Or, better, pictures from this year’s Conference of Wargamers with relevance to warfare in the mechanised age …
I was busy with a number of ancient and medieval projects, so there is a main report on Ancients on the Move. So I got so see very little of the modern stuff …
(Doodlebug down! The WDDTN ADG Doodlebuggers sees another threat neutralised)
The plenary game was a live kamikaze attack in the Pacific, and later, I got to shoot down Doodlebugs – I got the highest tally but had a lot of trouble flying through debris and getting out of my burning Spitfire. Back gardens in Kent and Woolwich were cratered and Southend Pier was blown to smithereens … but I reckon between us we saved London.
(we had 5 minutes in which to clear the skies of evil Nazi wonder weapons)
You can have a crack at this at a show later in the year … The Other Partizan, next, probably (look for Wargame Developments) ..
Here is more of the death struggle between Hitler and Stalin …
(A senseless waste … German bitter enders scurry through Berlin Station to confront the invader)
… and here is the 21st Century equivalent of a cardboard simulator (the toy-shop plastic and foam rubber simulator?
(Lawn Game Simulator: pneumatic anti-tank missile system readies)
… and it can be beguiling how convincingly the mown grass camouflages 1:32 scale toy tanks …
(Little Cold Wars: French ground attack mission)
(Little Cold Wars: taking hits – the T55s attack)
(fire in the hole!: Nick Huband demonstrates the anti-tank targeting system)
Mid evening on Saturday we broke for a trip down memory lane … Jim Roche reminding us of the calendar of events from 1914 and 1944 interspersed with morale boosting or iconic songs and anthems from the war years …
(Just in case you didn’t know the words to the Marseillaise … )
… and I found a window in which to ski off piste with my pop-up Naval Game, Big Ship Battles (Kaboom!) inspired by some inexpensive ships that became available in a Pound shop …
(Kaboom! with Chris K … 3 hits on my Battleship … and a level bomber coming my way …)
The game takes around half an hour at most and has none of those traditional naval game mechanisms – it did, however, work (and I am inspired to push it along another level … say, maybe a quick participation game?)
(Kaboom!: a 2mm Bomber from Irregular Miniatures about to complete its mission)
Along with all the ancient and medieval games, that was it for my CoW 2014 …
2015? Well, I hope to see you there – CoW is unique for all the right reasons, so a big thank you to all the enthusiasts who make it work!
Lovin’ the warfare on the grass! I can almost hear the “pew-pew-pews!” as the foam missiles fly! 🙂
It is strangely difficult to concentrate on what you are doing when someone is shooting missiles at you – even if you know they are harmless … I think as well as just unleashing the inner child, the message (if there ever is one 😉 ) in a session like this is that it takes training to be able to ignore stuff being fired at you …
Phil
[…] of my own to aspects of the 20th Century Fleet engagement (kaboom! near the bottom of this COW report) but it was highly entertaining to have another go at the FP game so well put together. My […]