Lockdown Catch Up - 1

It's been a few weeks since I last posted, so thought I should catch up on what's been going on.

I'm fortunate enough to be able to work from home during all of this.  It's weird trying to do my work and manage the team remotely, and I do miss my most excellent colleagues, but it's a far better position to be in than many have.  Of course lockdown also means having the little miniature at home as well (she was just getting to the end of her Reception year, how time flies!).  In that respect I'm also fortunate that my other half is not currently working, having left the primary teaching profession about 18 months ago! So she's (mostly) enjoying the challenge of picking up the home schooling, which leaves me able to work.  Nonetheless, I'm not finding that I have any more time for hobbies, if anything I have less.  Previously I might use a lunchtime at work to prepare for or write up a game, read a book on the bus to work or, when working from home around one day a week, sneak in a quick half hour of painting at lunch.  Now any spare time is used preparing meals, or just to give Mel a break from the Miniature!

That said, I've still been sneaking in a bit of progress here and there!

1. Found a Lockdown Opponent!

The Little Miniature (not so little any more) kept asking about the 'knights and ghosts' that Daddy was painting (those GW Sigmarines and Chainrasps) and asked what the board that came with them was for.  The explanation led to a request to have a game, so off we duly went!

She took the 'knights'.  We managed a whole game before she got bored and just wanted to play, but she did enjoy it, probably because she won ;-)

It did remind me of some of the reasons I drifted away from Warhammer following the great fluff mess up though.  I accept that this is a simplified version of a simplified game, but in terms of actual tactics there weren't any.  It's pretty much down to luck of the dice.

She's asked me to paint a mounted knight for her and I have plans for a jousting game.  Which brings me on to...

2. Youtube

I've been watching a lot of videos on Youtube recently, particularly whilst cooking tea (anyone remember the mother's cooking in the old BBC sitcom 'Butterflies'?  Mel's is like that, only with more lentils... so cooking is mostly my thing).  Particular favourites have included:

Modern History TV  Presented by Jason Kingsley (and his wonderful horses), co-founder of Rebel Software and jouster (I've seen him joust at Bolsover and Leeds).  I'm no longer allowed to watch these without the Miniature present, as she enjoys them too!  He's got a knack of being just as interesting about jousting techniques as he is about ink from the Middle Ages, and the ones on food are fascinating.

Todd's Workshop makes historical weapons and move props.  The videos testing bows and crossbows are excellent, and he also explains in a really nice, genuine way why movie swords and props aren't always historically accurate.

The Chieftain's Hatch Get's up close with all kinds of tanks.  A former tanker on Abrams, so he knows his stuff.  Plus his collaboration with LindyBeige on the Churchill is hilariously fun and informative.

Plus anything from the Tank Museum at Bovington (not a million miles from where I grew up.  Boy has that museum got its Social Media Strategy sorted!

And while we're on the subject of tanks...

3. Reading!

Yes, I actually managed to read a book!  'Tank Action' by David Render.  He was a Troop commander with the Sherwood Foresters (the same unit as Stuart Hills, who wrote the excellent 'By Tank into Normandy').  As well as being an excellent, and often moving, account of his time as a commander, it's also fertile ground for wargamers, with some great descriptions of Troop level actions (along with some nice, clear diagrams).  Food for thought as well about how well our rules represent reality - his experience of working with infantry is often not good, but our troops are usually perfectly co-ordinated.  Plus how many rule sets could cope with recreating his commander's successful(!) one-on-one, head-on duel with a Tiger, in a 75mm equipped Sherman! It was interesting to note that they preferred to use HE against Tigers rather than the armour piercing rounds, to smash as much equipment on them as they could and effectively beat them into submission!

The only thing that bugged me was frequent descriptions of panzers being grey, whereas I'd always thought in Normandy they would be in that Dunkelgelb base.  Whether this reflects the impression they left, what they actually looked like after weeks of dust and dirt collecting, or just an overzealous editor who'd watched 'Battle of the Bulge' too often I'm not sure!

Whilst still on tanks...

4. Tiny Tanks!

I hoisted some GHQ Churchills out of storage as something to work on whilst waiting for my work laptop to restart after crashing (an alarmingly frequent occurrence for what felt a very long week), as I could work on them in a very small space with only a couple of paints, and they didn't take long for each one.

I've now found the Cromwells, Jagpanthers and infantry I had lying around too.  Post Market Garden game anyone?

Next Time...

Orcs and Fantasy Warriors!

Five Men in Normandy Available

I'll admit to being a bit of a fan of Ivan Sorenson's rules.  Fast and Dirty has become my go to set for platoon level SF and WWII games for a while (on the rare occasions I get to play a game).  So I was intrigued when he released a set of small scale rules for WWII skirmishes, 'Five Men in Normandy'.

Whereas FAD was free (and remains so), 5MIN has instead been released for download at a small cost through Wargames Vault. http://www.wargamevault.com/product/131040/Five-Men-in-Normandy

I downloaded the rules earlier in the week and had a good read through.  The base mechanics look commendably simple, with a lot of the (still short) rules given over to fleshing out the character of a squad and a campaign system.  There's also some basic rules to cover solo gaming, which is nice for someone like me.

First impressions, therefore, are good.  This looks like a set of rules that does that rare thing: (a) makes me want to immediately try them out, and; (b) look straightforward enough to do so with minimal fuss.

So, on to my first AAR...

