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...)

I'm your huckleberry...

 

A change of games this week as Andrew and I managed to squeeze in a couple of boardgames in one evening.

First up was an outing for the old Avalon Hill game 'Gunslinger', one of my favourite games back in the 80s.  My original set was purchased on a family holiday appropriatley in the USA where I remember being amazed at the availability of games in mainstream shops.  My original set vanished at some point (I think when I moved down to England) and I picked up a rather battered set cheaply a few years ago.

Each player manages a number of characters with clichéd Cowboy titles... the Marshall, the Quiet Man, the Sodbuster etc, there's even a floozy for the bar room scenarios!  Each turn is broken into 5 phases and players allocate action cards (move, draw, cock pistol, shoot etc) for each phase (or phases, depending how long the action takes).  A separate card deck determines whether an attack is successful and what the outcome us, so it's a dice free game.

As neither of us had played for a long time we went with the introductory scenario which pitches 2 opponents facing off close to each other in a  empty corral.  The rulebook claimed this was based on a historical encounter between Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo although checking afterwards it looks like in reality Ringo shot himself in a drunken fit of depression so not quite the encounter of legend.

In our first run through we blazed away at close range, generally failing to hit each other despite taking the time to aim properly until a lucky shot from my character Ringo hit Doc Holliday in the leg and left him bleeding in the dust (like the pesky varmint he was, etc...).  Holliday is limited by having fewer endurance points thanks to his nasty case of TB.

We replayed the scenario and this time I decided to go for a more cinematic approach ignoring aiming and blasted away fanfiring the gun like they do in all the best movies... again Andrew was very unlucky with the result card and Doc went down with a shot to the body

We both had great fun with the game... inevitably we ended up making suitable gun noises and spouting cowboy clichés which is all part of the fun.  Definitely one to try again with a more complex scenario soon.  I've always reckoned it would also be an easy game to play using miniatures instead of counters.  I've always found Gunslinger gives a really good narrative game that feels.like a movie.

We finished off the evening with a quick run through of Undaunted Normandy as Andrew hadn't played it before.  I've played this a few times but never got beyond the introductory scenario!  

It's easy to pick up and, despite me failing to add some important cards to the deck until part way though, we rattled though the game with Andrew's Americans winning comfortably (although we missed this for a turn or so because we hadn't counted the VPs properly!).  A nice combination of a simple game but one that you need to think carefully about tactics in.

What have I been up to?

This week saw another game of Blood Red Skies which ended in a win for the RAF... we'd each lost a plane (out of 4 a side) but BRS emphasises morale wins with planes likely to break off and head for home when the hits start to mount up.  The more I've played BRS, the more impressed I've been by the way they manage morale and the importance of manouvreability as much as shooting.

I've also been busy prepping my 10mm paper Roman/British armies for a forthcoming trial game of Strength and Honour.  So far I have a decent amount of legions and warbands (as well as some chariots, skirmishers and cavalry for thr Brits) but I need to add some Auxiliaries, skirmishers and cavalry for the Romans

The Romans

...and the Britons

Chariots

I also need to mark a grid on my game mat which I must admit I'm a bit nervous about!

I was out and about for work last week (a bit of a novelty these days) and popped into a branch of Game in Worthing.  I recently discovered that Game have diversified a bit from videogames (I guess these are generally downloaded these days) and stock quite a lot of boardgames and sundry geeky stuff.  I picked up a copy of Colt Express for the very reasonable price of £9.99.  It's a  very light Cowboy themed game where you have to rob passengers on a train  and, of course, other players and get away with the most loot.  Looks like good fun for family game nights.

Blood Red Skies

I finally managed a proper game of Blood Red Skies this week.  Checking back on the blog I discovered that I bought the starter set 4 years ago but they've never seen action!

