The Race to Weitzel's Mill: part 2

The Race to Weitzel's Mill: part 1

  Another article from Gorget and Sash.  A brilliant article about The Weitzel's Mill action by Kenneth Hayes.  This is the best researched article I have read about This battle and it has the added bonus of an number of pictures from the battlefield.  Kenneth Hayes has done a number of outstanding articles and this is one of his best.

Aloha from Hawaii

Janine's special drink, that she calls a Hawaiian Sunset. Photograph by Janine.

  If I 've been strangely quiet it is because I have been on vacation.  Janine and I have always wanted to go to Hawaii and this was the year we made it happen.  Two weeks off, coordinating flights (a must if you travel stand by) and setting up time shares.  Spent a week in Maui and a week in Oahu.  A beautiful tropical paradise.

Relaxing after swimming with the sea turtles. Photograph by Janine.

Cold Wars 2019: wrap up

  Not much to report on Sunday morning.  Due to the long ride back to New England we were up and on the road by 9:39.  Going over my pictures here were a couple other games that drew my attention.

A WW1 game.  Outstanding terrain.  Note the crashed aircraft.  Someone is having a bad day!

A beautiful sailing ship game.

The Battle of Isandlwana.  Amazing terrain!  Looks like the poor company of infantry is about to get overwhelmed.  Outstanding depiction of the action here.

From another Zulu vs British game.  We were talking to the game master who was a most excellent fellow.  I really liked how he mounted his Zulu.  An irregular shaped base with the figures fitting into it.  Easy to move, looks like irregular formation and easy casualty removal.  I think I will use this for my Riflemen and skirmishers in my Rev War and War of 1812 games.  Brilliant!

Another beautiful American Revolution game.

So another Cold Wars done.  As always I enjoyed myself.  Beautiful games, friendly gamers and a very nice location.  I feel the Host is improving greatly and on the right track.  I had heard that HMGS will be signing a three year contract to hold games there.  If so that is good.  I understand that some people had issues with parking and food.  I experienced neither of these issues.  Once parked the car stayed there.  As far as food there were plenty of places within a short walking distance.  I tend to have a good breakfast and then a early dinner and I am done.  I really liked the Starbucks and the two friendly people who worked it for very long hours each day.

looking forward to next year!

Cold Wars 2019: saturday

The Cold Wars dealers area on Saturday.  There were a couple of long time exhibitors not attending this year (Eureka miniatures USA and Baggage train).  But a couple new I had not heard of .  Impudent Mortals has outstanding MDF buildings at very reasonable prices.  Perfect for North American.  They have outstanding instructions on how to put them together through their web sites.  Highly recommended as Hal would say.  Here is a link to his site: https://www.impudentmortal.com

An interesting American Civil War Game.  Looked like Brother vs Brother type game.  But I liked the nice house in the center.  I liked it so much I found the Charlie FoxTrot both and bought one!

Very interesting terrain for a Napoleonic battle.  Showed what you could do with very tiny miniatures.  I believe these were 10mm.

A very clever Wings of Glory game with Zeppelins!  Looked like a great game and everyone was laughing and having fun.  Outstanding!  The airships were models of the USS Akron and Macon suitably altered.  The grandmaster was great fun to talk with and very enthusiastic.

Very clever game with outstanding terrain.  Here the Union army could capture and destroy the CSA Tennessee.  Outstanding iron  clad ship models. Again a fun game where players and host looked like they were having great fun.

One of my favorite looking games .  Howard Whitehouse ran this toy soldier game.  The figures looked like they   came  out of those comic book adds we all saw in our youth.  Great old school terrain .I think the Rules used were his Gentleman at war rules.  I want to try this out!

One event I attended in Friday and Saturday were talks by Frank Chadwick and Glenn Kidd about game design.  These were incredibly interesting talks in his to write rules and how to translate your research into playable rules.  Both men were super knowledgeable.  A nugget I got from this was so not let the small details of research take over your game.  What level of game do you want?  Again, both men were outstanding.