World Crossfire Day 2009

British 'Tommies' in Normandy.
British 'Tommies' in Normandy - AB Figures from my collection.

What was it?

World Crossfire Day grew out of the desire of a large group of Crossfire players from around the world to do something to promote the rule set we all love; Crossfire. After discussing numerous alternatives it was decided the best way to promote the rules and to do something special that no one may have done before was to have a World Crossfire Day, and get people in as many countries as possible all playing Crossfire on the same day in local time – and after talking about it for a few months we arbitrarily settled on Saturday 04 April 2009 as a suitable date – mostly thanks to Nikolas Lloyd taking a decisive lead in the organisation of the event.

What then grew from this was a desire to do something more connected and with far more interaction between the games.

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Wings of War: WWI & WWII Air Combat

Wings of War - Original Box SetWings of War (WOW) is a World War I (& World War II) air combat game, based around using cards for manoeuvring your aircraft – the aircraft themselves can be miniatures, or for the beginner can just use the cards supplied in the game. I’ve had an interest in World War I air combat for a while, and previously played with my own system using cards and a gridded playing surface – but the beauty of WOW is you no longer need the grid – as you actually lay out the cards on the playing surface to manoeuvre your aircraft. The World War I aircraft are 1/144th Scale (again compatible with large ranges of existing models which I have quite a few of). For World War II they have brought out 1/196th Aircraft which should be compatible with existing 1/200th scale models (again of which I have a few). I hope to have more content here eventually, including photos, after action reports, and more. Meanwhile you can read more at the official Wings of War website… or at Board Game Geek…

World War II Mosquito Fleet 1/600th Naval

Having been recently inspired by a David Manley article reprinted* in the latest SOTCW (Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers) Journal for fast play Motor Torpedo Boat rules for World War II, I am looking to dust off my reasonable sized fleet of Skytrex 1/600th scale vessels that have been living in boxes for 15 years – since my days of playing “Fast Attack!” Looking forward to hauling these out soon so keep an eye out for some new material later in 2009 on this… I’ve been further inspired to possibly also do WWI as well just Dave G’s models available at PT Dockyard giving an indication of the vessels involved.

David Manley’s fast play MTB rules were first published in “Wargames Journal” issue 9 at the start of 2008.

Kofler’s “kommt zum Abendessen”

DAOG Askari.
DAOG Askari

In Kofler’s previous adventure (Kofler “befehle die Marines”) the forces of the Kaiser were endeavouring to suppress the activities of an (apparently large) band of Zanzibari Sklavenhändler – this they were only partially successful in doing, although they did avoid the very angry Rhinos’ who didn’t appreciate their lunch being interrupted by a battle! However things were sufficiently peaceful for the column to return to base and nothing untoward occurred until the news that a German Archaeologist, his Austrian Mistress, and Hungarian assistant, had all gone missing and were apparently being held by a rather disreputable tribe! It would be up to Kofler, Muehlbauer, and company, to come to their rescue!

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Mystery Colonial Italian Gun?

askari_a3
Askari Miniatures Gun 'A3'

Can you identify this mysterious Italian Mountain Gun…? Askari Miniatures produce the illustrated Italian Mountain Gun – and while it is modelled on actual photographs of Italian guns it has not been positively identified exactly what model and calibre the weapon is.

Askari describe it thus: “Italian Mountain gun from the 1890s. Used by the Italian Askari camel and mule-mounted gun companies.

I am attempting to identify exactly what weapon it is, when it entered service with the Italians (and for how long, i.e. was it still in use in WW1 or even WW2) and whether it may have been used by Nations other than the Italians (if it was for example an exported Krupp or DeBange gun or similar).

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Order from the Flag Dude Arrives

My order from The Flag Dude has arrived for my Colonial Troops – I’ve been keen to get this as its the first time I’ve ordered from Rick O’Brien and I was looking forward to seeing first hand what his flags are like – now I can push on and complete my units now and give them their nice new flags. I’ve also taken photos of the Flags on arrival to give people an idea of what they look like!

