A spot of damp

Not much to report on the gaming front due to travel and other stuff. The linking theme of it all seems to be 'water'.

The Rain in Spain....

The Margravina and I had a week on the Valencian coast (Wednesday-Wednesday). The odd travel days were because originally the trip was supposed to be my son and I going to watch football at the Mestalla (Valencia v Athletic Bilbao) but due to a family illness he had to cancel.  The sharp-eyed news followers amongst you will have noted the significance of the timing and location. To clarify, this is what I looked out on, on Monday morning last week. 

The first part of our week had been filled with walks on a sunny beach and swims in the warm sea. Lovely and healing. We knew that the middle part of our week would be wetter, but forecasts got worse and worse. We'd been getting text alerts (the ones with the scary noise) all through Sunday telling people to stay in place due to Storm Adam and move to a higher floor if they were on the ground. I estimate it rained almost solidly for 30 hours and at times the rain was horizontal even seeping under the balcony doors having penetrated the shutters. We couldn't get out until Tuesday. Fortunately we were on the first floor and power and water remained on throughout (though we cooked a massive batch of pasta just in case). By Tuesday we were sick of pasta and Vermouth. First world problems.

 

During Monday a Guardia Civil boat floated slowly down the street with evacuees on board. Slightly more bizarrely, a chap came past on a paddle board. I don't know if he was "official" and was looking to see if anyone needed help or was just a curious tourist.

It was sad walking around on the Tuesday by when most of the water had drained away, seeing people clear out their furniture and other possessions. There was no one in the ground floor flats of the block we were in but they will have an unpleasant visit when next they go - ironically one of the occupants had recently said they were planning to sell. There were plenty of council employees out and about cleaning up the place - an impressive number for such a small municipality.

Mid-day Tuesday

We had to leave the hire car where it was due to the water damage but were able to get a taxi back to the airport on Wednesday and had a very smooth trip back where the train and bus connections back in Blighty were perfectly timed. We were able to leave the trouble behind but lots of people are not so lucky.

Water - the Prequel.

On the flight out from the UK I looked down as we were over the northern French coast and saw this:

Cotentin Peninsula in the background. River One and Caen Canal in the foreground. About halfway between the two you might be able to spot a semi-circular formation in the sea by the coast.

Here it is zoomed in:

Remains of a Mulberry Harbour?

Water II

UK residents will know about the two storms of the past few days. Saturday was probably the worst day down here in the south east of the country. Saturday just happened to be a football away day in Gillingham for us Mariners. So whilst David-in-Suffolk was down the road at Re-PLAY I was at the Priestfield Stadium watching a surprise 4-1 win for Grimsby in the pouring rain. A repeat of the scoreline from 6 months ago, when short sleeves and sunglasses were the order of the day.  

I'm beginning to wonder if there had been divine intervention because for the second time there this year I bumped into a London-based priest (originally from Grimsby) and some of his fellow clerics. Must be something to do with the fish on the club badge:

Matthew 4:19?

4-1 again olé olééé!

Grimsby's first was a thunderbolt which still seemed to be accelerating as it hit the back of the net. But the star of the show was undoubtedly our Faroese-Magyar Géza Dávid Turi who made two of the goals and scored one himself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ6DskfE4RE

One of the best things about these away days is the chance to catch up with friends and family. There was a good turnout from the southern based exiles, as well as the usual faces who seem to be at every game wherever it is being played. The train journeys there and back, time in the pub, and in the ground before kick-off and at half-time, all provided good opportunities for a chinwag.

Afterwards, as a late birthday present, my son took me to see Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds in concert. Got to say it was excellent. Mollie Marriott as Beth the Parson's wife, could give Julie Covington a run for her money on that showing. I've spent the last two days with various choons ear-worming their way round my brain. Oo-laaaaaa!

Get your kicks on A46

Friday saw me board a train at King's Cross for the trip to Lincoln to stay with the Elders (big sis and her husband). The plan was to use Imp City as the stepping off point for the Other Partizan. Visits to the Elders are always culinary treats and I picked up some haslet from a local butchers on the Saturday.

Lincoln city looks oh so pretty

Turks Head squash at a local greengrocers

El Urens lodged here.....

....above a pie shop. To be fair, I don't know if it was a pie shop in his day.

On Sunday morning Sis dropped me off at the Newark Showground and I joined the short queue to get in to Partizan. I milled around the entrance 'tent' where the Northamptonshire Battlefied Society, the Society of Ancients and Chris of Not Quite Mechanised ('NQM') fame was located, where I met David B (a.k.a. David in Suffolk https://russetcoatcpt.blogspot.com ). I was chatting to Chris about NQM. It intrigues me as a game because it seems to do something different from the usual low level tactical or skirmish games. I resisted buying the rules though as "I don't want to have to get into a whole new collection". Later on it dawned on me I already do have a WWII collection: Continuation War Finns and Soviets. So would probably just need to buy a few vehicles and artillery pieces. Hmm! Maybe one for the to-do list.

