Bookshop haul

 Yesterday we popped into Hatchlands in Surrey for a quick dogwalk and lunch on our way back from some shopping.  One of the bonuses is that it has a small but pretty good 2nd hand bookshop onside (as well as selling very nice cheese & onion pasties in the cafe!)

I managed to pick up a nice selection of books

I've always been a big fan of CV Wedgwood's history books and was really pleased to see a Folio Society edition of her Thirty Years War.. a couple of years ago my son gave me a similar FS set of her English Civil War trilogy.

They also had a Folio Society editon of All Quiet on the Western Front which I gave to my son.  He has an decent collection of FS Society books and occasionally makes a bit of a profit buying and selling them.  Neither of us have read this before so it may be staying for a while.

Finally I picked up Anthony Beevor's account of the Crete campaign... something I know little about so I'm looking forward to reading this.  I funny his books very accessible, although I did give up on his Russian Revolution book... to many "something-ovich's" and confusing political parties for me to keep track of!!

The Women's Institute Battalion of Death

Well, my VBCW Women's Institute force made their debut on Monday in an epic pre-xmas game at Eric the Shed's where we battled it out to seize the means of production at Christmas Tree Wood.

As predicted the WI didn't fare well... not surprising as it was their first outing and they didn't know what they were doing... they'll get the hang of it eventually (nothing to do with my tactics at all...)

There were 6 players in the game.  I know stuff happened at the other end of the table but it's a bit hazy.  It mainly seemed to involve our side's tanks blowing up!  And units in pillboxes becoming bullet magnets and dying bravely.

The Miners Battalion support the armoured column

My A/T gun faces down 'Big Red' an enormous Posties tank

At my end of the table the WI and their Miner allies were tussling with the Postman's Union forces to seize Mustard Manor.  I always find in these games that I'm too keen to grab the fortified locations but all this achieves is giving my opponent a nice static target to concentrate on.  Sure enough, once we'd taken possession of the building, the mortar rounds and artillery shells started landing and eventually drove us out with heavy losses.

Mustard Manor... home of the capitalist oppressors 

It did briefly give a good vantage point to call in my own artillery on the petrol station resulting in a spectacular (but not very effective) explosion.  I was gradually pushed back and lost my armour but the game ended on a pointlessly impressive moment as the remaining WI survivors charged back into the burning manor to drive out some naval troops in a ferocious hand to hand combat.  And that was the last time they were seen....

A great game and a nice way to finish off the year.

Some VBCW Reinforcements

 Way back at the beginning of the year I signed up to a Kickstarter for some 28mm VBCW "Ladies Who Lunch" figures from Tec Scene.  I don't tend to do many Kickstarters and luckily they've always delivered, admittedly usually late, but the goods have always turned up.

This one gave me a few worries as there was a long period of radio silence until October when there was an apology from the company explaining that they'd had health issues but were now trying to get back on track.  A good example of where a quick email would have saved a lot of angst.  Luckily my figures turned up in late October but looking at the comments on the KS page it looks like there are still some outstanding orders

The figures themselves are pretty good.  They're a range of armed 1940s style women, mostly rifle armed although there's a bren gunner, kne with a SMG and one with a pistol (and handbag).  There are also a selection of women armed with assorted handweapons including meat cleaver, a broom and a rolling pin!  These would be ideal for a 'Went the Day Well' scenario.  

Various other figures had been added onto the KS including land girls with bows, polo players and armed Beefeaters, but I'd avoided these.  I do think maybe the company over reached a bit and would have been better sticking to something more achievable.

The figures themselves are quite nice and ideal for a VBCW setting.  These will see action for the 1st time tomorrow (which means they're guaranteed to run away!!) in a pre-xmas game at Eric the Shed's.  I'll be fielding these along with my Armed Miners as a Women's Institute Battalion of Death.

Louisbourg 1758

 Another week, another boardgame!  This time a recent acquisition of my friend Andrew's.  This is Louisbourg 1758 a new game by Worthington Games

Similar to other games we've played before like like Quebec 1759 and Wilderness Empires, this is a very nice block game depicting Wolfe's attempts to land and capture the town of Louisbourg... one of my favourite periods.  As you'd expect from Worthington the board and components are very nice and the game is relatively simple.

