Salute 51 (2024)

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I almost didn’t go to Salute this year - last year’s dismal 50th anniversary show really put me off - but, in the end I decided to make the trek to Excel one more time…and was really glad that I did so.

Salute this year was a really buzzing event. When I arrived at around noon, the show was packed with people, and it stayed that way for much longer than last year. Then, by 2pm, the place was almost deserted: this year it didn’t start emptying out until at least three.

Yes the hall was still dark, and the floor unforgiving, but, as I said, the show had a real buzz to it: something that has been missing recently. As there weren’t as many other shows on at Excel (a shame not to have the usual dichotomy of the Marathon check in!) the catering was easy to access as well: no need to queue at all.

On top of that, there was so much more to see this year, with crowds of people actually playing games, practising their painting or basing, or even mdf building. I would say that the demonstration/participation games at this year’s show were some of the best I have seen, well worth the ticket price alone.

The Lard Zone was in full swing: the huge Stalingrad game in the pictures below was Chain of Command, and there was Strength and Honour on show as well. Funny to think that the Lardies, always traditionally thought of as disruptors, are now fully mainstream!

Also good to see the huge For King & Parliament game based on my Siege of Norchester scenario pack. The last two pictures in the gallery below show a little of it but can’t really properly demonstrate its scale. Well done to Simon for putting it on, and the game won a prize as well.

Another reason to go to Salute is, of course, the shopping, and there was the usual cornucopia of things on offer. Not too many bargains but lots of new ranges on show, particularly in the fantasy space. I only actually bought something from Essex (whose stand ressembled Mr Ben’s shop in its simplicity and throwback to a bygone age in amongst all the flashier outlets) but could have seriously spend the childrens’ inheritance had I been on a buying spree.

So welcome back, Salute, as one of the premium events of the year! Here are a few photos of some of the games:

Warfare 2023

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I had a mixed day at Warfare last Saturday: the show was great, but I didn’t do very well in the To The Strongest competition I had entered and, as icing on the cherry on my cake, I got home to find that I had left my jacket on the back of the chair I’d been using for my last game!

But this post isn’t about that, nor about the competition games: they will follow individually in due course, once the Vis Lardica Ministry of Truth has had time to put a positive spin on an execrable performance! No, this post is about Warfare, the show.

And what a good show it is!

Now at the Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre, Warfare is only about an hour for me, and is a trip well worth making.

I got there nice and early! This is the competition area: it was big!

The venue has grown on me since my first visit last year. Free parking right next to the hall helps, and it didn’t seem as dark and gloomy as before.

I, as I said, was there for a competition, along with 420 other people, which immediately gave the show an extremely busy and bustling feel. It was also great to walk about amongst the other games’ tables and see what was what. Some impressive armies and terrain on show, and there was plenty of room as well: some other competitions I have been to are too cramped to make spectating even possible let alone enjoyable.

There were also plenty of traders and a significant Bring & Buy. I didn’t actually purchase anything, having spent all my money on a new “real life” Roman baggage train (see post later in the week) but could have done so had an imminent tax bill from last year not been weighing on my mind, but there were plenty of products to put on the list for the future.

I won’t be buying either of these (well, not soon!) but thought they were rather fun:

Finally, there were a large number of excellent demonstration games that I made sure to find time to look at during the competition lunch break. I didn’t really have time to note down who had done what, but here’s a quick gallery of some of the one’s that I saw:

So Warfare is recommended for a visit next year, even if you aren’t competing.

Oh, and if you do go, and you see my jacket, pick it up for me will you…

Colours 2023

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Yesterday was the annual trip to Newbury Racecourse for the Colours wargames show.

I must confess that I almost didn’t go: my memories of previous Colours were of a very packed, very hot, and very sweaty show…and the weather forecast was for the day to be the hottest day of the year so far.

Well, it did prove to be the hottest day of the year so far, but when I arrived at about 10.30am, the venue was actually pleasantly cool: all the doors on all the floors were open and there was actually a breeze blowing through the stand. It did get a bit more crowded and a bit hotter during the day, but well done to the organisers for making sure that despite the blazing sunshine, I shall remember this year’s show as one of the coolest on record.

That and the free parking and low entrance fee (£5), and the fact that one of the catering points was actually a Costa (or at least had Costa coffee), made me very glad that I had made the effort to attend, and I shall certainly diarise next year’s show as soon as I can.

I wasn’t shopping for anything in particular this year, but there were the usual plethora of tempting trade stands, and I did actually end up buying some very nice “clumps” to use on my big element bases.

