Crisis at Antwerp - 3 November 2012

Just a very brief update in this post to let people know that Richard Clarke, myself and another six members of the TooFatLardies club (Harpers, Biffo, Alan, Trev, Elton and Noddy) are making the trip to the beautiful city of Antwerp on Friday for the Crisis 2012 show held on Saturday, 3rd November and hosted by the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp.

This has been one of the highlights of my wargaming year since 2009 and is always a great show, bringing the very best of European wargaming  together in one place.  Added to this hobby incentive is the city of Antwerp itself, surely one of the most attractive of North European cities and always very welcoming.

We're taking a participation game of Dux Britanniarum, which will (I think) be Saxon sea raiders against Sub-Roman British defenders.  As ever, anyone is more than welcome to join in the game - but also, as ever, it’s the chance to meet old friends and new which is the real highlight of the trip.

Here's some photos from the last few years, together with some pictures of the old town of Antwerp, all of which bring back some terrific memories.  Look forward to seeing a few of you this weekend!

Tot binnenkort!

Great War Great Reads: #1 – German Assault Troops of World War I

First, many apologies for my absence from the blog.  October has been a bit of an up and down month to say the least.  I was very busy at the end of September at work, and as soon as I finished the project I was working on I caught ‘flu. 

I’ve only had it once before, and I hadn’t remembered how awful it can be.  It’s taken a good two weeks to get over the worst of it, and in the process I’ve had to miss a great weekend of gaming in Burton with a couple of very good friends, Simon Gaudin and Craig Ambler.  Best laid plans and so forth – but all the same, I was deeply sorry I had to miss the weekend. 

Laid up in bed, there’ve been few high spots of the last couple of weeks in wargaming terms.  There’s not much you can do with the ‘flu other than lie in bed, as I am sure many of you know through similarly wretched experiences.  However, over the last week things have been getting back to normal and I’ve been working (very slowly) on my pictish warband.  More of that in the weeks to come.

 

I also finally managed to concentrate on a couple of books I’ve been saving for a while.  One of them is Thomas Wictor’s “German Assault Troops of World War I”.  This is a very lavish reference work, written by a very prominent contributor to various Great War online forums and follows his very well received first book on “German Flamethrower Pioneers of World War I”.  I thought I'd take the oportunity to review it here.