The French are very outmatched and need to delay the British advance and then hold out in Louisbourg until the turn clock runs down. The British have a choice of 3 landing sites... I chose to concentrate everything onto one beach which initially paid off and Andrew's weedy French troops pulled back.  Each player has a hand of action cards but for several of the opening turns I only had cards that my opponent could use... eventually a couple of useful ones came my way, allowing me to make a rapid forced march and to have a bonus bombarding the French ships in the bay which resulted in sinking 1 of the 2 ships.  This proved vital as it meant the French ability to bombard my troops was significantly reduced.  

By the half way point I'd managed to surround the town and begin bombarding it.  Luck was on my side here as my dice rolls were singularly lucky (helped by the fact that I had the town surrounded on 3 sides, giving a bonus) and Andrew's counter-firing was singularly unlucky with some epically bad dice rolls!!  

The British win by either seizing the town or by moving their ships into the bay and still having a decent sized force surrounding Louisbourg.  I realised too late that simply bombarding the town was unlikely to win the game and that I needed to march troops around the bay to seize Lighthouse Point and Island Battery, allowing the ships to enter.  I managed to capture both strong points and on the final turn was poised to sail triumphantly into the bay when the weather turned and my ships were unable to move!!  Gutted!!  If I'd worked this key point out a couple of turns earlier I may have pulled it off but as it was, the French held out and Wolfe had to slink off with his tail between his legs (pun very much intended!)

An excellent game and worth looking out for.  Just the right level of complexity and a tight turn limit, which makes for a nail biting conclusion. 

The White Castle

 For my birthday recently my son gave a copy of The White Castle, a boardgame which came out last year from Devir (BBG  link).  It's a very pretty game set around Himeji castle where each player is trying to build influence over the course of 3 turns.

Visually it's great with a very pretty board and a range of meeples in the shape af courtiers, gardeners and warriors, as well as some Cranes (the birds, not the building site things) and a rather OTT turn marker in the shape of a Carp.

It's a very Euro style game where you spend the available dice (which sit on some lovely little bridges) to place meeples and, if you've worked out your strategy right, this triggers a number of subsequent actions.  Your meeples can tend the gardens, visit the castle well, courtiers can make their way though the 3 levels of the castle or  warriors can train in the yard.  All of which trigger different subsequent actions.  

If, like my son, you're good at stringing these together and have built your action engine cleverly, the points and resources quickly start to mount up.  If, like me, you've randomly placed things because it seemed like a good idea at the time it may not work so well!  Actually I was ahead for most of the game but he ran away with it in the end of game scoring phase.

It's a neat little game... visually it's great, the mechanics are actually pretty simple and everything is explained by icons on the board itself, and it has a relatively short playing time.  You can only do 1 action per round and there are 3 turns of 6 rounds each, so choices are limited and require some careful thinking. Recommended!

I have been to... Alfriston and the South Downs

 It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago (feeling old now!) and my main birthday pressie was a mystery trip away somewhere.  My wife and I used to do this a lot, especially when we lived in a small flat, but we hadn't been away for ages so I'd left it to her to plan a trip somewhere, sometime.  She decided not to wait till the spring but to take a chance on a decent couple of days in late November and so I was whisked away for a couple of nights.

We didn't actually go that far... just over an hours drive to East Sussex... but it's not a part of the country we know that well.  Bizarrely, neighbouring West Sussex is really familiar as, until last year, that was part of my patch for work but I rarely crossed the invisible line into the far East.  After a stop off for lunch and a dog walk at Sheffield Park we ended up in the lovely village of Alfriston in the South Downs, staying in the 14thC pub The George Inn (highly recommended for the accommodation , food and beer!).  Alfriston is a lovely little village, home to the 1st property acquired by the National Trust at the end of the 19thC, the medieval Clergy House

I also loved the fact that, where some towns commemorate battles and rebellions, Alfriston thought it important to highlight a 'fracas' with a plaque... things may even have got a bit tetchy...

They also had one of those Sea Mine collecting boxes, again commemorating something that might have happened, but didn't...

It did make me think of Hot Fuzz!

Mostly we spent a lovely long weekend walking the dogs on bits of the South Downs and stopping off for coffee and cake... can I squeeze in anything historical/wargamey??  Well of course...

