Half a century in the making

Hello again.

A few months ago, before the various technical and other challenges I referred to in the first post I published this month, I mentioned that I had a certain milestone birthday approaching. Well, as far as I am aware, Harry Potter and I have four things in common - we both wear glasses, we are both sans parents, we both have scars (though his main one is far more prominent than mine and was caused by something very different), and we share the 31st July as our birthday.

Yes, Monday, 31st July, 2017 saw yours truly turn fifty, whilst on a family holiday with around twenty others who decided they would like to join me at a collection of stone buildings down in rural Somerset where we stayed for an excellent, if slightly damp in places, week of relaxation, sightseeing, fun, laughter, games and the odd disagreement!

I had a jolly wonderful time and, as it was my birthday, although I tried to tell people we were not actually there for that, I received a number of very decent gifts from the entourage. The wargaming-related ones are here.



The "Travel Battle" was courtesy of wife and children - I must have dropped a few hints somewhere...

For those few of you not in the know on this one, it was originated by one of the Perry twins many years ago as a quick and portable option for a game whilst away at shows, conventions or re-enactment events. The box contains two armies, terrain and rules. The option exists to paint the two forces in the box, which are generic Napoleonic-style figures in red and blue plastic, so basically French vs British. Given that my passion in Napoleonic terms is to play Austrian, I wonder how the red ones would look in white...

There will undoubtedly be several articles on the web and in future magazines about how to expand this further, which I await with interest, but the set is on the conveyor belt of projects that is my "To Do" list. It can, of course, be played without painting either the figures or terrain, but that would not be very wargamer-ish.



Now this little offering was a very generous one from Nephew Nick and his wife, Claire. I had heard of it, and its derivatives, but never actually played any of them. It looks great and could very easily become my de rigeur choice whenever I want a quick WW2 game. It too is chock full of figures, including tanks and artillery. I very much look forward to giving this a go asap.

A good birthday!!!

See you soon.

G