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.