A bit later on we met Neil of Aufklarungsabteilung . It was great to put a face to the name and have a good chinwag. That's one of the great things about these events. We also bumped into Ray and 'Big Lee' Lee from Posties Rejects. In fact we bumped into them a couple of times. There was some mention of stalking, but I'm not saying anything more. On legal advice.  Towards the end of the day we saw Postie himself who looked like he was in a rush.  Sadly we did not spot anyone in a yellow hoodie (i.e. Steve J.who wasn't certain to go anyway) or Mr D.Crook (who had been and gone early).

The show itself was very large, perhaps not Salute size, but very large. And it was very busy. Neil and 'Trebian' have less than positive things to say about the show on their blogs. I can understand where they are coming from. There were lots of large display games which I thought looked excellent. An incredible amount of work clearly went into them. And I thought the participants seemed friendly and helpful. I probably spent less time at the participation games. As for traders, the only ones I was vaguely interested in were Warbases*, Baccus (but they're note really compatible with my H&R 6mm figures) and Lanchester books. None of the books caught my eye, except the Blandford book on the SYW - good condition but £40 was a bit rich for me as it would only be a nostalgia purchase given there is more information available on line and I have books with plenty of battle and uniform info for the period). If there was one piece of constructive criticism that I would make is that the names of the games could be displayed on the show guide - it shows the name of the organisation putting the game on but not what it is. The information boards at the tables are not always visible through the crowds, so it's difficult to give correct attribution.

* Stupidly I didn't go armed with any information on what bases I needed.

We did stop by the stand hosted by Dr Andrew Bamford for a chat. For those of you who do not follow it, Andrew is one of the main presenters of the Prime and Load podcast which is dedicated to 18th century warfare. So if you are a right-thinking wargamer** you will want to listen to it. As I was about to leave I noticed copies of the book edited by Andrew on British amphibious warfare - Torch, Husky and Overlord were built on foundations laid 200 years before - so I bought a copy. Who knows, this might spark off ideas for a new mini-campaign.

** I mean, who wouldn't be into the 18th century?

Anyway, here are some pics of tables that caught my eye.

Fabulous looking ECW game

Offboard reserves for an Arab-Israeli Wars game. I was struck by the mix of NATO and Soviet vehicles in the same army. Plus some ex-WWII Wehrmacht stuff.

WWI aerial combat

I REALLY liked this! Even as someone not majorly into WWII I could see what this represented. I bet many junior officers would recognise it from infantry school. Not that I was ever a Rupert.

Info board for the above game.

A fabulous game representing a siege and battle set during the Isle de Re expedition in 1627. I suppose this is a precursor to some of the 18th century descents on France.

Close up of the above

Mons 1914 - British defending the canal. 6mm figures with 2 or 3mm buildings. This is much closer to what most people will achieve in normal games.

18th century India

Probably my favourite display. Though it's hard to choose. Sicily 1943

I love the British (Empire) column siding down the hill.

Lots of detail. "I could never remember the password. Knew no Gerry would carry a [parasol]".

Citrus grove!

You're not getting our Löwenbrau!

Wider view of game above: Malplaquet 1709. Bourbons and allies to the right. Habsburg's and their allies to the left.

A timely recreation of the Battle of Hastings using Paperboys 2D. I understand it was a 1:1 figure ratio! And the good guys pulled off a draw. 

I really like the backdrop to this. Obviously the models are great. The backdrop gives it depth and also the sense of poorer light in the grey of the morning.

Detail in the above.

1688 The Dutch Invasion of England Glorious Revolution. The host explained this was the engagement at Reading where, in the real encounter, the one Irish regiment and one English regiment under James II, provided less than stellar service to the soon to be ex-King.

British Empire v Vichy French in the Levant (code for me failing to note whether it was Syria or Lebanon)

I showed my pics to my friend 'Lincolnshire' Tom and on seeing this one he immediately said "Is that a [insert name of this contraption]? They were made in Lincoln." He can find a link to Lincolnshire in almost any topic.

Waddingtons Little Big Horn boardgame. This was a 'side order' for a more conventional tabletop game of said battle. Somehow I failed to get any photos of the wargame. My brother had the Waddingtons game, and it was probably my first introduction to playing with toy soldiers with rules.

Japanese invasion of Korea int he late 17th century. 12mm figures? Lovely detail on the shields.

Detail from the Syria game

Anglo-Sikh Wars.

The second of 2 Pony Wars games

Detail from the Sikh War game. So that's what a bloomin' Jezzail is!

AWI action. Eutaw Springs, 1781?

Wider view of the above

His Majesty's Revenue and Customs sends the bailiffs in.

We ain't payin'!

Still in the C18th. Minden 1759. This looked like they used a simplified layout.

Napoleonic naval action. This time with the major antagonist for the French being Spain.

Invasion of France 1940

Brits on the attack

German defenders. Over the bank are a couple of 88s. 

"Ah fart in yeur generale direction!"
Did the rabbit come before or after the wooden badger?

Iwo Jima's black sands

Japanese defenders on mount Siribachi

Final piece of model 'terrain'. On the wall in the waiting room at Newark Northgate station.