Magister Militum were conspicuous by their absence (being in the process of being sold) and as I wandered past where they usually were, I remembered that I bought something from them at their first show ever. Can’t remember what it was, but I’ve been a regular customer since, and they have always given excellent service. Let’s hope the enterprise goes to an equally good new home.

I thought that the display games were better than usual this year (there’s a gallery of some of them below) and I even played in one of them: the soon-to-be-published mini-skirmish game set in the Edo period of Japan currently known as Bonzai Bonkers or, perhaps more properly, To The Last Sword or similar. Incidentally, Sid, if you’re reading this, my 16-year old thinks the latter is too generic and that Bonzai Bonkers is the way to go! Kids, eh?

The game is excellent fun whilst, as with all Lardy games, really engendering the feel of the period/theme it’s designed to replicate: here, all the jidaigeki/chambara films that I love. The rules are very easy to pick up (my opponent, Gary, and I were working out our own combats etc within ten minutes) but involve a suitably fiendish amount of decision-making.

In this scenario, my band of four ronin and two retainers (I’m sure that means we were missing one!) were out to reclaim a legendary blade from the evil wrongdoers who had killed our daimyo and stolen the sword in the first place.

As with all good films games, it all came down to one last fight, where the hero Juko, supported by his retainer Mushin, was up against the Boss of the opposition: a far better fighter and dressed in armour. Juko fought bravely but was cut down and all looked lost, but Mushin hurled himself forward and, throwing caution to the wind (no parrying dice for Mushin!), finished the Boss off with a lunging thrust: my clan had avenged the insult, reclaimed the sword, won the battle and won more honour as well. My thanks to Sid and Gary for an excellent game.

So a very good Colours indeed, and my commiserations to anyone who decided not to go because of the heat: it was, as they say, a good’un.

The Lardzone at Britcon

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Another good reason for going to Britcon was to see the Lardzone in action: a whole hall devoted to games from the TwoFatLardies.

It was no disappointment. Below you will find a gallery of the tables set up for the day, demonstrating the incredible displays on show.

In fact, the only table I didn’t get a picture of was the late war Burma game of Chain of Command run by Rich himself: it was still being set up when I had the chance to visit. So I have borrowed one from the Battle Bunker HQ’s post about Britcon, along with the shot of the enormous Chain of Command table, also a Pacific game, and the Sharp Practice ACW clash.

Attack! in Devises (and some musings!)

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Last weekend I went to the Attack! show in Devises for the first time.

A lovely drive through the Wiltshire countryside almost made the trip worthwhile on its own and, after a little confusion as to where the actual carpark was (Attack! takes place at a school, and you have to snake your way through almost the entire campus to get to the area where you can park your car), I duly arrived and headed into the show.

Attack! is an old school (pun intended) show where rather than being in a single, purpose built exhibition hall, the various venues are scattered across the school campus: main hall, gym one, gym two etc. I rather liked this: it was quite fun exploring, but I was glad it wasn’t raining!

There was a good selection of traders, and I managed to pick up all those odds and ends you need but don’t want to pay postage on, a fair selection of demonstration games, and a large bring and buy. Part of the bring and buy was the sale of a truly massive collection of 28mm mixed historical and fantasy figures that apparently came from a recent house clearance: there were twelve dragons as part of it, which shows you how big it actually was.

Painted Figures for Sale

One thing that was noticeable was the amount of painted figures on sale throughout the show i.e. both on the trade stands and on the B&B.

Even five years ago, painted figures for sale were a comparative rarity, now they are all over the place…and I can’t decide whether this is because:

  • we are all more time-poor these days, so buy painted figures instead of taking the time to paint things ourselves

  • are of the instant gratification generation i.e. want to play now rather than spend the time building an army

  • are more butterfly in our wargaming habits: moving from period to period, scale to scale, and funding the change with the sale of figures from our last, now abandoned project

  • wargames from the start of the ‘golden age of wargaming’ are now all dying from old age and their collections are being disposed of

I am certainly guilty of the first two, but then don’t sell any figures, so my collection just keeps on growing!

The Circle of Life…

That said, I have been selling off a few wargaming bits and pieces that I found in Mother’s attic when helping her clear it out. These I had deposited some thirty years ago, and included any non-15mm kit that I had, including a cardboard box full of nearly-all-unpainted, still-in-the-packets 28mm Celts from Garrison.

