Victor's take on Wargame Holidays

We were delighted to  welcome Victor's party from Brazil in July this year.

Here's what Victor had to say about Wargame Holidays:

“My experience in the Wargames Holiday in Crete exceeded all my expectations. We were very well received by Jon and Diane. The four-day wargames were sublime. The game table, the models, miniatures, and especially the conduct of the game by Jon meant that I had the most interesting experience of my life in the hobby. By leaving Crete, we had the feeling that we left behind our family members. I must also mention my fine fellow players, who with great kindness and fair play allowed me to realize a dream. Thank you all. I hope to see you someday.”

2013 Season Dates

Finally an update after a hectic summer.  Apologies to everyone.  Exciting news though, we are happy to announce the new season's dates and events!

So what’s on the agenda for 2013? First and foremost is our ambitious Anglo-Zulu War project. Played over two days, we start with a truly vast 6,000 figure 15mm refight of Isandlwana. On the second day, we focus in on Rorkes Drift in 28mm with every defender represented and hordes of Zulus. The second new addition is French and Indian Wars. We’ve created a massive forested landscape, studded with settlements and forts. Hundreds of Woodland Indians and French irregulars aim to descend on the British to cause chaos and mayhem. 
Our final new addition is 28mm Greek City States. We’re creating Athenian, Spartan, Corinthian and Theban armies and cities and throwing a large Persian raiding party into the mix. We’ll be using Hail Caesar for this new 2,500 strong collection. 
We open again on June 11 2013. Weeks run Tuesday to Tuesday, which includes seven night’s bed and breakfast and four whole days of wargaming. Dates and events are: June 11-18 – Isandlwana/Rorkes Drift & French & Indian Wars June 18-25 – Black Powder Week – ACW & Indian Mutiny June 25- July 2 – Buccaneers & Hoplites – 28mm pirates and Greeks July 9-16 – Greek Week – Crete 1941 & Greek City States July 16-23 – Warlord Week – Greek City States (Hail Caesar) & ACW (Black Powder) July 23-30 – WW2 Week – Crete 1941 and Normandy 1944 July 30 – August 6 – Exotic Week – Pirates and Indian Mutiny August dates to be confirmed. If you want a different mix of games then we are happy to switch the game mix if you get in first. You can book solo, or if you are a club contact us and ask about our discount packages. An apartment, which can sleep up to three adults, costs just £36 per night including breakfast. Each of the four days of gaming costs only £50 and you don’t even need to bring dice! If you need any help with flight bookings or suggestions, get in touch with us at info@wargameholidays.com.

Pirates - first turns

What a great first game over the two days!  Theo managed to achieve ALL of this objectives as did Danny (and he was given the governorship of the newly captured Spanish island and pardoned by the English).  I managed to round off a disastrous game as the French by having my last Man O' War de-masted and the crew abandoning ship as an uncontrollable fire raged throughout the ship!

Pirates - some more shots of the table

The game will get under way in just over two hours!  Here are some more shots of the table set-up.

New Pirate table - a first look

Gamers are assembling for tomorrow's game, the first time we run our brand new Pirate game.  We've painted up the ships, hundreds of pirates, made the ports, sharks, volcano and dozens of other eye candy.

More shots soon, game starts at 1000 local time Wednesday.

Battlegames issue 17 - Diane's article

"Diane Sutherland gives us "Have you seen my Neil Diamond CD?", another witty offering, this time with a recycling bent to create jungle scenery on old CDs."

A selection of plastic aquatic plants and plant mats.  Most are sold on a large sprue but can be pulled off making the construction of the terrain much easier.  None of the plant mats in this picture cost more than £7 each for 100 plants.

Our venerable hot glue gun, along with a pair of scissors (to snip the plant mat sprues), a craft knife to score the CDs and a plundered selection of ISP installation CDs.

Games Workshop’s original jungle plants, now out of production, but still in wide circulation on the second hand market.  These are the green and brown ones, they have simply been washed in soapy water (a hangover chore from painting plastic figures and not strictly necessary), then washed with slightly watered down Renaissance Inks.  You could also wash with watered down dark green paint or simply dry brush.  It’s much easier to do this with the plant parts still on the sprues.

Four finished jungle terrain pieces.  The paint and sand mix has been added, then dry brushed and some static grass stuck in place with white wood glue. You can get considerable variation with just a handful of different plant types and different “planting” schemes.

 Some CDs with a selection of plastic plants fixed in place with a hot glue gun.  You can see the square of card over the centre and the sprues of the plant mats.  Scoring the CDs is just a minor precaution to help give the glue and the paint a key.

Bamboo plants, these are based differently, just on a square of 2mm MDF.  We bought a “chain” of bamboo from a home decor store which provided us with 150 individual bamboo shoots.  Three or four have been hot glued to the centre of the MDF.

Twig and plant mat trees.  Each of the plastic plants has literally been pushed onto the “branches” of the twigs.  Each twig has between three and five of the plastic plants. For solidity, the twig has been hot glued to an old coin.

Seed pods with a plastic plant mat plant stuck to the top to make palm trees.  The natural shape of the seed pod was ideal for the trunk.  These add a bit of extra colour to the Indian village featured in issue 14 of Battlegames.