Operation Warboard - a review

Special effects, pre-CGI...

Operation Warboard could be described as "just another one of those how-to" books that wargaming seemed to breed during the 1960's and 70's. Written by Gavin Lyall (who also wrote a series of thrillers, a few of which were adapted for television by the BBC), Op W is a beginners guide to wargaming World War 2 in the 20-25 mm range of miniature figures popular at the time. However, to describe it a "just another" book of the genre would be to do it a great dis-service.

Much like Charles Grant and Battle (which I covered here), Op W is very much a relaxed, introduction to a specific period of the hobby, narrow in view but superlatively detailed in what wargaming should really be about. From the beginning, the tone is friendly and plain speaking, no condescension here. It very much has the spirit of "give it a go", "use what you can" and "you don't have to spend a fortune". It comments that money can be spent hand over fist with regards to the hobby but that should not get in the way of playing the actual game in as realistic manner permissible within the boundaries of enjoyment. 

Does what it says on the "tin" as it were.

And this is the thing. Op W states time and time again that enjoyment of your (my italics) hobby is paramount. You have the interest in the period so you get to choose what path you follow. Op W is just a handy guide. Alongside that, the book also adds that if you want to change something or add to the admittedly basic rule set contained within, then have at it Bonny Lad (I added that bit myself). Work out your own values for additional vehicles, weapons etc and give them a go. If they don't work, change them again. If there isn't a model available of a vehicle you want to put on the table, why not try scratch building (and he includes an example too - though if you look at today's market, say the 15mm Command Decision range from Old Glory, it's going to be pretty hard to pick a vehicle they don't have!). It doesn't matter if it's not 100% accurate, as long as it proves a decent representation and can be used for effect within the game.

Given that, though, it is in no way completely about the game, as historical accuracy and realism are well catered for. The rules themselves are very straight forward and I am going to suggest to the TWATS that we give them a go at a future Saturday meeting. They remind me a bit of Team Yankee in that the basic set up is quite simple and to be honest, I think Lyall's are better, being more clearly laid out and quicker to understand - and yes, this is despite the picture heavy TY rules which are effectively a catalogue for the accompanying models - this is very much a case of Games Workshop - create rules to sell plastic!. 

It may seem like I am using TY as a ball here, giving it a kicking but think about how times have changed since Op W was first published. The modern day games designer is practically packaged with a manufacturer in tow. Indeed, it's usually the same company, and they control everything about the game/rules/miniatures. I have heard that at some games, if you are playing TY, you can only use TY models. If we TWATS took that point of view, we'd never play a bloody game at all. Rules are a tool to represent the period and models are there to represent the participants. Or do I have that wrong? Yes, I'll be using TY for the demo game at this year's Durham show but with my own take on things and amendments where I consider appropriate and no-one can tell me otherwise. If it works, all well and good. If it doesn't, I am sure the feedback in the pub afterwards will be suitably brutal!

That is the joy of wargaimg, you make of it what you will for your own enjoyment, not what any corporate suit (and trust me, look past the branded t-shirts and smiling faces and pretty much every larger scale company with their own rules and miniatures is a corporate entity looking for your cash!) tells you to do. As Aussie Bill Wallace once said, "FREEDOM!!!".

In the end, there is a place in the world for books like Lyall's and it would be a shame if many of today's wargamers (and not just those interested in WW2) didn't get to read something like this to give them another view of the hobby and maybe to educate them about freedom of thought and not just accepting what they are given. This post has turned into a bit of a tub-thumper when it was never meant to but I believe this is a message that needs to be repeated. That and Operation Warboard is a good read!

March Musings

So here we are, the last day of March and with the UK Tax Year End fast approaching (which is always a joy, professionally speaking...), I thought it timely to add an update before life really gets busy.

First up, this month saw me return to Attention Please, a radio show hosted by my friend Eddie Carter on NE1FM. This time, however, was a little different as apart from one song, I chose the whole  two hour playlist. Yep, it was a random collection indeed but I had a great time and it was a laugh. So much so, I will be appearing again (but maybe only picking a single track this time) on Monday April 16th, work depending. There was some good live feedback during the show and Eddie has placed a recording of it on Mixcloud here if you fancy a listen.