I duly popped them up the ‘net, and friend Steve said he’d take them off my hands…but it was only when I came to give them to him that we realised that he had actually sold them to me over thirty years before when he was Garrison in that little shop in Twyford. Proof of the pudding: my name was written on the box in his handwriting!

Partisan Show

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I hadn’t been to the Partisan show in Newark in years, mainly because at about two and a half hours away it’s really just on the outside of how far I want to drive for a single day’s show. Indeed, the last time I went I was actually breaking a journey to Scotland, staying over in Newark in one of those happy coincidences that happen occasionally.

Anyhoo, to Partisan and Newark I went this year, and jolly pleased I was to have gone. The show was excellent: much better, even, then poor, tired, gloomy, old Salute. Firstly, the hall was light: you could actually see the demo games without the need for extra lighting. Secondly, there was a real buzz about the show, a certain je ne sais quoi that has been missing from the other shows I’ve been to this year. Finally the demo games were amazingly good, as you’ll see from the pictures below.

I could quibble about the catering or the slightly limited number of trade stands…but they would only be quibbles. Highly recommended, and I shall be diarising another visit next year.

Campaign in Milton Keynes

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No, not my attempt to invade the most famous new town of them all but a visit to the annual Campaign wargames show held, would you believe it, in Milton Keynes.

Milton Keynes is only about an hour from me. I’ve actually been there before: once on a geography field trip when I was at school, and once for business about eight years ago.

Campaign is an unusual show in that it takes place in the middle of the MK Central shopping centre. Yes, right in the middle of a mall. As such, besides the usual wargaming folk, you have large numbers of members of the public exposed to our hobby…which is a good thing.

MK Central is the mall to end all malls: it is truly enormous with every chain you can think of in there. The show itself is small: it’s a handful of trade stands, a double fistful of demonstration games and, mostly, a venue for a variety of Ancients competitions.

I think the idea of the show is terrific: our hobby needs a constant supply of new blood to keep it fresh, so exposure from Campaign has got to be a good thing and I applaud the organisers for their efforts.

Here are some pictures from some of the competition games:

Salute 2023

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It’s April, so it must be time for the annual pilgrimage to Excel and Salute.

This year, rather than drive, I thought I’d try taking the new Elizabeth line. Going by train would previously have involved a change at Paddington onto the tube, another change at Aldgate onto the DLR and, all in all, be a right pain…but now I got on a train at Maidenhead and got off at Custom House only about an hour later. Extraordinary! And the return trip cost me less than it does to park at Excel all day, so money saved too.

Anyhow, on to the show: the hall in Excel was its usual gloomy self; no real queue to get in; pretty packed in the morning but emptied out after lunch. The best bit of the show, obviously was the Lard Zone, with some spectacular-looking demo games of What A Cowboy; IABSM; Chain of Command; Strength & Honour; and General d’Armee.

There were some great looking non-Lard demo games elsewhere as well, some of which I’ve photographed below. Forgive the variable quality: I was having camera troubles, so some are from my camera and some are from my mobile phone.

I wasn’t shopping for very much, so only bought a few odds and ends, but one thing that did strike me was how little there was on offer for a 15mm gamer such as myself. Essex were there, Forged in Battle were there, Battlefront/FoW “we now only do late war” kit was everywhere, but apart from those three, I don’t think there were any other 15mm manufacturers present. Certainly nothing spectacular and new to spend my money on, and I was ready, willing and able!

So a bit disappointing really, especially as this was supposed to be the 50th Anniversary Salute. Worth going, but very run of the mill :(

Overlord 2023/Valour & Fortitude

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I went to Abingdon Wargames Club’s Overlord 2023 show at the weekend. This was the first one back after lockdown and COVID, and a very pleasant little show it is too.

Whilst it’s not the biggest show in the world, it had all the important elements needed: demo games, trade stands, car-parking, reasonable food and drink, and only a £4 entrance fee.

I didn’t buy anything, for a change, I’m still painting Normans and working on the lead mountain, but I did get to play in a very nice 6mm game of Valour & Fortitude: the fast-play, skeleton Napoleonic/19th Century rules from the Perry twins.

It’s quite a brutal game, in the same style as the Neil Thomas rules I have been using for the post-Napoleonic 19th Century period, in that battalia take a few hits then go shaken then are removed from the table, all of which can happen in one round of melee…but it was a fun encounter where myself and a chap who’s name I didn’t catch, as the French, successfully defended a river/bridge against large numbers of Prussians.

My thanks to Si, Mark and John for running the scenario, and to my opponent and fellow player for making it an enjoyable game. As I said, above, the French hung on, just, for long enough to win…but it was the very narrowest of narrow victories!

