Conwy Wargames Club tomorrow

 First club meeting of 2015 tomorrow. 2 games are planned a good old dark age clash using Dux Bellorum and an X Wing dust up.

I'll be running the X Wing game, my first for the club. Apparently I'll have 4 players possibly more. I believe no one has played X Wing before so I'll keep it simple plus this could be the largest X Wing game I've done. I've decided to use 2 rookie X Wings and a prototype A wing facing 3 rookie Ties and the lowest skilled Tie Advanced. If I have just 4 players I'll play the A Wing. The scenario will take place sometime between the battle of Hoth and the battle of Endor. The X Wings mission is to protectthe A wing prototype, ideally destroying all witnesses to it's performance. The Imperials need to knock it out so it can be retrieved and studied.

Wargames Eyrie - progress

I have now tidied up the mess I made knocking 3 walls down. I am now waiting to find out how much plaster I need to knock off the walls in the hall way. In the mean time I can strip out old light fittings. The main focus will be the bathroom, because you don't want to walk far when your in a critical moment of a game and you gotta go, plus we need a more modern bathroom to survive. Gosh I miss a shower. Don't worry we still we still have washing facilities and critically a bath. We haven't moved and not washed for months!

The vision so far is that where the ceiling changes height I'd like to fit a display cabinet across the step in the ceiling. This could be supported by 2 display cases on either side of the hallway forming  a display like an upside down U.

Beyond the display case will be a desk or 2. This section will have the door covered up and will house the painting desk.

This section will have the door covered up and either a second desk or a storage for the lead/plastic mountain or both.

The view when I look up to relax the eyes from squinting trying  to paint buttons or buckles wishing the zip had been invented in the bronze age

The view towards the bathroom from my paint station

view towards the bathroom from the lead/plastic mountain/ drying area

Inside the bathroom. The door in the left will be blocked up

A hole. Depending on how big a tank I'll need this is the preferred side for the toilet and sink.

The preferred corner for the tank

L to R will hopefully be a tank, towel rail and shower.

What's in the hole?

A view of the partially covered up window in the 1st floor toilet from the 2nd floor bathroom

An old slate tank. This is big and needs a bit of thought to get out. 

The mess is travelling to new floors!

The temporary hobby home

I've posted lots of pictures of the future wargames rooms so I thought I'd share pictures of the temporary camp. There is no board(s) until the new rooms are done and my existing boards are not in the photos as they are split between my Mum's and an unused toilet not in shot. 

The lead/plastic pile 1. Although 1 shelf is the X wing collection.

Terrain and planes. To be honest mainly houses and trees.

The cardboard boxes hold more lead/plastic horde.

The painted forces ready to roll and conquer wherever they are needed! The irregular pattern formed by my uncontrollable urge to sort them by period and armies. 1st row on the right is Scifi, Pulp and post apocalypse. 2nd row against the wall from left to right  hold 20mm Korean War and WW2 , 25mm Sudan, 20mm Zulu War, 25mm Plains Indian Wars, 25mm Maximilian Adventure, 25mm Cowboys, 25mm Franco Prussian war, 15mm ACW, ACW River wars, 25mm Crimean War ( the start of a collection anyway), 25mm Napoleonic wars, 25mm AWI, 25mm French Indian Wars, 25mm 1745 Jacobite rebellion, 25mm 7 Years War,  25mm ECW, 15mm ECW, 25mm 17th Century Poles and Turks, 25mm WOR,  the start of 25mm French Italian wars armies, 25mm English Scots wars, 25mm Crusades, 25mm Norman conquest, 25mm Saxons, 25mm Vikings, 25mm mid and early Byzantines, 25mm early Ottomans, 25mm Late Romans, 25mm Imperial Romans, 25mm Republican Romans, 25mm Waring states Chinese, 25mm Celts, 25mm Alexandrian/Successor Greeks, 25mm Peloponnesian war Greeks, 25mm Classical Greeks, 25mm Hittites, 25mm Sea Peoples, 25mm Egyptians, 25mm Bronze Age European, 25mm Fantasy. Of course some of the 25mm is 28mm or larger. Hopefully I've remembered them all. I inherited quite a few of these and shockingly as a result there are a few I've never played with. My aim is to solve that first world wargaming issue!

