Saka Light Cavalry

Saka Light Cavalry

Sunday 29 June 2014

Blasts From The Past Part 1

I have used this old photo once before but it's a great introduction to another series of posts I am planning to do. The idea came to me whilst I was lying in bed half awake but not really wanting to get out of bed and not actually having to either. By the way I am the good looking one at the front of the group of young gamers and it's 1/76 scale WWII using my railway board as a battlefield. We got a lot of fun out of that board and the plastic figures and tanks.

I was 16 at this time and the rules we used were hand written half ideas though it was about this time we went to the Table Top Games rules Firefly that happened to play great, I wonder if I still have them somewhere and if they were that good after all?

That's more or less the idea, revisit old times, old rules, almost forgotten periods and systems and how I see them today. Funny looking at the photo I was the oldest by two - three years, of the four of us the only one not still gaming is Andy at the back. He stopped a few years after the photo was taken and died just two years ago. Rolf (the patch of brown hair) still I believe roleplays whilst Steve went to the dark side and plays 40K or was still doing so when Maelstrom Games was still in existence.

First ever proper wargame for me was with the plastic WWII though I had used my Airfix Napoleonic Le Haye Saint battle set as some form of wargame before I really got a real idea on how to do it after watching an old TV program showing grown men doing the same.



Though the first ever Wargames I played were actually board games, first was Gun's of August by AH quickly followed by Siege and Cry Havoc which to a lad of 15 is a real exciting step. This actually lead to my first metal figures from Irregular Miniatures.

I decided to replace the cardboard figures with metal ones and at Derby Wargames Show (at the Assembly Rooms) and each time I bought one figure Ian Key gave me a second one. I ended up spending the majority of my spending money in dribs and drabs that day.

Ian's generosity gained traction as I ended up buying my first full army from him, this being a 25mm English Medieval army, though it was never destined to be finished as I moved onto easier projects (where have we heard that before?).

Before I moved on though I did buy at the age of seventeen WRG 6th Edition Ancient Rules, rules that were to sit unplayed for too many years after a poor attempt at getting a game with Steve above. That though is another post for another week.

14 comments:

  1. Very cool post Ian! I bought the Airfix farm house back in the 70's and used it for just about every battle and every period we played back then. Great times!

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    1. For value for money I guess we can't come close, though the bailey bridge got some use as well.

      Ian

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  2. That Airfix la Haye Sainte still does servi9ce in my 15mm games

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    1. Keep on using it, I have no idea what happened to mine

      Ian

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  3. I'm just glad nobody took photos of my early wargaming as a teenager. Mostly WW2 using Airifx figures (usually unpainted) and vehicles (usually painted, not necessarily well) on the dining table covered with a Subuteo cloth with random bits and bobs of terrain for cover. We used the rules from Donald Featherstone's "Wargaming Airborne Operations". Fun days, but totally unrealistic troop densities (1-200 figures and 10 or so tanks advancing on a 3 foot frontage!)

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    1. It's worth remembering those days, lots of fun, little in common with real battles but lots of fun. That word fun keeps popping up ;-)

      Ian

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  4. Very enjoyable posting and cool photo, Ian! Is that a periscope you are using to check LOS? Brings back memories of my early years of wargaming.

    Looking forward to more installments in this series.

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    1. Yes it was a periscope my Dad made for me, he also did some of the scenery we used in those days, he was not a gamer but had done loads of modelling in his day.

      Ian

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  5. I love these kinds of posts. Thanks for sharing. By gosh though, time goes wayyyyyyy too fast. And faster each day.

    Cheers and boogie boogie.

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    1. Well I have a few more tucked away, not many dodgy pictures though.

      Ian

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  6. Aah. Guns of August...one of my early ones too. Look forward to seeing where this goes.

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    1. So do I, it's trying to get some kind of order to it though that's the tough bit.

      Ian

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  7. Replies
    1. Cheers, it's good to remember the raw fun of it all. Sometimes the detail gets so deep the fun seems to be left behind a little. Guess that's why the Check Your Six was so good as we just had loads of fun but it still had plenty of detail.

      Ian

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