If you can get to Abingdon without too much trouble, put Overlord into your diaries for next year: definitely worth going to.

Warfare 2022

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Just back from Warfare 2022: a show I have been to many times before but whose home, this year, was the Farnborough Exhibition Centre.

So what did I think?

Well, it was £10 to get in: hardly a bank-breaker, but more expensive than any other show I have attended this year.

A ‘Nam game that looked like a recreation of the famous scene from Apocalypse Now

The venue itself was half exhibition centre and half aircraft hanger. I found it a bit dark in the hanger: but I imagine it’s set up that way because they anticipate that participants in whatever’s on show will bring their own lighting. Catering was okay (bring back Ascot as a venue!): the queues looked much, much worse than they actually were; and prices were fine.

German engineers make their way to Luxembourg

There were a decent number of traders, but not as many as I would have expected to see, and they were all crammed into two areas with very narrow aisles between stands. It was quite claustrophobic even though we were effectively in an aircraft hanger! It left little room for browsing, so it was really a question of only going for what you needed.

Vive la France!

Besides the bring and buy, which was the usual sweaty melee, there did seem to be much more painted figures, presumably second hand, for sale. Apparently this has been the topic of some discussion on various fora recently: how the first of the gamers who enjoy the “golden age of wargaming” are dying off, leaving behind them hundreds or even thousands of beautifully painted figures available at comparatively bargain prices. I may have come away with a complete, lovely, fully-painted Burgundian Ordnance army for To The Strongest for considerably less than it would have cost me to buy the lead and get my figure painter to paint it but, if my better half is reading this, that would definitely be a scurrilous rumour with no basis in fact. Honest.

Some kind of attack on an Italian aerodrome!

There were a lot of exhibition games, and of an incredibly high quality. I have dotted this post with examples: they were very inspirational and, as usual, surrounded by people happy to talk about the battle, the game, the rules, the figures etc.

A bit blurry, but another spectacular WW2 game

The largest part of the show, however, were the competition games…and there seemed more than ever of them. It was good to walk around, weaving your way through the labyrinth of tables, looking at all the beautiful figures on display. It was amusing to see the difference between the look of the tables and the different rule sets used…but I will refrain from any bad-mouthing of rules other than those that I play.

So all in all, worth going to, but I won’t go again tomorrow: it’s an hour’s journey for me either way and it wasn’t that good. I will go next year, provided it is on and not too far away: the exhibition games alone, if they repeat this year’s quality, would be worth it.

CDS at SELWG

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Yesterday, Milton Hundred Wargames Club demoed a game of Charlie Don’t Surf at SELWG.

They had a load of interest, plenty of people stopping and asking after the rules…who later went over to the TFL stand! A big shout out to Full Metal Miniatures for printing the sampans as a test. They’ll be on his web store soon!

Here are some pictures of the game, posted onto the CDS Facebook Group by Steve Thomas.

Colours 2022

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A good visit to the Colours show yesterday. Very crowded in the morning, but had largely emptied out by the time I left at two-ish.

A big fantasy game from the show. They obviously knew the way in!

Interesting journey there: I’ve been many times before, so went my usual route, only to find that that entrance to the racecourse was closed, with no way through to the correct entrance just the other side of a traffic barrier. It was really a case of so near, yet so far! I then spent the next twenty minutes driving around the nearby industrial estate trying to find my way in…and all the time I could see the racecourse, and the stand where the show was held, but just couldn’t work out how to get there! Eventually ended up looping onto the end of a convoy of obvious wargamers following someone who did actually know the way in, but that’s still twenty minutes of my life I’m not getting back LOL.

My irritation immediately disappeared, however, when I remembered that there was no entrance fee this year, so one could just swan in and out as required. Jolly good show already!

Colours followed its usual format. The ground floor (the betting hall) was packed full of traders, and ws the usual scrum to get through. Slight need for more deodorant from some people as well, particularly in one corner away from the doors, but that could just be my still-unusual, post-COVID sense of smell kicking in. I bought some bases and tufts, but nothing major: just the things you get irritated having to pay postage and packing for.

I did fail to immediately buy a giant crab for £14 from Disain Studios only to find that they had sold out when I eventually decided that I had to have it, so I remain crab-less. I have no need of a giant crab, I hasten to add, nor any expectation of needing one anytime soon, but it was calling its siren song to me, so I will probably end up getting one at another show. Or I could go to their website to get the link for this post…no, must resist…at least until I see it in the flesh (the shell? the resin?) again!