Xmas X-Wings and Gaming Gifts

A bit late, perhaps, but I'm going to cast my mind back to the heady days of 2012 and reflect on what the Christmas period brought along to join the Slippery Slope.

It would be fair to say that whilst I didn't quite have the Christmas I'd planned, it was still a pretty good one, and surprisingly productive from a gaming and modelling point of view.  The original plan was that Mel and I would spend Christmas with my folks down in Dorset (South West England to those not so familiar with the UK).  However heavy rain and flooding across the country soon put paid to those plans, as we watched the updates of cancelled and delayed trains mount up online (you know those people you see on news reports being passed hot cups of tea by well meaning volunteers whilst having to spend the night stranded in some community centre somewhere?  Well, I didn't want that to be us!).  At one point it looked like we'd be spending Christmas on our own, until Mel's sister took pity on us and made room for us to join them and the rest of Mel's family just down the road.

Well fed and rested, and with the flood waters receding, we finally headed south.  I think I've mentioned before that much of my interest in modelling came from my Dad who, in a burst of nostalgia, presented me a with a rather lovely little pre-painted kit of an X-wing to assemble, bless him!

The same thinking seemed to have somehow infected my sister, who provided more modelling material in the form of some Plastic Soldier Company Panzer IVs (I know what one of my next projects is going to be!)

As if that weren't impressive enough, we even managed a bit of gaming (sort of...).  At this point it's important to note that my Mum is a fanatical watcher of TV soaps (even over Christmas) which the rest of us find pretty tedious, so we planned ahead with some games to distract the rest of us.  On a whim, I'd picked up 'Zombies!!!' already, and Mel retaliated with Lego Creationary (think Pictionary, but with Lego).  Lego won the toss and much hilarity and confusion ensued as we all tried to guess at the increasingly disastrous (and possibly alcohol fuelled) attempts to build something even vaguely recognisable.

Mr 'Dad' demonstrates traditional west country 

ceremonial costume, complete with flashing ball

Much fun was had, brussel sprouts were consumed, and wine flowed.  But all good things come to an end, and we slogged back to Derbyshire with the intention of having a nice quiet New Years in, just the two of us.

Yep, you guessed it, that didn't quite go to plan either...

A bit of a family crisis instead saw us hosting Mel's sister and our two little nieces (it seemed only fair, as they'd taken pity on us the week before).  This is where 'Zombies!!!' comes in again.  In a surprise twist, the elder of the two, Isobel (10), turned out not only to be quite comfortable with the idea of the undead roaming the streets, she also turned out to be a proficient and distinctly devious board game player, who proceeded to win time and again against the (so-called) grown-ups!

Things look 'dicey' for Mel's survivor

For anyone after a simple, 'beer and pretzels' type game I can recommend 'Zombies!!!', it even got Mel quite hooked, and she's not normally much into games.  The rules take a couple of run throughs to get used to, but once you have they're pretty simple and don't get in the way of the fun.  The objective is simply to be first to the helipad to escape, with each player taking it in turns to move and fight with their character and then move a random number of zombies (the game comes with about 100 zombies of two types).  Straightforward enough in concept but the random map (each player draws a new map tile each turn until the helipad one turns up) keeps things fresh for each game, while the event and item cards positively encourage back-stabbing and underhand tactics throughout.

Never trust a 10 year old with a chainsaw and hand grenades, that's all I'm saying...

By Tank Into Normandy - Book Review

At the start of the new year I read an excellent book; 'By Tank Into Normandy' by Stuart Hills.  Hills was a Tank Commander in the Nottingham Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry (practically a local regiment to wear I live), fighting from D-Day through to the end of the war.  The Sherwood Rangers were an independent tank regiment, attached wherever needed, so saw action throughout the war and with a number of other units, including the US 82nd Airborne as part of Market Garden, as well as numerous British and Commonwealth units.

It's not a long book by any means, but as a first hand account makes for a fascinating read.  It's not a book that delves into grand strategy or large-scale actions, but does give an excellent account of small-unit actions at company and platoon level, and the effect of combat on those who took part.

The bravery of the young men who time and again got into tanks knowing what could happen to them, and the randomness of the losses is very affecting, but particular mention must be made of the unit's padre, and amazing man who took it upon himself to personally recover every lost tanker and see to their burial, because he didn't think the crews should have to see what could happen to them and then have to get back into a tank and face combat again.

From a wargaming perspective it certainly brings a new perspective.  The actions described are often of a scale that would make for interesting scenarios, and are often accompanied by sketch maps of the action.  It also contradicts some things that many games and rules seem to encourage.

One thing that comes across strongly, in contrast to what most of our games would suggest, is how rare tank on tank combat was.  It's some time after D-Day before he first recounts a meeting with another tank; most of the combat the regiment see is supporting infantry units and, rather than their big fear being Tigers and Panthers, it's threat of an infantryman in a hedgerow with a Panzerfaust that pre-occupies the tank crews.

The other is the frequency with which the tanks would plaster the landscape with HE 'just in case'.  On the table we have a 'god-like' view, and many rules encourage this by having all fire as direct fire.  It's interesting that Kampfgruppe Normandy splits suppressive fire and Direct Fire, which requires a spotting test first.

All in all, a good read and recommended.  The only drawback is that at full RRP (£8.99) it's pretty pricey for what you get.  Not quality, just length.  However I picked mine up for much less in a small bookshop, and there are plenty of cheaper options on Amazon.