Return of the kern

 

"beware the preachers" - Charles Bukowski

There has been a bit of wargaming going on in the background, namely a fine refight of Talavera in the legendary wargames room of James 'Olicanalad' Roach. As we get older the weekly sessions seem to get shorter before we reach the point where we can no longer stand up for any more time, and so this game has taken several weeks. As luck would have it I had to miss this week's conclusion (*), but I think I had, as Wellington, done enough to ensure the correct result.

Wargaming has also moved a bit to the foreground, which is as much to my surprise as anyone's. I have ordered a new set of rules, which obviously I don't need, and will report on them when they arrive. I have also after a long, long gap got the paintbrushes out. The main output has been the kern last heard of here two years ago. Adding Irish troops to my Wars of the Roses forces was Peter's idea; I think he thought javelin armed units would add a bit of variety. It was undoubtedly his death eighteen months ago which badly knocked my mojo. I have tried a variety of things to kick it off again such as the MTB and E-boat models I inherited from Peter (**) and buying some Mexican Revolution figures (***) off eBay. What has finally made the difference is buying myself a new lamp, one of those where the lights surround a magnifying lens. It's great. I can't paint any better, but at least I can see my mistakes more clearly.

One of the things that was passed on to us by Peter's widow was a small collection of cowboys with which we have enjoyed playing using the Too Fat Lardies rule set. While I had a brush in my hand I painted up a preacher as a small contribution to the period; he can be a bystander, innocent or otherwise. I have literally never painted a 28mm figure before, but I don't think it turned out too badly. It was also nice to get the lightbox out again.

* I went to see The Fast Show Live - very funny.

** I fully acknowledge that these are never going to be painted.

*** I haven't given up hope of these.

Yeed Our Last Haw - For Now

 "And a thing is not seen because it is visible, but conversely, visible because it is seen" - Plato

We finally got round to having a more ambitious game with the What a Cowboy! rules, more figures on the table and even a scenario of sorts. 

Sadly the quality of the photos hasn't improved. The two characters hidden on the right are bandits trying to ambush the wagon, which may contain money, or gold, or possibly their arrested leader. There were four factions on the table and I'm not sure anyone fully understood what they were trying to do, even James and he designed the scenario. I was in charge of one lot of lawmen, did the least and ended up the winner.

The rules continue to entertain. Richard Clarke likes to put spotting into his rules and it doesn't always sit right with me, but here they do make sense and the rationale behind them is well explained in the text. Reloading is possibly one area that seems a bit odd, but we came to the conclusion that it was perhaps about getting the cadence and flow of the game to work smoothly rather than a literal interpretation of either real life or of  how it's done in Hollywood. Anyway, having got on top of it we are inevitably now going to do something else. After all, it's hard to be a cowboy in the north of England.

What? More Cowboys!

 Actually, it was exactly the same cowboys as the previous time. Plans to expand the game foundered on a lack of the correct paperwork.

The ambidextrous Pinkerton man whose base isn't finished demonstrates that we have been playing with what we inherited as we found it. However, I do anticipate this small collection being upgraded at least a little bit because we've all been enjoying it so much.

The playing card tokens help us keep track of who's who, and the tuft indicates that the figure has been pinned and can't do anything until it's removed.

What? Some Cowboys!

 As previously mentioned, we have been intending to play with some of Peter's collections which never saw action while he was alive. My progress with 'Cruel Seas' has been, to no one's surprise, non-existent. Fortunately, there were a small number of painted cowboys plus a set of the Two Fat Lardies' 'What a Cowboy!' rules. With James' Crusades era buildings standing in for adobe dwellings of the South Western US we were good to go. As I had played these rules before (once, and a couple of years ago) I was given the role of umpire/page turner. 

I must put some effort into taking more and better photographs, recent offerings really haven't been good enough. Given the figures which we had available the game saw a High Noon style face-off between a small group of Pinkerton detectives and a suspiciously equal in size, armament and skill level group of Mexican bandidos, both sides having neglected to bring their horses with them. It went down rather well, and familiarity with the rules having increased (we didn't find shooting all that intuitive, but got there in the end), we shall try a slightly larger game next week. Still no horses I suspect, somewhat ironic given that the figures were Peter's. The result of the game was inconclusive, with one bandit dead and two of the agents quite seriously wounded. There was a noticeable reluctance on the part of the players to pull back and recover their strength rather than constantly rush forward with all guns blazing.

I tasked James with the disappearing Triples entry on his blog (see the comments on the previous post) and he acknowledged that he had deleted it after a few months, feeling it was perhaps a bit strong. Despite it all being over ten years ago he clearly hasn't forgiven and forgotten though. His explanation for those present last night who weren't previously aware of the story was both forceful and embittered. 

“Yea, all things live forever, though at times they sleep and are forgotten.” - Rider Haggard