I have needed a change for some time now as motivation has really dipped recently. The wargame room is sorted and cleared out, table is back up and edged and storage/shelving sorted as I have a fair bit of BA related stuff up there now.
A bit of Summer would be nice, the constant wind and rain has got me down. Yesterday lunchtime after taking the car for it's MOT and passing, I had to drive into Folkestone to unblock my debit card following a telephone security check, and I was not a happy man by the time I went through the seemingly endless procedure to get it sorted out, it poured with rain and I was of course wearing just a t shirt so got soaked. I made my feelings known in the branch then drove home. By the time |I got home I really fancied a pint as I was gasping, the sun came out so off we popped across the road to The City of London. We sat outside, it clouded over again and down came a heavy hailstorm shower that went on for ages. A couple of pints of IPA later though inside the pub in pleasant company restored my mood and it finally cleared up revealing a blue sky. It really has been a rubbish summer down here so far, but today the sun is shining.
I will get back to finishing off the last few 'Last Levy' figures today, I notice one of the figures is firing what looks like a rifle fitted with an attachment to allow it to fire round corners, I thought it was flash at first! A bit of research revealed BA rules for this weapon, a Krummlauf assault rifle, more on this in due course but you can see the figure in the Warlord box set image below at top right.How useful is that!
good luck with it, what a bizarre rifle that is I will look forward to hearing more.
ReplyDeleteThanks John. The video link posted by CK below is well worth a watch as it shows an actual example of the device and how it fits to the rifle. The optics system is very clever!
DeleteGlad to hear the juices are flowing again. Have a look at this it might interest you Lee .
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSsFiS2Voxg
Thank you very much for that link CK, I had never seen one before and the guy explains things well.
DeleteA pub across the road - almost makes up for the rotten summer surely?
ReplyDeleteNot sure about that Ian, but at least it's stopped raining for a couple of days!
DeleteAnd here I am in Northern California, complaining that it doesn't rain enough! (I don't miss British "Summers" one bit though...)
ReplyDeleteHello Dai, you know us Brits, we just love complaining about the weather, but it really has been a washout of a summer so far here. I think I would enjoy your climate :)
DeleteHi Lee - all the best with the new period - sounds good. The last days of the Volksturm in Germany always seem very sad to me - I realise that the entirety of WW2 was hardly a good laugh, but that last fizzling period when the Germans called up all the kids and the old men, and the soldiers of both sides who were killed long after it was going to change anything - all especially poignant.
ReplyDeleteMy education continues, I have read with growing irritation over recent years about the need to sacrifice everything we have to protect the City of London against the pesky foreigners, and now I realise that it is a pub! Well, that's all right then - if I'd only understood that earlier I'd have held a completely different view. Thanks for this.
Hello Tony, good to hear from you. I agree totally re the desperate last few days in Berlin, one image that haunts me is that of Hitler with his hand on the face of the very young lad in uniform before he went back down in the bunker for the last time, you wonder if the boy survived. All very shocking and the estimated 2 million German women raped by Russian solders is heartbreaking.
DeleteMy approach to Bolt Action from the start has been to focus on the fun side of these rules otherwise I could not play the period. The FUBAR rule for example is often a source of much laughter when you have to fire upon your own soldiers, and when this happens two or three times in a six move game you have to see the funny side of it! Those who push for more realism in the BA rules are surely missing the point. If you look at the style and character across the Warlord BA range you get the impression that they are caricatures, often with slightly 'smiley' faces and I like that. THe Last Levy box set did trouble me when I first got it and I left all of the youthful figures in the spares box for months, but in the context of the game it's a challenging and interesting list to play, small inexperienced squads bristling with panzerfaust that can tear though enemy armour if you can get close enough (12"). I don't think they win too many games though.
The 'City' is a nice traditional pub and being just 27 miles from the French Coast that can be seen on a clear day, is much closer to France than that horrible place that shares it's name. It's actually named after a ship that wrecked off the Dymchurch coast with much loss of life. Talking of 'pesky foreigners' more small boats are being found down here, I saw one myself tied up at low tide and CCTV revealed two vans pulling up in the early hours and spiriting away dozens of illegal immigrants, it seems the sacrifice of a twin outboard inflatable is still financially viable for those who do this.... sorry for my ramblings!
There is something delightfully sybaritic about sloping off to the pub at lunch time.. if you fancy something a bit different but still BA, have you considered the North Africa Campaign(s)?? I'd love to see what you do with that sand/dust colour palate... just a thought, was watching "Sahara" with Bogart yesterday..! :o)
ReplyDeleteHi Steve, I do have that campaign in my mind for the future. For the time being I fancy painting some more colourful uniforms!
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