I'd played one game of this at the Guildford club back in 2018... it was a large multiplayer version which didn't use all the rules if I remember correctly.  I was impressed though and promptly picked up a copy of the starter set.  I'd painted up the planes that come with this but never completed them.  The original starter box came with some rather naff stickers for roundels and crosses rather than proper decals and I never got round to acquiring the proper ones until recently.  

I spent the weekend swearing loudly at the set of Spitfire and Me109 decals that I'd bought but managed to get them mostly applied safely (as long as you don't look too close... there are 6 planes and 7 sets of decals so you only get 1 chance to mess up!).  I'm pleased when the results though...

Incidentally when I discovered that the Warlord Games decals are for 602 City of Glasgow Squadron I was sold... I hadn't realised that they still exist (now as a RAAF squadron) and are based about a mile or so from my old home in Glasgow.

The game avoids the complications that often come with air games... altitude bands, complicated manouvers etc... by using stands which can be angled backwards as though the plane is climbing (to show 'advantage') or angled downwards (to show 'disadvantage').  This neatly simplifies all the height issues and advantage can be used to increase speed or manouvreability. 

 

Hits from firing are quite hard to achieve and it's even harder to actually cause damage.  A successful hit forces a plane to a lower advantage status and a disadvantaged plane which is hit is then shot down.  More importantly a successful hit, even if it causes no damage, inflicts a 'boom chit' on the victim (terrible terminology!).  Once you have more 'boom chits' than planes the squadron turns tail and flees, which feels right... driving off enemy planes was a more accurate result than everyone being shot down.

Each side also has a selection of cards based on the type of plane, the period of the war and the theatre which add some extra depth.

Our game pitted 4 Spitfires against 4 Me109s in a straightforward encounter scenario.  The game rewards spending some time manoeuvring and positioning to get onto the tail of your opponent and the tight turn of the Spitfire proved really effective at this.  It also pays to have a wingman who can soften up an opponent and force them to a disadvantaged state before their partner moves in for the kill.

I was really pleased with how they played and will definitely use them again... it's fair to say my opponent was less impressed (despite winning) and found the mechanics harder to get to grips with but I guess that's the nature of wargames... we all have different tastes.

Muckleburgh Military Collection

So sadly our holiday is over and I'm bracing myself for the usual post-holiday depression when I return to work on Monday.  We had a brilliant time and I can highly recommend North Norfolk if you're looking for a break (providing you like beaches and walking!).

I managed to convince Elaine to drop me off at the Muckleburgh Military Collection one day... she decided it really wasn't her thing (I know... hard to believe!) and headed for a beach and a pub instead!  

The Collection is a museum of Military vehicles and weapons... from what I could see these are all WW2 or later...  and is the largest privately owned Military museum in the UK.  It's based on the site of an Anti-Aircraft training camp and part of he museum tells the history of the camp and well as the local Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry, but the heart of the museum is its collection of vehicles and weapons.

It's a very traditional walk-through museum with a lot of 'don't touch' signs but I think this made a lot of sense... you don't want small children clambering over (and falling off) your nice, oily tank.  At times they run 'drive a tank' sessions although I got the impression these haven't resumed post-Covid.  It has the obligatory cafe and shop which had a range of Military books and a lot of toys but nothing that tempted me.

So, without further ado, here is a dump of lots of photos...

Harrier

V1

FH70

ZPU

Long Tom

Naval gun

M16

Sexton

Grizzly

M24 Chaffee

T34/T85

Bren Carrier

Bofors

88mm

Rapier

Saladin

Ferret

Saracen

Dingo

White Scout Car

Unimog

Humber Pig

BTR 40

M8 Greyhound

Daimler Mk 1

A lot of shells!

Pz61

M47 Patton

Abbott SPG

M29 Weasle

AMX 13

Bloodhound 

Recoiless Rifle

18 Pounder

The museum also has a lot of models of ships, tanks and aircraft...

A model of the original camp

Well worth a couple of hours if you find yourself in North Norfolk.