Joy of 6, 2019

Just a quick one as it has been a couple of weeks since the show and I’m sure everyone has read bigger and better reports from others but here’s a few thoughts on this years show.

The first thing that was obvious to us was just how much the show has grown since our last visit 2 years ago. I think I preferred the new layout and even though there were two rooms at least they aren’t lots of smaller ones like there used to be which cuts down the chance to miss something. As usual there was a real lovely vibe about the place and everyone was keen to share info on terrain and painting tips as well as generally just being friendly which is one of the great things about the show.

There seemed to be more traders this year too, and great to see Richard there with the Scotia kit. He very kindly indulged me by allowing me to look through some of the modern kit that doesn’t have pics on the website which resulted in a nice sized purchase (I’ll be posting about the swag in another post) and it was a pleasure speaking to him properly after conversing via email and messenger for ages. The only other purchase I made was for a few Swedish infantry from H&R, but I did manage to speak to a knackered looking Ian quickly at the end of the day (I hope that Andy’s wife is on the mend soon) and TOW mounted Land Rovers might be coming at last. Bart bought some fantastic looking French mid-C19th 3d printed figures from a Polish company -http://www.gmboardgames.com/blog/en/ – that really were spiffing, the horses were particularly good, which piqued my interest. If they do an Austro-Prussian range I don’t think I could have resisted and their metal ACW kit was really nice too so something to mull over for future projects (like they’re ever needed!).

The games were of the usual mixture of quality, range and period as in all shows and the two absolute stand out ones for me were:

‘Poltava’ put on by Per Broden and the Wyre Foresters club, for lots of ace pics check out Per’s excellent blog here: https://rollaone.com/2019/07/08/poltava-1709-at-joy-of-six-2019-the-grand-finale-of-the-towards-moscow-trilogy-tmt/. It was great to see the real thing after following the build progress on Per’s blog, this table truly was not only a masterpiece and really showed just what can be done in 6mm but an obvious labour of love. Bravo gents and thank you for sharing it with us.

Coming a close second was Robert Dunlop’s WW1 Battle of Gnila Lipa from the Eastern Front. I’ve seen quite a few of Robert and his lads games at shows and I always love them. They are great for showing the vast scale of the industrial warfare that defined this conflict and always tempts me to have a dabble. I managed to have a good chat with one of Robert’s sons (sorry forget which one!) about the huge Marne game that they put on actually at the Marne a few years ago and he told me a story that made my weekend. Apparently they were able to point out to an elderly English chap the unit which his father was serving in and exactly where he would have been in the battle which apparently had a profound effect on him and he seemed to become more spritely as he followed the course of the action. Great stuff.

Honourable mentions go to James Mitchell’s ‘Culloden’ which was a gem of a game9sadly my photo didn’t come out well enough, sorry!), Dan Hodgson’s Star War’s ‘Battle of Hoth’ (sadly only lacking in Pew-pew sound effects) and the Battle of Kolin 1757 put on by the Legion of Blokes which not only had great figures and terrain but truly inspired, hand-made, ‘table tidies’ to boot. Hat doffed gents.

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Our game went over quite well I think, it was the XXX Corp Hell’s Highway one we did at Colours in September, even though we didn’t get many quotes from A Bridge Too Far this time we still had a cracking time and ,weirdly, we even recruited a couple of new members for the club which was nice! Thanks go to Bart, Dan, Jonathan and Daren for making it such a great weekend and we already have plans afoot for next years game. The plan is to do a Western Desert dust up but swapping WW2 forces with Modern ones, so Caunter camo’d Chieftains and Challies with South Africans in Ratels vs Afrika Korp with Leopards and Marders and Italians with Centauro’s – watch this space…

Lastly a massive thank you to Peter and his Baccus crew and volunteers for the show for not only coming up with the idea for the show in the first place but making it such a success, here’s to many more.

 

The Joy of Six 2017

Some things are small but perfectly formed: Mini Coopers, Fiat 500s, Lambrettas, Kylie, Clare Grogan, Lichtenstein and now I’d like to add the Joy of Six show in Sheffield to the list. If you do not know already this show is the brainchild of Peter at Baccus Miniatures and is to promote 6mm gaming and it does this very well indeed.

As I have mentioned already on here I was there with the Neustadt Crossing game along with fellow South London Warlords Daren, Dan, Warren and Jonathan. After meeting up at the hotel in Sheffield, Warren had got the train up and Jonathan was meeting us there the next day with the rest of us arriving in Dan’s car, we headed off to meet up with Peter and other gamer types at a ‘beer and curry’ night that he had arranged. This a nice idea to get people together before the show, although the curry wasn’t the best – sorry Peter, general consensus from us – the pub was cracking and a good time was had by us and we did have a great laugh at the meal.

