… anyone remember those articles from times gone by?
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
I’ve still got a couple of the old Battle – for Wargamers magazines. That went tits up, because back then there wasn’t enough gamers to support it, it was incorporated into MM magazine.
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
John, they’re Corgi, proper heavy handfuls of diecast!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Battle is joined!
All I can really say is that the white mercenary force must have used ‘The Dogs of War’ as their trayning manual… they were that inept they made the Simbas look like the Brigade of Guards. Their fast jet made a bombing run and hit Africa – just! as it came back for another pass the Imperial Gunship, with a bit of deflection shooting that Biggles would have been proud of, blew it from the sky… round 1 to the Simbas.
Round 2 saw the 1st Simba Light Horse come on in great style, taking the enemy armoured car under a heavy fire that left it a burning wreck.
For reasons best known to themselves (contempt for the natives?) the white mercenary infantry showed a disdain for cover that lead to heavy casualties, quicksharp…
The commander of the Centurion was a tad brighter. He shot up the T72 forcing it to scuttle into cover to give the crew time to smoke some of di’ bottle giving Ganja. The 1st Simba Light Horse once again came on in great style, kind of a charge of the Light Brigade, it ended in tears…
Excellent shooting had swung the pendulum… till the Centurion drove off having run out of ammo! This demoralised the white mercenary infantry allowing the drug crazed, spray and pray, Simbas an easy victory. the last white man falling in savage hand to hand fighting…
The victorious Simbas have themselves a celebrate like only they can…
President For Life, Field Marshal Zebedee Lukaku, master of all he can see…
But, as we veterans of a thousand fields know only too well, that bitch we call victory exacts a heavy price. A price paid in full by Betsy, the Imperial Gunship…
But, this is Africa, life goes on…
“God be with ye, yer murdering ‘eathans!”
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
Obligatory wargaming bit!
My next little project is going to the Dams Raid, using those excellent 1/44 diecast Lancs. Whether I’ll convert ’em to actually look like 617’s ‘abortion’ Lancs, is something I’m still cogitating? But they’ll certainly be thundering over a moonlight nothern Hunland to the great dams. Then it’ll definitely be…
BOMB GONE!
"Wot did you do in the war Grandad?"
"I was with Harry... At The Bridge!"
