Inspiring Picture 28: Never tell me the Odds.

Gamers will get this a bit quicker than some but only because of bad memories.............

....but on a more serious note to the financial well being of the wargaming industry, I got a phone call from Postie (El Presidente and Dictator for life of the Rejects) last Saturday night about did I want to go to the Skirmish 2011 show that Sunday morning (well it was either me or his missus), it's a small  little show in Sidcup, Kent (picked up a few items including a great book to help with Operation Sealion project) but the real news was Postie left with nothing (he usually brings fellow Rejects only for carrying purposes).

Picture and proof below and contractual shot I forgot from the game...

EMPTY HANDED.......

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 51: I Went Down 1997 (4 STARS).

Fresh out of prison, Git rescues a former best friend (now living with Git's girlfriend) from a beating at the hands of loan sharks. He's now in trouble with the mob boss, Tom French, who sends Git to Cork with another debtor, Bunny Kelly, to find a guy named Frank Grogan, and take him to a man with a friendly face at a shack across a bog. It's a tougher assignment than it seems: Git's a novice, Bunny's prone to rash acts, Frank doesn't want to be found (and once he's found, he has no money), and maybe Tom's planning to murder Frank, which puts Git in a moral dilemma. Then, there's the long-ago disappearance of Sonny Mulligan. What's a decent and stand-up lad to do?

This is an Irish gem from 1997 that is one of the best low budget movies I've ever seen come out of Ireland, great characters, brilliant dialogue, good action, bad language and a little love and what I always want a damn good ending, go find it and have a laugh and you'll soon be saying "No guts, no black pudding".

Painted Games Workshop Ogres and some of my favourite figures ever.......

....and also show Posties Rejects in plastic painted form on tour (I'm the good looking one on the right and Ray is the ugly git with the closed helmet!)

These are some of my favourite figures ever made and come from the monster that is Games Workshop who do good stuff if a little expensive but quality costs. I like fantasy and sword and shield epics and these were for a project that still sits on the back burner but there are also painted GW chaos infantry, Wargames Foundry orcs and even skeletons sitting in boxes but some day they will surface for a game.

There's not a lot of love for fantasy gaming among the Rejects but Ray actually putting a game on is also fantasy so I don't see a problem, sometimes it's the figures that inspire the period you play.

WW2 French troops in Britain during Operation Sealion?

Dunkirk June 1940 brought over to Britain approx 139,000 French troops along with approx 200,000 British troops during the evacuation and they were then placed in camps in South West England and were eventually and quickly repatriated and ferried to the ports of Brest, Cherbourg and other ports in Normandy and Brittany before the Armistice but could some French infantry units have stayed in Britain and had gotten involved in Operation Sealion fighting?

Well I've decided with my What If? scenario that they could have (De Gaulle maybe needed protecting?) and have started to build up a small French infantry platoon plus staff officers from Blitz Miniatures (very nice figures, good selection and very little flash), I believe they would have light weapons but nothing heavy as it would have been left behind at Dunkirk and any vehicles required would come from the British.

Painted this section up using the guide at Crusader Miniatures.

The Battle of Hamath 933BC: 15mm Egyptians vs Hittites.

This fictitious battle is fought south of Tunip which in 933BC (new chronology) was besieged by Ramesses II. The Hittites have gathered various loyal supporters to their cause which has swelled the size of the army immensely so the Hittite king has decided to confront the Egyptian army well away from the walls of Tunip and so has marched south to engage the Egyptians.
Spies from both armies have been busy so both sides know the others whereabouts, the armies have started to deploy on the plains of Hamath just west of the town of Hamath, the terrain is ideal chariot terrain with both commanders confident of victory. (Words supplied by Postie)

We gathered last Sunday for this 15mm game put on by Postie with Dave, John, Smithy and Surjit playing the Hittites and myself, BigLee and Richard playing the Egyptians, we all had a division each with the Hittites having more troops and better chariots but the Egyptians have better quality troops especially in archers. We were fine tuning Posties rules "Let the Gods decide" but they needed very little done to them and it was a good days gaming with a fine win for the Egyptians, good game, good food and good company.

Some eye candy and brief descriptions of the action.

Part of the initial Egyptian deployment.

The Hittite King forces, poor old John had to actually pay for the loyalty of his generals with several dice rolls which luckily went his way ( he took the money back though).

The town of Hamath which if you entered you had to roll a dice to see if your troops started looting and for how long!

Hittite troops stream forward.

Egyptian chariots, fast but vulnerable in melee.

