Manorcon 2011

This is a gaming convention in the Midlands that I used to attend back in the 80's I've not been to it for years but I was thinking about it the other day.  We often played big games like Empires and some of the Avalon Hill classics. 

ManorCon XXIX will be held on 15th to 18th July 2011, in Stamford Hall, University of Leicester.  More information http://www.manorcon.org.uk/

Airfix Model World

Great to see a regular magazine on all things Airfix back again, I flicked through a copy in the newsagents today but didn't have a chance to buy it so I reckon that I will go back tomorrow.  Once I've got it I can do a more detailed read through.  I've always been a fan of all things Airfix but most notably their 1/72 figures and models.

I noticed that the new Wargames Illustrated was out so the one I picked up at the weekend was just being replaced.  The new one seems to have a lot of Samurai stuff in it, not really my thing but I will probably check it out.

Wargames Illustrated - November 2010

I picked this up at the weekend, I've let my subscription expire so I need to check out renewing that.

Full of lots of lavish photos and illustrations. Lots of Flames of War stuff and the battle for Hungary in 1945 with lots of interesting detail on those forces. A refight with an awful lot of tanks on the table takes up a lot of the magazine.

WW2 aside a very good article on the Normans in Ireland in the 12th Century which is well worth a read.  A Crimean war scenario on the Charge of the Light Brigade, which whilst interesting from a historical perspective is a bit of a slogging match in a game.

Charlemagne and the Frankish Empire - Game 1

I played this through on the 8th/9th of November using the standard rules (including the optional rules for Schism, Magnates and Raiders).  The Byzantines where inactive.

I employed a couple of simple changes.
 1) Simultaneous Endeavours - Raiders, Magnates and Players conduct the activities in each year of a round simultaneously
2) Raiders - Do not raid areas of their own religion

The outcome of the game was a Frankish total of 139VP including bonuses for converting the West Slavs and Old Saxon areas to Christianity.  The rest of the empire was kept intact and Charlemange survived until the end of the scenario.

Saracens laid waste to all the areas in their range and the Vikings raided reserved their raids for England.  Magnates appeared in Volhinya and Mercia and were relatively successful but had little impact on the Franks.

Medieval Warfare Magazine

This looks very interesting and I signed up for the email newsletter to keep track of this (http://www.medieval-warfare.com/landingpage/index.html).  It sounds like the first edition is scheduled for April 2011 and  maybe they would be interested in an article on Empires of the Middle Ages.

Empires of the Middle Ages - Background

This is my favourite board wargame, an overview on the background and development of the game can be found on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empires_of_the_middle_ages).  I originally played the game at Coventry Wargames Club using the original version and we often played the shorter scenarios.  Over the years I collaborated with various people to develop many variants overcome some of the many ambiguities in the original rules.  This culminated in my probably over ambitious "Age of the Sword" variant which added major complexity and was playtested in 2000.

I put the game aside for the best part of a decade but last year I purchased the new edition of the game that Decision Games released in 2004.  I found a lot of information on the new edition on this site (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/911/empires-of-the-middle-ages).  I got this out a couple of weeks ago and decided to revisit my revised rules with a view to creating a new version that deals with the ambiguities but avoids a lot of the complexity of my previous efforts.

Military History - Jan 11 Issue

I acquired the latest copy of this magazine (http://www.historynet.com/military-history) on a visit to Guildford yesterday, not all the branches of W.H.Smith stock it as it is imported from the US and so I don't get every issue but I've read it for years and subscribed when I lived in the US.  The format of the magazine has changed of late and whereas a few years ago it simiply contained 4-5 detailed articles and some book reviews.  It now has a more varied content with various sections, news, general articles and the editorial slant has adopted a more US-centric view.  Personally as an international reader I preferred the original format and several of the new sections seem irrelevant, but the magazine is primarily designed for the US domestic market so they want to cater for that.

If you want something sepecifically UK orientated then "Britain at War" may be more for you. It focuses on conflicts in the 20th century but it always has something of interest (http://www.britain-at-war-magazine.com/).

Introduction

I've setup this Blog to track some of the wargames projects that I have underway at the moment, some are more active than others.  The main things that I am working on at the moment.

Empires of the Middle Ages - A classic boardgame and a long term project to provide variants for this

WW2 Mediteranean Campaign - A minatures campaign that will be driven by a strategic wargame using elements drawn from several boardgames that I have

Old School Wargames - Since the launch of Battlegames Magazine (http://www.battlegames.co.uk/) I've been interested in this movement and the focus on simpler rules rather than complex simulation.

A few other things that I will be musing about will be based around other related subjects and book and magazie reviews.