The next day saw us having to make the 5 minute drive to the venue which in the end took us nearly half an hour due to Sheffield’s lovely one way system! This meant that we arrived quite late and were a bit rushed getting everything set up. We just about got set up in time and managed to have a quick mooch about the show before the doors opened. The show in itself is in no way large, but the quality of the games on display was of a very high standard indeed. Traders were obviously limited to those who supply 6mm kit and they seemed to be doing brisk business all day. When I managed to get over to see Andy at H&R later in the day he looked completely knackered as they’d been so busy but I did get to have a quick chat with him and there are some very cool things in the 6mm Modern pipelines – the upcoming Danish Centurion and M41’s are superb and they have a Finnish Sisu coming out too, so very happy days for me! I also had a good look at Commission Figurines range of 6mm MDF figures and they were actually quite appealing, I liked the new ACW ones in particular.

We had an absolutely cracking day at the show and we got to speak to a lovely bunch of people, especially the gents we met at the curry the night before. I also got to say hello again to Per from the fantastic ‘Roll a One’ blog which was nice too. Not only were those that came to look at our game a lovely bunch of people but whilst checking out the other games too there was a really nice vibe, everyone had time to chat, terrain tips were swapped and there was none of the snidey comments you can get from people at other shows who don’t dig 6mm. Indeed it is possibly the friendliest show I’ve ever been to and you actually had time to have a good chat with people whilst also getting the game done too.

Yes, the game. Unfortunately Comrade Noakesavitch and I failed once more to liberate Neustadt for the workers. We had hatched a seemingly brilliant, simple and effective plan the night before in the pub and it lasted about 3 turns before we realised why its not best to hatch brilliant military stratagems after a few pints. Highlights of the game were, for Warren definitely, a Harrier taking out both of our Hinds in one go after rolling double snake eyes and us driving a company of BMP’s through an artillery barrage (which didn’t go well). Also the plucky escort Scorpion taking on some T-62’s and coming out on top deserves a mention, fanny magnets all round for the crew of that vehicle. We didn’t get the bulk of our armour into action though and would have obviously triumphed once they engaged the filthy, capitalist-imperialist lap dogs. We have sworn to triumph one day, maybe next time eh Dan? And hopefully there will be a next time as it was an absolute pleasure as always, I haven’t laughed so much in ages.

Bloody Royal Artillery

Rock hard Scorpion takes on Red Army

This was awarded for taking out a Swingfire!

miG ignoring Leopards as after Lynx!

Now you see them….

… now you don’t

We have been invited back for next year and will definitely be doing so. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has even a passing interest in 6mm gaming and can see it growing in popularity and maybe size. We’d all like to thank Peter and co for putting the show on and hope that it will be on the calendar for many years to come.

Here’s pics of some of the games that took my fancy, unfortunately the ones I took of Per’s game haven’t come out well at all (sorry Per!) but you can find some here: https://rollaone.com/ and well worth it they are too!

Deeside Defenders: 1st Bull Run, using new Fire and Fury Brigade rules which they were enjoying apparently which bodes well as Des has just secured some copies for us to use in the near future. A cracking bunch of lads and a lovely table.

 

Robert Dunlop and Sons: Messines Ridge 1917 – not sure of the rules. This was a proper busy table, it gave Dan a headache apparently but I thought it was fantastic, captured the Western Front well which was headache inducing I reckon! I have seen their games at shows before and are always well worth it.

 

Baccus: Siege of Manchester, 1642. Again not sure of the rules, quite a neat little table this with all of the 200-odd buildings cast in resin specifically for this game.

 

Mailed Fist: Last Train to Berlin, 1944 – Iron Cross rules. This was the game next to us and sported some great terrain. They were using an adapted version of the rules to enable the use of larger units. Cracking armoured train and town.

 

Dan Hodgson: Waterloo, 1815 using Polemos Rules. This was hands down for me the showstopper game. I was just gutted I didn’t get more time to study it more, or even to get involved. An absolute beauty.

 

Cold War Commanders: Landjut ’85, Cold War Commander rules. This game had just about everything a Cold War game could have from Soviet Attack Hovercraft to airliners, if you could think of it, it was on there!

 

Off to Joy of 6….

On Sunday, 16th July Daren, Dan, Warren, Jonathan and I will be taking the Nuestadt Crossing Cold War game that we put on at Salute to the Joy of 6 show in Sheffield. If you are unaware what this show is about well there’s a clue in the title, every game has 6mm/1/300th scale figures or models. The aim of the organiser (Pete from Baccus) is to promote the use of 6mm as a wargaming scale, indeed if you pitch up and declare that you are a 6mm sceptic then they will waive the paltry £3 entrance fee safe in the knowledge that the games being put on will change your mind!

Both Daren and  I have been keen to attend for the past few years as the games do look spectacular but have been unable to so it was great when we were accepted to put the game on and now we are really looking forward to it. So if you are there please pop by for a chat, I’m not sure exactly where we will be but we will have a stonking great South London Warlords banner up so it will be hard to miss us!

Here’s info about the show:

http://www.thejoyof6.co.uk/

And here’s some pics of the game we are putting on:

https://tracksandthreads.wordpress.com/2017/04/23/salute-2017/

https://tracksandthreads.wordpress.com/2017/04/18/salute-game-run-through/

I’ll be posting pics later of some new buildings I have from Empires At War. They are 20mm MDF Normandy Houses for use with Chain of Command, the first one is done and I should have a couple more done later today as the second is well on the way to completion.