Well, after what has seemed like weeks of relentless work, I finally seem to have time to sit in front of a keyboard that isn't my employers! It's not been all work as since my last post, I have co-hosted a radio show for a local station, read a couple of interesting books and attended a wargames show, so not all work and no play.
The radio gig came about from my mate Eddie and the Attention Please show on Ne1.fm which has a local FM broadcast as well as an Internet stream. A tad nervous to begin with, by the end of the two hour segment, I was really enjoying it. I got to chose half of the music played and the blog even got a mention.The plan is to do that again in the near future.
As for books, I picked up three of the four volumes by Chris Gibson on what-if British aircraft development in the post war period. Battle Flight, Thor’s Hammer and Nimrod’s Genesis are interesting reads, covering the planned and suggested projects that never made it to fruition. Highlighting the political and technological challenges of the period, these books give a good grounding in how the state of the nation’s aircraft industry ended up the way it did. I would recommend these books to anyone with a passing interest in the subject. Plus, there seems to be a million and one things you can do with a Vulcan…
Next up, the Carronade show at Falkirk. Taking place last Saturday, it involved an even earlier than usual wake up call but was well worth it. I like the Carronade as it fits into the description of small regional show but is big enough to have a good variety of traders. The venue splits the show over five areas which makes it fun to have a wander around whilst, unless you are on the first floor, offering relatively easy access for trollying and the like. I also liked the fact that the show never died, it just closed. It’s nice to see people at a show up until the very end, rather than watching tumbleweed for the last two hours. On a culinary note, the breakfast rolls used for the sausage/bacon butties are immense! Whilst there, I did see the tasty new 15mm AMX30-B2’s from Old Glory, tempting enough to start a little project for Command Decision, and, since our little group already have British and Iraqi styled forces, I think I’ll have a go at the Qatari forces. Just need OGUK to do a VAB...
Finally, after consultation with a couple of TWATS, at some point later this year, we will try out a comparison game. We have played CD in the modern period quite a bit, and there has been a read through of Cold War Commander. I purchased a copy of Team Yankee back at Sheffield Triples so in the spirit of having a laugh, the plan is to design a scenario that shouldn't take too long to complete, but will allow the rulesets to be tested to see which suits us best. Having said that, a couple of disclaimers should be added. One, we are not driven by the idea of “having fun”. That line is used several times in the TY rules and to be honest, fun is subjective. Arguably, the enjoyment of a TWATS meeting stems from the meeting itself and the game is, at times, of secondary importance. Enjoyment is the result of more than just the game. Two, I understand that TY is more of a skirmish game than the command levels offered by the other two sets but, as a student of the historical period, I am interested in how wargaming can portray that period and how (in)accurate/in period these rules can be. I am, however, reminded of a TY game at Falkirk where the playing area was maybe a tad over a metre square and had three tanks and a helicopter. That is not for me. I more prefer a sense of scale and ambition on a table, so maybe the skirmish style of TY might not be to my taste, but we’ll see how that goes, open mind and all that jazz...