I couldn’t find the crab on their website (am I destined never to get crabs?!) so here’s a shot of a large ancients game from the show

Next floor up was combination of demo games, trade stands and places to eat and drink. Catering was the usual snacks and sandwiches (can we go back to Ascot again please: the food there was lovely!) and this was the floor where the Lardies had set up shop with games of Chain of Command and Strength & Honour.

The CoC set up was part of the legendary TFL Arnhem triptych some of which I had seen at Operation Market Larden, and looked even better than before. Can’t wait to see all three in place in the near future.

Then onto the top floor: demo games and the Bring & Buy. This latter didn’t have anything I wanted, but at least had a sizeable frontage that meant not too much barging around to see what was what.

Roundway Down

Lovely For King & Parliament demo game was up here as well: featuring the Roundway Down scenario. Also good to finally meet Simon and Andrew face to face.

So that was Colours for another year. As I said, a good show, and loads of people to say hello to and chat to.

A Day at the Races: Warfare 2021

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This weekend just gone, I visited the Warfare show at its new if exceedingly temporary home at Ascot Racecourse (next year it will be somewhere in Farnborough - Ascot proving too expensive for a repeat).

Those of you who have been to Warfare in previous years will know of its historical presence at the Rivermead Leisure Centre in Reading: a place often characterised by terrible parking, worse catering, but two large halls (and a few smaller rooms) packed full of gaming goodness that made it an unmissable event.

So how was the Racecourse.

Pretty good actually, if you ask me.

There were a few problems: the parking, although free, was very badly signposted when I arrived around midday. Apparently the original car park had filled up more quickly than anticipated, and there wasn’t any decent signage for the overflow. But it was, when I eventually found it, plentiful and free, which is good.

As for the atmosphere, I thought it was excellent. The main body of the show was on the ground floor of the main grandstand: a space that seemed to stretch for miles and miles. Imagine Salute squeezed into a 10m wide corridor and you have an idea of what I mean. This gave the show an intimate, labyrinth like quality, where display games and trade stands seemingly appeared out of nowhere in a way that I can only describe as being akin to the back of Mr Ben’s favourite tailors! In a similar vein, and for our younger viewers, I half expected to step into Narnia at any moment!

It reminded me a bit of the town hall in Kensington that used to be the venue for Salute, but schroffed up and brand new. I liked it.

Amazing 54mm battle between the Romans and Carthaginians

The ancillary elements, the Bring & Buy, the competition games, were on the second and fourth floors: again, plenty of room and very pleasant surroundings. I don’t competition game any more (brings out the worst in me!) but I enjoy wandering around looking at all the armies on show, admiring the look and feel of the rule sets I like, scoffing at the ones I don’t! The venue made this easy to do and a most enjoyable trek.

So, all in all, an excellent show in an excellent venue. Even better, the catering was up to the standards you would expect from Ascot Racecourse, and not too pricey either. Three excellent coffees and a cake cost me only £11.50 (and the cake was delicious: fresh etc); my lunch was a burger that actually tasted of cow and not of a poor unfortunate who broke a leg at the last!

Well done to the Wargames Association of Reading, and I’m already looking forward to next year’s show.

Salute 2021

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Yesterday saw a return to the annual pilgrimage to the Salute show, one if not the largest wargaming show in the UK.

Previous years have been characterised by long queues to get in, dim lighting and, in the morning at least, an event so crowded that it was hard to even get to see a trade stand let alone buy anything.

Well this year it was very different. No queues at all by the time we arrived half an hour after the event opened at 10.30am, the same dim lighting, but a distinct absence of any crowds. The show was busy, but good busy: plenty of room to move around.

There was also less to see: there were several noticeable gaps where trade stands should have been, and as many empty demonstration tables where people hadn’t turned up to run their game. This was presumably all down to COVID, and is a real shame, particularly as the venue was operating a strict vaxed/lateral flow policy before you could come in.

The theme of this year’s show was the Battle of Britain, and one of the good things to see was the Hurricane and Spitfire aircraft on show…complete with pilots sitting in chairs drinking tea and flirting with WAAFs!

Nothing to do with the show, but quite amusing, was the fact that Excel was also hosting a Star Trek convention, meaning that the small number of military reenactors present was utterly dwarfed by the vast numbers of Trekkers in the venue dressed up in their uniforms…including daughter #2 who took full advantage of me going to Excel to tag along and take us to the Trek event as well.

And very expensive that proved too.