I also managed a cinema trip this month, this one to see the new Tomb Raider film. Now games to film adaptations have  a rocky history and this one kind of has the same problem but in reverse to the usual complaint - it's not that it doesn't follow the style of the games, it is that it follows it too closely, more specifically, it follows the story of the 2013 re-boot of the game series, Tomb Raider. Now this may not entirely be a bad thing, that title was a tremendous re-introduction to the character of Lara Croft but as some Youtube channels have pointed out, some scenes from the film are nearly shot to shot identical to the game. The film does have a couple of other problems, namely pacing that is a little too quick but I can see why they have done that and a villain who doesn't really come off as threatening. The acting is decent to good, Alicia Vikander is a suitable Lara and Dominic West is always good value, and the action is...actiony (!) enough. On the whole though, this is a good game to film adaptation and a decent action film in its own right. True, it's not high art, but an enjoyable passing of a couple of hours and I hope it performs well enough for a follow up as there are some decent threads left dangling.

The one piece of saddening news this month was the recent closure of Grainger Games. Not overly well known outside of the north of England, Grainger Games was a 67 store strong chain of video game (and geeky merchandise) shops. Founded in the Newcastle's Grainger Market way back when, it had, until about a year ago, provided a nice alternative to GAME on the UK high street for video games, always being a couple of pounds cheaper on most releases. That, however, stopped when their pricing matched GAME's and they introduced merchandise to the stores (in some instances, nearly half the store was given to non-video game stock). These were the first signs they were not making enough off games alone and as it turned out, a slippery slope to closure. This now means that there is only one large scale high street retailer for video games, in the same way there is only one national high street retailer for books (Waterstones) and one for films and music (HMV). It does make you wonder what specialist stores will be left within a few years...

Anyhoo, I have a meeting of the TWATS to get to and hopefully not make a complete hash of it this time...

The Explorers Guild Volume One - A Book Review

Whilst checking out the local branch of Travelling Man a couple of weeks ago, I found book that interested me. The tale is about an organisation, The Explorers Guild and the search for the mythical city of Shambhala. Its approach is a tad different from most novels, mixing prose and comic book presentation, but it does work, mostly.

Written by John Baird, Kevin Costner (yes, that Kevin Costner), Stephen Meyer and illustrated by Rick Ross, the novel covers the years 1912 to 1918 and is written in the style of factual tomes of the 1920's and 30's, with a hint of Victoriana thrown in for good measure. By the way, don't think that because volume one is mentioned in the title, there is no volume two. At least, there is no sign of it yet.

So, beginning in 1912 and running several story strands concurrently, TEG weaves a complex tale with quite a few characters introduced at the beginning and more added later on. The language is quite flowery, even for the period it is supposed to ape and I did have difficulty in the switching from text to art. To be fair, most of that was down to me, but I would say that, whilst I did get used to the switches, they still jarred even towards the end. Oh, and when I say flowery, I mean downright purple. I get it that real books written around that period could, and often did have such style, but I think they overdo it here just a tad.

Mixing in a forgotten city, a loose cannon of a British Army Major and a gallivanting actress, plus a religious order and the aforementioned Guild, TEG reads like it should be adapted for the small screen. Maybe, given the background of the creators, their was an eye to that end. Who knows. It certainly ticks the boxes for serial production; foreign locations, duplicitous characters and a scope of story that takes all of its 763 pages to get through. The pace does sag in the middle third but the final two hundred pages pass by in a flash.

The artwork for the illustrated sections is clean, well drawn and easily readable. There are colour illustrations at the beginning of each "book" of the story and the format mimics the style of tomes for the period it covers.

This did take some time to get through, partly due to the high pages count, partly due to the nature of the text. However, I did enjoy it and if there were ever to be a volume two, I would pick it up.

Wing Commander - A Film Retrospective

Ah, Wing Commander. For those of you who were PC gamers in the early to mid-90's, Wing Commander may evoke deep feelings of nostalgia for space combat games, complex story telling and full motion video acting. Whilst the first and second games used traditional animation to convey the story, games 3 and 4 brought in real, honest-to-goodness actors, notably Mark Hamill, John Rhys Davies and Malcolm McDowall. That and the increase in quality of 3D animation meant that the fourth game had a budget of $12 million, most of it for the cutscenes shot using both traditional and virtual sets using greenscreens. The was serious money for a computer game back then!

The success of the series, and the fact that by the late 90's, several of the titles had been ported to home consoles and there were spin off computer games, meant that there was much thought given about a jump to the cinema screen. When Chris Roberts, creator, director and producer of the games series decided he wanted his games production company Digital Anvil to move into film production, Wing Commander had its big screen debut.

Got to love the marketing blurb!

And remember, this is a family friendly film too...

The film version of Wing Commander was released in 1999 and Digital Anvil not only produced the film but also provided the CGI for the film. The story was removed from the existing game lore and all of the roles were either re-cast with younger actors or created from scratch for the film. The budget was a relatively modest $30 million and, prior to release, it had all of the hallmarks of a decent time filler. Then people saw the final film.