Elaine knows me too well so had chosen a spot with some historical attractions as well as nice food and walks.  First stop was Pevensey Castle 

Warden of the Cinque Ports to Pevensey with 2 ships...

Part of the outer Roman wall

A tudor cannon (the frame is a replica)

Pevensey first saw life as a Roman fort, part of the Saxon Shore defences, although there's a theory that they may have actually been built to reduce Rome's influence on Britain rather than the raiding tribes from Europe.  It was rebuilt by the Normans and then saw continuous use through to the 16th century including assorted sieges and high ranking prisoners.  William I's army sheltered in the remnants of the original fort after landing at Pevensey in 1066.

We also passed by the nearby Long Man of Wilmington although we didn't get a chance to stop and have a decent explore.  This chalk carving dates back to Neolithic/Iron Age/17th century CE depending on who you believe.

Cuckmere Haven 

Our final historical link is at Cuckmere Haven... a lovely walk along the edge of saltmarshes in a gap in the Seven Sisters... a range of chalky hills along the coast.  Since most of this stretch of coast consists of cliffs, a nice flat gap was a tempting possible landing site during WW2 so there are a range of defences across the gap including several pill boxes, ditches and Dragons Teeth anti tank defences.  

It makes sense to defend the gap but I imagine it would have been a very narrow bottleneck for any invaders and pretty marshy as well.  For anyone who's interested in this kind of thing, this is a type 25 Pillbox (lots more info on pillboxes here).  This one is quite a way back from the coast... there are a couple more guarding the beach but this one seems to be a 2nd line of defence.  It was a steep slippery slope up to it and I nearly broke my neck sliding around in the chalky mud (much to Elaine's amusement!).  She's quite worried that I'm turning into a Pillbox spotter!!

If you're down on the coast I can recommend Alfriston as a lovely base to stay in.  And lastly here are a couple photos of the dogs enjoying the break and guarding the South coast from invaders (although I suspect they'd betray us for a sausage...)

Temple of the Beastmen

 A bit of a different game this week, and one which had passed me by completely despite loving the VSF/Space1889 genre.  This is Temple of the Beastmen, produced by GDW waaaay back in 1989.

The game is a bit of a dungeon exploration game with different characters wandering through a series of levels in the palace of Martian King Gnaashriik.  The palace consists of a central shaft which players can gonup and down, and 5 levels, each with a number of hidden rooms and passages ready to be explored.  And, of course, these are filled with Beastmen, traps and (hopefully) treasures and slaves to be rescued.

Each character has their own skills and objectives.  In our game I randomly drew Lieutenant Arthur who has the advantage of a pistol, allowing ranged combat, and who gains bonus points if he can rescue the missing Ambassador.  Victory points can also be obtained by finding treasure and rescuing slaves.  My opponent, Anthony, drew Miss Lucy who begins in the depths of the palace at level 5 and without any resources, but who gains bonus points for exploring each level.

As you explore, payers turn over the face down tile to reveal a passageway or room.  Some rooms are better than others... the Barracks are more likely to have Beastmen, the Slave Quarters will (not surprisingly) have slaves to be rescued, and woebetide if you come across the Throne Room and King Gnaashriik (I did!!).  Once tile is revealed a card is drawn to reveal what it contains... good or bad.

Interestingly characters can never die... they begin with a number of servants who bravely take a bullet/spear to save the character.  But don't worry... you can always pop back outside the palace and recruit a few more (and presumably avoiding awkward questions about exactly what happened to the last group of servants that accompanied the character a few turns earlier!!)  In our game I bravely battled my way down to level 3, acquiring a band of rescued slaves, running away from King Gnaashriik and his pals, and picking up some valuable treasure.  All was looking good until I came across a 'Nameless Horror' and all my servants ran away!!  Miss Lucy meanwhile was racking up the points by checking off all the levels in the Palace.  On almost the last card of the game I turned the Ambassador card and bagged 17vp's and won the game by a single point!

The game is great fun... it works well with 2 players but I can see it would be even better with more.  There are options to move Beastmen onto your opponent or to fight each other and in a multiplayer game the opportunities for shenanigans would be high!  It reminded me a lot of 2 games I played a lot back in the 80s... Sorcerors Cave and Mystic Wood.  Anthony had also picked up some really nice original miniatures which were produced for the game and which really capture the feel of the characters.