Shops, Painted Minis and a bad experience (Updated)

 Hi Everyone,

                      Here we are at a new season of wargames and roleplaying. I have been attending my local club again, and that has been fun. I treated myself to the last season of Star Trek Discovery and have my sights on season two of Strange New Worlds and Picard Season three.

                        Warhammer Birmingham has moved from their old site by the Gym opposite the 94 terminus, in to a slightly larger shop atthe bottom end of Corporation Street. 

There is a new shop opposite Forbidden Planet in Bull Street, just inside the Minories Arcade, on the left. Number 4. It's called Element Games.  www.elementgames.co.uk

They have shedloads of paints and supplies from the usual manufacturers. Mainly GW models but some independent people too, such as Frostgrave, Stargrave, Heil Caesar, Oathmark and Shadowdeep.

Weylands Forge is still located in "The Custard Factory", Digbeth.

                      It is the eve of the WMSS Alumwell show, so I hope the weather is fine for everybody travelling to and from it. (NOTE: Take extra grub, the canteen ran out last year, so I am informed).  There are usually burger vans on site, too.

                    I usually take the Metro opposite Forbidden Planet in Birmingham to Wolverhampton bus depot, an approximately 45 minute journey. Then the number 6 bus, stand D. Please double check when you go.

station. 

I have been retouching some models for an upcoming battle report.

I am not sure if it shows up at this angle, but I splattered Ginger's tunic in blood.

The club had our belated Christmas meal at a village curry house, not to be named. The food was nice but the waiter service was slow. We were a party of 12 who had pre-booked by over two months. The place was less than a quarter full when we arrived, but the staff took their orders at least 40 minutes before us. We were so bored, we ordered drinks and crackers while we were waiting. Adding to the cooking time of at least half an hour, to say we were not happy bunnies was an understatement. I had ordered a mushroom wrap starter and grilled Chicken Jalfresi for my main meal. Something I had not tried before, as it was a special occasion. Nothing too complex, you would think. I was expecting it to come in a bowl, but it was served on a plate, in a wrap. I was slightly surprised. As I said before, the food, when it came, was very nice.   Between us; we spent about £350. We will not be going back. We do plan to go to another one that has a better reputation and has been tried by some of the members before.

Regards, 

Ivor Cogdell

Thoughts On - The Guards Wargame Group - Bring and Buy Event 2024.11.30

 Hi Everybody,

                       Just a quick note to record that I was glad to meet the Circle Battle Group attendees and the Guards members at the 30 November 2024 Winter Guards Bring and Buy event in Birmingham. I met up with Richard J on the 11 bus route as arranged, getting off at the Swan Centre, only to find that all the bus stops had been moved around. to get the 60 bus, you now have to walk a few yards further towards the airport.

                     There were slightly fewer tables than the previous times we attended. I purchased the Osprey Rules for the post-apocalypse vehicle skirmish game "Gaslands", some 72 mm African warriors (painted), other lead minis, plus "The Wargamers Guide to Dark Age Britain" by Martin Hackett (Amberley Publishing - ISBN. 978-1-4456-03803) a battlefield guide https://www.tabletopgaming.co.uk/reviews/as-told-in-the-great-hall-the-wargamers-guide-to-dark-age-britain/, including the dice for the rules in the back, very kindly signed by the author. A sci-fi laser cut shelter (at home, a box landed on it and it is now in its component parts again, so I shall have the fun of assembly as well as painting it).

                    The Guards had set up a wargaming table for members of the public to take part in, as usual. Richard had some figures for sale, (The items are logged and priced, then you check for the sale at the end of the show), but I don't think he had any takers. He did get some dragon teeth scenery, a munchkin card game and some 10 mm humans for Oathmark.

                     I was not feeling too well and had to cut my day short, but the busses were very bad in the afternoon and we did not get home until after 6pm.  Regrets - I should have treated myself to a 72 mm Roman Infantry "Tortoise" formation, a temple and a bit more terrain. Richard did buy some items as well.

                     I was very pleased to see some youngsters attending again, they all received a warm welcome. Thanks to Paul and the Guards members for their time and efforts to present another chance to expand the wargaming hobby community.

NOTE: I hope that the Penkridge Wargaming Sale is still happening on Sunday, 5th January 2025, 11:00 start, I am not sure of the venue.

  Please confirm the details, as I could not find any information on the British Historical Games Society Calendar. https://www.bhgs.org.uk/calendar.html.

There is a mention of one in May, but no actual date.

Regards all,

Ivor Cogdell

St Edwards Wargame Day

St. Edwards School Wargame Show

Pictures from Dec 1 2019.

Hi everybody,
                      Hiding on one of my hard drives are pictures of December 1st 2019 at St Edwards ? School Wargame day. Here they are for your delectation. Unfortunately, I was a bit under the weather, as they say and did not have chance to gather any notes as to who was who, but they might give you some idea of some of the fun that was taking place.

These were "Battle Mechs" From Circle Battlegroup, Based in Stocklands Green (My club.)

A second table of our Battle Mechs.

Possibly WW II Bolt Action ?

"Gaslands"

Possibly Roman / Greek ?

Fighting over a Temple ?

"Commit the reserves Charrge!"

All pictures are Copyright (C) Ivor Cogdell 2020.
These photos were taken on an EE Alcatel One Touch PIXI".

There you go, I hope there was something of interest there for you. Also at the show were assorted vendors, thanks for coming..Thanks to all the organizers and vendors that took part. Unfortunately I was unable to go to the WMAA day in March 2020, so these are the last of my show photos so far. Who knows when the next one will be ?

 Stay safe everybody.


Ivor Cogdell..

Circle Battle Group news part 2 - Updated 2020.04.10.

Circle Battlegroup Club News,  part two. 

Hi there,
            We have just had confirmation that the planned Bar in the other room will go ahead, for at least 6 months, which is great news for us gang at the club. The Bar will be open on the weekends as well, hopefully with some live entertainment. There will be a membership scheme, no firm info as yet on an opening date, or what age range, but closing time could be 11.00. More to come as I get it.

Here are a few snaps from tonight's games.

 A Battle Mech scrap in progress, trying out the rules for an upcoming demo game
that they are putting on. Most of the terrain on show here is homemade.

Pictures of the demo games and other goodies coming soon.

Meeples hiding somewhere on here, I think.

Currently the club and pretty much everything else is out of action due to the Covid -19 virus. Once things are back to normal I will report on our battles.

Regards all,

Ivor Cogdell

Circle Battle Group Club doings (Updated 2019.12.29),

Hi all,
         Here is just a bit of the Circle Battle Group club goings-on. Assorted Noble Romans and peasantry Celts (myself included) have been appearing in our role-playing of Roman Chuthulu, where we carelessly let an "Old One" get loose (some of us paid the ultimate price) and in our latest adventure, we are now in19th /15th-century Chuthulu on our table for the last few weeks.

 In case you are wondering, usually, a game will last six weeks, but this was extended for an extra two weeks. There are sneaky Dungeons and Dragons of some description on another table, Battle Mechs are in another section and a card game on the fourth. I quite fancy trying a ride on a Battle Mech, I must dig out my Demo rules.

Full marks to all of our GM's for coming up with all of the plots and nastiness our characters go through, plus all of the painting and prepping that involves.

 There are signs of the Club Bar reopening in one of the other rooms and work seems to be going on in there, good, and other rumors of us being closed down by the council, very bad. The council has already sacked the Event Coordinator who got bookings for the other events room. This venue has quite a few clubs and societies that use it during the week, a bowling green and cricket pitch attached.

There are committee meetings going on, but the one hand does not seem to know what the other is doing. This club has had to move venues once before due to the council. We hope to know a bit more by next week. Currently, our spies are out looking for a new venue just in case.

Keep rolling them there dice.

Ivor Cogdell

Notice Board 2 - Update 4

Hi all,
          Larna, one of our Circle Battlegroup GM's was kind enough to give out some 15 mm figures that she had spare at the club last week and it encouraged me to treat myself to some Dwarf figures from Pendraken Miniatures to go with them, along with birthday pressies, Barbarians for Martin and Romans for Richard.
           I have not tried painting at that scale yet, but once done I will pop them on here.

Any links or tips for painting at 15 or 6 mm, Please drop me a note in the comments section.

I found How I paint things -15 mm and 15 mm fantasy figures.

For instance, using models from one genre to another, e.g. 15 mm Pendraken Miniatures "Alien Bugs" as D and D "Carrion Crawlers" if your carrion crawler order is stuck in the post or "holodeck Simulations" - your modern characters in Fantasy / Historical locations.

Blog Maintenance Note: I have just added links and a quick addition to the Aftermath, to my Project Z posts and added a new section of "Art". These are some of the fantasy and science fiction images I have done over the years, in watercolour and acrylic. My work is not up to Alan Bean standard, but I enjoy doing it.
       
Terrain - I updated my "4Ground Ruined house corner type3", adding links to the various parts and where it finally appeared in a game.

On the slightly different topic of Role Playing Games, which often uses table top models, so I'm not too far off base. I want to give a Shoutout to Johnn Four and his roleplayingtips.com/blog/  He has lots of tips and freebies for the overworked GM, such as a free NPC tracker.

Another game / tool for the GM is  "How to host a Dungeon"  (C) 2008 by Tony Dowler.

Regards all,

Ivor Cogdell

Project Z Battle Report 3 - Campaign Pt.1

Hey folks,
                I had another scrap over at Martin's place with our mate Richard. The table was set  out for Project Z - Zombie Apocalypse Battle Report 3.

Project Z pt 1 - The Bunker.
Project Z pt 2 - The Wilds.

This time we are starting a campaign.

Ivor was sporting the Female Survivors again, Richard was Grooving On Down with the Biker Gang and Martin was shambling along with the Zombies.

The objective was to search the tavern. There are also circular "Loot Tokens" on the table. That's the good news, the bad news is that there are also four "Spawn Locations" to add d6 Zombies at the end of each turn. (Shown as dotted circles on the table).

Turn 1

Ivor's Female Survivors, coming on the table at the South East. (Random Roll by Martin).

Richard's Biker Gang. Coming on the table at the East. (Again Random edge rolled by Martin).

 Game note : If the biker gang kill every body else on the table (instead of the zombies) they get all of the loot.

The immediate threat area for the Ladies. Spawn point just above the centre. Bikers to the NE.

The Inn objective on the other side of the river. Spawn Points in the wood and to the right of the Inn.

Richard and Martin.

Ivor (At the 3D Cinema).

The North East Ruin, Biker Guys to East. Spawn Point just below ruin.

The Ladies move towards the nearest Zombie Group.

Top view, One of the Ladies is stunned, two Zed stunned. One Lady out of ammo.

Biker Boss about to ram a Z.

VRROOOOM !

Z Squished under tyres.

Punch up with zed's.

To rub salt into salt into the wounds, here come the Bikers, EEK !

BRRRRRRRPPPP ! "MAISIEEEEE...Nooo.   The Biker's let rip
 with multple Uzi's. Out Of Ammo Tokens litter the area.

 Sad to tell, the ladies were decimated, firstly little Maisie

bites the dust - shot  by an evil biker who trod her teddy into

 the sand, one more clawed by a zed and one girl goes

 turncoat and polishes off another party member.

Ladies in deep trouble, with just a stunned zed to show for it.

The Biker's get in the thick of it and takes a wound (Red Marker)..

One of the ladies scouts ahead or rather flees the carnage.

The biker gets stuck in the thick undergrowth and has to retreat.

One biker scoops up the loot (bottom right)., while the others make an orderly retreat.

Whats this ? Some mercenaries have turned up. Are they going to help our damsels in distress ?

Here come more zed's. At this point we had 100 zed's on the table !

A close up at the back of the inn.

Zed's swarming or rather shambling out of the wood.

A lone biker keeps the horde at bay with a burst from his gun. (Now out of ammo and needs to reload).

Still trying to get out.

The bridge crossing and sanctuary.

The APC moves around to the front of the building

The zed's ford the river, seeking warm flesh.

The biker rejoins his comrades.

One of the two remaining ladies, unfortunately, her bazuka is a dud !

"Food !"

The Bikers lay down covering fire. 

"UUURRRRGGGHHHH !"

"The entrance looks clear".

The APC moves up to the door of  the Inn and the troops disembark. "Get
that door open without doing too much damage to it." "Yessir."

"You would'nt hurt l'lii ole me now, would you ?" BANG.... "Uuuhh......". Falls to the ground.
Thinks "Good job i'm wearing a Flak vest."

"We got 'er. OOh, where did they come from ?"

"Kill them !"

"you're not getting Mama today boys". Blam. Blam..

"Supression fire, then, in you go !

"Food here too !" Momma's (left) in more trouble.

"UNNNGGGGG."

"Food fresh ..."

"I'll just play possum a bit longer to make sure they have gone."

Splash, splash, splash.

"It's time to leave!" Everybody on the bikes !"

"Now's my chance to sneak away, the noise will attract the zed's".

Inside the Inn, the soldiers dispatch the two zed's, then make a quick search of the room and find a vending machine still intact. They rip it off the wall and make their way back to the APC. 

"Alll aboard !"  Clunk,Vrooommmm.........

"Urrg........."  Crunch, Bump, Squish.........

"Charrrge.!"

"Time to grab that boat " Marcy breaks surface beside the boat. "I'm glad I was on the swimming team." "Pat, I thought you had died too.", as she swims toward the boat.

Close.

The Aftermath. 
                                  The Mercenaries obtained their objective, namely, "Get some Ciggs for the Boss", so they get some points. The Bikers got some loot and finished off four civilians, so they get some extra goodies when starting the next game too. The Ladies were having a bad hair day, to say the least. They will have to find some other group to join. Then they will seek revenge on the bikers. 

 We did enjoy that. It was noted that it would have been a totally different game if the the "dice gods" had put us in different locations, but it did ramp up the tension of the game for me. Everybody went home happy after a good game. Another great table design by Martin.

Ivor Cogdell

P.S. Martin's Putty Tats were about, but not very nosy, for a change.

Project Z pt.2 - The Wilds
Project Z pt. 1 - The Bunker