Principal photography was completed in Luxembourg and an above average number of British actors; Saffron Burrows, David Warner, David Suchet, Simon MacCorkindale, Hugh Quarshie and many lesser known names join Jurgen Prochnow, Tcheky Karyo, alongside Freddie Prinze Jr and Matthew Lillard.

That Prinze Jr and Lillard headline the film should be cause for concern. Whilst they worked very well together in Scooby Doo (hell, their casting was a minor work of genius!), their acting styles are poorly suited for this film and it's plain to see that their acting abilities were not at the top of the list of reasons why they were cast. Lillard gives his usual one note slacker performance whilst Prinze Jr lacks the acting chops to give his character any gravitas. This is evident when he is supposed to look all moody and thoughtful and ends up looking like he's forgotten is credit card pin number. Still, they don't sink the film by themselves.

Most of the rest of the cast look bored, like they know they are in a crap film but at least the cheque has cleared so they might as well make as best they can of the situation. Suchet is wasted (as in underused, not sloshed!), a sub-plot about treason is jettisoned from the film (but is a full plot point in the novelisation of the film), and he ends up getting conked on the head and carried off. I swear he has a smile on his face when that happens. Prochnow gives it his all, proving once again that whilst his (unearned) reputation as a journeyman actor is evidenced here, he is good value for money and hey, the guy's gotta earn a living! He is at least giving it some welly! Burrows has another mis-cast role, she really can't play the hard-ass (but with a soft centre) commanding officer who slowly comes to appreciate Prinze Jr's character. By the way, that characterisation continues to the group of fighter pilots under her command: one is portrayed as a bastard just because he smokes in a mean fashion, smirks at the lead and has a scar. That is the depth of his character.

It's not all bad, acting wise. Ginny Holder has a ball as the proto love interest for Lillard until an unfortunate crash landing (that's the Top Gun link on the DVD case!) and David Warner serenely occupies the screen , head held high, with the while thing beneath him. For him, he accepts the cheque has cleared and he knows he is a professional. Quarshie is shirt-changed but good value anyway, whilst Simon "Manimal" MacCorkindale is a blink and you'll miss him Deck Boss.

So, we know the cast got paid, but what about the rest of the film?

The CGI was passable at the time (think about Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, much higher budget, similarly ropey visuals today!) and the sets weren't too bad. The fighter cockpits were taken from old English Electric Lightning frames and these shaped the CGI design of the complete fighter which, to be honest, look kinda naff. Iconic ship designs, they are not. The same can be said for the Kilrathi, the feline aliens bent on destroying humanity. Roberts was never happy with the look and the sets were completed before the look was locked down, leading to overly tall costumes and a cramped, stooped  appearance. Human costumes were another sign of penny pinching, looking cheap and ill-fitting and I swear that the hat and jumper combo was in a boyband music video sometime in the 90's. 

Then there is the tone of the film. It essentially wants to be a World War 2 movie, with screaming dive bombers (in space!), tense U-boat style hunts (including "pings", depth charges and ship to ship torpedoes - if you want to see how that should be done, try Prochnow's career defining role in Das Boot), and a bombastic fighter pilot story on an pseudo aircraft carrier (Top Gun again - btw, the Starship Troopers link from the DVD cover is the fighter pilot as elite combat troops doing a ship boarding set piece - yeah, like highly trained pilots would be used as grunts! - I am looking at you, Space: Above and Beyond!). Seriously though, when Ginny Holder's character, Rosie, dies after her damaged fighter hits the carrier a tad too hard, the wreckage is removed by a tractor with a plough. In space. With no gravity. Sigh.

The problem here is that Roberts wants an old fashioned war movie, dark and gritty, but as it's in space, there are a few, in no way minor, practical differences that can't be glossed over. That and the low budget, poor cinematography and PG rating means that it comes off looking amateurish and crap.

And yet, Wing Commander remains a guilty pleasure. Sure, it's cheesy, loud and brash, lacking subtlety, but you can see that some people were putting the effort in (as mentioned above), Karyo in particular attacks each scene like he's in a totally different film and mention must be made of David Arnold's score, which is typically good for that period of his career. 

I know, I have panned this film, but that doesn't mean to say it does not have its place in the world as a dumb, mindless sci-fi film. Indeed, the so-bad-it's-good card comes into play here and I have found myself laughing at so called serious moments where reality is well and truly put to one side. If you haven't seen this film yet, grab a few cans of lager/bottle of wine/whatever your favourite tipple is, and sit back and enjoy. As a Friday night chillout film, this one is hard to beat.

So, what are your thought? Have you seen Wing Commander? Played the games? Let me know in the comments.

