Some light reading...

Not a review, as I only bought them today. Just a heads up that Tesco has a bunch of books at 2 for £7 which may be of interest (and actually works out just cheaper than Amazon if you like physical books). There's probably more of these worth a grab, and at least in Tesco you can flick through a book before buying...

Book three of the Tancred series by James Aitcheson, which I'm pretty sure I have the first two sitting in my unread pile.

(Yes. It's a bad sign when you can't remember what's in your unread pile!)



Another take on the origins of WW1, this time by the ubiquitous Max Hastings.

I'll be interested to compare it to the AJP Taylor "War By Timetable"...

And finally, book one of Conn Iggulden's War of the Roses series - I know some people are dubious about the quality of his research, but I do occasionally just enjoy a rattling good yarn, and they're great for working up campaign backstories when you're a drama-loving old hack like me :D

I already have this from Amazon.

"Carve Out A Kingdom" - recommended reading

For those interested in joining us for our Normans In Italy WAB campaign day in November, here's some light reading.

Grahame from our club happened on these in The Works for a fiver - they're of the historical fiction-based-on-fact genre, and are Jack Ludlow's Conquest trilogy. I'm about halfway through book one as part of my holiday reading (before I start my way through the Kindle books), and they're actually pretty good.

Enjoy :D

[PS: please excuse typos for a few - on wife's MacBook Air, and it's taking a while to get used to where the keys are!]

"Carve Out A Kingdom" - save the date!

Wearing my committee hat, I'm happy to announce that Peterborough Wargames Club will be running another WAB gaming day on Sunday November 24th 2013. 

This will be:

An introduction and army list details will appear on the club site in the next week or so. Rest assured that if your immediate reaction is 'but I don't have an army for that', this may not be the case. Grahame from our club has been working on the lists starting from Armies of Antiquity 2 as a basis, and the details will include a lot of suggestions for how you can pass off an army as one of the lists, especially if you have anything El Cid or Age of Arthur related. Also note that next year's WABGT's period is 600AD to 1249AD, so it's not unlikely you can put together an army for both.

We're aiming to live up to the standard of last year's successful Bretwalda gaming day, with a number of believable new scenarios, good looking terrain and a friendly, laid-back atmosphere where taking part and having fun are as important as winning.

Watch out on the club site for more details and a signup form, and I'll make sure it gets mentioned here and elsewhere.

Pondering pending projects - a priority problem

See, it's like this...

...and then I need to tidy this. Again.

No matter how hard I try and produce a list of things to do at the start of the year, it doesn't take me (any more than I suspect it does anyone else) long to get an attack of the 'oooh, shiny' and add things to it. Not helped by not always knowing at the start of the year what the theme might be for upcoming WAB tourneys etc.

So. With that in mind, how'm I doing?

From the list of things to paint:

• lots of 15mm WW2 US, German and British (in that order)
• lots of 18mm Napoleonics
• lots of terrain!
• A longboat

Hrn. Ok. So.

• Lots of US infantry done, lots of Shermans waiting on a can of US Olive Drab. Lots of Germans bought, so I'll probably make a start on those soon.
• 18mm Napoleonics... *whistles*. Be right back to you on that.
• Terrain. Well, I made two more woods last week, and Tim is really honestly going to get me the hardboard I asked for Real Soon Now.... I also have the bits for some 15mm bocage.
• The longboat is waiting on a piece for the masthead, which I'm going to knock up in work's new 3D printer :D

On top of that:

• Built an entire Parthian army for the WAB GT. This will also double as Palmyran for Rushden's Axes 2013 tournament, though I may add some Middle Imperial Roman allies - I've already picked up a very nice figure for Queen Zenobia.
• Added to my Christian Spanish/Norman/Crusades army for WABGT 2013 (and also possibly at least one other event this year). I have half a box of Conquest Norman foot to paint to add to that, as it's somewhat infantry-light for the Crusades, and I would like to add a box of the lovely Fireforge Templars. Also Foundry's current eBay sale is tempting me greatly to add some more foot, both spearmen and archers.
• Painted a bunch of Judges for the club campaign
• I need another section of Germans to play Chain of Command. (Sorry, Op: Squad. It's not you, it's ... actually, it's you :D)
• I need to make some time to go through everything I have, fix broken spears etc, clean up bases, figure out better storage (our butcher just delivered me a huge pile of stout cardboard boxes that are roughly 10" x 18" by 2" deep....)

Still...

...I won't be bored. I want to try and get into a regular habit of painting, even if it's only an hour a day while James is doing his homework. I can manage it for blogging, so...

Conquest Games Normans

Just delivered to my desk by Krystoph at work - and there goes my free time between now and the end of September.

There's a bunch of Gripping Beast unarmoured archers[*] and another box of the Conquest knights and a dozen of their crossbowmen sitting at home: these are for my El Cid army for Tom/Scriv's day at Maelstrom in October.

The plan is (for the most part) Army Painter platemail spray (for the armoured figures), block out the non-armour bits, dip or ink wash, maybe brave a highlight in the original colour, and varnish.

[*] For those wondering why I bought the GB ones rather than the Conquest ones, they come in multiples of four, I need 8, and I was very tight on funds for August :D

Battle

No, not the book by Kenneth Macksey. Or the one by Charles Grant.

The town.

The Abbey from the front.

After our trip around France (of which more later) we spent a couple of days in Rye, during which time we took a trip to Battle Abbey.

The stone commemorating the location of the
high altar, and thus the place where Harold is
believed to have fallen.

Again, I guess, if you're at all interested in military history, you've probably visited it. This was our first time, mind - despite being English Heritage members for the last two decades. I went wearing my "Guillaume Le Conquerant" t-shirt from Bayeux, which greatly amused the two younger chaps behind the counter, I have to say. I did resist quoting any Stanley Holloway at them - "Tha'd best get tha throne reup'olstered. I'll be wantin' t'use it next week."

There's a nice display including a short film, which does include some sample armour and weapons - dear Lord, but that shield was heavy. The major part of the visit, though, has to be a walk around the battlefield. From which you carry away, or at least I did, one overriding impression, namely, "by gum, I wouldn't fancy that slope in full armour!"

Admittedly, the slope has been landscaped since, and
this isn't the best shot, but you can see, I think, how far
above the camera the abbey now stands.

The Bayeux Tapestry

Just as an aside, these brief holiday postcards, for want of a better phrase, aren't in order of visit - we did Bayeux on the way across from Brittany to the Somme area - but in some vague thematic/related order of history.

So - Bayeux, then. Home of one of the most famous bits of embroidery in the world. Anne and I have been before, but it was mumble decades ago, and I don't remember much - I certainly am pretty sure the building it's stored in has been improved considerably since we saw it.

What can be said about it that hasn't been before? It's a stunning, quite stunning piece of work. The audio tour is new (to us), coming in both adult and kids versions (which James appreciated). Surprisingly, though, it translates very little of the Latin: fortunately my grade A O-level meant I was (still) more than equal to the task of most of it!

Beyond the tapestry there's a museum/display area with some fantastic models, including a cathedral being built which I'm sure was a bit of a reference to Pillars of the Earth. The other thing in there I did grab a picture of, was a text description of the dyes used and a few samples. Again, if you're a Dark Ages/Early Mediaeval gamer, this is useful!

I also left the shop with a 'Guillaume Le Conquerant' t-shirt with a portion of the tapestry art on it... of which more later.