Egyptian archers, good missile troops and decent infantry.

Egyptian axeman, big choppers.

You had to roll for your generals ability, I hate dice rolls like this.

Lunchtime oven chips, how he spoils us.

Richards forces defending the right flank.

Unit of Hittite spearmen, good solid troops.

The Hittite heavy chariots, ancient panzers if you let them get into melee.

Egyptians light chariots with attached runners.

Hamath where Smithy is busily looting, he was a little pissed at this.

The clash in the centre which went well for us with the help of terrible Hittite dice.

Reinforcements just in the right place at the right time.

Hittite bodyguard heavy chariots, tiger tanks of the ancient world.

The battle ended before this clash.

This didn't go well for the Egyptians and was one of the last melees before time caught up with us.

Good game with the egyptians strong in archery and the Hittites strong in infantry and heavy chariots, we destroyed a lot of Hittite light units and chariotry  but we were close ourselves to losing a lot of units and with a few more turns things may have gone the other way, playing the game again we would have deployed differently especially as we know the rules a bit better now but a good set of rules and a well balanced game.

A Year Older........

......but only physically not mentally. I work to the premise that you add the two digits of your birthday together which in my case is 43 today in "human" years but only 14 in mental years (4+3x2= 14) which is true of all men and you'll never be older than 36 my brothers.

Got a nice haul of good stuff from friends and family (but nothing from Ray again) and a few bucks to spend on a few other things, it's nice to get what we as men and modellers want and not socks and hankies as last year I got a clothes brush and scarf among some other dodgy items (can I get an amen brothers and sisters).

Still waiting on something from The One and back to work on Monday.

"Goodies" even if they're only to replace what I dropped but greatly appreciated.

The former other half after she received surgery on some polyps inside her mouth, needing stitches and having her mouth held open by a nurse for 15 minutes. So we've been out this week a few times and when people look at her in a little shock she then mouths "him" and points at me, bloody women I've had a lot of dirty looks this week. 

Had a great Egyptian vs Hittites game at the weekend with the Rejects and will post a lot more pictures next week.

Have yourself a good weekend people.

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 50: Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2011 (4 STARS).

Area managers are killing me, demanding tea and biscuits and eating into my blogging time, on annual leave next week again (just taking my birthday off and using up the annual leave as I'm not going anywhere), got a game on Sunday (Egyptians vs Hittites) and you lot have yourselves a good weekend if you can.

During experiments to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, a genetically enhanced chimpanzee is smuggled out of the experiment and later on uses it's greater intelligence to lead other apes to freedom.

Wasn't too keen to see this to be honest but was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it, the CGI is very acceptable (Caesar and the other apes), good action, good story and a damn good ending.

Got the usual cliches with the mean monkey keeper at the sanctuary after Caesar attacks someone (this is where the story is at it's best), the greedy corporate suit whose push to use the new drug will seal his and humanity's fate. The main story is the Alzheimer's drug that fails at first but is secretly tested on a human by James Franco (tested on his dad because he has the disease) who smuggled Caesar out when he was a baby but things go wrong and he tries to stop any future reckless testing of a newer drug on apes.

I don't want to give away too much but it's definitely worth a watch and the sight of a silverback gorilla having issues with a helicopter pilot and crew (who have fired their guns at him) by entering said helicopter in flight and making his feelings very clear, there might be a sequel but an end scene makes it clear where the other movies came from and possibly how they came about.

Empire review here

20mm WW2 Painted German Opel Blitz.....

....by 4 from Britannia Miniatures and now available from Grubby Tanks, not the greatest sculpt or paint job but will do the job during the invasion.

Essex Warriors Open Day 25th September.

Had some good dealings with Peter Grimwood from the Essex Warriors a while back and received a flyer for their open day Sunday the 25th of September from 10am to 4pm so I thought I'd mention it if you happen to be in the area, there's Participation games, Bring and Buy and Traders.

Writtle Village Hall
Writtle
(Near Chelmsford)

The website is www.essexwarriors.org and the telephone number is 01245 265274, might end up going myself.

Always loved this quote.......

"Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead"

Benjamin Franklin.

20mm WW2 German Painted Fallschirmjager Casualties......

.......mortars and drop canisters.

The last of my Fallschirmjager until I paint 2 Frontline wargaming gliders (not a priority at the moment), I love casualty figures even though there no real use in the game other than eye candy, they cost the same as fighting poses but I think you need them if they make them, AB figures again and they're best set also the 8cm mortars and the drop canisters are from SHQ.

Pictures are the usual quality.