Friday 27 April 2018

Reinforcements - Preparation for Partizan

For more years than I care to remember I have been doing a demo game at Partizan - originally as part of the Teesside Triumvirate with Gordon and Lee but then with Lee's death and Gordon's disappearance from the wargaming scene then it's mainly been me flying solo :)

It's a tradition I can't break so I shall be there again with a game under the Crann Tara Miniatures banner - this time a Jacobite rebellion game - 'The Retreat'  based on a what if - when the Jacobites were retreating from Derby back to Scotland the artillery train was placed into a separate column and great effort was made to secure it's survival. The game will be based around the Government advance guard closing in on the column.

These two units will be making their appearance.




Still lots to finish in the three weeks left but what's new in that a demo game wouldn't be worth doing if you weren't painting figures up to the last moment.
Hopefully see some of you there.

Sunday 15 April 2018

Salute 2018 a picture review!

Well the main event has been and gone for another year.
On my Crann Tara blog I will make reference to the show from my trade point of view.
Here I will tell you what I thought and throw some photos at you in the 40 minutes I had to run around before the doors opened, so first apologies for those games ( the majority) I didn't photograph.

For a really good photo review visit http://www.blmablog.com/

So first observations - all the usual gripes poor lighting, hard floor etc but hey this is the biggest wargames event and I don't think they detract that much because of the buzz and the atmosphere.

Whilst some may disagree from my point of view compared to the last few years I thought there were far more historical games than in previous years which was pleasant.

So onto the games I managed to see and liked well first up Ian Smith's wonderful 40mm ACW siege won best demo game and rightly so.














Right next to Ian and arguably an equally strong contender for the prize was Bill Gaskin's wonderful AWI game - The Raid on Gaskins Plantation


























As you can guess these two games ticked all my wargames taste buds and provided so much inspiration.

Then there were a few others that caught my eye that I couldn't spend a lot o time on and to be fair in the time I had I didn't get round half the venue.










Personally I thought it was one of the best Salute's for a while but what do I know.
Other than I will be there again next year God willing :)