Wargames Eyrie - Hallway painting area progress

The walls have come down in the hallway to reveal the space I am currently planning to use as a painting area. I've discovered the ceiling is a bit lower in this space than I was expecting hence the top of the wall still in place. 

Next job rubble removal  and then take out old wood supports.

From a building history point of view I was surprised that the 2 bathrooms were not 100% modern, but at one time they'd been a single bathroom. You can see the newer wood frame outlining where the original door used to be on the right. The rest of the wall facing the camera was lath and plaster which covered the house in dust as it came down.

Wargames Eyrie - Room 4 home of the big board

The fourth and final room of the planned Wargames Eyrie. I want a 12ft x 6ft board in here.

In the old house I based this on 8 kitchen cabinets which served as storage. The units were split in 2, with 6 cabinets a gap then the equivalent of 2 more cabinets. The 6 cabinet base was used for a 6x4 or 8x6 board before extending to 12 x 6. You probably guess I had 3 6x4 boards that at the smallest configuration were stacked on top of each other.  I had planned to do the same here but I am not sure.

I may try cabinets on wheels to give more flexibility. I am not planning to put any storage on the walls to maximise space for chairs. I like to use office chairs so when you're tired you can glide up and down the board with a push of your legs. This luxury started because in the old house the only space chairs I had were office chairs.

View from the right hand corner looking towards the front of the house. This room  has the lowest ceiling of them all.

View from the left hand corner towards the front. The door near the centre of the photo leads to an en-suite which will be knocked out and the door blocked up. 

From the front left hand corner looking back. All the walls and ceiling are textured so need stripping back.

 

The view

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2014 Review in detail

Happy New Year.

2014 was quite a wargaming year. I didn't expect to get much hobby time in as we started the year trying to move and start a business. Both took a lot longer and took a different form than originally envisioned.

Places Visited - lots
We took an early holiday knowing the year was going to be busy and I found the L'Iber Toy Soldier Museum in Valencia. Marvelous place. My favorite display being:
Carlist War displays

Games played - 10
My usual monthly game fixture, which with the normal rhythm of life was never added up to 12 games, was suspended. Sad but necessary but with the delays in the move etc we did get some games in.

We managed 5 games:

15mm Gruntz's game at the Hammerhead Show. First try at these rules and enjoyed them. Good preparation needed. I now have added a few GZG figures to my growing very small 15mm collection.

More pictures on the Hammerhead show link lower down in this post.

X Wing  - always great fun.
2 x Dead Mans Hand games - first play of these. I liked it so much I had Santa being me a copy. I still like Legends of the Old West for story telling but Dead Mans Hand is quick to set up and play.
15mm Bolt Action game - another first try out of rules. Need to play more to see if I like them. Easy to pick up though.

In light of me moving away we arranged to meet up at the Battle Group Ponyri Campaign. This was a first for Battle Group and a first for me attending an organised event where I played strangers with my own armies. What a blast and I hope to go to the 2015 event.

I played 3 games and lost them all and loved it:
Battle Group Ponyri Campaign Day 1
Battle Group Ponyri Campaign Day 2

Once moved I caught up with some old gaming chums who now run the Conwy Wargames Club and got a game in and was invited to play at the informal off shoot Muffin Club:
Dux Bellorum game at Conwy Wargames Club
Hail Caesar Rome vs Celts at the Muffin Club


Finished models
100% finished:
4 x 20mm Panzer IVH
1 x 20mm German Radio truck
1 x 20mm 251/16 half track
1 x 20mm HE129 plane
4 x 20mm German mine sweepers
1 x 20mm 2 man German sniper team

Finished but need basing
2 x 24 man 25mm Crimean War British Guards battalion

Shows visited - 6

Hammerhead Show
Cannon Show
Sheffield Triples
Partizan
Other Partizan
Derby World Wargames show

Blog posts - 98

Kickstarters backed - 1 Battle Systems scifi scenery

The Move
The great pack up

The future