The following is a random selection of flags I have purchased from Rick O’Brien, the Flag Dude, for my 28mm Colonial Forces. I’ve put these up to give anyone interested a good (but quick) view of some of the flags in a higher resolution than is available on Rick’s site.

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Battlefront releases more Wargames Illustrated news

WI-cover-newBattlefront (Flames of War) have announced additional news about their plans for Wargames Illustrated Magazine, starting with Issue 260 (June 2009). From that issue the magazine’s page count will be increased by 40% (from 80 to 112) and this will be used for some Flames of War specific content as well as new material. On the whole it all sounds fairly positive and promising. You can read more at the press release… The cover illustration on left is a low-res version of a mock up you can see displayed on the Battlefront Poll Page of the possible new format.

 

 

28mm Askari Miniatures Figure Comparison

Askari Italian Gun
Askari Italian Gun

I recently ordered some sample figures from Al Maurer at Askari Miniatures as I was looking at using some of his ranges and wanted to see how they compared with my existing Perry Miniatures & Wargames Foundry figures (that make up the vast bulk of my 28mm Colonial armies), and to get a feel for how they compared to Gerry Webb’s Castaway Arts figs.

Talking to Al about it I also promised to report back to him how they compared, in my opinion, as he advised he hadn’t directly compared them previously since the ranges didn’t really ‘crossover’ (e.g. Perry’s’ Sudan range is 1880’s while Askari’s French & Italians are later, the Italians being in fact 1930’s)…

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World CrossFire Day!

WCFDlogo
WCFD: World Crossfire Day 2009

A large group of Crossfire players from around the world have decided to promote Crossfire by having a “World Crossfire Day” in April, Read More Here (at Lloydian Aspects)… and World Crossfire Day 2009 here at Wargaming.info.

SHAKO II Napoleonic Wargaming

SHAKO IIOver the years I have dabbled with numerous rule sets for Napoleonics, starting with some home grown ones, and most notably a Bruce Quarrie inspired concept based on articles in Military Modelling (UK) in the early 1980’s referring to gaming Quatre Bras and Waterloo with Airfix Plastic figures at 10 figures per battalion! Years later I had moved on, and although the club I belonged to had a scattering of players who played Napoleonics in 15mm (with Corps d’Armee rules) and 25mm (with club rules developed from Paddy Griffith works) I had moved on to 1/300th scale (6mm) to enable large grand battles with huge forces, and was using the Anschluss “Ebb & Flow” rules – designed for fighting large mass battles in 1/300th scale, and representing every battalion and skirmisher formation, and using no dice! Frank Chadwick’s Volley & Bayonet was also around, and although a generally good rule set it best suited 1/300th scale (which I we played for a while and got quite good game results historically) – but which for me lacked the visual appeal.

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Miniature Wargames Magazine: New Format

miniwargames314The latest issue of Miniature Wargames (No. 311 – March 2009) has arrived and in the editorial Andrew Hubback has announced that the promised new format will be implemented from the next issue (April). Miniature Wargames Website.

Update: 26 March 2009 – My copy of Miniature Wargames 312 (April 2009) arrived today and features the new layout and type faces. Definitely an improvement to the appearance and the gradual trend for more of the articles to be of more interest seems to continue at first glance.

An improvement in some of the photos as well – again significantly increasing the proportion that are of the standard found in Wargames Illustrated, Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy, and Battlegames magazines.

BC’09 Conclusion: Results & Aftermath

Well what a weekend – we had had two really intense full on challenging battles, one rather frustrating indecisive game, and one very decisive win. As with previous BattleCry events games were generally played in good spirits and the environment was great. The new venue at the ASB Basketball Stadium was fantastic and I look forward to future events being there… Once again Philip and Andrew had the ‘most ancient’ army present, and special thanks to Battleline Miniatures for the competition prizes. Continue reading “BC’09 Conclusion: Results & Aftermath”