Clue

I don't know about you, but there are times when I see a film and it grabs me. Be it the story, the cast or the style, there is something about the film that captivates me and it ends up being one that I can watch again and again. Clue is one of them.

Clue is a film based on the boardgame of the same name (at least for Americans, we call it Cluedo). Unlike the gameshow of the eary 90's, \clue aims mo for comedy through a mix of physical and wordplay gags. Unsuccessful during its original 1985 cinema run, the film gained a wider appreciation upon home video release and is genuinely a cult classic today. (It would have helped that all three endings were included in the home release whereas cinema-goers were shown only on of the three, selected at random for each theatre).

What makes it a continued favourite (and eminently quotable) is the combination of smart script and note prefect cast. The ensemble works fantastically well together and you get the impression they had great fun during filming.
Despite being third choice for the role (Leonard Rossiter passed away before filming and Rowan Atkinson was considered too unknown at the time), Tim Curry not only anchors the film but drives it forward with energy and zeal that would be difficult to match. From eye poppingly zany re-enactments to bouncing round the immaculately furnished set like Zebedee on speed, Curry switches from deadly seriousness to scenery chewing ravings at the drop of a hat (or chandelier), and looks ready to give a nod and a wink to the camera at every turn. Rarely was he given such roles but he nails this perfectly and it's a shame that he never got to show more of that side of his acting. That is not to say that the rest of the cast are not equally great in their own ways.

Lesley Anne Warren vamps it right up as Miss Scarlett, relishing every line she has. Martin Mull is the steady but slightly dim-witted Colonel Mustard, the great Madeline Kahn (who shall be forever remembered for Blazing Saddles - it's twue, it's twue), plays serial wife Mrs White and Eileen Brennan gives an on-edge performance as Mrs Peacock. Christopher Lloyd plays Professor Plum in a restrained performance, unlike most of his film roles, and it is to his credit that he gives this the lightest of touches. Finally, Michael McKean, as Mr Green, adds neuroses and a touch of camp to the proceedings. The supporting cast, mostly bit parts with a handful of lines each, play it mostly straight, Bill Henderson as the police officer probably getting the best of it.

The plot is straight forward enough, several strangers meet at a remote house after receiving mysterious invitations and soon discover that they are all being blackmailed by Mr Boddy. He is quickly bumped off and what follows is farcical but extremely funny, albeit with a macabre sense of humour - by the time the fourth body is dropped off into the lounge, there is an air of resignation about the group, that what should have been shocking is now just routine.

Even though I have seen this film north of a dozen times, it's an easy watch and every now and again, quotes are traded at home. It's a shame that it didn't perform well upon its original cinematic release but with the recent announcement that Ryan Reynolds is headlining a remake with the scriptwriters of Deadpool in tow, there is hope that they keep the tone of the original, even if they update the story and the setting. By no means a cinematic classic, Clue has, and continues to entertain, which means it has surely done its job.

Hard Sun - TV Review

Every once in a while, one of the mainstream UK television networks tries its hand at science fiction. Sometimes, these can be successful (I am thinking season three of Torchwood), yet many times, they fall more than a little flat (pretty much anything on ITV, they always seem to either go kiddie safe or full on mopey drama). That's not to say they shouldn't keep trying and here comes the BBC with a Hulu co-operation: Hard Sun.

Before I go any further, beware, there are going to be spoilers so if you are watching the series on BBC One, beware. However, since it was also full released in BBC iPlayer, you can do what I did and get through all six episodes over a couple of nights.

So, the premise is pre-apocalyptic, the sun is going to kill us in five years, humanity and all life on earth. This knowledge is being tightly controlled until a hacker steals the data and promptly falls off the top of a tower block, triggering the involvement of out two protagonists: DCI Charlie Hicks (played by Jim Sturgess) and DI Elaine Renko (played by Agyness Deyn). From this point, the show becomes a standard cop show with some conspiracy theory leanings, the sci-fi angle is a macguffin that essentially exists to motivate the cast. And what a set of characters we have: Hicks is a rotten person, he steals from the underworld, is suspected of killing his former partner (who Renko has replaced), has a pregnant wife with a daughter and is also sleeping with his late partner's widow. Yep, he literally has no redeeming features - even the displays of love for his unborn child are tempered by the extra-marital activity. Renko has been secretly given another chance to prove herself by investigating Hicks on behalf of the departments head, DCS Roland Bell. She also has a teenage son, the result of a rape attack when she was a teen, who is severely mentally ill and has extreme issues with her. These two are not the best examples of modern Metropolitan Police recruitment and it's hard to think of many shows with main characters that are so completely f**ked up. Sturgess plays Hicks as if he wants to be the next strongman of Eastenders and Deyn, all vulnerable yet handy with a baton, gets to show her acting chops well. The dialogue does let them down though, all hard-boiled, over-wrought and hyperbolic.

