The 6mm project gathers momentum ...

The 6mm project is well underway for 'The Guns of August'. Troops are pouring in to recruiting depots in  London, Canada (where are you at the moment, Shawn?) and Christchurch. The recruits in the photos below have graced the depots in Christchurch.

The building is one of a number of Hovels buildings used to create the 3"x3" town sectors needed for the coming actions on the Marne. The town sectors themselves are not yet complete... another project on the list.

Photographing 6mm figures may well be more of a challenge than I had thought.... certainly it seems that good results matching the 20mm figures may take a little more time. I may come back and delete these photos as I improve the technique... the first photos are the newer ones, those down the page are first efforts.

However, half the German division is done, and the other half is nearly there. That will leave the artillery.

The worst of all this is of course that collecting is an addiction.. in my mind there is already a Russian Corps ready to fight the rapidly growing German Corps.. having read Golokov's account of the battles collectively known as Tannenburg (or The Masurian Lakes, depending on which nationality you are) . It's a disease. Well, maybe it's something a bit more than that. As someone famous once said: "the force is strong in this one!!!!"

'The Guns of August'

Sometimes I have good ideas ... only sometimes, mind you. 'The Guns of August' is, I hope, one of the better ones, and it has resulted in the next big project - painting two 6mm divisions for Great War Spearhead (only two? I hear you ask.. well, look, honestly, I know when to stop.. two will do....."me thinks he doth protest too much").

I am no stranger to painting 6mm of course: my WW2 and Moderns armies are both 6mm. These Chieftains have done good service on the battlefields of cold war Europe (the photo comes from Keith McNelly's site 'The Wargames Room').

However I am more used to painting figures like these (HaT 20mm 1914 Russians):

The New Zealand national war games convention for 2008 is to be held here in Christchurch at Easter 2008. The idea: invite a group of players from around the world to attend the convention and play a series of WW1 games using the scenario generation system that we had published earlier in 2007. 

I figured that this was  a bit of a long shot: travelling half way around the world to play war games might just possibly seem like a bit of an extravagance to some. But.. I was flabbergasted, and ecstatic when the two top GWSH minds agreed to come over and play: Shawn Taylor, and Robert Dunlop... wow!!!!

The idea has evolved since then. The three days of gaming will be themed around the August 1914 invasion of France. The format is: on day one we will play a series of scenarios generated using the scenario generation system. The results of these games (probably 6 games) will then feed into a large game, covering (we think) an 18 foot long table, representing the first battle of the Marne. There will be 6 or 7 players, and the game will take place on the second and third days of the convention. 

My initial idea had been to have the scenario game splayed using three scales: 6mm, 15mm and 20mm, since the rules are currently played in all three scales (Robert also has 2mm, but I'm not sure how many players are using that scale at the moment). However logistically it would have proved too difficult to generate enough terrain for all three scales, so we have settled on 6mm for all of the battles.

And that's how my drive into 6mm Great War Spearhead armies began. It's not an abandonment of my favourite 20mm, but a chance to branch out, using one of my all time favourite rules sets, covering a much under-rated war games period. Watch out for some photos of my 6mm troops as they roll off the production line.

Sometimes I have good ideas ... only sometimes, mind you.

Why another war gaming blog?

In 2005 I set up the web site "The Great Adventure'. I had been inspired by good friend Keith McNelly, and his own war gaming site 'The Wargames Room', and decided that I wanted to create a web site that would inspire others to take a look at a war gaming period close to my own heart (World War 1) and to try the set of rules that had allowed me to play enjoyable games in this neglected period: Great War Spearhead. 

The web site is a more formal vehicle on which to promote the period, and the rules. It is filled with resources, scenarios, after action reports, and photos. But sometimes I just want to ramble, when I have things to say. Sometimes these things are not even related to World War 1. Sometimes I just want to tell everyone about a great battle I have fought, without posting a formal AAR. Sometimes I want to share my enthusiasm for a new project, and any war gamer reading this will know what that feels like. How many of you have been part way through a project only to find your attention taken away in the excited buzz of some new period or rules set? Come on , own up..  I know that's probably almost all of you!!!!

So those are some of the purposes of this blog. I don't have any specific intention to be controversial and provocative: but hopefully I might prompt someone to respond sometime, or maybe just have a chuckle, whether with me or at me.

Hopefully some reading this will even feel the urge to join me in my ranting and my child-like excitement. I could of course just be talking to myself.. my, it's quiet in here.