Attack 2022!

 A quick trip down the M4 to Devizes to visit Attack 2022! - back after three years.

Interesting little show. Not too many big traders, but some interesting ones all the same.

I noted that there were several traders selling items that had been 3D printed. Figures, vehicles and terrain pieces. A market that can only continue to grow and provide punters with increased variety of offerings as they go!

Some nice demo games, though many players appeared to be in a bubble when it came to engaging with anyone observing.

Lots of competition games going on, but these guys were too focussed to chat, so nothing much to see there.

The site is a secondary school and the show is split between several buildings. Thankfully I'd been here before and could find my way around, but a small map might have been helpful to anyone new?

Good Bring & Buy stall. I got a copy of Featherstone's Battles with Model Soldiers for £1! And an unused set of DAK Attack LRDG Raiding rules for £10.

A couple of Rapid Fire scenario books fell into my bag as well. Though when I looked online I realised afterwards that Grubby Tanks is charging more for them than they are to buy from the publisher😕

All in all a pleasant day out to my first wargame show since Crusade in 2020. Would I go next year, not sure. It's a long way and a fuel is so very expensive!

Strength & Honour - 2mm Ancients (7)

 I decided to have a check up on what I've created to date for Strength & Honour. This was to confirm if there's anything else I think I need to print, and to enthuse me to get on and actually try a game!

My Roman Army.

Fortuitously, I printed my bases at 80mm width and 45mm depth. This meant that I could pack them away quite safely in a 1.5 litre Really Useful Box. I could fit 7 bases to a layer, protected simply by a strip of bubble wrap. There was room in the box for all my figure bases...that's two enormous armies + their encampments!!

Look how portable this system is!

I already had a Deep Cut Studio gridded (100x100mm) mat that I will use to play on and steered my choice for base colouring.

The remainder of what's needed to play fitted into another Really Useful Box - this time one holding 1.6 litres. I printed out Command Boards reduced in size to match the box dimensions so they could all be stored together. Also in this box is room for all my terrain pieces, the Disaster & Set-Back cards, some "Disordered" tokens I printed off and some Roman coins to use as Command Tokens. I've printed off some of Mark Backhouse's name labels and intend to fix those to their bases using good old-fashioned Blu-Tack.

Doh! I thought I'd printed 9 wood bases.....

This has proved a worthwhile exercise, as I've noticed that I'm a wood base short of what I thought I'd printed, so that's on the printer as I type.

My Gaul/Ancient Briton Warband based Army

I really pleased with all these. Its the first time I've been able to take up a new period/rules and created everything I need for myself - nothing purchased but the rules! If only I could find the time to get on and try them out......

MVT Wartime Wheels 2022 at Caldicot Castle

 A pleasant (if cloudy) bank holiday day-out to the closest military vehicle show to where we live in South Wales.

For the first time in 2 years the Military Vehicle Trust (MVT) have been able to put on their 2 day show at Caldicot Castle. The show appears to have been very well attended with living history stands and vehicles and as it's free to the public, well attended with visitors too.

Mainly softskin vehicles on show (inevitably a lot of jeeps!), there were a few less common exhibits this time - towed Rapier launcher for example.

I thoroughly recommend popping along, if you're in the area. I guess it will be the same time next year😀

I'll let the pictures do the talking....

Strength & Honour - 2mm Ancients (6)

 Busy afternoon printing and laminating the playing aids for Strength & Honour.

Playsheet, Command Boards, Setback & Disaster cards + the name tags from Mark Backhouse on the Strength & Honour Facebook page.

I'm toying with how to attach the latter. Current favourite solution is hot melt glue magnetic strip to bases and double sided tape to attach more to the name tags.

I also printed some Roman Coins I found on Thingiverse to use as tokens on the Command Boards 😁

Strength & Honour -2mm Ancients (5)

 Fueled with excitement for the new S&H rules I got to work designing some terrain pieces to suit my 50x50mm square battlefield.

These are simple items built using a combination of standard shapes (Cones, cubes, pyramids etc.) and other designs to be found on Thingiverse (trees, bushes, rocks, hills etc.)

Having drawn them up and converted them to .stls I printed them out before adding sand with PVA glue to the open areas.

Once dry I spray primed them in matt white before painting them up with a mix of Citadel Contrast and Scale 75 Instant Paints.

Finally when dry they were sprayed with matt varnish to protect and seal them.

The designs can be found on Thingiverse at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5355782 please feel free to give them a try😀

Strength & Honour - 2mm Ancients (4)

 I decided to take a pause and take a look at the approach I originally planned.

I’ve a perfectly good Deep Cut Studio gaming mat that’s marked out in 100mm squares, so taking the point Mark Backhouse made about imagining each “big” square is actually 4 ”small” squares (in this case 50x50mm) I have decided to produce my armies on 80mm wide bases rather than the 120mm wide bases I’d originally planned.

First up is my "Barbarian" army - produced using the technique I described in my last post. The base camp was designed using 3D Builder.

Next up is my Roman Army.

What other set of rules could enable you to produce two complete armies for next to no outlay and only take a couple of evenings to paint?😂😂

My next mission is to produce some more terrain (I’ve designed some roads, rivers and a villa to go with what I’ve done so far).

I’m now excitedly watching the “how to” videos and awaiting the rule release at the end of the month😃