The supporting characters are much more likeable: the standouts being sarkey DS Mishal Ali (with a decent Geordie accent) and blokey Welshman DS Keith Greener. There is a pretty much even coverage of the countries and regions of Britain in the unit and smacks too much of quota filling - even so, whilst not overly realistic, the characters themselves are pretty well rounded.

Once we get out of the info dump of episode one, setting up the premise and the characters, episode two switches from conspiracy mode to "nutter of the week" territory, neatly destroying the urgency and paranoia of the first outing. Episodes three and four cover one nutter (so "nutter of the fortnight"), Five covers Renko's son and the need to take on the almost ever present security services, and Episode Six rounds off the series by a game of cat and mouse between the duo and Security Service agent Grace Morrigan (a lovely controlled and meticulous Nikki Amuka-Bird) as well as a second plot strand about missing people - it turns out a cancer victim is taking people to be happy then forcefully lobotomising them. That particular story has a couple of stand outs - one, if you have any fear of something getting in your eye, this episode is not for you, and two, Gotham actor Anthony Carrigan plays the cancer victim, Mr Weiss who, we thought when he first appeared, had walked off the set of Fringe, pale, hairless and wearing a black suit. For one second, we thought cross-over!!! Sadly, it wasn't to be.

Most of the plots strands are tied up by the end, Hicks admits to Renko that he did kill his partner, it's hinted the the DCS was in love with the dead-partner, hence the fight to get Renko to nail Hicks to the crime, Renko and her son start the basis of a relationship that means he doesn't try to kill her and then there is the ending... (I'll get to that lower down).

As I said above, the series was released in one go on iPlayer and I am pleased it was. I don't think I would have stayed with the show for six weeks. The problem? Pacing. That familiar problem of pacing. I can see why they have six episodes, and theme wise, they work well and are well made, but each episode is 50 to 60 minutes long and there are far too many dramatic pauses, long shots, etc that act as just filler. The music is quite good, though when you get harsh sun glare shots, there is always an ominous note, and that gets a bit wearing after the fifth or sixth time in an episode. The opening credits, too, are distinct and stylish, even if they do steal a bit from the new Star Trek: Discovery show, even down to the Michelangelo hands shot.

Now, the ending - the last five minutes of Episode Six vex me. Why? Because at the very end, we realise the Powers That Be have lied, that Hard Sun wasn't five years away, and that it is starting now. A shot of the sun, a giant flare swinging out to one side, captivates everyone who sees it. And then that's it. So everything MI5 have done, the killing, the chasing, all of that was for no point. If the PTB already knew this, why the five years deadline anyway? It feels a cheat by the writer, a shock ending that finishes the story with a final exclamation mark. Much like the "one month later" note at the start of episode two, this feels like a con. This show could have continued for a coupe of years, much like Millennium, which was the vibe we got during the middle episodes, yet no, it's had its six ep run and there you go. Maybe there might be more, the series doesn't air in the US until March but I doubt it. If I were to mark this out of ten, I'd say 5 - average.

Of Things To Come - 2018

So, here we are, firmly into 2018, with a couple of blog posts already done and more to come. This is a good start, for me, anyway!

The aim this year is to post more frequently and more regularly, adding book, film, game and music reviews, with retrospectives in those areas as well branch out with a couple of side projects that I'll cover when they get underway. What I can say is that I am looking forward to those and hope you enjoy them too when they come to fruition.

In addition to the above, there should be the usual wargames shows that I hope to attend. Those will be Vapnartak (York - 4th February), Salute (London - 14th April), Carronade (Falkirk - 12th May), Partizan (Newark - 29th May), Durham - date TBC, Claymore (Edinburgh - 5th August) and 2nd Partizan (Newark - 19th August). I hope to add posts about these shows as they happen but that all depends on how much time I have at each. I may try to get to one or two others but that will be at the mercy of spare time.

Of course, alongside the shows, there will be the semi-regular TWATS meetings, details of which will be (semi-)honestly reported (depending on how I do) here as well ;-) I know there is Shinyloo to come first but after that, it's all a mystery - in other words, we decide at the end of one meeting what the next one will be. However, as always, there will be fine ale and victuals on hand. It's not just about the dice rolling - seriously. I would add intellectual conversation, but that could be stretching it a bit - funny, near the knuckle and interesting, but intellectual? Hmmm...

With that, I hope 2018 is a good year for you all and you enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy writing it.