I don’t know how much Rifleman Harris charges for his autograph, but I suspect that it’s much less than I paid for daughter #2 to get a signed photo from two of the cast of Deep Space 9. It was certainly more than I spent on figures!

So a smaller, less busy Salute this year, which actually was no bad thing. Not many of the demo games warranted a mention, with the obvious exception of the O Group game featuring some wonderful terrain representing Stalingrad sloping down to the Volga. Looked fantastic and I would love to play IABSM on the set up!

Pictures from Virtual Lard 3

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What with COVID-19 putting paid to wargaming shows across the country, it’s good to see some remote events still taking place. One such that happened last weekend was Virtual Lard 3, and one game run there was an I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum scenario by Mike Whitaker.

The game was set in the Italian theatre. Here are some photos:

Good Time at Overlord

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I last went to Overlord, Abingdon Wargames Club's annual show, some years ago, and all I remember was how small the show was, with few trade stands, and quite frankly not much to do.

I remember it well, incidentally, because that was where I bought my Peter Pig solid resin French buildings for use in my May 1940 WW2 gaming…not that I would ever buy solid resin buildings again: they look great but where do you put the troops that are in them? This must have also been before the great mdf scenery explosion, as that’s what I would buy now!

Anyhow, a throw-away comment by a fellow-gamer reminded me that it was on yesterday and, as it happens, I was able to negotiate a trip, and very glad I was too.

Aside from meeting up with said fellow-gamer and friends, the show is now in Abingdon & Whitney College, which has ample carparking, nice toilets (unisex!), a reasonable snack bar, and much more room for trade stands and games.

One of the games that caught my eye is pictured above: a 28mm “China invades Australia” game using Empress Figures. Very nice indeed.

There were also about thirty trade stands there, so I was able to get what I went for (flowers to dress the element bases of my ECW armies) and have a browse to see if there was anything new to see.

Well, there was: Syborg 3D Printing, a new (to me!) company producing 3D printed model vehicles in 15mm, specialising in somewhat obscure types from WW2 to the present day.

What caught my eye was their WW2 fuel tankers: a GMC CCKW 353 Truck for the Americans, a Canadian Military Pattern - Tanker for the British, and (my favourite) a Zis 5 truck - Tanker for the Soviets.

They were all bought very quickly, and have leapfrogged to the front of the painting queue! I shall be keeping my eye open for more from them too.

So a good trip to Abingdon, and a date for my diary for next year too.

Back from Warfare

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Although I know that some people hate Warfare (Richard!) I actually rather like it.

Good shopping (even if it gets a bit crowded sometimes), some nice demonstration games, and a huge competition gaming area. Above all, it’s full of people actually playing wargames, and always inspires me to actually wargame myself as opposed to spending my time painting and reading about wargaming on the ‘net!

This year was no exception. I headed over on Saturday morning (so if you’re reading this today, you can still get there tomorrow as it’s a two-day show), and saw the following:

Nice to see Big Rich, John, Bevan, Neil and Carol…and I’ll be back tomorrow for more.

IABSM AAR: The 4th Panssari Goes to War!

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Dave Lister had a lot of fun running a scenario based on the Battle for Honkaniemi (Feb. 26, 1940) at Broadsword 9 last weekend,. Honkaniemi is known as the only, and therefore largest, tank battle of the Winter War!

As you may know, while the Soviets had thousands of tanks at their command, the Finns had very few indeed. They threw them into a desperate attack late in the war that they hoped would throw back the Soviet forces that were closing on Viipuri (only 15km away at this point in the conflict) and spearhead a larger Finnish offensive operation.

Well, it turned out to be a terrible day for the Finns, from losing more than half of their thirteen operational tanks to mechanical trouble, to friendly artillery falling on the heads of the supporting infantry, to a complete lack of reconnaissance that could have revealed the Soviets were planning their own attack operation at the very same place and the very same time!

While a conventional victory was probably out of the question, Dave and friends decided to judge the results of this scenario against what the plucky and hopeless Finnish tankers achieved historically. And for all that, the Finns did very well during the game! Have a look and see what you think by clicking on the picture below:

Peleliu at The Other Partisan

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The other game of I AIn’t Been Shot, Mum at The Other Partisan was another amphibious assault: Tim Whitworth and the Like a Stone Wall Group’s magnificent Pelelie scenario, set in the Pacific with US Marines assaulting a Japanese-held beach.

This game was, in fact, so good that it won the Best Demonstration Game award for the show. Click on the picture below to see loads of excellent pictures of the game: