Hello everyone,
It deeply saddens me to write about the passing of my good friend, Martin Oakes, on the 18th September 2026. He was a passionate cat lover, a massive DVD collector, a music collector and fan, and a wargamer, to name a few of his loves. He was a long-standing member of the Battle Circle wargaming group at Highcroft Community Centre, which is where I met him.
His wargaming collection covered the three walls of his front room, from floor to ceiling, with his gaming table in the middle, filled to the brim with that day's game terrain ready for us to take part. He loved putting on games for us happy troopers that were able to come and join him and his putty tats on Sunday afternoons. Terrain and models were everywhere, science fiction, historical and fantasy, all neat and tidy, with a model painting area set up in one corner by the window.
It was not always wargaming at Martin's, sometimes we would go round for a good old chat, some food from the shops and listen to music and show off our latest painted models in the process.
In his younger days, he did live-action role-playing weekends, having the complete kit of a soldier, ready to go. He took along his Bauron so that he could join in the music that sprung up in those social events. His dedication to the cause included brewing strong hooch in the weeks before and distributing it during evening meals. Classic.
Here are one or two of his games for you to enjoy.
2018/06 - wizards-tower-terrain - Work in progress.
Some more terrain 2021.06
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| The Zombie Maze. Avoid the Zombies and get to the central Tower First. |
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| Giant Putty Tat Alert! |
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| Putty Tat is readying an attack. |
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| The Zombie Totems looking down on us. |
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| Castle |
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| Taverna. |
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| Storage for wonders. |
2018/11 - Project-Z-battle-report-2.html
2019/05/project-z-campaign-pt1-battle-report.html
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| Giant sponge dice at the ready. |
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| I am not sure if these were part of a game or just set up ready if he wanted to run something on the fly. |
If you knew Martin, you were a happier person for it.
Ivor Cogdell